Prologue :

In an alley so dark that the light does not seem to exist, the sound of many footsteps resonates. Some being light, some being loud, but all of them sounding at the same time, like if a whole legion was marching.

Not far from here, various shadows appear, and seem to communicate with each other. One of these shadows approached the origin of these footsteps and, after making strange noise and gestures, transformed the dark alley into a resplendent scene. Small luminous balls slowly rose, until they formed what looked like several mini suns floating in the air.

The light emitted by those small suns reflected and illuminated the whole place, and shapes started emerging from the dark.

Terrified and frightened faces slowly opened their eyes, as if those people were all waking up from a nightmare at the same time.

In this alley that seemed to be endless, a column of humans of all kinds, sizes and sexes stood there, not moving ; from the look of pain and surprise on their faces, it looked like they were hardly breathing, like a baby would be trying to grasp oxygen at his birth. Just agonizing without being able to yell, deep in pain without crying, like if all the worst emotions someone can feel emerged on them at the same time.

These people were lost, not understanding where they were and not even knowing who they were. They were all naked, without clothes, and their skin, no matter the color, had all the same patterns engraved.

On their chest, strange symbols were present. A mix of their blood and an unknown black matter was emitting a strange and uncomfortable aura. These symbols were unlike anything they knew, even though they all seemed to have lost their memories, one thing was certain for them : nothing that was currently happening made sense to them, and they had never felt such a fear of what was in front of them.

The shapes made of both light and darkness standing at the front of them started emitting weird noises again, and soon all the humans started to understand the meaning of those.

"Rejoice, for you having the luck of the survivors. For you that have been chosen by the Singularity, and for you that will soon be one with the Void."

After those words, the shadow-looking shape, seemingly neither dead nor alive, started floating at the top of the many humans and continued its speech.

"From now on, you are carrying the genes of your now extinct species. You all came from different places, learned different things, spoke different languages and lived a different life. But now, you are no longer Humans. You are no longer tied by your species limitations. You are the sole survivors of the first protocol, 'Intensification' : your soul has been successfully linked to the Great Singularity, the Revered Mother and her Holy Children"

The symbols engraved on the humans started vibrating at those last words, and before any of them could understand their meaning, as if the shadow was reading their minds, it started explaining again.

"For long, we kept an eye on you, humans. Silently, stealthily, we watched your whole civilization evolve, from the time you learned to use fire to the moment you were able to conquer your solar system. Many of us considered you as insignificant, a vulgar and extremely destructive specie, gaining its happiness from the misfortune of your peers and seeking pure transcendence only from its greed.

During this time, we decided to give you a choice. If you were able to change your impure society to a healthy one that would not endanger the galaxy 2 millennium after the birth of your so-called messiah, we would give you redemption. We would let you live freely, and forgive your heresy.

Despite our patience, not only did you not change, but you even worsened your behavior. You started to wage wars more and more deadly for your own kind, you let many die of starvation, your whole life goals were focused on getting materials gain until even forgetting the well being of the planet that gave birth to you."

Taking a brief pause to look at those new specimens, the shadow continued.

"After failing our test, we decided to eradicate your species. But luckily for you, we found a use for both your mind and body. Your genes are quite unique in the galaxy, and we felt that it would be a waste to eradicate those genes sample, especially now that some forces in the galaxy started being more vicious and dangerous than ever.

So we made a choice, before obliterating all of you, we selected a sample of 1 000 000 individuals. Each of them as a whole, represented 99.8% of the genes variety of your species.

After this selection, we killed all of your brethren on Earth, and restored the natural Equilibrium of your planet."

Even though the humans were silent until now, they started to be agitated and feel an emotion they never could have felt before. Something scariest than the fear of dying, it was the fear of extinction.

Most of them had the feeling that their whole being and existences could disappear at any moment, a sense of dread akin to feeling a thousand knives piercing their stomach from all sides, sharpening their mind to find an escape, activating their organism at its maximum and forcing them to wake up, to survive.

Some people started looking frenziedly around them, trying to see how many of them were still alive, trying to find hope to somehow get out of this place and survive. Some started pissing and shitting themselves in fear of what was coming next, some even started to feel sexual desire for the opposite sex to at least let an ounce of semen behind them, a seed of life to last after their death.

Almost all of them started to act more and more like beasts than intelligent beings, their desire to survive and not be totally forgotten took priority over the last ounce of rationality they still had.

Surprisingly, a very few of them were still calm. Looking around and trying to understand their environments, trying to find answers to their questions, looking for an escape route and trying to understand their situation.

But everything around them was so dark they couldn't even see where the last of the people were standing, only the small sun-looking balls were easily spotted.

In the middle of this agitation, those few individuals already trying to process all these pieces of information didn't go unnoticed by the shadow.

And so it started speaking again.

"Out of the 1 000 000 specimens we kept, only 6 000 survived the first protocol. As you probably guessed, you are those 6 000 survivors. You are the 0.6% of people that fully assimilated the Singularity Children, and in return got their souls accepted by the great Singularity Mother.

The time is lacking, so I'll finish this discussion by answering some of the questions you might have in mind."

The humans started focusing on the shadow to not miss any of its next words.

"If you can't remember anything, not even your name, it's because your memories are forever gone.

Our language is spoken by emitting different frequencies, being a mix of both sound and light, and so, you'll be biologically unable to call our names or speak our language even if we tell you. From now, call me Primus One, and call us the Scyllas.

After your memory has been erased, we gave you the capacity to speak another language, a synthesis and more efficient one than any of those you previously spoke. So no matter where you come from, you'll be able to communicate with each other once we release the seal we placed on you to restrain your tongue.

The symbols and the black matter present on your body will be explained later, until then I would advise you to not mess with your body.

To finish, we will give you another choice, the first and last one. Those who want to survive, even if only for one more day, will have to work, suffer, fight and die for us. Looking at the ridiculous result and survivability of your kind to the first protocol, I do not expect any of you to survive and last until the last protocol, just the second one would probably finish killing all of you once and for all. Even though, you are now part of the Singularity, and the only choice you have to survive and live is to move forward and embrace the Great Singularity.

For those who do not want more tribulations, just close your eyes and everything will be done.

For those who want to live, despite suffering intense pain, hardship and misery, keep your eyes open, and the truth of your new existence will be told to your soul.

You have ten seconds."

And so were the last words Primus One the Scylla said, before disappearing with its companions and the light-emitting suns it created.

Leaving behind both extreme despair and a small amount of hope.

Leaving behind those who will later become the Void Rifters.