Cyphoria City - Part 1

In the void of a dark, empty space, a voice whispered, its tone both eerie and inviting,

"Come... we're waiting... come..."

The sound seemed to echo from nowhere and everywhere, weaving through the silence like a ghostly thread. 

Buzz! Buzz!

Varis' sleep was disturbed by a distinct buzzing sound.

"Shut up! Let me sleep," Varis groggily shouted, his voice thick with sleep.

Half-awake, he fumbled in the darkness, the remnants of the dream lingering like mist, while the real world stubbornly intruded with its trivial demands.

From afar a feminine yet somewhat masculine voice resounded,

"Woah, calm there buddy."

Varis jolted right up from the comfy bed he was laying on, remorseful for not being able to sleep any longer.

Memory of his near death experience started catching up to him. 

'Let's see... I transmigrated randomly to a weird world, and right after had my arm rendered useless before being chased almost dying and entering a weird dome'

'Then, few people showed up and started spewing out fancy lights killing the beasts and...

I fainted...'

The lady called Mia quietly looked at Varis collecting himself before saying,

"I must say I don't know if you're lucky or not, avoiding the Legionnites just to end up in a worse situation"

Varis who had recollected himself by now surveyed his surroundings.

He was in what looked like a makeshift hut made of wood and bones. 

The inside was littered with strange items and weapons. 

As Varis finished scouring his surroundings, he shifted his focus onto the figure before him dotted by her dark hair and purple eyes she was a beauty to look at.

Despite her seemingly enticing beauty, he held a certain degree of cautiousness towards her considering she was still a stranger.

Mia paused for a moment, aware of the man's wariness, before continuing,

"I'm surprised there was still someone out there who hadn't escaped from Cyphoria City, considering the whole commotion about the legionnites making their rounds over there."

"Wait. What?", Varis asked seemingly shocked at what she just said.

"Yeah, those little thing legionnites literally kidnap you and force you to become a breeding ground-", Mia replied mistaking his surprise as a query about the legionnites.

"No! I'm not talking about that, where did you say I escaped from?", Varis replied hoping to have misheard.

"Oh, Cyphoria City?", Mia casually replied.

Varis looked at her with unsettling madness in his eyes, it was the city he was an orphan at for the first 10 years of his life, maybe lesser but he couldn't remember at all.

"You mean the Cyphoria city that disappeared 15 years ago?"

Now, it was Mia's turn to be surprised. 

"What the f*ck??!?", Mia gasped.

Mia's looked at him with a threatening glint in her eye.

The atmosphere around her grew oppressively heavy, causing Varis to struggle for breath as if the very air was being squeezed from his lungs.

"You better not be lying, or I'll blow your head apart!", Mia threatened.

'THIS WOMAN IS CRAZY! How do I talk if I can't breathe you dumba*s?'

Varis fought for every shallow breath, the space around him suffused with a menacing crimson haze.

"Calm down," echoed a voice from seemingly nowhere, its relaxed tone reverberating through the tense atmosphere.

Mia shuddered upon hearing this voice, retreating the pressure that extruded from her.

Varis, finally being able to breathe, looked at the figure which mysteriously appeared in the hut.

The mysterious figures name was Eldrin, standing at 6' 5'', with white hair and a wrinkly face.

He was a retired officer of Cyphoria city who quickly established his presence after coming to this world by guiding the people with his charisma and quick thinking.

"Are you sure it has been 15 years?", Eldrin asked Varis.

"I'm pretty dang sure, yeah", Varis replied looking at Eldrin as if the man was stupid.

Eldrin contemplated before asking Varis,

"Did you come from Earth?"

"Yes..", replied Varis

"When?", Eldrin questioned once more.

"Today.", Varis replied giving one word answers.

Eldrin let out a breath.

"Sigh"

"What's happening?", Varis asked sensing the unusual atmosphere.

"Ah.. you must not know since you came here today.", replied Eldrin.

Mia interrupted Eldrin, intending to enlighten Varis.

With her clashing emotions all over the place she said,

"It's been only 15 days since we came here.."

Varis couldn't believe what they were saying.

'Is she serious? That's no f*cking joke. No wonder she had that look on her face'

"Please do pardon Mia for her earlier outburst", said Eldrin changing the topic.

"She graduated college recently and was planning on heading back to her family, after studying in a country far from them. But, before she could meet them she got transported to this ugly place where she fought day and night just to survive.", Eldrin continued.

"Then, after achieving safety and starting to hope that you could go back, you hear the news that every day here is 1 year back on Earth...", said Eldrin remorsefully.

Ending his narration, Eldrin turned towards Mia before saying,

"Keep quiet about this we can't let them know"

Mia, conflicted, heard this and cursed, "F*ck, we can't always keep secrets!"

"Please..", Eldrin earnestly pleaded.

Mia, despite guilt overcoming her, lowered her head compliantly.

Eldrin looked at them before leaving to take care of his business.

With Eldrin gone, Varis asked Mia,

"What secret's'?", picking up on Mia's last remark.

"Ahhhhhhhh... f*ck", Mia cursed realizing her blunder.

"Get up if you're okay, and follow me. Eldrin would understand", Mia said before turning her back.

Varis intent on learning about the 'secrets' tried to get up and follow behind. 

But, when he tried to move his right hand to aid him in standing up, a sharp pain shot through his arm.

Varis momentarily froze up and then he heard Mia saying,

"We treated your arm the best we could. You won't die from an infection but you can probably never use your arm again. Now, come."

'Ugh, this sucks'  Varis thought before swallowing the pain and getting up to follow Mia.

He passed through the boney door of the hut.

Stepping outside Varis' attention was stolen by the unique environment of the dome.

What he saw left him dazzled.

There were roads or pathways, made of metals, that looked like it came straight out of a sci-fi film, everywhere.

Up, down, left, right, one was even floating in the air magically without any support whatsoever.

Mia noticing Varis' astonishment explained,

"From what we uncovered coincidentally, this place is a city-hub, spanning 50,000 sq km wide, for a race called the Obscura engineers."

Mia continued, "None of us knows who they are, what exactly is this place, or how those roads are floating or where they are leading, but what I do know is that if you don't follow close behind you'll get lost."

Indicating the labyrinthine nature of this formation Mia beckoned Varis to follow close behind.

"So, what's the secrets?", Varis urged Mia, burying his amazement about this place.

"Well, you sure are a persistent one aren't you?", Mia replied before continuing,

"Well, there's no secret's' just 'a' secret and it's that we don't know. I mean what do you expect? we came here around 10 days back and have spent our time trying our best to survive."

"Huh? So, there's no secret?", asked Varis baffled.

"Hold on bud, let me finish, the main reason it's a secret is purely due to the fact we don't know what it is.", said Mia.

"The day we entered this place seeking refuge from the legionnites we thought we arrived at a sanctuary", Mia paused for a second an inexplicable glint shined her eyes.

"But, nothing in this world is a sanctuary, a day after arriving here, some of us started turning.... rabid.", Mia said her tone hiding fear.

"We don't know how or why this happened, but we knew we had to contain them somehow", Mia explained further

"Initially we tried to shackle them, but then we realized they were too strong for that. They broke their shackles and started attacking us. Some of us... even died...", Mia said her voice growing bleaker.

"Naturally, we were pissed and we tried to kill them with what little weapons we had. But, you know what's the worst part?", Mia asked her voice now shaky.

"They... didn't die... THEY KEPT GETTING BACK UP!!", exclaimed Mia invisible pressure starting to form around her, again.

Varis was worried for a moment, but it looked like Mia gained her senses.

Now, calm Mia further added, " We couldn't do anything so we had to run. We thought of going back out, but on reaching the entrance we realized we couldn't leave. There was something blocking us... something... forbidding us from running away."

"The rabid people caught up to us, they grew in strength and speed quickly and eventually.....people fell.. one by one. The population of Cyphoria city which was originally 5 million, turned to just a few thousand. Among which some were lost within the maze-like structure of this dome, never to be seen again," Mia's voice was a mix of sadness and desperation.

Varis listened in horror. This was nothing short of one's nightmare. 

But one question lingered in Varis' mind,

"How did you guys survive?"

"Well we were lucky... a group of us ran towards this place...", Mia said as she halted her steps before what looked like a run down facility that was covered with rust.

Mia looked at the structure intently before resuming her walk towards it's inside.

Varis followed behind, obviously, cautious of this mysterious structure...