I'm not sure how long I've been falling, but I think I hit terminal velocity. It’s become hard to breathe and I feel light headed. As I fall through the darkness, I try to send down a few flares of magic down, but no matter what I try, the only thing that comes out is the black substance. Well... this is going to suck. I ready my legs and wait for the ground to hit.

KRA-BOOM

I slam into the ground and buckle down, almost falling over. I balance myself out and try to look around, only to see utter darkness. I raise my hands to try to shine some light, but nothing comes out. I look at my hands and wave them around. I can feel the energy coming out, why can't I see it? I try shutting it off then bringing it back, but it doesn't seem to change anything.

"What the fuck is going on?" I ask out loud, sending echoes down the cavern. I take a few minutes to stop the room from spinning and for the ringing in my ears to stop. Once I feel better, I stick my hands out and start to fumble around until I find a wall. I keep a hand against the wall as I start to stumble forward, tripping on stalagmites and rocks as I go. Wait... why don't I just use my phone? I reach into my pockets and try to find my phone, only to find my pockets empty. What the fuck? Of course, the one time I could use that damn thing it’s fucking… oh, that's right, I left it at home in fear of it breaking during the fight. Well... fuck. I resume moving forward, trying my best not to completely fall over.

This is taking too long, there must be something I can use that could help me move faster. I search all my pockets until I pull out my last archaic grenade. It emits a light blue glow that lights up a meter around me. Well, it's better than nothing. I start walking forward at a faster rate, avoiding all the trip hazards that come my way. As I look around I take in the tunnel. It seems to be made archaically, with time making its own changes. I can tell by the corners and somewhat level ground that people forged this a long time ago. I keep walking until I come to a dead end. The wall before me was also made archaically, I can tell due to the straight edges. I flare my open hand and examine it closely. The usually white flames are now burning black. I turn my hand around and look it over. The usually smooth black lines are now jagged and make sharp turns all over. I look between my hand and the wall...

"What’s the worst that could happen?" I wave my hand at the wall and try to bring it down, but send a beam of black energy at it, making a large open streak in it. Well... not what I intended to have happen... but same results... I guess. Next chance I get, I really need to stop and find out what's going on with my magic... but for now, I just need to get to get to the bottom of this. I slide through the opening and walk forward until I come up to another wall. I look at this one and see a doorway to the left. I walk to the doorway and look inside, to see four dimly lit gems hovering in the air and a destroyed table in the center.

This... this is where I held those negotiations with Tempus and Spatium. It's still here... given that it was made of stone and there's really nothing here to demolish it, but still, I found it. I walk around the room and collect the gems. Amazing how they still have enough energy to emit any light. I look at the gems and then back to my hand... can I do this? I flare my hand and start to fill the gem with energy. As I do, the gem begins to brighten, filling the room with a white light. I pocket the grenade and fill the rest of the gems with my energy, making them each shine brightly. With my new light source, I leave the room and head to the other side of the cave, where I find a smaller hole in the ground. It's about a meter wide and is completely dark. I take one of the gems and drop it down, watching as the light falls for a while before it hits something and bounces out of view, lighting a slope down below.

I slide my lower half into the hole and drop myself down. When the slope comes to me I use the magic in my heels to slide with it... only to find that it goes for a long distance down. I can see the light several hundred meters ahead of me, leading me to an even steeper drop. I try to stop myself from plunging over the side by grabbing at the ground and trying to get a better footing, but I've gained too much momentum to stop now.

"OH SHHIIITTT!" I yell as I tumble over the edge and fall into the next hole. I flail around a bit as I fall down the dark abyss, my vision flaring from a white speck of light to darkness as I tumble in the air. I try to correct myself as I fall, but I've built up some speed to my twists and turns, making it hard to do so. I glance down at the light and see it bounce off something and roll away from view... oh fuck. Need to think of something... got it! I throw my arms out and blast the magic outward, sending two beams to my side. The energy seems to latch onto the walls and helps slow me down and correct my path downwards. I let go of the magic and drop down what I assume is the last few meters, landing safely at the bottom.

I try to walk off, but collapse suddenly when a wave of fatigue hits me, making me drop to the ground. I can feel myself sweating heavily as I pant from the sudden exhaustion. Why am I so tired... what did I do to become so tired? I try to move on, but my arms feel like I just did a million pushups with weight added to my back. I roll onto my back and wait for the fatigue to pass.

"Huh! Wha?" I say as I wake up... wake up? When did I fall asleep? I try to sit up but my arms are still stiff, making it harder to move around. I look around to see that I'm still in a tunnel that's facing downward. I slowly stand to my feet and start to walk down the path, trying to get my arms to work along the way. Luckily I still have the three gems from before... I'll get the other one some other time. When I finally get my arms to work properly I look up...

SMACK

I stagger back as I hold onto my head. I look up to see a massive metallic bulkhead sitting right in front of me. "Topaz." I look around the bulkhead in awe of finally making it back home... Topaz Falls, at last. This is it, point of possibly no return... how do I open this from the outside? I walk up to the door and place my hand on it as I try to think of a way to open the door, when red beams shine out from the top corners. They wave from side to side as they scan me from head to toe.

Identification, Miles Eremita... access granted, says a robotic voice as the door starts to pull up. This is it... no turning back now. When the door opens completely I walk in and look around... the street before me is covered in rubble, and there seems to be a thick layer of dust and ash everywhere. As I walk in the door begins to slide shut, sealing me inside. I run in and head for the nearest building, wiping the dirty window to look inside. It was an office of some kind, but it seems to have been abandoned a long time ago. I leave the building and start to walk down the street. The entire city is dark, even the parliament hall's lights are out. I try to look around some more, but everything seems to tell the same story. Every building is empty, some having holes blown into them with others being completely destroyed. I guess they did it... they took Topaz Falls.

"In*ssshhhhh*er-er-er-er..." I look over to see a security droid staggering out of an alley. It has its right arm blown off, its left optical lens shattered, and is riddled in dents and scratches from bullet fire. It's trying to walk towards me, but is extremely low on power, making it move slowly. As it approaches me, it sticks its arm out and tries to grab me, but runs out of energy and falls to the ground at my feet. I sigh and continue to walk on. I can't believe we lost Topaz... I knew it was a possibility, I just never thought I'd see it. I look around the darkened city and decide the first thing I need to do is turn the power back on. The southern power station should be a few blocks down the street up ahead. I make a right onto the street and start to walk down the road. The closer I get to the station, the greater the destruction gets. Many of the buildings are just portions of wall and piles of rubble, with skeletons scattered here and there. I can't believe the bones are still here... though it kind of makes sense. The city is hermetically sealed, and it's not like there's a breeze or a water source to erode them away.

I keep walking until I notice a skeleton that's different. The skull is narrower and longer, with the dagger teeth. The ribs are thinly connected and seem to be hollowed. The rest of the body seems human... except for being longer. Whatever killed this one, it killed it by shattering its lower back. I look over the skeleton a bit before I stomp the skull, crushing it to pieces. I spit at the ground beneath it before I continue towards the generator. When I finally make it to the half-sphere I stop in my tracks. The area out front is peppered with small craters from Inficiunt’s grenade launcher... but something a little larger made a massive hole in the wall where the door used to be. The door was blown clear off, as well as most of the wall around it and the freeway that lead into the building. Surrounding the craters are piles and piles of Unfamiliar bones, most of which have been shattered to bits and pieces. I walk through the bones, trying my best not to splinter my feet as I go, and climb the stairs to the generator room. The inside is close to what I remember. The barrier we made is still there, with the destroyed jeep that should have killed me behind it. The larger trucks are gone, as well as the other jeep and civilian vehicles.

"Well... looks like some of them were able to get out," I say as I walk into the room. I come to a stop when I find a lone human skeleton wearing light Spartan armor. I drop to my knees and begin to tear up as I look it over.

"Dolum," I whisper as I reach out to the skull... but pull away before I touch it, as the tears force their way out. "DOOOOLLUUUUUM!" I scream as I break down and cry before his long dead body. I cry for what feels like an eternity until I finally run out of tears to cry out, then I just sit there in a daze as I stare down at his bones. They couldn't even bury him. No funeral. No goodbye. Just another skeleton among the bones. I pick myself up and look over his body... I need to bury him, but I don't know if my magic will allow me to. I flare my magic and try to move the ground next to him, but end up making a small trench with the black substance instead. I'm sorry Dolum... this will have to do. I carefully place his bones into the trench, laying him so he's face up with his arms crossing his chest. When I finish, I stand before him and look down at him, sadness filling my heart.

"Requiem bene, amicus meus," I say before I pull my revolver and fire around off for him. I salute to him and turn around, leaving him to his resting place. I head to the back where I find the stairs and take them down, going several flights down until I reach the power station. In the center of the room is a large machine with massive wires coming out the back that go into the wall past it. Lining the walls to both sides are four backup generators that have wires going to the main reactor. Each backup generator is a three-meter-tall metal box, with two cylinders inside of them made of gems that are connected to metal clasps. I go to the first backup generator and check the backup gems... empty. I flare my magic and start to fill them both. After a few minutes, I’ve filled them and move onto the next generator.

After an hour of work, I finish up filling the gems and walk over to the main generator. I boot up the computer on it and read the energy test. It seems the geothermal rods are good... but need a clearance code from the parliament building. The backups are feeding the southern district energy and the main lights to the city. Estimated amount of time until they run out... two months. I step away from the generators and head back up the stairs to the main room. I walk around and try to scavenge whatever I can find. I get a new pair of Kevlar boots, a frag grenade and a PX90 submachine gun. I fill the gem in the SMG and fire off a round.

PEW

"That's Terradisian designing for you. Overly engineered to the point of near indestructibility," I say as I head to the door. I look out to the dark city and watch the lights come back on. The lights start turning on close to me and work their way back to the center of the city. The Congressional Parliament Hall has fallen over at the halfway point, crushing most of the area to the north west. Instead of being cut in half, it seems to have split in a diagonal line, going from the lower right end up to the upper left. Most of the buildings seem fine for the most part. There's a line of destruction leading straight to the CPH from the west and continuing to the south east. I stare out at the destruction for a while before I shake my head and take the stairs back down. I need to get all of the power back on, so I need to get to the CPH. I walk down and start to head down the road when I hear something moving in a building to my right.

"Hello? Anyone there?" I ask as I approach the building.

"System reboot *ssshhhhhhhhh* error. Catastrophic failure *sssssssshhhhhh* kill all intruders," says a light green utility bot as it walks out of the building. It's a simple humanoid robot used for remedial chores. I sigh as I approach the machine, it beats doing this alone.

"Machine, identify."

"Identification… A00Z2 designation *sssssshhhhhh* Identify," it says as it faces me and scans me over. "Identification... error... deceased. Order 23 new directive, kill all intruders." Well... shit. I roll to the side as it tries to punch me and open fire at its side. Most of the weak energy rounds bounce off its armor, due to the enchantments put on all robots, but a few find their way into the inner workings and drop the machine. I turn to walk away when the machine jumps to life and grabs my leg. I turn and open fire on it as it rears its free arm and punches my shin, breaking the bone. As I scream in pain and fall to the ground the bot starts to pull itself up my body, trying to get to my head. I start to push it away and flare my magic as it tries to punch me again, only to miss when I dodge it. I slam my palm into its head and send a beam of the black substance through it, making the machine fall limp. As the top of the body starts to crumble away I push it off and pull my pant leg up to check my leg.

"Aw fuck... I can fix that... I think." There's a deep dent on my leg that's bleeding along the top. I run my fingers over it and wince when I find where it broke. I take a few deep breaths as I flare my hands and place them onto my chest. I start to fill myself with the energy but... something feels off. Usually it feels like I'm being electrocuted when I do this, but this is filling me with an icy coldness. I watch as the wound quickly fixes itself, healing at twice the speed. When I finish, I stand up and test my leg out by putting weight on it and taking a few slow steps. Everything seems alright, now to...

"Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Safeties off, weapons hot, surrender and die!" A red military bot yells from across the street as it raises its arm at me. The military bots usually have their right arms replaced with some kind of weapon, this one being an archaic assault rifle. I run into the building and take cover behind a desk as it fires at me. I pull out my revolver and wait for it stop firing...

"Kill all intruders," says a light blue utility bot that's standing in front of me. I roll to the side as it punches at the ground where I was sitting. I lift my pistol at it and fire into its head at point blank range.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

As I run out of rounds it falls back and twitches a couple of times before shutting down. I pop the cylinder and start to reload as the military bot jumps on the desk and tries to fire at me, but only clicks sound off. I wave my free hand at it and send a black beam at it, splitting it in half and making it drop to the ground. As it starts to crawl at me I get up and run out of the building.

"For Terradisia, you will be destroyed," says a deep robotic voice. I turn around to see a high-grade military bot standing behind the buildings across the street. This one stands two stories tall, lacks a head and neck, and has two primary weapons, a missile launcher on one side and a hundred-twenty-millimeter cannon on the other. In the center of its chest is a large, round red light that's shining down at me. It raises its missile launcher at me and fires. I raise my hand and bring a shield up, blocking the missile and making it explode. I turn and run into the building as the smoke provides some cover. I run out the back door and run away from it, making it a few meters before I hear it fire another missile. I stop and raise my shield again as I watch the missile arc up into the air and dive straight for me, exploding against my shield. This explosion makes the lines grow to my shoulders, making me nearly drop it from exhaustion. I turn and run down the street some more before I dive through a window and take cover. I can hear the machine start to crush buildings as it tries to hunt me down. I peer out and try to find a way out of here. The only place it can't get me is back outside, but I'll need a distraction to be able to open the door. I need...

KRA-BOOM

I duck my head as the street explodes from the cannon fire, sending debris flying everywhere and making me roll over a couple of times. I hold onto my ears as a loud ringing drowns out all other sounds. I watch to my right as the ceiling collapses from the foot of the machine breaking through. I jump over the wall and start to run as it raises its cannon at me, loading the next shell into the barrel along the way. I pull out a grenade and toss it up at the arm of the machine as it starts to close the chamber.

KRA-KRA-KRA-BOOM

The grenade goes off next to the open chamber and sets off the shell inside its arm, blowing its arm off. As it staggers back from the explosion, I fall backward from the concussion wave and fall on my back. I pick my head up and look up at the bot, as it straightens out and aims its missile launcher at me. I slowly raise my hand and push it forward, sending a beam of soul fire at the bot, blowing its arm off and making it fall backwards. I sigh in relief and try to get up, only to fall back from a searing pain in my side. I look down to see a large metal shard sticking out of the left side of my gut. I hold onto the wound and force myself up, trying my best to ignore the pain as I turn the corner and head to the entrance. I need help... I need to get back... I need...

BOOM

I turn around to see the bot has jumped to its feet and is coming at me. I flare my free hand and start to charge up my magic - I've got one shot at this. It walks up to me and squares off its stance as the center light begins to shine brighter. We both fire at the same time, me firing soul fire and it firing a beam of lesser energy. The two beams collide in the air and explode, sending me flying backwards. I feel warm streams start to form all over me as I lay there, slowly blacking out. I look up to the entrance and watch as a bright white light appears from behind the opening door, revealing two shadowy figures.

"H...he...help..." I mutter before I pass out.

Shout out to Shadownamesto for picking the gun he found. Thanks for reading, and like always, Brony on!