In the year 2050 the climate collapsed. The rainforests were all but gone. New deserts popping up left and right. Water sources drying up rapidly.
And in the sweltering heat a fay of sunshine not so different from from all the other torturous ones shined down.
Yet this one held one distinct characteristic. It came in the form of ancient mossy pillars. Tenples of gold and pristine mosaics of mythical creatures. A throne larger than a skyscraper and a rmories filled with weapons harder than steel.
As the small fishing boat thrashed about, pulled along by the raging waves of the Atlantic, the Ray of sunlight became visible to the human eye for the first time.
Hope.
Present day - Year 2147
Could the exhibition really be called successful? Ultimately it really depends on your goals. Unlike the other places El Dorado didn't have any surviving ancient species. As miraculous as that may sound it was more of a common occurrence these days. Yet despite its lack of magic wielding, wing flapping, physically domineering inhabitants it still claimed the most lives to date. And despite being littered with traps doors, poison darts and flaming arrows the real danger was just one single room.
In the middle was a sphere. It would be more accurate to call it a bubble. The bubble was... doing what bubbles do. Floating. In the middle of the bubble colours swirled around. It would paint a beautiful picture, the purple and blue mixed together, forming different creatures so detailed that if it weren't for the fact that they were all mythical you'd think the creator had seen them themselves. Then again. With what had been their existence was more of a "yet to be proven" than a "no you're crazy".
"Anyway, the rest wasn't exactly clear but the moment I stepped foot in the room the bubble multiplied. The colours stopped swirling and instead they turned into one single creature. Different ones of course. And every bubble suddenly popped. The creatures scrambled around. They were visibly confused for moments but when they saw our group a red light shined in their eyes and they suddenly attacked. We could do nothing and were slaughtered like lambs. Only us few remained. We slammed the door shut and are simply lucky that they didn't pursue."
" Thank you for your time, we will keep in contact Mrs. Diamond."
I walked out of the police station with the same placid expression placed kn my face as it always was but inwardly, I was beaming. I didn't tell a lie. My account was the whole truth and nothing but the truth but I wasn't exactly honest either. In my years of experience I've loved by the rule that when a chance comes you must grab it. Claw at it. Bite on it if you must.
So when the chance came, that is what I did. A voice in my mind. Telling me to kill. It showed me a future. One where we all died. Where the creatures kill us all mercilessly and with practiced precision. A bleak future, one almost exactly the same as what went down. But that future didn't happen. When a higher being starts doing mind fuckery on you it's kind of hard to question its motives. And so I didn't, if it wanted me dead what's stopping it? It told me I can make the bubble mine. The key to controlling it is a chant. Once you chant that the bubble will be yours.
Honestly, that didn't really make sense to me. But neither does anything else. The world has become all sorts of absolutely fucked and even with my status its simply not something I can fathom. Enough of that though. As I was saying, a chant.
It was a word chant. I thought it might be latin, or some form of Spanish considering location and all but no. It was nothing like I've ever heard. It took me an hour to even pronounce it right but when I finally did the voice disappeared. I felt a fantastical connection. I just instinctively knew that it worked. Very weird. Something I seem to be saying a lot.
I sort of knew how to control the bubble immediately and so I took the liberty to do some cleaning. To quell some.. "less than satisfactory employees" of the payroll and also to free some slaves. That being us.
Well when I say us, I don't mean me. I'm too valuable to be made a slave after all. I more refer to humanity as a whole.
Sure the ancient civilisations did save us, using their fancy technology and magic to fix the ozone layer or whatever. Climate crisis averted, woohoo. Its not exactly all sunshine and rainbows. It seems they're not all that different from us. Sudden we were reminded why empires are not something to be revered as saviours.
They enslaved us. Not all of us of course but most of us. They sent us to explore. Do their labour, be their meat shields. In exchange they would ever so generously not wipe us off the face of the earth. So magnanimous.
I really do keep getting sidetracked, so yes, I decided to kill our captors. In the future I saw they all died after all so it's kbviously powerful enough. And now here we are back again. To the police station.
That's why I was inwardly joyful. A mysterious power, bound to me and police unsuspicious of me because I kept some witnesses. Clueless witnesses that don't know they've just vouched for a mass murderer.
No scratch that, a serial killer. Someone who's been doing this stuff for years. Not luring people to a trap room in El Dorado. But discreet killings. Killings that if I'm honest, brought me joy. Killings that allowed me a status that brings genuine freedom. I built this place from the ground up and I'm damn proud of my work and now I have a power that if I master might make even fighting the king of Atlantis a possibility. Not that that is an aspiration of mine but an analogy is an analogy.
Only downside is it seems to have been gifted somewhat. I did the chant but what other implications it may have, I am quite clueless. Its a bridge I'll cross when I come to it I guess.
Don't get me wrong I'm not a person who just wings it at every step but there's only so much planning can do for you. Defeating a being that seems to be on a different plane of existence and that I have absolutely no information on isn't something it can do.
***
Like I said, the power made my job much easier. I was way more efficient in using it even with my limited knowledge of just, "summoning"??? If that's even what's going on, beasts. I was doing much less work.
But life has its way of playing with you and my world came crashing down eventually.