Flightless

Cover by Rinochannn
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The world was once ruled by demons that terrorized all the other races. The races banded together and formed an alliance, wiping out most of the demon race and forcing the survivors to go into hiding. With the fall of the demons, the races were finally free.

However, the peace did not last for long. Twelve years after the war, the human race broke the truce and attacked the other races, killing and enslaving all of them. Finally, with all the other races out of the way, the human race declared war on one another. After many years of bloody conflict and betrayal, only two human kingdoms remain out of the original seven.

Kies is an orphan that was adopted into a noble family that is known for producing powerful magic-users. He finds that he can use magic, but since his magic lacks offensive capabilities, it is deemed useless. The war rages on between the two kingdoms and Kies knows that he will eventually be caught up in it, so he needs to find some way to become stronger. But as he does so, he discovers that not all things are as they seem...

The Heart of the Winds

The tower stood out from the rest of the buildings which were all nearly identical. Plus, it was in the center of the ruins, meaning that there should be something important in there. Kies had a strong feeling that that something was the archive.


The two walked to the tower and circled around it to find the entrance. After looping around the tower a second and a third time, they were still unable to find it and so they decided to fly through the large hole in the middle of the tower instead. They landed on the staircase about halfway up the tower.


Kies and Ammine walked down the staircase to the bottom of the tower. Unlike the outside, the inside of the tower was layered with the same black material that was coating everything else. It made him wonder what exactly happened for the tower to be reduced to this state. He didn't know much about the black material, but he did know from what he had seen so far that it was hard to destroy.


Just when they were a few feet from reaching the ground, Ammine saw something and jumped off the stairs. Kies quickly ran down the remaining steps to catch up with her. There was a device of some sort attached to the center of the floor.


"Put your hand here," Ammine told Kies. She had already tried to activate the console with her hand but it didn't seem to work. Kies went over and placed his hands on it and the console responded. There was an activation sound and then the floor began to move downwards.


Both Kies and Ammine were caught off guard and fell over. They had expected a door or staircase to open up like before, not the entire floor moving. The platform they were standing on dropped speedily for a few seconds and then slowed down to a halt.


In front of them was a large black gate with strange symbols etched all around the walls. Kies and Ammine got up and went to the gate. Unlike the elevator, the gate had no console or anything that would indicate how to open it.


"Just try placing your hand anywhere on the door," Ammine suggested.


Kies put his hand on the smooth cold material. A light emitted from the place that his hand had touched and quickly spread until it filled up the entire gate. There was a soft rumble as the gate split in half and slid into the sides.


Kies's eyes widened as he saw what was inside. There was no hallway. The gate directly opened up to a huge area with machines and other things that he has never seen before. Everything in the room looked highly advanced. Ammine walked in right beside Kies and unlike him, kept her composure. It was her first time seeing something like this as well but she wasn't surprised, that is until a new voice suddenly came out of the blue.


Ammine jumped in response to the voice and instinctively her hands flared up with magic.


"Wait," Kies told Ammine. He nearly had a heart attack himself but he was pretty sure that the voice was from something in the room.


"Who are you?" Ammine demanded. Her hands were still coated in purple flames as she scanned the room where the voice had come from.


"I am an artificial intelligence designed to guide you," the voice answered.


"What's artificial intelligence? Is that another name for Aeos?" Ammine asked while looking at Kies.


"Don't look at me. Even though this is something from my race, I know even less than you, remember?" He had no idea what it was either.


"Simply put, I am a machine designed to store and organize information," the voice said.


"So you manage the archive?" Kies asked.


Grammar errors, story errors, other errors, and advice, email flightless05@gmail.com


The Archive II