Interlude - Proximus

  Before the world ended, Elias was a scientist, a Solar Physicist. He had made it his life to study the Sun, its influence on their solar system. He wasn’t the most regarded scientist, not the smartest, or the most influential. He knew that he would probably never make any great discoveries, never make push his field of science forward in a giant leap of advancement. No, he was just a small part of a greater community. At most, he had hoped that his contributions, his work, would allow someone else to do great things. To be a part of something, if even in such a small manner.

  He had always been enamored by that giant ball of fire that gave them all life, from the moment he first understood what it was. He remembered his father telling him about the Sun, about a giant ball of burning gas far away above us. It had captured the imagination of a child, and held him in its grip going forward.

  When the world ended, Elias was at work, looking at images of the Sun, cataloging the data about the recorded Solar Flares as the Sun approached its solar maximum in its eleven years long cycle. The world went white, and everything changed.

  While the people around him panicked, he was grieving. With just a look he knew that the sun above them was not the one that had captured his imagination since he was a child. The colors of the world around them were off, the size of the sun was wrong. Everything was wrong, and it would never be right again. That sadness threatened to crush his heart, and a pressure built up, one that manifested into reality merely hours after the end.

  A Mask, a power meant for him, the power of the Sun he had spent his life studying and dreaming about. And when the chaos of this new world exploded, when the rats mutated and spilled out of the sewers, when pigeons and sparrows grew into giant birds of prey, Elias ran away from his home. Escaping the death of the concrete cage that Munich had become. He ran, and he survived when many around him fell, until only he remained, the light of the Sun keeping him safe.

  He survived the strange beasts and mutated animals, he stumbled into other worlds through glowing gates of light, and he grew in power. Then he found other people, other survivors, and somehow found himself leading. Found himself being the strongest. People looked up to him, his [Aura: Warmth of Sol] made them feel safe. They survived together.

  Until the true cruelty of this new world showed itself. It was not animals or nature that killed them, it was an altogether different beast—humans.

  They stumbled onto another group and, as always, they wanted what others had. His Mask changed that night, his Ornaments merged with his Mask. He didn’t remember it well, but that was the night when Elias died, and Proximus was born. He alone survived, and knew that there would never be safety unless he could make it.

  The map was redrawn, nothing made sense anymore, technology broke down, and monsters roamed the world. But the sun still shone for him, and he would let it shine for others too.

  Proximus sat in the backseat of a military truck. The Pinzgauer High-Mobility All-Terrain Vehicle wasn’t anything flashy like what he had seen in the movies or parades, but it served a purpose, especially now in this broken world.

  They were lucky to have found a military base on the outskirts of Salzburg. It was as far north as they dared go, any farther and the monsters that spilled out of the cities were too numerous for them to deal with. They were still fighting, attempting to establish a new pyramid, a new natural order. Proximus had a naturalist as part of his kingdom, and knew that it could take years for Earth, or Terra as they had apparently been titled, would set into a new normal. A new food chain had to be established, and that was hard when nature was still changing, when so many different biomes had been shifted around.

  Still, the fact that they had managed to get the truck working was nothing short of a miracle. They had a few people that could restore technology for a short time, but this one was fully refurbished and rebuilt in a way that would keep it running even with the effects this new reality had on technology.

  It wasn’t really an effect on technology of course, it was on the materials that it was made out of. So, they had managed to switch some, but mostly, the reason it worked now was his greatest treasure, his alchemist. Andrew Carter was a boon beyond anything Proximus could imagine, and the fact that he had stumbled on him felt more like providence than simple chance. The man was brilliant and he, like Proximus himself, had fully embraced the new reality. The fact that he was an Exemplar, that he had more knowledge and insight of what had happened, that was all incredible.

  It was unfortunate that he hadn’t wanted to work with Proximus, that he was arrogant just like those other people that had tried to take with violence what didn’t belong to them.

  Andrew was strong, Proximus had a chemical burn scar across his back to prove that, he just wasn’t strong enough. His creation of Dusk alone would’ve made him invaluable, but it was his mind, his ideas, his new discoveries that made him the Sun Kingdom’s greatest treasure.

  One of his most recent concoctions was an oil that could protect the materials that the new nature impacted negatively. They only had enough for this one truck, with a dozen people working together with their skills to bring it back into a serviceable form, and then apply the oil, but so far so good. It worked with no sign of starting to rot and fall apart.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  They came to a stop at the end of the road, where a forest just appeared out of nowhere to cut it off. The point was preplanned, of course, as this entire operation was.

  Proximus rolled his shoulders and then stepped out of the back of the truck as one of his men slid the door open. He jumped down, then reached up and adjusted his armor. All of his people wore mismatched equipment, though all of them wore cloaks with the symbol of their Kingdom, the yellow Sun on a white circle.

  The reason for the mismatched equipment was simple, it was the best they had. Stuff that they had gotten as rewards from the dives through the light gates that had started to appear everywhere. That gear was better than what they had recovered from the old world. A few of them had guns slung over their shoulders, but most wore swords or spears.

  The entire group was eight people, including Proximus. He didn’t want to bring many more, nor, he suspected, would it matter much. But he was still a King, and he couldn’t go without an entourage.

  “Stay with the vehicle, keep comms open,” Proximus ordered the man remaining by the Pinzgauer. The man nodded curtly, clutching his rifle a little tighter. The headset he wore on his head wouldn’t last long, it was a skill creation, but it would suffice.

  The other seven formed up around Proximus, weapons held ready but not aggressively pointed. They were disciplined, loyal. His [Aura: Under the Light of Sol], the upgraded version of his earlier one that he gained upon his Ornament merging with his Mask, was reinforcing their courage, even as it subtly bent them to his will, or perhaps inspired them to follow him was the better word.

  They pushed through the last line of trees separating the decaying road from the deeper woods. The air grew thicker, laden with the scent of pine and damp earth. Sunlight struggled to pierce the canopy above, dappling the forest floor in shifting patterns of light and shadow. His men moved with practiced silence, their eyes scanning the undergrowth, hands never far from their weapons. They were tense, Proximus could feel it radiating off them, a low thrum of anxiety beneath their hardened exteriors. His skills told him much about their state.

  Meeting a vampire, especially one who had dared to seize his territory, was not something any sane human took lightly. Sometimes he wished that he had a couple of shifters following him, but he had encountered only a handful, and all of them had refused and vanished into the wild.

  Proximus himself felt a familiar irritation simmering beneath his calm facade. Vampires. He should never have trusted them, neither Cazimir nor Nadja. Creatures of the night, parasites inherently treacherous. The moment another of their kind appeared, one apparently stronger, they had turned coat without a second thought. That was the only explanation that made sense—this Estrella must possess significant power to command such swift betrayal from creatures centuries old. Cazimir, in particular, had seemed pragmatic, almost cowed after witnessing Proximus deal with Volk. What could this new vampire have offered, or threatened, to make him switch allegiance so readily?

  He clenched his fist, the leather of his gauntlet creaking. It didn’t matter. Power was the only currency in this new world, and he had plenty. His Mask pulsed faintly, a comforting warmth beneath his skin, a reminder of the sun’s might at his command. This Estrella had called the meeting, encroached on his fledgling Kingdom. She would learn who held the true authority here.

  He reached to the comm unit hidden beneath his cloak and pressed a button. “Anything?”

  “Nothing sire,” the voice crackled over the unit, he could barely hear it from the noise, but at least it worked. “It is unlikely that they would send anyone this far out to scout, and we are fairly well hidden.”

  Proximus nodded, his second team had been in position for the entire day.

  He saw a flash of something silver in the corner of his eyes, and snapped his head around. He saw nothing, just a rustle of leaves. A bird perhaps. He shook his head and spoke. “Good, be ready, I don’t want any delays.”

  “Of course sire.”

  He pushed his irritation away, it was done, there wasn’t anything else that he could do. He’s prepared more than he honestly thought he needed to.

  They continued walking, until the trees began to thin, light flooding ahead. They emerged from the forest edge onto the rim of a vast, sunken clearing, a natural amphitheater bathed in the brilliance of the midday sun. Wild grasses waved gently, and the air hummed with the buzz of oversized insects and the cries of unseen birds. Mountains, stark and majestic, formed a jagged crown around the horizon.

  And there, near the center of the grassy bowl, perched atop a large, sun-warmed boulder, sat a lone figure.

  Proximus halted, his guards fanning out slightly behind him. This would be Estrella. She sat with legs crossed, posture relaxed, her face tilted upwards towards the sky, eyes closed as if basking in the sun’s rays. He frowned, but then realized that being under a sun’s light would be something that she hadn’t been able to do in a long time.

  Still, he was immediately on edge. She was… Alone? He narrowed his eyes. It felt like a trap.

  “Markus, Leon,” Proximus said quietly, not taking his eyes off the figure. “Circle wide, check the treeline. Stay hidden.”

  The two men acknowledged with silent nods and melted back into the woods, moving in opposite directions along the clearing’s edge.

  Proximus studied the vampire below. The sun beat down directly, the time he had chosen was specifically for its peak intensity. Even this new, strange sun, while not instantly lethal to their kind like Sol, was known to drastically weaken them. Yet, Estrella showed no sign of discomfort. No trembling, no pallor, no shielding herself from the light. She seemed… serene.

  Her attire was peculiar. Not leather or cloth in any traditional sense, but something that shimmered with a faint metallic luster, shifting between silver and gray. It seemed composed of interlocking hexagonal plates, clinging to her form like sleek, futuristic armor yet moving with the fluidity of fabric. Grand Spell gifted gear, undoubtedly. Strange and powerful items were becoming almost commonplace rewards for those who braved the glowing gates.

  He waited another minute, scanning the clearing, the treeline, the sky. Nothing. Markus and Leon gave no signal of hidden enemies. Either this Estrella was supremely arrogant, incredibly foolish, or confident enough in her own power that she felt no need for backup.

  With a subtle gesture, Proximus started down the gentle slope into the grassy bowl, two guards flanking him slightly behind, the remaining three following a few paces further back. The distance closed, the figure on the boulder remained motionless, seemingly lost in her solar meditation. The time for introductions, perhaps ultimatums, or burning light had arrived.