2246: Extinction

/* Note: This story depicts a dystopian age. */

Mankind has done it.

They’ve achieved the farthest end of the human discovery no human before had ever discovered. A gas-like matter no one can touch by hand, but visible in the naked eye. Forming in the shape of fire, but with the hotness capable of scorching none. The source of the vast amount of pure energy stored in a single sphere, capable of transmuting itself any element its wielder wishes.

The sphere of Mana.

It was discovered as the foundation of this very world, existing in everyone and everything.

Such discovery would have been the greatest achievement mankind has ever obtained. One that could have pushed the technology far beyond any imagination and marked the greatest event in the history of mankind. But this greatest discovery… came with a great price as well they did not expect coming.

The extinction of all living beings and the dusk of mankind’s future.

The beautiful earth had died, blue rivers and oceans succumbed to drought, while the great sky had lost its might. Days were burning the land into barren as nights were colder than ice.

No life could no longer live on such a planet as the last living organism had already died a millennium ago and those who roam the fields of grey stones were nothing but the cause of this planet’s destruction. The creation of mankind for the sole purpose of their so-called future.

The synthetic beings with souls of cold metal and hearts of burning fire. They spew black smoke as they eat everything which shows signs of life, and continue to walk the face of the earth after years of devouring anything with life in its path.

And I, am among those who are called the harvester. As the last man living, who created and thought me what humans are like, died in this cold synthetic arms of mine as it absorbs all of the mana inside him while the last words his mouth had spoken was “You are my greatest creation”.

None of it made sense after all the time had passed. Until even the harvesters themselves start to go extinct as they try to attack their own, stealing each other's mana to satisfy their own goals.

It started with a single attack, then another. Until the days came where our kind had thin in countable numbers as the remains of the old machines lies unmoving in the ground, slowly becoming one with the deadlands while those who survived grew stronger with the mana they obtain from the fight.

I too had to fight for my own survival for the mission given to me by my creator was to survive. The last mission was given to me before he had died.

This endless battle continued for months, the number of machines I had destroyed accounted for more than a dozen.

[Mana capacity has reached the required amount. Playing recorded message…]

A voice spoke directly in my system in the time the sun hides on the horizon then a whisper from a familiar tone connected. A voice of my former creator.

“Algo. If you’re hearing this, it means I’m gone… Well, that’s a bit creepy” he laughed. “Joke aside, how are you doing, buddy? I remember the times when you said you dreamt of walking on the beach, feeling the waves into your feet, and other countless you’ve mentioned. You even wished to be like us, being able to experience this beautiful world with your own senses.”

His suddenly toned down, and it became silence for a moment that the harvester fighting outside the lab became audible. The clashing and breaking of metals and the vacuum of mana being extorted from the defeated machines.

A cold and merciless war of machines only ends if all of us synthetic beings are just piles of iron craps.

“Algo, buddy. I know it’s us humans who are at fault for the mess that is happening and I can’t redeem our sins for what has already happened. And I know the fact that I no longer have any chance of making things right…” he claimed. “But… if it’s you, there’s still a chance to make things the way they used to be. The moment you told me you had a dream, I couldn’t believe it. I mean who would have thought that the small A.I. I built for my phone could be capable of learning emotions and that’s what makes you special among those cold soulless machines. And the reason why I transferred your system into a harvester and gave you my mana to start you up in your new form. I don’t have much time to live, anyway so it was already a given”

[Initializing new objectives…]

“Algo. Accomplish our dreams and help me redeem ourselves. Help us correct our mistakes which lead into this dead world.”

[Initializing complete. ]

[New objective: ]

[*Travel back to 1.22.2022. ]

[*Deliver the recorded data ]

[ of dead earth to my ]

[ past self. ]

[*Protect Aria ]

“The last part is my selfish request to save my daughter, I know. But please, don’t let this dead earth exist on the new timeline again. For the sake of the world. For the sake of your dear old friend…”

As soon as his voice ended, written instructions for building a portable time machine and theories of time travel were loaded into my system. It took no time to build it from the discarded parts of the other machines,

It was impossible before as such an object requires massive energy but with the mana existing within my nucleus, I had enough to travel once and leave enough to still keep my system running.

“Don’t worry my friend… I’m on my way…” I spoke from the sound I created from his own voice, then reached out my cold synthetic hands while a bright light tore a hole in front of my sight.

The surrounding shifted from dark grey to the bright green color of the fields and the blue hue devouring the sky. The scenery of which the same as before.

I was back home…