Crossing the World

XLVI - Shelters (Sergei)

[All foreign languages will be written in indo from now on with the format '.' let's not complicated. Example: 'I want to eat' . Well, it will be like that appearance if the character speaks a foreign language]

...----------------...

The Battle against the Creator Entity. A legend in which the ancestors fight for this land from the fury of an incomprehensible entity. As a result of the thousand year great war, the water almost disappeared from the ground. All the fertility that sustains people's lives is now turned into an undeserved barren plain. Even farm animals have undergone mutations as a form of adaptation to the environment, turning into ferocious monsters that threaten the inhabitants.

After the passage of time over the centuries, through the knowledge of survival passed down through generations, people began to be able to live stably, forming small colonies around the remaining oases.

Food and water are tightly distributed, providing minimum limits to support the life of the colony. Every year there are always some people who die from lack of nutrition, but thanks to the good management of the rulers, this small colony managed to survive for hundreds of years.

Unfortunately, the longer a colony is formed, there will be days when their development becomes stagnant. In fact, it starts to degenerate day by day. The more difficult it is to get clean water and enough food may be the main reason, but their mental deterioration and voracious nature also make the situation worse.

In the end, a few months ago, a rebellion was going on everywhere. Disgruntled members of the colony began attacking the rulers, trying to hunt down anyone responsible for territory management.

The small colony began to collapse on its own.

Among the corrupt rulers of course there are good people as well. Those who remain attached to the integrity of the colony and try their best to make a fair distribution. However, it is not an easy matter to fight injustice in a place where corruption is the majority. Therefore, rebellion is inevitable. Worse yet, these good rulers also became the target of the anger of colony members.

The hunted began to flee, leaving behind an oasis that had been the base of their ancestors for hundreds of years. This was the beginning of the nightmare that befell them for the next three months.

The small group of escapees met several times and were almost slaughtered. Fortunately, with metal arrows and spears normally used to defend the oasis, they managed to repel the attackers. Even so, the number of casualties is increasing from day to day.

Once, when the group had shrunk to just fourteen people and the amount of food was dwindling, they were attacked by a group of monsters resembling wolves. The attack this time was indeed unfortunate because of the incredible number.

Yes, there were about 40 wolves surrounding them from various directions.

A fierce battle between a former ruler who was driven out of the colony and a pack of hungry wolves is inevitable. One by one began to fall as sharp teeth tore through their limbs, further reducing the number of such groups. The sharp claws continued to split the flesh, staining the barren land with a deep blue color.

About three hours had passed since they first fought. The remaining number was only five people and two of them were seriously injured.

Now the only person who can fight is Sergei, a bow-wielding man. He was the most capable among them, a ruler who used to lead the oasis defense from the monsters' attacks. His son was killed with an unrecognizable body. However, there was no time for him to cry over it as more than half of the wolf pack still surrounded them.

As anxiety and fear began to envelop the brave body, a blinding light suddenly appeared from behind the horizon. The intensity of the light and its heatstroke even outshone the sunlight for a while, making the wolf pack into a fuss. Then, as the light grew even more dazzling, a huge bang rang out in the sky accompanied by a powerful air wave. This shocked everyone, including the wolves who had directly fled from their place, ignoring the prey that was before him.

The deafening roar shook the air and the ground was accompanied by a strong gale of wind hitting them. Everyone was bounced away by the stifling heat wave, causing them to roll over several times and fall buried by the dust and sand that came crashing down.

The incident only lasted less than ten minutes, but it managed to instill fear into all the monsters that roamed around it. Also, the two people who were previously severely injured had now exhaled their last breaths due to the strong wind gush that hit them.

Since that day, only Sergei and the rest of his family have survived. In the end the three of them continued their journey after a long time of mourning for the death of his group.

Sergei managed to resupply his food supply with meat from some wolves that they managed to defeat. However, they lost most of the water due to the attack and the explosion that occurred earlier.

The three walked away from the direction where the dazzling light was coming from, hoping that such an event would not befall them again. They knew that whatever caused the explosion must have been quite dangerous, but it also brought its own blessing as no monsters had approached them since the incident.

Just two weeks later, food supplies ran low while their drinking water ran out. Coupled with the hot weather during the day and barren land with no place to take shelter makes the journey worse. In the end, Dimah, the Wife, died of severe dehydration. He even hallucinated before death.

Sergei was forced to leave his wife's body at the site, allow time for his youngest son to grieve, then leave.

They had forgotten how long and how far they had traveled. The severe thirst plus the extremely hot weather was excruciating, but both never stopped to walk. The two pairs of legs continued to make their mark on the barren, sandy dry land, hoping to find another oasis somewhere.

Until in the end, an absurd phenomenon appeared before them.

Two humanoid figures suddenly emerged from nothingness all of a sudden.

Sergei was sure that there was no sign of living things anywhere. Also, there was nothing blocking his field of view as far as the eye could see. So, it was impossible for someone to sneak up and appear suddenly near them.

At that moment, his chaotic mind due to severe dehydration and lack of nutrient intake awakened his survival instinct and was wary of both. Sergei immediately brought the only weapon he had and immediately targeted one of them. When he wanted to shout out a warning sentence, his trembling right hand could not hold back the arrow that was ready to be fired. As a result, he lost grip on the arrow that shot straight towards the target he was aiming at.

A man grabbed the arrow shot by him with a swift motion. However, it did not manage to stop the speed of the arrow completely. As a result, the arrow pierced through the right wrist of the target he had accidentally shot.

The incident lasted less than two seconds so Sergei - who was severely dehydrated - was unable to process the entire incident in full. Even so, the fact that his arrows incised wounds instead of piercing through what he saw proved that they were not the hallucinations his brain had created.

A thick, deep-red liquid started flowing slowly over the injured wrist, dripping onto the sandy stretch of soil below. The drops showed no sign of stopping any time soon, but the owner of the wound seemed to have paid it no heed.

Sergei who was beginning to realize what had happened instantly froze in place. His heart raced faster, in line with the shock he experienced.

Everyone who hangs life around the oasis knows legends about their ancestors.

A long time ago, when the first civilization still did not appear, no intelligent species of any kind lived in this world. Then, at one time, a humanoid figure descended to the mainland at a certain place.

There are various versions that explain who these humanoid figures really are and how they really look. According to the religious, the figure is the Deputy God sent to teach them about a civilized way of life. Meanwhile, according to researchers in the heyday of civilization, the story is just a saga created during world wars as a result of people's longing for peace.

There is a lot of debate going on even among the same group. However, despite the theories behind it, some things are mutually agreed upon as a belief.

There is a theoretical basis that states that the people who exist today are the result of an evolution. Their first ancestors were human apes, a term for ancient apes that are also the ancestors of monkey monsters that are still alive today. The question is, how can the ape monsters that live today are still a common ancestor with people when the number of chromosomes they have is different?

The answer lies in the second theory and the previously told legend.

The Humanoid entity descended to the mainland and shared its DNA with several human apes. The creature then taught these hybrid species a wide range of knowledge and made their lives better. However, hybrid species that begin to excel in various fields eventually become power hungry. They then finish off the entity that has created them and extract the body to the smallest parts. They believed that if the body parts were consumed, they would become immortal.

... and that's what they got after that.

The eternal ancestors. Thanks to the flesh and blood of the Creator Entity they consumed, they achieved immortality. Unfortunately, however, they fail to learn that the Creator Entity is not a single being, but a race that also has its own group. So, once their race learned that the Creator Entity had been killed, their wrath rained down on the land for a thousand years. This is what causes the world to disappear.

At least that's the legend they heard.

At first Sergei considered the stories only as part of the religion he espoused. He never questioned the truth of the story and simply believed it. However, on the other hand, he also did not take it too seriously.

Yeah, that's exactly what he thought before. However, an irrefutable proof suddenly appeared before him without even bothering to look for it.

The ancestral blood was red, in line with the flesh and blood color of the Creator Entity.

Such is the sound of one of the verses contained in the book of his religion.

Sergei's blood is blue. So did the blood of his family and others who lived around the oasis until now. Only the monsters had red blood because they were believed to be the incarnation of the wrath of the Creator Entity and the epitome of the sins of the ancestors. If intelligent species appear to have identical apparitions to them and are red-blooded, then there is only one thing that comes to everyone's mind.

An ancestor.

Sergei reached the conclusion after realizing the blood of a girl before him was red.

In the book of his religion, the ancestors are described as evil people who thirst for power. Even so, Sergei who is open-minded about the relative point of view of a person thinks that it is not wise to judge someone only through his book. He is also not a religious person. So, deep in his heart, religion did not affect his mindset too much.

'Ancestors? What does that mean?'

The injured figure let out a flat voice from his mouth, but Sergei did not understand at all what he was saying.

'Maybe there is a connection with the construction of the shelter in the past.'

A second voice came out from the mouth of a man standing right beside the injured figure. Just like before, Sergei did not understand the slightest bit of words contained within.

'Hm?'

'To reduce development costs, engineers work closely with genetic engineering and medicine bureaus. They mixed their DNA with one of the polar reptiles. The result is an intelligent humanoid species that is strong, disease-resistant, and suitable to be a construction worker for a fee of only food and drink.'

'What the fuck? Are they not the same as slaves? Also, why did I just find out such a cruel story?'

'Due to human rights violations, there were massive demonstrations everywhere and the project was stopped. All manuscripts were destroyed and only certain people were authorized to know about them. The government announced the extermination of this species to the public, but in fact they kept some and conducted experiments. Your current position is the highest in the Shelter. Therefore, you have the authority to know.'

They seem to be busy with their own conversations. There seemed to be no sign of hostility from the two even though Sergei had already accidentally shot him. He was grateful for this good development. To be honest, there was no energy left for him to fight the enemy.

Amidst his confusion, Sergei saw that the injured figure was now looking at him with a flat face. He then revealed a sentence that Sergei was actually able to understand, but could not understand the intent of the sentence.

"I'm so sorry. Indeed, sometimes there are many greedy people out there who justify all means to reap more profits. So, let's forget the past, okay?"

Sergei did not know the direction of the conversation of someone who was standing not far from him. There were so many conclusions floating in his mind to be able to understand the situation. One of the most likely is that they mistakenly recognized Sergei as someone else. If that was the case, it was natural for him to not understand the intent behind the sentence spoken by that figure. Holding on to that belief, Sergei started a conversation with a figure from outside the oasis who suddenly appeared before him.

...----------------...

Note: the cake is the longest episode so far heu