Hex, Din and Owen were just finished clearing the rest of the Demon Hunters from Lyserge City. They were at the border of the city, where there was a large wall. The wall spanned the entirety of the city, keeping people from jumping off. There was a high fence as well for the same reason. Hex looked at the exhibit that told people about Lyserge and Cluster as a whole. He pressed the first button on the far left, and a voice started to read out what was on the plaque for the exhibit.
"What you are standing on right now is a floating continent, kept in the air by hover technology. The atmosphere, and the ozone layer is all man-made. The machines that power these have a second machine as a fail-safe if anything goes wrong," the voice said.
Above the plaque was a small-scale model in the wall that was suspended by strings of Lyserge.
He went to the second plaque and pushed the button there too. The same voice rattled on. He put his hands in his pockets and walked over.
"The reason why you are standing on a floating continent is in twenty thirty scientists discovered a strange vortex at the center of what Cluster was originally called, Tera. There was a mad rush for new technology that would keep us from being sucked in, as well as keeping the atmosphere and gravity, including the ozone layer. AllTech devised all of the machines we use now to keep you safe, happy and alive," the voice said.
He remembered coming to the same exhibit with Owen when it was built, back when they were still kids. He didn't like his parents or relatives very much, and the other kids made fun of him a lot, so Owen was his only friend. Owen used to be ignored a lot in school because of how normal he was, it was weird that Owen was even willing to talk to a black sheep like him.
He stopped pushing the buttons, he didn't want to be reminded of the only two floating continents that had wildlife reserves on them. It only made him mad.
"You playing with the old exhibit?" Din asked as she walked up to him.
"Yeah, just… Reminiscing I guess." He shrugged.
He felt a pain in his head, like a headache. He took his hands out of his pockets and grasped his head in pain.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
The pain got really intense, and everything went black. The next thing he knew, he had blood on his gloved hands. He had his claws out, even though he didn't remember getting them out. He looked up, and Din was on the ground, her hand covering her bleeding belly.
"What… What did I just do?" he asked. He realized that it was her blood.
"You went crazy and attacked me, you said you weren't Hex, and you called yourself Pestilence Machine," she croaked, tears in her eyes.
"I don't know how to explain, I… I can't believe this," he said, looking at his bloody hands.
They went to the hospital, and he was scared that she would break up with him over a misconception. He knew that it was the demon Turbuk cursed him with that did it, and not him, but he didn't know how to explain such a thing to her. She refused to go to Gage Hospital, and went to a regular one instead. After she got her stitches, she broke up with Hex, which devastated him. He didn't know how to make things right.
He sat outside on the curb, thinking to himself how to fix his relationship with Din. There was a tall shadow that cast upon him. He turned to see a tall, sickly skinny older man with no hair and green skin. He turned away to get up, but he felt a pain on his neck. He looked, and there was a needle injecting something into his veins. He tried to cry out, but could only make a small whimpering noise. It was much too late, he lost consciousness shortly after.
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