In a deserted plane stood a lone structure surrounded by nothing but sand and the unsettling presence of death, to keep company any creature pitiful enough to venture into this death zone.
The structure whose existence defied logic itself was a floating lighthouse whose entire being emitted light. It stood at a menacing 300 feet and was the only source of light in this world lost to darkness.
Above this architectural miracle was a sky that could best be described with one word -Empty-. Below it was sand which had accumulated for thousands of years to cover up the remnant of what would have been a once thriving civilization.
Inside the tower, in what seemed to be a library sparsely populated with books sat two men opposite each. One holding a book while the other seemed to be contemplating, as anyone could tell that he was lost in thought.
The book, just like all the other books in the library was ancient and seemed to be written in pictures although quite different from hieroglyphics.
"Kingdom of Light. "
He read from the book bringing the man opposite him back to reality.
"How does that have anything to do with our current situation. It seems you don't understand how deeply f*cked we are for you to be foolish enough to waste your time reading that b*llshit. " He spouted angrily.
"I don't seem to see how you are not wasting your time doing absolutely nothing." Loid said calmly
Loid was a well-shaven middle aged man with dark circles under his eyes, one could see the inadequacy of sleep right off the bat. He was wearing a uniform which seemed to belong to a particular military force.
"I am sorry for my outburst. " Jake said with a semi woken expression on his face, it could be seen that a part of his mind was still in deep thought.
Jake had a pale skinny figure with a buzz cut to accompany it, he looked to be in his early twenties, he wore a fur coat, although from the looks of things rather than a shield from the cold it was used to create an imaginary sense of safety. His sickly expression was a sign that the current predicament was taking a toll on his health.
"No worries, it's expected for you to be a little irritable considering our situation. " Jake was usually cool headed but it seemed that even he could not stop the situation from getting the better of him.
It couldn't be helped, they were sent to this abandoned wasteland to study the structure of light. While they had made a lot of discoveries concerning the lighthouse structure called a Neriah, it was all futile as it was already too late.
Their home planet Urubris was already lost to the darkness, every single being on the planet turned into an abominable creature of darkness
" So what is this kingdom of light about." Jake asked, a few moments after collecting himself.
"The residents of this planet called their planet the kingdom of light because of the single Neriah they had which couldn't even save them from the inevitable corrosion of darkness.... How ignorant." Loid said with a hint of despise in his tone.
"I never knew you could speak their language." Jake said, by no means hiding his suspicion. He felt something was wrong. Loid took everything too calmly, he didn't seem to be majorly affected by the news of the destruction of his planet and their impending doom.
He also knew too much; he knew how to navigate the Neriah, which he attributed to doing lots of study on any information he could get about it on Urubris, but Jake knew that the little amount of information on Neriahs existing in Urubris was far from being enough to have any practical application on the actual structure.
He also understood the prehistoric symbols found in the books of this library, which he presumed was the language of the inhabitants of the so-called kingdom of light.
"Kid, it's written in pictu...." "Symbols, It's written in symbols. Do you think am an idiot, of course I tried to decipher it. Everyone says you're heartless but after staying with you for a little while I was starting to think otherwise, maybe you just don't know how to express yourself, but men was I wrong about you.
Our home planet was getting destroyed, and you couldn't do sh*t about it, you just sat here bullsh*ting about how it's pointless to go back, how am gonna die, blah blah blah."Jake berated as he poured all his pent up emotions out.
"Then go... am not going to hold you back, in fact I never tried to hold you back, I was just stating facts that you're well aware of. So go, go be the hero of your lost planet, who knows you might just be able to save a few lucky survivors and startup a new home on a random planet."
"...." Jake was speechless for a while as he didn't know how to respond to Loid, he felt conflicted. Did he want to save his planet, of course he did, he also wanted to be the hero but thinking about it now, why wasn't he able to make the decision to give up everything and try to do something about the situation even at the cost of his life.
Loid inched closer to Jake's face, so close that Jake could hear his breathing. "You're scared, frightened by the very concept of death. Not only that, deep down in your heart you know that it's not worth it. Maybe if your parents were still alive you wouldn't feel that way, but now without them you realize that nobody on that planet has done anything worth you giving up your life for them." Loid whispered, fiercely striking the depths of his subconscious which he hid away from everyone including himself.
He was right, Jake knew that deep down he didn't have any good feelings or sense of belonging to the people that killed his parents. They called his parents heroes but he knew that test subject was a better way of describing them. They were unanimously picked to be the first to explore the worlds lost to darkness and obviously they didn't come back.
The most laughable part of the situation is the fact that the information and relics discovered by his parents came back safe and sound meanwhile his parents didn't. 'I guess they put more importance on the Items and information procured than on his parents life.' he said to himself while laughing inaudibly.
"*Sigh* Let me show you something" Loid said as he grabbed hold of Jake's shoulder both vanishing from the spot.
.....
In what seemed to be the core room of the Neriah was a pearl the size of a wash basin floor about 5 feet off the ground. Underneath the pearl were countless inscriptions which seemed to draw energy from the pearl and transport it to other parts of the structure.
The pearl functioned as the heart of the structure while the inscriptions worked as blood vessels.
Loid and Jake simultaneously appeared in the room with Jake being quite destabilized from their short travel. "What's this all about." Jake said after taking a moment or two to regain his composure.
"This is the core room of the Neriah." Loid explained
"That much is obvious, what I want to know is why did you bring me here, how did you bring me here, what are those pulsating lines and what is that oversized pearl floating right there??" Jake asked.
"You ask too many questions." Loid said while rolling his eyes. "I brought you here to give you the power that you desire to live your life a free man not bound by anything
As for how I brought you here, I used a common skill called light transport, who knows maybe you will live long enough to learn this skill." Loid said with a grin plastered on his face, Jake was completely lost now.
"Why me." He asked. "Well you see, all races are either light inclined or darkness inclined and they cannot survive in an environment opposite to their inclination.
While that is true for the most part, every once in a while a light inclined race might produce someone with an affinity with darkness." Loid explained.
Jake was dumbstruck "So you're saying I have an affinity with darkness? "
"Yes that is exactly what I am saying. As for your other questions, these lines are called inscriptions, they are used as circuits and transmitters for devices that operate on either light energy or darkness energy
Lastly that orb of light is a gateway into luminara, it only allows for the passage of energy and nothing else. I have answered all your questions now let us begi...""wait wait wait, just one more question, who are you?" Jake said interrupting Loid
"That's not important but I guess you can see me as a traveler... Or just a man trying to raise a family.
Now back to business, what I need you to do now is to place one hand on this orb of light and the other on this orb of darkness." Loid said while removing a fist sized pearl that shone with darkness from his pocket. It was quite an indescribable felling, looking at the orb made it feel as if one was falling into oblivion. Anyone could tell that the orb of darkness was of a higher quality than the orb of light, although smaller.
"Now I must warn you, the chances of success are about 30 percent but this is the only hope for the continuity of your race.
Put all other thoughts aside and calm your mind as this is not going to be a pleasurable experience.
Are you ready?"
"*Exhale* I am ready"
"Good, now let's begin."