S-Class Files: Close to the Sun

“... test observations have concluded that ‘Requiems’ can be classified as a natural law of this dimension, currently classified as Earth Bulwark. The extent of its causality erasure does not interact with foreign Reality, and is only limited to Hume. Though traces left by ability users can be erased from foreign Realities through a Requiem, it fails to complete erasure where it intersects with foreign Bleed…” - The notes of the 500th President of the United States, Caesar the Regulator, later reconstructed from ashes.

The sun was blocked.

Nothing else could really describe it, she thought. A big, hunking black rock blocked the sun, leaving only an eclipse shading the world. Everything in the sky had completely stopped as well.

She vaguely knew it to be a Bleed effect, the passage of time had been stopped for all but living things. The stars in the sky did not move, the earth did not turn, the weather never changed, iron and metals did not rust.

But living things still felt hunger.

She looked outside of that small pocket of green grass that was her ability. Like a great circle drawn in the earth, there was green surrounding her, and past it, all grass had died and withered, trees were blackened and rotted, starved from the lack of sunlight. The world was desolate, lacking in warmth and green.

The woman didn’t care, she glanced at her watch, seeing another day had passed, and returned inside, passing a great grey wall where she absentmindedly slashed a single tally. A way of meaninglessly keeping track of the time that had passed.

She went inside to her prison, heading underground.

Electricity had long since left this place, but her ability kept the surroundings at a light level akin to midday, and she never hungered as well. She sat down in the prison library, looking at the shelves and shelves of books, wondering how many times she has read through the entire catalogue.

Instead she shrugged, sitting down and opening a book she has read many times before.

She would’ve spent all the time in the world reading that book. Sitting in this prison until the end of days. She used to get bored once, but had long forgotten the concept.

It was just that on that particular day, she had a visitor.

A woman dressed in thick clothing to traverse the frozen wastelands, stood waiting at the boundary, peering inside.

“Claudia!” she shouted, “Claudia Putman! Are you still alive or is this just a dead ability?”

A name, one familiar, yet rusted and dusty from misuse. Claudia opened her mouth, using a voice that she hasn’t heard for a very long time.

“I- I am.”

Claudia welcomed the person in. The woman was a stranger in some ways, but in others, she knew her very well. Suddenly feeling rather self conscious of the state of affairs of her home, she nervously led her in.

The woman glanced at the wall where Claudia left her count of the days, and silently followed.

“I don’t have much to treat you with,” Claudia said, “most of the food got taken when the prison broke, and the rest I finished slowly over the course of time…”

“How did you manage so long with food?” the woman asked.

“I just… stopped needing it after a while,” Claudia replied, her eyes turning distant.

The woman smiled, before reaching into her bag, “I’ve bought ice cream.”

A pause. The words almost felt alien to her, Claudia couldn’t even remember the last time she even conceived of ice cream.

Yet there it was, a small tub in the woman’s hands.

“Coffee jelly flavour?” Claudia asked incredulously.

The woman shrugged with a smile, “I wasn’t exactly inundated with choice.”

Claudia paused, and she really looked at the woman before her.

“What do you want, Truth?” she asked the heroine before her. “You tossed me in this prison god knows how long ago, and after the world has ended you show up again with ice cream in your hands.”

Truth smiled.

“I’m glad to see the legendary thief still hasn’t lost her instincts.”

Claudia pulled back a chair, and gestured to Truth to take a seat.

Instead of continuing her questioning, Claudia took the ice cream, sniffed it, then began digging mouthfuls out with a spoon. She casually asked through a half-filled mouth, “What happened to Dare? I thought you two were glued to the hip.”

“He has died of old age.”

The spoon paused in Claudia’s hands, just centimetres from her mouth.

“Really?” she asked in genuine shock. “He should’ve been a bit younger than you, not much time has passed-”

“Claudia,” Truth interrupted her, “what year do you think it is now?”

She paused.

“When the black moon came, it was 9:36 AM, May 15th, year 1139 of the Vulgar Era,” Claudia began, she remembered the date clearly. It was frozen on most clocks in the prison after all. “It can’t have passed too long from then, maybe a few decades at most.”

“Claudia,” Truth said softly, “have you seen the wall you mark your days with?”

“Of course-”

Claudia paused.

Then looked at her watch, the one she used to track the days with.

It was frozen at 9:36 AM, as was every other watch in this prison.

The chair fell down as Claudia rushed out the door, her mind spinning as if a slow fog was lifting.

She ran outside, where pleasant winds and green grass grew till the boundaries of her ability.

And she found that wall.

Perhaps if it was just covered in tally marks, she would’ve merely been shocked, but it wasn’t.

The wall had long since been carved in.

Solid concrete, a single slash, perhaps not one every day but with enough regularity that Claudia thought it was once per day.

All that was left of the wall was a concave, one so deep Claudia could stick her entire arm’s length and not touch the back and so large that she could crawl in like a child in a demented playground tunnel.

Over who knew how long, she had left enough tallies to almost carve a tunnel, one straight through the thick concrete walls of the prison.

She knew it then.

She had lost track of time.

She knew that if she were to intentionally focus on carving a way through the wall, even decades may not suffice for her to reach this level.

So how long had passed, with her only casually making a stroke every now and again to reach here?

Truth had long since stopped next to her.

“What year is it?” Claudia asked her.

“I do not know,” Truth answered her. “Time is broken now, and has since lost meaning.”

“What do you mean?” Claudia asked her.

“You may wish to sit down for this.”

She took her suggestion, however she sat inside that concave she had carved, Truth sat down next to her, and they found ample space to fit three more people.

“Time is broken,” Truth repeated.

“No one noticed it at first, but the gradual build up of Bleed had been slowly chipping away at it, once it was barely noticeable, but it has only gotten worse with that stupid rock,” she pointed upwards to the starlit sky, where the obsidian moon covered the sun. “Now barely anyone is closing Gates. Bleed effects are ravaging large parts of the earth, combined with the Moon’s own temporal effect… I’m afraid we are living in a time where time has ceased to matter.”

Without her prompt, Truth continued, “Do you know who created the letter class system to rank us?”

“The one that ranked you and Dare as C Class before you found out about the cheese conspiracy?” Claudia asked.

Truth nodded, “Yes, that one.”

“I don’t quite recall that one,” Claudia replied honestly, “I only looked at the fact I was classified as a low C class because I wasn’t dangerous.”

It wasn’t the most universal thing, though it was snappy, and was the basis for many dick-measuring contests.

Truth looked up at the sky.

“I’m pretty sure the person who created that classification system is from the future.”

“What?” Claudia asked. “You mean they came back into the past through one of these gaps?”

“I don’t believe he personally did,” Truth replied. “The idea of the system he created simply… flowed back.”

“Does time not flow like a stream anymore?”

“Dare said it is less like a linear stream, and more like a communal pissing pot,” Truth joked. “I find that metaphor apt. Things and ideas from the future and past are bleeding over, time occurs at different speeds for everyone, and some people simply seem to forget to age.”

“Things from far different eras are mixing together. Wars that ended centuries ago I have found still being waged in certain places. Ideas and technology from the future appear and remain as if it were always here. And some people simply slip into a different era at times.”

“Is that what happened to me?” Claudia asked, fingers scratching the massive concave she had carved unknowingly.

“I believe it was a combination of things that happened to you,” Truth replied. “Another thing has become apparent with the breaking of time. Older metas are far stronger, increasing slowly as they age, but inevitable nonetheless.”

“This seems to come at a cost. We are becoming more… rigid,” she continued. “It’s a slow madness. Our minds aren’t going, but our thoughts seem to become more robotic, more set in certain ways. Some of us who’ve been heroes for very long are also seeing ourselves unable to extricate ourselves from a heroic line of thinking.”

“This didn’t happen overnight, it’s a slow unnoticeable buildup. We know that if we restrict our powers in certain ways, we can make them stronger somehow, but it seems the more we lean into these restrictions, the more our minds follow. And the sensitivity of creating such a condition is greater than we expected.”

Claudia looked around her, at that patch of green grass that surrounded them. Was Green, Green Grass of Home always this strong? Did it always have a radius this large?

“I understand what you mean,” she murmured. “Every breath I take, every action I repeat, every habit I develop, they all are slowly becoming Conditions.”

And for how long has she been doing the same routine, over and over again?

“Then you should know-”

“I do know,” Claudia interrupted her, “I didn’t put a specific punishment for breaking them, so I can simply stop, I would suffer some loss of strength, but it won’t kill me. What I want to know now is why you are here.”

Truth sighed, “Using one of the many time cracks, I sent an idea backwards in time. Nothing much, the process is extremely random and impossible to control, but I was able to ensure that there are twelve seed vaults scattered around the world. Each contains the genome of every known living organism and are constantly being shielded from Bleed through a Reality Anchor.”

She knew what she meant, looking past the boundaries of Green, Green Grass of Home, there was no life left.

“You plan on repopulating the entire planet with those?”

“Indeed,” Truth replied.

“And what do you need me for?”

“Not all those Vaults are located near civilisation,” Truth replied. “Some are rather far away, and require resupply, or they’ll gradually fail.”

“You want me to carry those supplies.”

Truth nodded, “The journey cannot be made by normal humans, the areas surrounding are littered with Gates and Invaders.”

“And why should I bother?” Claudia asked.

Silence.

“Do you remember Pele?” Truth finally asked.

“The crazy bitch who hucked lava at everyone?” Claudia asked.

“She’s dead as well,” Truth told her, “she tried to raise lava from the ground to form a geothermal heat source and…”

Truth simply pointed up to the sky.

“She was attacked and killed.”

Silence.

Truth continued, “Any settlement that creates a large source of renewable energy is attacked from orbit, as is any settlement that gets too large and populated, that is why of the original twelve vaults, only four remain.”

“The rest were located too near civilisation?” Claudia asked.

“Indeed,” Truth sighed. “I know things like please won’t affect you, so I will simply tell you why I do this.”

“When Dare died, he left for me in this dark world a bright, beautiful young man, who strove to improve everyone’s lives. He didn’t desire anything grand, just to ensure everyone lives a little bit better. To continue to teach everyone about the sun we had lost. He was the joy of my life.”

And emotionlessly Truth said, “And I have watched him grow old and have children and die. By now, I have seen eighteen generations of my family and descendents be born, grow old and pass away.”

At that moment, Claudia realised something she had overlooked, when Truth was discussing the rigidness and power of old metas.

She had used the word we.

Amidst the sunless silence, there was only Truth’s voice, slowly talking.

“They all lived full lives. Time was not distorted for them, but for me. Age has forgotten to take me, and the meta madness has been slowly clawing at me,” she murmured, looking at her empty palm.

“Sometimes I wonder if I can still truly be considered sapient, and not just a rampant ability like a Boogeyman. Activating only on whomever happens to fit my conditions.”

And Claudia’s hands scrunched up, almost defensively, she tried to make space between her and Truth.

Truth had been talking to her, she had been genial, if a little long winded.

She talked and acted just like a normal person.

But so did many Boogeymen.

“I just know that I had this desire,” Truth said, “I wanted Dare’s child to know what the sun is, to know what the green grass of yesteryear is without looking through an ancient history book or in some controlled greenhouse. But he passed, so that desire can never be fulfilled.”

Truth smiled, “So now, I simply desire a future where children know the warmth of the sun again.”

Still wary, Claudia asked, “Will you attack me if I say no again?”

“I will not,” Truth said, knowing Claudia’s fears.

“Then what will you do?”

Truth reached down to touch the green grass that was Claudia’s ability.

“I would thank you for reminding me what grass looked like.”

Truth stood up from her spot, “Please consider my request, I know it is entirely within your right to refuse. The world has done nothing but fail you, hate you and imprison you.”

“But?” Claudia asked, expecting an argument.

“But nothing,” Truth said, “it is entirely within your right to watch this world die.”

She was taken aback for a moment, “Is that really something you should be saying?”

Truth shrugged, “It’s the truth isn’t it? I can’t force you to do something, if you want to sit still and do nothing, platitudes aren’t going to change your mind.”

“Is that all?” Claudia asked, “No rousing grand speech?”

“Dare was better at those,” Truth replied.

“Dare also shot someone for inventing Brie.”

Truth smiled, “He had his moments.”

And Truth turned and said, “I suppose I have stayed too long, this is goodbye, if you have an answer, please find me again.”

Despite what Truth said, as Claudia watched her go, she had this feeling, this feeling that if she let her go right now, it would be the last she ever saw her.

And she looked at the sunless sky, at the black and desolate world Truth was returning to.

Then back at herself, at her quiet prison, still green, but the carved wall showed its own madness.

“It might not be too bad,” Claudia muttered.

Truth stopped.

“This meta madness, the slow stagnation of our own minds. It’s not that bad if you think about it another way.”

“How so?” Truth curiously asked.

“There’s no free lunch after all,” Claudia said. “That’s what so many of us thought about abilities at first, didn’t we? This magical thing that gave us super powers, but we’ve just been eating at a restaurant for free, and now it’s asking us to pay our tab.”

“That’s an interesting perspective.”

Claudia nodded, and asked her, “Truth, tell me honestly, do you think we’re supposed to live this long?”

“That is a loaded question.”

“Because everyone used to say that immortality is a monkey’s paw,” Claudia said, “a scam for idiots who can’t think far enough until the heat death of the universe, but I’ve got immortality, in a way now. So long as I don’t leave, I won’t be hungry, I won’t be tired, I won’t even be bored. I might get offed eventually, but it will be a while.”

She thought boredom might’ve been the problem, but it wasn’t. In this dark and empty world, she had achieved something the animal ancestors of her past could only dream of. Lasting safety and contentment. She needed nothing, desired nothing. A perfectly fulfilled existence.

“How dangerous would the trip be?”

“Very,” Truth replied, “I’ve already lost contact with multiple parties.”

Claudia nodded.

And without much hesitation, she stepped out of her ability.

Popping that strange space as one might a large bubble.

“Green, Green Grass of Home.”

And with a word, the light, warmth and grass all ripped themselves off their anchor, instead rushing back to Claudia, wrapping themselves onto her until they formed the shape of a large backpack.

She immediately shivered as she felt the cold. Gods the cold. She knew the outside world had become cold, but never to this extent. And then there was the emptiness. She felt hollowed, like someone with a full belly suddenly feeling the bite of starvation. It wouldn’t kill her, but there was some cost to breaking an ancient Condition. No longer was her ability large enough to cover the length of the prison, now it was barely a small bag, only large enough to carry.

Without a word, Truth wrapped a large coat around her.

She did not ask Claudia why she made the decision, and Claudia was kind of glad for it. It was a silly reason after all. Not something as grand or good as what Truth wanted.

It was a decision that was simply hers.

Returning to civilisation was strange. Almost alien after spending so long in isolation.

Their trek through the darkened wastelands was not silent, they reminisced of the past, of people they once knew and places that no longer existed. Without her domain, Claudia needed to eat again, and she sampled many of the rations Truth had brought with her. Until they reached their destination.

Humanity now lived deep underground.

As Claudia passed through the ancient stone gateway, she saw carved upon the ground, ‘When Dawn Fails, From Earth We Return.’

“What is that?” Claudia asked.

“A promise,” Truth replied.

And they descended, ancient, dust filled steps.

Claudia called it ancient, because that was how it felt, despite the fact there’s a good chance she was older than it.

At the end of it, was a rather modern looking elevator.

Without a word, Truth keyed in a passcode and the elevator dinged open. Claudia memorised it, mostly as a habit of her former profession.

“It’s no use,” Truth said, “the passcode is actually a trick. It’s actually a fingerprint scanner.”

“Smart,” Claudia replied as they stepped in. “There are other entrances?”

“Many, though this gives a degree of privacy.”

“Why would that-” her voice stopped as the scenery suddenly changed.

The elevator was transparent, and she could see the city below as they broke through the upper ceiling.

They were almost forty metres high up, beneath them was a sprawling settlement, there were dozens of buildings of ugly and squat white concrete, but she saw brightly painted over them were paintings and graffiti, some so old the paint had long since begun peeling. One common theme among the paintings was a stylized sun. A yellow circle with triangles surrounding it as rays. Over the horizon, she could see a bright, warm reddish glow, and she realised with a start that it was lava.

“We dug around a lava tube,” Truth said, “with the freezing of time, those things no longer cool down, the heat is stuck. Trapped in an eternal stasis, sorta like us.”

And more surprising, was the realisation that there was something growing on the lava. Tall, scraggly white tubules that seemed to sprout out of the surrounding ground.

There were people that appeared to be… farming it.

“What are those?” Claudia asked.

“Three gadgeteers and a contriver a dozen generations ago got inspired by tube worms who fed on hydrothermal vents.”

“And you guys eat that?” she put a hand to her mouth, “Is that what you’ve been feeding me?”

“Yes in both cases, and most people here would not even have a concept of the food we had in the past.”

“Right,” Claudia murmured, “still grappling with the idea of being a woman out of time.”

“I can understand the sentiment,” Truth replied, “though I have it better, as I stayed with people the entire time.”

Truth continued to explain, “Anything that is not alive does not seem to progress in time. There are… certain strangenesses with how that seems to function. A battery may continue to supply power centuries after it was supposed to have been exhausted, food may never rot so long as it is properly decontaminated, and lava as you may see don’t seem to lose its heat. It seems to try to maintain the state it was in previously.”

“It’s how you guys have managed this long,” Claudia deduced.

“One of the reasons, it was more important in the early days, but it remains important now,” Truth said as they reached the floor and the elevator dinged open in an unoccupied building. “Do you wish to explore? You will be noticed rather quickly as an outsider, but just tell them you are a guest of mine.”

Claudia looked outside, through the tinted windows of the building.

There were people out there, and though the number on the streets were greatly dwarfed by the cities of old, she hadn’t seen anyone else in a very long time.

“There is no need,” Claudia replied, “I’ve come here for a single reason, and there’s no point in adding extra stuff.”

Truth nodded, but did not comment. Together, they went deeper into the building.

“There’s a resting room and amenities, we’ll meet your team and get a brief down as soon as possible.”

“That would be for the best,” Claudia replied.

Despite what she said, Claudia could not disguise the degree of curiosity that appeared on her face when Truth returned.

Sat in a well lit room, she saw a man follow behind Truth. He was hunched, a mop of brown hair, most distinguishing was that he appeared to be carrying a… baby. A large porcelain white baby, with bands of red wrapped arounds its arms and neck. The baby had its arms wrapped around the man’s neck, holding on tightly, almost as if it were a part of him.

“Is that…” Claudia began, “Babyface?”

The man groaned, “Fuck no, though it’s been a while since someone mistook me for him.”

He glanced at the grassy bag that was near Claudia.

“Leprechaun?” he asked, “The one who robbed the Hidanak National Bank?”

It was Claudia’s turn to groan, “God I hated that name, all I did was have a green aesthetic and steal some gold.”

“You’re someone from the past as well then?” the man asked.

Claudia nodded.

“The manpower we have is limited,” Truth started, gesturing to the man to take a seat. “And we’re limited to teams of four for every expedition. You two are the only past metas who’ll be coming on.”

“And the other two will be from this era?” Claudia asked.

Truth nodded. “There is a power requirement, Claudia’s spatial pocket will act as a haulier for the resources needed to maintain the seed vault. And Casey’s thinker ability will be needed to solve any difficult problems you may encounter.”

“As for the other two…” she paused slightly.

“Fanatics are they?” Casey asked with a resigned sigh.

“What do you mean?” Claudia asked.

“It has… been a very long time,” Truth replied. “People like us, though we are just people, have been slightly mythologised.”

“Sunborn,” Casey told her, “you didn’t catch that upon coming?”

“I didn’t go out,” Claudia replied.

Casey nodded in understanding.

“They won’t have any problems, though they may err on tones of respect, I wished for you to understand that before meeting them,” Truth told her.

Claudia shrugged, “Just send them in, how bad could they be?”

Truth knocked on the table, and two people soon entered.

The first was a woman who had a serious look to her, her posture was upright and tight, Claudia unconsciously adjusted her own posture upon seeing her.

The second was a young man, but perhaps ‘boy’ might have been more accurate. He barely looked older than herself- Claudia paused, and remembered with a start that she was older than him. She kept forgetting that, the age when she got tossed in prison compared to the actual age she was.

“Sam Aestas,” the woman introduced herself. “Pleasure to meet you.”

“Jeffrey Smith,” the boy stiffly said.

“These two are volunteers from geneline families with abilities bred for the purpose.”

“Bred?” Claudia asked. “What about the Beijing Pact?”

Jeffrey looked lost at the term, while Sam kept a straight face.

“In such a time, necessity overtakes good will,” Truth sighed.

Claudia’s retort died in her mouth. The sun was gone, most life except the particularly stubborn had gone extinct when the plants starved, and the world was slowly cooling down.

“What are their roles?” she asked instead.

Sam stepped forward, on the tip of each of her fingers, a red flame lit up and danced, “My family has acted as Firemothers, and I will fulfil that role.”

Jeffrey was more hesitant, he put a step forward, then to the right, then left, then one behind him.

A compass soon appeared on the ground around him, adjusting itself to the cardinal directions. “Navigator, honoured Sunborn.”

“My name is Claudia,” she told them.

“Casey,” he followed up.

Introductions out of the way, Truth set down a map onto the table.

“The way will be treacherous,” Truth said, “the temperature along the way has been measured as low as negative 50 degrees celsius, several Bleed effects have been noted, and there are predators that seem to prowl the area.”

“Predators?” Casey asked.

Truth nodded, removing a pile of photos from a file. “We’ve only found this out by examining photos of previous expeditions.”

The photos were passed around, the oldest ones were casual photos, normal ones with family or alone.

In every single one of those photos, there was a person whose face was missing.

“We suspect a face stealer,” Truth said, “or some kind of specific Stranger or Blank.”

The newer photos were taken with the entire expedition. A precaution once the strangeness was found. Always four people sat together, many with one or two faces missing, some with all four people missing their faces.

“The most recent ones aren’t missing their faces,” Sam noted, showing the photos she had.

“Indeed, we suspect the entity may have been slain or forced away at some point, which may point to an unknown danger not listed in our data,” Truth said.

Claudia skimmed through it all, making a mental note to read through it all properly. It was detailed, as expected of Truth’s work. All known information and hazards listed dutifully, with proposed responses and answers to avoid them.

But there were many unknowns listed, entire stretches of land marked with nothing but question marks. Corpses of expeditionary members found in places miles from where they were supposed to be covered in impossible wounds. Sightings of… things whose pictures hurt to look at.

“Your goal is not combat,” Truth said, “not to trailblaze a path or to figure out some secrets, but to make it to the vault, deposit the payload and return.”

Nods all around.

It would be a dangerous expedition, they all knew that.

Leaving was a muted affair. Sam and Jeffrey, the only natives of the settlement, said their goodbyes to families. It was Truth’s decision that their expedition would not be revealed until after they left. She didn’t want there to be a grand ceremony, and Claudia agreed with the thought.

So, stuffing as much supplies as she could into her ability bag, along with a real bag filled with items Imbued by a Savant, so that it was naturally resistant against Bleed effects, if only for a while. Those things she couldn’t stuff into Green, Green Grass of Home, since both would interfere with each other.

Hidden at the bottom of Green, Green Grass of Home, was a metallic cube, two metres in length, width and height, with numerous engravings carved upon it. It was the supplies they were meant to deliver.

Together, they all got onto a rough terrain vehicle. Truth, in the driver's seat, drove them without sleep for a long time. Claudia didn’t trust her sense of time anymore, but by the times she fell asleep, she suspected at least two or three days had passed before Truth said, “This is as far as I can take you.”

Before them, was a massive wall, black and built of bricks that reached high into the sky. And at the base of that wall was a massive behemoth of gears and pipes, a furnace at its centre burning with a heart of coal.

“Dawn has failed,” the titan rasped with a voice like the hiss of steam.

“Yes,” Truth answered.

“Are they here to return the day?”

“Yes,” Truth answered.

“The City Must Survive.”

And the giant opened the wall, revealing the way forward.

Slamming into them like a physical force was a freezing wind, like frozen knives that carved warmth out of their bodies. Before them now lay a snowy white wasteland, stretching as far as the eye could see.

“Double check you have everything,” Sam said, her breath coming out white.

They did, each of them several times.

“Each of you take one of my fingers,” Sam said, reaching out with her palm faced up, above her fingers once again danced those candle-like flames.

Claudia touched the pinkie finger, as the flame touched her, it extinguished, and an inner warmth flared up inside her.

The other two each touched a flame, leaving Sam with her index and thumb still alight. She touched herself with her thumb flame, leaving only her index.

“Be safe,” Truth said, “if nothing else, return alive.”

They nodded, and waved their goodbyes to her as they stepped into the snow. The walking furnace creature slamming close the walls once again.

And they marched, their footprints leaving a long trail across the snow.

“Why did you guys join up for this?” Claudia asked one night around the campfire.

“What?” Casey asked.

“It’s a simple question,” Claudia said. Despite the cold, she had yet to enter her sleeping bag, all thanks to Sam’s ability.

“With a simple answer,” Sam replied, “it is our duty. A necessary effort to ensure humanity can survive what comes after.”

“How do you know there will be an after?” Casey asked.

“Do you know for certain there won’t be?” Sam asked.

“I know a lot of evidence points towards it,” Casey replied.

“And I know more evidence points towards survival,” Sam answered, “that is simply why, Sunborn.”

“What about you, Casey?” Claudia asked.

“I got bored,” the man answered. Casey thumbed towards the large baby thing on his back, “This baby is only going to get heavier every time I use my power. It’s gonna squash me eventually, so I figured I should go to a wasteland where it won’t leave as much of a mess.”

“Ew,” Claudia said.

“What about you, kid?” Casey asked Jeffrey.

The boy was curled up into a ball, “Someone has to, might as well be someone no one cares to lose.”

Casey snorted, “Hah! Good one kid, Claudia, did we bring any alcohol with us?”

“We did not,” Sam replied with her nose slightly curled up.

Claudia actually rummaged through Green, Green Grass of Home before answering. “Nope, unless you brought a secret stash.”

“Ah, bummer.”

“Please have some more discipline,” Sam said. “You’re a living artefact.”

“People like us should’ve died in the past,” he replied. “Now we’re clogging up the present, right?”

Claudia didn’t respond, but neither did she disagree.

They slept in shifts, a necessity that showed its worth quickly when during Jeffrey’s shift he shook them all awake.

The sky was filled with eyes.

In the distance, there was a creature of pure grey, it appeared like a dozen massive hands that were maddeningly superimposed on each other until all that could be seen was a mass of fingers. It crawled across the horizon with a broken and uneven gait, sometimes it seemed to give up its movement entirely, and roll across the land like a tumbleweed.

Jeffrey stared at the entity with fear, and they agreed to move, only a few hours of rest in each of them.

Their Hume Statuses were all visibly lowering due to the Bleed effect.

So they trudged along. Metas weren’t immune to Bleed, they just had a longer period of resistance compared to normal humans. If the hourglass ran out, they would suffer it all the same.

Claudia knew she had already been altered by the Obsidian Moon’s Bleed effect when her Hume had run out who knows how many years ago. Yet humans were adaptable beasts, and her Hume had naturally regenerated, now no longer in opposition to the Moon’s Bleed. Her body now saw this altered state of reality as the natural one, and no longer fought against it.

It was an unavoidable fate.

As they walked, Claudia pulled off blades of grass from her backpack and scattered them around the ground. It was a needless precaution, as they left the Gate without any hassle. Jeffrey tapped the ground four times, and his compass appeared, once again directing them towards the vault. Following it, with their maps, they continued on. Their journey was lonely and silent in the snow.

It was Casey who first felt the warmth. A light that shone across the darkness and blotted out the stars. It was him who first yelled, “Don’t look at it!”

Claudia shut her eyes and faced the ground as a warm light passed over them. A light that reminded her of the sun.

Seconds passed, then minutes, until they were sure the light was gone, Claudia opened her eyes again.

“Hah…” Sam breathlessly said, “Page 42, if you look at the light then you will disappear.”

“You memorised the exact page?” Casey asked.

“It’s the least I could do,” Sam replied. “We can make camp again, Truth's guide said the area would be safe for a while after the light passes.”

Casey slumped down first, sighing in relief. Claudia didn’t blame him, he was the most fatigued, carrying both his ability and his pack. She pulled out more blades of grass from her backpack, scattering them around in a perimeter. After a simple meal and rest, they moved on again.

Walk and march, check the direction, consult the maps, hide from unknowable entities as they passed by, and rest. If horror could be turned mundane, then repetition would be the instrument. Time went on, until one day in the mundanity, Claudia stepped on snow, and found it give.

The ice underneath cracked as she fell into a hidden lake. The ice cold water slapped into her face as she scrabbled for breath and air. She was quickly pulled out, now drenched in water, but even as she came out, the water began to steam. Sam’s fire was still burning inside her.

“Start building a fire,” Sam ordered as she helped Claudia stand.

“Your ability has got it, doesn’t it?” Casey asked, though he still moved to push away snow to find the dirt underneath.

“It’s not a certainty, so it’s better to be sure,” Sam answered. Each of their packs had a bundle of tinder and firewood, Savant Imbued to be resistant to Bleed. Claudia carried more in Green, Green Grass of Home, but seeing her shivering state, Sam didn’t ask to use those yet.

A fire was quickly started, burning fiercely in the darkness. Claudia began warming herself, though she did find it unnecessary, Sam’s ability evaporated the water well enough. They made camp there, unsure of where the lake remained, and too tired to find it right then and there. Claudia scattered her blades of grass, and went to sleep.

Time had long ceased to be a concept for any of them. How long they had been travelling is a distance mystery. All they had to go on was how many times they stopped to rest.

It was during that rest, beside that frozen river, that Claudia was woken up by a ringing sound. She rose, finding to her side Casey, awake and guarded against the source of the ringing. It was an old school rotary phone, one that floated several feet off the ground, so that it was perfectly waist length to Casey.

“What is that?” Sam asked.

And suddenly, there was a second ringing sound, as another rotary phone appeared right beside Sam.

Casey’s eyes darted to the thing, understanding in his eyes. “Don’t talk!” he yelled, “It activates on communication!”

The ringing continued, Claudia and Jeffrey both had their voices stuck in their throat as they slowly stood up.

“What the hell happened?” Sam asked. After all, she already had been marked.

“I was going to wake Claudia up for her shift,” Casey replied, “then this thing appeared-”

His phone stopped ringing.

And suddenly, a massive pair of lips appeared right behind Casey, red and full, it opened and yelled:

“DON’T IGNORE A CALL!”

The sound deafened Claudia, and sent Casey tumbling to the side. Blood leaked from her ears as the world spun for a brief moment.

Sam was yelling something, but Claudia could not hear it, all she saw was her lips moving, shouting yet no voice reached her.

‘We’re under attack.’

Jeffrey was still in shock, but both Sam and Claudia moved. Sam pointed her index finger, still burning with that candle flame, and blew a massive cone of fire onto the phone. Scorching the air and melting the snow.

The phone continued ringing.

Claudia plunged her head into her grassy backpack, activating Green, Green Grass of Home. Inside, she saw a kaleidoscope of different views, all the blades of grass she had scattered around them, now she could see through like slivers of a looking glass.

Through one of the blades of grass, she saw them.

A monstrously large boar, easily larger than a bus, its hide was covered in scars and stabbed deep with innumerable weapons. Spears, swords, steel rebars and arrows, all littered its back until it looked more like an echidna. Standing beside it, humorously dwarfed by the boar’s presence, was a thing that was a man yet not a man. It looked like two people conjoined. One was tall and thin, and made up the majority of the body, from legs to half a torso. Its head was pale white and smooth, with a large hole in its face that left only its mouth. Conjoined to its right side, was a skeleton, dressed in the rags of winter camo. The skeleton held another rotary phone to its ear, listening, waiting.

Sam picked up the phone.

And the skeleton started whispering into the phone.

“...Säkkijärven polkka and Pigstep,” Sam's voice slowly spoke. “Two of you?”

Claudia pulled out a gun and shoved it into her bag, through that blade of grass, a hand and a gun soon emerged, and fired upon the two enemies.

But as the bullets neared the boar, it curved unnaturally so that it flew over the boar.

The head with a hole turned and stared at the blade of grass Claudia was looking through, and its mouth smiled a wide and toothy grin.

“Would you like to know a secret?” it asked her.

“Don’t!” Casey suddenly yelled, clawing himself out of the snow, both ears bleeding, he clearly could not hear anything, having directly taken the sonic blow, but still he screamed. “Don’t listen to it! Put the phone down!”

Claudia was fast, pulling her head and hand out of the bag, quickly severing the connection, but Sam was a moment too late.

“Is that true?” Sam whispered, her voice frightened, her eyes widening, as slowly, she fell to her knees. Her hand fell limply to the side as the phone disappeared. “It is true,” Sam whispered, “there is no point.”

‘Cognitohazard,’ Claudia realised, even as Casey screamed it at the top of his lungs.

When she threw her head into the bag this time, she separated her ears from her eyes, watching the approaching entities. She fired upon them again, and each time when the bullets neared the boar, they curved away, as if pushed.

She switched tactics, and fired upon the two headed entity that controlled the phone. The first missed by sheer chance, and by the second, the entity had pulled out a sword from the boar’s hide. Holding the weapon by the blade, it pointed the hilt tip towards where Claudia was firing.

The bullets were pushed back.

‘Vector manipulation!’

She pulled her head out of her bag, about to yell out the boar’s ability, but she stopped as she heard ringing.

Jeffrey was up, shakily pointing at Casey, towards the new rotary phone beside him, ringing loudly, but not loudly enough for his deafened ears to hear.

He had been communicating with them.

Casey’s position meant he could not see Jeffrey, so Claudia frantically gestured behind him, and the man paled as he turned to see the rotary phone behind him.

Gritting his teeth, he picked up the phone, but did not bring it up to his ear, instead dropping it to the side, so that it would hang in midair by the wire.

There was a way around it.

“Vector manipulation!” Claudia yelled out then, “There’s a massive boar, it’s ability is to push things away from it!”

Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, another ringing sound appeared beside her, she quickly threw the handset off the receiver as she went back in to track the two enemies. This time, she popped her ears back in the clearing they were in, so that she wouldn’t lose track of her allies.

They were moving, faster now, fast enough they could feel the thumping of the earth as the giant boar moved.

“Don’t speak, Jeffrey!” she heard Casey yell.

Claudia fired upon the two monsters again, trying to find a weakness in the boar’s defence, or at least distract it to buy time.

“We need to run!” Claudia yelled.

“It can track us so long as the phones are with us,” Casey yelled, “and they won’t disappear until we hear what it says!”

“We can’t listen to it!” Claudia retorted. Sam’s blank stare into space was all the proof that she needed that listening to it was a terrible idea.

“You have to put the phone back on the receiver,” Casey told her. “There is no other way.”

Claudia pulled her head out of the bag, anger bubbling, “Gods, I fucking hate Boogeymen!”

She shoved her head into her backpack, using the dozens of blades of grass scattered around, she carved into her head like a cake, teleporting pieces of herself far away.

And she put the phone back on the receiver.

A pair of lips soon appeared, and though she braced, the scream was enough to send her flying. Her entire body was shaking, but she pulled her head out, returning all the various parts of her face she had separated, including her ears. Her hearing was not compromised thanks to this trick, despite the fact the scream was loud enough that she could hear it from her separated ears at the very edge of her range.

“You two have to run!” Casey yelled, he was crawling on the ground, breathing hard and desperately exerting effort to stand, but it was clear that he could not. He had asked the baby a question, he had used his power.

The phone was still hanging beside him, its speaker faintly whispering.

And finally, the two enemies stepped into the clearing.

The place went very still.

Then the two headed entity, Säkkijärven polkka, spoke in a conversational tone, as if greeting a friend. “It has been a very long time since we met others, right Pigstep?”

The massive boar simply lumbered towards them. It spurred Claudia and Jeffrey to action, backing away together as the boar trotted towards the still Sam.

“We tried hibernating, like bears, yes we did. But this winter was long, and our stores weren’t enough,” Säkkijärven polkka said.

Jeffrey almost opened his mouth, but Casey screamed, “Don’t!”

The two headed thing smiled with its holed head. “Ain’t you a smart one.”

It was trying to prompt them to speak, to activate its ability. The skull head was still whispering into its phone, its voice transmitted to the counterpart right beside Casey.

Both entities reached Sam, who simply sat there, eyes wide and blank. Whatever Säkkijärven polkka whispered to her on the phone, it was enough to break her mind. Enough, that she didn’t even scream or react as the boar opened its mouth and tore into her.

Jeffrey and Claudia moved.

Jeffrey tapped the ground four times in the cardinal directions as he pulled out a gun, running in a circle around the two as the compass beneath swung to point towards his desired direction. Claudia’s hands were shoved into her bag as she fired out of the blades of grass she had scattered around them.

The bullets all swerved before they hit Pigstep, and Säkkijärven polkka, with its free hand swung around that blade, pushing the bullets away as the boar peacefully ate.

At that moment, Jeffrey reached his desired destination, the compass at his feet stilling as he reached the direction from which he could harm Pigstep.

Jeffrey fired into the gap between the weapons stabbing the boar, and drew blood. Pigstep snorted, as if not even noticing the wound, and continued on.

Seeing that, Claudia withdrew her hands from the blades of grass, instead reaching inward and pushing out a large rifle from the blade of grass next to Jeffrey.

He wordlessly took it, and fired the entire clip 6mm rounds towards the weak spot.

And they all curved, as a sudden, massive pushing force slammed into him and sent him flying, crashing into the snow and dense dead forest.

Claudia froze, almost speaking in surprise, ‘why was it blocked?’

Säkkijärven polkka patted the massive head of the boar, “Be gentle now, we don’t want to wake what’s beneath us.”

Claudia’s mind was working overtime, even as she was moving to find Jeffrey. The boar’s ability, Pigstep, allowed it to exert a pushing force, one that it used to deflect bullets. It was covered in weapons that stabbed deeply into it and when Säkkijärven polkka blocked some shots, it was by holding a sword by the blade end, and pointing the hilt towards the bullets.

Clarity came, as she realised the weapons were the medium in which it exerted its power. A sharp end pointed towards it, and from the dull end the pushing force came. When Jeffrey shot into it and drew blood, the bullets fulfilled the conditions to be a medium. In the end, they did nothing but cover its weak point.

At that moment, the sharp bite of winter hit her face as the warmth within her extinguished.

Sam was dead. Eaten alive, and the boar was finishing the last scraps of her body.

Casey, still on the ground, burdened by the heavy baby on his back, asked, “Birthday Kid, how can they escape this situation?”

And the baby answered, “Flee away from this clearing, and you must hold them back through conversation.”

The corresponding weight increase slammed into him, Casey gritted his teeth. He was sunk deep into the snow now, and he could feel the ice beneath, somehow thick enough to hold his current weight. Though it was cracking.

“The both of you have to run!”

Claudia looked at him, a single moment, and no hesitation as she pulled Jeffrey out of the ground, letting him lean on her as they ran.

“Not angry they left you?” Säkkijärven polkka asked Casey.

“This damn baby is too heavy,” Casey said in response. He was already marked, he didn’t need to be afraid of the ability activating again.

“What an inconvenient ability,” Säkkijärven polkka said.

“I agree completely,” Casey snarled. Casey could ask Birthday Kid anything, and it would give him a true and correct answer in the spirit of the question, but every time he asked something, it would grow heavier, and the greater the question, the greater the weight the answer incurred.

“Why aren’t you chasing them?” Casey asked.

“Well Pigstep wants to finish his meal, and you are a great conversationalist.”

That can’t be completely true. Was it a condition of the Boogeyman before him that it needed to respond to all conversation given to it? It wasn’t the strangest thing. Boogeymen tried to make their rules as arbitrary and contrived as possible, but still within a general theme. Trying to figure out why they decided upon their conditions was a lesson in madness and futility.

But this was intelligent, in a way, it was capable of holding a conversation, and though Pigstep was an animal, it was capable of great power-

‘A massive pushing force slamming into Jeffrey, tossing him like a wet rag as he flew out of the clearing.’

It was capable of levelling the entire clearing, to throw them back and wound them, so why didn’t it?

‘Säkkijärven polkka patted the massive head of the boar, “Be gentle now, we don’t want to wake what’s beneath us.”’

They wanted them to run, to leave this place, so that they wouldn’t have to fight at this location.

“Birthday Kid,” he began, “What is it they are afraid of?”

The weight slammed into him, and the ice beneath him began to crack ominously.

“The corpse that is rotting in the cavern below.”

Säkkijärven polkka jerked in horror towards him, its mouth curling down in a large frown. “Pigstep, we need to-”

“Birthday Kid,” Casey asked, and the ice continued to crack and dent as it tried to bear the weight of him and the baby. “How thick is the ice between us?”

And the baby smiled, “Not thick enough.”

“-leave.”

“Birthday Kid, tell me the meaning of everything.”

And Birthday Kid told him.

The sudden increase in weight slammed into him like the blow of an angered god, his back was instantly crushed into meat paste as the ice cracked. A massive sinkhole was born right where he was, dragging everything into it. Including Pigstep and Säkkijärven polkka.

The greater the question, the greater the weight.

Casey’s head was violently severed from his body by the sudden change in weight, it flew in the air for a few moments, and saw what was underneath them. Underneath the snow, underneath the ice, underneath tons of rock.

A great cavern, a field of green stalks of corn. As his head fell onto the black and healthy soil, he saw briefly, the corn stalks turn to stare at him.

The husks of the corn peeled back, and revealed that the corn had human faces.

Claudia and Jeffrey marched, one leaning on the other. Claudia was still thinking about him, about Casey left back there with those monsters, until suddenly, she realised with horror that she could not recall his face.

Fighting back tears, she reached into her breast pocket, pulling out the photo they had taken together at the start of their expedition.

Casey’s face was now blank and empty.

Tears almost came, but she continued to move in the stinging cold, supporting Jeffrey as they tried to make as much distance as possible.

Four down to two, now marching across the frozen wasteland.

Neither dared to talk in case Säkkijärven polkka was still alive. Claudia was truly feeling the cold now, where before Sam’s ability kept it comfortably at bay.

They walked for what felt like miles, neither resting or stopping. Days might have passed, though neither knew how many, or if any at all.

Until one moment, Jeffrey simply collapsed.

Words came unbidden, Claudia no longer caring about the dangers, “What’s wrong!?”

“Nothing,” Jeffrey breathed out, “I’m just… tired. Can’t… feel my legs…”

Jeffrey was hot, too hot. Claudia quickly pulled off his boots, and she saw with horror, his feet were blackened by frostbite.

When Jeffrey was thrown by Pigstep, he had crashed into the snow and gotten water into his boots.

That was all it took.

Claudia hurriedly put his boots back on, leaning Jeffrey onto the trunk of a dead tree as she pushed away snow. She took off her gloves, her fingers instantly turning numb as the cold assaulted them. Firewood, tinder, matches, the fire burned, quickly and the numbness of her fingers went. She pulled off Jeffrey’s boots, letting his frostbitten feet warm by the fire.

It was her inexperience that got her.

The fire, burning close underneath the tree Jeffrey leaned against, heated the ancient snow and ice that weighed the tree’s branches. The long dead tree had no strength, and cracked.

Snow fell upon them, snuffing out the fire.

Claudia threw off the snow, her hands quickly numbing. She put her gloves back on, slapping her hands on her waist as Truth taught her to get the lifeblood flowing again. Claudia hurried to Jeffrey, his eyes flitting in and out of consciousness.

“Don’t sleep!” she yelled, hurriedly slapping away the snow from his body and putting his boots back on. She kicked his feet, to try to get blood flowing.

Panic was the first instinct of her mind, yet she knew she must remain calm. She made a mistake, a dire one, but not unrecoverable. She took out more wood and tinder, this time she started the fire in the clearing. Her numb hands quickly heating up again as the fire burst to life, she yelped in triumph and turned to Jeffrey.

Jeffrey was still laid there, his eyes were closed, in his hands his compass appeared, twisting, turning, pointing in one last direction, before it faded.

Claudia shook him, yelled at him, hit him, screamed at him to just wake up.

He never did.

She tried to muster up Green, Green Grass of Home, to create that domain she once inhabited, the Expansion Technique she had once mastered.

It did not come.

That was a product of centuries, one she had tossed aside to gain freedom. She broke that condition, she would not have the Expansion again.

And Claudia was left alone in the cold.

She wept now, and when her tears froze on her face, she punched herself, right in the eyes to try and shatter the ice, but her tears kept coming.

She could only feed the fire.

Time passed with her alone in that clearing. She ate through her supplies, but they had brought enough for four people, so she had plenty.

She buried Jeffrey’s corpse, taking his clothes and supplies. She would need them more, and turned to the direction where his compass last pointed.

He too had broken a condition, he had broken the condition that he needed to step on the ground four times in the cardinal directions. For that, he would lose the ability, but for a dying man, it didn’t matter.

So Claudia set off, to finish what was started.

She marched alone for miles and miles, days or perhaps years passed all by itself. All alone in the white hell that surrounded her. That was what the Obsidian Moon desired, to leave the entire world a frozen and lifeless husk. To what purpose or why, perhaps no one will ever know.

Claudia simply kept walking.

And walking.

And walking.

And walking.

She knew not how long had passed when she sensed it. Her Hume senses tasted it, an area of greatly enhanced reality.

The vault.

Ice and snow clogged its entrance, but she had a shovel for this very purpose. Digging away the snow, she tapped the ancient keypad, entering the code Truth had given her.

The door slid open and Claudia entered the dusty place. She contemplated how this was not the first vault she had entered, though it was the only one where she was allowed in. Shelves and shelves of boxes, each labelled with a species name, stored where the cold would preserve it for millennia until people needed it again.

At the centre of the vault, was the Hume Reality Anchor, the wellspring where Hume flourished and fought off Bleed.

It was the brain dead corpse of a Savant, artificially kept alive through technology stolen from the future.

Claudia reached into her bag, pulling out a single corner of the massive cube they were meant to deliver.

She slotted the piece into the large indent on the ground, then slowly pulled her bag away, as she did so, the cube reconstructed itself.

Her power, Green, Green Grass of Home, wasn’t fundamentally spatial storage, that was simply one of the uses she had figured out. It was the ability to create blades of grass, and through her bag she could reach into and out of the flat of the grass. Almost like a portal.

It was a type of teleportation that was complete, and didn’t create anything like a portal cut. When something was bought out of the bag, they simply reconstituted with all the parts back together. Her storage occurred when she left things in the gap between the backpack and the grass, where it was not quite through the portal, but certainly somewhere. Through that, she could separate large items into much smaller chunks, only needing to carry one piece of the much bigger whole.

The metal cube fully reconstructed itself, and pressing the button, slowly sank into the ground.

Claudia watched as the facilities various bars began to fill. Energy, heat, the nutrients keeping the Savant corpse in a state of half life.

She was done.

Their mission was over. They had succeeded. The vault will continue operating for centuries or more.

And for a moment, she simply rested.

She had enough supplies to return, enough food to last the journey, but the dangers of what might be there, and the all encompassing cold, without her former companions to combat it, meant that there was a good chance she would not survive the return trip.

And more importantly, Claudia was tired.

The reason she had left was because she realised she had lived too long. She had no one left, the world she came from had long since died. Truth kept going, but Claudia Putman wasn’t Truth.

So, she buried her remaining supplies in a marked location outside of the reality anchor, knowing that the cold and the Moon’s Bleed effect will keep it preserved for the next people who come.

On the wall outside of the vault, she marked it. Not with tallies this time, but with names.

Expedition 1

Claudia Putman

Jeffrey Smith

Casey Wei

Sam Aestas

She didn’t know what number they were, so she just put it as Expedition 1. Claudia figured they deserved the right since they were apparently the first to make it in a long while.

She didn’t know why she had carved it, perhaps it was just something spontaneous, perhaps she wanted someone to know, someone to remember.

Nonetheless, Claudia Putman looked at the snowy white landscape. She didn’t know if their sacrifices were worth it, she didn’t know if this vault would remain, she didn’t know if anything they did mattered in the grand scheme of things.

She simply closed her eyes, and slept.

A long time later, three battered and wounded people trudged through the snow. One of them was heavily wounded, blood was already seeping through their clothing and dying the white snow behind them.

As they entered the vault, the man died, but not before he threw out a massive metal cube from his spatial pocket.

The two remainder pushed the cube into the correct place, charging the vault once again. Later, they would find the names carved upon the wall and dig up the supplies Claudia had left.

They added to it, leaving themselves only enough for two people. As they left, they carved on the wall, ‘Expedition 2…’

More time later, a single person trudged through the snow. She was alone, and she opened her pocket and dumped the cube in the same place as the last two. On that wall, she carved, ‘Expedition 3…’

Much, much later, a full group came, they were cold and tired, but they were all alive. On that wall covered in names, they carved, ‘Expedition 9…’

They took the supplies their predecessors left, and because of it, they would be the first ones who successfully returned.

More groups came, in full or only their survivors. Over the course of who knew how long, more names were added to that wall. More people carved in their expedition number. Until one day when the wall was completely covered.

But still had enough space to carve new names.

Expedition 56, when they found the wall, they found the space around it warped. When they walked on its side, it would stretch, like a film reel and would only stop until they reached the point where Expedition 1 was carved.

They carved their names, and tried their best to make the return trip.

When the Obsidian Moon was shattered, its blackened pieces lay broken in the sky, and the sun shining gloriously in the heavens. The final expedition came.

They found the last seed vault derelict, but still functioning, on that wall filled with names, they found the final Expedition carved with an insanely high number. Yet, as they tried to walk the length of the wall, they could not find its end, no matter how long they walked.

They carved their names on it as well, the last of the expeditions.

Not one of their sacrifices were in vain.

Not a single one would be forgotten by that wall.

Of all the artefacts I have reviewed, this one is something surprisingly controversial. Some of the more militarily minded among us have questioned its classification as an S-Class artefact. It is, after all, nothing more than a pocket dimension with a wall that remembers names.

However I believe Ad Infinitum deserves its classification.

I call it Ad Infinitum, on account of how it was created, though someone else suggested ‘Et al’ which, while humorous, I found rather inappropriate for such an artefact. Until we find out the Name of the ability, we’ll stick with Ad Infinitum.

Where was I? Oh yes. As I delved deeper into the past, the secret histories of the world are becoming more clear, and even clearer is how much has been forgotten.

I now know the name of the sword Excalibur that is stabbed in Hell, but not the name of who wielded it. I know of the Swimming Cities that roam the sea, but not of who built them. I know of the Armoathen Virus, which has genetically modified humanity with an enhanced flight or fight response, but not who spawned it. I know of the Armies of Lead to Gold, still defending a long dead nation, but not who carved them. I know of the Grassland Scrolls, filled with maddening sciences, but not who wrote them.

We know things are, but not how they got there.

Some of the names written on this wall can no longer be found anywhere. They aren’t forgotten, that is an important distinction, those names simply no longer exist anywhere but here.

As I study more into this, I am starting to feel something, or perhaps someone. I feel that entity most strongly around survivors of a Requiem. Maybe—

Through studying Ad Infinitum, I now know several things. It is a product of the accumulated ‘spatial’ abilities of the expeditionary members that perished around the area, an ability singularity that created its own separate universe. Indeed, the area surrounding that wall can be considered a type of Gate. As time goes on, such singularities are becoming more common, as meta abilities fuse with each other, becoming… more, yet in some perspectives, lesser. Great and unstoppable in power, yet narrow in application. Or perhaps what we see is only its ‘inactive’ state, if it's similar to the 42 Disciples who created the Kristonity, then what we see is merely passive projection upon the world, the tip of a very large iceberg. Finally, I have learned that the Golden Age of Gadgeteering happened before the Long Night.

When the Long Night passed, someone desired for a quick return to the norm, so they exploited the shattered timeline, bringing an entire era back to reality. Returning ancient infrastructure, lost knowledge and hidden gods. Using the last surviving seed vault where Ad Infinitum was found, they were able to quickly repopulate the world. It was a repeat of the greatest Golden Age known in history.

Yet it was once again ended by another Gate. No longer an Obsidian Moon, we were too sensible to explore space again, but we got an Endless Hell instead.

Perhaps that was fate, in some twisted way, for that Golden Era to end. At least a devil is easier to shoot than a moon with an orbital laser (I call it a laser, because that is the closest word we have to describe that weapon). I am curious to see how the Order of the Clock Tower will grapple with this contradiction. To fix time in an era that would not exist without its breaking.

Nevertheless, one thing has become clear. The loss of information may be one of the greatest threats of our age. History is no longer objective but literally whatever some people make of it. Not even mentioning the threat in the Pacific (may we never forget its name), the use of utterly impartial information keeping artefacts that cannot be affected by Bleed or powers or age will become more and more important, that is the prediction I make as someone named a Prophet.

I will need to figure out how to get the Pacific Threat’s name onto Ad Infinitum, if it is successful, we may neutralise one of the Four Threats entirely. If not, then I have already named my successor, and he, his own successor.

Pray I do not fail.

The Memoirs of Hayden Xin

Lest Dawn Fail.