The Gears Begin To Move

Miners operating in the same area tended to know each other pretty well. In the event of a Gate opening up, the Govern conscripts people of the same city who want to work inside Ruin and have given their availability. Even though there are no dangers inside, people still have to travel through a space tunnel, and it has already happened that somebody got lost inside. Besides, each Ruin's environment may contain extreme dangers: some might be located inside a volcano, or inside a glacier. Everything is possible.

To make up these dangers, the Govern offers good pay, a pension, living places for those that are willing to have a permanent contract with the Italian State and work for it, and many more benefits.

The area around Gates was always cordoned off by the army to keep civilians away and to prevent those that want to steal the Divinity inside. Nevertheless, there were cases of people succeeding in it and capable of escaping: illegal Exalted Humans were a threat to humanity and were regarded as terrorists by all the countries of the world.

The miners, who had arrived before the work shift, were gathered together playing briscola, a famous game of cards widespread throughout Italy when the young man arrived at the Gate.

"Oii, boy, we are here!" shouted a middle-aged man while waving his arm.

"Good morning Lucio. Seem's like I was late again."

"Not really. I've just arrived not too long ago. I was about to reorganize the teams when you arrived."

"By the way... why there are so many soldiers? Before reaching here I had to pass three checkpoints."

"About that... I heard in Germany was stolen another Divinity by those terrorists. The Govern must be feeling anxious, that's why they strengthened the security. Anyway, It has nothing to do wi-"

"I TOLD YOU TO CATCH NOT TO LEAVE!" A shout behind their backs startled the boy and the man.

"CATCH WITH WHAT YOU DUMB DONKEY. I TOLD YOU ALREADY THAT I HAVE NO BRISCOLE!" yelled another voice.

"You two, shut the fuck up! Where do you think you are!? Quit playing cards and get up! You are paid to work, not to speak!

Lucio's face was red from anger, and smoke was coming out of his ears.

The miners, who were roughly 50, got up and started forming parties following the instructions of Lucio while being in utter silence, not even a fly was making noises. Soon after, five teams composed of ten people went inside the Gate.

"I'll never get used to it, no matter how many times I'll watch this" whispered under the breath a miner.

Before them, an endless desert stood. Three suns were high in the celestial sphere and were shining their rays onto the sand, which seemed like gold. Not even one cloud was present, and the sky, which we were usually used to see blue, was deep red as if it was burning.

Their feet were gently sinking into the soft sand while the extreme temperature was drying up their throats: gulping sounds were heard every now and then.

"Shhh, do you want to get us killed by Lucio?"

"WHO TALKED? YOU? COME HERE! I promise I won't hurt you, just come here... please ~. "

The poor miner felt like crying and with heavy steps walked toward Lucio. Legends say he is still being scolded by him, but this is another story.

Everyone was able to survive in this environment with 60-70 degrees thanks to protective suits equipped with a cooling system and supplied with many water tanks.

"Alright, everyone here. For those that are new, they must be thinking 'What kind of mineral could be present in a desert', right? The truth is: there is none."

"What?"

"Lucio, what does it mean?"

"Then, for which purpose I am here?"

Many Miners raised their voices and questioned, and the silence that was present before now was gone.

"Calm down, calm down. I have yet to finish. So, in the beginning, those people at the Govern were bewildered too, I mean, there is only sand and sun here, it's not like we can open a tourist attraction inside an oven. But then someone thought: ' What if there is something, but not on the surface?'. So, they brought a bunch of geologists here, and in the end, they found it: new energy, new hard coal."

"Petrol?" someone murmured.

"Nope... something better."

"Then... wha- what is it?" another man inside the crowd asked.

Lucio smiled, wanting to enjoy the confused faces of those around him, and slowly, but in a way that everyone was able to hear and understand, said

"Compto."

--------

Minato Yamamoto was strolling in the bustling streets as always after a hard day of work at his company: he was just a common man, not beautiful enough to be called handsome nor intelligent enough to be called smart.

He was working under someone for an underpaid job, though, all the fatigue related to the job would vanish when thinking about his daughter of 14 years old and his caring wife.

His life was stressful, as the lives of everyone else who were in the same situation as his, but at least he had a place called home, full of people that loved him.

Sadly, his girl reached that "problematic" age where she wasn't anymore his good girl but someone who wants her independence and doesn't understand how cruel is the world outside.

That morning he argued with his daughter, an occurrence that was happening often lately, because her marks were not good enough at school and he was worried about her future, yet her daughter's thoughts were going out with her friends or watching anime. She was lazy, and he didn't like that: when he was at her age, he was already working.

However, he wasn't able to reprimand her because he knew that he has never been present as a father due to the impossible working hours, yet, he was giving it his all to create a better future for his family.

Usually, he would leave the company at 9 pm, but today was a different day: he wanted to surprise his daughter, apologize for that morning and mend the relationship in a better way for a better future.

He left the building before everyone else after asking for a special permit; his boss wasn't that happy, but at least he as well was a father, and he too could understand the meaning behind this particular occasion.

Now Minato was heading toward a flower shop where he planned to acquire a little flower of Azalea, the symbol of hope for the future and his daughter's favourite flower, then proceed toward a bakery to buy a cake to eat that evening all together.

After purchasing the flower and leaving the boutique, he looked at his watch on his left wrist:

'There's still time' he thought.

' Aiko will leave school in one hour. I have yet to buy the dessert, then take the metro and walk until I reach her school to pick her up and surprise her. Thankfully it's not that far from the station.'

After organizing his thoughts, he began walking again toward his next destination: he crossed one street, then another one until he reached the main square where all roads converge one in another, and then. Then nothing.

He froze.

Like him, everyone else in the square. Some cars braked abruptly and the machines behind, not expecting it, crashed into them: the driver came out of his auto furious but before he started swearing he stopped too and as if under a spell, closed his mouth.

A Gate appeared, out of nowhere, in the middle of the road.

Of course, they knew what Gates were. Since the first appearance two years before they were the hot topics: every day new reports, studies, documentaries would be published, trying to uncover the mysteries behind them.

What stirred up the people of Tokyo was that from that Gate a hand was protruding out, when in theory there should be nothing inside.

It wasn't a normal hand: it was made of wood, there were only four sharp long fingers covered with leaves. Slowly but surely the hand advanced... initially it was a long arm, at least two meters, then one leg followed by the other one. Both legs seemed like they were rooted out from the ground. A torso came, the other arm and finally a head adorned with long branches pointing the sky. This thing was a minimum of five meters and was looking down the humans as if they were peasants in presence of a king.

After two minutes of long silence, a man found the courage to breath:

"A... a... treant..."

And chaos followed.