The Adventures of the Scarlet Lights. Part one, Eyelume.

chapter 4, the ruins

The sound of the snow mixed with the metallic sounds of the ground is the only to Eyelume's seemingly endless walk in the ruins. It's cold outside, and when he feels tired he lies down on the ground and sleeps while hugging Hope's scarf.
In the ruins, he finds what seems to be the ruin of a flying ship of some sort.
With nothing to do, he decides to explore the place. Inside the ruined ship, he finds dark corridors, claustrophobic is a small word to speak of how little space Eyelume has to work with, but eventually, he finds a room, there is a device in this room, an old computer, and beside this computer is a very old book about computers. Eyelume decides to read the book, it's all he has to do, he cannot do anything else, he's hungry and alone after all.
For a few days, he learns with the help of the big old book. To survive he eats a few sardines that he finds in old boxes inside the ship, he has to drink lukewarm water that he finds but it's better than nothing. Eventually, he learns how to use a computer, and decides to search around the files of the computer, for hours he finds nothing interesting, but eventually, he finds a group of files, all videos of a man named Hector Geunville.

"Today is the 37th day of December XXXX, I am Hector Geunville and this video broadcasts here to make you learn about technology and the wonderful world of robots..."

During days, or maybe even weeks, Eyelume listens to these videos, trains, works, and learns how to create complex machines. He builds for himself with scrap he finds around the ship a claymore enhanced by the technology he had learned to use, creating an all-in-one claymore, flashlight, and lighter. Working on a simple source of energy, his magical energy.
Extremely useful for him in this harsh environment.
But before he leaves this place he decides to take a look at other rooms, to make sure he did not miss any knowledge or ration for his journey. As he explored the place further, he started to hear some weird metallic noises in a room nearby. Eyelume enters the place, wondering what he could find of use here, but he's left speechless at what he sees. Laying on the ground, a Mecha Android, just like the ones in the videos of Hector Geunville, seemed to be an old model, on its chest plate there were letters written in red paint: "H.S.A.M" standing for Human built Sentient Assistant for pilots of Mechas. The android is in a pretty bad shape, missing limbs, a whole part of its face, and an energy source. Eyelume begins by looking around to see if there are any scarp parts around to use to repair this android, he finds some limbs in an ok shape in a few boxes around the room and starts renovating the old Robot.
Now with limbs and a less dirty look, it's easier to see what it looks like. The whole top left part of its face has its bionic skin burnt and removed, impossible to repair with the scarp in the room, this broken part leaves wires exposed, and also shows the complexity of its eye, which seems to work like the one of an owl, being a metallic cylinder connected to the head which on the other side is protected by an artificial eye, but on this broken side is completely exposed.
It seems to simply work like a camera, though for Eyelume it is passionating to observe.
Its intact right eye is black, and there are antennae instead of ears at the sides of its head.
It has long black hair, surely to make it look more human.
Once he started to understand how the energy system of the android worked, he started to think of some ideas of how to make a low-cost energy production part for the android and eventually came up with a respiratory mask that would use a simple respiration system to produce energy for the android. It would work as the air is heavy with magical energy, which is a good source of energy, even for a complex machine.
He gives the Android a few finishing touches, washing off the letters on its chest plate and writing in its place the letters: "M.A.S.H" standing for Mecha Android, Soldier of Hope.
A smile grew on his face as he wrote those letters in red paint on its chest plate, it reminded him of the good old days at Home.
Mash, it was its name now... Mash woke up, and the first thing he saw was Eyelume, it got back up and looked at Eyelume closely. And, though it was a bit embarrassing, now standing up in front of him, Eyelume realized that the android wasn't only shorter than him, but it also was based on a female body. The evidence was there, the long hair, soft lips, and other feminine-looking parts, but Eyelume wasn't the brightest. Realizing that it was a girl, he thought back to the many conversations he had with Hope...

"A woman like me is very strong, but it doesn't mean you don't have to be a gentleman!"

He got a sly smile as he remembered the event, in which he had started celebrating after a victory instead of helping her back up. But realizing he had to keep his mind on the situation and not daydream like this, he removed his scarf and placed it around Mash's neck.

"Here, you'll feel better with this around your neck, it's cold outside.
My name is Eyelume, and yours is Mash. I repaired you, you are free now."

Mash did not answer, she seemed to be unable to say a word, maybe she was mute and couldn't speak. Eyelume hadn't checked her vocal box, he was too scared to damage a vital part.
And though Eyelume told her that she was free, Mash did not go away. Eyelume started to walk away, knowing he had to find civilization and find a way to help Hope out, but as he walked, Mash followed. He turned around with a confused look on his face.

"You don't have to follow me, you are free. I'm okay on my own."

But Mash didn't seem to care at all, she walked up to Eyelume and picked him up, placing him on her shoulders.

"H-hey! Let me go!"

Mash started to walk out of the ship, keeping Eyelume on her shoulder, she seemed determined to keep him there. Eyelume sighed and decided to let her carry him. It sure would be a long journey until they got to a civilized area, but at least, Eyelume wasn't alone anymore.
But Eyelume wasn't alone from the beginning,  lurking in the ruins, monsters without souls roamed the land. Men-eaters, without eyes, could only hear their prey, tall, with dark slimy skin, aggressive, and without any other purpose but to kill... Why were they here? Eyelume had no idea, but if he didn't have his claymore and the help of Mash, he would be long dead. Mash may not have any weapons, but she is strong and able to rip off the heads of those men-eaters. Not only was she a source of warmth, but also a companion in battles. When Eyelume and her had some time to rest, Eyelume would teach her about the things Sun and Hope had taught him. The ruins seemed endless.
A man was standing in front of the entrance of a large Elven city. The man, who was a guard defending the gates of this city, saw on the horizon two blurry figures. A man, wearing a black lab coat and a sweater, equipped with a weird-looking claymore. Beside him, is an Android.
The man trembled a little and pointed his spear at them.

"W-who are you !?"

The man smiled and chuckled.

"Who are we?
She's Mash, a friend.
And me, I'm Eyelume, nice to meet you."

At the sight of the tail of Eyelume, the man started to sweat and quickly opened the gates.

"Sorry, sir.
Please enter."

Eyelume was confused by how simple it was to get into the city. He began walking in but stopped and asked the man a question.

"What's the name of this city?"

The man looked at Eyelume and cleared his throat, he still seemed shocked but knew he had to answer. In front of him was a White demon after all.

"Saturn, sir.
The city built by the goddess of justice."

"Thank you."

Once EyeLume thanked the man, he went on to explore the city, wondering how he would find help for his mission.