Chapter 4: Pity
Optional Music to Accompany the Chapter:
Rok Nardin - Do You Dare
https://youtu.be/pitxv0OKPKw
Early Afternoon - Early Summer : Year 0 | Month 0 : Arlington, Virginia
World: Earth | Rank: 6 Population: ~1,895,413,000
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(Minutes Prior)
- Corporal, Diana Hale ~
*Beep-Beep-Beep* "Cardinal 8, Hawk 3, and Hawk 4 have entered communications."
"Hey, Hale. Sorry for the wait." Jack's calm but shaken tone was the first to break the silence that afternoon, dragging my gaze toward the 'Cardinal 8' marker in my HUD with a breath of relief. "We're forty seconds out."
"Phew..." Looking at the Hawk 3 and 4 markers following far below him, my discomforted mind finally stirred. "Things look clear on my end, should be an easy in and out."
"Hm..." A gentle, cautioned mumble quickly passed through Hawk 3's comm before Eli, its pilot, spoke up. "We were briefed that it was likely a deep-subterranean crack that opened, so Bell," Hawk 4's pilot, "Is going to be running ground-penetrating scans while I pick up the person. Hale, just keep your distance and keep an eye on everything. Jack, will hover..."
"Roger." Banking slightly, I turned to back off and watch from afar.
Today, Eli was the one to actually fly down and pick up the person I spotted, while Jack stood guard and Bell and I watched from afar.
But something about the whole mission just felt off.. and it wasn't just me. "So what do you think the odds are that its not civilian, Hale?"
I felt my gut churn hearing Eli's usual charismatic confidence waver with uncertainty. "Uh.. command said there wasn't a beacon, and no hunting groups were reported in the area."
"So an unregistered then..." *Beep* Hearing my Cardinal chirp as he tuned into my cameras and zoomed in on the person, I didn't say a word. I knew what he was thinking.
Even if no monster appeared, he was taking a risk. If the person turned out to be an 'unregistered mercenary' from a criminal organization, he would be the one dragged into deep shit.
But we wouldn't know until he got close. "Haah..." Letting out a heavy sigh, he finally pulled himself out of my Cardinal's cameras, and I followed him to his. "Alrighty then... Ten seconds out I guess..." Watching the center of my view blink, changing to his Hawk's external cameras, we all watched him slow to a hover right behind the ridge next to the person before creeping around the tree line.
But the sight that met us wasn't anything we could have guessed.
It was a woman, above average height, long black hair, and silver eyes that glistened a heartless chill like she was looking into our souls through the camera.
But despite her eerie, captivating beauty, none of us could even look at her face.
Although not wearing a helmet, she wore armor that could only belong to a being of legends—custom, perfectly fitted plated armor tightly conforming to her curves like a glove made by the universe's greatest artisan, the gentle wear on it all a looming reminder that it wasn't for show.
-That sure as hell isn't civilian...- But while her gaze was cold, it held no hostility.
Though.. I can't say that eased our nerves much... "She.. doesn't seem hostile..." Watching her stand up and start brushing herself off, I tried to ease everyone's fraying nerves.
But Eli just flared them up. "Guys..?" His words sent a chill down our spines like nothing else. "I can't seem to get a system panel on her..."
-Huh?- My brow furled in an instant. -That can't be right... There's no way they aren't a system mercenary...- "It must be because the system is glitching. For now lets just get her and get out of here. You see anything, Bell?"
"N..Nothing yet..." He spoke softly.
"Hm..." Nodding after a moment of hesitation, Eli finally began creeping toward her. "If she ends up hostile, y'all know what to do..." Watching him start to turn the Hawk around and open the hatch for her to board, we all stayed silent, keeping watch for the slightest twitch or signal of hostility.
But the whole time.. I felt like my focus was being misplaced. -Something.. doesn't feel right...- Although she hardly looked 30, her gaze was inexplicably inhuman, cold and calculative like an empress, yet staring at Eli's Hawk with an inhuman superiority.. like a god staring at a plaything.
But my thoughts couldn't marinate in the silence for long. "Uh.. Diana..?" Hearing Jack call for me, my eyes snapped up to the green dot high over Eli. "Is your proximity sensor freaking out too-"
*Beep* Cutting him short, the noise of someone joining the comm made us all jump. "EVERYONE!" It was the Sergeant Major, "GET OUT OF TH-"
But before he could even finish. *Beep-CRACKLE* "Connection to Cardinal 8 lost." Static flooded the comm, and I found myself staring at the horizon as a black void the size of a city expanded, consuming everything like an indiscriminate black hole, and devouring the distant green dots in my HUD. *Beep* "Connection to Hawk 4 lost."
It was a crack, a gate to another world, but was far larger than anything I had ever seen.
However, in that moment, not a single thought could flow... I didn't feel fear, nor panic...
I just felt.. numb.
Even as I watched the HUD markers of my closest friends vanish...
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- Evren Lestir ~
-What.. is that..?- Staring up into the gate that consumed the sky like the void, my expression morphed with bitterness. -Earth shouldn't be high enough rank for something like that...-
But I wasn't given time to think about it. *Crackle-RUMBLE* Hearing the jet kick its engines into gear, my gaze snapped down to find its ramp closing while the flames exhausting from its engines stretched with a ferocious glow. "Oi!" Without a moments hesitation, I bolted off the rocks, digging my fingers into the closed door as the jet started accelerating. -You're my ride to civilization! You're not leaving without me!-
Thankfully though, it didn't seem to care. Ramping up the afterburners, the mountain beneath us rapidly became distant, and the sound barrier became more of a suggestion.
However, just as I looked back toward the mountain, my face lit up with panels.
*BEEP* "Warning, forced local system purge initiated... Purge impossible." *VWOOM* Feeling a blast of mana rip past us, flowing toward the void in the sky, the system's voice.. shifted. "Initiating local-world bounty..." And turned almost human.. irritated... *Beep* "'The Warden' has accepted."
-What the..?- Looking up into the vast darkness, focusing on the distant dots of scattering birds looking for the being that accepted the bounty, my mind raced. -Is it going to be an administrator..?- But just as I thought that, a slender figure seemed to materialize from the darkness, a starved dog-looking creature with the head of a lizard, landing a the valley where its shoulders, nearly 500 meters off the ground, stood higher than their ridges.
By the time it landed, we were already a number of kilometers away.
But as I watched its frosty, glowing blue eyes raise to me, I knew I wasn't out of its range.
The moment it opened its mouth, I threw myself off the jet, hurling myself toward the ground.
And in the next instant, a blinding white beam bridged the space between us. *BRRRRMMMM* The jet was engulfed instantaneously, being reduced to atoms before the wave of heat radiating from it ripped past me, engulfing the forest below in an ocean of fire an ash.
"Tch..." -That was my only ride...- Snapping my gaze to it as the warmth on my face dissipated, I instinctively reached back to pull out Draco while I fell.
But nothing happened. -A..Ah?!- Thinking I lost him in the system wipe too, my heart skipped a beat and my gaze snapping back to my hand. *WOOSH-CRUUNCH* But as I landed, skidding across the ashen forest, still feeling for the equipment ring under my glove, my panic eased.. though only slightly. -It's.. still there...- With the wipe, I had just lost the skill to use it. -Draco better still be in it...-
*FLASH* Getting forcefully dragged out of my thoughts, my gaze snapped back to the horizon only to find a blinding light engulfing everything like the ignition of a second sun.
Watching the fireball grow, curl, and flow, it only took a moment to recognize. -A nuclear blast?- But it couldn't have come from the monster...
It was too weak...
Finally noticing a long, cloud-like vapor trail getting dusted by the shockwave of the blast, I traced it across the sky before finding one of the metal birds. -Another jet?-
In that moment, my mind raced, questioning if I could get their attention to hitch another ride.
But I didn't get that far.
*VWOOP* Hearing the ambient crackling of fire warp as if space was bent, my eyes widened with a chill. *WOOSH* Darting to the side without another thought, the monster, once several kilometers away, slammed its paw down where I stood, cavitating the ground like the surface of a still lake.
Teleportation—a trick up a mage's sleeve. -How troublesome...- Snapping my gaze up to its towering figure, muscle memory finally started taking over, watching as it opened its mouth with another familiar glow, before backstepping. *FLASH-BRRRRMMMM* Clearing my chest by millimeters, the column of light atomized the ground as if to bore a tunnel to hell before I planted my foot in the rapidly melting earth around it.
Beneath the blinding beam, I was in the monster's blindspot, and using its arrogance against it, I darted at the paw still firmly planted in the ground. -For a mage to willingly close the distance...- Pulling back my fist, I threw my entire body into the punch. -HOW ARROGANT!- *CRAAAACK* It's paw simply exploded, the impact reducing its bone to splinters before showering the Earth with its alien blue blood.
But the monster didn't care. *THWACK* Using its shattered leg like the splintered hilt of a hammer, it swatted me out of the air without even flinching, launching me across the field and sending me hurtling through the forest, smashing through burning trees as a long trail of ash hid the monster in my wake. *Cr-r-r-r-r-raCKLE*
Though, neither of us cared about a simple smoke screen. *WOOOSH* Sidestepping before I could even come to a stop, a shard of ice almost eighty meters long pierced the ground like a supersized arrow.
But it was far from alone. *P-P-P-PATTER* Without giving me a chance to breathe, the huge shards rained like hail, endless and unrelenting, cutting every one of my movements short while steadily making the ground slick and unstable.
Before long, I was totally trapped, locked inside a maze of ice and shattered ground as huge reptilian eyes looked down on me.
Though, it was only because I let it.
Watching the monster's gaze dull in an instance of confidence, I narrowly slipped under one of the shards and slammed my hands into it. *WOOOSH-CRAACKLE* Coming to an instantaneous stop, cracks ripped through it, but it wasn't so brittle.
*wwwWWWOOOOSH* Hurling the shard over my shoulder like throwing an oversized lance, it instantly vanished from my grip, zipping through the monster's throat in a streak of light and mist.
Narrowly missing the spine. "GrrRAAAH!" Letting out a deep, guttural roar, the sky crystallized with a blanket of snowflakes before accumulating to form tens of thousands of smaller fragments only a few meters long, and raining down like a volley of arrows from archers atop a castle wall.
But I didn't bother running. *FW-W-W-W-IP-CRACK* Narrowly sliding between spikes, guiding the undodgable few around myself with a gentle caress, the monster circled like a starved jackal, kicking up ashen slush as it rared up its shattered leg, looking for an opening.
Unfortunately though, such an opening would only arrive in the form of a baited hook.
Watching its body coil low the moment I fed it an opportunity, I braced myself, expecting another beam or perhaps a new spell, but instead, found myself watching it raise its paw, exposing out its long white claws, before swiping it through the air.
*FWIP* Without a single thought passing through my mind, I darted to the side, plowing through several falling ice shards before, without seeing anything, no spell or projectile, the ground tremored and split at my feet. *WOOOOM*
In an instant, a deep gash was carved through everything, splitting the cloud of ice and snow surrounding us before the creature lunged, darting at me with an open, glowing maw.
Sharpening my gaze, everything slowed...
All until I felt ground beneath my feet.
*Fsshk-SHATTER* In the next instant, the field of ash beneath me exploded, and I zipped headfirst into the blinding vacuum of the creature's maw, following the colorless map painted by the energy bursting from my body to coil in the air, and plant my knuckles into the back of the creature's throat. *WOOM* A strike straight into the base of its skull. *CR-RACK* Before another instant could pass, bone turned to dust—flesh to mist—blood to vapor...
And as skylight finally reached me through the cloud of disintegrating flesh, the world finally stopped holding its breath.
*WHAAAAAMMMM* The sound of the impact echoed like an earthquake, the tremors detectable thousands of kilometers away.
But as I finally fell back to the ground, looking toward the horizon at the distant, retreating metal bird while the monster's blood boiled off me, I questioned if anyone heard it.
*Pat-Crack* Finally landing on the ground, the creature's liquified brain finally gave up—evidence of the death appearing in the form of a panel: *Ding!* 'You have killed a Level 1251 System Mercenary. Recieved...'
"Haaaah..." Letting out a breath I didn't realized I was holding, I found my gaze drifting up to see the sky slowly becoming visible through the scattering void above—light pouring through the holes like rays from heaven as a faint breeze returned with the scents of burning nature.
In that moment, my heart settled, the lactic burn of my muscles bringing back an unparalleled wave of nostalgia and resurfaced memories.
But while it should have soothed my mind, amidst those memories were details tied to the kill panel I just waved off.
-A System Mercenary, huh...- Memories of a term I had forgotten after travelling for centuries without seeing other intelligent life. -Is that what they call them now..?-
The creature I just killed was a slave of the system, just like me—chasing bounties, cultivating strength in hopes of one day finding an escape—a flicker of hope.
But unfortunately, it was just another victim.
Gently shaking the sizzling blood off my stinging knuckles, I looked down at the creature's limp, mangled body. I didn't feel bad—I couldn't twist fate.
But at that moment, I felt something I hadn't in a very.. very long time...
In that fleeting moment.. I felt pity...
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