CHAPTER 1: Creation

A dim light flickered on a table.
The stars nor the moon shone no light that night from outside the closed window. It shuddered.

Upon the black table, scattered books and utensils lay spread. But in its center, laid the conception of what could have been, the destruction of Perim.
The tattered page was covered in a dark violet ink, which spread the layout of a dangerous weapon.

It was a very perilous task, but it had to be done.

The room was quiet, except for the constant pounding at the window from the harsh cold wind.
The dim lantern flickered rapidly.

Then the dark door slowly opened, producing a large, low, heavy creak.

The light from the hall shown in the room. A silhouette appeared.
As it came closer, it revealed two strands of hair and cupped down ears underneath each, rings dangling from them.
When the light disappeared, an enormous bang was heard.

The dark figure sauntered towards the faintly lit workspace. Underneath an eyepiece, it scanned the draft.
The mysterious figure wished that it had not come to this.
"But it was his orders," it said, "there's nothing I can do about it."

Large green hands gathered the layout and a few other pages as well, and turned towards the other door. And, after a pause, opened it.
Like the first door, this one also produced a large creak. The figure opened it very slowly and cautiously, so that the sound lessened.
After setting down the documents on a small table, the shadow turned towards the wall in the dark. It placed its hands on a cold metal bar, and heaved the lever down.
White fluorescent lights banged all across the room.
They revealed many capsules on the side, all contained with a mysterious fluid, bubbling towards the surface. In the middle of the room, a large metal table, shining brightly. And behind it, a much large capsule than the others on the side, and in front of it, a chair in the back of a table with many screens upon it.

Once shone in the light, the green Creature looked around cautiously, taking the drafts. He started for the table, his violet cape flowing behind him. Once he halted at the table, he laid out all the drafts upon it.
He stared at them.
He thought to himself over and over again, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this, It's too risky, I don't want to do this, It's too dangerous.

"But I must," he had to say, "it was under his orders. If I don't, I'll fail him. But, if I make a mistake. . . ."
He shivered at the thought.

He sighed heavily and studied his plans carefully. He saw all the ink that was carefully placed upon them.
He went towards another smaller table and gathered his collection of Mugic and containers with Mugical substances in them specially for this project.
He collected his tools from the other table and placed everything on silver.

Everything was ready.

He sighed again and said to himself, "I cannot stop. Not for any distraction. I cannot afford to make any mistakes."
His stomach was full from a large dinner meal, and his thirst was quenched. He planned everything for a very long period of time, for if one mistake was made, he would be exiled, or worse.

He tightened his eyepiece and adjusted it.

Following the designs on paper, he started with the body. He started with the structure, using remains of dead Creatures and mechanical copies of bones. Next he made internal organs, using Mugical energy to keep them all together, and to make them powerful enough to absorb shock. He did create a heart, though, so that this one wouldn't be immortal, as the rest. This heart would control the flow of blood and Mugical energy.
After the insides were finished, he created the shell. Using mostly Mugical energies, the skin was molded together, and the color of it turned slightly pale due to the Mugical energy outweighing the blood. He was upset by this, for now he thought that he was creating something that resembled a human. He had to change this quickly. He tried another method, but failed.
When the shell was complete, two Mugical symbols glowed on each shoulder, and so did the markings under closed eyes.
He then added ears, and they were long, thin, elf ears, good for hearing.
On the head, he added red hair, putting every single one into the skull. After that, he was exhausted and needed a break. Right before he rose from the table he screamed at himself, "I cannot afford any mistakes!"
So he sunk down into the chair again and concentrated on the creation.
The next part was the eyes. He walked to the cabinet on the other side of the room and gathered eye balls that were once decomposed but regenerated by Mugic.
He carefully placed them on the table. He had to choose carefully, for each eye color has a different reaction to light.
He checked his plans again but he had forgotten to add an eye color.

"Yellow," he said, "It is stronger than the rest."
So he placed the two eye balls into the empty sockets.

Everything was almost complete.

"Except for power," he said.
He gathered the rest of the Mugic and the containers.

He used them all at once and nearly fainted out of exhaustion.

When he saw that the Creature was done, he wiped his forehead and stared at it, hoping that there were no errors in his work.

"I'm done," he said at last. "Done with. . . . Elfriede."
He carried his creation and put it in the capsule.
He set the timer and checked all the screens, which showed all the happenings on the inside.
Then he set it to the correct temperature and pressure. He yawned.

"Nothing's going to happen," he comforted himself, "it's all right. The creation will be a success for the Overworld."
And he folded his arms upon the table and set his head in them. He started to doze off.

Outside the castle, booms and bangs were heard. Firearms being shot. Mugic being casted. On the battlefield, guards in blue were shooting at invisible spies.
"Follow me!" one of the invisibles yelled and the guards didn't know which way to shoot. They were waiting for backup with Spectral Viewers. The guards halted their fire, and figured out that the thieves were gone.

Behind a bush, the two invisibles stopped using energy and revealed their true nature. The Mipedians looked at each other.
"That was a close one!" the brown one said.
"Why are we even here again?" the other one asked.
"Don't you remember? I heard there was this special Mugic that could overpower any enemy!"
"How?"
"I don't know, but I want to find out!"
They snickered as they headed towards the walls.

"FREEZE!" one of the guards yelled.
The Mipedians jumped and stared at the army.
"Two Mipedians aren't enough to stop us! Just give up! You're hopeless!" he said, pointing his gun.
"Oh really?" the brown one hissed, the other one snickering.

The guards were shot, blood and limbs flying. The others stepped back in fear.
The Mipedians stood there the whole time, not even wincing a blink.
The guards looked all around for the assassins, but more and more blood spread.
They started to retreat, not knowing what was going on.

"Silly Creatures!" a Mipedian laughed.

"In the trees!" one of the guards pointed but fell to the ground quickly a second later.
The guards started to shoot but their fires failed due to the long range.

Soon more and more retreated.

Retreated towards the castle.

"Ha! Ha!" the Mipedians in the trees laughed, revealing themselves as the last one retreated.
"These Battlegear came in handy!" one of them said.
"Alright," interrupted the brown one, "let's head towards the castle. The plan was to create a diversion outside the wall while we sneak in on the other side. That way we can also get to the Library faster. Long distance shooters, you are going to head out onto the roof. Shoot anyone who tries to get in our way, and you can communicate us if there's a problem." He held up his communicator.
Then on the screen Mudeenu appeared, screaming at them why they're taking so long, and the Mipedian quickly just shut it off.

They headed out, until one of them asked, "Hey, where were the guards retreating? I don't think they went towards the city. Don't you think that that's kind of weird?"
The leader looked at him surprisingly, forgetting that.
"That's right," he said, "You!" He pointed towards a Mipedian with maps bundled underneath his belt. "Where were they headed?"
"Right!" he responded and quickly pulled out a map.
"They headed towards some sort of castle!" he pointed out.
The Mipedians looked at each other in shock.
"What if," one asked, "they're getting reinforcements?"
"What if they come back and surprise attack?"

The leader looked cautiously around, wondering why they would run that direction.
"Let's go back," he decided, "It's too risky if they come back with reinforcements."

They headed towards the castle, and they were correct indeed.
Spying on them, they saw the Overworld guards communicating with Maxxor, telling him that Mipedians are heading towards the wall, and they need reinforcements so that they can launch a surprise attack on their backs.
"Alright," Maxxor's voice said, "they are on their way." And he screamed at Intress but was cut off.

The Mipedians stared at each other. What could have happened if they didn't figure this out?

"We shouldn't have let you live!" one of the Mipedians yelled out.

The guards fired and the Mipedians fired back. It was a long, enduring fight that went on for hours and hours.
One of the long range shooters then shot for a group of guards. The dodged the attack, and the castle shook.
Smoke came out from where the large bullet hit, and the wall cracked.

From inside the capsule, the shook disturbed the pressure and the capsule fell over and the unknown liquid oozed out from the crack.

Its eyelids opened.

Such as an infant cries at birth, tears dripped down her face in pain, from a little bit of bloodshed from the broken glass, along with the liquid.

She struggled out of the capsule, cracking the glass with her power.

She crawled out, and stood.

She looked around curiously at the laboratory in the dark.

She jumped at the sound of a snore.

Then, she went closer to the sleeping inventor.

What is that, she thought.

She looked at her hands.
What am I, she also thought.

She walked on, and she opened a door on the other side of the room.
From inside their cages, Creatures moaned and roared.
In fear, she ran towards the door on the other side of that room, and saw stairs leading down to the main entrance.

She tried to proceed further, but lost her balance and fell.
At the bottom of the staircase, she rubbed her head and got up again.

To answer the many questions she had, she opened the enormous doors leading to the outside world, along with the war.

The guards stared at the Creature, as did the Mipedians.
They never saw anything that looked like her before.

"Did that one escape?" one of the guards whispered to each other, but the others did not know.

"Is that an Overworlder?" the Mipedians asked each other.

A rash Mipedian jumped out and yelled, "Well I'm not letting her get away if she is!"
Before anyone could do anything, she stared at the Mipedian attacking her and ran out of his way.

"I'm not going to let you run away! Acceleration!" he called out.
One of the guards quickly ran in front of him and shot him.

Horrified by the Mipedian's death, even the one who tried to attack her, she screamed.
The guards looked at her, and asked her if she was one of Mommark's creations.
"I don't know what you're talking about," were her first words.

The guards looked at each other puzzled, but behind them the Mipedians attacked.
They quickly reacted and defended themselves, forgetting the girl.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked softly as she saw them fight.
But no one heard her.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked as more blood was spread.

One of the Mipedians tried to attack her, but a sharp blade struck through his chest, barely touching her.
She looked back up at the guard.

"Why are you doing this?" she cried.

The guard looked down sadly at the dead Mipedian.

"Yes," he answered, "why did I do that?"

He slowly slid the sword through his neck and fell to the ground.

She walked.

She walked across the plains, trying to get away from the horror that she saw that night.

It was dawn.

She came upon a large, long river, water flowing fast.

She stared at the water in curiosity.

Then it became blood.

She couldn't even feel vomit come up her throat.

She fell in.

And everything went black.

An Underworlder passed by the river in his territory, looking for something that he had lost earlier.

"I guess it's not here," he said, turning around.

He then heard a thud behind him.

Shocked, he found a girl that looked almost quite dead.

Taking pity on her, he helped her to the land.

"Come on, breathe!" he urged.

Her eyes opened and saw the Creature.
She scurried backwards, but he caught her so that she wouldn't fall into the water.

"It's ok," he soothed her, "I'm not going to hurt you. But what is your name and how did you get here?"

She thought, but couldn't remember.

"Done with. . . . Elfriede," he had once said.

"Elfriede. . . ." was all she could say.