Silent Crown

This was the 15th day after the destruction of the Sacred City. Amidst the noise that disrupted the communication line, a voice spoke from a faraway place.

“This is B1. Permission to leave the ship for observation.”

“Permission granted. Take note of the pollution index and be careful of external erosion. Once you see the tidal action slowing down, there will be a peaceful and quiet period after three minutes. You will have 30 minutes to carry out physical observation. B2 will remain in the cabin to provide assistance anytime.”

“B1, roger.”

“B2, roger.”

In the narrow cabin, musician Adams, who was also B2, raised his arms and pressed down on the lever of the outer air pressure chamber. Then, he turned around and stood up from his chair to assist his partner in wearing the heavy protective suit. Firstly, there was an inner armor that was made from bronze threads. Then, there was a heavy and thick fluid layer of aether, which was followed by an external layer of metal. Finally, a helmet that looked like the eyeball of a goldfish, was placed on Edwin’s head.

It looked like three different types of onions had been combined together and a pair of arms and legs had sprouted out of them. It looked swollen and hilarious. It was a heavy piece of equipment that was fully sealed off in order to protect the wearer against extreme temperatures and was capable of ensuring the wearer’s survival in the vacuum of the universe. It was now being worn by the silence musician.

“Are you able to move around freely?”

“Barely. But if I need to run and escape, I don’t think I can open up my stride. I will probably have to roll on the ground.” Edwin sighed, “By the way, I really can’t smoke in here? Can’t we just close one eye to this?”

“I’m sure the suit wouldn’t mind you smoking but where do you plan to throw the ash and the stub?”

“That’s a good question.” Edwin shrugged his shoulders and finally buckled up his belt. It was difficult for him to turn around in the narrow cabin before finally crawling into the air pressure stabilizing chamber. He looked like some onion monster that had crawled into a coffin. There was only silence. No one said a word.

This was the closest place to the outside world. How would the outside world look like now? Would it be flowing with lava of destruction, or engulfed in poisonous gas of doom?

In the absolute dark zone, nothing was out of the ordinary. In absolute hatred, nothing would be too shocking. Now, as a musician who had contractually sold himself to the Silence Governance, he had no choice but to jump straight into the kingdom of doom since he was ordered to do so. For mankind… probably.

As the seconds ticked away crisply, Edwin closed his eyes and took a deep breath until the timer stopped suddenly. “B1, Edwin Buzz Aldrin, ready to exit the ship. Permission from the command tower please.”

“Permission granted.” At the other end of the communication line, the revelation musician repeated a short verse, “Friend, I wish you a safe journey.”

“That’s enough. If you really love me, at least let me smoke a cigarette before I die.” Edwin shook his head. With the gigantic helmet on his head, he turned wheel-shaped handle underneath his legs with great difficulty. As the metal screeched while it turned, the final pivot that stood between the cabin and the outside world was finally opened. He took two deep breaths but still did not dare to push open that door.

“Adam, say something. Give me some courage.”

Adam rolled his eyes, “Damn you. Will you just get out there? I’m a little scared too.”

“Haha, alright.” Edwin laughed awkwardly. He closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and finally pushed open that door. Then, he rolled out from the slanted air pressure chamber and landed on the ground with a thud.

Due to the layer of thick and heavy quarantine suit, one could hear the deep rumbling of dust rising from the ground and landing on the mask. They seemed to be hiding some metal shards so they looked like stars when they were floating in the sky.

“B1 has successfully left the ship.” Edwin got up from the ground and mustered his courage to look up. He sank into a long silence.

“B1, are you still there? Please respond, I repeat, please respond.” It was only when Adams repeated for the third time that Edwin finally took a deep breath and shook his head with force. He seemed to be trying to shake away the confusion in his head, “What time is it now? Late night?”

“No, it’s exactly noon.” Adams breathed a sigh of relief when he finally heard his reply. “How is it like out there? All my aether ball could see were random spots of light. I can’t see anything clearly.”

“I… don’t know what I saw. Damned it… this isn’t right… you know that? Something’s wrong…” Edwin was stuttering, “Where exactly are we? Where exactly did the Silence Governance send us? Damned it! What is… what is this!”

“Calm down! B1, calm down!”

After a prolonged period of confusion, Edwin became silent once again as he slumped down on the ground weakly, “Where exactly did you guys hide the cigarettes? Honestly, I really want to smoke now…”

“Don’t remove your helmet! The atmosphere is definitely above Dark Zone. Even breathing alone will ensure that the aether will cause your lungs to explode!” Adams raised his voice. “Damn it, what exactly did you see?”

“I don’t know, friend. I don’t know.” Edwin raised his head and knocked hard against his own helmet. It was as if he was fixing an old machine and was trying to wake his brain up.

After a long time, Adams heard his pitiful voice. “This… is no longer a place for mankind.”

…

In the silence that seemed to last for eternity, Edwin looked up and stared at the pitch-black vault of heaven. The eternally azure-blue sky had been shredded like a piece of waste paper, revealing the original darkness of the universe. There was no longer any blue skies and white clouds. Only darkness.

Countless stars shone at a distance above the vault of heaven, and right in the center, the distant and massive sun was emitting bright sunlight without a hint of warmth. It seemed to be incapable of chasing away even a hint of darkness. After the atmosphere had been lost, the entire world had become an inhabitable and horrible place.

On this abandoned world, there was only greyish-white dust. The twigs were hidden amongst the trees and grasses but would break apart at any slight touch. Then, a chain reaction would be triggered and there would be a collapse in all directions until no living creatures could be seen. The land was cold and the sky was dark. And… there was a stream of light that penetrated through the sky and the ground. It was like a pillar that was responsible for establishing this new world. The light, that penetrated through the heaven and the earth, rose from a distance away and extended up into the sky before sprinkling down the gift of light.

After the barrier between the Physical World and the realm of aether had been completely destroyed, torrents from the sea of aether had drowned this entire world. They took away all the air and atmosphere and brought about unpredictable changes.

There was no sound here because the moment any sound was made, it would be devoured by aether, that was thick and sticky and had already taken over the entire world. There was only light. Light was like a pillar that continued to stand tall over this land.

Countless thorn-like bands of light extended out from dry lands in all directions. They crept along the earth like a living thing and engulfed it completely.

In the end, these bands of light would gather together into tens of broad beams of light before tangling with each other on the pillar of light in the center. It was as if they were trying to push up the God’s throne.

Everything of value in this world had been exhausted in order to uphold the light of God and create this cold and cruel kingdom of heaven. How majestic it was, that even the absolute dark zone would not be able to hide it.

Every ten minutes on the outside world, there would be tidal waves of destruction and purification that would splash across all directions with burning sea of light. It was like the beating of a heart. Each beat would result in the reaches of doom expanding a little. Within half a month, it had already expanded by more than ten times and it was getting faster… Before too long, the entire world would be completely engulfed by it.

“Command tower, this is B1.” Edwin reported with a trembling voice, “I have already entered Caucasian and have reached the periphery of Eden. This place is… completely hopeless.”

“Calm down, B1. According to the course of our mission, all you have to do is collect information on the periphery of Eden. Remember, do not provoke Eden or do anything provocative to it. Don’t get too close either. All you have to do is to observe from the outside.”

“I already knew all this.” Edwin shook his head. He crawled to the edge of the cliff and looked down at the ground that was a long distance away. There was a thick band of thorn-like light that was not too far away from him.

Compared to that thorn, he and the gigantic landing ship behind him, that was the size of a house, were like specks of insignificant dust next to it. He did not dare to get closer. With this thing around, it was not hard to deduce what happened to all the survivors of Caucasian.

But when he raised his head to look into the distance once again, there was an instant when he was stunned. In this quiet and peaceful world, something seemed to have moved in the distance. Just when he thought it was his own hallucination, that tiny speck of dust seemed to have inched forward slightly yet again…

“Wait! There’s something there!” Edwin stared at the abandoned plains in the distance as he watched the figure that was slowly moving across the land.

In this world, where aether had gone out of control and observation movements had already been scrapped, it seemed that mechanical engineering was the only thing left that had yet to betray mankind. But when their telescope zoomed in to the figure, Edwin could not help but shout, “There are still survivors! My goodness, there are still survivors! Command tower, we have found survivors!”

Edwin ignored command tower’s order for him to wait. Instead, he went against the rule and leaped down the cliff. He sprinted as quickly as he could towards the plains, with a mixture of crawling and rolling, falling and crashing. After a very long time, he finally managed to cover the long distance and saw that haggard old man. The old man seemed to have lost his soul.

He was crawling on the ground as if he was in a daze. His limbs had already been torn by the sharp edges and corners. His hair was mottled and he was so thin that he looked like he would die anytime. But he was still alive. His body was still so healthy that it was as if he had received the gift of eternal life. Death had been taken away from him.

“Wrong, wrong… this is not right… this is completely wrong… what exactly went wrong? Tell me, what is the problem… what exactly went wrong…” He was muttering frantically, as if his nightmare had come to life. He kept talking to himself, completely oblivious to anyone around him, including Edwin.

“B1, this is B2. Do not go close to that thing. I repeat, do not go close… Anything that can survive this damned place is no longer human!” Adams raised his voice sharply in the communication line. “Leave now! Get away from him!”

“This… this is…” Edwin continued to stare at the crazy man in front of him. He took a good look at his face and searched the records for his identity. After some time, he could no longer contain his fear.

“Command tower, this is B1. I have confirmed the survivor’s identity.

“He is… Gaius…”