The Beyonders.

They may be portrayed as a heartless specie but all what actual mattered for them was their research and knowledge. Earth? The human kind? This was just a giant laboratory filled with hamsters for them.

Drew, the head of staff present on Earth came to a lost city in order to get a better look at a weird hybrid who was observed there. He was quite disappointed to find out that he was just one of those humans who were born with anomalies because of the radiations from the nuclear armament humans used during their conquest.

‘He may not be that interesting but he had a look suitable for the DexM001’ Drew thought.

“The subject has a potential risk of death. Save him?” Asked a female-like robotic voice.

“Hmm…”

Blood was splattered everywhere. A man’s weak gaze went across the different faces of those disabling him. The hate in their looks made him finally loose the strand of consciousness he was clinging to.

While finally closing his eyes, the owner of a robotic voice he was lately used to hear appeared in the middle of the crowd.

“Starting the defensive formation. Top priority: Save the target’s life at all cost.”

Directly after the announcement, the drone bumped into the denizens closest to Eiron.

‘Bam’

It then cleanly shot them in their vital organs without missing a single shot.

‘Puhak’

Brain matter and blood tarnished the scene even more while the anguished cries of frightened citizens were heard all over the antic town.

Those who tried to run away were shot in the back, making the rest even more frightened while forgetting about their latest deed.

“Damn it! Why are you all looking that lost? The only way to go from here alive is to join our forces and take it down… at least the luckiest will survive!” The skinny thug shouted.

At the call to insurrection, all those present at the scene were suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of ‘martyrness’, forgot about all their previous fears and got united under a single thought: taking down the evil.

This scene would have almost be reminiscent of an historical drama if not for the reason why it took place.

After assessing the situation, the drone swiftly jammed in the leader’s skull, killing both him and the vigor he produced. Those who quickly regained their wits and charged at the drone faced the same fate as their one minute long leader.

Corpses, corpses, corpses everywhere. A middle aged man clad in black was entering a building were a horrific scene occurred with a disgusted expression.

The better looking bodies had a single whole in them while some others were missing their heads. Stacks of dead bodies, evocative of the ‘The triumph of death’ [1] were scattered everywhere.

Amongst them a single one looked to still have maintained a semblance of life. A bloody tanned skin young man with white eyes was being guarded by a drone just as bloody.

Contrasting the scenery, he looked like he finally found epiphany and was at the verge of redemption.

The middle aged man approached the boy, unfolded a floating carpet and quietly sat on it.

Amidst his sufferings, Eiron finally opened his eyes. The pain flowing through his body was the confirmation he was still alive. The bloody scene didn’t do him that much of a shocking effect and the man on a floating carpet in front of him even less.

He turned his head towards the man and slowly asked him “Why did you save me?”

“I… didn’t do anything, if you want to thank someone thank the drone standing by you.” The middle aged man said while pointing at the drone.

Eiron looked at the drone with a quite complicated expression then started closing his painful eyelids with his remaining willpower.

“Two hours, if you don’t get any treatment by then you are really going to die. Are you really ready for that?” The man asked with a soft smile.

“The world already rejected me so what is the use of staying alive when I’m persecuted for crimes I never committed?”

“So you are going to disrespect your father’s last will and die a dog death in a doggy place?”

“No I don’t… I really don’t want to but, but how will I get treated and even if a miracle occurs, how will I survive without living the life of a fugitive?” Eiron retorted.

‘Wait, how does he knows about dad’s last will?’ Eiron belatedly realized while opening his eyes to look at the suspicious man.

Instead of a middle age man, standing in front of him was instead the Beyonder he saw earlier that day. The man looked at the bemused Eiron with a somehow understanding expression then said “Strength to walk over all those who look over you, treatment that you only will get and finally freedom to walk around the whole universe without others looking at you like a monster. I can give you all that if you accept being my experimental subject.”

‘Is this a joke?’ Eiron thought.

He lived this wreckage of a life till today to be oh so proposed to live a better one just because he was pitied by one of those existences who killed billions for conquest and destroyed thousand years of civilization just because they felt like doing so …and now one of them was pitying him?

During his bullied years where was him? When he got beaten? All those times he felt sick while lacking medications and finally when his father died? To suddenly appear with that much of a generous offer, something smelled extremely fishy.

Sensing what Eiron thought, the Beyonder man, Drew quickly tried to better explain his offer or so he thought “Don’t think of us as some omnipotent existences. It’s thanks to the drone I was able to know about your circumstances. My offer is actually quite dangerous since after all you stay a test subject, you may actually die an even more painful death but it’s still better than your actual condition.”

“Let’s say I accepted how dangerous is what I need to do?” Eiron asked with some remaining doubts.

“Simply said, recreate your existence from the core.”

‘Change everything hnn…’

Before being able to respond properly, Eiron felt his consciousness rapidly disappear after all the efforts he made to stay awake.

“N-No…” He wanted to live but becoming the guinea pig of a mad scientist… he wasn’t that desperate even at the door of death.

“Let’s just take that as a no, I don’t want to die.” Said the sneering Drew while picking up Eiron.

Eiron didn’t know it yet but his ambiguous answer will lead appoint of no return. At some point he would have wished dying there on the spot.

[1] A ‘famous’ art painting depicting countless deaths.