Just as the Earth is not a perfect sphere and humans are inherently flawed, the very essence of existence embodies imperfection.
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At the end of the world, there are three types of people.
Those who fight to move forward and restore the world to how it was before.
The ones who simply seek to survive.
And those who give up, preferring death over living the hell that had become the globe.
Professor Philius is one of the first types of people. However, he doesn't try to save the world through wars or keeping humanity alive, but by seeking the help of a god.
Someone with supernatural powers to destroy the enemy.
He has always been superstitious, coming from an old family. You know, the type that still believes in prophecies and that the firstborn must be bathed for the first time in sheep's blood. That type of family, and although he has tried to completely separate from them, he still sees their shadow even as a renowned scientist and philosopher, and at the end of the world—when giant moles suddenly emerged from a hole in the ground in the cold continent, declaring sovereignty over everything.
Professor Philius believes in prophecies.
And not just any prophecy, but the prophecy.
The typical one. The end of the world and a saviour who will come.
"Are you sure this is what we're looking for, professor? I don't question it or anything, but this cave doesn't look very welcoming...or clean." Margot walked behind the professor, her brow furrowing more with each flicker of her flashlight. Something that happened frequently in this place, apparently.
"This place meets all the indications, so we just have to try," the professor said, with the kind of wise aura that only old people can have, "Besides, we've travelled across the globe, we're too far from home to give up now."
And it was true, especially for people from a small place like Lombrom, where snow was just a fantasy, but that didn't stop Professor Philius and his assistant, Margot, from deciding to investigate what was known about the prophecy, and if there was any way it could be real. The end of the world was one of the greatest confirmations.
"Unhuman, almost demonic usurpers, claiming to be natives reclaiming what was theirs."
The problem lay with the saviour, how he would come or if he even existed, and although it seemed strange, there was plenty of free time to spend investigating at the end of the world. At least for wealthy people like the professor Philius, who lived far from the problems thanks to his money, oblivious to how the usurpers were taking land and killing people, turning the unlucky into slaves.
So the professor travelled across the globe, from city to city, town to town, fleeing from the giant moles while solving a puzzle.
Prophecies in the form of urban legends and tales that hinted at what was to come.
Statues that told a story.
Writings of where and when.
Such information led the professor and Margot to the third continent—the tropic one—upon discovering through a lost library in Sundai that the corpse of the warrior of Dai was among the glowing cave mountains.
The professor was crossing his fingers, hoping that the body of that warrior was the one they were looking for, but to be honest, it seemed less and less likely. Especially considering that those caves before the end of the world were a tourist spot in Threta once upon a time.
"It's crazy to believe there was a man in the past who could destroy mountains with just his being, but it's something to expect knowing he was from Threta. They are crazy," Margot said, her eyes sparkling at the idea that such a person could have existed.
So professor Philius didn't tell her that those stories were probably exaggerated.
Destroying entire armies?
Yes.
Mountains with just his existence?
Unlikely.
But in a time where death was the norm, the professor found no reason to destroy the hope of a girl in her early twenties.
Even someone of the professor's age needed to believe in something.
To have hope.
"Here it is, I think." Adjusting the binoculars that made his eyes look smaller than they were, professor Philius pointed to the giant hole at the end of the cave. Although the cave was lit by the glowing crystals, the hole had barely any light, and the bottom was uncertain.
"Professor...are you sure what we're going to pull out of there isn't an even bigger mole?" Margot murmured, but her hands still moved to set up the equipment, preparing to descend. The depth of the hole was uncertain, so they would have to make many attempts. "I mean, look at that hole. If I were a mole, I would live there."
The professor chuckled softly, the sound echoing off the cave walls. If something was there, it would probably soon know their location.
"It's been almost six years since the first sighting of the moles, and two since we began our search. It's time to finish this already. And, just in case, I brought this gun." Calmly but obviously without practice, the professor pulled out a gun. Or at least it looked like a gun, because instead of shooting bullets, it incinerated everything within its reach.
"I'll go down first." Margot put on her helmet with a light, fastening the rope to her harness with a strange but sturdy carabine, hoping the desensor and blocker would do its job. The professor nodded and gave her instructions.
"Be careful and shout if you see something. Anything at all."
Sighing, Margot nodded, feeling herself being lifted, and soon there was no solid surface beneath her, losing her centre of gravity, and slowly, her body disappeared into the darkness of the hole.
This had to work, Margot thought, looking around as she descended, a certain nervousness making her body become still.
Unlike professor Philius, Margot did not have a holy reason for embarking on this...mission?
Yes.
Mission.
Things just didn't work out for her. She was born in a place even the founders didn't know, but she always had the dream of going far away, studying the seas and their depths.
Being someone.
The moles and the wars prevented it, and soon she was just another person hiding.
Obviously, she never imagined she would be trying to save the world, with her only clue being prophecies from when people thought rain was due to the gods, but here she was. Margot met the professor when he was beginning his search, and as someone from a small town with insipid and scared people, a person with an open mind to possibilities made a new spark ignite within her.
Hope.
To the point that when professor Philius told her what he was doing, she didn't hesitate to believe and accompany him, leaving behind her life and the uneducated people of her town.
Margot knew she wasn't the smartest, and that in the current scientific study area, the ocean wasn't highly recognized, centuries past from when the idea of the ocean interested people. However, she was young and good at making things.
What they were using now to descend was created by her, after all.
"Do you see the ground?" The professor's voice echoed in the place when ten minutes had already passed and she wasn't touching the ground, and when Margot was about to respond, she felt her body being pulled to a place abruptly.
"Shit—!" The rope spun and spun, and a sharp scream escaped Margot, but when she opened her eyes, she saw it was just a bat. And a very large one.
"Margot!" But the professor didn't know, and with desperation in his voice, he kept shouting, hoping for an answer. "Are you okay?! Should I pull you up?"
Letting out the breath she was holding, Margot looked down. Although everything was dark, and her flashlight was flickering, she could vaguely see the ground, but it was still far.
Very far.
But her eye, in the darkness, caught a reddish glow.
Bats.
"Margot!" The professor kept shouting, and Margot could see a small movement from below. Double shit. "I'm coming down!"
"I'm fine!" Margot shouted in a whisper, which was contradictory, but she tried to make the professor hear her without waking the bats.
Those things were huge.
"What happened?! Do you see the ground?!" And although Margot was trying to stay silent, the professor shouted louder, as if he thought Margot couldn't hear him.
"Yes, it's just that there's a group of—" Margot didn't finish, covering her mouth as if that would make the bats go back to sleep.
Like crazy, they started flying in all directions, and Margot could hear the sound of their wings, seeing bones when their skin stretched as they moved around.
"A group of what?!"
Hugging herself, Margot closed her eyes when their roar broke in the place, having heard the professor, and like prey animals, they launched themselves, roaring as they flew upward.
"Stay away from the hole!" Margot shouted to the professor, trying to warn him, which probably only made the bats know where she was.
Like a storm, her body was surrounded. Her skin was pricked, and the smell of blood was present. There were at least ten, vicious in each of their bites, and Margot screamed, moving from place to place.
"Margot!"
Instinctively, she tried to hit them, which only made them angrier, and fear began to grow in her.
Fear and disgust.
They were horrible, with their small faces and huge bodies.
"Cut the rope!" Margot shouted. It was stupid, she knew, but she wanted this to stop.
She wanted—
With a strangled scream, her body lost all support, and she began to fall.
She fell.
Fell.
And kept falling until she didn't anymore.
"Uck—!" Her body crashed, with the speed of the fall and the height from which she descended, and Margot was sure she had broken at least one bone.
But there was no time to think about that, as the sound of the bat's flaps was getting closer to her, and with an aching body, Margot tried to stand, biting her lip from the pain.
Don't speak.
Don't scream.
Don't make noise.
Her mind begged her, and Margot wanted to start praying right now and hope that the information that bats can't see was true.
But it wasn't necessary, as that yellow head creature was heading towards her, with excellent vision.
It was the end.
Margot was going to die by bats.
She was going to die in a cave.
She was going to die, and the professor—
"Move aside!" A voice shouted, making the bats pause for a moment, and Margot didn't know how to react, but she didn't have to do anything, as with his hands' skin torn from the speed he descended with the rope, the professor aimed with his gun and fired.
He fired and fired, until the only thing present was the smell of burning and the bodies of the giant bats on the ground, with holes in them and their organs spilling out.
With heavy breathing, Margot leaned against the wall, staring with no thoughts behind her eyes at the professor and the still-moving animals on the ground.
Disgusting.
"Are you okay?" The professor hurried to her, and Margot just nodded.
Yes, she had broken one or two bones, and a group of giant bats bit her, probably infecting her with rabies or some strange virus they had, but hey, at least she was down now.
"I should be asking you that, professor," Margot said, standing up with an aching body, while gesturing with her gaze at the professor's hands.
"I am fine, just little scratches."He said, but it was clear he tried to slow down while coming down to rescue her with his own hands, hurting himself in the process.
Both stood there for a while, and Margot tore the long sleeves of her shirt, wrapping them around the professor's hands, who hissed from the pain.
"We should hurry, those things weren't normal, and we need to find treatment for you."
"The bats? They weren't normal?" Margot asked, "Obviously they were too big, but isn't there a species of bats like that?"
"The size is the least of it, it's their behaviour. Although I don't remember their name, I know that type of bat, with its yellow head and large size, isn't aggressive. They feed on fruits, and their habitat is in forests, not...this."
"An unknown species?" Margot added as a possibility.
"We'll have to take a sample of them to see what's going on." Nodding, both began to continue walking.
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I have a problem, like a psychological one, of starting a story and not finishing it, dying of cringe when re-reading them, so I can't guarantee more than two chapters a week.
The protagonist of this story won't appear until chapter three and will take the lead in chapter four. The story is more like a "slice of life," but instead of living day by day in a city or school, the protagonist will hunt monsters or something like that. Thinking it thoughtfully, it probably is not even a slice of life. Probably.
This story contains mostly crack, most of the time treated seriously, so bear with me.
P.S.: I actually had to research bats, which is all the bad in the world. I hate bats. They are horrible. Halfway through the story, I realised that not all bats have vision problems and that the type of bat I was trying to represent lives in forests. I had the idea of simply saying it was another species that only existed in that world, but thinking it over, I decided to say they were like that thanks to the "mysteries of the cave." The type of bat is a flying fox, in case you were curious.