"If I may be frank, humanity has always desired a violent end." These were the words of the Bright-Age philosopher, Ian Sullivan, that I found in the ruins of a data center.
This was said fifty years before the world fell to nuclear war. This desolation wiped out sixty percent of the population and slowly but surely choked the remaining forty percent to death.
No one expected what came next.
I was among the three billion alive during its descent. The System. It crashed into our world with one goal: to preserve our species and entertain those above us.
Not peacefully or through philanthropic efforts, those methods do not entice the System. Instead, it turned the world into a game, something reminiscent of online RPGs from the Bright Age.
In return, we received mana. Classes. Skills. Dungeons. Power became the currency of the world. One man held within himself the potential to change the world.
But power came with a price. Conflict. That was all the System wanted. And it made sure that all its gifts came with the condition that you had to rip them from someone else's hands.
So I, James Alderbatch, self-proclaimed Philosopher of the Crimson Age, a name I quite like for this era, declare that Ian Sullivan's words still hold.
Humanity will still meet its violent end one day. The System is simply the instrument of destruction.
—History of the End, written by James Alderbatch.
——●
Enkidu knew this was a dream. Mostly because he couldn't feel his pounding heart or injuries. But it was also scattered and horrifying.
Or he might just have died.
But then lightning flashed through the world, bringing with it blinding clarity.
He was standing on a hill overlooking an endless, stormy sea. Lightning coursed through the heavy clouds like a serpent, and above him, swimming through those clouds, were a flock of terrifying, vast, winged creatures with spiky bodies and long tails.
Behind him, swarming over the hill and valley, were men and women. Soldiers. Voices raised in exaltation, weapons held in salute, faces hidden in the shadows of the dark sky.
On his sides, he could see six women looking out to the sea, faces veiled by the darkness.
Enkidu could feel all eyes, even those of the sky, on him.
A cold hand clasped his shoulder. He spun around to find a woman with stark white hair and electric blue eyes. A seventh woman, but he could see her face, and she was beautiful.
"You must keep moving, Enkidu, no matter the cost." Her voice was soft but held a foreboding depth. "Only you can change the world."
He couldn't even reply. But that only made him more frantic, because in the real world, he was trapped in a battle.
"Wake." The woman's hand rose to his face and closed his eyes. "And let us begin."
——●
Heat rushed over him immediately. Born from the pain of his poor decisions and from the surrounding flames.
Gunshots filled the air along with the whistling roar of an unholy creature. And strangely, these sounds comforted him.
His eyes snapped open just as Tanner's voice rang out. "Enkidu, wake up. We need you."
The boy's ashy face came into view, cast by the fires of the surrounding battle. A shocked smile ran over his face. "Fucking mode, you gave me a heart attack, boss."
Enkidu tried forcing himself up, but his vision blurred. Tanner pulled him out of the war zone and to a stone barricade made by one of their Magic tools.
"I'm here. We're okay," Enkidu kept murmuring. "We'll be alright."
"You were talking in your sleep, too, something about lightning and monsters in the sky," Tanner cursed. "System, I hope you don't have brain damage. Falkner, get the Heal patch!"
Pushing Tanner off, Enkidu rose to his full height and blinked the haze from his magenta eyes. "I don't need it. Forget what I said."
His entire Recon team was locked in mortal combat with a horde of Firespitters.
His memories returned. They were on a simple mission to scout a dungeon for the Hunter teams. A simple sample gathering exercise.
There weren't supposed to be any monsters in this section. Yet, a dozen of them cornered his team in one of the primitive halls of the dungeon, forcing a battle.
Their grey dog-like forms dashed through the darkness amidst gunfire. Occasionally, a spring of fire erupted from the creatures, illuminating their headless bodies that were filled with eerie holes.
He had been fighting one of them when…
He turned upwards. The roof of the dungeon had a suspiciously Enkidu-shaped hole. He must have been shot up there. With a worried hiss, he checked his shield charm, it was a dull grey.
It's dead.
He rubbed the back of his black-haired head. At least he was alive.
But his gun was on the ground some meters away. And his sword was stuck in the roof, red-hot from when he was blasted upward by a Firespitter, but still good.
It was an Elite-tier sword after all. Firespitters were just Common-tier monsters.
Shoot down the sword, then continue fighting with it since it's the only thing that can damage Common-tier creatures easily.
Bullets could do the job, too, but you needed quite a bit to bring down a Firespitter since its skin was hardened. And he could already see them running out of bullets.
So after I get the sword, what?
More Firespitters would come, drawn by their strange connection. He couldn't cut through an army.
Tanner had taken up his gun and was providing cover fire for someone reloading, but he sent worried glances at Enkidu repeatedly.
He was their leader after all. And as usual, the weight in his chest grew. Tightening his jaw, his mind went to standard military protocol in this situation.
Behind him was a dead end; it only led deeper into the Firespitter nest. They had to go forward and get to the dungeon exit.
But the window to escape was closing quickly.
His ears stung and he turned upward. Enkidu always had powerful senses. Right now everything in him was screaming run.
Footsteps rushing over the dark dungeon. In the tunnel above him, and from behind.
Firespitters. An army was coming down on their heads. To burn away the parasites in their home.
For a second, despair drenched him. He wanted to turn and tell Tanner of their doom.
With his eyes closed, he made his decision. "Where's Donald and Franky?" He said softly, before scanning the battlefield and pointing them out to Tanner. "Get Donald and bring him here."
Tanner didn't ask why. That was the type of soldier he was. Always bought into the mission. Enkidu also got moving; there was no point in saying what was coming.
He rolled under a red-hot stream of fire and grabbed his assault rifle. Expressionlessly gauging the battlefield and the deadly shadows of monsters around him.
Stun and move. He let out a few rounds to rattle the Firespitter following him, then more shots to get another monster off one of his teammates.
Franky, the team's munitions expert, was also firing at that Firespitter. They both ran forward and kicked the beast off their teammate. The beast weighed as much as a motorcycle, and it used that to crush its prey's limbs.
The boy screamed as the beast came off, his bones letting out a relieved crack. Before Franky could crouch down to check on the boy, Enkidu grabbed his shoulder.
"No time. Get to the stone barrier," He shouted over the chaos. "I need you to blow a hole into the tunnel below us."
Franky wasn't as obedient as Tanner. "There's a tunnel below us? Can we even trust Recon's info? This was supposed to—"
Enkidu groaned, aiming his gun upward and shooting his sword down. "We have no other choice. I marked it on the map with Donald as an alternate escape route. He'll help you set up. GO!"
Despite looking unwilling, Franky stomped off, groaning. "We're so dead."
Enkidu's sword fell beside a passing soldier, who picked it up and threw it to him with a smile. "Show these beasts what your family's made of."
Catching the sword with a conflicted gaze, he turned to the injured soldier on the ground. He was a kid. They were all kids. Between the ages of 17 and 21.
But this world needed more weapons than children.