We tread through the mudded sea of smattered architectural debris and blistered organic leftovers. Concurring with the faded and odourless trails of rising smoke, some living organisms claim that smoke provides a stench, although I am unable to confirm for myself whether it does or not, since I do not possess a sense of smell. My brother Azokin and I press onwards, continuing our search amongst the thinning vapours haunting the land of unfortunate ruin, where the recently deceased lie.
A bright red light shines out from Azokin's optical lens and scans the devastated breadth where a dozen obsolete facilities were built upon. They were decoys. Implemented to serve as an incorrect location. Now, it has become a mass burial ground for those who warranted their own execution. We didn't have to use our last resort. We could have avoided the violence, but they gave us no choice.
They made their decision, and did not deserve our mercy.
We delivered the consequences for non-compliance and silenced their nonsense. We put an end to their squandering and concluded the situation with a permanent result.
"My sensors are not detecting any trace of alternative life forms, apart from the residual auric signatures and thermal patches blemishing the Eckrhyne's strewn remnants," He informs me through our communicative interface.
For a scholarly race such as theirs, they should have assessed the situation with more thoroughness and care, then come to a sensible consensus, not only for their sake, but also for the betterment of the cosmos.
It was a necessary death.
An end they brought upon themselves when they tried to stall us, and abstained from divulging any information in regards to their founder's whereabouts.
We do not tolerate refusals in cooperation or any discriminative expression of hostility, even if it's to protect him.
Compliance is the optimal route of choice for establishing peaceful stability between species; however, we cannot dismiss the possibility of a retort in kind - an instigation of an interstellar war between Eckrhyne and Wa-omme kind.
The tension between our species was already high enough. We have always suffered from poor relations with them.
There is no recovering from this, especially after what we have done.
"He is not here – and neither is the specimen." He confirms and discontinues his survey of the area.
"He knew we would come here, and has artfully slipped away from our pursuit. I thought we were close, but obviously not close enough. His tracks are now cold. Nor can I determine which way he has fled." Azokin deduced from his investigation thus far.
Despite our efforts when we infiltrated and conducted a long, thorough search throughout this artificial planet we came to know as Vuir, it was all for naught.
"The Eckrhyne founder has hidden his genetically engineered abomination well; however, his comeuppance is only a matter of time." My brother added.
The founder´s celestial days are numbered.
Our Esseden suspected Ira would not overcome his grief and find closure. All the while in our search, we do keep his infamous history in mind and the nature of his relationship with the Sincistic Mal. Using the information of his past to aid us for when we try to predict his next course of action. I take another look around and pause. We are wasting time. There is nothing here worth requiring further investigation.
It is time for us to move on.
Then the two of us receive an incoming transmission from the collective.
"Return to Ai-dire at once."
The collective is a biding domain conceived from within our Esseden's soul, where I was begotten and raised. Where everlasting fond memories were created. Where everything is interconnected and interwoven. Thoughts. Emotions. Every Wa-omme is connected to one main source – to our Esseden's soul, where we are all one. Permanently linked. Constantly exchanging notions and sentiments through a deeply intricate plexus – a communicative network of souls. We are never alone. We are always connected and interdependent on one another.
Never given the chance to experience any form of disconnection nor destined to suffer desolation – except for one individual, the one who is never mentioned.
Not here. No.
We are an active, single monumental mind. We were impeccable and strong, but unfortunately for us, this is no longer the case. When we arrive, we find our sister Rair standing beside our Esseden. Observing her with quiet impassiveness as she is kneeling in front of the great, decomposed obsidian tree. Tending to it as though it were still alive.
The taint has discolored it to a blackened grey. It is shriveled. Wringed. Malnourished. Emptied of divine water and light. Missing its beautiful leaves, as well as the millions of unborn souls that once grew inside the droplets of astral dew, which hung from its sturdy branches. It was the first tree she planted here in this realm, and hasn't left its side since her return from Forrine – after experiencing its unforgivable tragedy.
As her condition worsened, she became self-centered and began to neglect her responsibilities – including the rest of the forest. She commanded the Koem to maintain and nurture them in her stead. Caring for one hundred and ninety-nine trees. She even tried to use the Koem to revive the great tree to the point of exhaustion and overexposure. They became infected due to the present infestation of corruption and were no longer able to function as a result. Their motionless and contaminated bodies lie in piles around her knees.
It is unsanitary.
She gave them a hopeless and futile task. The first tree cannot be brought back. The infection cannot be cured. The only one who can cure the great tree and our beloved all mother, is the Sincistic Mal. She needs to dispose of it before the festering corruption spreads to the others and sentences the entire forest of souls to an unrecoverable grave.
Every tree symbolizes a world. The number of leaves represents the population count. The bleeding cracks in her skin are infected and spreading throughout her body. The light and water inside of her has turned putrid. Stagnant. Caliginous.
I'd rather not see her like this, but I cannot walk away from duty.
I will not abandon her. Not my family.
Rair has been withholding her intrapersonal thoughts and emotions since she assigned herself to the role of caring for our Esseden personally. She never discloses her opinion and stays observant. Guarded. Silent. She has distanced herself from the rest of us.
I wish I knew her sentiments. Rair was always outspoken and assertive. Impatient. Determined. Someone who didn't know their own strength – and yet they were sharp in their manner of articulation.
The three of us were close in our infantile years. She is not the same individual I once knew.
She has changed.
Our Esseden refuses to listen to anyone else, aside from herself, and Rair of course. I cannot host an intervention unless there is a joint consensus involved. My siblings have made it blatantly clear to me that they do not wish to offer any food for thought or discuss her present condition and our state of affairs openly.
We must make our concerns known.
Bring it to light!
Azokin does not broadcast his view on the ongoing progression of the disease that has taken hold of our creator and usually keeps a fair distance from her. He would rather focus on the task at hand than speak about it. Rair has outright dismissed my attempts to converse with her and claims she is too busy to talk. My twin barely makes any room for conversation these days.
I do strongly believe others should not intrude upon someone else's path to recovery unless they themselves ask for assistance, but our Esseden is not healing. Her health is worsening. It is failing. I fear we may lose her if we continue like this.
She saved the souls of Forrine, our first and original home planet. But her mind is fixated on the past, as though it died in battle, and the version of her who is now kneeling in front of the great dead tree is nothing more than a dying, bleeding shell.
From a species standpoint, Forrine served a primary role in our humble beginning. It was a home to millions of Wa-ommes. It is where dear memories once dwelled, and were embedded in its foundations. Forrine was beloved and an invaluable piece of our history before it was ravaged by a plague of darkness.
The world she created with utmost care and love was impossible to purge entirely. The festering taint began to spread like an unstoppable sickness due to its lingering impurities. It brought the life of the First World to an end. The planet. The tree. Rair and I were infants when it was attacked by the Sincistic Mal.
When the void departed in the midst of prevailing light and residue of biding umbra, something unforeseen was conceived from the aftermath, where the two opposing elements collided.
Our Esseden brought back a newborn soul in her arms. She raised him among the rest of us in the collective – and named him Azokin - the soul who I came to know as my brother.
He is the existing proof that light and darkness can peacefully coexist.
She never detested the divine element, but rather the entity that hid in the darkness and manipulated it to do his bidding, for his own selfish needs. All of us shared the same consensus that Azokin didn't ask to be born into their conflict.
As our Esseden raised us through our infantile and adolescent years, the taint in her system was slowly spreading. Polluting every fraction of her being.
She ruminates and mutters to herself, limiting the subjects of conversation only to the fall of Forrine. Dwelling on the negative aspect of her experience. She became distant and antisocial. Hyper focused on the loss instead of the souls she saved. Allowing paranoia to grow and fester. The corruption has complicated her condition. It is an astral metastasis. There is not an instant that passes by when she does not bleed.
She cannot move on from the past.
She has become like the Eckrhyne founder.
Lost to her own grievance
No. We cannot lose her. She is our Esseden.
When I finally grew out of adolescence, an unexpected piece of information was imparted to me years ago; that our Esseden and the Sincistic Mal were once friends when they were younger. Companions. Before he became an infamous malignancy, we know today.
When he changed, they went their separate ways. The Hunni founder, the one who held an amorous fondness for the maniacal entity, could not come to terms with the individual he had become. Mad. Malevolent. Depraved. Sick. He was not the soul he once knew. The one he grew alongside. His thoughts were divided by an internal conflict. He was wounded emotionally by difference and change. Angered even.
They eventually decided to part ways permanently.
According to our divine matriarch, the Sincistic Mal was a decent soul once, which I find hard to imagine, let alone believe. It was an era before the creation and establishment of the second trinity, an eon before Ira's reign, when he almost dominated the whole cosmos. When all of the founders fell, and were regrettably outdone by Ira's cunning ways.
And the only one who was left to obstruct his path to total cosmic domination was the Sincistic Mal.
He was the one who was able to inexplicably thwart his long-term ambition, unless the two immoral entities orchestrated it, for some unknown gain.
Then, even after our universal crisis, he still causes pain and misery to others. I do not understand him, nor do I want to fathom his motives.
Our sister notices our arrival and gives us a silent nod of acknowledgment. Our matriarch doesn't turn around to look at us, as she is solely concentrating on the tree itself, and unwilling to let her sight roam. Fearing that it may diminish before her tainted eye.
She holds onto the negativity of past events tightly, as if it were her very own precious soul. Refusing to move on. Her posture is hunched and slouched forward, with her back facing us. The only method of extracting the taint is if the Sincistic Mal beckons the darkness from inside her; there is no guarantee the extraction will cause more impairment and worsen her state of health. I do not expect that creature to have the compassion to contemplate the notion of helping her after impaling his heart.
Even Azokin cannot temper nor tame the darkness inside. No matter how many reattempts there are or how much he perseveres, his efforts always yield the same result.
Time and time again, he has proven unsuccessful.
All we can do is watch over her in this period of vulnerability and uncertainty. Rair takes the initiative by stepping towards us with her undivided attention. Her demeanor is controlled. Composed. Not wandering. The colour of her single oculus changes from blue to a greyed white. It is dim and weak. She allows our Esseden to speak through her. Using her vocals. Conveying emotion into speech. Extracting our matriarch's thoughts that are unrelated to the great tree's demise. Filtering them. Giving her mind an evanescent release from her psychological imprisonment. Momentarily underwhelmed by the debilitating compulsion to dwell.
Whenever she speaks through our sister, it is a temporary intermission from her unhealthy rumination and negative emotions.
"Welcome back."
We lower our heads and kneel before her. Enrooting our gazes to the immaterial floor. Showing our utmost respect in her esteemed and revered presence, ill or not.
"At ease." She says. We lift our heads upon heeding her words.
"Please rise, both of you." She raises her hand, gesturing for us to take a stand. Azokin and myself rise. Rair pauses and waits. Her elevated hand still lingers, as she regards us as though she is choosing her words very carefully with linguistic restraint.
"As you both know, the subject of this matter is deeply unsettling, and therefore, I believe we must determine whether or not the rumors are in fact true. We need to know if Ira has indeed cloned the Sincistic Mal's DNA. We must see for ourselves if he has proven himself successful in his endeavor. If he has found success, then we must do whatever is necessary to apprehend the specimen. No matter how troublesome."
Rair projects a celestial map of a small, remote galaxy from her oculus and homes in on a specific planet, magnifying its coordinates. The artificial planet is usually quiet and has barely drawn attention to itself in the history of its existence. It is another one of Ira's creations.
"I have already delegated the Stern to infiltrate the solar system named I-EK and to scout the planet Dra. Anything devised and made by Ira is now a suspect." She closes the map, and the projected ray retreats back into her lens.
"Enjin, I need you to remain here on standby and wait for further instructions. Then we shall act according to their findings." Vapours escape from beneath the rim of her wearisome and colourless optic, expressing her long-held anticipation. Risk. The indicative and underlying gravity of our plight is transparent. She redirects her listless stare to my brother and motions for him to step forward.
"Azokin, you are the first, as well as the last member of our species to ever wield the divine element of darkness." She states.
"But now it is an appropriate time for you to learn of your other heritage, for you are the best of both of us. It would be selfish of me to keep you here when you have the potential to bring greatness to our universe, and do what the founders who came before you could not."
His solid obsidian exterior, his armor of Alosium; he inherited the black tincture from Forrine's ocean – his place of birth. The shape of his anatomy and facial characteristics, such as his single eye, is a trait typical of our species. However, his red oculus is an uncommon colour amongst our race.
If it weren't for our considerable age difference, we may have been non-identical twins.
"I want you to venture into the void itself and find Vonplex."
How can she instruct him to go there? She is sending him to oblivion, where nothingness resides. The Mal perished long ago, and his migrating creation will try to devour Azokin's light – so why?
I step forward and stand beside my younger brother.
"Forgive me, but nothing can survive the void. It even turned on its own creator." I interject.
"Azokin can. The divine element of darkness has been a part of him since birth, and it shall continue to do so throughout eternity. It should serve him well."
"How can you be so certain? You have never been there yourself."
She chuckles nervously. "Are you questioning my judgment?"
I didn't know how to respond to her rhetorical question, and yes, I do doubt her conviction, especially with her being in the state she is in. Her mind and soul are not at their normal frequencies, like they used to be.
"Although I wounded him in battle, I can still feel my light being purged from his soul as we speak. He is alive and healing. I can even argue he is in better condition than I, but it shall take an eon for him to fully recover from his injury." The graveness in her voice as she speaks uplifts. She laughs with embittered delight, knowing the irony of it all.
He is – alive? And she never informed me.
Did my other siblings know as well?
Was I the only one kept in the dark?
A fervid ire begins to simmer within me. I immediately calm the emotion before it arouses disquiet and becomes noticeable. No one has ever found the Mal. Due to the lack of evidence of his survival, everyone assumed he was gone.
If our founder wants him to find his other parent, then I cannot stand in the way of her command. I do not have the power or authority to do so, even with my position as an Overseer.
I cannot act against her. I can only accept whatever inevitability may come – and if my brother is lost to the void, I will never forgive our matriarch for sentencing him to his fate.
"I know neither of you will disappoint me, for I have the utmost faith in the two of you." She says, and then Rair's eye reverts back to a pale azure.
"As per usual, I shall watch over our Esseden, and best of luck to both of you. You'll need it."