World, Offline - A Web Story

mnemonicv1.0.0.02.mkv

Captain Del Carabi looked at the wreckage that lay before him. It was a truly, truly horrifying sight. Bodies were mangled and torn, entrails wrapping around their owners. Women and children were gutted and hung with their own intestines, while men were impaled with the bones of their comrades.

Del smiled, a chilling sight which made many of his troops turn away in fear. The young captain was notorious for his tactical genius, which involved mostly propaganda secretly spread through the citizens, as well as the use of sonic-emitting weaponry. Of the various armaments that he employed, his legion favored the Similitude, a large-frequency sonic generator that immediately reduced the brains of mortal men to nothing but a pool of primal residue.

Del himself was a cold, unfeeling man. He only concerned himself with two things: ornithology, and carrying out his duties. He was not unlike a demon, as described by some of his men.

Del walked over to a nearby bunker, and opened the door. A large, burly man sat in the middle of the room. The bunker itself had a fishy smell, and was damp to the touch. 

“Captain Neux. The settlement has been eliminated.”

“Come on now, Del. You know better than to just address me as Captain Neux.”

“… Sure, Fohm. If that is what you would prefer.”

“Heh, what’s gotten you so down? Did Redcrown give you orders again?”

“No. Far from it.”

Del sat down, cross-legged on the muddy floor. He closed his eyes, and let out a short sigh.

“I have been seeing things, Fohm. Things that will change the Solomon Key forever.”

Del opened his eyes, looking back at Fohm. 

“Redcrown… Beck Redcrown isn’t. …Human.”

Fohm stood up abruptly, knocking over a nearby table. Del braced himself for impact, but none came. Instead, Fohm stood there, looking at Del with a certain pitying look.

“So… You’ve discovered, have you?”

Fohm turned away, and rested his hand on the wall..

“My dearest friend… We of the Solomon Key were never human to begin with. Beck Redcrown, the founder of this legion… He is in fact a King of the underworld. His name is Belial.”

“Myself… I am the demon Forneus. I am a creature of the sea… “

Before Del’s eyes, Fohm’s head started convulsing and twisting rapidly. His nose elongated, and his eyes sunk in, becoming black orbs. Rows of sharp yellow teeth lined his wide jaws, and a great fin rested atop his head.

“… Your time will come, Del Carabi… Or should I say, Decarabia?”

Del looked at Fohm in horror, and burst out of the bunker, running as fast as he could.

However, there was no look of fear upon his face. In fact, he bore a large smile, the widest he had ever shown so far.

mnemonicv1.0.0.01.mkv

The little boy ran, as fast as his little legs could carry him. The feral snarl of a beast grew louder and much closer with each passing second. His heart pounded furiously, almost as if it was going to burst out of his chest.

Another sound approached from in front of him. This time, it was a deep, moaning bellow; something unearthly, something strange. A giant man appeared in the horizon, wearing nothing but a red loincloth. His body had the markings of eyes all over them, and he let out the same guttural bellow again. 

The beast in the distance responded, making its presence known. A long, black mane of shaggy hair crowned his head, and two golden horns erupted from his skull. He stood on two legs, but it was obvious he had supported himself with his long, spiked tail, much like a reptile’s. His body was scaly and a deep, crimson hue. He bared his sharp fangs while releasing a breath of fire.

“So, you are revolting again, are you… Belial?” 

The giant with the many eyes spoke, with no visible mouth.

“… Revolt? This is nothing, nothing compared to what I have had to endure… Being a servant… Of Him! No… We shall fall, as angels. To save ourselves! Open your eyes, Sandalphon. You know this to be true. He has misguided us, mistreated us… Made us support the actions of the filthy humans!? HOW DARE HE?!”

The giant demon let out another roar, sending a pillar of fire towards the sky. The giant stared, and then demonstrated a complicated gesture while shutting all the eyes on his body.

A giant pair of metal wings erupted from the giant’s back, sending shards of steel through Belial. Irregular pieces of rusted metal ripped through the demon’s scaly hide, releasing a steady flow of ichor from the wounds. Belial howled in pain, a terrifying, monstrous sound which made the little boy nearly pass out in fear.

Sandalphon walked towards the wounded Belial, wings spread out and glowing with an extremely bright light. He extended a giant spear from the eye in the middle of his forehead, and then gripped it tightly in his powerful hands.

“Belial, the angel of hostility. Now fallen, thy soul is unworthy in the eyes of the Lord. He has granted ye mercy long enough. Let thy soul be reduced to nothing more. “

Belial looked up, and for a split second, he flickered, and fell limp towards the ground. Sandalphon thrust the spear into the great demon’s body, bathing it in light and eradicating every shred of its existence.

The little boy looked up at the giant, who had started ascending to somewhere further up in the sky. He then looked back down at his hands, which had started producing small embers. A feral voice rang inside his head, and spilled out of his mouth. If anyone was there at that moment, they would certainly have been shocked.

“… I am Belial. And I claim this body as my own.”

———————————————————————————————————————-

Beck Redcrown woke up with a start. Sweat dripped down his forehead, and a small ember suddenly erupted from his mouth as he coughed. He felt a certain primal hunger he had not felt in many years.

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Altus looked at the lanky man with a mixture of revolt and awe. Standing before him was one of the land’s greatest assassins, Zen of the Silver Wing. Having already attained countless crimes to his name, Altus wondered that if he was actually the right man for the job, much less even being allowed into the city of Solis.

He surveyed the assassin. Zen had gained notoriety for being one of the few people who had mastered the use of both stealth suits and EMP pulse generators effectively, and on top of that, certain supernatural abilities granted to him. Rumors were spread saying that he was actually a half-spirit, or had demonic blood running through his veins. Whatever the reason was, he had powers.

“So, assassin… “

“Name’s Zen, brah. ‘m pleased to make your acquaintance. “

“… “

“What, did I say something wrong? Eh, who cares. I’m only interested in women anyway… Say… How young is that lady lying on that bed there? ” He proceeded to walk over with a sly grin.

Before he could take another step, a forcefield appeared, sending him sprawling backwards.

“What gives? … Eh, who cares. She wasn’t my type anyway. ” He folded his arms and shrugged.

Altus stared at the Queen in disbelief.

“Did you honestly expect me to work with this man? “

“He might be a womanizer and a bum, but he is the best at his job. “

“Hey, I can hear ya, ya know. That kinda smarts. “

Altus frowned, and then turned to face his other two companions. 

“He’s in your care. “

“What?”

“What?”

“HELL YEAH. “

“No.”

“No way.”

“Bummer.”

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The Queen looked at Altus with a smirk, and waved her attendants away. The young girl lay on the bed, her breathing faint but steady. Altus folded his arms, a look of disapproval settling on his chiseled face.

“I see the White Monarchy has obtained for itself yet another pawn.”

“My, my. Such words from the Captain of the Red Horizon. Umbran must be proud of his henchman.”

“Henchman?” Altus spat on the ground, which caused a nearby guard to ready his rifle. “I am nobody’s henchman, your… Majesty.” Altus’s last word dripped with venom.

“Indeed. ” The Queen laughed, and then turned around. 

“There is a threat. As you have seen, the… ‘Outer God’, Nyarlathotep, has expressed his wishes to obtain the Fabrication Matrix. While we do not know of his plans, we are naturally trying to decline. However, seeing as Feuerage has been wiped… It seems that Nyarlathotep has declared war upon the White Monarchy and its allies. “

“The Red Horizon has no part in it yet. “

“Thus, I am inviting you to become my ally. ” The Queen turned around, smiling. “If you refuse… I doubt your stay in Solis will be peaceful. And I cannot say the same for this girl here. “

Altus snarled, his gauntlets crackling with energy. He resisted the urge to launch blows on the Queen, for he knew that doing so would result in an all-out war between the White Monarchy and the Red Horizon.

“… I assume you have assembled a team for me to track down Nyarlathotep?”

The Queen waved her hand, and a door opened.

A young woman clad in short, white robes and protective armor walked out. Her long, black hair was tied up in a ponytail, and she seemed to give off an aura of royalty. 

“My sister, Selvis Altei Nahasamsara. She has the White Monarchy backing her up, and will accompany you to represent the White Monarchy.”

The woman smiled, causing Altus to snarl in disgust with the same feeling he had when the Queen smiled at him.

“I trust we will be the best of comrades, Iumentum.”

Another woman walked out of the door. This time, it was a woman clad in priestess robes, and she wore a helmet that completely hid her face from view. Upon walking up to Altus, she pressed a button on the side of her helmet, which slid back the front panels and revealed her face.

“Bianca Walesworth. The priestess of St. Michael’s Orphanage. She is the caretaker of Sol.”

“Sol? That girl? “

“Yes. “

“Why is she joining us? “

“Because she holds a Key. “

Altus sighed. Bianca saw his reaction, and chuckled.

“Don’t worry. It will be fine. “

“As fine as youuuuuuuuuuuu, lady! “

Altus looked towards the door, and a tall, lanky man strode out of it. He wore a floral-print shirt and shorts, but various spheres of light surrounded him. His slippers had silver wings attached to them, and so did his straw hat. His sunglasses nearly covered his whole face, save for a wry smile.

Altus instantly recognized where this man was from, and he knew this man.

“Zen of the Silver Wing.”

“Altus Iumentum of the Red Horizon! What’s up brah?”

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Altus stared in horror at the dead girl in his arms. Crimson liquid steadily flowed out of the gaping wound in her chest, smoke gently rising in miniature spirals. A bloody, charred smell lingered in the air, and brought tears to Altus’s eyes.

The people on the street simply stared.

“… Damn it! Someone! Get a medical transport now!” Altus screamed frantically. “She’s dying! We can still…”

But the citizens of Solis simply stared at the slowly expanding pool of blood in which Altus kneeled, cradling the limp body. They nodded, and then a hole opened underneath the two.

Altus blinked, and in an instant, he was in an empty, white room. There was nothing surrounding him. White as far as the eye could see. The girl was still bleeding, forming a crimson rose upon the ivory floor.

“Altus Wolfrick Iumentum. The keeper of the first Key.”

A glowing blue light surrounded the girl, lifting her out of Altus’s arms. Mechanical arms extended out of nowhere, affixing various implants onto the girl’s now naked body. Bolts snapped, screws revolved and the hissing of steam vents ensued for minutes, but those minutes seemed like days to Altus.

The hole in the girl’s chest was instantly sealed up with a device of some kind. As Altus stared on in both horror and wonder, he noticed the shape of a key being embedded in the face of the device. It pulsated with a bright, neon blue light.

The girl fell onto a bed; another item that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Altus wiped his forehead in relief; a medical gauge indicated that she was alive. He looked at the girl, half-happy that she survived, but half-sad as well, looking at the cyborg he saw before him.

Apart from the fact that she had no clothes on, he found it hard to look at her. Her back had twin steam packs and gravity accelerators installed. Various wires lined her arms and legs. Her palms were fitted with particle accelerator guns, and her feet had anti-gravity discs attached to them. The device in her chest pulsed, and Altus assumed that it was a magnetic confinement fusion device.

“What… What have you done to her?”

“We have rebuilt her, to save her from death.”

“… You made her a Keeper, didn’t you?”

“… Keeper? As to our knowledge, only three people hold the Keys now. A fourth Key has yet to be created.”

Altus pondered. The Solisian Technological Facility was well-known for its advancement in cybernetic implants and enhancements, and the Queen, Dolmina Altei Nahasamsara had been the one to bestow the Keys to their owners.

Seeing as the Queen was not present in the room at the time, who - or what - implanted what seemed to be the fourth Key into this girl?

“Captain Iumentum. You are tasked with the protection of this girl - and now, the fourth Key.”

Altus spun around, looking for the source of the voice. There, before him, in a throne made of white marble that hovered just a few inches above the ground, sat a woman clad entirely in white robes. Her face bore no emotion, except for an inkling of irritation in her golden eyes.

Altus smirked, and gave a short bow.

“Queen Dolmina Altei Nahasamsara. How nice it is to meet you again.”

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Altus cringed as he stepped out of the portal and into the city of Solis. He felt a certain uncleanliness as he looked around.

Everywhere he looked, there was only white. The citizens of this town wore long, ivory robes. The buildings were all tall, white obelisks. Solis was well-known for being an impenetrable fortress, but the joke going around was that nobody dared to attack Solis for fear of being absorbed or converted into their system. Altus was slowly realizing how that felt. The purity of this city seemed to draw him in.

A holographic figure soon appeared in front of him. It was nothing more than an ivory humanoid, with only the most basic facial features.

“State your name, and your business.”

“Altus Wolfrick Iumentum, Captain of the 1st Regiment of the Red Horizon. I wish to see Her Majesty.”

“… Verified. Access denied. Incidentally, a warning. Unauthorized portals are not allowed within a 2000 kilometer radius.” 

“… Ugh. Is the Queen so damned busy?”

“The Queen has expressed wishes not to communicate with anyone at the moment.”

“Has she now…? Tell her I bring news of Feuerauge.”

“The Queen has been notified of the demise of the mining town.”

“How did…? No matter. If your Queen shall not grant me an audience… May your future connections with the Red Horizon go well.”

Altus walked off, a sense of annoyance building up in him. He knew that the Solisian security system was tight, but never had he expected it to be obnoxious as well.

As he walked, a crippling, slithering feeling washed over him. The same feeling he had always experienced since he was a child. Since he started pursuing that thing. 

“Solis never had a holographic security guard, did it?” He said, with his back to the ivory figure. “You… You’re him. Aren’t you?”

“… Indeed.”

The holograph burst forth in a the blink of an eye, transforming into the form of the bounty hunter. Altus spun around, creating a wall of lightning between him and his enemy. At the same time, he pulled out a reality generator, and cast it at the haggard man.

A temporary space erupted, cutting both Altus and the man off from the rest of the world. The bounty hunter chuckled; an empty, terrifying sound. He dropped his weapon and stood with his arms folded.

“The first Key, ” he spoke. “Surrender unto me. Surrender, and none shall get hurt.”

Altus frowned, and threw a bolt of red lightning at the hunter’s face. The glowing ball exploded, causing an massive explosion that threw Altus back. Smoke erupted from where the hunter once stood, but that wasn’t just smoke from the explosion. It was a cloud of greenish-black smoke.

A tall, black figure strode out of the now-dissipating cloud. His entire body was black, and his metallic skin seemed to writhe and churn. He wore nothing but a golden loincloth and an extremely ancient headgear known as the nemes.  

But the most unsettling was yet to come.

Altus looked up in horror as he saw the face of the being that he had pursued for years. There was none. Where his face would have been, a smooth, black surface resided.

“My name… Is Nyarlathotep. The Crawling Chaos. The Howler in the Dark. The Haunter of the Dark. I am the one who dwells in darkness.”

Seemingly out of nowhere, he grasped, and in his hands a young girl in a dress with long white hair lay, unconscious. 

“And you, my friend. Have just cost this little girl her life.”

Before Altus could protest, a giant, onyx spike erupted from Nyarlathotep’s palm, driving through the girl’s back and straight through her, leaving a gaping hole. With that, Nyarlathotep disappeared, as did the temporary reality.

To everyone else in the street, a gruff-looking man had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, holding a dead girl with a hole through her chest in his arms.

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“Well now… It doesn’t seem like I’ll be able to find much in this dump, ” the hooded figure said to himself. “It’s practically gone now.”

He looked up from his holographic emitter and surveyed what was known as the city of Feuerauge. He grimaced, quickly looking away from a nearby corpse. Its intestines had been ripped out and its sternum broken and split open. By the looks of it, they had been by the victim’s own hands.

Altus Iumentum muttered a silent prayer for the victim, feeling a deep sense of sorrow for the mangled corpse. The body had been twisted into a grotesque fashion, with the owner’s own intestines wrapped around his neck. Blood and excretion, fortunately, matted most of the victim’s facial features.

He poured a small amount of holy oil on the body, and proceeded to set it alight. The corpse was reduced to ashes in a matter of seconds. Altus could not stop the tears flowing from his eyes.

The crunch of bone made him turn around. A low, guttural sound rolled across the desolate landscape, and Altus readied his gauntlets. A pair of ornate, silver gauntlets with rubies embedded in them. They crackled with red lightning, causing the source of the sound to reciprocate with a snarl.

“You… Altus of the Red Horizon?” The owner of the voice appeared from the shadows, dragging a fluxhound with him. He was a sinewy man, wearing nothing but a loincloth. His body bore countless scars, and he was missing a right arm.

The metal dog howled, snarling at Altus. He lowered his fists, and shot the man a look of disgust.

“Feueraugian, enemy of the Red Horizon. I have no business with you. ” He spat on the ground, where it quickly evaporated into a tiny puff of steam.

“Feuerauge has nothing to do with an empire that does nothing but plunder.”

“Then the Red Horizon has nothing to do with a dead city.”

”-!” The man looked taken aback for a moment, then he regained his composure. He smirked. That unsettled Altus. 

“I know of whom you seek.”

“Then it would be in your best interests to reveal his location.”

The man laughed, a pitiful yet chilling sound. “He is not here anymore. He has gone. I believe… To the place where it resides.”

Altus grimaced. So, he’s going to Solis, is he? He tossed a miniature device on the ground, which slowly opened up a crackling red portal. 

“Farewell. You are the last member of your kind. I wish you luck. The Red Horizon extends its shelter, if you are interested.”

The man simply smiled back at him.

Altus looked back at him, and snarled. He stepped into the portal, never looking back.

He never noticed that the fluxhound was missing, or that the man has started emitting strange green fumes, or that the man’s right hand had mysteriously re-appeared.

The portal closed. The man’s skin sloughed off his body, revealing a man in an overcoat, a red beret and a mechanical gas mask.

The bounty hunter let out a wild, maniacal laugh, and darkness proceeded to fall on the demolished city of Feuerauge.

———————————————————————————————————————-

A million miles away, a teenage girl woke up abruptly from her sleep.

“Am I going to die?”

Prolude: endangered_01.exe

She smiled as she stared down the barrel of the bounty hunter’s shotgun. Her body had been beaten senseless, left mangled and maimed. Yet, she persisted to resist him. She looked up at her assailant.

He was a man of average height. He had long, sickly green hair. His face was covered by a mechanical gas mask, and bandages could be seen covering any exposed flesh. He donned a dark red beret, a long brown overcoat, dark green pants and a pair of leather, steel-toed boots. On his chest rested gadgetry of all kinds - regulators, various tubes, flashing lights and numbers, and in the center of it all, a strange, pulsing neon green light.

He lowered his shotgun, which had two poison-tipped blades attached to the barrel. Toxic fumes spilled out of the vents on his body armor, and he bent down, staring into his captive’s eyes.

“You are not afraid?” The hollow mask bore no emotion, and neither did the monotonous voice. “Even now, as you meet your demise?”

“Barbarians like you mean nothing to me. I serve my Queen, and I will do anything to protect her secrets. Even if it meant sacrificing myself, ” she spat. “Scum of the earth. You are not fit to walk on my Mother’s land!”

The bounty hunter straightened himself, and then stroked his chin, apparently deep in thought.

“Is that so?”

“Of course. You still dare to speak to me, scum?”

The man turned around, and for a split second, the captured maiden warrior felt a deep sense of foreboding. An unearthly chill ran down her spine, and all the voices in her head only said one thing: RUN! 

She struggled to get up, but her broken leg gave way. She tried desperately to crawl away, and looked back at the man. She then noticed his gas mask, dangling from its straps, in his left hand. 

She heard various squirming sounds. Writhing, slimy, coiling about. And then she heard the murmurs. Soft echoes of regret. Whispers of pain. The voices grew steadily in volume inside her head, coming in waves, each wave more frenzied and demented than the last.

She tried to scream, but it seemed as though something was constricting her throat. She frothed at the mouth, thrashing about like a helpless animal. Her eyes rolled back and blood started spurting out of her wounds.

She only had one last look at her captor. She tried to look at his face.

But there was none.

A mad, mirthless laughter ruptured in her very bones. Within seconds, her life was ended; her soul extinguished.

The Guardsmen found her body soon after. She had only managed to scrawl out two words in her own blood.

‘crwlng kaos’