William: "...Where am I?"
I stumbled, stood with unsteady footing upon the barely visible rocky terrain.
Blood flowed down my face, seeping down into my suit and soaking it wet. My left arm was dislocated, my body covered in bruises and mutilation. My eyes barely functional, as the left had been blinded and the right bleeding out. Sharp rocks were embedded deep into my flesh.
How did we get here? I'm not gonna bother explaining, I know it. But William probably doesn't. What does that mean? Sounds stupid doesn't it?
I walked, each moment was pain, and each step was unbearable agony. Does that matter?....No.
William: "...What is this? Just a few seconds ago I was just....Did I blank out again? Am I hallucinating? Is the yeti playing tricks with my head?"
It's not anything at all. It's not some supernatural mind control phenomena, it's "me". You're demented, hallucinating, you're a mess—I'm a mess.
The ground tremored, the whole cave shook yet again as if a monstrous beast thrashed through everything in it's path and was slowly but surely approaching your direction with murderous intent, you feel the impending doom approaching as the loud explosions grew louder and louder, closer and closer, that feeling of despair that you could never escape lingering in your—Yeah, yeah, yeah, blah blah boring stuff. You don't really care, I don't really care.
Really, what's there to care about?
Hallucinations festered in my mind, the whole place seemed to contort, reality itself shifting in dizzying movement.
Waratruhgru oejyr pushusuhuhuuu weeeh! You know, something like that?
William: "How long has it been?"
I woke up yet again, under the distorted sky without stars.
William: "Where am I this time?"
I scanned the area, my eyes were met with a crimson wasteland, with only the red dust, and soil to be seen. Even with the absence of a sun, light itself was present.
William: "Where is this light coming from...Hk?"
Suddenly, a large boom of... Something, rippled through the air, kicking up dust and forming large clouds of sand from the sheer impact. Sand scattered all over the air, making it ridiculously difficult to see through the mayhem.
But from where I stood, large explosions could be heard and beams of light tore through the storms of sand, and shone so brightly up in the sky it seemed like pseudo-suns. Large vessels the size of mountains soared through the air covering the sky, bearing the engravings of the letters "CSTF-Ice burn".
They open fired at...Something in the far distance, and by far distance I mean not even on the planet I'm standing on. Although the storms of sand made it difficult to see, I could make out the creatures silhouette. It was a massive monster hovering over the sky, a white furred beast that looked like, well, a yeti mimicking the sun itself.
William: "..Is that the Yeti?"
Yes, it was.
The wind erratic, the area was a barren wasteland with nothing but the chaotic landscape. Pieces of earth scattered all over the place, with multiple dead bodies laying around the area.
The earth burst from below, rocks shattered, and debris flew away from the area of impact. There, from the crater emerged the creature. A beast the size of multiple buildings stacked together, it took the shape of a man, roasted, and decaying beyond recognition.
Men with masks and soldierly attire spread throughout the terrain, opening fire at the countless titans that emerge from the ground.
Maybe I should just jump right into the line of fire...Like that'll end it.
I slid down the earth, right towards a group of soldiers taking cover behind a large rubble of rocks.
William: "What's the status?"
Soldier 1: "What the-Who are you? How did you get here?"
He seemed to have been taken aback, though his voice sounded too calm to call "Concerned".
William: " Oh yeah, I'm William Lidenberge, not an enemy. ACE member."
Soldier 2: "SAS-000...."
God I hate that name.
William: "Yeah, yeah, no time for introductions. You've verified I'm an ally, that's enough. I need an exact number for the number of dispatch, and tell me the severity of the situation."
Soldier 1: "Heh, ally huh? Where's your partner, that one chick by the way?" He scoffs, something about calling myself an ally really amuses him.
William: "I...Don't know, I left her at Ulgrath."
Soldier 1: "Buddy, this is Ulgradia. The pocket dimension inside Ulgrath. Time passes differently here, a year here is like—50 years in Ulgrath."
...So no obnoxious Fyor to irritate me all day? YESS!
Soldier 2: "Chances of permanently destroying those things are basically down in the dumpster, thousands of our men are dying every second. Overall, not that bad. As for number of dispatch, 1.9 million personnel were sent in the last hour, all of them are dead and we're the replacements with about 6.7 million."
William: "Hmm, and how about the Yeti spawns?"
A large boulder thrown by one of the titans from far away lands near us, crushing one of the soldiers I was talking to.
William: "Well he's a goner. So I'll ask you, how many Yeti spawns are there right now?"
Soldier 1: " About roughly 555,005? The Yeti's mass producing them as we speak, and the communications are jammed so it's hard to tell."
William: "You guys have any instructions from the ACE on how to deal with that thing?"
Soldier 1: "Of course not, that's what you're here for aren't you Lidenberge?"
A stray blast from a blaster pierces right through the skull of the soldier in front of me. His blood spilled right onto my face, his body plopping down onto the rock.
William: "...Nice knowing you I guess."
How many times have I seen this before?
Dark sky, explosions everywhere, bloodshed, corpses. You've been staring at the same thing for god knows how long, you ever get tired of it? You do, of course I do.
You're talking to no one, I'm talking to myself. In the middle of all this chaos I'm talking to myself. Blanking out, drowning out the noise with other noise. When will this ever end? You've asked yourself that countless times.
You blank out, you don't want to deal with the mess in front of you. Your eyes fixate on the dead body of the soldier you were talking to just a moment ago. His blood drips down and seeps through the sand. You look at your own hands, they're covered in blood too.
You're bathing in it. Everyone is. People dying like flies, their lives so insignificant, and worthless.
I look down at the corpse of the soldier once more, my eyes landing to his expression. It wasn't sorrow, it wasn't pain, it was....A smile. A soft, hollow smile.
You recall once more your conversation with them, you recall how casual they were to the danger, you recall how desensitized they were. Then the thought struck, "Do these people even know they're alive?"
...No, that's not the question. That had an answer, they just didn't care. They knew they were breathing, they knew they had a pulse. But at the end of the day, they were nothing. A pulse doesn't mean you mattered, being alive didn't mean it was sacred. And at the very end of it all, when they were grasping to take even one more breathe, they understood it—Just how easy it was to let go.
Everything you've been holding on to—Your pain, failures, sins, and sorrow—At the very end of it all you can just...Let go.
I glanced up at the sky, towards one of the flying vessels, locating the main one. I needed to get up there somehow. How am I gonna get there? The sickest way imaginable.
One of the flying vessels crashed near me, one of it's door blown clean off of it and flew into the air. I took my chance, and leapt right on top of the flying door like a magic carpet, using it like a surfboard and soaring through the air.
Meanwhile, the door I had comfortably placed myself on levitated and soared through the air at tremendous speeds, getting dangerously close to colliding with other structures but always evading last minute like a drunk magic carpet. All as the music with no source followed, although that music could just be in my head, idk.I stood up, shuffled and moonwalked using the door as platform. I slid across the surface of the door, barely dodging several other airborne objects, dancing like a drunk man in disco.
Difference is, I wasn't drunk, I was high.
How is the door flying you may ask? Idk bruh.
William: "Hahaha!" I let out a sardonic laughter, deliriously.
Screw the world, baby! Space distorted, reality began to fold into itself. Hallucination or not, who cares? The world's burning? Who cares?
I reached into my suit, pulling out a—You guessed it—Bazooka!
How did that fit there? Screw you, I ain't explaining.
I aimed, and fired. The missile, or cannon, or whatever you call it crashed right towards the cockpit(Ships had cockpits? Idk, this one did.) of one of the large ships floating in the sky. The explosion killing the pilot, causing the ship to explode and fall out of the sky.
Using my levitating door, I flew right towards the ship right before it fully collapsed into the dirt. Taking over as pilot of the large vehicle.
I steered the large vehicle, and using it to launch missiles at whatever the hell I could see. Titans? Ded. Troops? Deder. Inanimate objects? Deady-dead-dead.
Countless images flashed inside my mind, words, conversations, knowledge and so much more. Memories overflowed, my brain struggled to keep up. Emotions, knowledge, memories. All festered inside my brain, twisting it into a bloody mess.
Blood dripped out from my nose, ears, and eyes. My face covered in blood, flowing down my cheeks all the way to my suit.
The CSTF open fired at the rogue ship, I—the genius pilot I am—didn't bother to dodge at all. Locking into another flying ship right in front of my eyes, going full speed ahead and directly crashing it.
The two flying vehicles spun out of control, exploding into many bits and pieces as we slowly descend(Aka crash) right into the dirt. The two vessels exploded, debris and dust scattered into the air creating more sand fogs. I emerge from the rubble, unscathed with only a broken arm.
I soared through the sky using my flying door. Gracefully dodging blaster attacks from troops on the ground.
Remember that big, fat, Yeti in the sky? Guess what? We're exploding that thing—along with everyone in this planet....
...Wait, what am I doing? What am I—So anyways, how do I do that you may ask? Elementary my dear watson. See those groups of air vehicles there? Of course you don't, you're READING. These air-ships have massive amounts of energy at their very core, usually so contained that it doesn't set off even after crashing. But, if I can set it off with some blah blah blah science stuff, I can make every other air-ships start a chain reaction and blow everything to smithereens!..What?
Hallucinations formed, murmurs in my head driving my body without my own accord.
Before I could even realize it, I was already there. Staring at the huge core glowing bright red pulsating with—Boom—Let's skip the boring part where we all know what's happening. I just clicked a red button a found near a console to activate self destruct mode.
Everything blew up—Boom! Just like that! Everyone's dead! The Yeti—Which by the way did NOT look like a proper yeti—Is dead! How did I survive the blast you say? Might as well ask how does superman fly?....The soldiers? Dead, I ended their misery! That's merciful!...Right?
Seriously, what are you doing?
I look around, there was...Nothing there but that same barren land, except this time there's a massive crater. There's nothing there—Except you. Lying there, battered and bloody. Still high off...Something, whatever it was that possessed you to do this.
Fyor: "...William...What happened here?"
Fyor appeared from behind me, her voice monotone and unsurprised, that same irritating tone...No, it's not her that you're irritated at, William. It's yourself.
William: "Mission accomplished. Yeti...Defeated."
Fyor: "...I thought the Ice-burn group was all massacred."
William: "Seems you got it wrong, millions of them jumped into a pocket dimension called Ulgradia, which was basically the Yeti's domain."
Fyor: "...And where are they?"
William: "...Gone. Killed them all in the process." The words were...difficult to say.
Fyor: "Good, well let's head back."
William: "...Do you...care?"
Fyor: "Well, do you?"
Her words strike you, William. You're reminded yet again, those people were...Livestock at best. Soulless puppets without a purpose other than what they were told to do. You think to yourself that you were right, that you were justified. They were—at the end of the day—puppets. Hollow souls bound to one purpose, and that is to fulfill their duties. They were tortured, you set them free....Is that really it?
Guilt eats away, what if that was wrong? What if they wanted to live?
No, that's delusional. The world is a void of unimaginable darkness, at the end of it all, there is nothing. The cosmos is so vast, absurd, and incomprehensible, the greatest tragedy is we're trying to make sense of it. We're...Ghosts, mere walking corpses clinging to the illusion of meaning in any of this. The more we change, the more we try to cling to hope, the more we just delude ourselves with fantasies—Like people desperately clinging to driftwood—We desperately want living in pain to mean anything at all...That...Was merciful.
William: "..No." I replied to Fyor.
Fyor: "Good, get your job done William. That's all there is to it."