Edge of the Apocalypse: Chapter 2 – Devil’s Praise

The boy cheered, there was nothing better than food.

Lannie opened her bag to take out an ordinary loaf of round bread. It was completely plain, an unsightly food in the eyes of those on the Babylon Island. But on the lands, it was unimaginably precious delicacy. That was because it didn’t have a hint of radiation, and instead only emitted the fragrance of wheat.

Wheat, an item as rare as a dragon on the land. To Lannie’s knowledge, only the greenhouses on the floating island could product such unpolluted, clean wheat.

The boy took the bread in her hands with an grateful expression and started to tear small pieces of the bread, eating it carefully and even licking the oil on his fingers completely clean. Watching this, Lannie’s felt a pang in her heart, if it weren’t for her stubbornness, this child could’ve had a better life.

But it was too late.

After the feeling of sadness subsided, fury took its place. If it weren’t for that man, it wouldn’t be like this now, Lannie’s slender fists clenched as she thought.

She took a dagger out from her clothes, sheathed in a leather cover. Unsheathing the dagger gently, Lannie looked at the single edge dagger, it had a simple design with golden patterns engraved on the spine of the blade and a red gem embedded at the end of the dagger’s handle. The gem was carved into the shape of a devil’s head, coining the very fitting name of the weapon.

Devil’s praise!

In a small room.

A few wooden planks were nailed into into a bed and a clean, patched up rug covered the entirety of the room’s floor. It was a small place, with the edge of the bed right at the door, the “room” seemed more like a small capsule than a room.

Allen sat on the bed, leaning against the corner of his room as an orange glow shined from the ceiling of the room and onto the boy’s face. He had a dagger in his hands, the dagger Lannie called Devil’s praise. Along with the dagger, she had also gave him some information about his father.

Father, a unfamiliar word to Allen. From his birth, he had only known his mother and not a hint of anything about his father, Lannie spoke nothing of him. There was once, after he had fought with the children of the town, who they had called him a fatherless child. Allen returned home to ask Lannie of his father, and all she did was give Allen a few smacks on his ass.

After that, Allen had related his father with beatings.

But tonight, Lannie was a little weird. He recalled the contorted expression on his usually gentle mother’s face as she spoke loudly, “Allen, this is a dagger your father gave me. And now that it’s yours, use this dagger to stab into your damned father’s heart! Can you do that for me?”

Allen instinctively nodded, but he didn’t understand the expression on his mother’s face.

A five year old boy was still not capable of fully understanding the feeling called hate. Only after many years did Allen understand that amongst the hate, there was also a suffocating feeling of love.

It was hate, birthed from love.

He caressed the knife’s sheath, this was the best present he had ever gotten. Since forever, Allen had wanted the small knife that hung from Uzi’s waist, who had promised to give him that when he was 10. But now, he had a much better present. Allen swore, he had never seen a prettier dagger in the town. In his hands, a dim lustre was reflected on the dagger’s sheath, coupled with the glow of the devil gem.

If he had to describe it, he only had a phrase he just learnt: This was too cool!

Allen couldn’t help but unsheathe the dagger, revealing a silver blade with a dim golden pattern that stopped his breath. Allen could see his own excited face reflected on the blade. Licking his lips, his tiny finger traced the dagger gently.

A cold sensation appeared on his fingers, followed by a slight pain, the dagger had sliced a small opening on his fingertip.

It was that sharp!

Instead of fear, Allen was elated. He swiftly kept the dagger and sucked on his finger, causing a metallic taste to spread in his mouth. Hiding into the rug, he laughed softly as he quickly fell asleep.

But what the boy didn’t know, was that the small drop of blood left on the dagger started to move, seeping into the blade. And in just a moment, the blade had returned to its original state. But a hint of red light shone from the devil gem on the handle proved otherwise, lighting up the blanket.

After three weeks, the town welcomed the winter. Snowflakes descended from the sky, and as if they were the gift from the heavens, they covered the ugly and the sins of the lands with a pure white layer.

The life on earth were constantly recovering.

Finishing his breakfast, Allen walked out of the house. The ground outside was already covered in a thin layer of snow, covering the black and yellow ground and leaving a beautiful silver path. Allen raised his head, this winter seemed to be somewhat different from the past.

As snow fell from the sky, there were strange lights floating on the lands. There were red, green, blue, purple colours dancing amongst the falling snow, creating the most beautiful sight he had seen, and he ran excitedly back into the house for a stool. Climbing onto it, he tried to grab hold of those lights.

The lights seemed to have a life of their own, as much as Allen tried, he couldn’t grab hold of a single light in his hands. But undeterred, the boy continued to smile. Finally, a small light landed in his hands. It was cold as it wormed into his hands, and he watched as the light navigate on his palm, as if it was drawing a pattern.

But the pattern barely lasted for a moment.

“Allen! Oh god, what are you doing here!”

His mother’s voice appeared suddenly, giving Allen a shock. He quickly jumped from the stool and was dragged back into the house by his mother, “Didn’t mommy say that staying in the snow would make you sick!”

Allen’s face was red from the cold as he blew out a puff of warm air, “Look, I’m fine.”

He was just that stubborn, Lannie could only roll her eyes. Walking towards his mother, Allen pointed at the sky, “Mommy, what’s that?”

“Thats snow.”

“No no, I meant those things in the snow. There’s so many colours, and they’re glowing!”

Lannie flicked his forehead, “Don’t be silly, why would there be glowing lights?”

Rubbing his head, Allen peered at his mother curiously, and then back at the skies outside. Those light were still there, but neither Lannie nor the passerby’s outside seemed to see a different sky.

At this moment, Allen still hadn’t known what he had seen.

That was Origin, an energy from the universe. Humans who could see Origin, were one in a million!

Unbeknownst to them, something was awakening.

Many things in the world repeated itself, constantly. Just like life in the town, days and years passed.

And just like that, three days passed from the first snow.

On the night of that day, Allen slept peacefully as he suddenly felt a icy touch on his forehead. It was just like someone had caressed his forehead with icy fingers. Struggling to open his eyes in the dark room, he noticed a blurry figure. His sleepy voice called out, “Mommy?”

That person replied with a “En.” But did not speak. Their cold fingers continued to caress the boy’s face and then his body, the soft actions lulling the child back into sleep.

And on the next day, the boy had already forgot what happened.

But on this day, Allen could feel an inexplicable nervousness.

At night, that feeling became even stronger. It was so uneasy that Allen could not fall asleep, his heart thumped loudly as an unnatural pool of sweat appeared on his back. His eyes widened as he looked outside his windows, and in those red eyes reflected the round and unusually large moon. Even the ridges and texture of the moon could be seen, and just as he stared, a exploding sound resonated from somewhere near.

Shocked, the boy jumped off his bed. He could hear a series of gunshots, man’s angry shouts and also the shrill screams of a child or a woman.

Lannie practically burst into the room, climbing onto Allen’s bed and slamming the small window shut.

“What’s wrong, mommy?”

His mother pulled him tight as she forced herself to smile, “No idea, maybe a Danger got into the town. Don’t worry, Uzi and the others will take care of it.”

And as just just spoke, a few more explosions rang out, each louder than the last.

Dangers had broke into the town before, but these break-ins would always end swiftly at the outskirts of the town. But tonight, those sounds were coming from the town, and were even moving closer into the town’s center.

That wasn’t a Danger! In the boy’s heart, a cold voice whispered.

Dong dong dong——

Urgent knocking came from the door, it was so loud that it seemed to be breaking down the thin metal door.

“Stay here and don’t come out, my baby.”

Jumping off the bed, Lannie patted Allen’s head before she ran out of the room. At the door was a completely bloodied Uzi with a sharp, bone revealing injury on his face!

“Oh god, you’re hurt. Come in quickly, I’ll take care of it.” She instinctively spoke.

But her hands were grabbed by Uzi, he shook his head, “There’s no time. Listen to me, you have to take Allen out of here.”

“I…..” Lannie looked outside, the town was covered in the glow from flames, “Is it Dangers? They……”

“No, Lannie. This isn’t the Dangers, it’s the predators!” Uzi spoke urgently, “All the men are blocking the entrance, but we can’t last for long, you must leave while you can. Escape from here to Gaul City, or wherever you can!”

He took off two items from himself, “This is a gun, you do know how to use it? There’s also a grenade, take off the safety and throw it at anything that tries to kill you, okay?”

Placing them into her hands, Uzi suddenly revealed a smile as bright as the one he had when they first met five years ago. It was a bright smile that shone in this bloody and fiery night, “I love you, Lannie.”

Her body stiffened as she gritted her teeth, “I know.”

He simply laughed as he turned to leave from the house, his figure running towards the town’s entrance unhesitatingly.

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