The sound of metal cutlery falling upon pottery echoed in the now silent room. Each breath became harder to take in and the only one concerned seemed to be Avala as her ears drooped slightly with her head facing down. The whole morning we had been chatting and she had skillfully avoided discussions or questions I brought up about other races and more specifically humans. Although Barlar was rude I could tell he wasn’t lying to me and I appreciated that honestly, no matter how harsh it was. The tears began to stream down my face again.
“Am I the last one alive?” My question was rhetorical but that did not stop Avala from chiming in, from an attempt to lighten my heart.
“The last seen in this region. There are many areas far beyond these lands that we know little about where many humans or even kingdoms could exist.” The reassurance of her words clearly lacked the confidence she had in them as she had the smallest trip in her saying them coming from a perfect conversationalist.
“It's not like they were wiped out. At least not in the way most are. From legends have it they ascended beyond us, and rumors have it that some still remain hidden in guidance.” Barlar’s open statement seemed to be his attempt at an apology to the shocking reality I had been presented.
“Plus we still don’t know why or how you're still here. That in of itself is a mystery.” Barlar wiped his mouth from the remaining grease the sausage had left on his mustache. Looking, better than he had when first coming down, probably a race of hangry people is my conclusion.
“I know about 90% of how and why, I just honestly don’t know how I got HERE.” The clear frustration in my voice silenced the developing conversation once more.
“Kat displays a simulation of the last known state of the planet from remaining data.” I spoke out loud to both my bewildered associates' surprise who glanced around for the other entity I referenced. Within several seconds Kat confirmed my order and the room chilled again slightly, although noticeable to only the most sensitive, which was clearly Avala as she slid her chair back from me.
Over the center of the table, a hologram appeared of the plant rotating with the faint shadow of the moon in the distance. This shocked both Avala and Barlar more than anything as they jumped away from the table. The lack of concern I had upon my face helped confront them a moment but didn't remove their caution of what appeared before them.
“It's a hologram. A living painting that is multi-dimensional per se. This one is of my home planet moments before I was sealed in what you found me.” A quick wave of my hand and the planet's rotation continued with simulated clouds and ocean storms accurate to the pixelite. I grabbed the bottle of wine from the table as I turned away from the image that captivated its now dual audience members.
Within seconds I could see the room blink and flicker as the light bounced off the wall to display the horror I knew. After the first few flashes, I just closed my eyes and poured the bottle down my throat. It took several more minutes until the flashing clearly stopped, which I flicked my hand towards the hologram, stopping it once again frozen in time.
“This is AMAZING magic! I have never seen something like this before. There were stories and fantasies of those who could control the world enough to manipulate matter at such a level one could clearly see it living! What were those brilliant flashes of light!?” The excitement in Avala's voice helped lighten my feelings at the moment.
“Death. Each one of those flashes was probably around 1.5 to 10 million people dying. The lucky ones died when the flashes went off.” My sobering reply only caused them both to silence as the Barler’s mouth hung open while the Avalaf clearly could not contain her feelings anymore as she silently shed a tear.
“That's impossible! That was a small world! There is nothing that can do that. Even if it was, that must have taken decades. No, millennia between each flash!” The Barler was clearly starting to wrap his head around the reality I had shared, looking for me to confirm his unsettling feelings.
“First that's fully possible and if anything that was outdated technology. That small world was a too-scale reply to my entire planet. Last you are right the time is slightly off. Kat played it in real-time.” My command rewinds the time of the world as everything reverted back. It took barely two minutes before the last flash flickered out of existence as I spun the world back.
“To confirm the estimated death total on the first bombs has been calculated at 3.8billion.” Kats' voice rang in my area, with so many lives lost that it merely became a statistic to me as there would be no way for me to fully grasp that many lives. I conveyed the updated calculation to both. The Barler's reaction was to fall into a chair and melt, meanwhile, Avala clasped her hands over her face as she broke down at that moment falling to the ground shedding tears.
“I went to sleep in the final moments of those bombs going off. When you freed me from that stone, those are my final memories. I think there is a way to find out more. . .”
“NO! Please. Just no. . .” Barler followed Avala as he cupped his hands into his face as he leaned into the table.
“What world would do that to its people? What reason?” The Barler’s iris was stricken open clearly from the horror of his imagination that had filled in the lacking information from the magical vision.
“I don't know who started it. My job was to end it and make sure it never happened. I failed not only my job but it seems my entire species. It's safe to assume that after those flashes of light in the coming years only 1% of the entire global population would have been alive. If they were lucky. So let me ask you this when you say the last humans ascended what do you mean?” A fresh wine bottle was taken from the shelf as I debated pouring it into a cup.
“That's. . . I honestly can’t tell you what it means besides legends. I know some elders who might know. . . That was far worse than any demon could have done.” Barlers horror almost had him on the edge as he had seen the results of the battlefield.
“Yes, we can be demons in our own way. Humans had the ability to be pretty evil but we were finally coming to a solution of global peace. I don’t know who or what started it but given another generation or two it might have been finally possible.” My reply was if a professor was lecturing his class, as it was the best I could do to disassociate myself.
“No I mean the plains demons are savage but they don't just kill everyone. At the very worst at least they take them as slaves or hostages. . .”
“Excuse me. Plains demons?” I stopped pouring my wine into the cup I had decided to fill.
“Yeah Plains demons. They come through the open lands murdering, destroying, kidnapping, robbing, etc. It's been getting worse lately as it's said they may soon break free to rush across the lands. That's why we are desperately mining for resources.” After hearing Barler’s reply the sudden reality of this fantasy world echoed inside me as the reality that a multitude of other species likely existed.
“If there are demons, shouldn’t they eat people or wipe them all out?” My curiosity peaked about this new threat I never knew.
“It depends on the demons, it's a very broad and generic term, but mostly they kidnap when they can to take you back into the demonic realm. It's blocked by a fog that none have ever returned from alive.” Barler had composed himself enough from the shift in conversation to slide my bottle of wine over and pour himself a full cup.
“When you say fog. It wouldn’t happen to look like this?” I asked him as I again summoned a smaller flat holographic display that was video and still images of invading forces. The fog we had never seen inside of, never knew where it came from, and the biggest regret I had.
“Yes, like that exactly!” Barler was clearly impressed and caused me to smile like a parent would watch their child discover something new.
“You even captured the same details down to the building! How do you do that?”
