Chapter 34: Depths of the Mind

Date: November 21, 3007
Time: 20:00
Location: El Nath Region

A stream of molten hot plasma flash-melted the snow in a straight path directly into the chest cavity of a towering Lycanthrope. As it fell, it’s white fur now charred to a crisp, it gave one last painful howl and then smashed into the snow with a tremendous thud. Aaru eased the pressure on the palm triggers to her K-98 Kage Flamethrower and whipped around. Right behind her, Aaru’s sister was shaking in the kickback of her O-24 Omega Heavy Machine Gun which was shredding hot steel into the torsos of numerous Pangs and Hectors.

There was no one else in sight. The entire platoon seemed to vanish upon the sudden increase in intensity of the blizzard. Aaru had heard that once night fell in El Nath, it was hell on earth. At the time, she did not believe anywhere on MapleStory could be as bad as the devil’s lair. Now, it was the only certain thing in her mind. Everything else was a mystical blur before her eyes.

Snapping her mind back to the norm, Aaru squeezed her palm triggers just in time just as a Hector sprang up from behind the shadows. The burst of flame fried the wolf in one fell swoop and it landed on the snow as a blackened lump of ash. But then, the dreaded but inevitable sound of a woman’s mechanized voice filled Aaru’s earpiece, “Warning: Fuel Low”.

Swearing under her breath, she looked down at her wrist map. Faint red dots were still pulsating on the green grid, but her sense of direction had long been lost. She could hear a crackling static in her earpiece, but could not distinguish any words from it. The very thought of her entire platoon gone from the world sent a chill colder than the snow of El Nath down her spine.

Suddenly, an icy cold hand grabbed Aaru by the wrist. Whirling around, she saw Annikabelle trying to get her to move while pointing in the opposite direction. She seemed to be yelling something, but Aaru could not hear over the roaring wind. Obeying without comprehension, Aaru ran behind Annikabelle towards an unknown destination, two sisters amidst thousands of wolves and their brothers.

The last tank charged to life in a mechanical whir. Aaru squeezed her palm triggers once more and unleashed a fiery stream of plasma into the wolves in pursuit. Immediately, the wolves were engulfed in a fireball and incinerated on the spot, leaving a large crater in the ground where the snow had been melted away.

Up ahead, Aaru could hear Annikabelle’s machine gun rattle away at the wolves in front of her. She turned her head back just in time to see two Pangs leap into the air directly for Annikabelle’s throat. Aaru let out a scream as her sister was tackled sideways into the snow, her machine gun landing in the snow a few meters away. Not daring to risk burning up her sister, Aaru charged forwards with all of her might and rammed the two wolves down with her shoulder. It was all she needed. As the dazed wolves regrouped to see what the hell had just happened, Aaru had already pressed her nozzles into their throats and fired.

Two bodies exploded in a bloody mini-fireball. Aaru closed her eyes and fell backwards, feeling the intense heat prick at her face. However, when she opened her eyes, another wolf was already flying through the air, its fangs bared to clasp around her neck.

A burst of bullets rang through the air as Annikabelle fired her machine gun at the airborne wolf. The force of the impact stopped its flight and drove it into the ground, shredding all hopes of life that it had. Blood stains filled the snow like spilled wine on a white blanket. It was either blood or ash on the battlefield.

She was running now, with all of her might. Aaru’s legs screamed out in fatigue, but she paid no attention. Taking a quick glance down at her wrist map, she suddenly realized that Annikabelle was leading her towards the cliff overlooking the Sea of El Nath where the land cut off in a sheer thousand foot drop.

The familiar grey wall appeared in front of Aaru’s eyes, but her brain knew better. They were back where they started, back at square one. It was like playing a game of monopoly. No matter what moves you make, you always pass the same exact starting point over and over again. But now, there was no collecting $200 after passing “GO”. There were no “get out of jail free” cards. Every move made was a wrong one, and now, Aaru found herself corned on the brink of the abyss, looking over the dismal landscape of the frozen, white sea.

“Anni what the hell are you doing?” she screamed through the wails of the wind coupled with the crescendoing howls of the wolves catching up with them.

“Stand behind me and hold on! When I say, shoot your flames directly down and in front of us!” Aaru gave her sister a quizzical look, but obliged. She knelt down and felt Annikabelle’s bullets pierce the ground in front of her. But the ground was not solid anymore. They seemed to be moving, or falling rather. Through the deafening screeches in the air, Aaru heard a muffled “NOW”, and opened up her nozzles once more.

They were sliding down the face of the cliff. Aaru’s flamethrower was melting the snow in front flat, making a narrow path for their snowy patch of land of a sled. The anguished howls of the wolves decrescendoed in Aaru’s ears as they accelerated down the slope. Was this escape really possible?

Fate had a slightly demented sense of humor. The sled hit a rock jutting slightly out of the ground in front of the sisters, sending them hurling through the air. The ground was still a good hundred feet below them. Aaru flipped over and shot her grapple out blindly, hoping it would catch the cliff. With her other hand, she made a wild grab for Annikabelle. Aaru felt something cold and metal come in contact with her hand and she gripped it tightly, not daring to let go. She felt a sudden lurch as her grapple imbedded itself into something and then, the two of them were swinging back towards the face of the cliff.

Aaru’s back slammed onto the icy face of the cliff and felt something snap in her body. An intense pain shot up her spine as she was forced to let go, letting her sister fall the remaining few feet down onto the ground. Aaru hung alone, limp as a boned fish. She did not have the strength to retract the grapple back into her suit. Tears slid down her face and froze on her cheeks, leaving tiny ice crystals.

Annikabelle was shouting something to her, but Aaru could not hear anymore. In fact, she could not feel anything anymore. Everything had gotten so numb, so blurry, so deadening and pale. The grey sea before her twisted and turned as black enveloped her vision. Is this it then? Am I going to die…

Heaven was something incomprehensible, something no mortal could ever imagine. Everyone knew it was there, but no one knew what it was like. To enter into heaven is to never come back out again. In a away, heaven was a hole from which there is no escape. That was the genius of the hole: no matter how far you climb up, the slightest wrong move would send you tumbling back down to the bottom, no matter how dark or light the bottom was.

Aaru was walking on a pearl walkway in a glistening white city. A warm sun above shone down brightly, tingling the hair on her forearms. A light breeze danced through the air, ruffling Aaru’s straight black hair. She didn’t have armor on, nor did she have her flamethrower. It all felt so strange, being bereft of her uniform, her other self. Instead, she was dressed in a white dress that seemed to dance with the wind around her.

Through the serene air, she could see a massive white marble building up ahead. It was supported by massive white pillars on all sides, much like the once glorious Acropolis of Greece in a faraway world known as Earth. Something told her to go into the building. Something told her it was her fate, her destiny, to meet up with whatever was in the great hall.

Aaru ascended the perfectly carved white steps that led up to the building. It was such a serene day. Such a shame that she had to be inside. The massive oaken double doors magically opened, welcoming Aaru to the humble abode. The hall was lit by numerous chandeliers curiously floating below the ceiling. Through the light, Aaru could see someone standing at the end of the hall with his back turned.

As she approached, Aaru noticed the man was wearing a white robe and holding a staff ending with the replica of a white dragon’s head. Atop the piercing eyes of the dragon was a solitary sapphire orb. Aaru’s footsteps echoed grandly off of the marble walls as she approached the man.

“Hello?” she asked uncertainly as she finally reached the man. There was a curious familiarity about this man standing before Aaru. Somehow, somewhere, she had seen him, known him.

“Hello, Aaru,” the man replied in a deep tone. There seemed to be a hint of sadness in his voice, “Hello, my child.”

Aaru’s eyes widened in shock. The man had just called her his child, but her father had died long ago. She had not known him at all, for her mother was always silent when Aaru asked about her own father. But now, there was a man, standing right in front of Aaru, proclaiming to be her father, her flesh and blood.

He turned around; his robe whirled around majestically. The man’s purple eyes met Aaru’s and she recognized them immediately as her own. But the serenity and calmness of the air had suddenly been sucked up in a vacuum, replaced by a sense of dread and fear. Aaru knew the man was Raeken, her father, but she could not bring herself to accept it.

“You…how…where am I?” Aaru stuttered, slowly backing up from Raeken.

“This is your mind,” Raeken said and held up his arms as if to show her around, “Everything here is a figment of your imagination. Here is where all of your memories dwell. Everything from your past is here, living in a paradise. It is not heaven, as you might believe, but it is close.” Raeken stepped forwards and touched Aaru’s hands, “My daughter, it is not yet your time to join me in heaven. There is still so much for you to see, so much to do.”

Tears welled up in Aaru’s eyes, but she forbade them to run down her cheeks. This seemed so much to be like heaven. Everything was perfect, just the way she wanted. The idea that she had to go back to the real world weakened her. Her head started to pound and her back started to ache. Looking up, the world became blurry; the utopia of her mind was fading into blackness. Then, she heard his voice for the last time, “Give me your hand…”

Give me your hand… Aaru opened her eyes but couldn’t see.

Give me your hand… She shook her head drowsily, and saw something waving in front of her. The sea started to reappear before her eyes, grey and more misty than ever.

“Give me your hand!” Aaru suddenly snapped back to reality. She was hanging by her grapple a few feet off of the ground. Annikabelle was somehow on the rocks at the base of the cliff, reaching her hand out for hers. But as Aaru looked down, she suddenly realized why Annikabelle was standing on ten feet of rocks off of the frozen sea.

Cracks streaked through the snow like forked lightning. Annikabelle’s first impact with the ground when Aaru dropped her seemed to have caused the weak ice to founder. Now, if Aaru were to fall again, she would surely go through into the freezing water of the black sea.

“Give me your hand goddamit!” Aaru reached out and felt Annikabelle’s strong grasp tighten around her wrist. She retracted the grapple just in time and fell into Annikabelle’s arms.

“Hell of a night, eh sis?” Annikabelle smirked as she helped Aaru up. The pain in Aaru’s back was excruciating. Something was broken and she knew it. Grimacing, she replied, “Yea, Anni… hell of a night…”

The two sisters sat down atop the rocks and stared out into the black horizon. Nothing was visible except for the land directly in front of them lit up by their suits’ lights. Aaru took a look at her wrist map, not expecting to see anything interesting, but suddenly jumped up in surprise. There, amidst the field of green on her wrist, were numerous red dots pulsating brightly as if right next to them. They’re alive…

Aaru switched on her communicator and cried out into the night, “Felix! Zanna! Anyone! Can you hear me?” Static filled the earpiece for a while, but then a muffled voice seemed to penetrate the monotonous tone. “Say again, say again!” Aaru yelled back, her heart now beating rapidly.

“Aar… s tha… ou? Wher… re …ou?” Aaru gave a sigh of relief; they were still alive. But her cry of laughter suddenly turned into a wail of shock. Her boot lost her footing on the rocks and she tumbled down onto the cracked ice. The fragile pane broke free, shattering into a million pieces, bringing Aaru down with it.

The water hit like the stabs of a thousand hot knives stabbing her all over the body. Aaru wanted to scream, but her lungs protested in agony. Though the water was shallow, the hole had already frozen up. She could see Annikabelle’s terrified face on the other side, clawing at the ice, trying to break it. As Aaru’s breath ran out, she felt herself shaking like mad, beyond the ranges of hypothermia. Aaru heard muffled pings as bullets tore through the ice around her, shattering the sea once more. A hand reached out and pulled her back up, but it was surely over already. Aaru could take no more pain.

Hypothermia in El Nath meant instant death. Hypothermia in the Sea of El Nath meant a one way ticket down into hell.