Falmus stumbled into the room, putting the barricades back into place behind him. After ensuring everything was as it should be, he collapsed against the wall, exhausted. His breath came rapidly as explosions and screaming could be heard through the closed and covered windows.

“Here, take this,” a hand appeared before him, holding a glass of water that he gratefully took. “How does it look outside?”

“I think you can tell from the screaming,” Falmus told his good friend, Elear. “But it’s pandemonium out there. Everything is going to shit.”

Elear wasn’t taking this well, nobody did. Falmus could tell by how his friend's tail was nervously lashing out and how the spines on his back shifted ever so slightly, classic tells of mental duress for their species. Hundreds of years ago, when the entire planet's population turned into monsters, they had lost their ability to read emotions from their contemporaries' faces, the expressive surface replaced by a smooth plate.

A plate made from bone, as they would later find out.

They had grown larger, and their hands and feet turned into bladed weapons. Their skin had turned to a weird mixture between leather and chitin, the black stuff covering the entire body. A tail had grown, and some even grew spines, as his good friend had. It was a time of great upheaval, but their ancestors didn’t waste any time and started figuring out their new forms fairly quickly.

Asphons, they took to calling this new race.

But not only the Aspohons appeared on Suigoss, no, with them came the monsters. Ever evolving, ever growing stronger. And with the Asphons and the monsters, came change. The system took to these new beings like fish to water, giving them ample opportunity to grow stronger.

The golden age of Suigoss started then, as new skills and new magic were created almost daily. Technology evolved rapidly and the Asphons quickly mastered their new circumstances, expanding ever further into monster-riddled lands.

Falmus stood back up, his breathing evened out, and went to a window, brushing aside the curtain to look outside. Elear shuffled up next to him and took a pensive look outside. The city stood in flames, screams permeated the air, only disturbed by the occasional explosion, and every few minutes another building collapsed from the fighting.

The two looked on from their place on the thirteenth floor of their building, observing as the streets were filled with fighting. But it wasn’t a hated enemy that was attacking, not even some rebel group or terrorists. No, the ones doing the fighting were their neighbors, the nice girl from the bakery, the clerk of their grocery store, the local tailor, and the children that usually laughed on the playground. The Asphons were fighting themselves.

Or, more accurately, the city was overrun by Asphons that had turned feral.

“Did you manage to find out anything?” Elear asked as they watched the carnage. “Anything at all?”

Falmus mulled over what he had learned. Out of the two of them, Falmus had a lot more stealth skills, so he had ventured out into the chaos in an attempt to contact any of their friends in order to find out what was going on.

“I managed to get in touch with Siman,” Falmus said tentatively. “I’m afraid everyone else… It was already too late to help them.”

Elear winced at the not-entirely-unexpected news. “At least you found somebody that might have an idea of what is going on, what did he have to say?”

“Nothing pleasant,” Falmus sighed, turning away from the window and collapsing on the couch behind him, his tail neatly slotting into the hole in the backrest. “Apparently stuff like this has been happening for years, decades even.”

“What do you mean, things like this?” Elear pulled himself away from the window as well, nervously standing near the kitchen.

“People… Asphons… turning into monsters… true monsters,” Falmus spat out the truth that had been kept from them, from everyone. “Apparently the people at the top ordered this information to be concealed, lest it starts a mass panic.”

“And Siman knows this… why?”

“His department was apparently tasked with researching the turned Asphons years ago,” Falmus scratched his faceplate. “They’ve been trying to find a cause, or maybe even a cure. Fat load of good it did as you can see. He doesn’t know what caused a mass outbreak of whatever is turning us feral, and he thinks it’s probably too late to stop it. Whatever it is.”

“So what? We’re just gonna turn into monsters and rip each other apart until there is nothing left?”

“I don’t know, man,” Falmus said exasperated. “Siman just recommended to get the hell out of dodge and hope for the storm to blow over. With any hope, the ones that turned will destroy each other and it’ll calm down after that.”

“That’s a pretty big IF,” Elear sighed. “Fuck man, what do we do?”

Only silence followed as the two of them pondered what they should do. They remained like that for a while before an especially powerful explosion shook the entire building.

“I don’t think staying here is a good idea…” Falmus said pensively.

“Probably not,” Elear agreed. “I don’t have a single combat skill though, so I’ll have to rely on you to protect me.”

“Shit man, I can’t guarantee anything,” Falmus got up. “My skills are focused on stealth, and not the kind that lets me conceal others besides myself.”

“I appreciate you trying regardless, I’ll try to not be a burden,” Elear held out a clawed hand for Falmus to shake. “And well, if push comes to shove… save yourself. Better at least one of us makes it than both of us perish today.”

Falmus studied his friend, analyzing the small tells their monstrous body had. They had been friends ever since they’d been small, and hearing his friend even suggest this… hurt. But he could see the conviction with which he had said it, and Falmus wasn’t one to shit on his friend's determination.

“As a last resort,” Falmus took the hand and gripped it firmly. “I won’t leave you behind if there is even a sliver of hope left.”

Siman feverishly looked through the data crystals, frantically searching for a piece of information that would finally solve their crisis, the last piece of the puzzle needed to shed light on their predicament. Crystal after crystal entered his hands, their information quickly analyzed, before being discarded. All around him were his coworkers, doing the exact same thing until suddenly, a frustrated cry was heard, accompanied by the sound of a shattering data crystal.

“Fucking Shit! This is pointless!” Everybody paused for a second to look at their crazed friend, a few of them shaking their heads before diving back into the pile of crystals on their desk.

“Calm down Zinn, there’s no point in getting angry,” Siman chided his subordinate. “The council trusts us to find an answer for them, and we won’t make any headway if we lose our cool.”

“Screw you, Siman!” Zinn called out, throwing a data crystal that was easily dodged. “We’ve been researching this shit for the past two decades and we got jack shit to show for it! What makes you think that we can pull a miracle out of our asses now that everything had gone to shit?”

Siman sighed. He could understand where the man was coming from, but they had to try, didn’t they? “All we can do is try.”

“Oh sod off!” Zinn wasn’t having it. “Look, not even the system recognizes us as an “intelligent race” anymore. I dare you to look at your status and tell me you aren’t categorized as a monster, just like everyone else! As far as the system is concerned, we’re the anomalies, not the ones out there going wild!”

Siman looked through another crystal as he considered the age-old question. Nobody knew why the system insisted on categorizing the Asphons as monsters, they had evolved from intelligent species, didn’t they? So it stood to reason that even in their newly evolved forms, they should still be classified as an intelligent species. Yet, the system denied them their birthright, stubbornly displaying them to be monsters.

It hadn’t always been like this. According to history, for a while after the event, they’d been categorized as “???” an unknown. They had become something new, something the system had never seen before, yet, for some reason, it decided that they were lesser than they were before the change. Nobody could challenge the system, and so Suigoss was isolated from the expanse, left to their own devices.

“If you ask me, the crazy Asphons out there just gave in to their base instinct. They didn’t suddenly turn into monsters! We’ve been monsters all along!” Zinn continued his tirade. “And I don’t know about you guys, but if this is the downfall of our civilization, I’d much rather spend it with my wife and children instead of being cooped up in here with you losers.”

Zinn kicked over his desk, data crystals scattering everywhere, and left the room in a huff. Nobody stopped him, because they could all relate. Only a mixture of hope and duty stopped them from storming out after him. Siman shook his head, picking up the next data crystal.

The world was ending, and they were the last chance the Asphons had at survival. And so he continued sifting through the crystals, searching for that little piece of information that would finally unravel the great mystery.

All across Suigoss, cities burned. The entire planet was wrapped in violence and fire. Fearful screams and determined shouts, mixing together with explosions to create a symphony of destruction. Not only the Asphons, but the other monsters too, were in a bloodied frenzy, destroying everything in sight.

On and on it went, for days, weeks, months, until the last dregs of civilization were eradicated. The researchers never found the reason why it all happened. And once the fighting died down, all that was left on the planet were monsters.

A large screen displayed the planet from afar, several eyes having witnessed the end of the Asphons. And once they were sure that the deed was done, their leader started giving out commands again.

“Initiate phase two,” the leader said calmly. “As the system wills it.”

“As the system wills it,” several voices echoed back, before going back to work.