Chapter 6: I Don't Want Them to See the Monster I Became
Emma welcomed him with a smile."Richard, we're ready."
She carried her suitcases on each side, almost as if she were moving out of her house with the absurd amount of clothes she brought… though, somehow, that was very much like her.
"I'm glad you're okay," he replied.
How much things had changed across two lives. At least this time everything was starting better. Finding Emma standing at her door, smiling, made everything he had done worth it.She welcomed him with a smile—so different from the last time, when he had arrived at her house to rescue her.
Back then, she had been alone.Her parents had gone out to look for food and never came back, and she had managed to survive only because she had awakened.But, unfortunately, her awakening had come too late; if only it had happened earlier, she could have protected her family.
A voice pulled him out of his thoughts."Hey, kid! What about us? Are we invisible here?"
Richard turned and barely had time to react before a heavy pat landed on his shoulder. It wasn't painful, but the gesture carried a hint of resentment. Perhaps it was the instinct of an overprotective father.
"Remember we didn't raise you to be a disrespectful boy who doesn't greet his elders," Ethan added, glaring at him with daggers in his eyes.
Richard forced a nervous smile."Good afternoon, Aunt Rebecca. Good afternoon, Uncle Ethan."
Things seemed to calm down a little.Rebecca greeted him with a nod and a faint smile, though her panic disorder wasn't helping her face everything that was happening and about to come.
Richard picked up Emma's suitcases."We have to leave quickly," he said, hurrying the pace and breaking the calm moment."Is it that bad?" she asked.
Richard didn't answer. The sky was darkening. That was not a good sign for what was coming; they needed to get to cover quickly.
* * *
Inside the van.The engine roared as if it were in its final days. Still, Richard kept driving, eyes fixed on the road. He had chosen a dangerous path because the main highway was blocked with traffic, and they wouldn't move for quite a while.
"At least here we're safer…" Richard muttered, breaking the tension.
The next stretch of road was a bit easier, so now he could see the expressions of everyone inside.They were all looking at him, as if waiting for an explanation for everything that had happened.
Though he wasn't much of an expert on the matter either. His past life had been spent just surviving, with no interest in what was truly happening. Or rather, he couldn't think of anything beyond survival.So most of what he knew was speculation from other awakened.
"All right, I'll tell you what I know…"
He slowed down a little and took a deep breath before speaking, leaving out everything he had lived in his past life."Do you remember the earthquake in Egypt?"
Ethan looked at him confused."No, though I saw rumors that something happened. But nothing ever came out in the news."
Hearing that, Richard almost slammed the brakes.How foolish he was—he had forgotten that the government had silenced everything about that expedition.
"Those rumors were real…" he said quietly. "The man in that broadcasted massacre was one of the survivors."
Emma frowned."What the hell could they have been digging to cause an earthquake?"
That question left Richard speechless. Emma always knew how to go straight to the point with her words.He didn't know how to explain the next part without sounding insane.
He inhaled deeply, lowered his gaze for an instant, and then spoke:"What they were investigating was a tomb. Not of any pharaoh… but of someone who doesn't appear in human history."
Richard continued explaining."According to the reports I managed to read, the symbols carved on the walls matched the oldest accounts of the plagues of Egypt."
He paused, recalling everything he had learned in his past life."Although it differed from the tales told throughout history, because everything seemed to begin with a strange crack at the heart of the tomb."
Emma stared at him intently. She wanted to believe him, but everything she was hearing sounded like the script of an apocalyptic movie. Nothing seemed as believable as Richard thought.
It was true she had seen that massive screen in the sky showing them a message, but there could be a scientific explanation for what was happening: alien invasion, a failed experiment, anything was easier to accept than religion and mythology turning real.
Ethan was the one who broke the silence:"So, if we see it as a prophecy… are you saying what's happening started in that tomb? That those plagues… weren't metaphors, but real warnings?"
He asked while letting out the breath he didn't know he had been holding.
"Yes, though things differed from the stories, and it seemed this had already happened before."
Richard stopped the van."Why are you stopping?"
Ethan asked, watching as Richard unbuckled his seatbelt to step out of the vehicle.
"Uncle Ethan, drive on and follow the GPS. I have some things to take care of. When you reach the gate, wait for me inside the car, and if it starts to rain, even more reason not to get out of the vehicle."
Richard stepped out without further explanation. Could it have been a way to escape all those questions?You could say so, but the main reason was the ominous phenomenon beginning to manifest in the sky above.
The dim sun was starting to vanish behind the clouds. That meant the start of the blood rain, and he couldn't waste any more time.
Besides, he didn't want his aunt and uncle to see what he was about to do.
* * *
Outside."To be kind to others is to be cruel to yourself…" Richard whispered like a mantra before heading toward one of the cars stopped at the gas station.
The pistol hidden under his clothes had long since found its way into his hand.The magazines were still tucked in his pockets, but they would be more than enough for what he planned to do.
"What the hell are you doing!" shouted the man when Richard yanked his car door open, startling him.
"I'm sorry, but I'll have to take your car," Richard apologized.
Without hesitation, Richard grabbed the man and neutralized him with a single shot.
Blood poured from the grotesque hole in his head, staining the ground and terrifying the people nearby.He couldn't let a variant emerge. If there was even a chance it could trigger an evolution once turned, it could cause a wave of danger—and it was better to prevent that.
"Someone's been killed!" shouted one of the workers, though he didn't last long either—silenced by a bullet to the head.
Others might have vomited, or feared hearing the voices of those people.
But Richard had seen too much already. For him, this was nothing more than a stroll in the park.Still, he didn't want Emma's family to see him like this. He didn't want them to see the monster he had become to survive.
* * *
Inside the restaurant."It should be here…"
Some had awakened with reinforcement abilities, others with elemental control, and there were even tamers.The variety of awakened abilities was endless.
But, ironically, he hadn't awakened any ability.
Though, luckily for Richard, there was no restriction to keep evolving—at least, at the beginning.
Because once you reached the superhuman limit, it was nearly impossible to advance further without an ability to define which path your body would evolve toward.
Upon surpassing the superhuman life stage—known as the Lord of Ruin—the cells of the human body changed. If your ability was ice control, then you wouldn't just generate ice to freeze anymore, you would become ice itself, to better understand those abilities.
According to the power scale formed shortly after the first awakened appeared, one could remain ability-less only up to the Lord of Ruin stage.
[Threshold of Humanity][Flesh Forger][Bearer][Ascended][Herald][Lord of Ruin]
However, according to the first pioneers who had obtained the best talents, there was only one way to obtain an S-class ability or higher: through the crystallization of the end.
The crystallization of Monarchs—those creatures that had mutated before the blood rain and had the potential to become calamity-class zombies.