Finding my Parents in Another World-Chapter 58: (Zoe) Apocalypse

Zoe closed her eyes instinctively. Even though she was like an ethereal ghost in someone else’s dream, she felt the wind slapping her in the face as she fell down. For one horrible moment, she wondered what would happen if she could suddenly be injured, and die from jumping off the cliff.

Thankfully that moment didn’t last long as she safely glided down onto the ground. Even though the ground felt solid under her feet, during the instant her feet had first made contact the ground had been as ethereal as air.

Landing safely, Zoe looked around her, trying to take stock of her surroundings. She wasn’t able to see much. The visibility was much worse on the ground than it had been when she was up on the cliff. A thick fog hung around the entire place, and she could barely see two steps ahead of her.

However even amidst the fog, one thing was crystal clear.

The marking Apocalypse on the ground. The very letters seem to radiate malice and hatred. Zoe felt an involuntary shiver run through her as she quickly averted her eyes and started walking forward. The markings were on the road ahead of her as well, almost glowing in the thick fog. Zoe decided to use them as her marker as she forged on ahead.

As she waded deeper and deeper into the fog, she seemed to lose all her sense of direction. She wasn’t really there, it was all an ethereal projection, yet the fog closing in around her felt real and suffocating. Zoe was reminded of the absolute darkness she had found herself in a little while ago. The suffocating feeling and despair in this fog infact seemed much worse than the darkness of the fall.

The ominous markings of Apocalypse seemed never-ending, dotted on the floor in a haphazard manner, but always on a path. There were no markings next to each other, it seemed obvious that whatever creature had made those markings had made it in the form of a road, to lead others. Or perhaps to show someone the way.

Lead others to what? Show someone the way to what?

Nothing really made much sense yet to Zoe. The creature ’Apocalypse’ had evidently walked a long distance to annihilate a seemingly peaceful village. To butcher even their children, to kill them in the most horrific way possible. Why? And more than that, what and where? What was this beast and where did it go after it had completed its annihilation?

Zoe hoped that the answers to that would lie at the end of her path, but now she wasn’t sure. She didn’t even know whether she would be able to even comprehend anything she found. The heavy fog, the glowing markings. It was almost as if she had been thrust into a different planet.

Zoe stopped suddenly, jerking her head up.

A different planet....?

Of course! Zoe herself had come from a different planet after all. A planet where there was no magik, where technology was much more advanced. A world which was extremely different from the one in which she was in now. And certainly if someone like Famina or Midir were to be sent back to her world then their reaction would be confusion as well. Then what if this memory, this village was also another world, a planet separate from both Earth and Anexia?

And if these memories were of the Goddess, then what if the Goddess herself was from another world?

If that were true, then all bets were off. There may well be moving mountains capable of crucifying individuals on this planet. There may as well be curtains of fog covering the entire surface of most of this planet. Even if it had no logic behind it.

Or even if the logic behind it was incomprehensible.

As Zoe moved further and further along the tracks of the markings, her suspicions were more and more confirmed. There was an alien quality about the environment here, about the trees, about the ground and even the air itself. The bark of the trees wasn’t right, nor was the texture of the ground nor the cries of the birds (or at least Zoe assumed they were birds). It didn’t feel like either her home nor this planet of magik, it felt like something else entirely.

Even though all of this was presumably a memory, Zoe felt a shiver run through her. Even if she were not actually there, she didn’t know whether she had the mental strength necessary to know, know the true nature of this monster, or the true nature of this world.

A fleeting image of Zoltran’s anguished expression, followed by the haunting sight of Sarah’s burned-off face, crossed her mind. She steeled herself. She had to move forward, for the sake of all those children and innocent people butchered at least. Any creature, any monster capable of brutality like that was a threat that needed to be purged. And Zoe had to know what this monster truly was.

And thus, with renewed determination, Zoe strode forward.

.XX.

The fog began to clear after an innumerable number of steps. It didn’t clear off enough for Zoe to see too far in the horizon, but enough for her to see generally further than her feet in front of her.

And she began to notice the shrubbery and trees around her. Like in the village, they had been scorched to dust. Every single living organism seemed to have been butchered on the way. Zoe saw corpses of everything from birds to buffaloes scattered on the road.

Eventually the markings on the ground again stopped abruptly. But this time there was no cliff or anything in front of her. Instead there was a huge, pitch black tower stretching up high towards the sky. Zoe strained her eyes upwards but she couldn’t see how tall the tower was, only that it stretched up towards the heavens. In front of her was the huge metallic door, with the same cursed word inscribed on top of it.

Apocalypse

Determined, Zoe strode forward confidently. She pushed the door, lightly at first and then with her whole body. The door however didn’t budge. It stayed resolutely shut, laughing at Zoe’s determination.

"Aaargh." In complete frustration Zoe kicked out at the door.

"You can’t open Tochte Tower like that." A voice came out from behind her.

Zoe instantly turned around, prepared to attack. Her heart had almost stopped at the sound of another living human addressing her, and she realized she had taken her being not-really-here for granted.

The person standing before her, however was not an enemy. He wasn’t even a full grown man.

"Hello, Mrs. Zoe." Zoltran said, as the boy leisurely crossed his legs and sat down on the ground.

.XX.

"You can see me?" Zoe asked incredously.

"Of course." Zoltran replied nonchalantly as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Zoe was dumbfounded for a moment, but then she scrutinized the boy sitting there. He did look strikingly like Zoltran yes, but without the anguished expression which was a mainstay of the boy’s face. Rather this "Zoltran" seemed almost cheerful.

"What are you?" Zoe asked carefully.

"I am a recreation."

"A recreation? For whom?"

"No, a re-creation. I am a re-creation of the boy known as Zoltran."

Zoe took a sharp breath. "So you are not human?"

"Well that’s quite direct. But yeah you are right. I don’t qualify as what you would consider a ’human’." Zoltran’s voice held a sarcastic note.

Zoe frowned. She would have dismissed the boy outright, if she hadn’t met another artificial being a while back. But this ’Zoltran’ was much more expressive than AD.

"You are an artificial being? Created by the Goddess?"

"Yes, and yes."

"For what purpose?"

"To identify a worthy successor."

"A worthy successor to whom? The Goddess?"

Zoe immediately regretted her words, for the artificial Zoltran turned around with anger blazing in his eyes.

"Of course not. How dare you say that? The Goddess cannot be replaced!"

"I am sorry, I misspoke." Zoe’s apology was genuine and it seemed the boy realized that for he quitened down.

"Just...just don’t say that again." He said somewhat glumly.

"Yes of course I won’t. But you haven’t answered my question."

Zoltran looked at her. His youthful, childlike face aroused the maternal instinct in Zoe, but she had to remind herself that this was not a real human child.

"The Champion of the Goddess. The one who will bring down Apocalypse. The one who truly deserves to hold this Spear." He said, his eyes gleaming with emotion.

"But what is this place? Memories of the Goddess?" Zoe asked carefully, scrutinizing Zoltran’s face for any hint that she had misspoken again.

There was none. Zoltran gravely shook his head. "No, not memories. History."

"History?! Of the Goddess??"

Zoltran shook his head. "I don’t know "

"How can you not know?!" Zoe asked.

"I am an artificial being, created in the image of the boy Zoltran. I don’t know the boy, I don’t know this place, and I certainly don’t know about the monster called Apocalypse. I don’t know what the history of this doomed world is, I don’t even know what the name of this world is. I don’t know if this is the world the Goddess came from, I don’t know if this is the world I fought for during the days of the Great War. I search for the Goddess, I yearn for the days when I was fighting by her side, but I have scoured these lands for the last thousand years and the Goddess is not here. Therefore I keep on performing the last duty the Goddess gave me before she disappeared, in the hope that she will arrive and bless me once more when I have completed it."

The artificial being with the shape of Zoltran paused his effusive monologue and looked straight at Zoe.

"Finding the next Champion."