5 years ago
Searchlights lit up the dark sky, as luxury cars plowed down the road to the Tower of Babylon from all directions. The most advanced building in the world. Located in the most luxurious neighborhood on the entire continent. It was a mass of glass, metal and marble that raised majestically to touch the clouds, not only was it the most ostentatious work of architectural art in the world, it was also a demonstration of the power of the current largest and most powerful technology company in the world. , Tessert.
Its style resembled a fantasy castle, with a base that looked like a wall. And as it lifted to the skies it became thinner and thinner, some had criticized the design as very phallic, others compared it to a giant rocket and some more admired it as a genius, but what everyone was thinking about. agreement, both admirers and detractors, is that once it was inaugurated, the world would never be the same again.
So this was a very special day. Not just for those who attended that event. It was a very important event for all humanity. Television media everywhere had their focus on the Tower of Babylon.
Today was not only the inauguration of a building, it was the activation of a new source of pure and unlimited energy. After this day, the world would change for the better, leading humanity into a new era of unprecedented prosperity.
The most important representatives of the different social, economic and industrial sectors were summoned in the huge hall on the first floor. A place capable of accommodating, comfortably, the more than five thousand guests who would be part of this magnificent event.
Among all the attendees, he could not miss, the favorite to win the elections to the mayor of the city, Dr. Enrit Luther, along with his family: his wife was a beautiful woman with brown skin, dark eyes and a motherly smile, his adorable daughter, who is twelve years old, a little girl whose beauty was only surpassed by her curiosity. Both were fascinated as they walked through the room observing the new models of cars driven by artificial intelligence, smart appliances, but above all with 3D printers, devices capable of manufacturing everything from food to metal, just by pressing a couple of buttons.
The printers generated the glassware they used and then on that same tableware they printed the delicious dishes.
However, for the people's favorite candidate, what was really fascinating was what is on a shelf next to a promotional video, the gift that all those attending that meeting would bring: an incredible Babylonian edition Tessert watch, a watch that had been designed exclusively for that event.
In such an incredible place there was no time to be bored. To be sure, Tessert's favorable fame was more than justified.
From one moment to another, the lights slowly dimmed, and several reflectors were lit in unison guiding the gaze of the audience to the same place, where a man of advanced age, but who moved with elegance appeared ceremoniously like a man of thirty. He had a smile and with great confidence he took the microphone while, enjoying every second, he observed the thousands of eyes fixed on him. After a silence, which he only fueled the expectation, he finally said: with a perfect voice of an experienced announcer.
- Ladies and gentlemen, today the will will receive the first step towards the conquest of the universe, and listen well to this, because we will go even further.
Everyone applauded in an euphoric way, the man calmed down with his huge smile and an elegant and courteous gesture of satisfaction to all those present who saw him live and direct, and through televisions around the world.
- Tessert has invested years and billions of dollars in the Proto Atomic Rhythmic Accelerator or as we fondly call it the A. R. P. A.
An impressive machine appeared on the huge monitor, behind the man, showing a 3D animation of the huge machine, then it showed that the Tower of Babylon was not a simple futuristic building, it was the shell of the ARPA.
The curious shape of the building was not a simple architectural whim, as everyone believed. Every millimeter of that place had been designed with the aim of being functional in one way or another to the ARPA.
In the video, a voiceover began to explain what people were seeing.
"Unlike other energy sources, the ARPA is capable of creating pure, perpetual energy on a large scale. So economically that a city could be powered for decades, with what a single family currently pays for its electricity service. "
"Bringing energy to the whole world, without cables saving millions of dollars ..."
The video continued explaining the benefits of the project, and how a new type of energy completely replaces all others such as electricity, wind, solar or nuclear. Once the explanation was finished, the older man spoke again.
- When we turn on the ARPA for the first time, the energy needs of the entire country will disappear, for the next five thousand years.
The people in the place applauded with euphoria, as did those who were thousands of kilometers away and, without losing detail, watched the great event on television.
The man took a little control and as he pressed it, he said:
- Be witness of a new and better world!
At the start, the apparatus was bathed in beautiful colors and, honoring its name, a pleasant sound, similar to that of a harp, reached everyone's ears. However, what happened next was not at all what was expected.
The device launched an energy wave that not only knocked down everyone present. If not all those who lived, beyond the limits of the neighborhood.
The world's television signals went black. Electronic devices lost signal for hundreds of kilometers around. While the helicopters that flew over the tower, they fell in nosedive, like dead birds, crashing against the same tower, the ground or the surroundings. Thus, several fires were immediately started in the neighborhood and in the tower itself. Everything was filled with explosions, debris, and chaos everywhere.
When Enrit was struck by the energy, his mind was filled with hundreds of thousands of images, feelings that he was unable to process for a few minutes that seemed like hours. As he became aware of himself again, he felt terrible. He couldn't help but vomit on himself, forcing himself to turn his body to keep no drowning on his own fluids.
Immediately, even being on the ground, in the middle of the chaos, and the darkness, the first thing he did was look for his wife and daughter and when, at last, he found them, he crawled towards them using the little forces that he had.
His wife was hugging her daughter tightly, Enrit took her with his hand and tried to make her look at him, what he saw would be marked in his memory for the rest of his days, the eyes of his wife and daughter had missing. Only two empty sockets emptiness, the expression of terror on their faces could not be represented by even the most devious of Lovecraftian artist.
It was an expression that could only be manifested by experiencing the most cruel and bloodthirsty suffering the human mind could imagine. It was such a shocking expression that it would make him wonder the rest of his life that he had to have passed for a face of his to twist in such a grotesque way.
But not only that image marked him, the last words of his wife, before he died were:
- Stop those monsters from Tessert.
After saying that, his wife died in his arms. In truth all the women in the room, not a single lady survived that night.
- Lord Mayor.
A man's voice brought Enrit to the present. Now that political candidate was the current mayor of the city. Without saying anything, he looked at the man who continued to give him his message.
- Sir, I inform you that Giorno has woken up.
Enrit stood up immediately, the news that he had waited for so long for days was finally reaching his ears. He didn't know why, but he felt that Giorno was the key to finding out what happened that night and fulfilling his wife's last wish.
At last, after five eternal years, it was time to stop the monsters that took the life of his family so horrifyingly that it disfigured their beautiful faces. He clenched his fist to contain his incalculable hatred and thirst for revenge against those who were behind what was now known as the Castle of the Dead Ladies.