NOVEL NEXT Chapter 5.5: Fragments of the Past
Ciella
A flourishing and prosperous world inhabited by humans and blessed with both magic and technology.
Mankind spent centuries dedicated to research and development of both fields, but recent times especially focused on combining the two, creating a new field called magitech.
They defeated disease, pushed back Mother Nature, and even conquered the stars! Mankind was truly unstoppable!
Until they fucked up, that is.
I mean, what do you expect? They literally spent hundreds of years depleting the world's resources without bothering to preserve the world.
By the time they 'conquered the stars,' the climate had already collapsed. Temperatures rose, weather was shit, and all the wildlife almost went extinct. Oh, and all the resources had basically run out because of all the wars.
So what did the humans do in such dire times? They fought another war, obviously. Countries fought over the little resources that still existed, and even a new faction popped up midfight. Those guys were basically mages who were tired of being treated as living weapons and, well, attempted to fight for their independence.
Relations between mages and non-mages were kinda decent, but then the war turned them upside down and inside out. Apparently, the mages made their stance when a bunch of politicians tried to flee the planet to the moon and got shot down by the mage leaders. Fun times.
The war waged on and was plenty destructive, as you might expect, and oh wow, it barely lasted a year. Buncha people died of course, but that is nothing even remotely comparable to what followed.
Mother Nature had been continuously belittled and harassed, and that war was the last straw. What little ambient mana remained in the atmosphere suddenly converged and condensed in the remaining wildlife. It transformed them, enhanced them, and everything evolved.
You see, our planet was a bit unique in that the mana sort of just rested in the atmosphere and rarely interacted with any of its inhabitants. Even mages were pretty rare: this book says around 1 in 10 people were born mages. So when all that mana suddenly started affecting all the wildlife, you can imagine the look on those idiots' faces.
Now, humanity had big bad monsters at their footsteps and they just so happened to have spent all their weaponry in the war. Woohoo, go team go! You can do it...not. What can a puny human do against giant bees that literally shot out head-sized stingers, or house-sized crabs and lobsters with bulletproof shells and HUUGE claws, or komodo dragons that actually lived up to their names in size and majesty, or that cute fluffy puppy that's now two meters tall and breathes fire!?
But wait, there's more! Even all those cool monsters and the war caused maybe like 5% of all the deaths that happened at that time. The real killers were the plants. Giant man-eating plants aside, there was a new seed that upon blooming, released a bunch of spores into the air.
Those spores were highly concentrated with cyanide compounds. Yeah, fun stuff. But wait, there's MORE!! Yeah the flowers that released those toxic spores? They took in a bunch of the carbon monoxide in the atmosphere and produced not oxygen, ozone in an attempt to repair alllll those holes in the ozone layer. What'd they do with the carbon? Grew real fucking big, that's what.
I swear, those flowers were usually bigger than the monsters. Oh and uh, with all the carbon monoxide available in the air, they had plenty of food for reproduction. Water? What about it? They used mana as the catalyst for photosynthesis.
So, with all those fun toys Mother Nature created, humanity very quickly lost its numbers. Apparently, there used to be 10 billion people on the planet, a couple hundred on the moon. In the span of six months or so, 99.998% of them died. Most of them died in the immediate aftermath. The rest were just stupid and refused to wear gas masks. Oh, and the moon people were never heard from again.
Maybe they met some aliens? I think I saw a book around here that mentioned a thing or two about space whales. If they do exist, I've always wanted to see one!
Ahem! After that, the surface was no longer habitable, so the rest of humanity shoved its fat ass into whatever underground systems there were: subways, mines, bunkers, even sewage systems.
Aaand that about wraps it up for this history book I've been reading. I don't feel like reading any more of it cuz the rest of it talks about the politics and stuff, and those just make me even angrier. I call it a history book, but it's more like a journal that was written by whoever was here before me. Probably a mage if they managed to survive that long. I could also feel a bit of residual mana around the building when I first found it.
Roughly 20 or so years have passed since humanity started living underground, and guess what? The numbers actually grew! They went from 200,000 remaining to 350,000 or so, but that's based off what I remember from before I got thrown out which was like, I dunno, a long time ago, so there's probably more now.
Hmm? Why'd I get thrown out? Hmmmmm, I'm not sure if I remember all the details, but I'll do my best just for you! Yes, you, smiley face! Who's 'you'? Don't question it.
Let's see, this happened when I was maybe 3 or 4 years old. I was born in the human society (if you could even call it that), things were pretty shitty, but we were still kind of a happy family. Scrawny and impoverished as fuck, but still somewhat happy.
Hmm, I think I just got back from playing with a couple other kids for the first time. Coincidentally, they were all girls. Obviously, they were wearing different clothes from me: you know, skirts and stuff. I thought they were really cute, so I went to my 'mom' and asked her if I could wear clothes like that.
"Mama Mama! Can I wear clothes like them?"
"Of course not. Those are for girls only. You're a boy, so you have to wear boy clothes."
"Ehhh, I don't wannaaa. Boy clothes suck."
"Not 'buts', mister. Girls have to wear girl clothes and boys have to wear boy clothes, that's just the way it is."
"Then I just have to be a girl then, right?"
"NO! LISTEN. HERE. MISTER. YOU are a boy, not a girl, a BOY, and you will always be a boy. You will never be a girl, so you have to wear boy clothes for the rest of your life. Understand?"
"But I wanna wear girl clothes! I wanna, I wanna, I WANNAAA!!!"
*BOOM*
So at that moment, my once dormant mana reserves finally broke the dam and started flowing out. Mix that in with my obviously volatile condition, and you get a fun explosion of aura that blew up the room.
I don't remember much after that, since I blacked out immediately. What I do remember is waking up on the floor, still kinda drowsy, and my 'parents' were having a little discussion. Next thing I know, they shoved me in an old potato bag and tossed me out in the wild tunnels, where who knows what resides. Bandits, monsters, other humans, anything really.
I didn't know it at the time, but I was the first ever mage in either of their bloodlines. You could go up to even their great-great-great-grandparents and not find a single mage amongst them. I found a book later that talked about this thing called atavism, where a reeeally old gene pops up after disappearing for several generations. I guess I'm an example of that.
That's how I learned I was different from humans and, after what I experienced, I realized I could never get along with them.
During the big war, all the mages started identifying as a separate species from humans and became independent. So from that day on, I was no longer a human but a mage instead.
Anyway, so that's how I got thrown out of my first 'home.' Fun times, really. Sure, I cried for a few days, but shortly after, I got distracted by my newly awakened powers. I started experimenting, lots of Hng's and Huuu's later, and I couldn't figure out how to to the funny explodey thing.
So, I eventually gave up and wandered around a bit. Ran into a few people. They had these weird looking beepy thingies in their hands, and when one up them held one over me, it started beeping like crazy. They then pulled out their weapons and tried to kill me, but nothing happened to me.
No seriously, I got stabbed and slashed and whacked, but nothing happened. They eventually gave up and called me a monster while running away. Rood. I'm a mage, not a monster.
Hunger wasn't too big a problem: there were these 'poisonous' mushrooms in the tunnels that the humans told me to never eat, but I ate them anyway and was never affected. Turns out, they were poisonous because the mushrooms were really rich in mana, and regular humans couldn't handle them; only mages could.
Lots of mushroom nomming later, and I ran into two groups fighting each other. One side was a bunch of human using old guns and the other side were mages. Then, I saw one of the mages cast a spell: a cool zap of lightning. The guy on the receiving end of it was toasted, and I obviously tried doing that myself.
I was aiming at the humans, of course. After a couple more Hng's, I finally got it to work, and what do you know, everyone else saw it and I hit the last standing human. Hehe~, you shoulda seen the look on his face. I didn't know humans could do that.
After that, the mages started looting the humans, and then they took me in. Come to think of it, they never shared their names with me. I already forgot mine by then, so they just called me 'kid'.
And so began the next chapter of my life.
I ran around with them for some time, I don't know how much. Day and night looks the exact same underground, and none of them had a clock or anything, so we never really kept track of time. Eventually, we found an old military bunker that was inhabited by some shitty humans.
I don't remember much about them other than that they were the shittiest shots I've ever seen. The adults looked around and said that they were some old politicians that wanted the bunker all for themselves, so they kicked out all the soldiers who were originally there.
We found a bunch of gas masks and guns in perfect condition. One of the guys who had been to the surface before took me with him on supply runs after that. That guy was pretty friendly with me and even taught me who to read. I never got to write though, there just wasn't ever the opportunity for that. His name was John.
The first time I saw the sky, I was amazed. I never knew the world could be so pretty. John told me something even more pretty would happen if I waited long enough, so I did while we scavenged around. That was the first time I understood what nighttime meant. It was dark, quiet, but beautiful. Especially the stars that dotted around the night sky and lit up the darkness.
It was just the two of us during those adventures, and he often complained about being overworked for gathering supplies while all the others, and I quote, 'just sit on their asses and fucked like dogs.' I didn't know what that meant, but my innocent self always thought they were doing more important things since they were adults. They also always told me 'good job' and to 'keep at it,' so I just thought John was going crazy or something.
At one point, we had a bad encounter with the locals on the surface, and John sacrificed himself to save me. I went back to the group, and they didn't mourn their friend or anything. They just told me I had to go out on my own now and if I specifically didn't gather supplies for them, everyone would die, which is a bad thing.
I believed them for a while. Time passed, and my body grew bigger and stronger from all the labor. Once I was strong enough, they had me process firewood, do laundry, cook, and fixed whatever needed fixing. They told me that they had to constantly keep watch and because of that, they were too busy and tired to do anything else and without them, we wouldn't have any security.
Once again, I believed them and served as their personal slave for another good chunk of time. I even learned how to use mana to enhance my physical capabilities.
During one of my solo adventures, I found this huge building with a bunch of paper. They were bound together and had a bunch of words on them. I remember John telling me about these before he died. They're called books and they have lots of information and knowledge in them. He said if I ever found one, I should read it whenever I had time. He also said I'd probably find a bunch in a building called a 'library,' which I think is what I found.
Unfortunately, most of the books were ruined, so I couldn't read that many. I looked around some more, though, and I found a basement that was full of food and water and books. It was all neatly organized and stacked together, but I could tell that someone was there recently because there was a note on the stack of books.
'To whoever reads this, enjoy all these gifts I left behind. Do whatever you want with them. I only ask of you to take only what you enjoy so that others can still share. Don't bother finding me. I'm never coming back.'
The lights were mana-powered, and the air still had some lingering amounts as well, so that person was probably a mage. Dunno why they left, but I never cared enough to think about it.
The day was still pretty early and I just hit the jackpot in supplies, so I could afford to spend some time reading. And that's exactly what I did. I sat down, grabbed a book that had a nice cover, and read it. It was about this human guy who moved to a city of both humans and monsters and became a doctor there with his childhood friend. Good stuff, lots of pretty girls. I'm sure that guy's happy.
Anyway, that was a fun experience. I definitely didn't get addicted and start reading books every day. Nope. Totally didn't read all the series John recommended me from his childhood, haha.
Ahem! So not too long after that, I found a tiny book that was called 'travel guide,' and there were lots of pictures of really pretty views and stuff. That was when I started sneaking around to find those kinds of sites.
A couple weeks later, I got sick or something and had a fever. No one came to help me; they just told me to sleep it off like a big boy. I woke up a few days later and was feeling better, so I went up to one of the ladies and asked her something I've been meaning to ask.
"Can I have a hug? I read in a book that when kids aren't feeling well, you're supposed to give them a hug to make them feel better."
"First of all, no. Second, only babies or girls get hugs, boys don't need them. You're a boy, you know, not a baby. You're supposed to be big and strong and take care of yourself without any help."
"So if I'm a girl, then I can get a hug? I wanna be a girl! I'm a girl now, starting today!"
"No, that's not how it works idiot, you're a boy so you can't be a girl. Just suck it up and deal with it alright? Now get back to work, you're wasting my time."
She walked away and that was that. There was another lady who watched our conversation from afar. She tried to comfort me, told me everything would be okay and that everyone cares about me, it's just that each person is different in how they show it. But I didn't care about any of that. I just wanted to be a girl and experience a hug for once.
For the next few weeks, I spent time telling everyone else I was a girl and asking if I could get a hug, but everyone denied me. A couple of them even yelled at me and hit me, telling me that I'm a boy, not a girl. Each time, that one lady would try and comfort me, but she never gave me a hug, either, so I stopped caring about her. Now that I think about it, she was always with the mean lady. They even slept in the same sleeping bag and I could hear noises coming from them when they did.
One night, when it was my turn to keep watch, I overheard them talking to each other.
"Haah, that little brat went around asking for a hug again, didn't he? When will he ever learn that he's, first of all, a boy, and second of all, no one wants to give him a hug."
"Come on, Lexi, ease up on him, will you? He's just a kid, you know."
"And why are you so soft on him, Maddie? Don't tell me you actually like kids like him."
"I don't, but the only way to get rid of those things is to play nice until they go away."
"Why not just wait until he hits a death hole like John did? Isn't that why we kept sending those two on suicide runs, to get rid of them the easy way?"
"Because that one seems kind of smart and is probably a lot more careful after John. It'd take a forever and a half for him to hit a snag."
"Haah, that much I know. That's why Adam keeps sending him to scout ahead. He runs into something or someone, we get notified ahead of time, AND, we get rid of him. Two in one, you know."
"We're coming up on some of those Church fanatics, aren't we? A great opportunity to get rid of everyone else, and then, it'll just be you and me~"
"Oh, stop it you~"
They continued chatting, but I stopped listening after they brought up John. That was when I learned I, we, were being used. John and I could've just run away, left those assholes behind. But I only stayed because John stayed. That was a mistake.
He told me that nicer lady, Maddie or whatever, was his little sister and that even though they never really got along, he still cared about her. I never understood that. Just because you're related means you have to take care of them? My awakening literally just flipped a switch in my loving and caring 'parents' who tossed me out in a sack and cut all ties with me in the span of a few hours.
I don't understand people. Then again, I already thought John was crazy, so I just left it as 'John's getting crazier cuz he's getting old.'
Anyways, the night when on, and once everyone was awake, we started moving out to find a new base camp. As always, they made me go first to 'scout ahead' and all that other bullshit.
This time, I actually did find some humans lying in ambush. 30 or so of them. More than twice our dozen. I didn't tell anyone though. Sure, the enemy had guns, but so did we, AND we were mages, AND my magic enhancements were strong enough to make my skin bulletproof.
I didn't do any fighting. I just led them into the ambush, making sure we were nice and surrounded and then disappeared. Remember that explosion I made when I first awakened? I recreated that, making seem like I stepped on a land mine. Soon enough, the tunnel was nice and chaotic, and all you hear were gunfire, shouting, and explosions from spells.
One of the spells actually misfired and hit the ceiling, which caused a small cave in and revealed the outside world. It did a nice hidey hole for me to enjoy the show from.
As soon as the hole opened up, all the humans started choking and slowly dying from all the spores and ozone while the mages tried their hardest to set up a barrier. Eventually all the humans dropped dead and the hole got patched up with some earth magic. Of course, I didn't forget to drop back down.
What? You thought I would just run and let them potentially get away? I always finish the job myself.
None of the assholes died, unfortunately, but they were tired, wounded, and out of mana. Perfect time to strike. So I did. A shot to the head, couple shots through the chest, nothing too crazy. Oh, but that guy who hit me that one time? I shot out both his legs and nailed both his hands to the dirt with some stakes. He died a nice death, slooooow and paaaaainful.
Anywho, I eventually ran out of ammo, but the only ones left were the two ladies. The mean one tried apologizing and begging me while the other one kept calling me a 'good boy' and asking me to spare them.
They started to annoy me, so I ripped out mean ladies vocal cords and cauterized the wound. For the other lady, I just gagged her. Somehow someway, neither of them fainted. Good, for me that is.
The mean lady got to watch as I drugged her with some paralyzing mushrooms and broke her bones.1There's no rule about describing torture in detail, is there? I mean, I think I've read way more fucked up stuff on this site, so hopefully I'll be fine...right? First the radius, then the ulna, then the humerus, and then whatever other bones were left that I couldn't pronounce. I mean, I went and brought a medical book for a reason. Oh, I also didn't forget to tear her ligaments. Apparently that was a really popular sports injury and hurts like hell so I wanted to see for myself.
Once I had enough of her delightful screams, I started chopping her up (alive obviously) and I barely got through the first leg when she passed. Oh well, I just continued what I was doing. The other lady was just watching in horror and I swear I could hear her heart shatter when the first one died. I didn't care. I just dragged her over to one of the fun little plants I discovered.
I dug a hole, buried the chopped lady along with a few seeds from said plant, and we watched the magic happen. In the span of a few minutes, the plants had already bloomed and bore some blood red fruit. Some of the leaves were edible too, and they were pretty darn tasty. I fed the first fruit to the lady with a side of edible leaves.
She didn't say anything, just mindlessly munched away, so I just left her there after I reopened the hole in the ceiling. She died soon after, and I was on my way back to the library along with a couple of those seeds.
From there, I just spent the rest of my life reading all the books and watching all the shows the previous owner downloaded onto a hard drive. Occasionally, some scavvers passed by and indirectly became my food. I think at some point, I heard some people calling the place a demon's den, and people started avoiding my library altogether.
That's fine though, I still had plenty of food stockpiled in the basement. I even had electricity and running water since the previous owner set up a mana-powered generator and a big water tank that collected and purified rainwater from the almost constant storms.
A reeeeally long time passed, though it felt really short, and I finally finished reading every single book and comic and watched every show available. If I were to guess, it probably took me a few years, but I had nothing else to do so whatever.
A while ago, I ran out of food, but I figured out how to use mana as a form of sustenance. The storms also started to recede a bit, so I had to go up and cast some water magic now and then to refill the tank.
The books taught me a lot. I learned lots of science and engineering, and some math that looked like spaghetti from a recipe book.
So yeah, here I am. I now have no reason to stay in this world. After that ambush, my only reason to live was to read. I didn't even find the shows until later, and when I did, I was surprised to see that they were adaptations of some of the books and comics I read. A pleasant surprise, certainly. Now that I've gone through everything, I think it's time to go.
Alright, final check time. Everything's in place, all the books back in a stack, heh that rhymed, and the basement's nice and clean. Sadly, I can't replace all the food, but that's probably fine.
You know, at first, I couldn't understand why the previous owner would leave this place. But after going through everything, I think I understand. They were probably just like me: no bigger reason to live other than the read and watch. Maybe someday, someone else will take over the place and continue the cycle.
Not that I really care about that, cuz it's time to head out.
I made my way to one of my favorite sightseeing spots: a beautiful lake up on a mountain. It took a whole day to hike up from the library, but the view was always worth it.
The clear water reflecting the gentle moonlight, only disturbed by the occasional ripple.
The light breeze brushing against the lush trees; the rustling leaves and branches conducting a wonderous melody.
The ambience of nature, mixed with the hooting of owls and howling of wolves.
The radiant moon illuminating the night sky alongside its faithful companions: the stars; the shining stars, ever-abundant and brighter than all else!
Who could ever forget them, the way they sparkle and shimmer, bringing the lonesome moon all the company one could ever ask for?
I always envied my ancestors who could take in such sights every day of their lives. This would be my last time seeing it, so I took off my mask and took in nature in its raw form. Once I memorized the view, I took a deep breath and made sure plenty of spores and ozone made it in.
"Aaah, the stars look lovely tonight, don't they? Hehe, I always wanted to say that to someone. What...a.....shame."
So long...world...and...thanks for...all...the...books...
