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876 - Dreznor
🕑 Added 2025-03-29 04:27:14 +0000 UTCHe didn’t have much time to think. The sudden appearance of the hologram had momentarily halted his descent into unconsciousness, but it was only a brief reprieve. The weight of his injuries and exhaustion soon resumed their pull, forcing him to act quickly.
His gaze lingered on the lifeless forms of his family, their bloodied bodies forever frozen in time. He had nothing left. No reason to hesitate. If revenge was possible, then he would seize it. And if this was nothing more than a hallucination, then so be it, at least he would soon be reunited with them.
Summoning the last embers of strength in his battered body, he lifted his trembling, bloodstained hand and pressed [YES]. The moment his finger made contact, the darkness claimed him entirely.
Yet, he was still aware.
‘I’m pretty sure I lost consciousness… so why am I still here?’ The thought echoed through his mind as he found himself suspended in a void, weightless and without pain, yet utterly disconnected from any sensation. It was as if he were floating in an endless, empty abyss.
‘Is this what dying feels like?’
Time became meaningless in this place, and with no external stimuli, his mind turned inward. The memories of the massacre played on repeat, growing more vivid with every cycle. Each second stretched into eternity, amplifying his agony a hundredfold.
Desperation took hold. He tried to move, to feel something—anything—but his body did not respond. Panic clawed at his mind as he struggled against the nothingness. If he remained here any longer, he would lose himself entirely.
He froze in place, his struggle against the void forgotten as something finally happened.
Words, glowing in an eerie blue hue, materialized before him, both frightening and relieving. At last, something was happening.
[Initializing…………!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]
System Boot Sequence Engaged.
The words paid no mind to his existence, appearing with mechanical precision as if following a preordained script.
Scanning host neural pathways........✓
Establishing synaptic link........✓
Optimizing cognitive bandwidth........✓
Data transfer protocols stabilized........✓
Uploading foundational system architecture........██████████ 100%
The process continued, line after line, filling the void with cascading information. Five minutes passed, each second stretching into eternity. Then, just as suddenly as they had appeared, the words vanished—replaced by a single, massive line of glowing green text.
[SYSTEM ONLINE]
Minutes passed, but nothing changed. The glowing text remained, motionless and unyielding. Five minutes stretched into ten, then twenty. By the time half an hour had gone by, frustration and unease began creeping in, until suddenly, the void around him began to shift.
The surrounding darkness fragmented, dissolving into streaks of white that rapidly formed into solid walls. It was as if the scene was being rendered in real-time, constructing itself before his very eyes. Within moments, he was no longer floating in emptiness but seated in an opulent, reclining chair inside what appeared to be a cozy resting room.
Still reeling from the sudden change, he barely had time to take in his new surroundings before something even stranger happened: a small, glowing lifeform materialized out of nowhere and flew straight toward him.
{Welcome to the system's home,} it announced.
The unexpected voice nearly made his heart leap out of his chest. Instinctively, he scrambled off the chair, stumbling backward and using it as cover.
“Who—what are you?” he demanded, his breath unsteady.
The floating entity remained unfazed. {You accepted the chance for revenge,} it stated matter-of-factly. {I am here to help you achieve it.}
As it spoke, a holographic projection materialized beside it, displaying a replay of his trembling, bloodstained hand pressing [YES] before he collapsed into unconsciousness.
His throat tightened as he stared at the evidence before him. There was no denying it now. This was real.
As the floating entity’s words sank in, the grief that had momentarily been pushed aside by shock came crashing back. The weight of his loss hit him all over again, and his body slumped to the ground. Resting his back against the chair he had been hiding behind, he buried his face in his hands, his elbows propped on his knees. His mind spiraled, drowning in sorrow, the reality of his family’s deaths consuming him.
But before he could fully sink into despair, a strange warmth washed over him, a soothing, gentle wave that eased the crushing pain in his chest. Confused, he slowly pulled his hands away from his face, blinking through the tears.
Standing before him was the same radiant, angelic figure, but this time, she had taken on a full sized form instead of her previous small, floating version. Bathed in a soft glow, her delicate hand placed on his head, her touch gentle yet reassuring. Her gaze held warmth, and a benevolent smile graced her lips as she looked down at him.
{Don’t worry,} she said, her voice like a calming melody. {I will help you through this pain and aid you in taking revenge on those responsible.}
For a long moment, he simply stared, his mind struggling to process her presence. The warmth from her touch lingered, steadying him, bringing a clarity he hadn’t felt since he woke up. Finally, with his voice still cracking from sorrow, he managed to ask, “Who… who are you? And why are you helping me?”
{I am LT, or as some call me, Little Protagonist. I am a technology created by Ter#é| E&)€re,} she replied, her tone unwavering. {I am helping you because, while our motives differ, our end goals align. By aiding you, I am also working toward achieving my own purpose.}
"......."
Instead of responding, his mind spiraled with questions. Had he misheard? Or had his brain simply failed to process the name of the entity that created her? What could their true end goal be for it to align with his own? And if they were advanced enough to create such technology, why would they still need his help?
As he remained lost in thought, the glowing figure tilted her head slightly before speaking again.
{How about you introduce yourself?} she suggested, her voice gentle yet firm, breaking through his silent contemplation.
The words left Dreznor’s mouth slowly, as if each sentence weighed him down more than the last, his tone flat, yet each one dripping with the years of pain and rage he had buried inside. "My name is Dreznor," he began, his voice barely above a whisper. "I’m a refugee from a civilization too weak to earn its place in the Conclave. We were either forced into indentured servitude or full-on slavery. After the previous master’s death, we were supposed to be set free, but the family who owned us tried to drag us back into their chains. We managed to escape by stealing one of their ships, a decommissioned model. But six months into our journey, pirates found us. We had nothing left. No resources, no weapons as they’d been stripped in preparation for the ship’s decommissioning."
He paused, taking a shaky breath, the memory still fresh in his mind. "When they boarded, we thought they would sell us like they did with other slaves. But instead... they just started killing us. Massacring us. No mercy."
His words faltered for a moment as his voice tightened with suppressed fury. Every fiber of his being seemed to pulse with the anger he had barely managed to control and prevent himself from breaking down completely. It was clear, though, that the memories of both the pirates and the family who had owned him were the source of an almost unbearable rage. He clenched his fists, his face hardening as the fury boiled beneath the surface.
Little Protagonist remained still, her serene expression unwavering as Dreznor poured out the depths of his pain. Her hand continued to rest gently on his head, a calming presence amidst the storm inside him. As he spoke, she controlled the nanomachines within him, allowing only a controlled, limited release of his fury to filter through. Although it was an intense wave, it was only enough for him to feel the raw emotion, but not enough to consume him entirely.
Comments
Billiam
Wow sol was right about it being a nyx psy-op
GripenSupremacy
TYFTC
