Harry watched the beings in awe and dread. They looked nothing like the aliens he’d expected. Not that he expected her to be green. Yet, he hadn’t expected this. Even though he could see the blazing insides of her skin, he felt no heat. Only the fear that the force from before would weigh him down again. The other two behind her were even more stunning to look at.
“This is Galid of the Lightborn race, Scepter of Eio, and witness to this immersion,” Rhoar said. Galid’s hair pulsed with deep blue light. The strands, thin as needles seemed to move randomly. His face looked like a half imitation of a human’s, but the angles were all wrong. Except for the eyes—they were wrapped in many layers of fabric. He was covered entirely in a red and black cloak that fell far below his feet if he had any.
Harry watched the turning wheel of light behind him, almost as bright as the strands of hair. It moved slowly, somehow attached to the back of his head. Galid didn’t move, none of them did. Only Rhoar did, as if the other were denied such pleasures.
“And this is Verin of the Shadowspawn race, Scythe of Gilirth, and witness to this immersion.” Rhoar moved from the other witness quickly, impatient to begin her task.
“Harry,” Cheddar whispered, staring up at the mass of swirling dark. There was no definition to it. Only a sensation, a startling understanding to never go near the Shadowspawn. Harry’s mind was already conjuring possible unfortunate consequences for that.
Cheddar tapped him again, and this time Harry couldn’t ignore his friend. “What?”
“Dude, you can see them, yeah?” Cheddar asked. “You see those things floating above us right? I’m not going insane, am I?”
“I see them,” Harry whispered back. He scanned the rest of the foyer to confirm he wasn’t the only one looking up and added, “We can all see them, Ched.”
“Good, good. I was beginning to think I smoked the wrong thing this morning. I should probably start panicking all over again, right?” Harry glanced at him before turning back to look at the trio hovering over them.
Blocks of larger rectangles popped up in front of Rhoar. Each showed a different kind of chaos. Most of the places in some of the HUDs were unknown, but others weren’t. A series of contrails marked the sky as missiles sailed for someone who looked disturbingly like Verin. The mass of darkness expanded, covering the sky like a hungry cloud. It swallowed all the missiles and began to contract slowly.
From within the mass, a thin hand of dripping black stretched out. Its fingers were tiny. It flicked one finger and something shot forward, homing on something in the distance.
Harry heard the collective gasp when the display zoomed in the instant the last of six fighter jets exploded in the sky. Then more followed below. Harry held his breath as the last of them dropped down, cock-screwing to dodge an incoming attack none of them could see.
Then it, too, exploded. It fell down, raining pieces of burning machinery of death.
“We are screwed,” Cheddar whispered as Harry watched the destruction happening all over the country…no, the world. This was a global invasion. These things were taking over, crashing over the world like a mythical storm.
“That should convince you of the severity of your situation, Earthlings. You do not possess the strength to fight us. There is no escape, no hope. Only obedience. Only the worthy shall survive.”
One after the other, the holo-screens vanished. Harry looked out. The street was silent. Whatever chaos Rhoar had just shown them, it didn’t seem to have reached them yet. Except the weird silence, there was no attack.
“That’s bullshit!” Someone said in the crowd. “Why are we listening to a bunch of holograms?”
That fool, Harry thought. He was doubting the whole thing too, but that force was real. He touched his head, feeling a bite of pain from where he’d smacked his head on his table. There was no disputing that.
The crowd seemed to expand and bodies pushed against Harry and Cheddar as the one called Galid slowly descended.
Closer, it was a surreal thing. Its man-like face looked like a wicked conjuration. As if a wizard had messed up a spell when summoning an angel. The blue light pulsed faster as it reached the ground, lost to Harry because of the sea of people in front of him. He strained to see, trying to push forward but no one would give way.
Then the scream started. He didn’t have to imagine what was happening. He perceived the smell of burning hair and skin. The scream didn’t last long. Nor did the stench. One moment the foyer smelled like a barbecue gone wrong, and the next there was nothing. Not even the stink of a hundred or more people pressing away from Galid in terror.
The creature—because he wasn’t a man—simply ascended. In his wake was silence and the full attention of all present. If anyone there had any doubt they were walking the thin edge of a knife before. That confirmed it.
Cheddar is right, Harry thought, staring at stoic Galid. We are so fucked.
“Poor thing,” Rhoar continued with a chuckle. Her mouth still wasn’t moving. Her voice was a creeping thought in their ears, their minds.
“That could have been avoided. Your survival depends on your dedication to live. Doubt is the shadow that brings you death. Certainty will guide you to the end. Certainty of your worth, your strength, your position. You are nothing. Right now, you are little more than the sniveling beastlings of Iria. Your fangs are dull and your limbs are feeble. You are weak. The Crucible will break you with so little force. But with full obedience to its law, it will mold you. We will carve you like the forgers of Kairin shape their wonders. You will be the Talos of your home world.”
“Only if we submit to you?” Someone asked. Gerald, Harry thought, recognizing the voice. “We should bow or die?”
“How foolish,” Rhoar mocked. “You worship does me no good, human. You are ash before me, dust for the wind. You must submit to the crucible. For your sake.”
Harry looked out the door again, wondering what was going on. A buzz of murmurs rolled through the group as they tried to grasp what was happening to them. Harry noticed the block of square in front of him had vanished. A strange silence seemed to spread within him, accompanied by a growing impatience.
“If it is any consolation, you are not alone,” The Arbiter said. “This is not the only testing ground. You are some of many that have been given the chance to evolve. Not all of you will survive this. Most of you will be tossed away as you journey to the top. Death is a good end too, believe me. I have seen forces stronger than you beg for a quick end as Echoes burrow into them. Yet, your suffering, for now, is milder. Your suffering is controlled. You only need be determined and you will find yourself elevated in the ranks of the Crucible.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
She waited, eyes scanning the crowd below. Her stinger swerved slightly, like a dog wagging its tail.
The silence stretched taut like a held breath. They were all hooked now, baited by promises in the wake of the devastating threat of a sure death.
A choice other than being burnt alive? Why not?
“We have to escape,” Cheddar whispered. Harry looked up to find a weird kind of fear on his friend’s face. It was infectious as if airborne immediately Cheddar spoke the words. Harry shook his head slowly.
“Soon, you will meet your guide. They will initiate full immersion where you will be given the Augmentum. Your guide shall navigate you through the perils that await you. They will show you how to survive because that is their purpose. They will be your friend for as long as you survive. Trust them if you must.”
“We are going to die here, bro,” Cheddar whispered again. Harry sighed. “What? Can you fight something like that? That thing just fried someone out of existence, what kind of insane Sci-Fi mind fuck is that?”
“Wait,” Harry whispered back to his agitated friend. “We can’t leave now. That door didn’t work, remember? I think that had something to do with Rhoar the scorpion up there.” Harry looked up to see if she’d heard him.
“We wait then? For a chance?” Cheddar asked, sighing with relief. “There must be vents or something we can use to get out of here.”
“Maybe,” Harry said impatiently. Rhoar was speaking again.
“Your immersion will change you,” Rhoar continued. Galid and Verin seemed to be statues next to her. “It will be painful. But know that it will be your climb to something higher than you are right now. Once again, welcome to the Infernal Crucible my little pups.”
First, Galid stepped back as if moving away from Rhoar. Something wrapped around him, as if the space opened up and swallowed him. Harry watched wide-eyed as tiny motes of buzzing darkness ate at Verin’s form until the Shadowspawn was gone.
“Showoffs,” Rhoar said, and this time her mouth peeled apart when she grinned. Like Galid, she simply walked into space and vanished.
For a brief moment, no one moved. They were all stunned to silence. Then as if the shock wore off at once, they all burst into motion. Cheddar turned to join the group rushing for the door, but Harry held him back. Cheddar glared at him.
“Now’s the time, moron. We can leave!”
“Wait,” Harry said and as if he’d foresaw what was coming, the force crashed on them again. Cheddar jumped away from the closest body writhing and screaming under the weight of the force. Harry looked around, searching to see if there was a physical source, not that he expected to find it.
Another magical phenomenon. He shook the doubt away from his mind. The more he thought about it, the harder it was to doubt it. Those three had simply vanished just now. And before that, they were floating above them as if they stood on an invisible platform. Magic.
Was that how they controlled the door? Irrelevant. That doesn’t matter. How do we get out of here?
“Thanks,” Cheddar muttered as if he was talking to himself as he watched many others suffer. “Looks like you were not the only one with the sense to stay put.”
Harry followed his nod to find Lia holding on to Nancy, one of the recruits in HR. They looked terrified. He wanted to wave them over, but that might come with some kind of consequence too.
“It’s gone,” Cheddar whispered when the screaming stopped. Harry felt it in the air. There was a quality to it, not exactly heaviness. Like the absence of a smell. He ignored the compulsion to dig into that.
—Shall we begin your immersion?—
Harry stared at the HUD wide-eyed. Cheddar went stiff beside him, his fingers wrapping around Harry’s arm.
“The chick is back,” he whispered as though whatever voice was in his head wouldn’t hear him. “What do I do?”
“We don’t really have any choice,” Harry thought. The question was structured to seem like they could choose to avoid the immersion, but the reality of what Galid did had taken that option away from everyone.
They were being moved like puppets.
Harry hissed before confirming acceptance. In front of him, a thick, dark-skinned woman from Marketing collapsed. Then Steve from IT followed, hitting the floor face first. Harry winced as he searched for Lia, hoping she wouldn’t fall like the others.
Oh shit!
The edges of his sight turned to black as his vision dimmed and his body went numb. There was no pain in the process.
He realized what was happening just as the British voice said it.
—Don’t worry! You are just going into immersion!—
Immersion turned out to be a vast desert of brown, warm sand. Harry watched as a storm tore through the land, moving from the horizon toward him. He reached out, feeling the warmth of the sun. Even the dry wind felt real.
“Is this real?” Harry asked. He turned around to find a mass of squirming fluid-like matter. It was dark and jagged on the outer surface. It floated, moving in a complex pattern Harry didn’t try to comprehend.
—It was. This is the waste of Balon. Home of six billion. It was vast, filled with life and culture and corruption and whatever comes with existence. Do you know what reduced them to this?—
“They failed the crucible?” Harry guessed. He felt the mass’s shock like it was his own. That felt odd.
—Yes, they did. They had no champion. Their world was reaped like wheat in season. Sucked dry until there was nothing left, then abandoned. I hope this is enough motivation for you.—
Harry contemplated that. If he was being honest, none of it mattered to him. He’d never cared for the planet. And he would be dead in months anyway. But it would suck for his mum, for Cheddar and Lia. He shrugged.
He had nothing to lose. I might as well play the hero.
—Great! I can sense a great resolve in you! This should be a fruitful partnership! I will be your guide!—
“Right,” Harry said as the desert rolled away and the landscape changed to a field of lush grass and knee-height flowers. Colors scattered endlessly. In the middle of the field, a gnarly, stout tree stretched with vibrant leaves and budding seeds.
Harry grinned when he saw the low-hanging fruit. “Some kind of joke?”
The mass vibrated and Harry heard a series of warbles he immediately understood to be giggles.
—That’s the Augmentum.—
“What is it?” Harry asked as he walked to the tree. The fruit was no bigger than a grape. From books and movies he’d read, he expected it to give off a sinister aura. Some kind of power to show how potent or important it was.
It did not. Harry tried to hide his disappointment as his guide explained.
--The Augmentum is a soul-based seed. A sub-state of the Crucible system. As you grow in power and compatibility, it advances until you carry a mature node. They call those the Ruler Seed.—
“So the older the seed, or Augmentum, the stronger the host?” Harry asked.
—No. Time has nothing to do with it. Advancement does. First, you must absorb the Augmentum. It will evaluate and restructure you, enhancing you as much as your present form can manage. That is what we call the base form.—
The guide giggled again.
—I can’t wait to see what you will become.—
Harry was ashamed to admit that he was curious too. He plucked the fruit. It was soft to the touch, almost like a normal grape. He popped it in his mouth and bit down on it. Something filled his mouth, then wriggled like worms. He tried to open his mouth but that was suddenly impossible.
Harry’s eyes widened in panic. He wheeled around to glare at the guide, making soundless accusations.
Whatever he’d just put in his mouth wriggled down his throat, multiplying as it moved. He felt all of its writhing and burrowing.
His HUD popped up just as the sensation returned to him. He opened his mouth to curse at the guide and the words morphed into a scream halfway.
The pain. It curled Harry backward. His spine screaked. Cold fire rushed through his veins, burning his insides, scouring him clean.
Harry wanted to scream. He wanted to beg. He wanted to curse everything.
He could do none of those.
His cry of pain was locked in his head where he alone could hear it.
—Implanting Soul Seed.—
—Augmentum integrated…
—Commencing evaluation…
Lard whistled as he read the evaluation feed report. “And here, I shall deliver you a boon!”
Harry’s body shook violently as the process dragged on. Lard changed the landscape once more to watch the destruction of yet another part of this wonderful planet.