The Darkness Falls
The narrow streets were once teaming with life, the noise of the city's inhabitants being audible from miles away.
The crisscross roads are now empty, life vanishing just a few days ago.
All but the few immigrants which arrived only hours ago.
The bronze and golden skyline glittered eerily in the shallow light of the Black Sun, shadows seeming to engulf anything that tried to escape the evil light that had invaded this world.
One of the largest towers stood above the rest, tattered banners flowing loosely in the wind.
Without warning, an arc of black lightning struck the tower, a golden pike being illuminated with the evil light of the Black Sun.
A lone figure nearly leaped out of his skin, frantic eyes examining the state of the tower above him.
Not too bad.
He went back to the work he was doing, taking a large cable into his trembling hands.
An ebony cloud of gas was above the city, lightning streaking across the sky in a hellish display of Mother Nature's power.
The man dragged the cable across the bronze floor, struggling as he went.
He could not fail.
Not now.
Too many had died because of him, many of his friends were now far beyond the reach of any human.
Well, they were before now.
The man tripped through a doorway, landing hard on his elbow. A loud crack became audible, joined quickly by a howl of agony from the unfortunate man.
Undoubtedly, his arm was broken.
That was the down side to living on a planet with a fairly strong gravitational pull.
He struggled to his feet, carrying the heavy cable under one arm.
He grimaced as he shuffled forwards, inching his way towards the centre of the room.
There, he found a ginormous golden power core, stretching to the ceiling.
Wires and cables were trailing all over the copper floor, as though a great beast of the seas had made its home in the giant tower.
There were dozens of power sockets, all humming softly as hundreds of thousands of volts were surging towards the central core.
Just one socket awaited a cable.
The man struggled the last few feet to the power core, finding it extremely difficult to move the heavy cable.
He wrestled the cable into the socket, screaming when he used his broken arm to activate the clamp one the cable.
Once the cable hissed, he leapt back, holding his arm.
The tower shook violently, sending the poor man hurtling towards the door, cracking his head against the frame.
A few seconds passed, the man laying still on the floor.
Another few went by, silence filling the room.
Then he moved.
The man stood slowly, using his good arm to steady himself on the way up.
Crimson was streaking down his face, a horrifying gash just above his eye.
The building was designed to withstand the strongest of earthquakes and hardly move.
Which meant only one thing.
The bloke looked up, despair entering his eyes.
The black Sun was so close now, the empty darkness dominating the skies.
A streak of white lightning struck next to him, a hint of darkness inside the core.
That was the strange thing about this thing.
The lightning kept changing, the thicker lightning deep black, whilst the thinner, less deadly lightning was white.
Above him, the evil orb was growing, forever drawing closer and closer towards the lone soul.
It was calling him.
It was coming to claim what was its.
All around, the city was crumbling, towers collapsing, temples incinerating.
Beneath him, the tower shuddered, but held strong.
The power core was doing its job.
Powering his home made shield generator.
In a brief moment of genius, he began to believe that the shield would hold long enough for him to actually get inside the Sun, to actually see what was at its centre.
Behind him, the core sparked, electricity arcing around the room, forcing the man onto the balcony.
He was doomed.
It was hopeless.
He turned to face the Black Sun, engulfing the world.
And as Death smiled right at his face, all Dalen Cyn could do was smile right back.