Technomancer: Genesis - 134 Ruins

Kaizer strode towards the gate of the Northwest Bibliotheca, this was deemed as Solio Regni by the clan. It was quite a journey from the imperial capital nevertheless he needed to be there. The summons of the Regaladeus patriarch was not to be taken lightly. Lightning flashed and thunder raged as he walked toward the gilded entrance. He looked at the thunderstorm and and found it odd. The last time this incident happened the boxes mounted on the corners of the of Solio Regni kept on saying something indecipherable, that was 8 years ago. It was as if there was an announcement and it kept on going weeks. Reports of the same thing happening on all known Bibleotheca locations were also received.

BOOM! The thunder roared. He was in deep thought.

….

Kaizer huffed, he had won the duel with his cousin. He walked back toward his corner where his father was. He was breathing heavily and had bruises but overall, it was a one-sided duel. His father was elated. “Well done! My son! You are indeed worthy of your name.” His father beamed.

“Name? What do you mean name?” asked a Kaizer, this was his first time to hear about it. His name was not heard of before, but he did not really pay attention to it.

“Your name is indeed special.” his father replied, “In the ancient tongue, of Fulmen-Caelesti, it means Emperor, ever since I laid my eyes on you I knew that you were destined to be the Rex. Only a few more duels until we get you a seat.”

Kaizer just nodded and sat and he grabbed a book and began to read.

…

The two guards immediately gave way, there were no greetings and there stares were austere.

The hallway was decadently embellished with armors standing on each of the pillars. The archway was brightly lit not by torches but by white light coming from panels above. Even though it was decorated to be fit for the era if one looked closely there was mismatch between the decorations and the actual interior of the building.

He walked further down to enter a room. It was radiant brightly lit. There a figure was sitting reading a report.

“Kaizer,” beckoned the figure. He wore white robes interwoven with gold and silk. On his sleeves were intricate markings. His head had grey hair and he was bespectacled. HIs facial features still contained there youthful appearance. He had a broad jaw and tan skin.

“Father,” Kaizer acknowledged the greeting.

“Hmm?” The man raised an eyebrow, “Remember It’s Lord Patriarch when the elders are around. Your loyalty is to the clan. Don’t get that title into you head. You can be replaced.” His speech was slow but carried authority. “You do what’s best for the clan, and you know the repercussions.” He started to glance back at the book.

Kaizer nodded curtly. “Yes Lord Patriarch.”

“Very well now to about the summons. ”

. . .

Ezra snapped out of his trance.

He saw chimeraans and his father at his side.

“Ezra. Are you alright?”

His father was staring directly at him kneeling with one knee and checking his forehead with his palm.

“I, think I’m okay dad. Wha..? Where are we.”

“We are actually at the center of the grove. ” Reitz said as he glanced at the surrounding area. “I don’t think anyone has been here before. Or if anyone did, they didn’t live to tell the tale.” Reitz cast a glance at the chimeraans.

“Odd, why are they not attacking? It seems like they are inanimate.”

“They did attack me a while ago, when I tried to get you away from that.” Reitz pointed at the contraption. It was a protrusion from the earth. The body was closed in on a metallic casing and had an opening to what seemed to be a camera.

When Ezra noticed he clasped his hands and gasped in shock.

`That’s a retinal scanner!`

“What Ezra? What happened?” Reitz asked suddenly as he found the behavior of his son odd.

“Oh, it’s just I found this thing strange.”

“Strange indeed you were in a trance and everything stopped when you put that thing near your eye.”

“Look there is a door,” Ezra pointed.

“Yes, I’m curious what is inside it”

Ezra finally noticed the structure. ‘This is a bunker!’ Ezra clapped his hand to his mouth.

“Oddly enough it seems similar in style to your building,” Reitz said. “I’d like to go in and explore, but it may be dangerous. What do you think Ezra?”

Ezra bit his lip. He was indeed very curious the design is similar to buildings back on Earth.

“I do want to go in Dad. But you may be right it may be dangerous.”

“There may be problems if we come back here with an army, you know? For now, those things seem like they won’t attack” Reitz gestured at the chimeraans. “Also when I tried to turn back earlier last night two chimeraans barred me from doing so.” Retiz looked up as he recalled and rubbed his chin. “Tell you what, prepare your weapons and I’ll also get ready and as soon as there is a sign of trouble, we try to dash back to the camp. Sound fair?

“Yeah, that sounds like a plan.”

Ezra steeled himself and inched towards the door. To both his, and his father’s surprise it opened automatically. It slid to the right.

“Bizarre!” Reitz exclaimed.

“I’ll go in first, then. If anything happens, remember. Escape immediately okay?”

Ezra nodded.

Reitz went in and Ezra closely followed. It was dark inside, so Reitz decided to activate his sabre and use it as a torch.

Ezra looked at the surrounding area. Cracks echoed in the air with each step. There was plenty of broken glass and overturned objects. Shadows on the area showed the designs were definiitely something akin to that on earth. Ezra’s hairs slowly stood on end.

“This place is really odd,” Reitz thought out loud, “What do you think Ez?”

Ezra was silent but the thought. “What in the world is this place?” He looked up to see pannels that resembled fluorescent lights. `Are those led lamps? ` Ezra pondered. `Do those things run on electricity? If so, there must be a power source somewhere? But that looks like a place to put a magic core over there. ` Ezra surmised as he squinted looking at the pillars.

They explored the ruins for a while, and it seemed that there was an earthquake of some sort. Ezra went up close to the walls and noticed there were what seemed to be bullet holes, other parts there were rubble and from what Ezra could tell there were explosions.

Ezra tried to reconstruct what this was in his mind, but it was hard for him, from what little information he could gather, the structure struck him as a research facility than anything. Every room seemed very similar but there was nothing of note. He wanted to explore this alone next time if possible as this place eerily resonated with him.

“Woah, what is this?” Reitz went through a passage that was large it was a tunnel of some sort.

`What? No It can’t be. It’s too unlikely` Ezra thought to himself. He recalled his past he had seen this and casually strolled in a similar structure when it wasn’t operating, he had accompanied some technicians before to calibrate the sensors. `This really looks like the inner part of the particle accelerator` Ezra rubbed his chin. “That is so odd” Ezra thought out loud.

“Dad stay here I’m going to check something,”

“Hey wait don’t go off without me.”

Ezra amplified his eyesight to try to detect if there were sensors embedded in the concrete as he touched the wall. His heart raced.

`Hmm, there’s nothing here` Ezra calmed down for a bit.

“What are you doing Ezra? Don’t go on like that.

“Yeah I’m sorry dad, I just wanted to see if my hunch was right.”

“Hunch?”

“Nothing it doesn’t matter now. Let’s get back”

“Oh,” Reitz said thoughtfully, “Okay then.”

“Anyway, I think I found a way to get back without going through the way we entered.”

Reitz raised his eyebrow.

“Just call it a gut feeling, dad. There is passageway we took we didn’t turn right. If we did I think it would lead us somewhere near the camp if there is an exit there. ”

“We’ll we can go back the way we came in if there isn’t any.” Reitz said thoughtfully.

Reitz and Ezra entered a doorway. Ezra’s heart raced once again, there were shelves, overturned and some had crumbled. He quickly scanned the area, to his dismay there were no books.

Ezra sighed.

“If I’m correct I think there is a hatch over here, dad,”

True enough there was a small opening but it seemed a little caved in Reitz started digging it out. After a while the sunlight entered the room.

“Come lets go.” Reitz beckoned.

The sunlight shone through the rubble but struck something that reflected underneath which caught Ezra’s eye.

“Wait. There is something over there.”

Ezra dug it out. It was a book. The sunlight struck its fastening and reflected it. It was tattered and damage, scratches were on the cover and the title was indecipherable.

Ezra itched to open it. He opened his mouth in shock.

From quickly scanning the book the first paragraph caught his eye.

It was in English.