I look up at the ceiling where a light is creeping over slowly, my chest heaves up and down steady while a head filled with short blonde hair rests a top it.

It’s mid-morning already and I have met all 5 targets and all 5 have been the same, potential patrons of the eternal cradle who were somehow tricked into believing that they should sign up for this before its too late. A life of essentially being a breeding sow for humanity, the eternal cradle… where the babies are birthed to populate the inner cities. It’s dignified as a glorious matter in scripture and taught to the young en masse.

It’s a practise that few resort to but some are forced to, many are probably coerced by other conditions out of their control into accepting it.

Rulu resting her head on my body right now is much the same, the young woman last on the list who felt trapped she wasn’t able to find anyone to fill her life after her parents were called up. Her mother and father were birthed through the eternal cradle so she felt obligated to return the favour since she had nothing else worthy in her life.

Matters that I wouldn’t even consider normally yet I find myself feeling emotions towards her, her story and her plight have driven me to stay here and contemplate.

Contemplate what though?

I stare at the ceiling listening to the two of us heavily breathing, thinking about nothing but basking in the feelings that swamp my body.

What’s my next move from here? I can continue going through the list of targets as I can just snap the other pieces of the list over to me yet then what? Something else has to be going on and I cannot stick around here doing this. I renew my focus and look at the blonde head below me.

“Do you remember what I said?”

“Yes,” the woman says with a whispered breath.

“Well I suggest you make preparations for it,” I gently stroke her head.

She places her hand on mine holding it against her cheek, “Are you going to take me?”

“I can’t, I have to report in otherwise they might come here looking for you.”

She releases my hand, “I see,” she mutters softly allowing silence to come over the two of us, only the sound of the distant traffic fills the room.

“You could probably get help from the others, Fallian… Fallononian, she will probably help you.”

Rulu lifts her head up and returns it to the pillow beside me, “Alright are you leaving then?”

“I should but I wanted to adjust to your presence, understand you more by being with you.”

“Really?,” Rulu asks under her breath.

“Of course, there’s more to you than just your pleasure point–

Rulu hits my chest with her fist, “Shush, yes there’s more to me. You don’t need to talk about that though.”

I laugh as she continues to speak.

“We’ll talk more later, I don’t need more people like you barging through the door.”

I smile, “That’s true, I need to go sort them out then.”

I stand up from the bed and put my robe on, Rulu is laying on the bed watching me in silence.

“See you later,” I say while standing by the door.

Rulu waves her hand in silence, I step through the door and close it with a wave and heavy heart. There’s little other option than this at the moment and reporting in truly is the most beneficial move at the moment, I’m already an hour late for the first one and the second is in ten minutes.

I begin walking, the mid-morning has much more life than the night time city yet it feels just as lifeless as no one interacts with another unless it’s in need and typically annoyance. I observe them as though they’re living a normal life, not underground sustained by a system they don’t actually understand with gods that rule over them with a deathly grip. The people seem entirely normal yet the evil god influences do become apparent upon sight of the black iconography.

I arrive at the reporting point with a minute to spare, a small park with a single tree and playground that is completely empty, a voice announces itself when I approach the playground.

“Report in Fillip,” the man’s boom voice draws attention to a blank space of air nearby.

“All targets were taken prior to arrival.”

“Shit. What took you so long to report then?”

“I was hunting down whatever leads I could.”

“You don’t have the ability to track down leads, why did you do that?,” a shrill voice comes from the shadows.

“I have more ability than you,” I respond without care, a shadow flickers into existence flying towards me.

I move my neck and shoulders dodging the daggers flying towards my head, they narrowly miss my head as I look at the shadowed figure in the distance.

“You two stop it, if you get hurt then that’s points taken off the group so don’t throw daggers again or I’ll return them somewhere unpleasant.”

The group flashes out of the shadows before me, only three of the previous figure are standing there while there’s many others standing behind them. I’m about to ask who they are when there’s some movement behind me, I turn around and spot another group of masked people showing up followed by other robed figure.

The new comers silently gather behind the other groups leaving me standing alone away from everyone.

“You brought no one back? How are you meant to show honour to the god?,” one of the new comers speaks out.

I turn to speak to them when more movement comes from behind, more people show up and push past me I can only grit my teeth and bear it as I watch them join the crowd of onlookers.

“Nathaniel, I petition for Section 405 on Fillip.”

“405? What grounds?,” the large man acting like the leader asks.

“Betrayal, murder, treason.”

“Those are serious accusations, do you have proof?”

“Hasn’t his behaviour on this mission been enough?,” the shrill voice asks out loud, the crowd behind them quietly talking amongst themselves.

“That’s no–

The shrill voice interrupts, “that’s why I petition for section 405. I wish to remand him.”

The large man sighs, “Fine, Fillip you brought this upon yourself.”

The others approach upon me, I allow them to wrap a strange sort of rope around me and restrain my movements. I don’t resist at all watching what they’re doing.

“What do we do now?”

“We have to wait until we report back.”

“If we report this back then we’ll be in trouble.”

“We can kill him.”

Silence comes over the group when someone sounds the alarm in the distance, “Incoming.”

A flaming object approaches from the distance, it nearly hits my body as it flies through the air landing on one of the nearby buildings

Two more arrows come flying nearby not hitting anybody, I look at the masked people who are holding their hands in the air with energy flowing through them, an energy that I cannot identify exactly but it seems familiar.

A flash appears in the sky, followed by several dozen more, yellow coloured energy arrows are falling from the sky.

They hit an invisible barrier before all the masked people holding out their hand, I’m still restrained and can only watch the scene unfold. The masked people protected the people behind them including me, the arrows stop after several volleys. The activity has kicked up the dust in the park obscuring the view but three bright lights are clearly visible.

They walk into view calmly, three young men with blonde hair and perfect features looks at the group before them including me, they snort and look at the leader.

“You call this a mission team? You have one of them restrained.”

“Things happen, I’m sure you’re aware of that. Why did you attack us?”

“This group just looked so weak that I thought it was mirage. How was I to know that this was going to be your actual group?”

“Whatever we have acquired I am sure it is higher quality than what you have, it always has been.”

“You will be surprised this year. We might have been given permission to harvest the inner cities this time.”

“What? Who approved that?”

“2nd Apostate.”

“So if the sixth highest ranking member of your church said it’s ok why are you here?”

A few people in the crowd quietly smirk at these word, the young man speak has an awkward smile on his face as he speaks, “I prefer the layout of the city here.”

“The apostate also commanded he reach a certain power level which he did not, thus he was not allowed to travel,” one of the other blonde men speaks up.

“Shut up Herschel.”

“Make me Hans.”

The two blonde men grimace and bare their teeth at each other as the final one speaks, “Why did you tie someone up?”

“We tied Fillip up because–

“Where’d Fillip go?”

“Did he run away?”

….

I step out of the rope and collect it while looking around, I have ended up on some dilapidated street where the small and old apartment buildings aren’t maintained and the small stores are all burnt out.

I fix up my robe and begin walking down the road past a burnt out car, a man is drinking from a bottle inside the car.

I nod at him as I walk by, he responds in kind and continues to drink.

I turn a corner and continue to walk, passing another burnt out car then a truck without anyone in them.

I continue walking and look back, an old man is drinking from a flask near the truck.

I cross the street and turn another corner getting onto another block when I spot another burnt out car, much like the previous ones.

I walk to within a few steps of it and stop, something about this car is telling me to not continue.

I slowly approach the car, I need to at the least see the inside of the wreckage, I get to within a step of the car and peer in when I hear a noise beside me.

I look on the other side of me and spot a figure that has appeared without any noise, I react by backing away but the figure follows after me.

“Where you going?”

“I need to get to an interior city,” I say trying to get away from this person.

They take a sip of drink, “I can take you there.”

I pause my step and look at them, the drunken person that doesn’t have a single layer of clean clothing on, “I doubt you can remember where you slept last night.”

The man smirks, “I can, it was over there,” the man points down the street, I look that direction and spot a burnt out car sitting there, we have already walked several streets.

“Congratulations, but you don’t own it,” I hurry my step.

“Ownership is such a mortal concept.”

I pause my step as I feel the drunken person send a tap on my shoulder, I turn around and spot nothing on the street including the burnt out car.

I turn around to continue my step when I notice that I have appeared within an entirely black space, the buildings and street have disappeared for an endless black space. I continue my steps that have been replaced with a water splashing sound as though I’m walking in water yet I don’t let that affect me as I continue to walk.

“Aren’t you curious about the change?,” a voice echoes in the space around me.

“I was waiting for you to show yourself,” I say while pausing my step and looking up.

A form gathers from the mist into a large eyeball above me, it peers down at me as though it’s trying to analyse everything about me for a moment.

I cannot fight this as the energy overpowers the energies I have gathered so far, a painful sensation comes from my head as something eels like its moving.

A drilling sensations as it reaches my skulls before finally tugging on and branching my skin, I cannot even move to cradle my head as the object glows before my eyes.

The ritual icon I acquired from the head previously, it’s glowing in a golden energy bubble before me for a moment then crumbles into dust.

“What did you do to it?,” the loud voice booms and echoes through the space.

“Nothing worth talking about, can you release me?”

“Release you? Nothing worth talking about? Those are rather conceited words coming from someone within my god space.”

I raise an eyebrow and look around, “God Space? This is a God Space? Something that only true gods can posses? You call this a God Space?”

“What would you know about god spaces?” an echoing voice accompanied by lightning and thunder sounds in the space.

“I know enough to collapse crudely made ones,” I gather my energy then raise my hand.

A spot within the god space glows, a glowing orb appears within the distant darkness as I clench my raised hand.

A smirk comes over my face as I hold my clench fist in the air, I gaze straight ahead where a figure shimmers into existence. A middle-aged man with black hair and a squinted expression stands before me. I stare back at the man but when I move my eyes I spot some strange movement in them and turn my head, I spot another version of the same man standing behind me.

I clench my fist harder sending more energy through it, a shattering sound comes from the distant orb before everything surrounding me cracks into a powder of nothingness.

I shut my eyes to protect them, I open them and inhale sharply as I’m surrounded by an infinite copy of the same person surrounding me. I can only see an endless expanse that contains the same middle-aged man standing staring at me.

“Are you only going to stare at me?,” I quietly gather my energy into this body ready to strike out if needed.

“Do you think you can hurt me with that?”

“I can only try.”

“Well try it.”

I strike forward releasing the energy, a bending shockwave travels forward folding the space over on itself. This will cause two things an force that is implosive and one that will collapse space on itself, sustaining itself for a moment before collapsing. Essentially creating a string of micro black holes that only exist for a few micro seconds yet that’s enough to cause untold destruction on a reality sense.

Countless bright purple flashes burn my eyes as everything is sucked with my attack, I smirk feeling proud of myself when I feel a tap on my shoulder.

I look that way and see that everything is back to normal as though nothing has changed, my heart begins to throb when then middle-aged man before me reaches forward into my chest and pulls out my throbbing heart.

I can feel his every move as his hand pierces through my flesh and grabs hold of my organ, his slight squeeze constricts my movements just so yet as I look down at my chest it’s completely normal.

“You don’t seem afraid?”

I squint at the man holding my heart, “I don’t have much of an option.”

“Option?,” the man’s voice comes from beside me, the man’s hand reaches for my head and rests on it.

His hand passes through my skin and through my skull into my brain, “Why do you think you have an option?”

I can feel the finger pick at particular parts of the brain with each time bringing a unique sensation and pressure, each touch brings more pressure to different sections of the brain it continues to touch as I’m unable to do anything until…

*POP*

TiK

I think the fight is cool, a teaser for what's to come but what's next is pretty cool. idk. enjoy. wish life were as simple as the story could be.