Re: Timeless Apocalypse-Chapter 64: It Hurts

Uriel began to feel.

His mind resonated with every core around him, and deeper still, it resonated with their emotions.

He resonated with the emotions buried deep within their hearts, emotions directed toward him.

None knew he was the young man who had fought in the skies for them that day, nor that he was the one who had taken first place during the cloud trial.

But they remembered his name.

Uriel.

And they all had emotions toward that mysterious young man.

Some felt joy at the thought of his name, admiration filling their hearts as they recalled his achievements, as they replayed his feats again and again.

They remembered him standing before a sea of incomprehensible monsters, seeing him collapse into despair, yet rise to his feet and bring salvation to them all with nothing but his determination.

They felt gratitude. The rewards he had granted them were more than pivotal; they had been primordial, saving countless lives, giving them a chance to survive the coming fall.

Mothers used him as an example of determination. Children saw him as an emblem of courage. Men looked at him with fondness, his face that of the indomitable human spirit.

There was love, so much of it.

But there was also jealousy and envy, born from the ridiculous might of his spark. Just how powerful was his spark, to be able to kill all those monsters with nothing but a thought?

What if they had it?

He had gotten first place in the cloud trial, but he had also won the advent alone. Just how massive were his rewards? If they had received such incredible benefits, then what about him?

Some had their hearts consumed by jealousy, feeling as though the opportunity to stand tall as humanity’s symbol of hope had been stripped away from them. Others felt rage at the unfairness of fate.

Why hadn’t they been given the opportunity to compete in the advent? Why didn’t they possess such a powerful spark? Why was a cripple more powerful than them?

Greed. Lust. And so much more.

So much of it.

Uriel felt it all.

He couldn’t stop it. He couldn’t stop himself from feeling. He couldn’t stop his spark from shining brightly, opening his mind to their hearts.

He drowned in an ocean of indescribable emotions, so intense that he collapsed.

Tears fell from his eyes, a melancholic smile surfacing across his young, malnourished face.

Tremors tore through his body. Voices filled his head, and phantom sensations gripped his flesh.

His tears fell without end.

"It hurts."

He cried.

He couldn’t stop.

...

"Uriel?!"

Enoch and Ayah pulled Uriel into an empty alleyway between two buildings, into a dark corner shielded from the falling rain.

Looking at Uriel’s state, the two of them couldn’t help but be shaken to their cores, not only because he looked as though he was on the verge of collapse, but because they could feel it.

They could feel the slow, creeping tentacles of his spark digging into them, pulling at the darkest corners of their minds, wrapping around their sense of self, stripping it of all freedom and—

SHI!

Lie Eater bracelets appeared on both Enoch’s and Ayah’s wrists, snapping them out of the trance they had nearly fallen into and shielding them from Uriel.

Ayah looked at Uriel with eyes filled with horror.

Suddenly, a third Lie Eater bracelet formed around Uriel’s arm, resonating with his spark, and shockingly, lulling it into temporary dormancy.

Uriel awoke from his daze.

"Uh?" He stood to his feet, slightly confused, before the memories came flooding back.

"Thank you," he said, sighing.

Enoch looked at him solemnly, while Ayah gazed out toward the streets beyond the alleyway, where people were slowly awakening from the daze they had nearly fallen into as well.

’How is this possible?’ she thought, shock rippling through her.

Uriel wiped the tears from his face and smiled. "I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. I was just... a bit lost, so I slipped up."

"We’re going back home," Enoch said immediately.

Uriel shook his head. "No, it’s fine. We’re already out, we might as well continue."

"Plus," he added, pointing at the bracelet, "as long as I have this, we’re fine, right?"

Enoch looked at him deeply.

Eventually, he sighed.

"Alright. Let’s go."

...

In quiet silence, the trio returned to the streets and made their way toward the crater district of the settlement.

It was a sprawling expanse of sunken land, like the remnants of colossal impacts, panels of metal fitted across the bowls like vast plates, gigantic and reflective, catching and scattering all light.

There were dozens of such craters.

Walking to the edge of one, Enoch was immediately greeted by a projected holographic screen. He typed in a few commands, and the screen vanished. Moments later, they were teleported away.

They reappeared in a wide, expansive hall of silver metal, filled with many awakened of the settlement.

Along the walls and across the hall, dozens of circular counters embedded directly into the structure could be seen, inhumans standing behind them and tending to the newcomers.

They walked over to a counter with a line and waited as each person was served one by one until, eventually, half an hour later, it was their turn.

"Hello, welcome to the Training Crater. What can I do for you?" a young man greeted them with a charming smile.

Enoch stepped forward. "Hello. We’d like to reserve a private simulation room with three pods, as well as a three-hour session."

The young man nodded and began typing on a strange projected keyboard of runes, his eyes glazing over as a screen appeared before him.

"Mhm. Would you like the basic pod functions or the advanced functions? Or do you perhaps have a custom set of parameters you’d like to put in place?"

Enoch and the young man went back and forth.

...

After paying, the three were escorted to a private room on one of the deeper floors of the crater.

It was simple in appearance, floors and walls the same silver as the reception hall, but lined with thick tubes and wires that connected to three massive, pill-shaped structures of glass and metal, bound together by cables of every kind.

’By the Gods.’

Uriel couldn’t directly see any runes, but his newfound sense for magic allowed him to perceive the ridiculously complex layers of resonances and networks woven throughout the room.

The sheer volume of aether cycling through the systems shocked him, and the precision of its control shocked him even more.

Whatever mage-artisan had built this place was operating at a level Uriel couldn’t even begin to fathom.

’I still have a long way to go.’

The thought made him smile for some reason. His love for magic, already deep and vast, only continued to widen with every passing second.

"Let’s start."