Chapter 17: 17. Darkness & Stars

As Livia walked off in a rush she was already reading, despite walking at a pace someone might jog. It was all about the angle, if you positioned the text correctly you could use your peripheral to avoid upcoming obstacles without skipping a word, a skill she’d been perfecting since walking around with 700-page books as a thirteen year old, even the largest smart-phone was child’s play at this point.

The chapters were downloaded and she considered going home for a minute, but the library’s ambience drew her in and she decided to settle in a corner with some privacy. She read for a couple of hours and became completely engrossed. Even the occasional session of banging from Margaret only served to heighten the tension of the battles and intrigues taking place.

The story was about a world where humanity had suffered disaster at home and been forced to escape into space. Lost and desperate for a plan they aimed at a wormhole and ended up in a strange new sector. The planet they came upon resembled Earth to an uncanny degree, despite the landmasses being different. The surface consisted of one giant continent surrounded by smaller Europe-sized ones dotting the oceans, with the planet as a whole being about fifty percent bigger than Earth. Humanity stood in awe at the sight. They called it Ross.

Upon entering the atmosphere was when they first noticed something wrong. Their instruments met strange interference and visible energies assailed humanity's combined armada but no tools seemed capable of measuring more then the effects, and things only got worse as they crash-landed.

This new planet had several different sapient races, all used to vying for domination and having even minor conflicts lead to brutal warfare. But humanity had made quite the entrance, and the threat of these strangers, wielding higher-level technology and speaking strange alien tongues. As it turns out this was enough to unite the natives and they quickly proceeded to hunt the humans with persistency bordering on the fanatical.

The militaristic nations of Earth resisted with every weapon, shredding armies and poisoning the land, in the end they put up a very decent fight, if you asked the natives. It was not enough, it was all in vain when faced with this worlds' strange warriors and magics. No two races alike in how they wielded their power.

But some few parts of humanity took a different route for survival in the few years they had to figure things out. They were the quickest to realise how little of what they knew was still true in this strange new place, and that the best bet was to abandon pride and hide or blend in.

They gave up their more advanced technology, relied only on mechanics that had been robbed of all their more advanced tools, and slowly learned more and more about Ross. The natives eventually found them, but by then they were acceptable, and even if humanity now lacked the vast majority of its past tech and knowledge, they hung on bravely. Barely.

That was until the invention of humanity's own [System]. One day a leader of the remaining shard of humanity, one who had been at the forefront of engaging with the natives and learning of their ways, but who was also entrusted with the deepest remaining secrets of humanity, found a way to create something new. A legacy that would enable her beloved race to finally stand toe to toe with the denizens of this strange and brutal planet.

Humanity gained Classes, and levels. And while it took a few generations to work out the kinks, humanity eventually entered a golden age and took centerstage on this mainland where they had first landed in such desperate straits. But that success came at a cost. The humans lost something of what made them unique along the way. The process was gradual, in fact it took centuries. But they eventually integrated too heavily, and became more and more like the rest of the planet’s natives, warlike and reliant on the abilities provided by the [System] of their ancestors.

When the golden age had ended, and the geopolitics once again turned against humanity, they once more found themselves on the brink of extinction, holding on to their final stronghold of Dormata and their ancestral lands of the Doc Forrest region with the human Tribes standing united, but losing hope with each greedy paw reaching for a piece of what is theirs.

It had been such a struggle across the series, and the final hope seemed to hinge on a timetraveller that they meant to send back to change something, the details were still fussy which was why the reveal in this finale was such a big deal, it was what Livia had her bets on. She had been reading it for over a year by now, despite her impressive pace. Even when you finished there were scenes to revisit, theories to develop and argue over on forums. Needless to say she knew her lore in and out by this point.

The finale ended with one of humanity's final scions wielding the sum of humanity's efforts and gaining a new kind of Class, called a [Temporal Magi]. Using this new artifact she was able to reach into the past to warn humanity with a vital text that would hopefully show enough of them the errors of their ways and allow them to build the type of strength that could survive the coming calamities. It ended on a note of hope.

Livia finished reading and sighed with contentment. What a story. It had been a long time since she’d been this enraptured with a new fantasy world and actually gotten the satisfaction of a hopeful ending. She stretched herself and got up to wake her legs.

Margaret spotted her and called out again. “Oh, you’re still here. Would you mind just running up and leaving the hammer in my purse again? My husband will get upset with me as usual, if I forget it down here later.”

Livia still had her smile of contentment and a 100 thoughts and theories running through her head. “Of course, hand it here, I’ll be right back,”

Livia turned back around the corner and went up the stairs again, and that’s when the air surged and things turned dark.

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