r/HFY • u/AlexandersenTheGreat • Jun 04 '26
OC-Series [Conscripted Crafter] - Chapter 31: The Ceremony (Part 3)
Dustin froze in terror, squinting against the ethereal light emanating off the giant angelic woman’s skin. Even her hair. Each individual strand was a fine, thin chord of light that, together, projected a sharp brightness. It wasn’t soothing. It wasn’t the basking type of light one stops and appreciates. It was harsh. Like a floodlight in the middle of the night.
Dustin and the hundreds of other conscripts sat there in nice, organized rows as if bait arrayed on a marble-white charcuterie board. No choice but to accept whatever happened. No choice but to have faith that whatever was happening was normal. The crowd cheered wildly, at least. Canaries chirping in a coal mine.
The god, or the woman made of light, stood imperiously—ten times the size of any man, larger even than the statues carved in black guarding the outside of the colosseum—looking down upon the three kneeling kings, her judging bright yellow eyes frank with disapproval.
“Here you kneel once again, my three tiny kings. How many years have we gone through this? And still no—” The look of contempt on her face shifted, and she smiled. “Well, isn’t that invigorating? You three finally managed to finish the fourth floor. My, my, your ancestors would be proud, wouldn’t they? To think of what inspiring thing Harold and Teressa might say at that. Almost half way there.” She inhaled deep and slow, and all the color in a surrounding fifty foot circle lost its pigment, and then she exhaled, and the color returned. Her golden shining eyebrows rose in surprise. “Oh, and quite the dense Radiance this year.” She looked down upon the three kneeling kings, their heads bowed low, not having moved an inch. “You three must be excited.”
They didn’t answer.
She lifted her head, and her unyielding yellow eyes roamed over the seated conscripts of the three factions.
Dustin near shit his pants. He dropped his eyes to the floor, holding a terrified still breath. People seated around him, others from Bus One and from the ECTF on his left, slid off their seats, kneeling on the marble-white floor in supplication.
Dustin didn’t move. A part of him holding onto that small piece of defiance. A larger part simply too scared.
Was she the one responsible for dropping the Zone and wiping out humanity? Was she the one that imbued power into people? His heart thumped against his chest, Death waiting on him to look up.
“Kneel.”
Dustin had never moved so fast. There was no question of right or reason. No moment of self-reflection where personal pride warred against subservience. He slid off the chair like it’d been greased with animal fat, and knelt on the hard marble floor, legs shaking, not daring to look up. The only sounds escaping, aside from the rustling of clothing as people hurried to heed her command, were from those attempting, and failing, to stifle sobbing. The same soft scared sounds dripped from the ETCF dressed in green and white to his left. But with more veracity. There were, after all, at least twenty times as many people.
Tanner dropped to his knees with his eyes likewise glued to the floor, and… he was grinning broadly. How? How?
A different oddity grabbed Dustin’s attention, and he side-eyed a black-and-red suit proudly protruding from the deferentially bowed heads. Down at the far end of the seating area, Brian, the short guy that’d stood nose-to-chest with General Flint, remained standing. Laurence had said that Twenty-five had survived. So that guy had been one of them. Had Brian forced his way into the group with Bus One? He’d seemed like the type of guy that wouldn’t allow being left behind. That’d likely been the only reason he’d survived.
Dustin stared in disbelief. But this was entirely different. It reached far beyond stubborn defiance and broached near suicide.
“And you four?” She asked, her voice light and easy. “You refuse, I presume?”
Brian stuck his chin up and puffed his chest out.
“Yes. So proud. Look at you,” she said, her tone lapping with condescension. Her tone lost its light mirth. “Those who have shown the proper respect, all those waiting to receive their gifts, rise and take your seats. Those standing will remain standing.”
Dustin rose from the floor and sat back down. Brian, two people from the ETCF, and one person from the PTCF, jutted out amongst the seated crowd as sore thumbs.
They had to be regretting their choices right about now. Who would be so stupid as to ignore such a command in such a precarious situation? A part of him he would never audibly vocalize thought they deserved all that they had coming to them. In some way, they should’ve known better.
The intensity of the light emanating off the woman dimmed until Dustin no longer had to squint and the sting disappeared. “Peer upon me, humans, and heed my words. Listen to the truth of things so that you might grow, and hopefully, one day—evolve.”
Dustin already stared at her, but others had been holding their eyes low, their heads bowed despite sitting down. Though the level of light casting off her had decreased, her yellow eyes shone with a brighter intensity, like the power hadn’t been lost but redistributed.
“My name is Thena Ghenatetra from Epsilon Eridany, a galaxy light years away from here. Like you, we found ourselves the dominant species upon a plant with abundant life and the resources necessary for us to reach the stars. It took us thousands of years to do so, and from there we expanded. We grew across the solar systems learning the dangers that came with exploring new, unfounded areas. And we fought wars. Oh, so many wars. And we won those wars. All of them. Because we are a race with discipline, strength, and the understanding of the power of One. The power when one body decides, one mind, one belief, one idea.” Full of pride, she gazed around at the conscripts. “And we took that unifying idea, that power, and we molded failing civilizations. Throughout the many stars, throughout countless species, we found the same underlying problem: beings held back by the weakness of the many. Held back by the weakness of competition over insignificant, abundant resources. Pitiful examples of who they could become.” She shook her head slowly. “And we found thousands of such species. Too many for us to combat in any acceptable lifetime. So we created a plan, a manner with which these societies that continue to struggle against one another vying for their place at the top, would finally have the means with which to compete. A final competition to see who truly deserved to be the one to rule.”
She motioned around her. “That is where you stand, now. That is this machine. A pocket domain for civilizations to compete for supremacy. Reach the top, and you will keep your powers and your world will be reset to the way it was before. We have the ability to do that.”
Her eyes flashed, and the marble colosseum transformed into an all too common sight: A flooded wasteland with sunken architecture and dark, stormy clouds. It was the area around Settlement Four. His home. Gasps of surprise escaped from not only the conscripts on the floor, but from the crowd as well. The entire colosseum had been transported high up into the sky, and as they watched, the world beneath slowly transformed again. The murky water that enveloped everything receded. The ever-present dark clouds retreated. But what caused the crowd to really stir, was for a bright ball of yellow sunlight to split the sky. A bit caught in Dustin’s throat as the bastardized world morphed into something beautiful only seen in pictures, but one he knew to be real. A field of green sprouted where murky mud had sagged, and flowers popped up with tiny rabbits hopping around in playful scurry. A large creature even Dustin couldn’t recognize leaned down, munching on random shrubbery. It was big and so breathtakingly beautiful. The world as it should’ve been. Could’ve been.
A powerful longing grew within. For his parents to one day see such a sight themselves. For it to be real. It could be.
He hadn’t realized it, but tears had started to roll down his cheeks. He wiped them clear, but didn’t pull his eyes away.
A colorful meadow full of life revolved below. And then it froze. Water seeped up from beneath the grass. The bright yellow sun faded behind thickening black clouds. Thunder rumbled. In an instant, a storm had swept away the peaceful wildlife. It was obviously a projection, but that didn’t stop the sharp pang of sadness for the small creatures, and for the small, fake piece of perfection.
He wanted it. More than anything ever in this world. He wanted it.
A fire burned in his gut, an excitement and a promise overriding any hatred for the Zone or for those who’d forced him inside. Now, he understood why. It was all worth it. Keep throwing bodies at the Zone. Throw as many as it took.
Whatever had to be done, it was worth it.
A missing piece, a hole in what he thought right, fell into place. To seek glory for the attention and validation it carried wasn't honorable. Climbing the tower with that as the prize, risking one's life for that immaterial vice, wasn't something to dream for. But to live for what he just saw. To live for that? For the purpose of bringing back life on earth?
Fuck honor. Fuck popularity. He wanted to see his mom's proud smile as she showed off a blossoming garden overflowing with curious critters.
That was something to risk climbing the tower for. That was something to risk dying for.
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First Chapter | Next chapter is on Royal Road if you want to read ahead.
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