A sunspot caresses his cheeks. Grizeo can see it clearly even though Lim is on his periphery. His younger twin brother who asks when his older brother will be feeding the cats. Which Grizeo throws a dart and it does not hit the mark, “until I bullseye” He says, throwing another until Lim harumphs, steps out after an “ugh”.
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News on their television talks about more and more cultists spreading false rumors. That Solaris-3, their planet, will change because the people have forgotten their God and a phenomenon known as Lament will occur. Lim, after having his hands dirty of food scraps, decides to grab the remote control without washing his hands. Angering Grizeo and telling off his twin to wash his hands first. But the deed is done and Lim turns to his brother, hands eager to touch all over him.
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And Grizeo throws his dart as Lim crashes down and hug him. Slapping his brother with the hands covered in cat feed. The dart strikes true. “Bullseye!” elates the bumble big boy, and then a flash of light engulfs them. Everything becomes bright and tinnitus--his ears ring. Ringing him awake to the reality of a shattered asphalt road riddled with craters. The horizon halted at sunset and he along with Soren and Riven, clutch their heads and cover their ears as they curl in the ringing pain. His inner organs all pulsating, spasming and twitching him uncontrollably.
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“We have…” Soren grits through his words, pulling Grizeo and Riven to stand, “…We have to get off the road, quick”
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And they do so with string legs, stumbling at every pulse and shockwave that emanates from the park where they are headed. Strands of light rising from the tacet mark and a etheric sea—an upside down ocean forms on the sky. The broken concrete rains dust on their heads, creaking and threatening to collapse on top of them but they know that the dangers outside are far worrying. Soren gestures his fingers on his lips before bringing his hands on both Grizeo’s and Riven’s lips. “We’re already too late” he says in a distorted voice, before biting his own lips shut.
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The ground quakes madly and a stampede of monstrous tacet discords--twisted creatures with bodies of wordly material like cars, trees, jewelries, and more. Swarm of them heading towards the expanding tacet field. Then, a massive, bat-like creature with a cabinet-shaped body stops at the entrance of their building, turning at them and baring drooling mandibles as it screeches. Pursuing at their fleeing staggering, relentlessly.
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Grizeo looks over his shoulder and see a little girl and a young lady being cornered by a tacet discord. “I…have to save them” pushing Soren aside but the friend does not let go of Grizeo’s hand. Dust raining atop their heads with a cabinet monster chasing after them. “Let me go” He grunts with brows desperate to save the siblings.
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But Soren holds tight, “No, don’t be a damn fool Grizeo!” Not giving any chance to let him go. Especially when Tacet discords are swarming after them.
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“They’re just frequencies, not real.” Riven adds as she tries to keep herself away. Waveform pulses lulling their already string muscles to fibers. Rising spires of tacetite keeping them on their feet. Until their stark sunset shadows finds them on an alley. The building behind and around them crumbles as the tacet discords gives them no chance for rest. “Fuck,” Riven curses as they scale buildings, glide, and use their grapple to leap like squirrels from building to building. A giant helix of white chords had risen from the tacet field and connect to the etheric sea. “We’re caught in the Sorono sphere…can we still get out?”
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“Then there is no point in running” Grizeo growls like a tacet discord, hitting his own head with the blunt of his dart guns and shaking his head to keep himself awake. “We must fight back.”
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Explosions here and there adds to the ringing of their ears. From black smoke gapes out large mouths of the monsters. But the group quickly counter, a broadsword with Soren, dart guns with Grizeo, and a rectifier with Riven. Both Soren and Riven covers each other’s back but Grizeo takes an opening between the monsters to slip away. “Grizeo!” They call out, confused but the monsters surround and attack them. Some following Grizeo gnarly, hungry mouths at him. But he does not look back, his eyes are set for the white helix chords and fires at anything that blocks him.
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Dart bullets flies like lightning, and pierces through before the hit flesh or object erupts ablaze. Mad sweat topples off his face like the skyscrapers falling overhead like dominos. Glass shrapnels every time a wave pulses, feeling his skin stabbed to a million holes. While increasing the speed of his angered sprint. His body and sight knowing no retreat or fear like the remnants of the past project around him by the waveform’s strings.
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Lim…Lim…
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“There might be a chance”
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String figures appearing one by one, and telling Grizeo to turn back but one voice in his head holds his chest beating. Legs gliding and swerving at every mammoth sized tacet discord the closer he gets to the ruined park.
“There might be a chance that your twin brother is in another world…made mostly out of frequencies.”
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“Which is?” Hearing his own voice ask the old one’s
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“The Lament”
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“But that’s the calamity”
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“Yes, but at the same time, a living catastrophe. Made only by frequency and brought about by the etheric sea. This is only a theory, but if you can help me confirm it, as well as having a chance of finding your brother. Then do all you can to resonate with the white chords.”
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That which is a helix spiraling from the tacet mark and to the etheric sea---A colossal dinosaur like tacet discord warps ahead of the road, bloody mouth already gaping to devour. But Grizeo--only a quantum second of shrinking irises in surprise, cries out to quell his shivering chest and fire a barrage of darts, mincing the monster to pieces. Most of the tacet discords, bigger, now emerge from the field. Razing the ground in flames, electro, ice, earth, light or darkness.
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“Help! Please Help!” Yells out an ugly three headed heron, its purple black flames almost seared down on Grizeo’s face. But scorches his ruana, abandoning it in his bull charge. “Please! Please! Don’t leave me!” It shouts like a woman but screeches like a drifting tire wheels.
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The road cracks and rupture with light as a leaflike dragon tacet discord surfaces and slams its body down at the three headed heron. Friend or foe, Grizeo does not look back and simply pant forwards. Boars, harpies, sirens, what else are going to come out from that field? Then—a crownless, one of the worse enemies that one can fa---blinking in front of Grizeo and punching the young man’s abdomen to an uppercut.
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Sending him flying vertically before a winged gorilla claps him like a mosquito.
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Bones crack and blood coughs out of him, sweat falling with him as he spirals down 100 ft from the air. Move, wake up, he has to get out from a straight descent to a flower discord’s tentacle throat.
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“Lim…” he reminds himself, “Lim…” Burn, burn, like a dart aiming for that red bullseye. Let go, AWAKENED RESONANCE LIBERATION: fire true and aim perfect, Dart Flame Lightning. Erupting his own body into flames as his tacet mark on his cheek sparks out electro. Flame and electro that the Crownless rolls out of the way as Grizeo meteorites down onto the floral discord. Bursting its green bloody bile even its echo, to string bits. Leaving a massive crater that disorients the enemies, giving him gaps of opening to immediately pass through them. “Lim!”
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Reaching out for a white resonance chord, but feel a sharp pierce through his stomach and guts…He looks down, a broadblade pierced clean through his abdomen, and another Crownless…three more climbing out of the tacet field’s mark. “Guahh---” vomiting own blood, but his hand remains reaching, reaching forth towards the white strings. A deathly cold send shivers up his spine, telling him to stop and…paralyze…Then hold like a dart in bullseye.
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His body, or spirit---I cannot describe the feeling---but the apocalyptic city in ablaze floods with dark ocean waves. The sky raining black as the Crownless and tacet discords disappears around him. He is…still in the city but somehow, feels not. The open wound on his abdomen does not bleed even though his guts are hanging out. He looks down on his hand, the fingers tips glowing white and fading into strings. He is disintegrating…to frequency strings. “LIM!” He calls out, knowing that the only way forwards is finding his brother, no going back, no looking back. “LIM!”
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Yelling and shouting for his brother but only nameless echoes and string figures answer him, advising to go back and that the one he is looking for is not here. That is right, how can he be sure that Lim is here? In this city? When their hometown is far north in the province icecaps. His brother might not even be here…and most of his hands now are gone. So, he led himself to his own death? To die finding a missing brother? “HELL I WOULD BELIEVE YOU!” He roars out and the figures disintegrate by his noise.
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“Grizeo // can yo//u hear me //Grizeo?” It is the old man again, but his voice cracks like a broken recorder, “I cannot // see you o//n the // map b//ut // te//ll me // if you ca//n h//ea//r me//”
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“What’s with you in my head?” Grizeo responds, pinching his aching forehead though he does not have forearms now.
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“I // Plan//ted// a// Ch//ip in you // so//rry”
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“What!? Sorry does not cut it old man. Lim is not here!”
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“Are // yo//u in the La//men//t?”
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“And my body is stringed right now. Got no time to talk.”
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“Wa//it! Th//i//s in//fo mi//ght help // You know // that the etheric sea // is like the flesh of the Lament and // from where tacet fields are made // There are residual // waves, or // etheric seas. Only an etheric sea // can create a Sonoro sphere // and hold memories // or remnants of echoes from the strings and frequencies…Griz? // You still // There?”
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“Got ya” firing a dart through his head to burn the chip off him. But it speeds up his disintegration, from his arms, now from his headshot as well. “Liberate---” Eyes glowing red, tacet mark once again sparking electro as his body erupt in flames. He faces himself south-west from the white chords, feet lunges and darting him for the cratered mountain alp. Ice capped mountains so familiar that his head only fills in with Lim, his brother’s smile, plays, teases, cheers, their house, and what came after it—a crater that only he lived, with an itching tacet mark on his cheek.
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Bolted down like thunder, Grizeo arrives at where he once stood. Where he shot the darts and where Lim would be, lazing around at the couch. Of course, there Is nothing other than a black crater with a tacet field’s tattoo. Half of his face and all his arms now gone.
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Nothing in this apocalypse, except for the strings that resonate with his wishes. A figure resembling that of a young boy, barely the age of fifteen, materializing in front of him. Though only in pure light energy, Grizeo’s eye widen at the familiar presence. He rushes for it, calling out “Lim! Lim! It’s me!”
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Lim’s eyes are as pure as white, with only one string trying to resemble an expression to the young boy’s voice, “Brother…? Y-you, you should not be here…”
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“But I am here” hugging the cold strings, yet firm to rest half of his chin, “Your big brother is here to take care of you.”
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“No…” fearing and shaking his head, “This is wrong…you really should not be here big brother.” Gesturing at the big brother’s body slowly fading into strings, “You are still alive, you still have a body to live outside.”
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“Lim, don’t say that. I am already here for you. We can, play again like last time!”
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But Lim shakes his head again, aggressively pushing his big brother back, “We cannot! Big brother should go! The scary men…they are coming back and when they see you. They will kill you!”
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“Don’t worry, Big brother is strong here.”
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“No, it’s not about that—” And the young boy’s voice trap itself at the sight of five Crownless. “Brother needs to go. When they’re back that means the resonance chord will close too. And, Brother will not be able to return once it closes. You will die!”
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“But…I’d rather die for you Lim. I should be dead and you should have lived. I don’t deserve to be the one to live, you should be. I should have taken care of you.”
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“…I know that Big brother feels guilty…” Lim taps on Grizeo’s tacet mark and the electro sparks cover the young man, baffling him and yelling out what is happening to him, and why his body suddenly feels like it is being pulled back. “…I know that big brother wants to take care of me and I know that big brother wants to save me…but it’s too late. Hehe…I saved you first.”
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“Lim—Wait!”
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“No waiting!” Lim swipes again Grizeo’s tacet mark and send the resonator to a lightning speed flurry of red. And the Crownless watch, before seeing the boy himself disappear into chromatic noise.
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From the ice capped mountains, to a blinding red light. Feeling himself wet and the pulsating ringing sound of a wave phenomena when once gets too close at a resonance chord. Grizeo wakes, being shaken awoke by Riven and Soren who looks down at him with worried faces. They call him, snap a finger in front of dazed eyes before he throatily, and exhaustedly, say, “What…”
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And both hug at their one eyed, and armless companion companion.
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“How you are alive is a damn miracle” Soren hugs him tighter, hearing a rib crack and he immediately relaxes, “S-sorry…”
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Riven leans her ear to Grizeo’s chest, tearing his clothes apart to hear faint pulsing.
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“Must you strip him off?”
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“Jealous? I’m the healer here, we have to get him back to camp.”
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“Damn right, but how? He’ll bleed off on the ride there.”
“I…” Seeing the grave open wounds, her gloved hands shakes at the doubt, “I can set first aid, then you just call Ms. Verina or Ms. Baizhi. We won’t be moving him an inch.”
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“Okay, but protect him. Tacet field is fresh and there might still be discords around.”
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“Then go quickly and be careful”
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Soren nods his way off the rubbled city. A sunrise clearing a cloudy sky before the first light caresses Grizeo’s cheek and tacet mark like a small hand. Hearing the rustling and kicking of rocks, Riven takes no chances of being sensed, or certainly found and engaging a discord as she takes out a gourd for a slime echo to cover them both and camouflage from the dangers of their apocalypse.
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