A large beam of white light illuminated the sky, the aircrafts bathed in that light turned to dust, and the mechanical monstrosities melted away into nothingness. That light slammed into the black island, shock waves of power sent nearby planes spiraling out of control, and the oppressive heat caused the air itself to vibrate.

The island trembled as the constant stream of light burrowed into it, the dome turned from black to red, as the island shook violently. Eventually after a few seconds, the beam of light faded, and the island remained intact, seemingly unaffected at all.

Most likely this kind of scenery was repeating itself all over the world. Hopes were crushed, lives were scattered, and an increasing desperation would likely be born.

That large scale laser just now killed as many allies as it did machines, not only were the ragtag human forces disorganized, they didn't even seem to care about friendly fire. If one were to think objectively, it was possibly a selfish, and calculated action.

“...... ”

I comfortably nestled against the thick tree branch, as the light show resumed in the distance. The voiceless cries, the scent of ashes that clung to the wind, and the constant chill was something all too familiar.

Each wave had an interval of several minutes, as long as a shock was delivered to the island, the invisible wave would weaken in strength, but the island always remained intact, no matter how much punishment it received.

Every second a new ball of light would hover in the sky far above the conflict, they were gradually getting more luminous, as they formed large layers of green clouds. Every death, scream, and explosion added more to that number.

Seeing this, I was reminded once again, the world could never turn back. The nations built from the ruins will never reach their former height. The small pockets of civilization built around an ever diminishing resource, will eventually scatter, and the empires fighting over scraps, will eventually cannibalize itself.

A single wave of power in the distance caused a slight prickle in my skin, eventually a piercing sound reached my ears, that was later followed by a warmth that surged over me. I could only sigh as it washed passed me, and flowed into the distance.

This same wave will eventually kill millions, who knows what the total death count will be in the end. Panic will likely arise, riots would occur, even more tragedies will follow. But in the end, this was to be expected.

As I look towards the scene of conflict I couldn't really call it a battle, there was no suspense, and the result was obvious. Mechanical titans as tall as mountains, numerous insect like robots covered encompassed the skies, and the ocean depths were teaming with glowing red, emotionless eyes.

The current military capacity of humanity was simply too fragile, weak and limited, how could they hope to fight something centuries in the making, against the remnants of the golden era.

This was never a battle of equals, nor would there be a question of who would win, this was an event with only one outcome. What I was seeing was only a theater, where people shined there brightest, for only a brief beautiful moment, before they became nothing but dust.

“Logic before emotions huh.”

As I said these word to myself I noticed something far off in the distance behind me, closing in slowly. It was faint, swift, and barely noticeable, but with a familiar sense of presence, and rhythm.

But sadly, it might as well have been standing in a plain, open field, covered with light.

I looked at the plain silver mask in my hands, and gripped it tightly.

“So she managed to escape.”

…

A lithe shadow clad in a thin black armor could be seen walking from the wreckage of a plane that recently crashed into the shore nearby. Ciel stared at the sky behind her, where a giant floating dome was now coated by a film of green light. The once moving dome called Almanac was now firmly rooted in place, the space around it seemingly frozen, and the lights inside no longer shined.

She could still remember the conflict inside, as soon as information leaked out on what Saia had been doing, an immediate decision arose from a large portion of the members, stop Saia, and prevent him from achieving his goals.

The normally wimpy, and overly emotional playboy, Leon of all people, had inspired a lot members to action. Surprisingly he had quite a way with words, no wonder he managed to get into all of those dangerous women.

As soon as Leon gathered those who agreed; Maya made a single announcement to the entire dome.

“If you want to stop Saia, go ahead, but only if you have the ability to reach him.” After a quick charming laugh, her voice disappeared from that speaker.

At first I wasn't completely sure what she meant, but eventually when the group led by Leon was about to leave, they were stopped by a few others, and a large scale infighting broke out near the outskirts of the central buildings.

Thinking back, the organization was frivolous in a way, to solve the current disputes through power was far too simple, and unlike Maya, who did things that were usually complicated. I'm pretty sure she was watching all of this without so much as batting and eye lash, I could never understand what she was thinking.

During that conflict a strange expanding energy erupted from the very core of the dome, spreading out viciously, those caught within, were instantly frozen in limbo. This strange phenomenon blanketed the space, buildings, and people.

I was one of the few that managed to make it near the hangar to escape, unfortunately a portion of the escaping plane was touched by that film of expanding energy, causing the plane to be unstable from lift off, and crash land on the island below.

The small island near the south was one of the few hideouts that had an active air base, left over since the harvesting nearly a century ago. It was one of the few intact bases that we found for ourselves. The mere fact Almanac was heading towards this island, once again left me confused on Maya's intentions.

“If I'm to escape, it should be near the edge of the island, hidden inside that mountain.”

She looked at a giant shadow in the distance, hidden by a blanket of dead trees, where a pre-harvest era base was maintained to launch insurgent attacks against the enemies of humanity.

As she silently walked on the rocky shore towards the sea of dead trees, a black mass of metal floated in her hands that formed a plain looking gun, she immediately gripped it, and fired. A single black light smashed into a shadow between several large rocks, and a small explosion reached her ears.

She quickly scanned the area with large rocks, stones, and loose soil, and slowly thought of safety measures.

Awhile later, she walked into the entrance of the dead forest, and occasionally shot down the machines that appeared, hiding in the shadows. At one point she moved toward one of the destroyed robots shaped like a spider, and stretched out her fingers.

The metal, wires, and glass were all consumed by the black mass around her hands, that made the gun in her grip change shape, and seem more detailed.

As she steadily walked up a small path, a warning flashed in her mind, even though she couldn't see anything strange, her body screamed something was coming.

She immediately side stepped, a light crack echoed, which was immediately followed by a sizzling sound. When she turned around, a small finger sized knife was stuck into a large rock several meters behind her, the knife was buried deep inside, and left several running cracks, followed by streaks of electricity.

“I'm surprised you of all people would come, Ciel.”

A calm, and placid voice reached her ears, Ciel stared at a shadow walking slowly towards her, wearing a creepy, faceless mask. Ciel's visual scope focused on the sheathe dangling from her waist, and her hands which were now both covered by slim black gloves, that looked to be made of a black metal.

“That knife you threw was pretty lethal, wasn't it?”

“Not really, the stealth suit should have weathered the impact, and the blade wouldn't have gone deep enough into your body. At the very least it wouldn't be fatal; But I was hoping to stun you for a few seconds though.”

“I'm guessing you're not going to let me reach the base?”

“I'm sorry.”

“Are you really fine with letting Saia do as he pleases.”

“Of course not, who would be fine to see so many people lose there lives?”

A small light shined in Ciel's brown eyes, seemingly a little bit hopeful.”

“Then..”

“But I won't let you pass.”

A slightly cold voice leaked out from Ciel.

“Why? Are you on his side after all?”

“Side is it? What I'm doing right is more about you, rather than the professor though.”

“... What? Explain yourself.”

Instead of answering the question, she briefly paused, and scratched her silver mask, and a different question was given to Ciel instead..

“Ciel, how are you on history?”

“It's not my topic of interest.”

Ciel was a bit surprised on the sudden change of flow in the situation, but decided to play along, while a small black orb detached itself from the back of her suit, and secretly moved away into the shadows.

“Roughly over two hundred years ago, when humanity was at it's limit for resources, and tensions between countries were already escalated, a new form of energy was discovered in the core of this planet. Using this new resource called the life vein, humanity once again flourished, and we were able to reach new heights.”

“That was when the seven sages arose right?”

“Correct, they discovered that a new variant of the life vein had begun to appear in a select few individuals world wide, leading to the creation of modified humans with unique attributes.”

Ciel joined in, due to the famous historical incident even she knew.

“But that all ended when Genova sparked the war of sages, a near century long conflict that ended with the mysterious disappearance, and deaths of the seven.”

A happy voice reached Ciel's ears, which made her feel somewhat puzzled due to the previous tense situation.

“Good job Ciel, from what I heard from the professor during some of his ramblings in the library, was that the life vein was the main contributing factor for that war. The main question is why?”

Ciel remained silent, but nothing came to mind, even with her enhanced cognitive process she had no clue, she didn't have much of an interest in these worldly topics to begin with.

“Think about it, that life vein born inside us does not benefit us naturally at all, in fact we gain absolutely nothing from it. From an evolutionary stand point, the life vein could not have naturally appeared inside the human body. Even if it was merely something that formed in living beings, then why were animals not excluded?”

Before the conversation continued, several explosions erupted around Ciel almost simultaneously.

Ciel stared in the distance and observed a silver sword being swiftly sheathed back in the black scabbard, the strange transparent substance that floated around the atmosphere disappeared.

She could only click her tongue when a black object crashed to the ground in the distance, while a cheerful voice teased Ciel.

“Did you think I wouldn't notice you sending that support droid to set up traps around me? Anyways let's continue the story.”

Ciel nodded as she casually put one hand behind her while a black substance slowly gathered in her palm, the more complex, and powerful the gun, the longer it took to build. The bullets on her suit, needed time to transfer to the gun or risk losing density. So Ciel just continued to listen as she slowly prepared for conflict.

“Lets do a short time skip, a little over a century later, what happened?”

“The harvest.”

“Yes, the first genuine space faring alien species humanity had encountered. Sadly it wasn't a marvelous event, the majority of the planet was easily dominated, humanity was enslaved, used as farm animals, and a select few were used as living batteries.”

Ciel frowned slightly.

“What do they have to do with the topic, you're taking pretty large jumps in reasoning, I don't see a logical flow at all.”

“The main issue is that why would they leave? After subjugating a majority of the world, and easily obtaining the resources of the planet for many years.”

This was something she did not understand either, in fact many people had no idea why at all. Some believed it was divine intervention sprouting numerous shady religions, some thought humanity was left to rebuild only to be harvested later, and some thought they merely went away for some place better.

“Here's a hint, why did after they leave, strange transparent islands started to appear in our world? The world was then encased in a black shell, and all space programs failed to leave the atmosphere.”

Ciel complained in a annoyed manner.

“You're being vague, I think Saia's bad habit is rubbing off on you.”

“The aliens abandoned this planet, and a prison like state was forced on it, why? When the sun was blocked, life on this planet should have been snuffed out. But strange occurrences appeared that remedied some of our basic problems, in a way that should never have naturally occurred.

Ciel watched as a notebook could be seen being waved at her.

“I secretly examined some of the books the professor was reading, if you add all these points I mentioned together objectively a few ideas popped up. The conclusion I personally drew are.. ”

Ciel interrupted in a slightly cool tone.

“Sorry, but you're stalling ends now.”

From Ciel's right hand, she tossed one black gun in the air which she grasped firmly with her left hand, while the the longer one in her right hand was a gun, that glowed a vibrant red.

“Oh, so you're ready now?”

Ciel clicked her tongue again.

“Her freakish senses are sharp, she probably knew what I was doing from the start, and deliberately rambled on just to give me more time.”

“But in my opinion you should have waited a lot longer, Ciel.”

Ciel didn't waste time to talk she immediately opened fire, several dark bullets silently burst out in succession from the black gun; the longer red gun started to glow as a torrents of red light began to wrap around her right hand, and glow a vibrant crimson.

Ciel's vision started to slowly change as two green cross hairs formed on her brown pupils, the density of objects, the form of any object, the angle, the wind speed, and various mathematical factors on the surroundings started to filter into her brain. In a way, everything in the world began to be defined by mathematical equations, and observed data.

Prediction models on where a shot will go, the level, and direction of debris that will occur, the deflection ratios, and penetration ratios all formed into her thoughts.

A small sigh leaked from Ciel's lips as she watched a single sword sweep deflect all her bullets effortlessly, and a black blur was rushing towards her.

Black bullets, and large bursts of laser bolts burst pierced into the incoming blur in a flurry, some of the bullets were deflected into the ground by a silver flash, and the lasers seemingly went through the charging shadow, as if the opponent was a ghost.

Ciel started to run back wards, as she angled the lasers into some of the deflected black bullets on the ground, which rebounded unto her target from behind. But the black shadow minutely side stepped a few millimeters, letting the lasers shoot past her, and continued the steady advance.

The quick but flashy exchange shortly led to the rocky shores, as bright red lights, and silver flashes swept across the dark.

Ciel tossed her black hand gun in the air, and threw a grenade from her waist, before catching the gun again, to let loose a flurry of bullets, and laser fire. As soon as the figure neared the grenade, Ciel shot the grenade, instantly detonating it. Ciel immediately predicted the probability she would dodge to the right of the explosion, because the left was filled with large rocks, and uneven footing.

As long as Ciel led her to a narrow environment, filled with uneven footing she wouldn't be able to maneuver as much, which was one of her opponent's strong points. Ciel immediately charged the red gun, letting lose a highly condensed laser bolt to the right, followed by a rain of bullets spread out in a fan like formation to cover the narrow path.

As soon as the grenade exploded sending debris into the air, and the bullets were let loose, Ciel frowned. There was no response to the explosions, and bullet fire, it was as if she only hit air. But at the speed the target traveled, there should have been a response, or clue in the dust, sound, and wind.

“The air pressure!”

Ciel jumped backward as a silver streak flashed downward, she brought up her gun to block the blade with the handle of the black gun. The force of the impact pushed Ciel's arm back, as the blade easily traced downward creating a long but shallow gash in her armor, and gun handle.

Ciel immediately fired several sparse laser blasts as a counter while she back pedaled, only to be met with a black sheathe that easily blocked her red bolts, and slam into her side. She blocked the incoming sheathe with her right arm which left her numb. She then stomped the ground, and tried to kick her in the sides, followed by cover fire from Ciel's left hand gun at point blank range.

Unfortunately the kick didn't connect, and the bullets were dodged easily, she abruptly felt something slam into her gut, causing her to retreat a few steps.

“Not bad Ciel, but I'm a bit taller than you, and my legs are longer, so it's natural my kick connected, while yours didn't. But aside from that, all that time spent hiding in your room really dulled your senses.”

Ciel stared at the silver mask, her sword, her black suit, legs, feet, arms, chest, and hands, cross hairs decorated everything on her target, as percentages started to ceaselessly be imprinted in her mind.

Her right arm is stronger by 20%, the top acceleration speed is one second, the left leg seems slightly weaker, the balance is at a perfect ratio, her reaction time is 0.030 S and rapidly decreasing. The openings in her posture had ten probable areas to exploit. Despite all the information flowing in, Ciel only frowned as she moved backward slowly.

“You barely used your ability at all, in fact you only used it three times in total. You could have easily done several things before, and after the moment your sword made contact with me.”

The voice that answered her remained calm, and cheerful even.

“If more of the others showed up I would have been a bit more forceful then, and broke a few bones. Since it's a rare chance to get the resident shut in outside for a bit of exercise, I decided sharpening you a bit would be more prudent.”

Ciel just laughed bitterly, as she touched a sharp thin gash on the stealth suit where she was kicked.

“She has a hidden blade in her shoes.”

As the data started to pile up in Ciel's eyes, while staring at her opponent, she couldn't help but sigh.

“The difference between a first and second seed is a pretty large gap huh.”

A slightly admonishing tone later followed.

“But Ciel, the biggest issue is you being quite inactive, it's not healthy to blame it all on being a second seed, especially when you deteriorated so much lately, and..”

She immediately cut off what she was saying, and jumped backward.

A chain of explosions sent nearby rocks, and dust flying, which covered Ciel in a cloud of dust, and she immediately disappeared from view. The lone masked figure was currently a few feet away. She brushed off some dust from her clothes, and tie, while not bothering to give chase.

“Ciel must have booby trapped this area beforehand, the way the explosions happened, it's likely she used that 'sight' of hers to calculate where the debris would go, and used it as cover. Since she disappeared, I assume her stealth suit is still in working condition.”

As soon as these words were said, her left arm flew out like a bullet, which was quickly followed by a large bang that caused the air to shudder. As she brought back her hand, a finger length bullet was grasped firmly in her slim, black, gloves.

She immediately felt a strange premonition from the bullet, but suppressed her immediate reaction to toss it away, the bullet quickly emitted a strange energy that clung to her black glove, she felt dozens of small objects rush towards her from a four meter radius.

“Looks like a special ammunition that has a dense magnetic force.”

All the black bullets Ciel had used before that littered the ground, and those she purposefully dropped in the area, converged to the center of the magnetic field on her left hand. She casually whipped out her hand, and swiped all the bullets that were trying to impale her. Each time her hand met with Ciel's black bullets, the bullets were turned into metal slag.

After a few seconds of acrobatics, the rocky shore was now decorated with layers of black metallic liquid. It was easy to block mainly because they were not too many, it all had a specific destination, and the interval between the incoming bullets were not dense enough.

“I was a bit curious what she was up to, but that was unexpected, it seems she had a small stock pile of specialized ammo when she escaped. But to use that kind of ammo on me, isn't that a little too ironic? If all the tools on my body were able to be magnetized I would have had some problems though. I'll give her two stars.”

As she slowly began to walk towards where Ciel's presence disappeared to, a smile formed on the silver mask, that resembled an inky black curve, on a plain silver, that slowly drowned in black.

“Who knew she would be so passionate. Once again, I'm reminded that you guys are truly different.”

A tri-tipped blade attached by a wire, fell from her sleeves, and unto her fingertips, the blade was flung forward, and slammed into an object a few feet away from her, causing a minor collision, and sparks to fly. She then tugged at it from an angle, causing the blade to fly back unto her gloves.

“Now then, if I were Ciel what would I do? Would she run past me, and escape to the hidden air base, or lure me into some traps, and ambush me?”

All the suitable areas for an ambush filtered into her mind, as she thought up likely scenarios that would occur, and simulated the probable actions Ciel would take against her, however just as these things were replaying in her mind, something occurred.

The black island in the distance exploded in a dazzling array of lights.

…

The conflict between the coalition and the Byrantine empire could be described as fierce but brief, the moment the wave of power bathed over the area of battle, planes crashed into the ocean, battleships rammed into allies, and soldiers fell over unconscious.

The chain of command in the coalition collapsed all over the front, and even inside the borders of the Byrantine forces surrounding the ocean cities.

However a single man was smiling broadly at witnessing the scene of chaos from afar in a small bunker, that man was the great leader Kostis. A large swathe of the people in his empire simply collapsed, from the militia, the citizens, to even his workers.

A young woman with brown hair, and glasses, wearing a red outfit walked up to Kostis, and gave him a report in a plain tone.

“It's as you expected, roughly 70% of the empire have become lifeless husks, but all of your guests, and the people a part of the program all seems healthy, roughly 45% of the ocean city forces have been unaffected by the wave phenomenon from those black islands. The coalition forces however seemed to have suffered substantial loses in mere moments. I believe it's more prudent to use this opportunity to clear their forward bases out of our territory.”

Kostis just shook his head and smiled.

“Why would I do that?”

The woman just stared at him slightly puzzled, as if asking herself if he was alright in the head.

“This battle was meaningless to begin with, whoever used that wave only cleared out the people who were unnecessary to the grand scheme of things. Those that now remain are people worth keeping alive.”

Kostis sat back down on the chair as he stared at the woman intently.

“So, hows the project?”

The woman blinked a few times in a daze, but quickly regained her composure.

“It's strange, it seems something outside is resonating with the energy shell, and a surprising amount of energy spikes are occurring, there's an anomaly where the shell itself is being dragged out past the initial area of the ocean cities, and detaching fragments of itself unto the wave.”

Kostis just nodded, as several holo-screens popped up displaying graphs, and charts.

“The main integrity of the shell is still stable, but...”

“I have a rough idea whats happening, it's ok.”

“But sir...”

Kostis just waved her away, and turned to the screens.

“Heh, whoever you are, not bad. If you want to use it go ahead. Now then, I should probably try and get into contact with the coalition, they have more use being alive then dying in a fruitless war. The moment Elithas stopped making a move, is the moment this game no longer has meaning.”

Although Kostis still had a big smirk on his face, a small sigh still leaked out.

“Elithas aside, I know for sure Evane is here, it's a shame that muscle head is still just going with the flow like an imbecile.”

As he said these words, a powerful, and hollow screech from the very depths of the planet itself bellowed out. It froze his soul, and nearly caused him to collapse from shock. This single screech, shook the world like an earthquake, and reached every corner of the planet.

In that single moment, from that horrid sound, the world started to change, and the deepest, darkest, desires of humanity, finally manifested in a twisted physical form.