Author’s Note: Hey there, Dogleg here. I didn’t notice this category existed so I wanted to share some of the stories that I came up with. This is going to be a series by the way, titled “From Whence They Came” and this is it’s very first chapter. If you’re wondering why that isn’t the title of this thread, well im planning on making a different thread that compiles each chapter. For clarification, this isn’t part of the arcane universe and pretty much a different universe. With that said, please continue and read the story!
A beautiful moon arises to the sky, and soon, stars followed it and give out light. A mesmerizing sight to see, one of which stops you from what you were doing and continue watching it. Seeing as the thousand heavenly bodies shine brightly amidst the dark night, you would agree that even the darkness can be a good thing.
However, something interrupted such a sight. As a huge beam of blue light coming from the ground quickly goes into the sky and strikes the moon, shattering it. None would have expected such an event to occur on that night, as well as the disaster that would come after it.
The small pieces of the moon would start burning up as it start falling to the earth’s atmosphere. One by one, each of them lit up on fire, it was as if it started raining fire.
Part of the planet that the pieces of the moon has fallen to, was devastated. The towns and cities was lit on fire, structures destroyed, and wildfire spreading throughout the forest. Humans and animals run amok in panic to safety however you could say nowhere at this point would even be considered safe as everything was in chaos and engulfed in flames.
Though as if the destruction that it has caused wasn’t enough, monsters have started to appear. Where could have they come from?
One coming out from the rubbles of the destroyed structures, one coming out from the forest and one even coming out from the ground. What could have been the explanation of this?
It was the moon. Those who came in contact with a part of the moon, alive or dead, started to transform. Those who were once humans, looked humanoid and those who were once animals, looked even worse than the humanoid ones. All of which has features unidentifiable to their previous body.
Those who managed to be lucky to survive the falling parts of the moon and never came in contact with it, were instead hunted by the monsters. If someone were to survive this will by all means, to be considered lucky.
The news about the moon being shattered and that it’s pieces of it fell from the sky spread quickly seeing as there were those who witnessed it but it never once reached them.
They didnt see the monster yet but soon enough, the monsters has started going to other lands and spread chaos as well. Eventually, every land has been filled by such monsters and continued to kill any living creatures who weren’t transformed by the moon.
There were those who cowered in fear while there were those who were brave and fought the monsters, though it was useless seeing as the monsters would still eventually regenerate their destroyed parts.
A country even decided to launch a bomb, in attempt to clear atleast a huge amount of the monsters, however it dealt no effect other than cause even more deaths of those who were still alive in the affected area.
Humanity was reaching the point of despair, seeing as everything that they have done to counter the monsters were to be of no use. All that was left is for them to accept their fate and give in to death. It was as if, god himself has decided to punish all that of which was still alive with death no matter what.
However, throughout it all, humanity never once given up to despair. Some of those who were still alive grouped up and thought of an idea to survive and started going underground. The monsters have only conquered the surface, so if they’re going to rule over the surface then the humans will rule over the underground.
Those who were quick on their feet spread the word to those still survived nearby and the rest started digging through the ground, deeper and deeper. As more and more people started showing up to help them, it hastened their plan to go even deeper.
The deeper they go, the safer it will be since it’s farther from the surface and eventually the paths started branching out as more and more people show up and help with the plan.
Up until this point, no monster has reached them yet seeing as the entrance to it was hidden well and only those who know of it and guided people can enter the place. Of course, that wont be enough to keep it from the monsters knowing the place so eventually they blocked the entrance, only to be opened when scavenging for food.
Months have passed and atleast no more humans can be seen on the surface. Because of this, the monsters have calmed down and started multiplying. Little do they know, the humans have finally grasped the behavior of the monsters and sneaked around them to further scavenge for food in safety.
Their method has effectively made their scavenging even safer and reduced the rate of deaths. Because of this, they were able to go even farther to search for food so that it would support the survival of humanity even more. If they were to encounter an unfamiliar monster, they were by all no means to approach it alone. Work together in a group and watch for anything notable on the monster that would be useful in escaping it in the future, though of course sacrifice was inevitable to achieve that.
…
Years have passed and the planet has started to change. This was the effect that was caused by the moon. It was odd though considering when man have first landed on the moon, never once were they affected and transformed by the moon.
Could there have been a cause for this? The moon must’ve had a secret that mankind haven’t yet found out even despite being able to walk and come back to the planet from it. No matter what it is, it still wont change the fact that the moon was the one that changed the world.
The monsters was no exception from the change, but the humans have also caught up on their change. The plants and trees also started changing along with the monsters.
The scavengers were at one point ventured into a huge ruined building and found something beautiful inside the dark place as their flashlights light up those that were in front of them. It looked like a garden, it was brimming and filled with life despite the sun not being able to reach inside. As if it was untouched by the disaster that was placed upon the whole world.
Tears went down each of them after seeing something as beautiful as what they just saw when after all these years, all that they could see were monsters and ruins. They have tried to bring a part of it with them, in hopes that everyone would also be able to see the beauty of it underground. Though what they dont know was the change that they also came with what they brought back.
After many years, the underground has also changed. It was by all means nowhere near as what it looked before. Towns can now be seen from the huge hole that they’ve made. The population also started to slowly increase though the problem was still food since they know that at one point, they’ll eventually lose food known from the times where the disaster havent yet happened from the surface.
So in attempt to find more food, they tried searching for plants that could survive without sunlight and at the same time, edible. What the scavengers brought back might be the one. They experimented with it and see how they could grow it. Even if it were to die, they would only need to come back to the place they got it from and bring back another part.
Months have passed and they were able to grow a lot of it and tested if it edible. The first man who ate it never felt anything wierd even after a few days and this became a celebration for the people. Seeing as they have finally secured food even for the future generations.
However, they havent noticed something and that was the pregnant women. After eating the plant, the child they were bearing started changing. They were only able to notice it after the children were birthed.
The moment the children entered the toddler stage, a bump started to appear on their forehead. After a few more years, it started to grow into a horn. The humans were terrified of this seeing as it might be a sign of bad omen but noticed no bad behavior and so, continued to take care of them.
…
Hundreds of years have passed and the humans who were living underground cant even be identified as humans anymore. All of them can be seen having a horn on their forehead, however their behavior was still that of a human.
Why was that the underground became filled with these horned humans? Why was it that the children who grew up with horns not killed?
It was simple, it benefitted the survival of humanity. These new horned humans came with new abilities. Their regeneration was slightly faster than the normal humans, they’re even stronger, faster and being able to live longer than the normal humans and most of all, the ability to absorb the monsters.
They were now able to absorb the monster’s parts that they have chopped off by eating it. By doing so, after a few days, mutations will be seen from their body and give them a new ability that would help the body to hunt.
However, because of this, it was limited to only those who were hunting on the surface seeing as it could be used as a weapon to kill those who are still alive and well underground.
Speaking of the underground, it even changed more drastically with the new humans. The holes became even more larger and underground cities can be seen instead of towns. It even stretched further to the point there’s even more underground cities and they’re divided and named after the first people who made the plan to live underground and those who have contributed greatly to the survival of humanity.
However, advancement of technology was slowed down since the people who survived long before humans started changing never once knew how to recreate modern technology, and so, they had to experiment once again to regain what they were once living with and the first was electricity and light. Though this was achieved when the time humans havent had horns yet, so they have more of those lights now and with the current state of the underground, they’re able to experiment even more.
They havent yet developed things like televisions and smartphones yet however they were able to develop radio communication and even things that could help defend and fight monsters. However, even with the weapons they made to fight monsters still didn’t changed how they’re unkillable. It’s as if it was a message from god that no matter how humanity struggles to survive, they wont be freed from the monsters.
Even after knowing that fact and even after all these years, humanity still wont give up. They eventually found a way to “defeat” the monsters and that was to separate the core of the monster, which was most of the time the head, from it’s body and bury it to the ground where it wont have enough space to regenerate it’s body.
Because of this, the humans used it as a way to rank the scavengers, which are now called hunters, since they cant eat the core or else they would die from the monster’s regeneration, making it the perfect way to know how strong the group of hunters are by the amount of cores they brought back.
The surface as well has changed drastically. You could barely identify the ruined cities that it was once were. The roads were turned and filled with soil and grass, barely even noticable that it was a road without the ruined structures at the sides. Plants have also started growing out of the ruined structures, all of which far from the plants we know before.
Barely anything useful can be found on the surface now since almost all of them were either destroyed or buried by the changes of the land. The monsters as well have changed a lot since then and there are even more of them than before.
Even with the horned humans’ new abilities, they can still be killed if they were surrounded by the monsters since they dont have the immortality that the monsters had. Because of this, they were taught no matter what, to never get cocky when it comes to hunting down monsters and always work in a group or else their recklessness will be paid with their life.
When they’re hunting though, bringing back something valuable will be given a huge amount of compensation as it would help advance the technology and regain more of the lost modern technology, perhaps even advance further.
…
Years have passed again and the horned humans are still living the usual life. They’ve increased even more in population and different kinds of food and inventions were found. Living in the current state of the world was now less harsh than it was before but they still cannot forget that monsters are still ruling the surface and that there’s a lot of them living and multiplying endlessly.
On a certain city called Groea, there lies a woman about to give birth to her very own child. The man was very delighted when he heard the news about to birth of their daughter.
On this point forward, will now be the end of the prologue and will now start anew chapter. Telling the story of the child that was brought to this world.
Another note: Heya! Dogleg here again. Hope you enjoyed the prologue of “From Whence They Came”. Im here to let you guys know that the next chapter will be next week from now. If you guys got questions, you can go ahead and type them in the replies since I dont mind answering them. I wish all of you the very good day as well as a thank you for reading this!