Volume 2 Chapter 11 the Desert

Chapter 11 the Desert

I

After several seconds, they fell to the ground. The shockwave produced when the falling ship impacted on the ground were tearing them apart, but luckily, the Flying obelisk fell to the vast desert where the ground was formed of sands instead of hard stones or earths.

Weakly, they climbed out of the ruins of the Flying obelisk. Soon they found out that they were not the only ones who survived the crash.

Like an indestructible ghost, Totanchinpys climbed out of the ruins of the fallen aircraft slowly. She looked at the four like a revenging demon. After the crash, she was wounded severely and now she was not as agile as before.

“If you stop attacking us, we can spare your lives and we may survive in this desert together,” proposed Aislina.

“I will not stop! Nothing will stop me! You will not stop the arrival of a higher civilization! You will not stop the trend of history! You will not stop the inevitability!” shouted Totanchinpys fanatically.

Wielding her glowing sickle-sword fiercely, Totanchinpys limped towards the four. Floria shot several arrows and they hit Totanchinpys exactly on her vital parts. However, she was protected by machinite power armour, so those arrows would only repulse her instead of hurting her or making her bleed.

Witnessing this, Starsha dashed towards her. Totanchinpys didn’t have a companion and she survived the crash on her own without a group hug. Therefore, she was hurt much worse than Starsha and now she had become far less dexterous than her.

Starsha moved swiftly in her dance steps while Totanchinpys parried awkwardly. Starsha’s dagger carved several scratched on Totanchinpys’ power armour. If she worked harder, she could cut through her armour, inside which she was only a weak mortal.

Unfortunately, Totanchinpys seized Starsha’s arm with her gauntlet, her sickle-sword piercing through Starsh’s wrist. Screaming in extreme agony, Starsha’s wrist began to bleed and the blood dropped on the ground, dying the sand scarlet.

Yanni charged forwards in aid of her. He struck Totanchinpys down with his lunarite shield and started to smash her head madly. She was just a common woman wearing a disgusting power armour. She was not invincible.

Groaning in hateful tears, Totanchinpys was struggling.

“I will kill you all, I will tear you into pieces! Your blood will dye the whole desert red! I will be an everlasting shadow! I will haunt your life!” cursed Totanchinpys.

Wearing her power armour, Totanchinpys had unbelievable strength. To some extent, she was even physically stronger than Yanni. When she was about to stand up to her feet and fight back, Aislina, Floria and Starsha grabbed hold of three of her four limbs.

Now, she was at Yanni’s mercy. Angrily, Yanni smashed her head a dozen times more, exerting his utmost power until she stopped breathing. Exhausted, Yanni lay on the ground, bathing himself under the scorching sunlight.

It was at noon right now and they were lost in the vast desert, a no man’s land.

II

The four was travelling in the immense desert. It was really a lifeless land. There were no tress, rivers, ponds, grasslands or lakes along the way. There were only endless dunes and sands.

Some vultures were flying high on the sky, waiting for the death of the travellers.

Though the desert was sapless, there were still some plants struggling to survive and grow, since life would always find a way. There were cacti standing proudly throughout the desert. There were also some brownish dead bushes decorating this monotonous land …

It was really hard to survive in the desert, but luckily, Aislina had stored enough food and water in her Pocket Dimension, which could feed them for one week. However, they were wondering whether they could walk out of the desert in one week or not.

The veil of night commenced to cover the world and the pale moon was rising up in the east.

Several sparse stars were shining, decorating the night sky.

During the daytime, the weather was scorchingly hot but now during the night hours, it was becoming freezingly cold.

All their sweats released during the daytime were cleaned by the coldness of the night.

Luckily, after walking for two hours, they saw a big oasis composed of a lake and a patch of grassland. With sore legs, they began to sit down and rest.

Collecting branches from dead bushes and flints from sandstones, they set up a campfire to shelter themselves from the coldness.

Under the moonlight, they began to talk about their plans.

“So we’re going to Santo Cielo, right?” queried Yanni.

“Yep, Santo Cielo, the floating archipelago. It’s said that they’re floating on the sky due to the repellence of magnetic field. On Santo Cielo, there’s a mysterious blue gemstone called Cuore Celeste, which contains formidable energy that can upgrade the Mother Matrix and enable it to reshape the world,” Starsha pointed out.

“And Achnosiris wanted to use the energy to upgrade the Mother Matrix and mechanize the whole world, turning everything into metallic and mechanical stuff, right?” added Floria.

“Yeah. According to Operation of Mechanization, that notebook I read in that room of the court, the Mother Matrix has the power to reshape the inner structures of material, and we have to stop it. Achnosiris has been trying to find where Cuore Celeste is in every way he can think of. The Mother Matrix is also calculating the position of this gemstone too, but the Mother Matrix is not omnipotent …” narrated Ramsesys.

“So where is this gemstone actually?” queried Yanni.

“This is a occulted knowledge. I don’t know that neither, but we need to go to Santo Cielo to stop Macchina Gloriosa,” answered Starsha.

“When will the Mother Matrix figure out where Cuore Celeste is by calculating?” questioned Aislina.

“I don’t know. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next month, or maybe never …” answered Starsha.

“My gut tell me that there’s not much time left for us,” expressed Aislina.

“Yep. We have to act quickly. It’s hard to imagine what will happen if humans are turned into automatons by the Mother Matrix,” consented Starsha.

“How much do you know about the Mother Matrix?” inquired Aislina.

“Though I’ve read that notebook, I still know nothing about it. Anyhow, it is a mechanical computer constructed by humans and I’m sure that if we fail, it will finally rule humans one day,” speculated Starsha.

III

The four were sitting around the warm campfire that they had just built. It was their first night in the desert. Freezing wind was blowing against them in an attempt to put out the fire.

When the wind was blowing by, it rubbed against the rocks, creating dreadful sounds as if some horrible demons were passing by. Because of the sounds of the howling winds, some people said that there were mourning ghosts weeping painful laments in the desert at night.

Above them was the endless sea of dark clouds which were blurry during the nighttime. Several stars had appeared in the sky. The Grey Factory had been destroyed and the pollution it had done to the sky had been alleviated slightly, but some scars of the earth were irreversible.

Those star skies written in the books of ancient poets and bards might never appear in this world again. What was worse, the world might be mechanized in the future.

Mechanization …

If the world was really mechanized by Macchina Gloriosa, everything would change. Without those irrational parts, the world would become cold … As cold as ice … Humans would be cursed with pure nothingness.

Being machines, their aims and meanings would be defined by algorithms so that they wouldn’t need to think about the meanings of their lives anymore and thus their lives would be meaningless; Being machines, the whole world will function in perfection, but perfection was just another kind of imperfection.

It was already late at night, but there was still some remaining heat from the scorching sun during the daytime. However, the heat was fading and the campfire was shaking, struggling to survive and keeping burning in the chilly wind.

Aislina kept putting her magical power into the warm fire, and finally, she succeeded. The fire became steady in the end and the four found themselves bathed in an aura of warmth. Thanks to Aislina, they didn’t need to fear the coldness anymore.

“You’re wonderful, Aislina!” commented Yanni.

“Thanks,” Aislina flushed.

“So we’re heading for Santo Cielo the floating archipelago now, right?” questioned Yanni.

“Yep,” Floria nodded.

“Are there any legends about Santo Cielo, Starsha?” pursued Yanni.

“For sure. My dad once told me a story … To be honest, I don’t want to talk about him …” answered Starsha.

“Then don’t talk about him. Just talk about the story,” proposed Floria.

“Yeah … According to the folk legends, Santo Cielo is a sacred place of the ancient assassins in Desertia …” narrated Starsha.

“Assassins? Those legendary warriors of Desertia? My mom told me that assassins are blessed with the Spring of Arcana, and their physiologies are enhanced by it. The Spring of Arcana is similar to the Spring of Sylvana. Its power is from Arcana, a demigoddess of Desertia, who is said to be the twin sister of Sylvana,” recalled Aislina.

“Anyway, many people say that there used to be assassins, but now they are gone for some reasons. No one knows why they disappear. Some conspiracy theorists say that the government of Desertia has been hunting assassins secretly … Anyway, though Santo Cielo used to be a holy site of assassins, it has already been taken over by Macchina Gloriosa now,” continued Starsha.

“What a conspiracy …”murmured Aislina.

“By the way, how much food do we have in your Pocket Dimension?” inquired Starsha.

“I have the food for one week,” replied Aislina.

“That’s not enough. If we don’t have enough food, we shall go back to Le Meraviglie instead of heading for Santo Cielo,” suggested Floria.

“Come on, we’re in an oasis. Floria, you’re a huntress in our tribe. Can’t you hunt some wild animals in this oasis?” advised Starsha.

“That’s true. I’ll go hunting now. But … It’s nearly midnight now and I don’t want to go hunting alone. I wish that I could have a chaperone,” Floria smiled, looking at Yanni.

“Fine, sis, I’ll go with you,” agreed Yanni.

Together, the siblings then left the campfire and went hunting.

IV

Floria and Yanni were hunting in the oasis of night.

The oasis was drowned in complete darkness, so that the light from the campfire was pretty prominent in the dark environment and could be seen from a great distance. Therefore, the siblings didn’t need to worry about getting lost.

At the centre of the oasis was a lake. The moon and the night clouds were making shadows over the lake. When the wind pasted by, those mirror images would wrinkle slightly.

Separated with other waterways, the lake was an independent paradise for aquatic creatures. Fishes were swimming carefreely inside it. Sometimes they would leap out of the water and then dived into it again, leaving some small ripples.

There were some rabbits running in the oasis. They knew that Floria was a predator so that when they saw Floria, they would run away.

However, Floria was an excellent huntress …

Yanni was watching her sister hunting quietly.

Fully focused, Floria loaded her bow and observed the surroundings. There were some rustling sounds moving through the bushes.

Floria unbent her finger. The arrow flew into the bushes and Yanni heard a sharp scream. The arrow of Floria was connected to her bow by a rope and thus when she retracted the rope, her dead prey was dragged beside her too.

It was a dead rabbit. Floria only commenced her hunting two minutes ago and she had already gotten one dead rabbit.

One hour later, the siblings had gotten around ten rabbits and they two started to head back. Floria did most of the work and Yanni just stood by and watched, providing some moral support.

When they finished hunting, it was already midnight. The cunning moon was hanging high on the night sky and those lonely stars were glowing sickly. There were still some rabbits running around them but Floria didn’t continue hunting because she knew that maintaining the balance of nature was the responsibility of every hunter.

“Do you think the jungle law is cruel, Floria?” queried Yanni.

“For sure it is cruel. But in order to survive, sometimes we have no choice but to hunt those weaker preys. However, when the predators die, their bodies will go back to the soil and become the food of those preys. It’s the balance of nature, Yanni,” answered Floria.

“It is bloody,” whispered Yanni.

“Yes. That’s why I always respect those vegetarians because they have real resolution of rejecting violence and bloodiness, though I cannot be one of them. The jungle law is a part of the rule of nature, but it is the darkest part. We can take it as a doctrine … It is only a last resort to survive … ” added Floria.

“What is kindness substantially, Floria? Many people say that kindness is not hurting others, but we’re killing those rabbits …” asked Yanni.

“Rabbits are not of our kind. They’re not humans,” replied Floria.

“Why is killing humans different than killing other animals? They’re both actions of depriving others’ lives,” pursued Yanni.

“Because the rule of nature tells us that cannibalism is injustice or we will be cursed with prion. Anyway, those things are what philosophers need to think about. What we need to do is following our heart, Yanni,” Floria smiled.

“Yes … By the way, sis, I want to talk with you about … Do you know what you told me after you get drunken in Mister Berg’s house?” queried Yanni.

“What do I say?” asked Floria, confused.

“You said that you had fallen in love with … Starsha … You didn’t say that directly, but I figured out what you mean …” stuttered Yanni.

Floria’s eyes were wide with terror.

“Oh my … I am not supposed to tell others … Those feelings are temporary … I …” stammered Floria.

“Don’t be afraid. I will never tell others, not even Aislina,” promised Yanni.

“Thank you … It’s … You know … It’s forbidden and it’s an incest … If Starsha knew it, she might never be friend with me,” Floria breathed a sigh of relief.

“So you will never tell her your feeling?” asked Yanni

“Maybe … And maybe one day those feelings would dissipate …” muttered Floria.

In the worldview of Normanians, same-sex romance was worse than sibling incest.