*Rrrrrrrrrrrr!* The sub-light engines of the Wings of Eos howled as the spaceship slowly descended through the clouds of the sky of the terraformed Vega VI.
As the industrial mega city of Roid below them slowly revealed itself, its skyline seemed to be dominated by the Grim Souls Theme Park's landmark attraction, a real-life-sized version of the Shattered Realm's Worldtree.
Tall as a mountain, the colossal silver tree was the size of several mega buildings stacked on top of each other.
"Oh wow!..." Tina exclaimed in dazed wonder, already dressed in her Princess Lansseax costume. "... Is the Shattered Realm a real thing after all?"
"It's only real in the matrix." Tellius told ius with an amused chuckle, still not wearing his costume.
Meanwhile, Sarah, also already wearing her costume and looking breathtakingly sexy in it, scolded. "Spoil sport!"
"Hey! I just don't want to have to lie to her and then explain to her why I lied to her!" Tellius defended his words with folded arms as they landed at a spaceport on the city outskirts, located between the theme park and the city.
Disgruntled yet still dressed in his costume, Tellius accompanied the two beauties, one big and the other small, off the gangway.
With the gangway soon rising behind them, a rather sickly-looking elderly woman with bad teeth approached them without even glancing at them. "Welcome to Roid! Home of Ghost-Waffles and the Chosen One. How many days will you be staying?"
"Well, I don't know... A day or two?" Stated Tellius with a questioning look at Sarah.
"Noted. Payment for your lot upon departure." The old woman stated before walking away.
"Wow. That woman looked like the old witch from Grim Souls episode 1753!" Exclaimed Tina, impressed, having committed all approximately 5000 episodes of the series to memory.
"Yeah, very impressive." Agreed Sarah while getting the feeling that the elderly woman's appearance hadn't been a costume.
Meanwhile, blissfully unaware of Sarah's suspicion, Tina and Tellis, following the old woman, were already on their way to the exit of their lot.
With a single look back at the Wings of Eos, Sarah locked the ship and turned on its auto-defense system before she ran after her companions.
Outside the spaceport, she then found them at the nearby tram station that looked like it had been frequently used but then left in a perpetual state of disrepair.
"So, it looks like we'll have to take the 7 into Roid and from there we take the 31 to the park." Tellius told Tina, just as Sarah caught up to them.
"They, Telli, got a minute?..." Sarah told her friend, needing to tell him her suspicion. "... I have to talk to you for a second..." Looking at Tina, she then told her. "... Just wait here a second, we'll be right back."
"Okay!" Tina agreed with a cute thumbs up.
Looking from Tina to Sarah, he asked the latter. "So, Sarah, what do you want to tell me?"
"Doesn't this place feel kind of strange?..." Sarah asked him before pointing out the inconsistencies that she had noticed so far. "... The old woman just now didn't look like she was wearing a costume, this station doesn't look like it's used by tourists, and look around! We haven't met a single soul since that woman!"
"That doesn't necessarily have to prove anything!..." Tellius dismissed as he came up with reasonable explanations. "... That woman must have undergone surgery to work at the theme park before getting fired, and this district must be inhabited by people that work at the park, hence why this station hasn't been renovated and nobody is here currently as the park is open."
"Sounds reasonable, but I don't believe it!" Sarah stated, just as the tram, which was in way better shape than the station but not by much, arrived.
Inside the tram, the three of them, with Tina in between Sarah and Tellius, saw the city fly by.
Houses they passed by looked like skeletons, their burned-out remains tagged with gang graffiti, the streets lined with cracked pavement and burned-out barrels at every corner. A clear sign of corporate negligence for a city that had given them a place to build their theme park.
Exiting the outskirts for an industrial park owned by Hera Inc., the large neon sign projected above it was an indication of ownership.
And yet, here a scent of spoiled food mixed with a universal smell of decay lingered in the air. Factories that should have been humming with life appeared eerily silent, their gates locked with flickering neon signs reading 'Closed'.
In some places, Tellius would catch some glimpses of life trying to break through like some weed on the side of the road or a sunflower on a crumbling wall, but they seemed small against the backdrop of so much depressing emptiness.
And yet, as the tram finally exited the industrial park through a tunnel, the landscape instantly changed drastically.
Instead of smelling like rotten decay, the air between the skyscrapers of the city was filled with artificial life, a low hum of electric engines, and the buzzing of legions of drones.
The skyline was a testament to a world where companies' technology elegantly dominated nature in a vision of the future that was both awe-inspiring, humbling, and frightening at the same time. And yet, the city center was still devoid of human life.
Exiting the tram at Central Station, Sarah, Tina, and Tellius found most stores open but staffed by robots.
Walking up to a nearby reception desk apparently manned by a human, Sarah simply had to ask the man. "Hi, there. Would you mind telling me where everyone is?"
"Hello there. To answer your question, the people are currently hard at work at Grim Souls Park and Resorts." Replied the man, clearly giving away his identity as a robot by his speech pattern. "Do you need any directions to get there?"
"That would be lovely," replied Tellius, with Tina riding his shoulders excitedly.
"Yeah, thank you, but..." Sarah told the robot. "But I would feel a lot better if I could talk to a human!"
From atop Tellius's head, the little girl demanded. "Ghost-Waffles and Dragons!"
"Okay, okay. Ghost-Waffles it is then!" Agreed Tellius with her, and before Sarah could get the receptionist's answer, she had to follow the two into a nearby Grim-Souls themed restaurant.
"You could have waited for me..." grumbled Sarah, but she slid into their booth beside Tina as Tellius's massive frame demanded an entire bench for himself. "Also, I can't believe that everyone is working at the Theme Park. Something is off."
"Oh, Sarah, that's the street kid in you talking..." Dismissed Tellius, her concern as he explained. "This is what happens once an entire city or planetary society pivots towards a single industry. Cities become ghost towns for specific hours of a day as everyone is working at the same time, with robots working around the clock."
"Hello and welcome to Grim Garden!..." the waiter robot in a goblin costume greeted them as he handed the three the laminated menus. "... I am Grunk. What can I get for you?"
"Nothing for us..." Tellius replied while pointing at himself and Sarah. Then he pointed at Tina and ordered with a glance at the menu. "... But this one will have the Ghost-Waffles with cherry guts."
"Very well!..." The artificial waiter noted before he asked. "... Anything else?"
"Yes, I'll have a Bubbled Brainmatter Milkshake." Sarah replied, to Tellius's shock, as he hadn't known that she could consume anything.
"Very well!..." The artificial waiter noted before he asked again. "... Anything else?"
"Oh no, that's it," Sarah said, and the waiter in the goblin costume went away.
"Ghost-Waffles!" Tina exclaimed happily as her white waffles with cherry sauce and Sarah's milkshake arrived.
"Well, I didn't know you had taste receptors and could consume nutrients..." Tellius stated while pointing at the milkshake. "... How does that work?"
"Hmhmhm..." Sarah chuckled at Tina's overly excited antics before she answered Tellius and slurped her drink. "... Yeah, well, my body frame was built with swallowing bodily fluids in mind, so I had taste receptors installed to be able to get a taste of what I drink."
"Oh, wow. Sounds smart. I wonder if I could get something similar but for both solid food and liquids..." Said Tellius dreamily while thinking about a steak and whiskey. "... But I guess that wouldn't be possible."
"Oh, it sure is, but it's very expensive..." pointed Sarah out in between slurps. "... You see, a doc could rearrange your components and put in an organ kit with lungs, a heart, kidneys, and a digestive system. With it, you could drink and eat like before, but your organs would either come from a liquidated human or, in the expensive cases, a clone of yourself."
"I don't think that I could live with that." Admitted Tellius, disturbed that for the simple pleasure of food consumption, a human life would be taken.
"You know what? I thought so!" Commented Sarah, happy that Tellius's morals had survived his conversion from human to cyborg.
That said, Tina finished her meal as she ate the last piece of Ghost-Waffles with a satisfied burp and cherry sauce on her lips.
"Napkins?" Offered the waiter robot that suddenly returned.
"Yeah, thank you!" Said Tina and immediately grabbed a few of the napkins brought over by the costumed waiter robot.
"We would like to pay the bill, please." Ordered Sarah, and immediately the robot stretched out his hand.
"Your bill is 55 credits!" Stated the robot, undisturbed by the 20-credit up-charge his boss was taking for this being a themed restaurant.
Seeing Sarah wanting to pay, Tellius interrupted her by saying. "Wait! Let me try something..." That said, he stretched out his right hand, connected to the robot, and tried paying by using his secret piggy bank account as he explained, "... There is this secret account that only I know of that might still work."
"Oh, I wouldn't bet on it..." Commented Sarah, extremely skeptical. "... Your brain data must have been downloaded dozens of times."
*Beep!* The waiter's payment system beeped to confirm the transaction.
"Oh, I stand corrected!" Noted Sarah, impressed that Tellius still had an account to his name despite being reduced to just a brain, and nipped on her milkshake.
"Can we now go see dragons?" Asked Tina once they exited the restaurant.
Looking at the little girl, Sarah replied, shaking her head. "No, we first have to buy supplies, otherwise you would be having Ghost-Waffles for breakfast."
"Okay..." Agreed Tina eventually, yet still conflicted.
Meanwhile, Tellius, still happy not to have to rely on Sarah's hard-earned credits, suggested. "How about this... Tina and you go ahead to the Theme Park, and I go and buy supplies. This way, I might be able to find a UCSB and figure out how much I actually have in my account."
"No, I'd better go and buy supplies, or the only thing we'll have for Tina is Ghost-Waffles and cherry sauce..." Sarah disagreed, her arms folded. "... You go ahead with her to the park, and I'll buy the supplies. Also, your account isn't going anywhere, and we can check it out later."
"Okay," Tellius agreed reluctantly, but he also didn't want to have a fight over it, as it wasn't worth it.
That said, after splitting up, Tina and Tellius soon found themselves back at Central Station, this time waiting for tram no. 31 instead of 7.
Soon, tram no. 7 approached, and it was a very special one, as it had been made to look like a dragon.
Squealing in delight, Tina eagerly jumped in, and even Tellius had to admit that this one was far superior to the one they had previously used.
Not only did no. 7 have air-conditioning, but it was also very clean, with comfortable seats. So, sitting down, they once more saw the city fly past them as the tram started moving.
This time, they weren't seeing urban decay as they had previously. Skybridges now lined the streets, with pulsing advertisements projected onto their sides as three-dimensional images that seemed to leap out into the air.
All the advertisements, as they closed in on the towering silver tree, were obviously Grim-Souls themed. Some showed dragons leaping out of skyscrapers, others showed close-up shots of the ever-evolving Chosen One's face, and a few rare but no less bombastic ones showed epic battles from the series.
Sadly, soon the tram came to a screeching halt as it stopped right outside the entrance. But their sadness instantly vanished as the two saw the awe-inspiring, colossal golden walls of the park. Their surfaces intricately carved with allegedly ancient runes and images of divine beings locked in eternal battle, the entrance alone made one feel transported into the world of Grim-Souls.
Past massive craters of a fictional battlefield, two massive, ornate gates stood at the entrance atop a massive five-story-tall staircase. Made to look like shining solid gold, Tellius guessed that they were, in truth, made out of reinforced ironwood with a thin golden coating.
And yet the illusion of grandeur seen in the series was perfectly brought to life with vines and roots expertly placed to look like they had begun to reclaim the lower sections of the walls.
After all, according to Grim-Souls lore, the city at the foot of the World Tree was supposed to be the capital of the Shattered Land's mightiest empire and yet still not immune to the passage of time.
And so, crossing the fake battlefield that gave him flashbacks to Thermopoly-6, despite it missing the smell of rotting corpses and burned-out mechs, Tellius, with Tina on his shoulders, just soldiered through it.
Now at the official entrance and at the foot of the staircase, he noticed a red digital banner covering the entrance.
The red banner: "-Park closed for private booking!"-
"Oh, no!" Tina exclaimed, sadly disappointed since she had been so excited to finally see the dragons of Grim-Souls.
Meanwhile, Tellius wasn't even bothered by the banner, as he had by now noticed that most security cameras, with the exception of a few strategically placed ones, were turned off.
Even though not an absolute expert at stealth like Sarah, he too had once gone through Covered Operations' Infiltration & Assassination course, which now emboldened him.
"Oh, no need to be sad..." Tellius confidently told Tina, wiping her silent tears away with his thumb. "... We'll storm this city of gods ourselves!"
"Really?" Tina asked in surprise, not having expected an adult to blatantly break the law for her.
While scanning the entrance within a 5km radius, Tellius replied with a wink up at her. "Yes, of course!.. So, how do you want us to do this? Climb the wall? Sneak in through the sewers? Or..."
"How about you simply jump over this?" Tina asked and pointed with her chubby little index finger at the red banner.
"Well..." Tellius said before asking. "... Isn't that like way too boring?"
Shaking her head in denial, Tina replied confidently. "No! I want to see the dragons as soon as possible!"