The snowstorm had fallen north of Sano, over the Empire's northern base, "Salka", a colony recently established to extract precious resources. Despite complaints from the various northern tribes, the Empire had decided to maintain its bases. It had now been five years since they started digging into the ground, searching for more Varium.
A scientist was in one of the housing cabins. It was daytime outside. He was busy writing summaries of his findings on Varium, which was very special in this area. He glanced at a photo in the corner of his desk — it showed a woman with white hair and heterochromatic eyes. In the frame, the woman was standing in front of a building called the "Saint Bathory Institute."
Suddenly, someone knocked on his door. He walked to the entrance and opened it. The person knocking was a woman in a military uniform — the head of security at the excavation site.
"Doctor Freivitch, we've made an incredible discovery… You absolutely have to see this!"
The scientist nodded and followed the soldier. Her name was Theodora, a captain in the Imperial Army tasked with protecting Salka with a small military force. Her job was to keep the various hostile demi-human tribes and wandering monsters at bay in this snow-covered wasteland.
The trip took about ten minutes using a vehicle specially designed to drive on snow. The scientist could see the terrain being excavated. He got out of the vehicle — a good hundred workers had gathered, speaking in a chaotic hum. On the other side stood Theodora's small army.
Doctor Freivitch joined the head of extraction, Frédéric, and gave him a small nod.
"So, what did you find?"
Theodora stood behind the doctor.
"I don't know, it's incredible — it looks extremely ancient… I've never seen anything like it."
The doctor raised an eyebrow, and Frédéric motioned for them to follow him to the elevator. Dr. Freivitch, Frédéric, Theodora, and two of her soldiers stepped onto the lift and descended deep into the earth.
After a long seven-minute descent, they reached the bottom. Even on the way down, Dr. Freivitch could see something strange — a gigantic arm emerging from the ground, covered in stone, as if it had been petrified.
The group approached the massive arm. The doctor touched it and raised an eyebrow.
"…Did you uncover anything else?"
Frédéric nodded and climbed onto the gigantic arm, moving further along. The doctor, the soldiers, and Theodora followed the head of excavation. They eventually reached what appeared to be a massive, deformed head. No one could identify exactly what it was. However, the doctor had a vague idea.
"…I… think I know what it is…"
"What is it?"
Theodora asked quickly, her voice devoid of emotion.
"…I'm afraid it might be… I need to send a picture to my mentor. She probably knows more."
He snapped a photo with his tablet and sent it to his contact: Doctor Denasaia Ansia. Theodora grew impatient — she wanted to hear the doctor's theories.
"Well?"
Theodora insisted. The doctor finally replied:
"It's a Deadhorse…"
A long silence followed the revelation, as if speaking might awaken whatever lay beneath their feet. Frédéric reacted, not believing it.
"A Deadhorse?! That's impossible. They all died out more than two millennia ago…"
"Yes, normally it should be impossible. But I don't know why there's a Deadhorse here… It makes no sense… We have to leave. We must seal this hole and abandon the site."
Theodora raised an eyebrow. As the leader of the expedition, it was her duty to end the research.
"We'll contact the Empire and wait for Prime Minister Nikita's decision… We'll stop the extraction until we receive an answer."
The group returned to the surface and informed the miners they would be given a few days of rest. They didn't share the real reason. Frédéric simply said they needed to observe the ground to ensure continued mining was still safe.
That night, the scientist began recording himself on his old tape recorder.
"We had every reason to believe it was impossible… incredible… but unfortunately now we understand we were wrong. When the miners stumbled upon this… amidst the smoking wreckage in the north of Suno… it will change our world… and our history. Even though it had slumbered deep beneath us since the dawn of humanity, for us, it is an unprecedented despair… Unknown… until we brought our drills to Salk-"
Suddenly, alarms blared throughout the camp, and a voice echoed through the loudspeakers.
"Alert, alert, enemy intrusion, I repeat: enemy intrusion!"
Doctor Freivitch looked out the window and saw a hundred armed people entering the camp. The battle had already begun. Civilians fled while the military and anyone capable of fighting tried to defend against this army that had appeared out of nowhere. The doctor grabbed a pistol he had hidden in a drawer and stepped outside.
He wanted to help the workers and fight the attackers, but they had quickly overpowered the soldiers and were already heading toward the excavation site. They used snow scooters and larger transport vehicles stolen from the group.
The scientist approached the corpse of one of the attackers. He looked at the back of the man's hand and, to his horror, recognized a cross symbol — the mark of the Martyrs, a sect worshiping an ancient god. Doctor Ansia had warned him about the Martyrs, and only now did the doctor connect the dots in horror.
"Oh no… Oh no!"
He ran toward a snow quad, jumped on, and sped toward the extraction point. No one was left — no workers, and the few guards had fallen. The Martyrs' stolen vehicles were all parked near the extraction hole. No one was watching — they had all taken the elevator down. The doctor stole a pair of binoculars from one of the military vehicles and watched from a distance. He couldn't fight fifty enemies alone.
One of the individuals stood near the chest of the giant. Based on his gear and long white cape bearing the Martyrs' symbols, there was no doubt he was leading the group. Several Martyrs placed machines at various spots on the stone. They emitted vibrations — purring sounds that turned into growls.
Then, in unison, the Martyrs began chanting in a language unknown to the doctor. He could only hear fragments from where he stood. Suddenly, the stone on the giant's body began to crack. The doctor grabbed his tape recorder again.
"Once their machine turned on, it purred with a sound like a cat's… then the purring turned into growling. And now, whether out of hope or despair, they chanted the name of this sleeping Titan… and it awakened."
He let out a sigh as he saw the Titan slowly open its eyes. The doctor finally spoke in a frightened voice as he received a message from Doctor Ansia, revealing the name of the Titan…
"Deadhorse 1."
"We don't know… what we've done."