Breachers

Breachers – Path of Steel

43

I

Faithless

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A group of ten hooded figures stood gathered near a walled gate during that rainy night. Some clustered tightly together, seeking refuge from the downpour, while a few stood apart, their silhouettes blending with the shadows. Towards the rear, a man, similarly clad in a plain grey cotton robe and hood, blended into the background, unremarkable in the dimly lit scene. The man held a children’s bracelet in his hand, its small wooden beads painted in faded white, pink, and blue. Time had worn away some of their colors. With a gentle, rhythmic motion, he turned the bracelet in a circle, bead after bead slipping between his thumb and forefinger, memories twirling with each faded section. ‘Soon,’ he thought. He stopped when another hooded figure, Alex, their leader, returned. Trailing behind him was a guard that was checking out something on his phone.

A warm and satisfied smile was plastered on Alex’s face as he looked at the others. “Quickly, children,” their leader urged, gesturing for the group to follow. They hurried past the gate, paying no mind to the disdainful look from the guard. As they moved forward, a large red Sphere loomed in the distance, a violent presence against the backdrop of broken buildings to their left and right. Rain pelted down, drenching them as well as hit the red Sphere with a steady rhythm. However, instead of passing through, the droplets merely hit and slid along the side of the Sphere as if repelled by an unseen force. The air crackled with energy, making the hairs on their arms stand on end as they approached. “Today is the day we go into the blessed light,” the leader announced, leading the group toward the edge of the Sphere. He slowly placed and slid his hand across the exterior, letting his fingers slip inside the red energy, a smile forming on his features after a few seconds. Slowly pulling out his hand, Alex showed his hand to the others. “Have faith,” he said softly before stepping through the Sphere with his arms spread, the rest following. They passed through it, enduring the discomfort of untold crystal shards floating around them until suddenly emerging on the other side.

Exiting the barrier, some stumbled forward while others dropped to their knees, whether out of clumsiness or awe. They all noticed the absence of rain and felt the warmth inside, a stark contrast to the downpour they had just left behind them. ‘Almost there,’ the man thought, gripping the bracelet tighter as he stepped forward. They followed Alex, who began to talk and chant about the honor of being in the garden of light, emphasizing the importance of this sacred space. He mentioned how it was a place untouched by the corruption of the unworthy, where warmth wrapped around them like a comforting embrace.

“We’re here, brother Niels,” a woman whispered to the hooded man in the back, her voice soft enough not to disturb their leader and the others.  “We’re going to become one with the light.”

Niels nodded slowly. “Yes, we are,” he said, forcing out the words as if each one weighed heavily on him, his fingers clenching the bracelet even tighter. “A great... honor,” he lied, keeping his voice steady and his expression neutral. Despite his garb, him having spoken the required words, and having donated his wealth to their cause, he wasn’t a zealot like the rest of them; he didn’t believe at all. It was a charade that he was forced to maintain, masking his true feelings to get what he wanted so desperately. ‘Just a few more moments,’ he thought, the words echoing like a melancholic hymn in his mind, each syllable weighed down by the burden of memories tainted by loss and anger. Their group ventured deeper into the Sphere, navigating the mutated terrain with each step, discovering strange plant life and rock formations that were stunning to look at, all while breathing in unnaturally clean air. Overtime the terrain changed into that of a lush forest, encountering trees and other vegetation that they had never seen before. As they delved further into the woods, their numbers dwindled, one by one succumbing to Mana-sickness, their strength stolen away, growing sicker by the second. Niels watched the woman beside him stop moving for a moment before suddenly crumble to the ground. Instinctively, he started to reach out, but a force held him back—a reminder of his purpose there. Instead, he just stood there, drawing his hand back as he watched her pale skin glisten with sweat as she struggled for breath. For a moment, he just watched, disregarding the others succumbing to the sickness as well, including their Lightseeker, Alex. In the end, only Niels remained standing.

The fragments of the man he used to be urged him to carry the woman to safety—begged him, even. He dismissed those urges, focusing instead on the rational realization that he himself showed no signs of the Mana-sickness that had claimed the others. ‘I’m immune? It’s rare... but it happens. Strange to suddenly find out something about myself, even now,’ he thought, pushing aside the peculiar aspects of his physiology he hadn’t known before. After all, none of that mattered anymore. Instead, he just stood there, observing the woman a moment longer, witnessing her skin take on a sickly hue as her organs started to slowly shutdown. ‘The process looks far more volatile in a red Sphere,’ he thought, tearing his eyes away from her to look at the others in his group. His eyes widened instantly as he saw dozens of monsters encircling them, some already feasting on the other fallen zealots without barely even making a sound. The creatures had thick black fur, long limbs with sharp claws, with most of them standing on their hind legs. In his mind, these creatures were a blend between human and wolf-like characteristics. “This is it,” he whispered as he steeled himself and made his way over towards the monsters. “Finally.” Niels slowly drew closer before lowering himself to his knees. With closed eyes, he yanked back his hood, exposing dark, curly hair, and extended his pale arms. ‘I had preferred the mercy of Mana-sickness, but I suppose it’s more fitting like this,’ he thought as he steadied his breathing, gripping the bracelet more tightly. ‘I’ll go through what they had at the end... at the hands of monsters... although mine aren’t pretending to be human.’ Jaw clenched, he steeled himself for the impending pain, praying for the peace it would finally bring him.

A cascade of memories flooded his mind, each moment replaying vividly. His childhood, the loss of his parents during the Great Impact and many of his friends afterwards. All of it had shaped his trajectory toward government service. He relived the pride of attaining a crucial position, overseeing Breachers guilds on a provincial scale, and helping draft laws to regulate Breachers more closely. A broken smile touched Niels’s lips as he remembered meeting his wife. The fragrance of lavender in her hair lingered in his memory. Even now, he could smell it, along with the profound love he had felt for her when he had heard her laugh for the first time. Years later he had heard a smaller, more innocent laugh echo in his heart as well, linking the three of them as one. The recollections carried him to the heartbreaking finale, cradling his wife and daughter in the car wreckage as their life poured out from them like crimson tears. Gripping the bracelet firmly, he filled his lungs with air. “Just put an end to it already!” he screamed at the monsters a second later, his eyes snapping open. He instantly pulled away at the sight of a towering black-furred monster crouched in front of him. Its mouth hung open, drool dripping from rows of sharp, broken teeth a few centimeters away. The creature inhaled slowly, as if assessing Niels’s scent. An instinctual fear gripped the man in that moment, every fiber in his body urging him to flee at the sight of this monstrous entity up close. However, the faded children’s bracelet in his hand acted as an anchor, keeping his knees rooted on the ground. “What are you waiting for?” Niels hissed as more and more monsters crawled toward him, encircling or brushing against his body, all of them a mix between man and wolf, each different from the other, some even sporting horns or hooves. “I’m right here!” he shouted, his eyes wide with terror that he barely contained as he faced the hulking monster. The creature’s right arm moved slowly towards him, claws curling around his face and briefly digging into his skin and dark curls. The scent of fresh blood and death lingering around the creature heightened Niels’s horror even further. “Do it,” he finally said through tears streaming down his face. Other monsters crawled around him, seizing his limbs and shoulders, entombing him in a mass of muscle, claws and black fur. The overpowering stench of death assaulted his senses. Amidst it all, the largest monster in front of him continued to just watch him, closing its mouth and fixating solely on him.

Claws tightened around Niels’ body, digging into his flesh, extracting pain and blood in equal measure that nearly made him choke and howl at the intrusions. “Just end it,” he pleaded. The towering monster that was watching him slowly backed away, surveying the scattered dead or dying humans as it sniffed the air. Niels found himself sinking deeper into the cluster of monsters, his body ensnared by limbs and an ocean of course black fur. His wide eyes struggled to follow the towering creature as it moved around for a moment before effortlessly snatching Alex off the ground, treating the unconscious Lightseeker as if he weighed nothing more than a pebble. The monster curiously sniffed at the human it had picked up, its nose wrinkling in distaste before emitting a guttural snarl. In a sickening display of power, the creature executed a swift, vile pull, brutally ripping off Alex’s head from his torso, ending the man’s life in a chilling spectacle of violence. Niels’s eyes widened further, his body slick with sweat as he realized just how insignificant he, a mere human, was compared to these monstrous beings. “Please... just do it already,” he pleaded, his voice a fragile whisper within the cacophony of snarls and growls surrounding him. The towering creature slowly moved back towards him, holding Alex’s severed head in front of him like a trophy, its claw burrowing around the dead man’s head with gruesome nonchalance and treating it like a grotesque puppet. “Kill me,” Niels said, repulsed by the sight of Alex’s head. The other monsters forced Niels to witness the grotesque sight, a claw cruelly forcing one of his eyelid open, denying the terrified man the solace of retreating in his own mind. The towering monster proceeded to move Alex’s head from side to side in a nightmarish gesture, as if Alex were shaking his head. “Just do it!” Niels yelled, anger eclipsing the fear coursing through him, undeterred by the claws sinking into his flesh. “What are you waiting for, you mongrel? Do what you fuckers are made for!” he howled, eyes wide, his mind teetering on the edge. It became even worse as the monster callously shook Alex’s head from left to right again, taunting him further. “Kill me already!” he wailed, tears and blood staining his face in an orchestra of emotions. The monster just watched him as it crouched down in front of him. It manipulated Alex’s head, making the body part tilt to the side as if the dead man was curious, afterwards controlling the jaw to move up and down with Alex’s teeth producing a sickening puppet-like clatter, as if the dead man was laughing.

Niels averted his gaze as best he could, grasping the futility of it all, a sickening feeling gnawing at his stomach. His final moments were a cruel mockery. “I just want to see my family again,” he muttered, a whisper more for himself. “I want to...” He hesitated, feeling his blood trickle down his arms, blending with the bracelet, further staining the already faded beads with a somber intensity. His eyes widened, the bracelet searing into his soul, a vivid memory flashing of his little one on his lap, joyfully threading brightly colored beads together while smiling. Shifting his gaze back to the monster, Niels disregarded the severed head between them as something snapped inside of him in that moment, when he was forced to accept just how strong these monsters were. ‘These things could... they’d be able to do it,’ he realized while he was surrounded by all this death and blood. “They killed my family... I want them... No... I need them to pay for what they did.” His hand clenched around the bracelet, voice turning ice cold as what remained of his humanity died in that moment. “Those... Breachers... they need to die.” His expression then hardened as he watched Alex’s head shift to the side, as if expecting something. “In return... I’ll do... anything.”

Alex’s severed head clattered its jaw playfully once more, a grotesque mimicry of laughter, before the towering monster swiftly squashed it in its claw in an instant. The creature then seized one of its smaller brethren, tearing something from the back of its head. Niels watched in confusion as the smaller monster crumpled to the ground, lifeless. The towering monster then grabbed Niels by the throat, lifting him up with ease. A glint caught the frightened man’s gaze before the monster forced something against the back of Niels’s head, forcing him to howl in pain as he felt something slowly press inward, all the while clutching the faded bracelet that was stained with blood.

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Copyright: OsiriumWrites