[XLI] - Prophecy of the past

A sound of sealing metal could be heard from behind me, as the vacuum sucked all the air from between the door and the door frame.

A paralyzing bolt swirled through my entire body.

"Hey, don't tell me you're afraid? There is nothing to be of!" — The voice of an old man came to my ears from behind a thick helmet he was putting on his head right now.

Like there fucking is nothing to be scared of when everyone around you is wearing alien outfits besides you and the door is seal locked behind.

I glared around the dark room, shivering. An agitating silence filled the vast and wide space, with the ceiling being so high above I couldn't really tell where did it reach. Every step of the men in the suits echoed throughout the metal interiors of the place. The walls, the floor, all made from a shiny dark metal so polished, I could see my reflection clearly.

A pale, ominous ghost.

Following them timidly, we slowly approached to the center of the room. Their two postures were blocking the sight of everything before me.

An unknown buzzing sound was slowly starting to move the air particles around me, as we got closer. My heart, despite the agonizing fear I was in right now, started beating closer and deeper, to the point where everything I could hear was a rhythmical pounding. Like if someone worked on a hot metal with a big hammer in the adjacent room.

The surroundings got brighter, as the metal floor below my feet changed to a more blue hue. I felt like gradually sinking in a space made out of nothing other than thick liquid.

They finally stopped, and stepped aside, for me to witness the image of the most important thing they were fighting for. But, I didn't know that yet.

Behind a line of tables with various lights and switches blinking, there was a metal railing. And it was there on purpose.

A monstrously deep abyss lurked from behind it, an infinitely dark space falling down to the bottom of the Earth. Or it just appeared to be like that. Yet, I couldn't see the end to the great hole in the ground.

I grabbed the cold railing with my slim hands and peeked into the darkness, hanging above it to grasp the size of the precipice with my eyes.

While Dr. Neumiro started to flick and switch on some things on the control panels, Mr. Vanus came by my side, yet not so close.

"Don't tilt yourself so much. No one wants you falling down there." — His voice could be still heard as warm, despite it coming from behind a thick material.

"Why am I not wearing anything like you?" — This one question was in my mind, bothering me this entire time.

But there was no answer, as something lightened on the other side of the abyss.

A narrow passage in the air appeared, above the great void.

And at the end of it, a tremendous object appeared. I couldn't tell what it was at a first glance.

Like a pillar, reaching from the bottom of the darkness to the far top of it, the place glowed with an ominous blue light, weird veins pulsing on its walls. And just where the passage ended, a rectangular blue shape flickered, like if it was a door, a portal to unknown universes. It was magnetizing, and repulsive at the same time.

"Behind that barrier is where the Cube fragments are being stored." — The old man announced quietly.

Huh?

A chilling breeze from inside my body hit to my head. The Cube pieces. The ones that could bring redemption to all. They were… Just so close.

"Your origins. We need you to…" — Dr. Neumiro stopped in the middle of the sentence.

What should I exactly do?

"You just need to get close."

I glared at both of them once again with a doubtful look.

A thought occurred in my mind.

Isn't coming close to it dangerous, since they are all wearing mysterious suits? Since it manifested a strange power in my body, since it holds power to change the entire world… Can I approach it just like that?

"You are the chosen one. It granted you your power, so nothing unexpected will happen if you come closer to it." — Dr. Neumiro tried to be as calm as he could, but in his voice, I heard something strange.

This is all so strange. I couldn't grasp it all with my mind. An unknown power, how can a mere human be above it anyways?

And the power that sleeps in me, what specialty is it anyways?

Before I could leave that place, I wanted to know that, too. What am I really capable of.

No more mysteries of myself.

I tried to separate myself from the growing demons of fear around me.

As I stepped on the platform reaching to the pillar, everything around me changed.

My heart seemed to stop beating, as a surge of boiling energy made my skin almost melt.

The entry behind me was sealed with a transparent barrier that appeared, reaching all along the metal railing, to the sole top of the place. I could see the blue veins pulse through it, as my clenched fists instinctively beat it.

"What the hell?! Why?! Why did you lock me off!?" — I forgot that I had to go forwards, only glaring at them standing behind the control panels.

But as the pillar's buzzing got louder and louder, its blue light being more intense, I regretted everything.

The glassy openings in theirs suits through which they could see me, they were looking at my direction. I couldn't see their eyes, yet I knew they focused on me.

This suffocating fear, I don't want to go anywhere, yet I must. I force myself to. They won't let me go.

I stood up from the transparent platform, with tears flying from my cheeks behind my face. Trying to control my wobbling legs, I didn't want to fall into the black currents beneath me.

Slowly, step by step, I felt a growing itching inside of my head, while my fingers started to suffer.

But there was something else growing in me too. Step by step closer to the light, there suddenly appeared a new strength. Power to go forward, towards the blue door to a space I didn't know where. I didn't need to tell myself to walk further anymore, I went there by myself.

Or in other words, it sucked me in without my will.

I didn't realize when the space around me become blurred and distorted. There were no metal walls anymore, no deep void reeking of death. When I looked behind me, there were no people in suits, no control panels, no passage. The buzzing melted into silence.

My sense of time and space disappeared, as the place where I currently was, was just a plain blue color.

It felt just like before, when I fell asleep at the bright room when I first came to the headquarters, drifting into the unknown of the void.

Why did I come here anyways?

"To seek the truth." — A voice appeared out of nowhere.

I couldn't tell to whom did it belong. There was no one in my sight. I couldn't even see my own limbs. Just blue.

Is the truth so important, anyways? What if I stay in this state forever, not having to worry about anything anymore…

"Then you would just lie to yourself."

Ahhh… Is it what I want anyways?

What if it's not the truth that I want, but peace…

"The peace you want will never be achieved without getting to know what happened. The past will eat out everything you build."

If that's right… Then what is the so significant past you're telling me of anyways?

And then, everything, in a blink of an eye, changed into darkness.

Suddenly, a boiling warmness surrounded my whole body, as if someone dumped me into a furnace filled of eating flames.

The fire materialized before me, everything around was just crimson.

The smoke got into my nose drills, suffocating me. I started coughing, as the world around me was just collapsing to ashes.

The flames ate my skin, making me scream for pain.

My whole existence was just pain, screaming, fear, tears, lack of strength.

I tried to run away from the fire, but the ceiling was falling down every direction I wanted to go in.

But I found one passage. Despite my body melting from the dancing lava, I forced myself to escape that route. I want to leave this place. I want to leave this nightmare!

Let me o-ut!

That was until I heard crying.

A child's crying, loud weeping from somewhere close, yet I couldn't detect the place where it came from.

I searched around, but saw nothing among the blazing flames devouring the surroundings.

But then, something white flashed in the corner of my mind.

I turned my head, to see a young, thin boy. I couldn't tell how old he was, his face was swirling like a mirage in the immense heat of the place. His wavy, almost see-through hair swayed from the hot air going up the place, mixing with smoke. Crystal tears were falling down his porcelain face.

"Hey! You! Kid! Run away! You can't stay in a burning place!" — I tried to scream to him. We were separated by a burning log that fell from the ceiling, and I couldn't find a passage through.

The boy heard my shouts, and caught eye contact with me. His pale-blue eyes, I could swear they were somehow familiar.

In the split second, the fire around him ceased.

Just a brief moment was enough for me to see the terror he was truly put through.

The ground before him was all in dark blood. What I didn't notice before was that he held a small, kitchen knife. It was also stained.

"I… Why is the world like that?" — His innocent voice asked, shivering.

His big eyes stared emptily.

Before I could react, the ceiling fell on him, and the flames returned, swallowing everything I currently knew entirely, to the point where the only thing I knew was boiling pain.

NO!

That child… I…

I couldn't rescue him…

The skin being torn off me, a force slowly eating me out but by bit, I didn't have any more strength to scream.

I wanted the end.

End it already.

"The truth is never without pain." — The same voice from before announced.

What truth? Where did this get me anywhere?! Please end this!

PLEASE!!

Everything around turned into blue darkness again.

I could hear my loud, desperate exhaling breaths catching the air, after being exposed to only smoke and ashes.

The overwhelming pain didn't disappear, yet it was soothed in some way.

I could feel myself lying on a cold floor, with my skin itching when I was supporting myself against it. I fell to the cold ground a few times, trying to eagerly get up. Every inch of my body seemed like exploding.

I'm being torn apart from the insides.

My eyes slowly adapted to the darkness, and the sight of my limbs emerged from the blurry vision.

What?

My hands… My legs…

I thought they were burned to the bones. I expected flesh sticking out from the charred clothes.

Yet, they were on place, like if nothing ever happened to them.

But the agonizing pain was left, making me have tics from the pulsing surges of warmness.

But at least the flames weren't here anymore. Being eaten alive by the fire, in no reality I would want to die like that…

The anxiety ate me from the insides, making my hands shiver…

I want to… go home… to my aunt… to my bed…

As I was wondering deep into my thoughts, I felt something heavy stepping on my hand. The wave of pain I was currently feeling, multiplied by tons.

"Oh? Where did you come from?!" — A person above me asked as the scream left my body. — "You still have this much strength left to shout? You must be a strong one then… What a pity I missed you. All of them are being merged right now. I can't add yo-…"

He bent over me, a young man, with curly brown hair hanging down, and dark green eyes from beneath thick eyebrows staring at me deeply. His sharp jaw and tanned skin face made him look very exotic. I could say he was handsome, his unique features…

When our faces got closer, his expression changed immediately. From an inquisitive one, to a blank stare. His jade eyes opened widely, and for these few seconds it seemed as if he stopped breathing.

As if seeing a miracle.

"Bessie, apparently we need one more to harden the neurotic field on the outshe- Huh? So, you already knew?" — A female voice I've never heard before like came to my ears, like a cold feeling to the burning wounds. So sweet, like a heavenly angel has spoken. — "Come on, bring her quickly or the shell will harden before the reinforcement."

But the man didn't even give her a look. He continued to look at me as if I was some sort of a sudden solution to a great problem.

"What are you thinking so much about, it's not like you're suddenly thinking about redemption after how much you've done… Huh?"

Golden locks emerged from the darkness, a round face beaming with radiance of power. Her pursed, scarlet lips. Her slim, small nose. A pair of two, piercing diamond eyes in the color of the deepest sky. The serene face of a deity appeared before my eyes, with her stare weighing me completely to the ground. What a beautiful person, I've never seen such an elegance before.

"She… Is she a relative of yours? You look so similar." — She stroked her finger down my face, wet from the tears. It made my muscles twitch from the feeling of her touch. Such a pitying look.

But she then moved her finger to the man's face, and smooched him softly on the cheek. It surprised both him and me.

"Even if so… You're the only true ideal, Bessie. Don't make others come ruin your perfect image." — Her sweet words were whispered in his ears, sounding almost like a curse.

Her angelic eyes suddenly turned into petrifying ones. Freezing my body entirely, I felt like becoming stone. Suddenly, she was not a goddess anymore.

A devil emerged from the darkness.

"Don't touch me like that. No wonder Ben gets crazy for you." — The man gently pushed the woman to the side, which made her visibly agitated.

"Ben is only a tool in my hands, there is no comparison between you two. He has ideas, you make them come true."

"…That doesn't mean you can treat me like you own me." — He straightened up from bending above me, and glared into the woman's furious eyes. The difference in the height between them was vague.

"Oh, Bessie, why are you mad? Isn't that what you agreed to anyways? To listen and fulfill my great plan? To purge this cursed world?" — She grabbed his face from both of the sides, so his eyes wouldn't shift from her stare.

He didn't respond, his eyes instinctively went up to me, lying on the ground next to them. I watched them talk, wondering what the hell was this chat all about.

After a while, she released his face from her grip. Her face was visibly disappointed and bored.

"Take her to the smelter."

But when she would almost disappear, he responded:

"She isn't capable. She isn't one of them."

"Huh?" — Her voice raised up in annoyance. It seemed as if she questioned his words. Like if they were clear lies. — "Would you like to take her place then!?"

Her question seemed to be like a shot straight into his heart. The woman sounded serious.

The wide opened eyes of this man came even more away, making it look like the eyeballs would gauge out of their place. His face went blank and pale as a sheet of the paper. Their eyes were bonded tight in a painful stare.

"You wouldn't get anywhere further without me at this point. I am the main master of this project. I maintain everything. So don't even joke about it like this." — His voice suddenly got harsh.

He seemed to be scared of her, but at the same time tired from domination over him. It appeared to reach a breaking point.

He had enough. Just like me.

"Why did you suddenly become like that after seeing that girl? She is really someone you know then…" — The steps of her high-heels came closer to my head.

She stopped above me, and her beautiful blue eyes suddenly became empty.

Literally.

Empty.

She was the void itself.

"Lover, daughter, debtor… I don't care. If she is so important, Let's then make her watch you become one with your creation."

Her smile, a mouth, curved like a moon from one side of her face to another.

"I wanted to get rid of you anyways."

She turned her face towards him.

"When your consciousness melts with the core, I won't need you in person."

A shooting sound echoed in the room, as one of the bodies suddenly collapsed to the ground.

A warm stream of liquid touched my burning fingers.