A decade ago…
"Wake up Dniz! I'm not coming back to wake you up again today." (D in Dniz is silent – it just means hold the 'n' at the start with a sound that sounds like a 'd')
He rolled over on his bed and looked at the mountain folk who just woke him up. Even at that short statue of hers, she still commended quite a presence on the research team. She also happens to be his wife, an early morning person – sure it was night out, but for them – the night shift researchers – this might as well be morning.
"Okayyy, I'll get up…"
She would usually pull his blankets off after that but today she just growled and left.
'I guess she's serious today huh.'
He quickly grabbed a more appropriate robe and jumped out of bed and began chasing her out of the room.
"At least wait for me!"
He stumbled out like a child late to school, only taking a few things. But she was in no hurry, so in a few more leaps he caught up to her.
"What's got you so bothered this morning?"
She looked at him with the glare of a furious tiger – he would have been fooled if she were to pretend to be a beast folk. He started going over the details over the previous week but found no fault. That was saying something – he is one of the leading researchers, his memory is incredibly keen, so instead he began asking many things.
"Is it something I forgot? No way."
…
"Hmmmm, maybe you're teasing me?"
This went on until they reached the facility's cleaning area. They were separated like children going to different classes after break. But he is not going to stop now, he kept screaming more things to the discomfort of the others in the bathing room – both the males on one side and the females on the other.
"I got it, is it the time I ate your sandwich? … No response… huh!"
He released a long-winded sigh as the other guys came to him.
"Problems with the miss's huh?"
"Guys, you are all forgetting something crucial, she managed to get him up early – I don't know about you guys, but this does seem like one effective tactic."
They kept joking around more as they all continued with their morning short showers. He mumbled to himself – "It's not like that; I have never seen her get this mad before."
Eventually they both finished, but he rushed a little to catch her outside the door. The rooms had normal baths, but these were specialised. The type of water used, the cleaning products, all of it was to prepare bodies for their work. They would be coming back here after work to restore the states of their bodies. Soon enough she walked out, fresh for the morning but still silent.
"Please tell me!"
After a couple more of these in the corridors, she stopped and looked back and grabbed him by his body suit and screamed – "Fine! If you're gonna keep bothering me about it all day might as well tell you."
He was bent lower as she tugged on his chest. The research body suits they wore were skintight to the eye, but these things were so soft and comfortable than one could easily rate them above silk, and yet so durable, it makes most cutting tools blunt. Even though he wore this impressive suit, he felt her knuckles stabbing into his chest.
"You pushed me!"
'Pushed you!' – many thoughts echoed in his mind. As awkward as the kneeling because she was short and was pulling him down, her words felt stranger.
"What do you even mean I pushed you? Not only is that irrational, but I don't see why it would make you so angry?"
Her face grew beat red, and she explained – "In my dream, the lab was suddenly faced with a great peril, and you pushed me out of the way and died right there. When I decided to marry you, you promised to never leave me, even in death."
"… I do remember promising you that. But to be fair my dream self-had no such duty to uphold, and just like me, I can bet you that your life weighs more than any promise…"
She interrupted him and pulled his face closer to her. "Please don't save me."
"I'll try not to…"
She let him go turned around and said – "after all if such a thing happened, I doubt pushing me will save me anyway, so just let me go first, that way I get to be first in line for the afterlife." – before bursting into laughter.
They then began talking normally, but she didn't go into further details about the dream – which only left him to wonder.
'This is the first ever person I Know to ever have a nightmare at her level. Similar to how most normal physical things stop hurting those who reached level 100, for knowledge stats at level 150, nightmares stop, and at level 200, every dream is lucid. My wife is at 216, the last time she had a nightmare was over decades ago.
She possess no skills for visions, only focusing her talents on atomic work. I myself sit at an even higher level than her, but I see this as being impossible. I'll ask her about it later, otherwise the lead researcher will have my head should she spot me wasting a single thought on such frivolous thoughts.'
Sure enough, they reached the scan block, that cleaned them to the body suit level. Yellow, the mountain folk with even shorter brown hair and black eyes. Dniz, the husband, a human with very high knowledge stats, long black hair, dark skin, and blue eyes, making him more adept at night vision. Both of them entered and turned from sunny and cheerful to stone cold.
Inside was an impressive team. Made of multitudes of researchers of prowess similar to those of Yellow and Dniz. Unlike other research centres, this place was not erected to study things to improve living in this world – this place had one purpose only, to one day find a way to stop the advance of the void, by any means necessary.
This heavily guarded and secret facility is the side branch of the Chimera Organisation, the secret research base located in the north-eastern side of the woods of Elleria, known by a short few as Abio Research Facility – specialising in soul progression code DFK – will flow.
As part of the Chimera Organisation, their goal is to create a being(s) who could face the void or even stop it. To do this they have developed a field known as soul probing. It is far from perfect and is further divided into divisions and even further subsets. This centre focuses on damage maxing, and more specifically in wills.
A complex aspect, but one of which the organisation possesses an incredible information about. Even so, it still needs to be applied, as such some of the most brilliant minds have been stationed here to further this agenda.
Every single person here knows what they are doing does irreprehensible damage to souls. But everyone here is desperate for a safe world, even if this ideal is flawed and errored. None expect to ever be forgiven. They are cowards who despite their combined intelligence, failed to come up with a better solution.
There are other research facilities that do similar research, but these people are basically monsters. This is also why the mood inside the work area is so dense. And just as they had all reported to their stations, a bunch of glass panels cleared revealing those on the other side.
A bunch of forest folk tied to chairs and hooked up to a set of machines, after all most of them possessed no ability to perceive souls, and this is why they are stationed here, for an easily accessible influx of eyes. The strange part is that some of the staff, which included some forest folk, did nothing as they watched their brethren being used in such a manner.
Soon a specimen was rolled out. Then a set of controlled waves of energy was directed at the person and based on the reactions of the forest folk experiencing the sight the machine gave interpretations, ones that the researchers recorded and adjusted the varying energy waves.
Yellow works on the atomic scale of the readings and Dniz worked closely with the various reports and created new forms of waves to interfere with the body. For the most part their research was slow, since touching a will should be impossible. The soul itself does not respond to their research centred torture.
Eventually the subject died, and a few of the forest folk eyes had gone grey in blindness, usually happens after three sittings for an average forest folk. The clean-up crew entered and even replaced the forest folks, hooking them up to the same machine, and then sent another person in.
The state in which the subjects arrived was not from them, it was from something done at headquarters. But these were just the freshers, only used to test if the equipment was working. So, the person who had been sent in was the same patient since a year ago. Somehow, he had been tempered to withstand more of this torture somehow. Their research continued until they had to retire for the day which was their night.
"Not even a single progression, even today!"
This was murmured by one of the senior researchers. No-one could blame him, what this place was designed to pursue was impossible. They were all tired of it, but every day they had to do it, they had to wake up and hope that one day they would discover something. Otherwise, they have sacrificed so many for nothing. But it can be hard to go on, especially when faced with failure day after day.
This is why everyone found comfort in those around them. This place was small enough that everyone knew each other. But it was so efficient that interactions were limited by the systems algorithms. At least the system keeps them safe, even if all else fails escape is almost guaranteed. But life is better for those like Yellow and Dniz who have each other.
"Honey…"
"What???"
"About your dream?"
"I already told you to drop it okay."
'I'll ask later…'
"Okay, then did you hear what the lead researcher said?"
"I was there, and last time I checked my ears were working." – she was exhausted, even with her set of skills, peering at atoms without a microscope is exhausting.
'He should be tired too?'
"Apparently, they are sending us new equipment for processing the upcoming specimen. The way she said it, I could tell she was hiding something. If I had to guess, I'd say someone made a discovery back at HQ and it has reached us."
"There's no way."
"She was excited."
Everyone turned around simultaneously at the sound of hope reaching their ears. They had been listening in on their conversation, but no-one had expected to hear that Guilos could smile, and if not anything it meant even if what is coming next week isn't as hyped, if it was enough to excite her, then there should be some real change – something they had all been hoping for.
They all then turned away in silence, noting how childish they looked, turning their heads so quickly just to hear some alleged rumours. Just like that though, another simple day (night) at the organisation had ended. They did not need sleep as much, their power levels were decent, but the focus it took to keep on every detail of the soul was draining mentally, and they all knew how important sanity was.
Dniz looked at the ceiling and thought. 'Abio is the most advance place I have ever worked at, the impeccable security measures and the incredible resources. On top of all of that, our living quarters and conditions are almost as if we were royalty. I'm even more lucky since I have my wife with me – but I really hate the white theme around here. Why couldn't they have themed it deep green?"