Edward Foster,
My eyes opened to ceiling in a dimly lit room, the light from television going static. I sat up, ringing in my ears, claiming down to the silence of a living room. It felt like a phantom limb Equilibrium next to me, now with a White Gem embedded below the Red one.
I grabbed the Equilibrium and helped myself back to my feet inside a living room. Quickly the reason for low light became apparent, with windows being covered from the outside. Large giant roots had swallow the house I was in.
Few even breaking through the glass planes and growing across walls. I walked over to door and tried pushing it open to avail. "Destruction of Matter," A circular hole cleaned through everything.
Sudden sunlight burst into my face with the freshest air I had ever smelled. I stepped outside, covering my eyes from the sudden brightness, and after adjusting to it, I found myself in the middle of a forest while standing in a backyard.
"Is this London?" looking around I could make out the roads, houses, and cars. However, everything was a lot greener. Tall towering trees had taken over most house, growing on the roofs. Their roots spreading far and wide. These trees had massive palm leaves with with vines dangling down full length of trunk.
The whole horizon, in my view, had these long trees, with brown leather-like fruit shaped like a coconut hanging from the top. A herd of dark greenish large birds flew over the horizon, not any that I could identify.
At that point, this didn't look like Earth anymore; more breathtaking than ever. So I decided to take stroll down the lane. Until coming to a few of large birds swirling around and attacking the top of the tree, causing a rustle in the large, stretching palm leaves. This forced long and wide arthropod-like insects to suddenly and quickly crawl out of the leaves.
They had dark red slashes across their black-brown scales and shrimp-like legs. Dozens of them quickly ran away from the flock of large birds diving at them. Using their sharp talons to rip them off the tree and onto the ground.
The next moment, the birds were busy ripping them apart and eating them. Their wide wings and hooked beaks helped them pull apart the thick scales. Those insects who could reach the bottom crawled to the underside of the trees for protection.
I quickly begin to realize the slight movements coming from the tops of all the trees scattered about. I could observe the closest one to me, looking at these arthropods sticking out and chewing on the trees' fruits with their large pair of mendable.
A whole other ecosystem suddenly brought to life. While I was in awe, I quickly felt the lack of follow man in the scenery before me. All had vanished, leaving no trace behind. However, one thing stood out from the rest, and now my new point of interest.
A hill covered with lush greenery standing out like a sore thumb. I was sensing something on top of it and the clearer direction I was being pushed towards. On my way to it, I could hear the occasional rustling in the trees and high-pitch squeals of those birds, but nothing was more fearsome than the crouching figures moving alongside me.
Until I came to a stop to a scene before me, a soft humming. The sight stung my eyes and my head took a spin. All the sound left my world, leaving only me and her. The world offered a spotlight on her, as she quietly hummed to herself.
In a light blue trench coat, with those familiar light brown eyes. She spoke softly "How have you been, Eddy?" speaking with a coy smile. Her words poked me through my skull and I looked away immediately.
Slight pain and anxiety hit me in my stomach. She looked exactly like how I imagined she would have after eight years. She pulled her chair back and stood up, pulling her light brown hair behind her ear. She was wearing a light pink button-up shirt twice her size, tucked inside a brown dress pants. She stretched up her legs, climbing on her bare feet.
"No, not you" I whispered to myself, as she approached almost joyfully, just as Lauren would. "What do you mean, Eddy?" she said as playfully tapped her way over me. "I waited so long to meet you, you know?" She reached down to touch my hand.
Our skin made contact, for a precise moment I saw something something completely different. A radiant being in the forefront of the endless harmony.
It had no end, always starting a new, whether itself or something else. A being floating somewhere far away, without a sure way to get to it. My head clicked in places it didn't know it had, it hurt so much. Not that I could understand it to begin with, and I refused too. Its magnitude or its glory.
My flight and fight kicked in, and I shot her hand back, Destruction flowing inside. It caused consume her arm, uprooting the ground, and the road. The shock caused me to break into a cold sweat and I stumbled back.
Now looking at her properly, her arm was reduced to stub and her expression turned to a sudden shock filled with sorrow, "Wait, that's not..."
"What do you want from me?" I asked as fading while light flew out of her stub and reconstructed it back into its proper form. "Why are you doing this, wearing her face?" I asked.
"Her face?..." her response came with confusion and frustration. I could see her beginning to tear up. Right that instant, I felt those something rising up again, it was already painful enough to see her again, but also hurt to her in a way I didn't understand.
I wanted to go her, but I at that time I was afraid of everything. So, I brought Equilibrium up and point at her, "I have already watched her die twice. Don't make me do it again,"
She burst into anger with tears rolling down her cheeks, but before she could air out her thoughts. Her expressions and body froze in time and moment later then they become loosen, as if regaining lost composure.
"It's too early for this," She said in a completely different tone, devoid of any trace of humanity. Her hair suddenly turned a bright glow, enough to blind me.
I covered my face with my arm, only to nearly see her lift her arm and point her finger to the left of us, towards the green hill. Than the light vanished, along with her.
Only then, a crowd of figures started to crawl out. They were low to the ground, stumbling around bushes and homes like disheveled corpses. So far I had wondered where everyone went, and soon came to learn.
They were naked and deformed, coming too stop few feet away from me. They slowly shambled onto their feet. Appearing nether as a men or a women, these things were uniformed in height and elongated limbs, and eyes burning emerald green.
A few turned to many and many to a crowd. All standing still, unblinking, as if floating in place. I looked around and found myself surrounded by them. There was a moment of pause, before one of them flinched and the dam broke in an instant.
There bodies swung into motion like a whip. I swung Equilibrium over my shoulder, then with both hands swung it in a wide arc. A thundering crackle boomed out, as the wave of Destruction tore away at there body from middle. Like balloons made of skin and blood, they exploded in shower of meat and gore.
What was left, dropped on the floor with a wet splat. I felt a tug on my shoulder, even before I could turn my head. My arm swung back, hitting the thing in the face and popping him like a pimple. Instantly, I felt the warm blood smearing my face and cloths, and the strong smell of iron.
I swung my body around, facing those behind me and brought up Equilibrium. Bringing it down, creating another wave of thundering Destruction. It ate away these abominations and ground underneath them. As the noise settled, the first few I watched had covered their heads with their arms and hunched low to the ground. And those further away, were scrambling away in a desperate attempt to get away.
My eyes darted around, looking at everyone moving away from me. Whatever had compelled to come and attack me had wore off. In all my wisdom, I managed to strike fear into them, forcing them to scatter like animals.
Only then, in moment weighted breaths, I came to lock my eyes with one of them. A wheezing chest and horrified face, but most importantly those eyes. Red and puffy, locking onto mine with a sudden hint of recognition.
Then came the screams.
???,
Everything broke in a cacophony of screams, as if they weren't privy to the concept of pain before. Next, the ground began to shake and break apart, as the green giant rose. Edwards' nerves broke, and he tore off into the sky.
The fiend acted like an infection onto God's creation, bowering itself above as the world tree and moving the roots from below.
"The Mother of All Beginnings. Oh, my dear lord, I can't believe that you still see her as you do," I spoke with disgust coating my every single word. We were standing in the air, as the forest came together underneath us.
With the amount of obstacles in between the Fiend and Edward, this man-child stared up at the faint outline of the moon. Then back at the fiend, exchanging glances between the two a few times.
While I came closer to Edward, "The part that humors me the most is that you are now aware of how a vessel comes to be", I whispered, "One has to be willing to give up their Humanity and Soul, complete dissolving into the hands of an Entity," as good old Edward threw the Equilibrium at the moon.
"Your dear Lauren allowed herself to be used." The space shifted above the fiend, and just like weed, it was ripped out of the ground and into the moon. "She, a willing participant, and you, a willing victim"
Edward Foster,
The vacuum of space caused nature to shrivel up and forced the Mannequin out of hiding. It launched its slivery roots out of the mote of trees, roots, and dirt, and pulled itself onto the surface of the moon, stabling itself.
There was no sound, not even feeling of hot or cold as I dove into the vacuum space. Coming into the gravity of the moon, I started being pulled down to as well. The fiend however, didn't take dearly to barren rock and command began changing the environment.