“Sir, all safety procedures have been laid out, all possible outcomes of technical failures have been accounted for and the entirety of desert has been cleared out,” Darius reported. “Shall we proceed?”259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmwQODKKpMi
Gideon stared at the technological miracle he had created, his face a blur of concentration and graveness.
Laid in the middle of the room was a massive circular frame engraved with ancient runes, its inner ring glowing a mysterious white. It was a portal. A portal made by man.
“Yes,” Gideon said blankly. “Proceed.”259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH7lAXe9rOs
The man beside him entered a code in his tablet, causing the whole room to emit sounds of electricity and the whirring of machines. Gideon sighed and turned to look at his team, all dressed in white lab coats, except for Darius, of course, who was wearing a suit. He cleared his throat and began to speak.259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKGHMk0QNQs
“Thank you everyone for your collected efforts, you have all done well,” Gideon said. “We are mere minutes away from a revolution we made possible. If this succeeds, no, when this succeeds, we will all be written down in history. I want you to congratulate yourselves. Well done everybody.”259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs0WN1AHvfX
Everyone in the room clapped and cheered. They had all been kept underground for the past few days, making sure everything was right. And it was. The portal was finished and it was starting.259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFNVWfHmF4U
“However, as we discussed, I must now ask all of you to leave the room and watch from a different chamber,” Gideon said. “Please leave me and Dr Forray alone.”259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVXR9ZguoEx
They all nodded and began exiting the room. Once it had been cleared out, Darius Forray spoke up.259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZg7MJGVcaH
“You did it, sir,” Darius said, his voice quite small under the whirring of the portal. “You’ve persevered for the last 20 years and it’s all paid off.”259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4S2HUohDzU
Gideon let himself chuckle, a right he did not allow himself for a very long time.259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeIwiAUlduh
“Thank you, my friend. And Darius, you must know that I couldn’t have done it without..” Gideon trailed off.
When he looked back at Darius, his smile faded, giving way to that stern look he always put on. His friend’s face was now glitching, its features distorting by the second. His body twitched and his pupils slowly whitened. He should have seen this coming;
“Not again…” Gideon groaned, exasperated.259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuAWgxeKAHM
Soon enough, a raspy voice came out of Darius’ contorted mouth, a voice not belonging to Darius but still a voice Gideon was all too familiar with. 259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJftMNC8bIu
“Gideon! What have I said? Do you not care for the well-being of man-kind?” the voice came. “Does 20 years worth of reminders mean nothing to you?”259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsPEakSbx8R
“I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again,” Gideon said, his voice turning cold. “You do not call them reminders. Your reminders are torture! You’ve made every single second of my life on Earth a living hell! So do you really expect me to stop when I’m this close to the greatest leap mankind will ever jump?”259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT1kce7cEb7
“Listen, Gideon. I have reasons for those reminders, and they mean good. Yet that rogue vision you had was not from the forces of good, Gideon, it was a temptation, a way to open a door for beings of pure evil to come into your mortal world-”259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡel6GDvCdal
“That singular vision caused a far greater impact on me than all those warnings you have given me! It gave me wisdom, Torno! It gave me hope when I was about to dump this whole project into the trash-”|259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaJMjEh11Ix
“WHICH IS WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE-”259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMffswfKgn1
“NO! Do you not understand what this means to me? Twenty years, Torno! Twenty! All for this one portal. Why? Because this will open up a wormhole to the farthest regions of space! I did it Torno! I broke the laws of physics! Humans can and will achieve intergalactic-travel! I won't stop just because some spirit tells me to!”259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEXJryqQUa4
“Silence! Have you not heard of the tales of Daedalus? Man has its limits, you do not know what you are dealing with. You are not opening yourself a wormhole to heaven, you are opening the gates to hell, Gideon! You must stop immediately."259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEdPQx6QCyf
"No."259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeK7laASyK5
Torno, in the body of a broken Darius, sighed, “How utterly unbelievable. You have been blinded by false knowledge, you are testing man’s limits. Trust me Gideon, that never ends well.”259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbYql5aITIn
259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQCUx0UBtZ3
With that, Darius’ body disintegrated into dust. Darius, the closest friend he ever ahd, was dead. Gideon froze. Torno had done that to many of his victims, all so that he could stop what Gideon was doing, yet he never thought Darius would fall into Torno’s hands as well. How was this good? How was this for the ‘sake of mankind’? Gideon could feel his whole body tremble with rage when his body was lifted up the ground and slammed into the hard walls.259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbrjebIFhMy
Blood oozed out of his head and a ringing had started in his ears. When he regained his vision, looked towards the portal. The frame was not empty anymore. A floating, purple liquid of some sorts was dancing within the frames of the portal and something had come out of it. Something much more terrible than he could have ever imagined. It had the body of a massive centipede, with massive wings like that of a dragonfly and the head of a woman. The woman had matte-black hair, with snowy skin and steely grey eyes. The creature noticed him and stared into his eyes, a hellish smile slowly spreading across its face. On the other side of the portal, he heard hundreds of beastly roars, countless cries of battle and the clanking of metal armor. What had he done?259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5zpMkjEXjn
“Hello Gideon,” the creature said slowly. “Thank you for waking me up. Humanity owes you for its destruction.”259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7yHo0Ue0mY
Gideon’s chest rose and fell rapidly, his gaze stuck onto the beast that was before him. Gideon had done it, he had doomed the world. He had jeopardized the survival of mankind and for that, he, along with the rest of the human race, was going to pay dearly. 259Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuFf9KTPiBa
