"Once more Galeem spoke to the people and said,
"I am the light of the world.
If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness,
because you will have the light that leads to
Life."
This game is a work of fiction.
Any similarities between characters or events in between worlds are coincidental.
Only those who understand and agree to these terms may continue
Do you agree?
…
Well then
Let us begin
…
…?
…?!
…Hey….
…Hey!...
…Can you hear me?...
Eden Claremont was completely and utterly calm.
Odd.
He hadn't been calm in months.
From when Malignance was defeated; he had known a vast unyielding anxiety
coursing through his skin. He had remembered the white-hot stars that dotted his
vision as the ship ignited; passing through the earth's atmosphere like an ill-fated
meteor. He remembered the electric sensation pulsing through his flesh and boiling
the blood in his veins like a kettle on a stove.
He remembered the cold. He remembered the silence. All-encompassing. All
dominating… A quiet fear lapping at the back of his soul like a dog seeking shelter.
But now?
He didn't feel that fear… Strange. He didn't feel anger either. Or that sinking pit
of regret and despair.
No. Eden Claremont… felt nothing at all.
And that simple fact was enough to let him know that something was gravely wrong.
In the time it took Eden to come back to reality, he realized several other things.
1)
He couldn't see. Nor hear, smell, taste, or feel. Not good.
2)
Following the first point; In this black void he was currently ensnared in he
had this. "Itch"? How to describe it? An eerie feeling of being watched &
heard. Like someone was here with him. But not in the "CIA-Big Brother"
kind of way. More of the… conjoined twin in the womb kind of way.
Testing his first point, he tried to move a limb. His arm? Nothing. Leg? No, not
working either. TV static injected into his blood, he likened it to. A numbing buzz
turned pulse that thumped with every second passing… That is, if time existed
here.
But that question begs another.
Where was he?
Ok. Time to backtrack… No. Fuzzy memories. Why? He could remember everything
that happened during Malignance's invasion. He could remember the aftermath and
the rebuilding effort. He could remember everything except what happened that
got him here…
Again, where was "here"?
"If you can hear me… Then we still have a chance."
At once, Eden surged with a sudden spike of energy. The TV static in his limbs
subsided and gave way to a new burning sensation. He could feel his muscles begin
to tense and strengthen. An electric hum ran through his veins; from the tips of
his fingers to the back of his neck.
Regaining feeling, he slowly asked, "Wha- Who are you! Where am I?"
"Your spirit is lost. Wandering the void within Galeem's grasp."
"Layman's terms, please?" More of an exclamation than a question, honestly.
"You have died… Alongside countless others."
"I… died?", The word rolled and fell off Eden's tongue dreadfully.
Death was inevitable, especially with Eden's particular responsibility. But for it to come so
soon? It was bizarre, even more so since Eden couldn't remember how he bit the dust.
Seriously, how did he get here? Eden racked his brain for all it was worth, pushing through
the fog and confusion…
He could remember being at the community center… He could remember picking up jugs of
water and plating the staff's cooked food… Then… a horn? And someone screamed about
the red sky.
Red sky?...
Red sky!
Yes! He remembered! How could he forget? The sky had turned a deep shade of crimson!
Not the normal orange creme of sunset or the deep navy of night, no. It was a deep boiling
bloody mess with dark clouds circling in a pool around a single point.
Then the light came.
So many streaking light beams. What seemed like hundreds, thousands, each one spitting
off from another. Eden remembered the world falling apart. The sounds of broken glass,
igniting cars, and upturned concrete.
He remembered the screaming.
He remembered the silence.
He remembered.
"I died." This time, Eden let the sentence linger in the open air. A statement. A fact. He
was dead. Gone. A beam of light, hot course and rough, ripped through him in a second.
Faster than he could react. Faster than anyone could react.
Yet again, Eden had failed to save the world.
"Yes… Galeem. The lord of light. He has ripped your spirit from your body. You and
everyone else. The entirety of existence… Gone in a flash."
Galeem? Lord of Light? What the hell is this voice talking about?! Some weird thing just
wiped out humanity and this disembodied voice is just gonna stroll up and tell him (all
casual might he add) that he died in this event? That everyone Eden knew (who wasn't
already dead) was gone?
"Then what… Where-"
"Right now, you are in the void. A lingering blank between Galeem's purgatory… and
Dharkhon's complete oblivion… Your spirit. It was still burning. Even in the chilly darkend
wastes. Even in the blinding flash… It was still burning strong. That means… We still have a
chance. All of us… We still have hope."
Hope? What hope was there? What could Eden do? He was dead. Like the voice said, he
was a phantom whisper. What was there to be done?
"Eden Claremont… You have the will to fight. I see it. Even now."
"Fight? Fight whatever the fuck that thing was?! Are you crazy?!"
"Eden, you, you can still fight. You must. For all of life, your spire of flame… You must use
it."
"Look, voice… whatever you are! It's not that I don't want to. But uh, if you haven't noticed,
and if you've forgotten your own words… I'm dead!"
Eden had no senses… but if he did, he'd be sure of the shameful tears welling up in his
eyes. Shameful. What a hero… A crybaby as always. A failure, as always.
"Eden, you must fight!"
"How?! You're doing a lot of talking but not a lot of listening!"
"Right here, right now. You know what to do… If you don't not only you, not only those you
love, but millions upon trillions… They will all meet the same fate. Trapped forever unaware
of their demise, lost souls drifting in purgatory!"
Eden could feel nothing… but he'd be sure of the bubbling rotten pit of guilt rolling in his
stomach if he could. This voice. It spoke as if it knew him. As if it knew what he could do
and what he has done… It was begging him…
"I… I don't know what's even going on."
"I can explain but right now. Right here. What I need you to do… is fight."
Fight? What did it mean? Here Eden was, ensnared in some void, without feeling.
Essentially paralyzed.
,
"You know what to do. All you have to do… is give the command."
"Comman-" Eden silenced himself. A sudden realization… Oh. That's what the voice meant
by "fight". Yes… That very thing. The thing that started all of Eden's woes. The thing that
made his life hell. The thing that kept him alive… and killed so many.
That thing.
His emitter.
"...Power up."
A whisper… Nothing.
"...Power… Up…"
A little stronger… still, silence.
A long inhale… then-
".Power Up!"
It came like thunder. A command deep and booming, drawn from the deepest parts of
Eden's soul, like the guttural roar of a frenzied beast. A flash of white overtook the black
void. The emitter's telltale high-pitched whirring rang in Eden's mind. He could smell it
again. That sickeningly exciting smell of ozone. He could feel the emitter's hexagonal
patches stretching and crawling over his skin, forming a second layer. A parasitic
relationship, a protective shell…
The Volta suit.
In a flash of lightning, under a shower of white-hot sparks, Eden's eyes snapped open. And
at once, he drew a heavy heaving gasp of air. His sight. His hearing. His senses. They were
his again.
Now.
What the actual hell is going on?
Eden looked around carefully. The sky was a blanket of deep black with stars dotting the
entire world. He was on a shoreline of some kind, with sand beneath him and an ocean of
gray before him.
Eden's body hurt, his muscles and cartilage ached with pain. They clicked and bent with a
stiffness only seen in a corpse. It seemed that the voice was true. He had died.
"The pain will leave in a moment."
Eden snapped his vision to the right. A man stood, watching the tide recede, his hands
clasped in what seemed like a praying gesture. He was dressed in a pristine white suit, with
a white rose tucked neatly into his breast pocket.
"Are you-"
"The voice you heard? Yes. Yes, I am."
Eden released a breath he didn't know he was holding. He opened his mouth-
"Wh-
"Galeem, the Lord of Light," the man began, "They are responsible for all of this. Right
now, we are in a "purgatory" of sorts. I have pulled your spirit from Galeem's hold. I know
you have a lot of questions, but we're short on time."
Eden wrinkled his nose and closed his mouth.
"I will be sending you into Galeem's world. You need to find Galeem and defeat him. Find
the others like you. Grow strong. I know it's a lot… But I have faith in you."
Eden was blinded by a bright flash under his feet. He couldn't see the man, but furrowing
his brows, Eden let loose-
"Are you serious?! You can't just-"
Gone.
Eden suddenly found himself falling. Falling. Falling all the way down through a dark tunnel.
Where was he going? Where was he before? So many questions, no answers. But one rang
louder than any other.
How do you kill a God?