Chapter 4

???

“Alpha Tango Charlie do you copy ?” Asked the communication officer, anxiety twisting his voice.

“I’M BUSY RIGHT NOW !” Yelled the soldier in response, before using her boosters to propel herself, leaping from one skyscraper to another. She crashed herself against the armored glass of the building, her armor allowing her to pass through in extremis. She rolled on the floor and get back up quickly, summing up the state of the room she just came in. Two corpses started getting up when she had flown through the glass and were heading toward her, not a real threat to the fighter clad in a power armor. She took her sword and sliced the two undead with it, the long fiery blade nearly as hot as it was sharp.

“For fuck’s sake Syf answer me !” Screamed the officer, losing his cool.

“Cut the radio.” Said Syf.

“Ma’am, can I remind you that cutting the radio during the day is a serious infraction ?” Respond her ancillary.

“Do it .”

“Syf !” He screamed again, before being cut by the radio switching off.

During this short dialogue, Syphony had turned back to face the broken window, switching her sword with her rifle. On the other skyscraper, a massive monster was hesitating on the edge of the building, asking itself if it really wanted to jump, watching the young woman with a myriad of withering glare but, seeing that she was ready to welcome it, it stepped back, disappointed. The young fighter sighed loudly with relief, ready to lower her weapon when the lump of flesh suddenly jumped out of the building, all its mouths and hands greedily reaching to the girl.

Fuck !

“Maximum output !” She shouted in her helmet while pressing the trigger of her rifle. A towering pillar of light poured out of the barrel, striking the airborne monstrous patchwork of corpses, prompting its fall. She, however, wasn’t ready for the recoil of her own weapon, which made her fly backward, smashing her against a wall. the impact was so powerful that it made her lose consciousness.

***

“...maining : 4 minutes.”

She woke up during the night, the wide belt of lunar debris brightening the dead city with its greens rays, casting long shadows between the ruined buildings, streets full of wreckage, rusted cars and not-so-death corpses.

Shit. Thought Syphony, opening her eyes and getting up, inspecting her gears for potential harm. She was finally relieved when her inspection did only uncover minor damage and a temporary backache.

“Inferi, drop the reactor’s output as low as you can, I don’t want to be spotted by Nightmares.”

“Warning, I will need to shut down most systems of the armor. Proceed ?”

“Turn of everything aside survival systems and the servo-motors.”

“Understood. Reactor output dropped to 19%. Warning, 45 minutes remaining before total depletion of the remaining fuel.

“For fuck’s sake !” She swore again, aloud this time.

“ What time is it ?”

“2h47 AM, local time.”

“Where’s the nearest outpost ?”

“22 km south south-east. Warning : Insuffisant fuel to reach it safely.”

“SHIT !” She screamed, nearly punching the wall before pulling herself together.

Being angry is useless. Better using your energy to finding a solution to this problems, or else you’re death. She thought to calm down.

She lacked fuel, whether to use fully her armor or to survive in the black zone, a place where the simple contact with air was deadly, and that was without considering the legions of monsters lurking around, Nightmares among others, hunters drawn by any and all anomaly in their environment, like an unusual thermic signature, or radio waves. Well, not as if she was going to turn her radio on anyway, since this thing was just like a flaming beacon for some other, worst, things, reason why nobody switched their radio on at night. All in all, she had just the good way to explain the situation : She was knee-deep in shit. She closed her eyes, breathing slowly.

“...What are my options ?”

“...Calculating...sorry, i didn’t find anything to help you.”

She sighed again, letting her back slip against the wall until she was seated.

“Fuck, I didn’t think I would die like that.” She said aloud, talking to herself.

???

She was gently drifting in a slumber without dreams, out of reach from the flowing of time. She didn’t know how or when she arrived here, she was just waiting indefinitely.

Syphony

She was slowly walking, careful to not make a sound. She had gotten through her low spirit and she had decided that, if she would die anyway, she could at least finish her mission. Her team was deployed in this black zone to scout it, because a mysterious beacon had started to broadcast a distress call from one of the big building of the abandoned downtown. The mission was proceeding smoothly until a famished Glutton ambushed her team, killing one of her teammate instantly. From them Syf played as a bait, giving the rest of her team a chance to evacuate and ending in this building which, conveniently, was the one the beacon was broadcasting from. Since she didn’t had anything more to lose, she decided to go and see what was in there. Twenty minutes and sixty flight of stairs lower, she took the most precaution while crossing the ground floor, the most dangerous one. She then got through a maintenance basement, with an old rusty boiler and pipes everywhere, then an underground parking lot full of car but devoid of corpses.

Where are all the undeads ? Wondered the girl suspiciously.

On guard, she kept following the beacon signal, which led her to and old service elevator. The thing was obviously out of order, constraining her to abseil in the shaft. Since her HUD an all her sensors were off to save energy, she couldn’t ascertain the exact characteristics of this basement, but it was pretty obvious that this mundane building made room for an advanced military base. Reaching the bottom, she found herself in a little room with only a door, a strange sigil painted on it.

My god. She thought with googly eyes.

“Inferi, check the origin of this symbol.”

“Copy, analysing now… finished. This is a base of the Revelation project.”

So it is really one…

“Can you open the door ?”

“It's not locked.”

“Come again ?” She exclaimed before moving toward it, noting that Inferi was right.

Well, here we go. She thought while opening the door.

The new room she came in was bare and circular, with only two things in it, a stasis pod an a little reactor. Syphony closed the door behind her and walked toward the capsule.

“It still operating…” She exclaimed while looking it.

“Indeed, and it seems that there is something inside.” Added Inferi.

“You're messing with ?” She got near the glass and wiped the condensation of it, revealing the peaceful face of a young girl, her long hair suspended around her head in the liquid.

“Is she alive ?” Asked the woman cheerfully.

“No.” Responded it dully.

The woman let her arm fall back against her, disappointed.

“But the good new is that this reactor seems compatible with your armor, which mean that if you extract it, you could use it to replace your own and maybe, only maybe, acquire the fuel necessary for you to survive.”

The announcement of Inferi swept away the melancholy clinging to its master. She was going to survive ! And so she got to the reactor and, following the instruction of Inferi, extracted it. This action made the stasis pod open itself, the corpse of the deceased spreading naked on the floor with an waterfall of preservation liquide, but the soldier was to busy to notice it.

“New reactor online. Remaining fuel : 33%. Time remaining before shutting down : at least 24 hours."

“Woohoo ! Who is going to survive ? It’s me ! It’s me !” She roared with joy.

Suddenly, something grabbed her leg. She lowered her sight, crossing the gaze of the deceased, who was staring her right in the eyes.

“P-please help me, it’s so painful !” She said, crying.

Mikael

While going to Roger’s place, Mikael had the time to look at the city. As he was expecting, it was from the medieval era, albeit the road where a little too clean. and by this he meant that sewage wasn’t done on the middle of the road, like in a true medieval city. There was quite a lot of dweller walking here and there, and sometime a carriage was seen. They only took, him and the woman he was with, five minute to reach the church that Roger managed, a little nice building from which people where coming and going. strangely, everyone made place when they saw the woman.

“G’day Nana ! They say you’ve picked up something from your trash !” Exclaimed an old man, cheeks red from alcohol.

“Fuck of or you’ll be the next one picked from the trash.” She responded agressively.

“Ha ! As sharp as always it seems ! Do you come to the poker night ?”

“Not in the mood today.” She responded while walking past him.

Mikael threw a contrite look at the old man, who responded by guffawing.

Roger was at the altar, a little girl laying down on it while he was gently making his hand go over her, pouring a white light that was seemingly soothing the child.

“There, now she just need to rest and she should be healthy in no time.”

“Thanks, Roger.” Responded the dad of the girl while taking her in his arms, the kid having seemingly felt asleep during the healing, a sleep full of nightmares. He withdrew rather quickly when he saw the bulldozer that was Nana coming in his direction.

“Ha, yes, the stranger.” He spoke softly to himself .

“Let’s go something more private, will you.” He offered, inviting them to follow him by nodding his head. They arrived in a tiny bare office and he offered them a seat while he himself stood, the room containing only two seats.

“This skin colour while never stop intriguing me.” Was is first comment.

It's true that everyone here seems to have white or gray skin. Thought Mikael.

“In a good way or a bad one ?” Asked him to the old priest.

“In a neutral way for me, but there is a lot of people out there that would use any pretext to create scapegoat, young man, and the colour of your skin is a perfect example of what they like to use, i’m sorry.” He said while looking sadly through a window. He then turned around to look at said young man.

“But i forget myself. I’m called Roger, delighted to meet you Mikael.” He went on while extending a hand that Mikael promptly took.

“Good, now that the customary courtesy have been dealt with, can you tell me what you’re doing here, how you got there, those kind of things ?”

“I can try, but my memories are a little fuzzy to say the least.”

“Don’t worry, just talk about what you remember.”

“I was going on vacation with my friends, I think. We travelled for a while and then something happened, we go into an accident, or maybe something attacked us. I do not remember well. Next… I remember screams of pain and panic from the people around me, then nothing until someone emptied a bucket of cold water on me.”

He pondered for some more time before shaking his head, disappointed.

“It is everything i got from just before waking up, sorry.”

“Don't worry, it’s already great. Do you remember where you come from ? Your city, your familly ?”

“Yes. I am living in a city called Brussels, with my father and my big and little sisters.”

“Brussels ?” Asked Nana while looking at Roger, who was nodding negatively.

“And your friends ?”

“I...I don’t know… I think there was Mellite, and… Eleonor…”

His eyes got suddenly wide open.

Oh my god, if Eleonor is here I really hope she did not already kill someone. He thought, picturing his best friend, this introvert who always kept herself under control, just tossed in an unknown world full of magic.

“I will need help to find someone.” I then said with a powerful voice while getting up.

“Oh ? And why ?”

“Because if I do not find her quickly it could become a big problem.”

A potential quick learning and socialy capable homicidal maniac in a world full of magic ? No thanks.

Eleonor

Black tentacles where emerging from her arms, like natural extension of herself, which was, on second thought, certainly the case. She was still sitting on the black sand in the middle of the cave, surrounded by the red water, a scenery she wasn’t paying attention to, too focused on the strange phenomenon that was taking place on her arms.

Cool...but freakish. But cool. She thought while she kept checking them.

|Black Hook : black tentacles can come out of your arms at will, able to project themself up to ten meters and to anchor themself into most surface. Taken as a whole, tentacle of one arm are able to carry your own weight. If a tentacle is severed, it take fifteen minute for it to regen itself. If all the tentacles of an arms are severed in one go, it took a day to regen themselfs. Regeneration only work if the user is sated. Note : evolutionary paths are availables for this ability. You can discover them by fulfilling secret conditions, and then unlock them by following the instruction coupled with them.|

It was the description that popped out after checking her character sheet and inspecting her new ability. And so she was now playing with it since half an hour ago, marvelling at the delicacy of the movement her new appendage could do. More or less. She still had difficulties to use them, but it had much to do with her own mastery and less to do of the quality of this ability.

But why, could you ask, was she doing those tests here, in the middle of a lake ? Well, the answer to this question was quite simple : She was trapped here. Literally. The only exit of this place, the crack she came by, was sitting high above the water, in an unclimbable wall, making her unable to reach it.

Wait. What a moron I am ! She screamed in her head.

I’ve literally the one ability build to escape this place ! She kept thinking while looking happily at her arms.

I just need to find the way to use those correctly.

She got up and put her arms in front of her. She then made the tentacle extend themself before attempting to launch them towards the ground, failing miserably when each tentacle went in a slightly different way, spreading unevenly in the sand.

Brrr, what a strange sensation… She thought. She was feeling each black grain against the skin of the tentacles, no, her skin. She jumped when one of them touched the water, retracting it by reflex like someone checking cold water with a toes.

Hell, it’s hard to have more arms ! She thought.

She tried to make this work several more times, getting accustomed to feel things through more appendages she was used to.

Haha !

This time she had the tentacles stick together before launching them, creating a somehow straight trajectory and, more importantly, when the black mass touched the sand, its tip plastered on it like a suction cup, trying to anchor itself to it. Which was vain, of course, not because ot the specs of the tentacles, but because of the nature of the ground. Try to do it at home, attaching a suction cup to sand, it should be entertaining.

Yes ! It worked ! She thought while jumping happily.

All to her joy, she tried something else : she launched the black tentacles from her right arm towards the ceiling, where it anchored itself without much difficulty. Afterward, very slowly, she started to pull herself upwards with her new limb. She stopped when her feet where ten centimeter from the ground, studying the feeling this manipulation gave her.

It’s strangely familiar. I've truly the impression to lift myself with an arm, just a bigger, longer one…

The tentacles where at the same time an extension of her own arm and limbs on there own right.

Just like fingers. She thought.

Yes, it’s the feeling of fingers grabbing a hold, like during my climbing classes, just that.

More confident with this thought, she took some height, letting one or two meter between her and the ceiling. She then stretched her left arm, launching its mass of tentacles toward a point farther on the ceiling, in the direction of the crack. Then, a little apprehensive, she let go the hold of her right tentacles.

“Whohoho !” She screamed with fear when she fell forward, starting to swing beautifully like a pendulum. When it stopped, she took another two minutes to put herself together, her ghastly face retaking slowly its natural colour.

Fortunately there is water under me. She thought gratefully.

She tried to do it again, this time with a little less clumsiness and fear. After the fifth time, she started to understand the trick and stopped waiting to be stationary before launching the next batch of tentacles.

I’m feeling like Tarzan. She thought while chuckling. She was still somewhat clumsy after the fifteenth time, but she would have time to train another time. For now she was in front of the crevice. With her left arm, she anchored tentacles next to it and lifted herself up until she was at the height of hole in the stone. She then used her right arm to pull herself, squeezing into it with great difficulties.

“I’m just a bit to big, am I not ? I wish a was tinier.” She grumbled while struggling with the rock. She finally emerged from the rift, coming back on the balcony with the lake from which her assailant arose. She marched along the wall, trying with all her might to not make a noise, and arrived without issue before the wall of liana that she directly started climbing slowly. Mid height she looked back to see if there was any sign of the monster, then felt relieved when there was not. She finished climbing, using her tentacles for the last few meters, trying to avoid ripping her belly by hoisting herself on the little platform. Her feet found again the reassuring touch of the flesh covering the ground, and she scrammed to take refuge in her little room. It was only when the membrane closed behind her that she finally started loosening. Her gaze felt on Genèse, and the idea of letting herself flow into the pool and being covered by tar started to become unexpectedly enticing. Following her longing, she put her legs into the liquid, slipping her body between the tentacles.