Light of the 40th Century

The Last

"Koff, ahem-ackkkkk pfft. Gahhhh what the actual fuck. I swear only I could manage to fall asleep in alien guts. Did I not knock the tree hard with this Disney antagonist ass luck. I'm not a cheap whore but the world seems intent on absolutely railing me. Fucking pedo."

The sky rumbled at this moment as if it was angered by Rao's choice of wording. But the Kryptonian didn't care give, me your best shot bitch.' He started to stand reaching back to brace himself on the trunk. He failed. The tree was slick with alien guts from his unnecessary rampage leading to him slipping and busting his shit. 'It's always the tailbone fuck.'

Rao rubbed his lower back as he sat there on the branch. It was a beautiful day, purple clouds had rolled in the red sunlight that filtered through them and gave the forest a mystical haze. In the distance, the black sea looked rather picturesque contrasting harmoniously with white-brown shores. A giant jellyfish adjacent creature with a beak drifting across the sky blotting out the clouds. All in all, what the actual fuck was that! He moved quickly shifting his tired body over to the corpse he started to cover himself in purple blood and guts. The corpse had rotted quickly, it was a not actually unpleasant stench. He guessed the bacteria on this planet weren't quite as stinky as the ones on the good ol' blue marble. But if these creatures had evolved here this smell should translate to don't fucking eat this or you'll grow sickly.

Rao felt the flesh squelch as he grabbed handfuls and smeared them over his bare body, making sure to avoid his right side in case of infection. Not that it'd help much. The slick sensation made the boys' skin crawl as if tiny little parasites were pulling at every nook and cranny of him. He felt his scalp contract as the blood got into his hair. But he kept going, the Bullyfish(that was its name now) was drifting over this way because of course it was, anything to make the day worse right? A beak meant it ate shit he didn't want to be eaten so he increased the application of his dead spider camo. As the bloated shadow which seemed to blot out the sky grew ever closer, Rao pulled fragments of the broken carapce over his prone form. Just barely in time as well, you'd something that fucking big would be slow, but no, never that'd be too convenient. If Rao were to look out of the small gaps in the carapace now he'd see the massive form was only a few meters away casting a great shadow with its enormity. It drifted a bit aimlessly and for a moment it seemed as if it'd pass but unfortunately for him, it stopped right over his tree. Gray-green tentacles which boasted a rough texture similar to that of elephant skin seemed to meander over the tree. They contracted nastily as they oozed a strange porous yellow liquid. A cacophony of pulpy and slick sounds that could only come from the vilest of life forms got louder and louder as the distance between them and Rao decreased inch by inch. That concert of sounds got ever the more chaotic as its tentacles moved to the branch decorated by last night's violence. At this moment Rao was seized by panic. His eyes widened veins bulged on his face as the whites of his eyes became a red akin to the sun, shaded with madness. His pupils contracted and his body tensed. But he was not afraid, no he was battle-ready. He would not die, for he was the last.

But his mind seemed to glow at that moment. Just as when he first appeared in the cave streams of knowledge seemed to enter his mind. As such he listened to what he was told, Rao breathed in slowly as the echoes became clearer. His body loosened as his eyes began to dim. In and out, in and out his breathing slowed rhythmically until he breathed no more. Beat by beat his heart lost its vitality.

BA-THUMP, BA-THUMP, BA-Thump, ba-thump, ba-thum-, ba-.

Rao began to die.

With a sudden burst of unsuspecting speed, the tentacle slapped the carapace off Rao as if it was aware of his hiding from the start. Three separate tentacles snaked over his form in a predatory fashion dripping unceasingly as they contracted over him. Seemingly eager for him to wake. They nudged his body rocking the three branches with the force they put in. However, as they nudged at him mindlessly upon sensing a lack of movement the tentacles began to drift off into the distance again. At this moment Raos' eyes began to shine again and his heart began to beat slowly.

'Whoooosh crunnch'

as if it had heard his breath the tentacles had snaked back seeing if they had missed anything in the area. Rao went silent once more. But as the sun reached higher in the sky, the bullyfish seemed to move on disappointedly. But Rao did not falter he waited even more until the creature had reached the horizon before his eyes regained their light.

'Well, that shit would have saved me when I was fighting for my fucking life yesterday. This is hell on Earth it's easier to scream, to be afraid. But it seems I lack that ability. Fuck is wrong with me.' With a sigh, Rao went over what had happened when faced with the fat fuck that was the bullyfish.

Similarly to the first day he woke up knowledge seemed to fill his mind when faced with certain situations. Like his elementary knowledge of races with a carapace when under the pressure of battle yesterday. Right then and there knowledge from the house of El seemed to fill his mind. That man went through the exercises of a certain technique in the school of Torquasm Vo teaching control over the life energy in one's form to become as innocuous as the mountains and rivers through suppressing the life energy in one's body. He was patient and gentle and his form breathed a warmth into Rao he didn't even know he lacked. And yet for all the warmth that person brought, he couldn't even remember his face, not completely at least it was hazy and indistinct like a reflection upon turbid water. So close to being clear and yet distorted every time he looked back in his thoughts. Nonetheless, he had no doubt this person was great. That they were special in a way others weren't they seemed to emit light like a star. A big shot so to say. He remembered back on earth there was someone who said to him, that if you look into a crowd and notice someone in particular as if they were the only one in the crowd, but that person looks back into a crowd you may be in and sees not individuals but rather a group. Then that person is out of your reach. A bigshot, that was the type of person that figure seemed to be. But... ah who told him that again? Without concrete memories, without true experiences was he even a person? Son of Krypton? Son of Earth? Son of light, Son of War? Just who - just why.

Rao leaned his head back on the branch with exhaustion. Uncaring of the purple and yellow that stained his body. The hair colored by his struggles swayed across his eyes wispily reflecting the blood-red sun. He was a child of the stars, usually sunbathing like this should have felt good. But at this moment Rao couldn't help but feel this sun was a bit cold, a bit empty, and a bit hollow.

______

Far from his resident tree fires reflected off primitive windows as screams echoed out in a village. The pelts and carapace of creatures were hung about wooden pikes as a warning to any rival clan who may come about their territory. A simple arch that served as the entrance to the village was crowned by a somewhat humanoid skull. Larger than what should be possible however unless that person was a fucking Nephilim. The architecture was bad even as far as primitive cultures go. Wooden shacks that seemed more piled and smashed together by random logs and immense strength rather than actual woodwork. Purple-blue grass seemed to sway happily as the black soil seemed to jump up and down with the beats of the drum and the roars of the village's inhabitants. It was primal and it was free. They screamed their existence into the sky clashing under crimson light laughing and fighting and playing without a care. One of this clan tilted their head back in and let out an exhilarated roar. It was the hunt.

_____


Rao tilted his head back and let out an exasperated sigh. 'I think and so therefore I am. No point in bitching and moaning over what I cannot change. I have no intention of dying here regardless. Nah fuck that I have no intention of dying at all.'

The Kryptonian grinned wildly as he turned his head in the direction where the jellyfish left. If he squinted hard enough he could still see its shadow on the horizon. Just like that thing that had tried to kill him the day before, he'd only live by being ferocious. Thinking too much would impede him. He didn't know too much about himself but he knew of Krypton. Despite his memories of his planet, he was well aware he was the last. Out of all the hazy memories in his mind, this one was distinct. He couldn't die. If he died Krypton died. He was bearing a world upon his back. The responsibility was not lost on him, not completely. He felt a strange nagging in the back of his mind as if he wasn't meant to put so much importance on Krypton. As if he was... wrong for it. It was a strange feeling but it seemed to arise from good intentions. To be honest he had no idea how to live with being the last but at the very least he knew he couldn't die. As for these strange emotions and feelings, he was nary of them as well. But one thing was clear to him as Rao, the last light of Krypton he would not go silently into the night. Kill everything that tried to kill him that was his duty as the last. If it tried to break him then he'd just break it first. To survive.

"I shall shatter you..."

He would do what he had to do to make it in this world. To survive now and deal with the rest later but now it was time to lock in. Rao snickered as he began to assess his body. With a sigh, he lifted his right arm to glance at his waist. He had previously wiped away as much rotting alien spider blood from it as he could but the bullyfish had dripped its love liquid making his efforts useless regardless. The cut had clotted like the others on his body with no clear signs of infection so that was good, the Kryptonian body was no fucking joke and it hadn't failed him in battle either. It seemed he had bet right and there was nothing particularly important in that place where a kidney would be. I mean whose realllyyy hurt by coughing up a little blood now and then? The boy lifted his hand roaming the left side of his face where acid scars would have been left behind from the spiders' last mad attack. Actually thinking about it he should come up with a name for that thing too. Really lean into the explorer Christopher Columbus act here. But luckily as his thoughts meandered on, he felt his flesh was smooth.

"Whooooooweee"

The boy's chest which was holding a breath in unintentionally seemed to deflate at the moment. I mean who could blame him no one wants to be ugly. Everyone knows ugly people live life on hard difficulty.

'No sirree there's a reason I played Elden ring on easy mode. Path of least resistance bitch, if you choose the hard way you just fighting nature at that point. I'm going to get off this planet seduce women with this face and my badass Kryptonian bod and live forever as the god-emperor (not the worm kind) on some random blue sun planet.'

With a content smirk, his hand slid over to the right side of his face before feeling a small scar under his right eye. He froze.

"Fuck!"

You didn't knock on wood bitch. Rao in his ignorance of good luck rituals proceeded to roll around and bitch and moan for a solid three minutes about his ruined face.

" What the fuuuccckkk should just sow myself an alien straw hat, build a spaceship with a ram head, and set sail for the stars. Become a fucking space pirate and call myself Mugiwara, it's not like anyone knows what the fuck that means in this universe anyway. Maybe I'll meet a big ass green alien with a horrible sense of direction to be my first crewmate."

Rao snorted with mild amusement at the thought. But his wounds had healed nicely and his thoughts weren't completely without merit.

"Hmmm"

Rao reached up wrapping his hands around a particularly thick branch a little up above him in the boughs of the tree. With a heave and a swell of his arms, he leaned back as the branch cracked free with a long groan and sigh. What he could only assume to be insects chittered in the background as he flipped the branch he broke off and shoved his nails into the inside of it cracking it in half as it splintered under his ministrations.

"As I thought."

He grinned a bit as he stroked his nonexistent beard. Inside he could see strong straight yellowish fiber, similar to the willow trees back on earth 'I should be able to fashion myself some simple clothes out of this. I'm tired of fighting like a neanderthal. The last son of Krypton swinging on insects with his dick out. I'd never hear the end of it.'

With mirth, the very naked boy got to work. Using his fangs to fashion a piece of wood into something like a needle he broke off a few more branches and began to weave the fibers into a cloak and what amounted to a skirt. At first, he was of the mind to make something like pants or underwear. But then he realized in his brief yellow schoolbus moment that he was in fact a man with two balls that would chafe like a motherfucker on alien tree fibers. Imagine getting a splinter in your ballsack...

Once again Rao's eyes glazed over and instead of knocking he started straight up punching the shit out of the wooden trunk. Because knocking wasn't enough as shown by past events. After his brief but very necessary sidequest, Rao began to weave the cloak and skirt again. He expected it to take a while.

It didn't.

His hands worked with a strange dexterity and Rao furrowed his brows in confusion.

"I'm pretty sure I never sowed shit before so why am I so dexterous... with my hands... Fuck was I actually a cheap whore. Nah nahhh it's just Kryptonian talent yeah that's it definitely, totally."

The cheap whore continued sowing until the skirt and cloak were complete. He had created a few loops to tie the simple cloak to his shoulders with a long piece of fiber. He had created similar loops in the waistline of his skirt in order to tie it around himself. Reaching down he took a good look at the skirt it was a pretty nice patchwork sown together with perfectly geometric small overlapping squares being the pattern. With a smile, he wrapped it around his waist tying it quickly to get away from perpetual nudity. Soon after and with a sudden movement and flourish he tied the cape around his shoulders as he looked towards the west, the direction of the sea. Red light reflected off his silvery hair and his eyes looked a bit more dark than they did when he first appeared in this world. The dark sea and his pupils seemed to reflect one another as his gaze stilled and became a bit more solemn. A gust of wind blew his straw yellow cape out behind him and the sun behind his would look as a halo if there was an observer. Right now he was silent as he took in the breadth of the world. The wideness of the sea. And the height of the sky. The strangeness of it all. Painted with so many interesting colors. So many things untouched and unseen by the hands of men. A world that was full to the brim. A world with a history. And he wondered if he too had a history. If he too could fill himself with as many things as this planet. Experience after experience, laugh after laugh, tear after tear, shout after shout. The things he was lacking could he rebuild them... Rao the child who bore the name of a god sat silently pondering. But pondering was for the past and the last had no time for that, as Rao moved and began to climb down the tree in his search for food the sun seemed to move just a tad bit faster across the sky. Onward to the future, as it always does. He had decided, he'd make this his dream for now to rebuild it all or make it anew. Himself.

"Because after all dreams save us, isn't that right pops?"

Rao said it unknowingly and it seemed to go from his memory quickly. As if he couldn't remember his very own words. That faint nagging remained in the back of his mind. Sitting on a tree branch he began to thread together a rope to help him descend the tree with the fibers. It took him a while as he had to make it long enough but he succeeded eventually. Wrapping it around the most stable branch he could find he put all his weight on the fiber in preparation for descending the tree.

It snapped.

Once again he forgot the fact that he was in fact obese. The average 6-year-old could weigh up to 60 pounds he was a bit over 300 pounds. The world blurred in his vision as he fell fast enough for there to be a slight whistle audible. For some reason before hitting the ground, he thought of... a caseoh? he didn't know what that was but it tickled him, well as much as it could before he hit the ground hard.


"Just like a drill, I'll kill that damn jellyfish. Drills to the future..." Rao muttered to himself as he rolled around aimlessly on the forest floor probably with a bad case of CTE.

Wait what the fuck do drills have to do with anything???

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