The Record of Unusual Creatures

A blinding electric bolt shot out the central control station’s outer shell and traveled across the mountain-like pipings across the area, looking much like an aurora breaking through the dark night. The flash was very far away, and initially, only Hao Ren and his crew who had enhanced vision noticed it but soon after, panic ensued. As the bolt faded away, rolling smoke came out from the central control station and a massive flash blasted out from the buildings nearby the station, and even the civilians now could see what was going on.

To the denizens of the ark, it was like the world’s end was ablaze, and it was terrifying.

Panicked shouting came from one of the towers on the wall, and Hearthfire was immediately rocked with commotion. The civilians inside the city ran out and panicked at the sight of light and smoke. Children cried in fear and even the adults feel to their knees praying for some sort of divine providence. Following the chaos was a massive blackout.

All everyone saw was like the ark city being doused by black ink. It started from the central control station stretching out. Area by area fell into darkness as a bright electric viper leaped about in the darkness. Every leap brought an darkness into the wider area. “DHOM! DHOM!!” a low thunder came from the hidden machineries hidden deep within the city and before the electric surge, the ancient machines and failsafe were destroyed. The blackout quickly spread throughout Hearthfire and Hao Ren saw the plaza before him turn black while the citizens were smothered by a veil of terror.

A panicking voice came from the dark. “The world has gone dark! The world has gone dark! The world has gone dark!”

Lily’s eyes glowed slightly in the dark. She too was initially startled but the husky quickly recovered. “The reactor’s out!”

Without a word, Hao Ren pulled Vivian and Lily outside, with the Nangong siblings following behind. Soon they were at the plaza, and the blackout had encompassed the entire ark city. The decrepit sanctuary had finally fell into the terrifying darkness for the first time after ten thousand years. A hundred odd kilometers of enclosed space was shrouded in a chilling darkness. The panicked screams of the terrified populace were headache-inducing. There was still a little light left in the darkened space. The light was from the very top, those emergency lightings along the ancient pipelines. Their starlight flickers provided the space some sort of silhouette. Some knelt in the darkness, praying to the starlight and crying for a god to bring light to the world once again. It did not take long for the kneeling folks to be trampled by the chaotic crowd and bone-chilling screams broke out.

At that very moment, the Hearthfire keep’s (the old factory) top floor suddenly lit up. The light finally brought some measure of calm to the jittery folks. A few armored noble knights appeared on the roof, a miner’s lantern hung by their breastplate as they used light sticks to wave at the crowd. Willy’s father, the stern viceroy stood at the highest point of the keep. With a stern voice, he commanded. “Silence! Cease your mindless running! Wait for the lights to come back. Any troublemakers will be put down without mercy!”

No one knew if the lanterns on the knight’s chest, or the fear that the viceroy commanded over the populace, order was somewhat restored in Hearthfire. There was still muffled crying and prayers amongst the people. Outside Hearthfire, the sound of chaos could be heard. Seems like the viceroys of other cities did not react as fast as the one in Hearthfire. Lily and Vivian’s eyes worked the best. They quickly spotted Wily who was fumbling about like a headless chicken and quickly called the boy to them softly.

Willy stumbled about as he got to Hao Ren. The first thing he saw was Lily’s glowing eyes and almost let out a girlish scream. Thankfully, the young lad remembered that the group before him were scary folks who knew sorcery and immediately swallowed his fear. Turning to the group, he spoke hushedly. “What happened? Did your sorcery did this?”

“We did nothing.” Hao Ren waved the lad off. “Seems like the world’s ‘heart’ is at its death throes now. Ugh, I had wanted to get an idea of your societal system, but I guess trying to repair that massive hulk of a machine now takes priority huh…”

A big question mark appeared on Willy’s head.

At the same time, a low hum rang from afar, and something had activated deep underground. Soon after, light appeared once again across the ark city as rows after rows of lights lit back up and expelled the darkness away.

Yet Hao Ren noticed that not all of the lighting system had recovered. Compared to before, only half of the street lights had relit, and even those that had lit up were not very bright. Seems like the lighting facilities had suffered damage to some of its parts in the blackout, and another reason.. is the ark had probably activated its back-up energy source.

The common folk would not have thought of these, and they were gladdened by the return of the light. The crowds broke into a loud cheer as they gave thanks for the miracle of light. Hao Ren and his crew were the odd ones out in the crowd. They were calmer than anyone present.

“Had it ended?” Willy gave his surrounding a confused look. It seems like the lad has yet to regain his bearings.

“No, I’m afraid that’s just the beginning.” Hao Ren shook his head as he turned towards the central control station, deciding to put aside whatever questions he had at the moment, and head over the to investigate.

At the same time, a young soldier came from the direction of the keep. He was running straight towards Willy. “Willy, the viceroy is looking for you.”

He then turned towards Hao Ren. “Sir, you lot are the vagrant knights right? The viceroy had also summoned you.”

“Us? Hao Ren was perplexed. “What’s the hoohaa?”

The young soldier could only shake his head. “I’m just following orders, sir. The viceroy will explain later.”

Hao Ren glanced at the now dormant Furnace of the Ancestors, figuring that this was a massive evacuation ark, and the back-up supply should last a good while, so he nodded and agreed to answer the summons.

The group with Willy in tow was escorted into the keep and lead into the large meeting room on the third floor. The stern viceroy was already there. There were a couple of other people beside him, and one of them was a familiar face, Master Orrow.

It seems like the blackout had also affected the keep, and the meeting room’s light was dim, and only two of the lights were actually functioning. The viceroy nodded coldly as he saw Willy and the rest entered the room and knocked on the table. “I’ll go straight to the point. The royal city had sent word. Something inexplicable had happened at the Furnace of the Ancestors. There’s fire and light gushing out from the belly of the furnace, and thus the king had summoned all high-level scholars to the royal city. That aside, something unusual had also just happened, the four countries have come to a temporary ceasefire accord, and the scholars of the other three countries will also be heading towards the royal city. Master Orrow is Hearthfire’s representative and I have decided to have my son lead a small group of warriors as escort.”

Murmurings broke out as the viceroy finished. Everyone knew that Willy was a weak soldier. He was afraid of battle, his skill with the sword non-existant, and was a massive haemophobic. Rather than fighting, the lad was more inclined to studies and art, so of course everyone would have been confused when Willy was picked to escort Master Orrow to the royal city. Willy himself too was taken aback, and he guffawed. “But… Fa…Father…”

“Willy.” the viceroy rose, his hand pressing hard against the table. “If you still have any shred of noble pride in you, your response should be, “Yes, sir!”

Willy shrunk a little before gathering some courage. “Yes, sir.”

The viceroy nodded. “Very good. This shall be your last chance in redeeming your honor.”

It seemed like some had held rather strong opinions about the order, but once the viceroy glanced over, any questions simply just evaporated. Hao Ren immediately took the chance to ask, “So, what’s with the summons?”

“My honored guests.” The viceroy’s expression softened and he responded with courtesy. “My apologies with this sudden request. But I hope that you will join Willy’s escort, and assist us in delivering the scholar safely to the royal city.”

Hao Ren was actually busy thinking about going to the Furnace of the Ancestors to investigate, and was pondering on how should he deal with the guards who had long lost the ancient knowledge and reverted to mere uneducated brutes. This however solved his woes and Hao Ren quickly nodded. “Of course, we plan to head there too… Uh.. Should I be asking why you chose us?”

“You’ve aided my son once, and I believe that you people are trustworthy.” The viceroy looked sincere. “Besides, the knights of Hearthfire will need to prepare against those barbarians from Eisenstadt springing a sneak attack and our manpower limited. So we are unable to organize more people to escort the scholar.”

Hao Ren nodded. He did not mind what the viceroy had planned. “Oh, that’s fine. We’ll accept your request.”

“My thanks. You’ll be duly rewarded once you have returned.” The viceroy let out a very faint smile. He then turned towards Master Orrow. “Master, before you leave, please explain the situation to everyone.”

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