Fright City's cityscape tells the residents' story in colours, from the neon rainbow lights to the golden kitchen glows. Like a constellation of architecture, as calm and peaceful as heaven for its residents.
The usual vibrant sky often complimented the city and added to its beauty. But not tonight. No longer did the sky make the town look lovelier. No longer was the atmosphere vibrant. No longer was Fright City the city of advancements. Because a devil had been forced to awaken from his slumber. All because of the foolishness of a few.
Even nature couldn't help but falter under the influence of one man- no, he wasn't a man anymore. He hadn't been one for a long, long time.
The night was darker than ever before, crying for the innocent souls that'll be lost tonight. Earth cowered under his feet with every step he took. The wind was careful not to touch the man should his rage befall it.
Rain poured down from the heavens, trying to take his rage, his pain away from him. The rain had always been man's favourite part of nature, and the rain has always consoled him like the father he lost.
The rain once again wanted to touch him, console him and beg him not to punish the innocent for the mistakes of a few. But in vain, the droplets evaporated even before they could touch the man. The rain became more intense, soaking everything inside the city. Everything except the one person it wanted to.
As Ashton walked out of the basement lab, the sight of hundreds of undead and human-hybrid greeted him. Within moments, the courtyard was littered with corpses that rose again to contribute to their killer's mission.
In a hidden corner of the base, Mikosh's second-in-command, Hana, saw the atrocities one man was committing. At first, she thought the intruder would be taken care of instantly. After all, walking into Tartarus was equivalent to walking into hell.
But much to her dismay and horror, Ashton ripped through her best soldiers like tissue paper. Nothing could stand in their path as the wave of death came crashing to her door.
"M-Ma'am! I'm afraid we cannot hold the position anymore!" A soldier barked through the radio, "That man is unstoppable- He's here! GO, GO, GO! We have to- ARGHHH!"
Only silence followed the soldier's horrific scream. With every kill, the gap between Ashton's forces and their own grew wider and wider, and there was nothing Hana could have done to stop it.
"Activate Ghost protocol." Hana sighed, her face buried in her hands, "Transfer all the data to the President's private cloud server and prepare to evacuate personnel with Tier-01 to Tier-04 clearance."
"Please input the password." The AI replied.
Hana got up and dropped a drop of her blood onto the scanner, followed by a retinal scan.
"Orders confirmed. The facility will self-destruct in t-minus 2 minutes. Please proceed to an evac-bubble in the meantime." The AI answered before going offline itself.
"Evacuate? Even if I do that, the President will kill me." Hana shook her head, "I'd be lucky if he gave me quick death, though I'm sure that wouldn't be the case."
Unlike the scientists living in the facility, soldiers like her were expendable. As a soldier, it was their duty to fight till the last breath. Although, more often than not, they didn't sacrifice themselves for a sense of responsibility and instead did it to have an easy death.
In Tartarus's history, there had been many who attacked the facility. But only some of them were successful, thanks to the masterful construction of the facility.
According to their calculations, it would take at least twenty thousand soldiers to break through the defences. Even then, there wasn't a guarantee whether they'll be successful or not. However, all the reasons couldn't do shit against Ashton's forces.
As she poured the drink into her body, she heard some noise. Not any noise, but a bloodcurdling scream.
"Just what are these morons doing now..." Hana said and made her way towards the window, pushing the curtains aside.
She was expecting the guards to be fooling around like usual, but she saw something completely different. The glass slipped out of her hands and fell on the floor, shattering on impact.
The rate at which Ashton was moving, it should have taken him an hour or so to reach the central tower. Unfortunately for Hana, the reaper's forces were already there for her.
Right before her eyes, flames as high as the mountains raged around them and rose higher and higher into the night as if they were challenging the heavenly rain.
The downpour couldn't even dent the fire as it consumed everything. The smoke emanating from the fire shrouded the entire facility. Alarms had been triggered a long time back, but the President didn't intend to send backup to aid them. They were on their own.
The elite soldiers were being slaughtered right before her eyes, and there was nothing anyone could have done to stop it.
"Why... why... why..."
Hana kept biting her overgrown nails, wondering what they could have done to anger someone so powerful. A moment later, a couple of guards entered her chamber to get Hana out of there, only to find her shaking uncontrollably.
"Shit! The bitch is already out of her mind! What should we do now?" One of the guards barked at the other.
"Like hell do I know!" The guard replied, "We must get out of here first. Get the information out and-"
"We might have a way to save ourselves..." He smiled, but it was a defeated smile, not a joyous one, "I'm sure whoever is attacking us is doing so because of this bitch. His rage should subside if we hand her over to them, and we'll be saved."
However, before they could act on their master plan, someone came knocking at the door.
"Death home delivery service! How would you like to live your last moments?" Celeste licked her lips, feeling the ecstasy of fear on the guards' faces, "And before you ask, death by snu snu isn't an option."