Author's notes: Sorry for not updating for so long, guys, but I've been on holiday for pretty much the whole summer and I wasn't quite sure if updating from their would somehow violate my agreements to Trust me, I felt horrible for not being able to update for so long, I had so much ideas but could get them down on paper! But anyway, I'm back and ready to finally update again!
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Shadow of Raven: Thanks for putting this story into your favourites; although I'm starting to think that no one else actually knows that I exists out there…
Chapter 3: The Last City
Humans, as accepted among many intelligent beings, are the worst specie on this planet. Although a fly might seem to be more annoying, and a lion might seem to be more vicious, only a human can really define our modern concept of evil, or so many intelligent beings agree. Exactly how and why these so called 'intelligent' beings hate the humans and their civilisation so much is a mystery, where some says that it was because early humans hunted the 'Sons of the Earth', or Ethans, for food, others claim that it was simply because of fear that man kind would eventually reach a stage where they would overthrow the superior beings. Even jealousy was suggested.
But none of the Ethans, however intelligent they might be, could stop their inevitable downfall, before resorting to hiding. Over time, their power grew as their people regrouped and began to once again spread. They watched man's empires rise and fall, from the Romans all the way towards World War VII, they watched men kill other men for power, greed, even love, although the Ethans were slightly more interested with the killing, especially the amount of killing. After several millenniums, they observed the human's final war, World War VIII.
It was the battle that will be remembered forever, the battle that only lasted a few hours but caused more devastation than anything else in this world. The neutron bomb explosion flattened nearly the planet's entire surface, killing billions at the same time. That night the Ethans celebrated in triumph, their time has finally come, for the humans are now few and isolated in a gargantuan dome city located in Africa which the apes had named Ascalon.
One city would have no chance at all against the mighty army of the Earth.
"And so our day has come, the creatures who destroyed their allies and gave us our salvation." It says in the ancient bible of the Ethans, and thanks to the human's incredible dimness, they have just sealed their own fate…
"Why don't you start from the top?" Angelina sighed after another minute of silence, getting anything at all from Atto was going to be harder than she thought, "What did you really want to say to me last night?"
Atto remained silent, he had never expected that he would leave in one piece, let alone sitting opposite Angelina in her own house.
"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."
"And…?" She eyed him with pretended confusion; the truce was she already knew exactly what he was thinking at that precise moment, all she really wanted out of all this was for him to admit it to her.
"It was all just a big misunderstanding and I really think I should be going now." Atto began to rise from his seat and was prepared to head towards the door when Angelina's hand grabbed his arm, refusing to let go.
"We both know that there's more to this than you're telling me." She smiled at his embarrassment, even though she knew that it was somewhat nasty to make fun of one's bad times. But this is pretty much the only way she could get a laugh these days.
Atto inhaled heavily and sat back down, his mind told him that it was now or ever.
"I've been holding this back for a while now, Angelina, so please be patient with me if it makes no sense at all." He inhaled once more before letting months of frustration out of his mind, "I… like you."
Angelina stared back at him, as if waiting for something more, but she received nothing more.
"Now I could do what others would do at this point…" She glanced at him with a small wink that sent arctic chills down his spine, "But instead, I'm going to say thanks for telling me and I'll wait for you tell me all of it any time you want."
The inevitable silence fell between them once again, this time, however, it was Atto's turn to scan Angelina's eyes for any signs of mischievousness.
He found none.
The roars of thunder bellowed harder as Darkness's personal strike team cruised silently through the tormented night sky on top of their ancient dragons. Before them loomed the equally silent Ascalon. From a distance, one would underestimate it's size and mistake it for some sort of bizarre hill, but as the commander and his men flew closer and closer, they couldn't stop themselves from marvelling at this magnificent structure. A massive dome covered with thousands of tiny towers, harnessing the lightning for power every time one of them was stroke by the white light.
And it was these towers that were Darkness's targets for phase one.
Camouflaged by the shadows, the Red Eyes Black Dragons began to close in on the nearest tower; their movements were slick and almost invisible against the night sky.
The tower's operator was in a half drunk type of trance and when the radar sensors began beeping he thought that his microwave dinner was ready.
Except he already ate.
Feeling sluggish, he dragged himself away from his desk and headed towards the balcony for some fresh air, still too drowsy to care about the frantic beeping, which seemed to get louder by the second.
By the time he reached his destination the beeps has transformed into a constant whine as the computer began to send emergency signals back to central command and has automatically began to record new information onto it's black box.
And it was about time too, because a few seconds later, the operator yelled: "What the hell is that?" before a mass of flames consumed the entire room turning almost everything into black dust.
From a distance, Commander Darkness gazed at the burning tower and silently smiled, for this was the beginning of the Great War…