A stark image against a large, desolated landscape, Aio could see the image of a woman, standing in the middle of a never-ending wasteland.
The Fringe? he thought, but he realized he was stuck in place, standing alongside a group of people who he felt looked vaguely familiar…
As he looked up at the sky, noting the dust swirling around, he felt a heavy impact. The light from the sun disappeared, and in the next moment, he felt a loud rumbling part the earth around him, and a strange familial presence washed over him.
Fear gripped him as he looked towards the sable-colored mountains in the distance.
They moved.
In deliberate fashion, the mountains began to part, segmenting itself, and stretching itself over the lands, until the silhouette of it began to wash over his vision. Moments later, Aio realized what he was looking up at.
Despite having never witnessed one himself, stories of the titanic monster which nearly decimated Neo-Kamakura during its founding – a monster whose corpse served as the monument within the district of Tresgate, seemed similar enough to this current presence, that his mind began to shape and clarify the image of the creature which blotted out the skies before him.
With four glassy eyes propped up almost horizontally on the sloped plane of its face - each eye the size of a small vehicle – the Supreme Enthipid walked its multitude of building-sized legs across the terrain until it stopped short of the woman, kicking up reddish dust in droves. Its four mandibles pressed against themselves, a deep grating noise which reverberated throughout the ears of each individual present in the area.
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The woman…it sounded like she was saying something to it.
A sudden chill ran through Aio’s body. Suddenly noticing the torrential winds which swirled around the outskirts of this band of people and the Supreme Enthipid, he looked up into the monster’s eyes – a monster whose body seemed to stretch towards the horizon – and swore to himself, that despite its lack of pupils, the monster seemed to be looking directly at him.
“The lost one has found his way home. And thus, the mantle shall be passed.”
Aio was shocked. A sound which pierced the deep abyss of his minds began to form itself into those words, as clear and jarring as anything he’s ever heard before. Commanding, and all-encompassing…was this the voice of the Supreme Enthipid?
He watched the godly entity so long, that he jumped when he noticed the woman below had turned to look at him as well. And despite his ignorance, in that moment, Aio saw something which flared the memories in the recesses of his brain.
The faded stitching of a curved claw fluttered on her cloak in the wind…the symbol of the Onyx Technicians.
Gasp. Aio shot up from the bed he was lying in, sweating profusely.
“Hey, hey, kid. Calm down. Just a nightmare,” Calli said, accompanied by a large man behind her. He didn’t look nearly as worried. Gravel…right? Aio thought.
“Where are we?” Aio said, and just noticed the bandages placed across where he had been injured by Vera in his previous encounter. Calli had some too. He was about to ask her about her condition when a sudden pang of pain shot through his head – whispers which scratched against his mind like a cacophony of insects.
Clay foundations surrounded him and a small hearth crackled quietly in the edge of the room. A small desk, placed on top of a large rectangular carpet of simple olive coloring, held a small bowl with warm, steaming broth.
Unfamiliar with this type of aesthetic, and mind still stuck in a daze, it wasn’t until the next words spoken by Calli, that he began to grasp the situation he was in.
“This,” Calli began, “is the Guardian’s village.”
