Optional Music to Accompany the Chapter:
Cjbeards - Gods
https://youtu.be/u8R6VkC9AqA
Long chappy today :)
Late Morning - Early Summer : Year 0 | Month 0 : Richmond, Virginia | East Coast United States
World: Earth | Rank: 6 Population: ~1,895,413,000
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- Bentley Horne ~
A quick flight from the Western Union of Europe to Charlotte, North Carolina on a commission to clear an overdeveloped dungeon. An errand to let my guild stretch their legs. That's all that trip was supposed to be. -So, what the hell is this bullshit...-
Hardly a few hours ago, we crossed the eastern coast of the United States, but rather than continuing south as we were supposed to, we were forced to make an emergency landing in Richmond, Virginia.
According to the staff on board, all communications had been abruptly, and completely terminated, not just from the mainland US, but the entire world, and as per international protocol, we needed to land.
At first, we just found it odd...
In recent years, Earth had developed a type of artifact that utilized system extensions to communicate called a System Artifact. In our case, it created an instantaneous, unbreakable connection between any two places with a similar artifact, no matter their location on the planet.
However, while the technology was still immature, and some of us thought the airships artifact had just malfunctioned, panic set in the moment we realized that no one could even open their systems.
In the blink of an eye, our greatest asset vanished... No one could cast spells, use skills, or even access their inventory.
And upon landing, the scene that met our eyes wasn't any less panic-inducing.
Passing the burning, toppled wreckage of another international airship on the runway next to us, we could see people collapsed and spitting blood, unable to stand while others rushed to help them up.
But.. the carnage wasn't isolated to the wreckage.
Rolling farther toward the airports terminals, a truly apocalyptic scene revealed itself. Burning vehicles, lifeless scattered bodies, and panicked people running about in a panic was all we could see.
Out of fear that it could have been from a monster in the area, I ordered my guildmates to stay put while the airship staff and less cautious mercenaries went to help and check out the situation.
But that caution was quickly dispelled. After eventually getting a connection with the airport's ATC via radio, our airships captains revealed that the damage outside was from a mana burst to the west, strong enough to dust every mana-operated device in the city, and cripple the unfortunate folk with mana reserves too weak to not rupture from the shockwave.
-A mana burst that strong...- It had to be a monster.. one unlike anything intended to be in this world, and sure enough, to confirm that horror, the moment the system returned to us, we were presented with a blood-like crimson quest panel detailing that the monster was leviathan class not long after.
The moment we saw that, everyone practically shit themselves.
A monster of that class was beyond a natural disaster—it was a class reserved for anomalies in deep space capable of carving chunks out of planetary bodies.
But while that was largely believed to be an overexaggeration by scientists, my guildmates weren't looking to verify it.
Wanting to get back off the ground, I ran up to the captains' cabin to get them to turn us around, but by then they were under orders of the local military: 'We have to move off the tarmac to let the military land.'
And from then, it just spiralled.
Rather than calling everyone back on board, we had to pull into one of the airports terminals, and found ourselves under orders from the military to help get a number of 'valuable individuals' on the airship to be evacuated.
To my dismay.. we were the only air-worthy craft in the entire airport. -You have to be fucking kidding...-
So, with no other options, I sent my guildmates out with a list of names to gather those who needed priority evacuation and ran up to the captains cabin to figure out why we were still docked. -Unless another jet is landing, we need to be on the tarmac ready to leave!- If the monster from the regional quest arrived, I wanted to get the hell off the ground instead of fumbling around trying to pull out of the terminal.
But.. it wasn't that simple.
"Why the hell aren't we pulling back out onto the tarmac?!" Eventually reaching the captain's cabin, I swung the thick, half ton metal door open like it weighed nothing, nearly giving the co-pilot a heart attack.
"W-We're trying!" He was young, inexperienced, and rightfully flustered. "We are good on fuel, the engines are still warm, and the vital systems are all functional again."
But inexperience wasn't a reason I was willing to die for. "SO WHY AREN'T WE MOVING?!"
The head captain, a much older, calmer man, was quick to respond without pulling his eyes off the system panel in front of him. "We don't have a tow. The mana wave busted every artifact in the city, so the ATC doesn't have any working super-heavy tow units." He spoke bluntly, his tone dull and uncaring. "We're trying to reach the military base a few kilometers southeast to see if they can bring trucks."
"AS IF WE HAVE TIME FOR THAT!" Still hearing the rumble of the ships reactor, I couldn't stop my anger from seeping into my voice like venom. "Use the airships jets to back us out! I know this thing has engines for it-"
But the head captain wasn't going to let me finish. "You want me to spray molten glass over everyone inside the airport?!" Cutting me off, he whipped his head around to shoot me a glare. "These engines aren't the same as the dinky ones you're probably familiar with in Europe. These would melt the glass wall of the terminal in a heartbeat and cook everyone inside. So unless you want to go out there and pull this behemoth out of the terminal yourself, I advise you calm the hell down."
"Tch..." Clicking my tongue, I matched the man's bitter gaze. I needed to swallow my pride, he was right.
But in that moment, my rationality had long-since been drowned. -You know what?!- *Creaaaak* Gripping the metal door to the cabin so hard it deformed beneath my fingers, my pupils dilated with a tight, fear-driven surge of adrenaline.
The ship was massive, easily tens of thousands of tons, but in that moment, my mind didn't care if it was a mountain or a feather.
Rushing out of the airship, I made my way onto the tarmac, finding an old tow rope the width of a watermelon before hopping up onto the unbelievably huge front wheels of the airship and stringing it through the tow hook, hopping off the wheel with either end of it laid over my shoulders and clamped to my chest.
"Hooh..." Letting out a heavy breath, I felt my chest tighten—I needed to pull this thing like my life depended on it.
So, converting every spec of energy reserved for emotion or reason into a fear-driven anger, I activated almost a dozen skills in sequence. *Blip-CRUNCH*
Almost immediately, my fingers dug into the iron-like fibers of the rope, and the blackened tarmac shattered beneath my feet.
But all it did was give me the grip I needed. "...Hah... HHHHYAAAHH!!" *Crackle* Hearing the rope crackle from strain, my legs bulged, my heart raced, and my shoulders screamed in pain.
But after a moment... *Creeeeak* The weight on my shoulders eased.
The airship was moving. *CRUNCH* And I finally took a step.
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- Evren Lestir ~
*WoooooOOOSH* Zipping over the vast swaths of people, I couldn't keep a glimmer out of my eyes. -Woah...- Seeing such diversity blended together in one place.. it felt like I was falling for a mirage—an overzealous illusion.
During my years of travels, I knew of so many monarchs who dreamed of making such a sight a reality, but back then, I, like everyone else, believed it to be impossible—a utopian vision that could never be granted light in the darkness of reality.
Yet despite that overwhelming pessimism, the sight below me was undeniable, and it greeted me like the slap of an old friend telling me: 'I told you so'.
A slap that managed to push warmth onto a face that only knew frost. -I wonder how Bree would think of this...- Passing over the crowd, I couldn't keep the smile off my face.
Though, the warmth could only suppress the frost for so long.
Eventually reaching a sleek, glass-fronted monolith that towered over every other visible structure—where the crowd gathered at the end of the road—I slowed down and made my way up onto its roof, passing a number of mercenaries too panicked to pay me mind before finding my gaze settled over the vast open space beyond.
It was the airport, a network of glass docking areas laid before a field of black concrete runways so vast it felt like I was looking over the bay of a kingdom's largest port.
However, despite its immense size and the expected chaos of the evacuation, it was eerily still...
Despite each of the more than dozen docking bays being filled with large, clearly passenger-oriented aircraft, the inner hallways of the glass terminals leading to them were completely devoid of people. -What the..?-
It was honestly unsettling.. feeling like I just wasn't seeing something I should have. -Why are these not being prepped for evacuation..?- The majority of jets looked totally fine—none having so much as a scratch on them—and yet not only did they and the equipment around them look as abruptly littered and abandoned as the rest of the city, the crowd of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people outside were nowhere to be seen. -Are none of these working..?-
Eventually recognizing the deep pur of an engine from beyond my view, I made my way a kilometer north to the terminal at the end of the two largest runways.
And sure enough, that was where I found the scene of chaos I expected.
From people running about, carrying injured and shouting orders, to a blackened, burning behemoth collapsed in the middle of the far runway, kneeling like a monster with its legs broken, the airfield was nothing short of apocalyptic.
But despite the madness, one thing stood out.
Even as the air rippled from the clashing presences of thousands of people, and buzzed with strained voices and blaring alarms, a silver, 300-meter-long behemoth purred like a lion, its thrusters, though idle, pulsing with a nuclear breath, casting ripples of heat through the air while people ran around its base like ants.
-Ah...- That was when it clicked. Seeing heat rippling off the wheels beneath it, it was clear it had only just landed.. and being the only still running in the entire airport, seemed to explain exactly what I had seen. -So that's what Michael meant...-
Having landed after the shockwave from my mana bursting from the gate ripped through the city, the ship managed to become the sole survivor.
The other jets, though gleaming with polish, were perched on pristine rails, dead—their cores cold; their lights unlit—left to rot the moment the System blinked.
And yet, the outlier, a sleek, clearly luxury airship with an elongated center fuselage and two huge clumps of thrusters sticking out either side of the rear, was left to be stuffed with people through dozens of entrances, each glowing warm light over the extended, luxuriously carpeted stairs.
However, despite the dense crowds of people visible through the glass walls of the airport, the only people boarding were obviously those of status or money.
While people pounded the glass walls in the airport yelling to be let on board, men and women were escorted onto the ship by butlers.
Unfortuantely, no matter how utopian the diversity of the city felt, money and power still ruled.
*Beeeep* Though, hearing the intercoms echo a ring, I looked back to the tarmac, only to hear a deep, commanding voice send ripples through the chaos. "Attention everyone. We have received orders from the United States Military to begin the evacuation. The first departure will take place in twenty minutes using the K5 Continental Airship at Terminal B, and will first be used to evacuate high-priority personnel, such as international mercenaries, priority military personnel, and graded researchers. ID will be required and verified with the System in order to get on board."
The moment he paused, a roaring chatter erupted from the crowd inside the building.
"Everyone else, please be at ease! The military is already on their way with more airships from Arlington, and there is currently no apparent threat to the city. We have sent combatants and scouts toward the anomaly already, and as far as we can tell it isn't coming toward Richmond. Again, please maintain lawful order. Those wishing to spark further chaos will be detained or killed on sight. Be at ease." *Crackle*
Knowing what was coming, silence instantly fell over the tarmac—the air still taut with tension.
Watching the crowd behind the glass, everyone held their breath...
Before finally, the outrage came—roaring with anger, trembling hands clenched to fists—lips parted with the vigor of men possessed by fear-fueled outrage.
In their eyes, the government just told them they weren't important enough to deserve to live, and it lit them up like a fuse sparking explosives.
It was a sight that would never exist in a world where strength ruled.. where it was survival of the fittest...
And in that blink, my view of Earth's prosperity crumbled.
Having experienced every miniscule alteration of civilizations in my countless years in the system, I knew from personal experience that worlds growing accustomed to peace was a curse, an omen of downfall.
Even with all its advancements—its unity of races, its fusion of spell and circuitry—Earth was still bound in chains of its own making.
*Crack-CRASH* A chair flew inside the terminal, smashing against a glass wall before falling onto peoples' heads.
Sirens flared. Some people screamed. Others crumpled.
The glass hadn't shattered. But the calm had been reduced to less than dust.
I watched them—mothers with children, elders with war-scarred limbs, demihumans gripping ID cards as if praying they were important enough to pass.
-And yet none of it will matter…- My gaze, growing cold, drifted toward the terminal stairway that led down to the tarmac, where an older, extremely calm elven girl in a researcher's coat was brought through the crowd by armored knights shoving aside anyone in their way.
Meanwhile, the man at the front of the line, flashing his ID with furious discontent, was shoved back by a single gesture from a black-suited mercenary. No explanation. No pause.
The anger on his face was identical to many—the expression of a man foreign to fear. -How disappointing...-
Having seen how empty the rest of the city was, I was hopeful, believing perhaps Earth was threatened enough for fear to be a driving force rather than a debilitator.
But the sight before me only corrected that vision.
Earth had the perfect storm brewed.. every race imaginable.. science and math.. mana and theory...
And yet that storm was frozen in place by peace and compliance.
Peace I didn't regret sending cracks through. -No wonder Michael was so hesitant... If Earth is to survive rapid rank ups, major reforms need to be made...-
Though, that was something that'd come with fear.. fear that I only knew to be instilled by watching civilizations burn.
I just needed to find a way to instill it without the collapse it required.
Or at least.. so I thought...
*Creaaak-SCRAPE-CRUNCH* "...Hah... HHHHYAAAHH!!" *Crackle* Hearing a thunderous cry, my gaze turned to a man near the undercarriage of the silver airship, lugging a huge rope and chain hooked around its massive front wheels, his veins bulging across his neck as his boots sank into fractured stone.
Fueled by the fear of death and desire for survival, he strained his body with every drop of strength his body could muster, making the rope groan with tension before the wheel of the airship slowly started rolling.
He, like the many of the other foreign mercenaries I could see, already had the spark of fear in their eyes.
Though not all.. some knew of the unfathomable horrors within the bounds of the system, and as such did whatever it took to improve their odds of survival...
Even if it meant dragging a hundred thousand tons of metal out onto the airstrip.
-Hm... Maybe.. the seeds just need water...- Squatting on the edge of the rooftop, I watched people run around the airfield, rushing to board the airship as it was dragged out onto the field of black concrete, judging every movement separately before finally hopping down to join them. *Crackle*
The seeds would get their rain in due time...
For now, I just needed to make sure they were in the right soil.. and ensure the plow that was coming wouldn't bury them too deep.
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