The Way of the Future: Age of Machines(Completed)

The Dead Village

There was an ample breeze around the forest. When Artemis entered, he found the trees rather interesting, sick to say the least. He followed along the dirt path which was laid before him and hovered above it and followed it into the forest to reach the nearest village.

To find what he was missing, his identity and his humanity, he set forth in this journey of his. He wanted to adventure, not because it was fun, nay, he did not need fun in his life, rather, he needed to regain what was lost of him personally.

There were no birds singing or nesting over the trees, there were no creatures of large either, only small insects of odd colors populated the foliage and the ground beneath. The soil was damp and cold, it was weird and surely was not natural for a forest this large. Or so he thought.

The entirety of his journey so far has been nothing but endless wandering, following a certain dirt path. This is stupid, he would always think. To go on such an undertaking without proper preparation and planning ahead. But he was in a rush. Why did I rush in the first place, he questioned himself.

Caitlyn was not that big of a threat and his Machines have so far been completely loyal to him and followed his every order to their fullest and so why was he in a rush? He did not know himself nor will he probably know anyway. He had already gone far enough, well out of the reach of Caitlyn and his Machine Empire for now but they could still send out a strike force if needed in just an hour.

"Strange" He suddenly muttered. He went down to the soil and walked on it and knelt down. There was a dead squirrel on the ground. He picked it up and examined it, there was no sign of external damage, no bite or scratch marks; maybe it was poisoned? he thought.

Going against all orthodox ways of dissection, he placed his two hands on the squirrel's chest and ripped it open, exposing its insides. The intestines protruded outwards and blood spewed but it was not fresh blood, it was already rotten. Artemis dipped his finger into it and analyzed it, it was indeed rotten and judging from the rot, the squirrel has been dead for quite a few days.

The analysis of the blood showed no poison, rather, there were strange particulates in its blood that have somehow bonded with the magic in its bloodstream and effectively 'choked' the squirrel's circulatory system and may have likely caused its death.

"Strange" He muttered once more and to his credibility, it was strange indeed. An unknown particulate bonding with magic at a molecular level and resulting in 'choking' the victim was.. a surprise and not a welcome one.

The village should be near, but I doubt I'd find anyone alive there. He pressed on and abandoned the squirrel's body to nature. He could have analyzed the bark of the weird trees or the leaves but he bothered not to and decided to press on and see if he would find a village or a graveyard. Death and destruction, it did not waive him. He felt nothing.

As he followed the dirt path further into the forest, the sickly looking trees became even more apparent and more dead bodies did he stumble upon more often. There were many bodies, even deers, he would split them open and analyze them and the same result every time, choked to death.

He went on for 30 minutes, by the 25th minute he had already stopped ripping open everybody he found because they became too much for him to waste his time on and the results were practically the same. He then stumbled upon goo-like trees, trees that for some reason, have melted, they appeared like goo and when Artemis touched one of the trees, his hand sank into it.