Aiden stared at the man.
He just stood there — still, looking Aiden up and down, as if measuring to see if he's even worth killing. Faint blue light flashed beneath his armor, further adding to the silhouette's horrifying appearance.
As the man stepped closer, Aiden finally saw him clearly. The armor he was wearing wasn't smooth — not even close — it was dented, scorched and covered in scratches. On his head stood a matte black helmet, which refused to reflect any light. Under the heavy armor, the man's movements seemed controlled, deliberate — like a soldier who's seen too many horrors to ever feel fear again.
The air flickered between them — suffocating and dry, filled with some sort of dust. Aiden's heart was steady, but he remembered how people were supposed to look when they were scared. So he slightly lifted his shoulders, let his breath shake and opened his eyes wide.
"I— I think I'm lost," he said, voice trembling.
The man tiled his head slightly, not exactly impressed by his act.
"Human form detected," said the voice behind the helmet. "But there is no Resonance signature."
There was a pause on the other side, as if whoever listened was considering what to do with Aiden. Eventually, a woman's voice replied, flat and composed:
"Bring him in."
Aiden blinked once. That wasn't what he wanted to hear after being transported to a seemingly post-apocalyptic wasteland. The man raised one arm, and a trail of blue light spiraled outward, wrapping around Aiden's wrists, and tightening until it almost scraped his skin.
He considered jerking back, screaming and kicking for a moment, but decided against it. The man looked like a soldier, someone who would follow orders at any cost — using force certainly wasn't beneath him.
The man said nothing, just turned and started marching away. Aiden wondered if the soldier would really just leave him be. But that hope was short lived — Aiden stumbled forward and realized what the man really intended. It seemed like the binds were somehow linked to the soldier, prohibiting Aiden from staying further than about 10 meters apart from him.
The best way to describe the world around them was dystopian. Shattered gigantic towers made out of black crystal jutted out of the ground like beanstalk, mirroring the material the land beneath them was made of. Every twenty steps or so, Aiden kept spotting the decomposing bodies of... some kind of creatures. They seemed to be about two to three meters tall, covered in fur, and their heads a perverse mixture of bats and humans — giving anyone who dared glance at them a sickening sensation.
'If one of those things found me, I'd probably die a painful death.'
After a few minutes, the haze ahead started shifting, getting thinner and thinner until Aiden could make out four silhouettes framed by the hell-like horizon. Three of the figures were armored, while the fourth one wore a long white coat that kept brushing against her military boots. Her hair was as dark as ebony, perfectly emphasizing her beautiful, abyss-like eyes. She looked… out of place here, like a flower in a corn field. When she spoke, her voice was soft and soothing:
"Well," she said. "he's not one of our men."
The soldier dragging Aiden came to a halt.
"Reporting. I found him near the ridge. He seems to be a human, yet he has no Resonance signature."
Her eyes flickered slightly — she circled him once, then started inspecting Aiden carefully. The more she examined him, the more immersed she seemed in figuring out what exactly was standing before her, as if she was studying an object rather than a person.
However you judged it, things were really bad. Aiden dropped his eyes to the ground, then slightly hunched his shoulders and started murmuring in a frightened tone:
"I don't… I don't remember how I got here."
The woman tilted her head slightly, her expression turning amused.
"You don't remember how you got here?" she repeated, the tinge of ridicule apparent in her voice.
Aiden nodded hesitantly. He could tell she wasn't buying it, but what could he do now? He couldn't exactly say he somehow fell from the Nexus and ended up here. They'd think he was mocking them.
"Yes. I think I fainted… or— I don't know… I can't remember much."
The woman paused for a second. Then, out of the blue, she moved her face closer to his, their noses almost touching now.
"Convenient," she said. "We're in the Scorching Depths, The Fifth Strata. You don't just faint and end up here — so, this leaves me two options. Either I use this," she reached for the holster resting near her waist and drew a futuristic-looking pistol. "because I think you're lying and you're trying to manipulate me," she said smiling faintly. "Or you can come with us willingly as an assistant. We do our job, you help us, and we drop you off somewhere safe."
The soldier next to her was startled.
"Chief, we shouldn't—"
Suddenly, the air around her changed completely, turning hotter and hotter as red light radiated from her body. Any ounce of reason seemingly gone like it never existed, while she turned towards the soldier who captured Aiden.
"Did. You. Just. Question. Me?"
"N— no, Chief… It's just—" he didn't finish whatever he was about to say. The woman tightened the grip on her pistol and drove it into the soldier's abdomen, causing him to immediately drop to his knees and clutch his stomach.
She suddenly turned to face Aiden, a wide smile plastered across her gorgeous figure. A smile that, in day-to-day life, would charm and dazzle every single soul around her — however, in this particular moment, not a single person present felt charmed. The only thing anyone could feel in the air was a sense of danger, a premonition that if you displeased her, you would die.
"So, what's your choice, sweetie?" she asked in a sweet and gentle tone.
'Choice? What choice?! If I don't follow her she's gonna kill me.'
"I— I'll follow you," Aiden said, forcing a tremor into his voice.
She exhaled, the heat radiating from her body dwindling until it completely vanished, as did the red light.
"Good choice," she affirmed. "My name is Kalira, Chief of the Eclypse Police — Retrieval Division. We are in charge of finding artifacts and The Keys."
She checked Aiden up and down one more time, then extended her hand towards him.
"And you, apparently, are my new assistant."
Aiden reluctantly shook her hand "Yes, ma'am."
She swiftly turned away from him, her long coat brushing against the now slightly hot ground, and faced the four members of her team.
"Let's get moving."