November 11th, 1918.
This was it.The final push.The Central Powers were on the back foot. All they had to do was keep pushing.The sweltering heat of the desert fhydfhuttgyyyhghhhhgff-
ANIMUS POWER OFF.
"Fuck!" The man in the Animus hisses as he jolts up, almost hitting his head on the interface, as he frantically looks around the office, spotting the operator typing on the console. He looked a lot like Giyuu- no, those are just the visions.
"His genes are trying to suppress the memory. Something traumatic happened. But this is the exact same time he finds the Isu Temple. I'll try to bypass the suppress, hold on."The operator swiftly types on the console, lines of code cascading down the screen as he tries to force a memory bypass. The intricate design of the Animus whirrs, its programming adjusting to the change in protocol
"Alright," the operator says, looking at the man. "You're going to feel a little disoriented. It's like going off the deep end. Just... Just brace yourself."The man takes a deep breath, preparing himself. "Let's do it."There's a sudden rush, and his surroundings blur. The interface shimmers, static overtakes the vision for a moment, and then clarity.
November 11th, 1918. The scene plays out again, but this time there's an unnatural tinge to the memory. The surroundings are overlaid with streaks of white and blue, the whole world materializing and calibrating right before his eyes. The heat of the desert was unbearable. The wind whipped sand against Tanjiro and Zenitsu's faces, but they pressed on to the railway, planting two separate charges there, but something called the two, if that was the right way to say it. Either one just couldn't resist not going there, so they did, into a cave. A massive stone entrance, adorned with symbols one or the other had never seen before, shimmering in the dark as if it was a diamond.
"What the hell..." Tanjiro began, but he stopped when the entrance whirred out a lock, similar to the blade thing he looted off of a corpse not too long ago. Flicking his wrist, he jams the blade in the lock and turns, and sure enough, the thing opens. To an obstacle-course like array of floating cubes?
"This way, I guess?" Zenitsu says, rushing into the Isu Temple, hopping from cube to cube. Sighing, Tanjiro heads off with him too, shimmying on a ledge past a mesh of some sort that just disintegrated a skeleton, eventually getting to a command center of sorts.
"What is this place?" Zenitsu questions, looking around to make sure nobody followed them in. But Zenitsu hears something, something pulsing with energy.
"Tanjiro, c'mon." Zenitsu says
"Wha-" Tanjiro began, but Zenitsu had already turned the corner and ran off.
"Oh, for God's sake." Tanjiro sighs, running after him, through a corridor, and stopping near a ledge along with Zenitsu, looking down at the drop that seemed to be bottomless.
"Ok, that's a long drop." Zenitsu says nervously, hugging the wall a bit tighter.
Tanjiro nodded, analyzing the surroundings. There were thin beams crisscrossing the drop, illuminated slightly by the ambient glow. Faintly, at the far side, there was another ledge and what looked like an altar glowing with strange symbols.
"I think we need to get across to that altar," Tanjiro said, pointing towards it.
"You don't say," Zenitsu responded sarcastically, his voice dripping with fear.
Tanjiro took a deep breath, focusing on his training, and carefully began to move across the beams, his nimble footwork ensuring he didn't lose balance. He remembered the teachings of Urokodaki – always maintain balance and be aware of your surroundings. As he moved, he could hear Zenitsu hesitating but eventually following behind. As they neared the altar, the glowing symbols began to form a pattern, moving in sync and creating a mesmerizing dance of light. The altar itself held an artifact - a glowing cube with symbols similar to the ones on the entrance.
Zenitsu, with his ever-curious nature, was the first to reach out and touch it. The moment he did, there was a blinding flash of light, and the whole thing fades away, causing them both to drop.
"OH SHIIIIIIIIIIII-"
FLASHBACK PAUSE.
The man was suddenly yanked from the memory, gasping for breath as the reality of the lab returned around him. The Animus interface hummed and buzzed, indicating a malfunction or interruption.
"You okay?" the operator asked, looking genuinely concerned.
The man blinked, trying to regain his composure. "Yeah... yeah, I think so. But what was that? An Isu Temple? That artifact... Why can't I remember all of this...?"
The operator sighed, running a hand through his hair. "The Isu... They were an ancient, pre-human civilization with advanced technology. These temples and artifacts are scattered across the globe. Some people, like you, have an ancestral bond to these places, but it's normally closed off." He paused, typing something into the computer. "But it's rare for a memory to be this suppressed. Something of immense trauma happened afterward."
The man nodded slowly, piecing together the fragmented memories. "I need to go back. We need to find out what happened after they touched that artifact. The piece of Eden Tanjiro had CANNOT fall into the wrong hands."
The operator hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Alright, brace yourself. I'll try to stabilize the connection this time."
The man took another deep breath, preparing himself for the plunge back into the memory.
The scene reformed around him. The endless drop, the blinding flash of light, and the sensation of falling... And then a splash. They landed in the water. Frantically swimming back up to the surface, Tanjiro claws at the ground, eventually getting back on land, panting, slumping over next to a pillar, feeling the cold iron, as Zenitsu plants himself face-first on the ground. The pulsing sound got louder, yet louder, and in a blind panic, Tanjiro looks over to the pulsing noise, and a sphere being held by light on a pedestal was what he was right next to. Scrambling upward, he touches it, eventually taking it from the pedestal, against his better judgement. Then, the whole place started collapsing, coming apart. A big stone slab fell over, prompting the two to run up the slab, jumping from rock to rock, balancing on the overturned beams, dodging falling debris and rocks, even boulders, as the two rush to escape, spotting a tinge of light in the distance. "Run! Towards the light!" Tanjiro shouted, clutching the sphere tightly.
Zenitsu, typically paralyzed by fear in other situations, found an adrenaline-fueled courage within him. "I'm right behind you!" he yelled, his voice echoing through the crumbling temple.
The ground shook beneath them, and with each second, the exit seemed to be getting further away. Dust and debris filled the air, making it difficult to breathe. A sudden collapse blocked their direct path, forcing them to make a detour.
"There!" Tanjiro pointed to a narrow ledge to the right. Without hesitation, he leaped onto it, using his momentum to swing himself forward. Zenitsu followed suit, showing agility that he typically reserved for his thunderous combat techniques, the ceiling above them shook with the force of an earthquake, a massive boulder crashed down, narrowly missing them, hitting the pole right on the dot, causing the two to tumble lower, sliding downward, as Zenitsu jumps to a ledge, followed by Tanjiro, as they shimmy upward, completely ignoring their muscles straining, throwing themselves towards a pole, jumping from the collapsing poles, one by one, trying to get through the fog that made it so damn hard to see, like the gas- no. Don't think about that. The two jump off of the last pole, crawling up a slanted slab of stone, to the outside world. But it wasn't done yet, as the chuck of desert where it stood also started collapsing under them, slanting over.
"Shit, shit!" Tanjiro curses, vaulting over a piece of the desert, as he and Zenitsu, rush upward once again, throwing themselves forward, looking back at the collapsing chunk of desert.
Zenitsu, now wide-eyed in both astonishment and fear, managed to at least form a coherent sentence. "That... That was too close," he managed to utter, brushing sand and debris off his cloak and uniform.
Meanwhile, in the Animus lab, the man was slowly pulled out of the memory, the weight of what he had witnessed settling in. The sphere, the temple, the near-death escape - all these pieces now needed to be put together to unlock a mystery that spanned millennia.
The operator looked at the man, concern evident in his eyes. "You alright? That was intense."
Catching his breath, the man responded, "More than alright. We just found a major lead. We need to locate that sphere, wherever Tanjiro took it."
Tomioka glanced at the Animus monitor. The data lines and codes displayed information about the last accessed memory. "That Isu artifact... it's not just a sphere. It's a Piece of Eden. I know the structure. This one supposedly has the power to influence others."
The man's dark red eyes widened. "Control... That's what they've always been after. The Templars, I mean. If they get their hands on this...." He trailed off, running a hand through his hair.
"We need to delve deeper into Tanjiro's genetic memories. If we're lucky, we might be able to trace where it went after the collapse of the temple. Maybe try... World War II?" Tomioka suggested, already tapping away at the Animus console.
The man nodded, "It's worth a shot. If he was involved in this, it's possible the Piece of Eden could have surfaced there."
The hum of the Animus increased in intensity as Tomioka adjusted the settings. He looked up, locking eyes with the man. "Remember, World War II was an intense period. Traumatic memories might surface. Stay alert and I'll pull you out if it becomes too much."
The man took a steadying breath. "Got it. Let's dive in." Everything goes white, and the man is thrust back in.
To be continued...