A peculiar set of events: Final

"All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks, and your people shall never be destroyed."

-Author: Richard Adams (Watership Down)

-Time: 1978

-Era: Era of Stagnation

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Location: Foundation Faction Harbour

Time: Year 17 of the Era of Change

Era: Era of Change

Thinking about what Celine had said about his plan, Steven couldn't help but look back at how his plan had unfolded and how they had escaped from that dangerous situation.

In the Underground Mining Area 50 G; 20 Minutes ago:

As they had continued to run, Steven began to notice that no matter how fast they ran, the horde of approaching danger was getting closer and closer. Steven knowing, they had to do something to stop this horde from getting closer, racked his mind to think of an idea to stop them. As Steven was thinking of a plan, he felt something pull his senses commanding him to turn his head around and look at the back of the tunnel. Doing this, Steven's eyes widened. Not too far away, Steven could see an unending amount of rotting maggot filled corpses rolling and falling over each other towards their direction. Steven knew something had to be done immediately if they wanted to survive. Before he could worry, though, he noticed something that could help him formulate his plan. He saw the supports of the tunnel leading towards the exit of the Underground Mining Area, although made out of elemental wood, it was extremely corroded and close to a breaking point if given enough force. Steven thought that if they could somehow distract and hold back the horde for just a little bit, they would be able to, when escaping the tunnel leading to the exit of the cave, destroy the supports of the cave, as well as the entrance of the cave thus blocking the way of the horde of undead so that they wouldn't be able to hurt anyone else.

As he had come up with a plan, Steven quickly hinted towards Xiang and the rest that he had something to say. Seeing this, Xiang and the rest raised their eyebrows but continued running. Accepting this as a silent approval to let him speak, Steven explained what needed to be done.

"Guys, the horde is extremely close, and if we don't do something, we will end up as food in their bellies. Now I, for one, would be willing to let this happen to me. But if there is anyone here who is also willing, please raise your hand. We don't judge." joked Steven while smirking.

Not amused, the group rolled their eyes and shook their eyes, reminding themselves that once this was all over, they would give Steven a good beating to teach him when to make jokes at appropriate times.

"So, I have come up with a plan! One, Violet and the other group members who have healing and barrier abilities will cast these abilities on me, while the strongest member throws me at the horde. Furthermore, the people who can create timed explosions will put it on my back after being cast with barriers and healing abilities. This will all lead to the point where I am thrown at the horde, and if the timing and positioning are just right, use the explosions to propel me forward with explosive speed and halt the horde and push them back for a bit. Any questions?" asked Steven once he explained his plan to the group.

The group looked at Steven with eyes that asked if he had gone mad. How was such a plan going to work? It was absolutely ridiculous! They were running for their lives, and he somehow found the time to make silly jokes! Yet, as the group considered what Steven had proposed, they realised that as crazy as it sounded, this plan was the only one they had at the moment and being honest to themselves, they knew that for some reason, although they were always crazy, Steven's plans tended to have a significant rate of success. Thinking of this, the group made up their mind and decided with great reluctance to follow Steven's plan. Therefore, they immediately asked Steven what exactly had to be done so that nothing too unexpected would happen and cause unnecessary casualties.

Hearing this, Steven smiled and nodded to himself and immediately explained to the group what needed to be done. Following this, the group started to position themselves properly so that he would not land into any of them when Steven was propelled past them. They also made some changes to Steven's plan regarding how the barriers around him would be implemented. The group decided that the barriers cast on Steven would be implemented to act as a very elastic-like band. This would allow Steven not to get stuck in the horde of corpses and, when the explosions went off, to have enough velocity to propel himself out of the cave. This, of course, would make it much harder for the people to cast their respective abilities on Steven, it would also thoroughly exhaust them, yet they would rather do this and succeeded than fail and become torn apart by a large horde of starving corpses just wanting to feast on their juicy flesh. Once they were all done with their preparations, the group waited on Steven to signal them to start the plan, as he was the only one who could tell them when the horde was close enough to start the plan, due to him being the only one being able to sense them, and how far away they were.

After a few minutes, Steven finally signalled the group that the time had come, and they immediately began to start the plan. Seeing that everything was working out, Steven sighed with relief and hoped his plan would work, as he did not want to imagine what his fate would be if he landed in the absolute unending mass of rotting corpses wanting to devour them. Preparing himself mentally, Steven clenched his fists and gave the little dog to one of his comrades Grant, as he did not want to have to worry about the dog in this dangerous plan. Being quite nervous, Steven shook a little bit, but he knew now was not the time to be anxious. He had to be courageous and strong for his comrades and his future. He could not die here, and he would not allow his friends to die here either. As he was thinking of this through, Steven suddenly felt a hand touch his shoulder. Turning to where the hand came from, Steven saw John smiling at him.

"Steven, don't worry. I've been with you long enough to know how you cope in these situations. Just trust us and follow the plan as we trust you and will follow the plan. Worry about nothing else. Go, and show us what we know you are capable of," said John with confidence and a charming smile, which made some women in the group blush heavily as they found John extremely handsome and saw him as a potential partner they would try and acquire in the future. Seeing their reactions, Steven chuckled to himself and winked at the girls, teasing them about what had just happened. In response, the women huffed and stuck out their tongues at Steven. Feeling encouraged, Steven thanked John for his reassurance and readied himself to be sent off.

Steven signalled the group, and moments later, he was thrown towards the horde of approaching rotting corpses. As he got closer to the mass of rotting and moving corpses, Steven wanted to gag! He was absolutely disgusted by what he saw. It was like seeing a mesh of rotten meat filled with maggots, flies and pieces of bones moving. Steven, though, forced his urge to throw up down and readied himself for what was to come. As he got closer and closer to where he was supposed to be, Steven felt as if time had slowed down to a considerable speed. Noticing this, Steven wondered if it was perhaps the adrenaline that had kicked in. Yet before long, Steven sighed and knew it wasn't any form of adrenaline that caused time to slow down. Rather it was one of the corpses looking at Steven with eyes with two green flames in them. The corpse moved its head slowly to Steven and looked at him with curiosity, and opened its mouth asking:

"What are you? You do not belong in this world? You are unnatural, something that invites chaos, disorder…change! What are you?" asked the corpse with a sense of intelligence that Steven would never have thought would be in a living corpse of rotting flesh. Worrying something might happen to him, Steven started to become anxious, yet just moments later, he realised time was slowly speeding up again, and he calmed himself and prepared to answer the corpse before he would be propelled away by the explosions blasting his barrier.

"I am just a normal human making my way in this strange new world, mate!" after having said this, Steven noticed time had gone back to normal, and he hit the horde, with his barrier then immediately activating. After that, multiple large explosions went off and propelled Steven forward while pushing the horde of rotting corpses backwards. As Steven was sent away and quickly propelled forward, the intelligent rotting corpse with two green flames in his eyes spoke to itself and stood still, letting the other corpses go ahead while it thought about what the boy had just told him.

"A normal human? Normal? Human? I know too little of this world. After awakening in this body of mine, I knew only hunger and rage. But this is not enough…it is far from it! I need to know more! Feel more! Experience more! To have my questions answered! To know why I was brought to this place!" The corpse saw that the cave had already been sealed, and he and his minions were trapped underground for the moment. If the corpse wanted to, it could break out of this rubble in a short while, but the corpse first thought to itself that it wanted to find answers in the place he had come to life.

Following this, the corpse turned around with his minions following him into the Underground Mining Area 50 G depths and whatever was beyond it. Much later, the corpse and his minions would return to the surface, much stronger, smarter, plentiful and driven with a goal and ambition that would shake the world, and those that dared oppose them would be nothing but meals to them. They would carve out a path that no one would have expected to be possible. And this was all due to an unlucky fellow who had a short conversation with a corpse. His conversation with the fellow was nothing but banter, but this conversation awakened something in the corpse. It revived the first for wanting more. This conversation would be something that would drive the corpse to reach new heights and would maybe one day allow it to find the fellow once more and truly find out what he was, where he came from and what his purpose was. And what his destiny entailed for the rest of the world.