“Ah… what?” I woke up in my room, looking around. “What… just happened? Did I lose myself so hard that I fell asleep with Natalie?” - “Mooorning sleepyhead! You’re finally up, Matt!” said Crystal loudly as she popped up from nowhere, before quickly getting on top of me, my bed squeaking, not being able to sustain the weight… God. “Crystal… what is it this time?”... “Oh, I was taking a night flight just to think about stuff and exercise. Then I saw you sleeping with Natalie on a tree while nuzzling each other. I thought it was cute but I had to return the two of you home! Who knows what would happen if you two were outside like that!”
“Oh… thanks Crystal… But can you please get off me? This bed is only resistant enough for one human, I’m not sure how it’s resisting a dragon this long.” …“A-are you calling me fat?” She said shocked, as she got off me. ..? “No…?” I got up and stretched, yawning. Trying not to think too much of whatever the hell this unholy abomination was saying while my brain was barely functioning. I seriously don’t get how she’s expecting me to be at least half-functional. “Well that better be so! I don’t like being called fat!” She pointed her fingers at her eyes, then at me repeatedly. “Hahaaa! Just kidding Matt, don't worry!” ...But I didn’t reply and just got off the bed, going to wash my face and brush my teeth.
“Hey! Come on! I’m trying to make you laugh! Don’t leave me hanging like that!”
“Crystal…” I loudly sighed and groaned, “I just woke up at my own house, how do people start their day?”. “Oh right! Sorry, I forgot to brush my teeth today… Can I use your toothbrush?”
…“Ew, no.” …Well… I can’t say this is how I expected to wake up, but it certainly is something. It’s awkward to have Crystal witness it, but I just hope Natalie enjoyed that time. I wonder how she feels about this whole world ending deal and me…
...Oh well, it’s time to work. After I finished brushing my teeth, I went on to make some coffee and a sandwich. I could feel Crystal watching me from a distance. “Uhh Crystal, are you having fun there?” I asked, “You know, you could just go to your own house and get ready for work…”
“But I like watching you!” She said as she smiled at me, adding to the awkwardness of the scene. “Uhhh… okay. I’m not even gonna bother then.”
Quietly enjoying my breakfast, I made an extra sandwich and offered it to Crystal out of decency… Her eyes sparkled with glee as she opened her mouth with a wide smile with a great amount of visible excitement. “F-for me, Matt?! T-thank you so much! I can’t believe you’re giving this to me for free!”
She bit it off my hand with a single bite, and swallowed it instantly without even chewing at all. Blinking, completely lost from what I just saw, there was really not much for me to say here besides witnessing this draconic horror.
“Holy hell, Crystal. How… How did you do that?”. “Oh it’s nothing Matt! I have a lot of experience with my mouth, is all!”
“...What?”
“Forget about it! Let’s go outside! We don’t want to miss work!” She picked me up and walked out of the house happily. As I looked at the sky, I noticed it looked slightly darker. But before I could worry, I had to talk to her. “W-wait! Crystal! Don’t pick me up out of nowhere! Your hands are cold, you know!” My voice got higher, poor me being humiliated by this dragon lady as the neighbors got to enjoy the scene, much to my dismay. “Alright, let’s get to work!... Literally and metaphorically!” She flapped her wings, jumped and took flight. At this point I couldn’t get off her or it meant trouble.
“Crystal… you better not drop me.” Watching the streets, cars and people passing by. I’m lucky it isn’t that scary to me thanks to my work experience, or else… “Don’t worry about it Matt! I’m good with my hands too!”... “Alright, that’s it. At this point I feel like I should just shut up for my own good.” No words in the English language could describe how painful being around this woman is… She giggled, and soon enough, we arrived at work. At that good old Silver T. Big. It seems like… my morning was already getting pretty whacky, who knows how much worse it’ll get? Though I should probably stop thinking about it before I have to swallow my own thoughts.
“Alright! We’re here!” With excitement, as she put me on my feet. I adjusted my clothes with as much professionalism as I possibly could even if I was being driven insane only a few moments ago, a quick recovery. “Let’s forget all of this happened, and never talk about it again…”. “You got it! See you at work Matt!” She rushed into the building. I walked inside following Crystal, we took the same elevator, and I didn’t waste my time talking to her, since she was just gonna say something weird if I did. When we got to our floor, Natalie was already waiting for us as the elevator’s door slid open.
“Natalie?” I said as we got out of the elevator. “It’s serious, meet me in the meeting room.” She said and turned her back at me, before leaving in a fancy fashion. “...Alright. Let’s go, Crystal.” Crystal looked a bit worried as we went to the meeting room… What could await us there, I wonder? We sat down on our chairs, it was the same people as when this whole mess started. Kinda odd, when you think about it. But that doesn’t matter right now.
Natalie then started talking. “I’m not even gonna waste time with introductions or formalities at this point, I’ve been told to pass this information. And so I will…” She started fidgeting with her hair. Oh boy. She’s nervous already. Poor, poor Nats. Forced to show the most basic of emotions… “The Pred-Squad spent lots of hours annihilating the, uh, things from The Emptiness. But no matter how hard they tried, they just kept coming back. They decided to return after that, as The Emptiness approached us more and more… We have no other choice. Everyone must gather at Celestial City. Every. Single. Citizen. We have one hour, so get moving. Fly if you can, drive with as many people as you can, or go walking already.”
“What? Hold on…” Dennis understandably got flustered as the room was full of chatter, confusion and worriment. “Is this for real? You’re joking right? I thought we had everything under control!” Natalie got up and started walking through the exit. “I wouldn’t joke about something like this, now get moving before it’s too late.” With those words, she left, leaving the rest of us confused. And before I could react, I felt someone grab me out of nowhere, with my thoughts being suppressed by Dennis’ screams. Of course, this was all the work of Crystal. She had grabbed us to fly to Celestial City… At this point I’m just going with the flow. This is tiring… But… All I can do is wait until we get there… When we arrived, we were behind a massive crowd of people. All gathered up, I think it was safe to say this was all the thousand people living in Meex. It’s shameful that we’re the last to arrive, though…
Natalie walked towards Crystal, Dennis and I, they just looked at me. “Took you guys long enough, why didn’t you get here earlier?”. Half-frowning, I answered. “Well I would’ve called Michael to drive me here, but Crystal thought it would be a better idea to carry me and Dennis here.” Crystal flinched and started swaying her arms angrily. “Hey, come on! I’m trying to help! Plus that tiny car wouldn’t fit the four of us! Can’t you just appreciate what I do for once?!”. Dennis replied, “H-hey… Come on now, Crystal, I know the situation is bad but you don’t have to snap at Matt like that. We’re friends, aren’t we? We’re not supposed to fight!”
I put my hand on my face, frustrated. “No, don’t cover for me Dennis. I admit I’ve been too rough on Crystal, and for that I apologize. We could talk about that after we’re done here, for now… Where’s Arthur?” Natalie started to think… “Hm, good question. He’s not here with us so… Could he be with another group of people? That’s odd though, I thought we were his only group of friends since we’re co-employees and all.” I heard some loud screeching sounds and quickly covered my ears, but Crystal shook and yelled in pain. Before I could ask her if she was okay, a voice had interrupted me. “S-sorry about that, yet again…” As expected of Robert Sails… “I should inform everyone, we’re gonna make use of the magic from everyone who’s able to use it. Even if it’s just a little bit, we shall all put our soul together to fight Emptiness once and for all. I now leave you with Mr. Arthur Gold for further details.” Raising my eyebrow, I looked at Crystal. “Hey, Crystal, I can barely see them from here… Would you mind carrying us and flying just a little bit?”
“After you got mad at me?!” She looked frustrated. “Crystal, please, we need you right now, for something that we actually want. I understand you’re mad at me for not appreciating you carrying me here but this time I would genuinely appreciate it if you did what I asked now. Not just for me, but for the others too.”
Dennis gulped. “Uhh…. Y-yeah! Sure thing! I guess you can do that!”
Natalie stepped back a bit, clearly uncomfortable by the awkward scene. “I’ll stay here, don’t worry. You two can ride the dragon.” Had she not felt awkward she probably would be mocking me, knowing her… “Oh, alright…” I said, before Crystal smiled and screamed. “YAAAYYY! You’re finally appreciating me! Alright, let’s get this done!” She grabbed me and Dennis then jumped off the ground, elevating us to get a better view of what was going on.
In the distance, we saw Arthur walking towards the mic, he seemed to be wearing a small pouch for some reason. I wonder why… Arthur, then quite professionally, got ahold of the mic, unlike the previous ear destroyer. “Testing, testing… Alright, I shall begin explaining the current events taking place, fellow people of Meex.” He cleared his throat, I can see that despite being a robot he’s all there to make quite the image, eh... “Alright, I’m sure those who know about ancient history know about my past, but for those who don’t, I’ll gladly explain the situation…”
Arthur lifted an oversized crystal above him with ease using his magic, as it emitted a bright and shiny pink light. Could this be…? “This is the Ultimate Artifact. The source of my immortality, it tragically contains the souls of an entire kingdom. Those souls have forever remained trapped in this crystal to fuel my life and magic energy, we will use it to our advantage to get rid of The Emptiness, along with everyone’s united force.” Ah, that pouch is a pocket dimension, I see. I presume the Ultimate Artifact is too heavy to carry in one’s own, and requires a special physical one…
A random bystander objected, “Isn’t that kinda unethical though? Wouldn’t that be… rude to the fallen people?” Arthur rolled his eyes. “Really now? And do you have any better ideas? Because this is a life or death situation we’ve got in our hands, so we might as well take every route we’re capable of taking if it is for the best.”
“Oh… sorry then.” With the random guy shutting up so quickly, he continued just as fast. “Now then, listen to me, as someone who has been the king of countless generations in the past! Everyone who is capable, please crouch and open your palm, and hold it against the ground.”
Crystal squeaked. “Ah! And we’re flying!” She then landed and put us on the ground, without wasting any more time, we did as he told us. Everyone else did, too. Together, we cooperated like the great society we had always been. And those who didn’t possess magical abilities proceeded to watch the scenario unfold without disturbing anyone. They knew it was serious, and let them be. Sometimes the greater help is to simply not disturb. “Now then… Fellow citizens of Meex, my people… Please… Look at the sky one final time, gaze upon its infinite dark void, and then look back at the ground. Concentrate your hatred for it, think about annihilating it. Most importantly, fill your heart with a desire to protect our land! All at once! Get to work for the survival of Planet Meex and its people!”
As the last person to do so, Arthur crouched and put his hand on the floor, the crystal he had begun making the sounds of shaking glass while vibrating. The entire planet shook, yet everyone was still determined to work together, no one put their hand away from it, no matter how frightening it was. And then… the crystal elevated itself. I felt drained, a bit dizzy, when I looked at the crystal it definitely looked bigger than before, I wondered if it absorbed our soul energy…
Then it started for real.
I opened my mouth wide in disbelief and shock, and for once in years, my body trembled in fear, not from coffee, but from shock, disbelief and fear. No matter how hard I looked at it, I couldn’t believe it. Gulping, I couldn’t help but keep watching. I couldn’t look away. The tentacles then wrapped the chunks of the city they had snapped and pulled them towards the sky, great parts of Meex only being absorbed deep into the dark void of the power hungry Emptiness. Outside of our view as everyone panicked, a mix of yelling, screaming, and more filled the air. Some people ran away, some fainted, that’s how horrible it was. It’s like The Emptiness consumed those pieces of land like a cheap meal. And despite all of our best efforts and the thousands of souls combined for their magic force, we couldn’t defeat The Emptiness?... W-why?! I… just… can’t understand it! DAMN IT! It’s like it’s MOCKING US!!!
The crystal fired rays at the sky, vanishing the darkness from The Emptiness. Everyone looked at the sky and cheered, we were doing it, I couldn’t believe it, something was going well for once! But… what happened next totally killed my spirits, it was clearly there in front of my very own eyes to ruin it all. I couldn’t lie to myself. The Emptiness fired a pair of massive tentacles at the ground, each of them at opposite sides, we had to watch AND hear our planet snap in half. Millions of years of evolution, progress, and more down the drain, only small chunks of the planet were left.
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