Stripped From Humanity

'…Damn! Such an annoying smell.' Levon thinks to himself, while walking the dirty underground tunnels.

He again displays his supernatural sensory abilities, this time by reducing it! Levon lessens his smelling sense to the lowest degree, in order not to keep smelling the bad odor!

This is the type of powers individuals with the perfect hybrid gene possess.

Levon keeps navigating the tunnels, one turn after the other, almost the same way he did in Aedificium. By lessening his smelling, his sight got even stronger, and his eyes shined brighter! Almost as if he enhanced it by economizing the other sense! Yet, it's all normal to him, he is used to doing it his whole life the same way any one is used to naturally breathe.

"…I feel more energized, from all the running and walking I am doing. It still feels weird that the more physical effort you do, the more power you acquire." Graham makes the remark.

After walking for several minutes, all alone… He finally senses a presence other than his.

"I'm hearing something, it's a shatter… some weird noises as well!

It's coming from that direction…" Levon carefully approaches the source of these sounds, until he saw a yellow light from the next turn on the left!

The voices got silenced, except those of Levon's boots cracking the cemented ground. Time seemed to move slower, and for sure Levon was not going to turn there without some form of protection. He's ready to activate his bronze shield in a blink of an eye, and his hand is placed right on his gun…

He turns!

"…Who are you?" A man nervously asks while pointing a gun right at Levon!

Before replying, he analyses the scene. '… I was expecting to see one person, but it looks as if this is set of individuals… a man, a woman, and a young teenager holding a baby…

It seems like they have their own place, how are they even living here!? Well… I can see why they are.

The man is pretty old, he looks frightened to see me! He probably thinks I'm here to kill him.'

"I am not here to fight, I just happened to crossroads with you…" Levon answers back.

"…I said who are you!! If you don't tell me I'm going to shoot you." The man angrily replies, as his family stood behind him worriedly.

Levon thinks of an answer to give, he himself doesn't know what he is in this setting. He ends up deciding to avoid the question. "I said I'm not here to fight, if I was, I would've held my gun at you as well. Here, I'll hold my two hands in the air.

I am here merely to ask some questions.."

The man still does not trust him, but he doesn't shoot yet. "Questions? What questions do you have for me! Everyone knows everything already… don't you see what state I am now living in!?" he shouts frustratingly at him.

"I am not from here, and I don't know you… I've been sent to investigate the situation. If you're not willing to answer my questions, I'll go find another one who will." Levon calmly answers.

It seems that he is starting to handle human interactions much better than he did early on, though he's anxious from inside, it does not show on the outside!

Silence took over, Levon realizes he'll probably not get much from this confrontation, so he starts backing down…

"…So you were sent by the elites I assume… Pfff! Too late to answer the call, we've already lost the war." The man lowered his gun down, answering in a hopeless regretful manner.

' Levon thinks to himself. 'I don't know what's that "elites" he is talking about, but I'll go along with it if it meant extracting information..

"What exactly happened here? The whole landscape is in ruins…" he asks

"Yeah, I just told you we lost the damn war!! What do you think happened…? Did they not know about this?

But again, the elites have lost much of their power anyways, they're nonfactors… Your organization will not be able to defeat them. They took control over almost 80% of the lands we used to control. My men are telling me that they're not winning on any frontier…

Our days are numbered!"

Levon notices the pain this man speaks with, as well as the disturbing looks on the others… even the baby started crying loudly!

"Who are they? Who are you fighting against exactly?" he asks.

"Ugh… You seem clueless, but it is no surprise since they all program and engineer you to be human robots, your weird looking clothes confirms it for me, you're a monarch child… Maybe you haven't recognized me due to how dim the place is.

I am Nathan Gregory, the ruler of what once was known as Isalithinô… How the mighty has fallen, right? Don't be so quick to mock or make fun of me… Your days are coming as well!

These Strugglers are nothing like you've seen before! They have finally arrived, once and for all, what used to be our greatest concern is now a living reality." Nathan seems to have a lot on his chest that needs to be let out, even to a stranger who he isn't sure about. This war has taken a heavy mental toll on him.

Levon makes sure to captivate all important details, even if he does not understand half of them. "Why are they fighting you? Have you done anything to upset them?" he keeps asking.

Nathan remains silent a little bit, avoiding the eyes of the interviewer… then says half assedly. "Nothing… We've done nothing, we only lived in what is our rightful land, implementing rules of our choice, but they want to take it away from us so they can have it... It's a stupid matter of…beliefs!

For them, beliefs matter more than human life… they would wage war against the whole world if their belief told them so, and they will… such stupid and barbaric animals!!' his tone got harsher the longer he went on.

Levon wonders what he means by "beliefs", as he had never heard the word before. But he relates it to some person called that name, who ordered them to wage the war and do what they're doing.

Suddenly, the woman behind him spoke. "We're only reaping what we planted Nathan, there is no need to stay in denial…

Our sins are hunting us." She spoke with such ease, yet her words were quite heavy.

This was apparent from how Nathan became perplexed, biting on his teeth… he explods with anger. "SHUT UP ANNA!!!! ARE YOU EVEN ON OUR SIDE ANYMORE!??

LOOK AROUND YOU, THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY TO DO IT. IT IS EITHER THEM, OR US!!!"

Levon realizes that there is way more to the story than what has been given to him by this man. So, he asks her instead. "What do you mean? I didn't understand clearly…"

Anna. "What Nathan told you is only half the tale, once upon a time the tables were reversed… but I can't tell you the other half, since I am still on this side, though I deeply regret it." she says while looking at her children…

The baby does not stop crying, even when his mother held him… he keeps trying to reach towards Levon with his tiny hands, as if he wants to touch him. Anna, being his mother, realizes this.

She slowly approaches Levon!

Nathan yells at her. "What are you doing crazy woman!! Get back here!!!"

She does not listen, from the looks of it, she only thinks he's a senile crazy man who deserves no obeyance.

However, Levon is a bit phased by this, he unconsciously backs down a little 'Why is she approaching with her child!?

He's a bit noisy I can't stand it…" says in his mind.

"He wants you to hold him." She tells Graham.

"What?" he replies with shocking eyes!

Anna hands him the baby, and indeed it started crying less and reached out for Levon. The latter froze in his place, not knowing how to handle the situation, he found the baby right between his hands.

The little cute creature stops crying! he looks thoroughly at who's holding him, with eyes so bright and full of life…

'…Why am I feeling… so warm?' Levon asks himself. 'It's different than anything I've felt before, I never held a baby in my life, it's like…I am so weak right now!

I am so weak to the point that I feel the need to protect it!!'

Suddenly, Levon's watch vibrates! Alarming him of a new instruction.

The message displays itself, the digital screen lit the place and got everyone reacting it to it.

"Hey!! What's that? Is that new technology you possess!?" Nathan intriguingly asks.

Levon does not answer, he proceeds to read the message

.

*You have extracted enough information, use the map to see your next destination

Instruction N°2: Find the Strugglers and extract information from their side

Note: when approaching them, use the sentence "I come at peace" *

.

"Hey! I am asking you!!" Nathan shouts.

"I need to go… Here, take him."

When Levon tries to hand the baby to his mother, he realizes how amazed and overjoyed the little thing is from the green digital lights! As soon as the message disappeared, the baby's facial expressions changed from cheerful to depressing.

Levon is oblivious to why that is, but the mother helps put it in words for him.

"He loves the light, and hates darkness… he hasn't seen much light in his short life."

"Hehehe! You expect such person stripped from his humanity to understand such things? You're truly a senseless woman!" Nathan condescendingly tells his wife.

However, Levon understood enough to try something!

As he passed him over to his mother, he made eye contact and purposefully lit his one blued and one greened eye to the maximum, lighting up his world…

Nathan did not see it since he turned his back on the whole scene, but the others witnessed a once in a lifetime moment. It brought them joy, especially the baby, who couldn't stop laughing so adorably.

Anna hugs her child so dearly, in an expression of gratitude she smiles back at Levon, who quickly turns and runs as fast as he could, away from everyone…

He did not reflect on the new instructions, all he could think of was…

'Why… Why did I do it?

I don't understand… it's as if I was controlled by something else, something else that is not me!'