Cracked Pillars of Fate

Chapter 21: Arena of Destiny

The golden light that swallowed them gave way to the sharp, cold scent of ozone. Archen Huge was the first to land, his feet hitting a surface that felt like asphalt, yet the surface vibrated with a faint pulse of blue energy.

"Everyone in one piece?" El Joe asked, his voice echoing slightly.

"I'm still breathing," Archen grumbled while helping Dylan Smith to his feet.

When they looked up, their breath caught. They were in a city square that looked like Jakarta or New York, but the world had been folded. Above their heads, instead of a blue sky, there was a vast expanse of electric orange clouds adorned with impossible sights. Skyscrapers, overpasses, and even city parks floated upside down in the air, hanging like giant stalactites.

"Welcome to the Arena of Destiny," Dylan whispered, his eyes staring in awe at the rows of code sliding through the ozone-filled air. "Earth isn't destroyed, Joe. Earth is being consumed and rearranged by the System."

"This is horrific," Joe muttered. He saw cars floating aimlessly between two layers of gravity pulling at each other. "How many people are trapped in a place like this?"

"System sensors show thousands of life signs in this sector," Dylan checked his crystal device. "But the energy is unstable. There are many fluctuations of hostility."

They walked along the cracked streets for several hours. The haunting silence was only broken by the sound of the wind howling between the inverted buildings. Suddenly, Archen's sharp ears caught something.

"Stop. Footsteps. Lots of them," Archen whispered.

From behind the ruins of a shopping mall, a group of men emerged. They didn't look like monsters, but rather human survivors. However, their appearance was far from friendly. They wore makeshift armor made of iron plates and system cables, holding energy spears that glowed red.

"Stop right there, strangers!" shouted a pockmarked man standing at the front. "Hand over your bags and weapons if you want to keep your heads!"

Joe stepped forward, his hands raised to show he wasn't holding a weapon. "We don't want any trouble. My name is El Joe. We're looking for a way to stop this madness."

The man laughed hoarsely, followed by his subordinates. "Stop the system? Don't make me laugh. My name is Silas, leader of the Black Daggers faction. There is only one law here: the strong take, the weak are sacrificed."

"We are fellow humans, Silas," Joe said in a calm but firm tone. "This sector is in danger. You should be working together."

"Work together?" Silas spat to the side. "We just lost ten men to the plant monsters at the end of the road. We need energy supplies, and you look like you have plenty of Cores in those bags."

Dylan whispered behind Joe, "Joe, they're not joking. Their aggression levels are very high. They've lost their humanity out of desperation."

"Get out of the way, Silas," Archen stepped forward, letting his gravity energy compress the air around him. "We don't have time to deal with amateur scavengers."

Silas narrowed his eyes, feeling a sudden heavy pressure on his chest. "A Pillar? So you're the ones they're talking about in those system transmissions? Excellent. A Pillar's head must be worth a fortune to the Inquisitors!"

Before Silas could give the order to attack, the ground beneath their feet shook violently. From the cracks in the asphalt, pulsating flesh-red roots began to emerge. The roots weren't made of wood, but a weave of muscle and nerves that spread rapidly.

"Organic Colony!" shouted one of Silas's men, his face pale with terror. "They're coming sooner than expected!"

"Hold the formation!" Silas ordered, though his voice trembled.

The roots shot out quickly, wrapping around one of Silas's men and dragging him into a nearby building with lightning speed. The man's scream was cut short in an instant. Atop the building, a giant mass of flesh resembling a mechanical corpse flower began to bloom, emitting a pungent, foul stench.

"That's a Colonial Architect," Dylan said, his fingers moving rapidly over a hologram. "It's assimilating human organic matter to expand its network to the inverted buildings above!"

"Silas! Get your men behind us!" Joe shouted.

"To hell with you! We're taking the underground route!" Silas instead turned and ran with his men, leaving Joe's team to face the roots that were now targeting them. Silas even kicked some rubble to block Joe's escape path.

Archen crushed a root trying to wrap around his leg with a single gravitational stomp. "Those humans... they're truly sickening. They'd rather betray their own kind than fight together."

Joe stared at Silas's disappearing back, then looked toward the slums in the distance that were beginning to be devoured by the red muscle network. There were thousands of civilians there, caught between the cruelty of factions like the Black Daggers and the hunger of the system.

"They're afraid, Archen. Fear turns humans into monsters," Joe said softly. "But we have no choice. If we let these factions kill each other, there won't be any civilization left to save."

"So what's the plan, Commander?" Archen clenched his fists, his black glow now overflowing until it enveloped his arms.

Joe looked at the Colonial Architect, which was now beginning to lash out with massive tentacles toward them. "We can't just defeat this monster. We have to show people like Silas that there's another way besides betrayal. We're going to unite them, whether they like it or not."

Dylan nodded, synchronizing his weapon's frequency. "I've locked onto the colony's core coordinates. It's connected to the building structures hanging above us. We have to sever the connection before it drains all the energy in this sector."

The Colonial Architect roared, a sound coming from its organic mouth that resembled thousands of tortured human screams. Giant flesh tentacles slammed into the street, creating explosions of dust and asphalt shards.

Archen stepped forward, standing between the tentacles and the dying city. His face was hard, his eyes radiating cold determination. He looked up at the mass of flesh that continued to grow, devouring the city's architecture.

"Listen up, you damn meat machine!" Archen's voice thundered, challenging the monster's roar. "This world might be broken, and its people might be driven mad by fear. But as long as the three of us are still standing, you won't get another inch of ground!"

"Archen?" Joe turned his head.

Archen didn't look back. He just took a deep breath, letting the gravity around him condense until the floor beneath him began to crack, forming a crater.

"Joe, Dylan... forget about diplomacy for a while," Archen gave a predatory grin. "I'm going to rip this thing out by its roots. Tell that Architect of Nothingness that its war against Earth has just officially begun!"

Just as the giant tentacle lunged down to crush them, Archen leaped high, defying the inverted gravity, toward the heart of the colony pulsating in the orange sky.