HALF: DEAD NOR ALIVE

Archie waited in front of the lift until they were sure everyone had safely reached the station. However, Eve, on the other hand, she had already flown up into the sky to see if the King-type parasite was there, but she couldn’t find it anywhere.

Eve flew further away toward the sea, feeling the presence of the King-type parasite grow stronger with every passing second. She smiled as she flew toward it, and it didn’t take long until the King-type parasite sensed her presence.

Eve thought that the King-type parasite would go up to the surface to fight her or at least to threaten her. Unfortunately, she was mistaken. The King-type parasite swam away from her as if it was scared of her, leaving Eve to wonder what it was thinking. Was it scared of her? Was it planning on attacking her? Or was it just acting on instinct?

Knowing that the King-type parasite was terrified of her, Eve decided to dove into the water to see it for herself. She was quite interested in the King-type parasite because it didn’t look like a parasite at all, it looked like a blue whale, but ten times bigger, and it was all white like snow. She was amazed by the parasite’s size and wanted to see it up close.

The King-type parasite that Eve saw was majestic and graceful in appearance, making it difficult for her to take her eyes off of it. She followed it from a distance, but the parasite kept swimming further and further away, making her smile with adoration.

After following the King-type parasite for quite a while, Eve decided to go to the surface and flew up into the sky.

“How adorable, like a dog barking behind the fence and running away the moment the fence is opened,” Eve said to herself while giggling and smiling.

Eve turned around and her smile slowly disappeared, it was because the sea she was staring at was the sea where the meteor struck the earth. It reminded her about the giant piece of meteorite that they found on the shore of the Borneo island. She then flew back to FalCon-1 to tell Archie about the adorable King-type parasite.

“How was it?” Archie asked, and he looked a bit confused and curious when he saw Eve drenched in water.

“You have to see it yourself. It’s cute like a dog,” Eve answered with a smile on her face.

Archie leaned his head back with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion because of her answer. He thought the King-type parasite was a literal dog.

“A… dog?” Archie asked with hesitation.

“Not a dog, it’s a giant whale but it acted like a dog. It ran away the moment I got closer to it,” Eve answered while she squeezed the water from her hair. “Anyway, since the parasite is the shy-type, we have something else to do,” Eve continued.

“The symbols?” Archie asked as he turned his head and followed where Eve had gone.

“Yes, the symbols are a message for all of us, for Drautnir that Throne left,” Eve answered without looking back as she kept walking.

“You understand what those symbols mean?” Archie asked as he walked next to Eve.

“I have Cherubim to explain it to me. I think you already know about this message already while the rest of us don’t,” Eve replied as she stared at Archie. “I wonder those symbols mean,”

Archie looked puzzled when Eve said that he already knew about the message that lay behind those symbols. Eve explained that each one of them and the beings that they were getting guidance from shared a message that only them know while the others didn’t. The question was which message that Throne gave him, and he had no idea or remembered any of it if he had to think about it.

When they went back to the landing site, Archie was surprised when all the bodies disappeared only leaving the blood behind.

“Looks like someone is having a feast right now,” Eve said with a smile as she looked around.

A root poked Archie on his left calve, he turned around to see a root waving at him as if she was greeting him. He only smiled and nodded his head with understanding, he then followed Eve from behind.

“Have you seen a symbol like this before? You sounded like you know about it already back there,” Archie asked.

“I did, I saw one up north but someone destroyed it already and you can’t find it anymore,” Eve answered as she stared at the symbol in front of her with her arms crossed.

“What that message was about?” Archie looked at Eve with curiosity.

“About the secret of gaining power from consuming parasites,” Eve answered. “You might know about it already since you’re the last one to become Drautnir from the witches, but for us, it took us a while to notice that and then it gave us a lot of information about parasites and what they are,” Eve explained.

“You might be the last and think it’s unfair, but on the other hand, you got most of the information that the rest of us had to discover it ourselves while you got them so easily from the witches. You already know what you have to do to adapt with the situation,” Eve said as she stared at Archie.

Archie hummed with understanding.

“Cherubim, are you watching right now? Can you help me read these messages?” Eve asked as she looked at the sky.

The clouds in the sky suddenly disappeared and something landed in front of Archie. He was thrown away because of the impact. The earth witch was forcefully pushed and sent away before she realized what had happened on the landing site.

Archie sat up after he was thrown onto the wall with a grunt, wincing as he saw Eve was talking with Cherubim with a serious expression. It was the first time for him to see Eve making that serious expression, and she didn’t even blink for a second while listening to Cherubim, her face scrunched in concentration.

It felt like Archie was not supposed to be around her, which was why Cherubim threw him away from Eve so they could have a one-on-one conversation. He leaned against the wall and just stared at them in the distance, no matter how hard he tried to listen, his ears couldn’t catch anything from those two.

Archie saw them both looking at each symbol and the moment they were at the last symbol, Cherubim spread her wings. Cherubim flew away and left Eve on her own staring at the last symbol on the wall.

“What did they say about the symbols, Eve?” Archie asked as he walked toward her.

“It’s about the history of the earth. The multiple doomsday that had happened millions of years ago. The message is to warn us about the future and what’s going to happen afterward. You know about this already?” Eve asked back.

“I did, yeah, it was beautiful and terrifying at the same time when I saw those events with my own two eyes,” Archie said as he stared blankly at the wall as he tried to remember those events.

“I thought this is something important,” Eve said as she sighed. “I mean, this is interesting, but not as important as I thought. Maybe this is the last message they gave us to remind us about our existence as Drautnir,” Eve continued as she looked at the sky.

“So, what should we do now? We already got what we want here and we can’t just go back now since we have to wait for them to pick us up,” Archie asked.

“Then let’s go and check it out,” Eve said with her hands rested on her waist.

“Check what out?” Archie asked with his head tilted.

“The sea where the meteor struck the earth. Since we are not that far from where it is, you must be curious about what I felt back then, right?” Eve smiled mischievously.

Archie deliberated for a brief second and then nodded his head in agreement.

They both flew away and went to the northwest of FalCon-1.

It didn’t take them long until they saw it, the giant black circle deep under the sea that they could from above the sky. It already made Archie feel uneasy about it, he knew what was coming for him the moment he approached it, but as long as Eve was with him, it gave him courage.

They both slowly descending to the sea, and it immediately struck Archie. The feeling of fear that he hadn’t felt for a very long time, he was petrified that his whole body stopped working. Eve grabbed him and carried him by wrapping her arms from behind.

“What’s this presence, I can’t move my body,” Archie asked with his heart pounding really fast.

“You’re terrified and shocked, it’s normal for a being who’s a total inferior to that thing down there,” Eve answered. “This is what we are going to deal with, Archie, remember it, and make sure you’re ready when this monster awake,”

Archie couldn’t say anything and kept staring at the black spot deep under the sea.