Years before the start of the Great Intercontinental war that caused the central continent, Moseltia to be inhabitable, the northern continent, Gaia, was shaken and shattered. Past the breezing plains and dead marshes laid the northern Oúreas mountains, kilometers high they would look down on anyone approaching and be merciless to whomever would seek to find what laid beyond those mountains. These mountains were rumored to harbor the ghost of fallen mountaineers and daring adventurers, and in the glacier you could find pieces of history that stayed thousands of years moving within the ice. Past these mountains and their glaciers one would find the cause of the earthquake, at the pole of the planet, rising boiling acid lakes, geysers that emitted red smoke and massive erupting volcanoes were appearing one after another. This caused most of Gaia to be reshaped with the Oúreas mountains changing and cities crumbling down. The continent would recover eventually, and the cause of the earthquake would be poiting at the rise of mount Oculus.
The biggest volcano that rose in Gaia was located at the extreme center of the pole and was called mount Oculus. Mt Oculus looked like the eye of a titan, having a small central peak in it's centre and lava surrounding it as well as 4 lava streams that would pour out of the north, east, south and west side. Making it look like an eye when seen from an airplane. During the earthquake the center of this volcano rose and brought more with it than magma. In the eye a red shimmer flickered in existence from nothing, which became brighter and larger as it kept shimmering in and out of existence. It kept growing until it gave deep neon red light and the ??? became stable as a breaking sound could be heard and a low drumming began. The shimmer broke open and revealed pure darkness.
The current year is 256 after the Great Intercontinental war, south of the Oúreas mountains in the mining metropole Duran. In a large glass skyscraper that looked like a church tower but was only used by the Duran Mining Corporation. An infamous company known for being exploitive of their employees. At the 8th floor of the building on a certain Friday during the busy weeks the 'final' wrap ups of a meeting were discussed.
"Hey Rohan, you'll come to the pub the Sunday right? Last week you couldn't make it so this time you need to make it up man. I expect you drink twice as much, to compensate for previous week, heck you should drink 3 times as much to compensate for the upcoming times youll miss gehahaha"
Rohan looked up at Mike with a slight annoyed face, knowing he shouldn't make the same excuse twice as Mike started laughing from his own joke.
"I'll be there but don't expect to much. I'll go hiking up the Rhino's Horn tomorrow so not sure when ill be back on Sunday."
"Yeah yeah, another week another same hike for you it is huh. You should join me to get a girlfriend or something, you know people around your age still like to party so… come on.... just kidding go hike all you want, but make sure to be there on Sunday!"
"Alright alright don't worry man ill ne there somtime on Sunday, I'll have to leave now boss called me for some last minute work that came in, you know how difficult he is with any work."
"Catch ya later and good luck"
After leaving Mike behind and getting to boss's office he gave another long speech on efficiency and all loads of horse shit of better margins, more work and blah blah blah before letting me enjoy my weekend. The Duran mining corporation was focused on digging in deep bedrock for small rare crystal/stone orbs that they deemed as "high importance".
The only function the shitters had was visual aspects, but they sold absurdly well and brought money in so I couldn't say bad shit about them. Most of these orbs were small in diameter, probably 1 cm at most and kept their rough outer texture. But when polishing they could give of a pretty spark and cost a high price.
Finishing work and packing up Rohan left the skyscraper and took went home by metro. He had a small apartment for himself in the fat northern parts of the city that slowly started to rise in the valley it lay in.
Dropping his work stuff home he started packing for a mountain trekking. "I'll have to make sure to prep some extra spare food and a water filter" Rohan thought to himself. Taking 6 MREs, gas based mini cooking stove, 1L water, water filter, walking sticks and his trusty hiking shoes. For the rest of his packing he took his map and compass, feeling comfortable enough without his old GPS system, as well as first-aid kit, hat and a sturdy pocket knife. "I'll have to take my tent and sleeping bag and mattress for the night." Feeling prepared he checked his materials one last time and prepped his signature pre-hike dinner that consists of lots of carbohydrates in the form of spaghetti bolognese.
Getting up at 4 in the morning wasn't a pleasure for Rohan, but knowing the sunrise from the mountainside was beautiful, he was capable of pulling through, although barely falling asleep in the metro ride up north.
Rhino's horn was one peak out of the 3 that made up the Rhino's valley. The horn was the most northern peak and highest out of the 3 at close to 3000 meters high, while the other 2, called the Rhino's ear and Rhino's eye, where a couple hundred meters lower. But the most interesting part of the Rhino's valley was the crystal blue lake between the mountains.
Being of purely glacier water it gave of sparkling lights when the sun shone on it, and it reflected perfectrly back on rhinos horn in the evening. That was Rohan's goal for the hike, to reach the 2nd highest viewing point for the lake.
The metro end station brought him to the start of the trail up the Rhino's horn. Looking back over the valley he saw the train quietly leave back the way it came, along the lake to the southern exit of the valley. It was a famous train ride for its views of the lake and city.
Going up the mountain was hard, loose rocks, steep climbs and some large boulders on the path Rohan climbed up for 8 hours before he managed to reach the top of the mountain. It was a hike that asked a lot of endurance but it wasn't extraordinary hard. The top gave a beautiful view to the south of the metropole Duran, lots of skyscrapers reaching up to the skies and to the east and west were mountain sides that were used to mine for many precious ores. Looking down Rohan could see the beautiful sparks of the lake and the train going along the banks of the lake. Looking up north Rohan could see mountainous landscape as far as his eyes could see, the horizon was covered with peaks reaching higher and higher until the last disappeared below the horizon.
It was known to be one of the best sights of Duran, but many people did not have the option to go. Rohan took a couple pictures and checked for any connection service.
"Still only some minor connections but doesn't seem to be enough to load shit"
Taking a seat behind a large rock, Rohan took out his 2nd MRE of the day, having already eaten one on the way up to keep his energy reserves stable. Finishing up his meal he stood up ready to leave when he felt a slight tremble on the ground.
*rumble*
Some loose rocks sliding down further below. But it didn't seem to stop a slight tremble as the earth started shaking more and more.
"Shit shit shiiiiittt, its an shitting earthquake, and I'm on top of the mountain." Rohan sped up quickly to the higher point of the top to get above any potential falling rocks, looking over the mountains he could see the vibrations break down the sides and tops of many mountains.
"Shit it keeps getting worse and worse, normal quakes should have long stopped by now."
Checking his phone for the alarm sound he finally got it through, major earthquake alarms have gone off due to the severity of the earthquake. It wasn't that the earthquake had the power to shatter the mountains, but the duration of it was absurd, holding on for more than 8 minutes before it started decreasing.
Rohan had seen many sides of mountains tumble down, even the lake was shaking and had rocks in it, and its pristine color was now completely gone, becoming cloudy greyish. Feeling the end of the earthquake Rohan stood up and checked his surroundings, most of Mt Horn was still in decent state, going down shouldn't pose a problem. He saw smoke rise from the city, knowing there would be some major problems getting back in time he praised himself saving enough food for 2 days.
Suddenly a bright flash appeared on the northern horizon, taking his focus away as the bright light passed him and went down south. He suddenly felt a shockwave hitting him, like a bike crashing into you. Rohan fell back on the ground and stumbled before getting a hold. Then he felt a change appear, well it was more like a message that appeared in front of his eyes, and he heard a voice in his head.
[Initiating ?????????? ??????]