Volume 2 – Chapter 14: The Point of No Return

The figure didn’t wait. It moved closer, its presence bearing down on me like the weight of the ocean itself. I wanted to move, to recoil, but my body froze. Not out of fear—at least not only out of fear. It was something deeper, something urging me, whispering through my bones that I had gone too far.

Rika tightened her grip on my hand. I sensed the slightest tremor in her fingers, but her voice was steady when she spoke. “There’s no choice? What do you mean?”

The figure cocked its head, as if amused. “It means just what it sounds like. The world you knew is gone. “The flood was just the beginning.”

I swallowed hard. “The beginning of what?”

The figure’s eyes glimmered, like wet stone, in the half-darkness. “The end. And what comes after.”

A chill ran down my spine. The words felt too purposeful, too conclusive. But before I could say anything more, the figure held its hand out again, palm up.

“Come,” it said.

For a moment, Rika and I did not move. The silence hung between us like a twangy wire, poised to break. Then, without awaiting our reply, the figure turned and walked.

I exhaled shakily. Every part of me yelled not to follow. But what else were we gonna do? We had run as far as we could run, fought against forces we did not understand, and look where we ended up here in this moment.

I glanced at Rika. She looked directly into my eyes, her dark eyes searching mine. And then she nodded, without saying a word.

So we followed.

The figure guided us through the rubble, through what remains of a city consumed by the flood. Half-submerged buildings reared their skeletal remains above the water like broken teeth. The scent of damp concrete mingled with something else, something metallic, like rusted iron.

We walked in silence, the only sounds coming from the sloshing of our steps in ankle-deep water and the occasional groan of the wind through fallen buildings.

The figure finally halted in front of a building that had somehow survived largely intact. A government office, based on the faded crest above the door. The windows were blown out, the entrance half-caved in, but the building remained.

“This is where it starts,” the figure said softly.

I frowned. “Where what begins?”

The figure twisted to face me. “The truth.”

Then without a word, it went inside.

I hesitated, glanced at Rika. She was already watching me, waiting. I inhaled and stepped in behind him.

“Inside, it was musty, thick with dust and decay. Papers were strewn about the floor, some still sticking to rusty filing cabinets. Desks and chairs lay strewn along the walls. But what grabbed my attention wasn’t the wreckage. No, it was the giant map tacked to the wall furthest away, barely visible in the low light.

I stepped closer, my breath catching at the finer points. It wasn’t just any map. It was a detailed topographical layout of all the surrounding land—designated with symbols, lines and notes scrawled in red ink. And in the middle, circled again and again in heavy strokes, was one word.

Initiation.

I swallowed, my throat dry. “What… what is this?”

The figure’s voice was calm. “Evidence.”

Rika shifted beside me, studying the map. “This… this isn’t a natural disaster, right?”

The figure smiled, however, and there was no warmth in it. “No.”

I faced it, my heart racing. “Then what the hell is it?”

The figure’s expression remained unchanged. “You already know.”

And that was the worst part.

Because deep down, I did.

It was deafening in the room. All I could hear was my own heartbeat, the shallow cadence of my breath. Rika moved closer to the map, running scales on the red ink.

“This…” she began, barely speaking above a whisper. “These markings. They’re all clustered around large urban areas.”

I followed her gaze. She was right. The red markings weren’t random. They were deliberate, precise, laying down a pattern I wasn’t quite able to decipher yet.

“The figure, said, “Coordinates. “Markers of the first phase.”

I turned sharply. “First phase of what?”

The figure’s ghostly hand pointed to the map. “Of cleansing.”

Rika inhaled sharply. “Cleansing?”

The figure nodded. “This flood. It was meant to erase. To reset.”

My stomach twisted. “You’re telling me, that… this was a plan?”

The figure could be seen watching intently. “Planned. Executed. And now, continued.”

Rika’s fists balled up in her palms. “Who? Who would do this?”

For a moment, the figure faltered. Then, slowly, it spoke. “You really believe this is the work of one group? One enemy? No. It is the result of a world that has been turning toward its own destruction for too long. You only see the flod because it is the first wave. But more is coming.”

My skin erupted in a cold sweat. “More?”

The figure strode closer, the low light accentuating the angles of its face. “You are on the brink of something far beyond yourselves. The world has already ended. You are just seeing the aftereffects.”

I couldn’t breathe. My legs felt weak beneath me. “Then… what do we do?”

The figure finally smiled, but it was not reassuring. “You survive. And you decide.”

Rika exhaled shakily. “Decide what?”

The figure’s eyes darkened. “And whether you willl stand up to what is coming… or join it.”

A chill went through me, sinking into my bones. But this was no longer about survival.

This was about the future.

And whether we even had a say in it.