CHAPTER 524

THE JOURNEY OVER

Thirteen souls in total sat around an elongated and elegant glass table, their expressions uniformly sunken. They escaped, true, and lived, but... what now? Not only did they bear on their shoulders the death of their entire race, but there was no way the fourteen of them could prolong it. Even worse, they were stuck on a ship in the middle of nowhere with limited supplies. It was simple to see that it was only a matter of time before they died.

Nobody spoke. Partly because there was little to say, and partly because they were still trying to figure out how they lived. They were certain the beam of desolate light washed over their ship, yet... it did nothing. Their ship was fine. It traveled past the gravitational pull of Adur and into the open vastness of cosmos. They weren't even chased and were instead left alone to roam. Why? They didn't know.

Eldon said nothing during the past four days of their journey. It wasn't yet time. The wounds were still too fresh, their minds too distorted to focus on anything but the past. They didn't see the future; rather, they couldn't fathom there was even one to begin with.

He glanced around the room with heavy eyes; they were still not ready. Inside him, he held the power to change their helpless future. They could revive, grow strong, far stronger than those beings that caused this -- they could get their revenge. They could remake Adur -- no, not just remake, but forge it to be better, greater, something that could never be destroyed.

However, he had to wait. How long? He didn’t know. Maybe a week. Maybe a month. Maybe a year. Heart and mind were strange things; sometimes resilient beyond measure, and sometimes as fragile as glass. Right now they were as fragile as glass.

“... sitting in silence is pointless,” Oyer, one of the people that waited for them on the ship, said. He was a relatively young man, praised for his intellect above all else. Ordinary-looking, he was on the shorter end of things, yet to reach even two and a half meters. “If the point was to brood, we could have done it just the same in our rooms.”

“...” a few groans were his reply as he shrugged. Though he, too, was pained, he tried to move past it. Why did they struggle to live, otherwise? Just to die like this?

“Oyer is right,” Eldon said, realizing he couldn’t take the backstage. He had to be the fuel to push them forward. “We don’t have to do anything today. Or tomorrow. We can mourn, as we should. But... we still need to start thinking.”

“Thinking about what?” Itor exclaimed, irate. “About how absolutely fucked we are?”

“Itor--”

“Itor what?!” he growled at Reli who tried to calm the atmosphere. “You know I’m right. All of you do. We are just... prolonging the inevitable.”

“Then why did you try to escape so hard?!” Elta fired back.

“Because--because... I felt like I had to...” Itor said, lowering his head.

“... we are stronger than this,” Reli said, biting her lower lip. “We may not... ever get over it. No, we shouldn’t. But, we have to do something. Our entire world was wiped out. Everything we’ve built for thousands of years... gone. Aren’t you guys angry?”

“Of course we’re angry!!” Lyer, another one of the guys who waited for them in the ship exclaimed, slamming his fist against the table that didn’t even shake. “But what of it?! What can we change, huh?! Can we fight back?”

“Stop shouting, Lyer,” Antya, the pilot who operated the ship, interrupted the angry young man, rubbing her temples. “Nobody’s suggesting we fight. But, others are right. What was the point of escape if we’d just sulk in the ship as we slowly die? We are just trying to find a way to do something. Anything.” Now’s the time! Eldon thought. He thought he might have to wait a few days, but it was unnecessary; he had miscalculated something. Others grieved, true, but they were also angry. And their anger was far larger than their sorrow. They were angry at those beings who obliterated everything they knew without uttering a word. They were angry with themselves for being helpless against it. For running away. For being unable to do nothing. If he gave them a straw...

“We’re not helpless.” he said as every pair of eyes present in the room, even the silent Alana’s, turned toward him.

“What do you mean?” Itor frowned.

“... haven’t you guys wondered how we managed to survive that beam?” Eldon said. None of the people here were idiots; they immediately grasped the implications.

“... you had something to do with it?” Lyer question.

“--not me,” Eldon said. “But something bigger than me.” he extended his arm and opened it up. Right then, like a mirage, a swirl of crimson-black smoke extended upward like tendrils. The pressure extended outward like an overwhelming shockwave, causing everyone in the room to turn pale and short of breath. “I was given strength, in the last moment, to resist. I took it. It’s the sort of strength that transcends the reason. I... I don’t know why it gave it to me. But, I don’t care. I’m confident that, with it, not only can we survive... but we can thrive. We can grow strong. So strong those creatures will be nothing. We can get our vengeance. We can rebuild Adur anew, so that it never crumbles again.”

**

“You lied to them.” Lino said simply to the faintly smiling Ataxia.

“I had to. They were at the bottom, and a simple rope was enough. I needed a ladder.” he replied.

“But the ladder wasn’t there...”

“They didn’t need to know that,” Ataxia sighed. “You know it, Lino. What it feels like when there is absolutely no light to see or warmth to feel. When it seems as though the entire world is against you.”

“...”

“In those moments, salvation... is impossible,” Ataxia said. “No amount of hands diving for you will ever reach. They were angry. They felt pathetic. I needed to orient those feelings outward. To a specific goal.”

“... the archangels?” Lino said, referencing the creatures that destroyed Adur.

“Hm,” Ataxia nodded. “In the darkest moments, I didn’t give them light. I simply gave them more dark. The bloodied sort. They hung onto that. The straw of hope that, one day, they’d be able to crush those creatures beneath their feet.”

“--why aren’t you showing me the rest?” Lino asked as he saw the memory vanishing, Noterra replacing it.

“... that is for my heart,” Ataxia replied. “I hope you understand.”

“...” Lino said nothing, merely nodding. “Ashtar wasn’t the first, wasn’t he?”

"No," Ataxia shook his head. "After I made them Writs, they fell asleep on top of the ship, consolidating their strength. My plan was to land with Alana and quickly establish a temporary residence. Edifice told me life would spring out here, so I just had to wait. I never intended to face them early on, because they would need time to adapt to their manufactured identities."

“... so what happened?” Lino asked.

"... malfunction," Ataxia sighed deeply. "We took the pod and dove toward Noterra. Midway, something broke. A part of the pod exploded. I was still inexperienced... and she suffered for it. The pressure crushed her lungs, bones, and mind within moments. She was dead, Lino. As dead as one can get. And I asked the Edifice to restore her... but it said it couldn't. It used all its strength to help me."

“... so... you turned to the other one?”

“Not consciously,” Ataxia said. “I just screamed. Screamed and wailed like a child. And, it replied to my call.”

“They brought her from the dead?” Lino questioned with a hard gaze.

"... ha ha, no; they cheated me," Ataxia laughed bitterly, anger clear in the tone of his laughter. "They simply cloned her essence. It was no longer Alana. However... I had nothing else to hang onto. So, I put Alana's body into the pod and buried it until later on."

“... the First Scripture?” Lino asked.

“Hm,” Ataxia nodded. “I put the clone one into a separate dimension and had her experience everything that would transpire. That you had already seen.”

“... ooof,” Lino sucked in a cold breath as the story slowly came to a close. It was certainly far bigger and different than what he had expected. “Your story... is truly remarkable.”

“... hardly,” Ataxia said. “Tragic stories are on every corner, Lino. I failed countless times in my life, far more times than I succeeded. While some can be assigned to powers beyond me, most... simply fall on my shoulders. I had a grandiose plan when I came to your home... and I was beyond certain in achieving it. But... I was wrong. When I met you, I was truly desperate. They were close to finding out the truth. Especially Alladin; I imagine he suspected something was off for a long time. Too many variables arose while I was blindsided, too indulged in my own arrogance. The truest tragedy of my life,” he said, sighing. “Began only after I descended upon Noterra...”