ZILLON THE REAPER — AT 3000
Big Teaser
Year 3000.
Earth didn't end.
It rotted.
The sky turned poisonous. The ground became a grave. Humanity fled upward—into floating colonies sealed above the dead world. They survived.
But survival was quiet.
And silence drove them mad.
So they built arenas.
They hunted the ruins below and dragged back what lived there—mutated creatures, radiation-born horrors, things that no longer looked human.
They called them monsters.
They made them fight.
They made it entertainment.
Darkness.
Not sleep. Not peace.
Absence.
Then light detonated behind my eyes.
Sound followed—violent, crushing.
"BET! BET! BETTTTT!"
I opened my eyes to screaming crowds, blinding lights, and a dirt floor soaked with old blood.
I tried to breathe.
My chest expanded too far.
I looked down.
Not feet.
Claws.
Large. Curved. Buried in the dirt like they belonged there.
No.
No—this isn't—
Something massive charged me.
Four meters of scaled muscle and killing intent.
Impact erased thought.
Pain exploded.
My body flew across the arena and shattered against stone. Something tore out of my throat.
"CRRCRTTTYYYEEECCECECE!"
Not a roar.
A scream.
NO—WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO ME—
The creature charged again.
And something inside me… aligned.
Fear peeled away.
Thought sharpened.
My body moved before I decided to.
My arm rose.
Too long. Too strong. Wrapped in gray-green scales. Five black claws extended at a command I didn't remember learning.
The monster lunged.
I stepped forward.
My claws met its neck.
Bone resisted for a fraction of a second.
Then parted.
The head separated cleanly.
Blood erupted. The body stood frozen—then collapsed.
Silence fell over ten thousand people.
I stood there, chest heaving, claws dripping red.
I looked down at my hands.
Hands.
Too big. Too sharp. Not human.
A reflection stared back at me from the blood-dark ground.
Yellow eyes.
Vertical pupils.
A monster.
My hands began to shake.
"KEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Not a roar.
A scream.
This isn't me.
This can't be me.
High above, behind glass and gold railings, a calm voice spoke.
"Well now… ladies and gentlemen. I believe we've just found our new champion."
The crowd breathed again.
They cheered.
They named me.
Zillon the Reaper.
I woke up in a cage.
Cold metal bars. Concrete floor. The smell of fear and disinfectant.
"Subject G-047 is awake."
"Docile."
"Good. The smart ones adapt faster."
They fed me raw meat.
At first I gagged.
By the third day, I was enjoying it.
They showed my kill on screens—slow motion, enhanced, replayed again and again.
"THREE MILLION CREDITS IN ONE FIGHT!"
"You're not a monster," the handler said, smiling.
"You're a product."
Products that perform get fed.
Products that don't get recycled.
At night, screams echoed through the facility.
Then silence.
Two weeks later, I tapped the cage floor.
Tap-tap… tap… tap-tap-tap.
Across from me, something tapped back.
Morse code.
"They don't know we think."
My blood went cold.
"How many?"
"Most of us."
Former teachers. Workers. Analysts. Survivors.
People.
Changed to live in a world humans destroyed.
Captured. Caged. Forced to kill—for fun.
In the championship arena, facing another like me, the crowd chanted for blood.
I looked at the humans above us.
Then I did something no monster had ever done.
I spoke.
"N-no… m-more."
The arena fell silent.
Across from me, the other monster answered.
"Brothers… in chains."
Voices rose from below the arena. Clicks. Taps. Broken words.
"No more."
"No more."
"No more."
Fear replaced excitement in the crowd's eyes.
Because they finally understood.
They weren't watching beasts.
They were watching people.
And the cages were shaking.
They asked what the monsters were.
But they'd been asking the wrong question all along.
Who is the monster?
AUTHOR'S NOTE
This is a teaser, not the full story.
If this concept becomes a series, it will explore:
dehumanization as entertainment
intelligence without language
survival versus morality
and how easily "civilization" justifies cruelty
If you want this developed into a full series—
Comment YES.
If enough people want it,
Zillon the Reaper will continue.
And the arena won't survive.
😈