The location designated the Grand Atlantis Forum, with its majestic columns of ash-white pillars, crashed down from its perch atop the skies. The pillars, which would never break apart from their mighty foundations, had begun to disengage and free fall. The ultimate sin known to men had come undone; the seals meant to safeguard this realm had become forcefully unleashed.
The intellectuals and the brave suffered a fate far worse than their predecessors did seventeen years ago, when their creations gained an artificial mind from the insane progress they discovered, slaughtering and plunging humanity into the second coming of the dark ages.
The brave, who adorned the colours of white as the last vestige of the world’s allied fighting force, watched as the intellectuals gave into the madness of their intellect. From the jaws of hell, the physical manifestation of an artificially generated liquified pool of madness crawled out from the binary vortex, taking the form of a grotesque abomination.
As the abomination towered over him, he could not help but wonder.
Were we ever on the same page?
Andrew watched the fellow researchers who looked up to the scientist get crushed by their apparatuses. “...Why?”
An eerie silence. The abomination said nothing, for no words could explain the grand plan he swore to fulfil, for even after death, the show must go on.
“Were they all lies?! Tell me, Jordan!”
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A familiar hand grabbed him on the shoulder.
“...Sir!”
“We don’t have much time left. Here’s the plan…”
The plan sounded perfect except for one jarring detail.
“We can’t do that.”
“You go round up the survivors.”
His sworn brother spoke fearlessly, knowing he might not survive this cursed night. Andrew knew nothing he said would change his brother’s mind, for he was a warrior who never backed down from fulfilling his duties.
“That’s like signing a death warrant,” Andrew pointed at the terrorist insurgents who hijacked the research project. If he allowed his sworn brother to go into combat alone–one versus all, he knew his brother, even with the almighty strength of a war god, wouldn’t survive.
“That’s an order, Captain Temporean.”
Andrew felt his comrade’s brief jitteriness before it faded into calmness, like a serene lake with still water. The courage within had enveloped the man known by his legendary call sign.
“...Go, now.”
“Wait. On one condition.”
His sworn brother said nothing.
“Promise me that you’ll come back alive.”
“I will.”
Andrew ran off from the Grand Forum, leaving his sworn brother alone to face the terrorists and the man who betrayed them. He knew his sworn brother wouldn’t survive this affair but harboured faith that he could make the impossible possible.
Unfortunately, little did the Swan Contingent and Drazen Empire’s representatives know…
…Their return was not part of the mission plan.