753
Outside the ruins of Chernobyl, near the ruins of the Old Earth City.
Medici stood at the edge of the fissure that had buried the Old Earth City. Rather than looking at the strange, fascinating skyscrapers and wrecked vehicles below, he gazed into the distance at the enormous building that looked as though it had been cast entirely from concrete.
Hermes stood a short distance from him. The two silently watched the legendary place where the Sun God had descended, neither saying a word.
After a long while, Medici spoke, naturally shifting the cigarette in his mouth to the other side:
"Do you want to go there?"
"I can feel the Creator calling." Hermes spoke softly, as though worried about disturbing someone's slumber. "He is there."
Is that really the Lord calling you? That is the ancient will awakening inside his body, the true master of these Five Pathways symbolizing omniscience and omnipotence. It is... Medici did not voice those thoughts. "It's just the attraction between Beyonder characteristics. The Chaos Sea is right there, and you're so close to it. It would be impossible not to hear its summons."
"Yes."
Hermes simply watched the distant Chernobyl calmly. Only after a long time did he look away toward the enormous rift below and chuckle a few times. "I often heard that ruins of an ancient civilization lay hidden across the world. I once took a Storm potion, and I saw those strange wells in the sea too. Back then, the Lord merely glanced at them and said they were something called 'drilling platforms,' used to extract 'undersea oil and gas'-specialized, large-scale equipment that the previous ancient civilization built along the coast to extract some substance from beneath the seabed."
"I found it very interesting, so I asked what the extracted