My Friend has Been Living in an Alternate Reality

Part 2

So, it's currently morning. I didn't expect to get much sleep last night and I didn't. We just picked up some breakfast. Clint's been eating like an animal. Guess I can't blame him, though. But I don't want to get off topic. He followed up by describing a rough layout of the world beyond that island:

By his account, oceans made up 85% of the surface. There were only two continents. Well, there used to be three, but one was essentially annihilated and made unlivable by a previous world war. There were also islands scattered throughout, ones like Dusk Blue. The two remaining continents were known as "Neo-Civitus" and "Heaven's curse." I'll discuss the latter first. Clint estimated that he'd spent around two months there - but that's another story. To put it simply, it resembled an apocalyptic shitshow, with the vast majority of it being a desert wasteland. "If you thought Dusk Blue sounded bad, this shit was something else entirely." Clint explained. Apparently the life expectancy for children born there was around 6 human years. The places where people lived ranged from lawless zones controlled by warlords to totalitarian fortresses and everything in between. It had a total population of 17 billion living in an area about twice the size of Russia. And those were only what we would consider to be humans. The place was also filled with some of the most incomprehensibly horrific things he'd seen. Any place that wasn't occupied by a majority of humans was simply referred to as "Oblivion". If you went out into those places alone, you weren't going to last long.

Now, the creatures that dwelled within oblivion were a bit tough to explain. Clint's experiences with them were limited. However, he'd heard that people had stopped trying to label them all. There were simply too many. He told me about some of the more infamous ones:

Harbingers

These were giant winged monstrosities with sharp spikes protruding out of every inch of its body. You could barely see their skin, and even the heads were mostly covered. These things were massive, about the size of a large shuttle bus. It was rumor that the spikes coming out of their skin put them in constant agonizing pain. Because of this, they were in a constant state of rage, slaughtering anything that moved. They were called Harbingers because whenever one arrived, many others were soon to follow. That meant unavoidable mass-scale death and destruction. These things weren't easy to kill, and people had to prepare.

Butcher knights

Nobody really knows what these are. A theory floating around was that they were members of an ancient order of knights that had been condemned by some otherworldly being. They were now forced to roam Heaven's curse for eternity, searching for human flesh to eat. Yes, they ate people. In appearance, they were ten-foot tall humanoids covered head to toe in crude black armor, resembling that of a traditional knight. Upon close inspection, it almost seemed as if the armor was welded to their skin, which appeared to be rotting. They'd attack human outposts with extremely large, rusted pikes and axes. If the initial blow didn't kill you, the ensuing infection sure would. Fighting them one-on-one wasn't an option, as they could easily overpower multiple humans at once. Steam cannons had to be used to take them out.

Weeping infernos

These were also humanoid in nature, despite being always covered in fire. They rode on top of unidentifiable creatures. They almost looked like horses, except for the fact that they had six legs and ran at ludicrous speeds. It's unclear if the riders are physically attached to the creatures, as they seem to have their own legs, but have never been seen to dismount. The way that they kill is actually not what you'd think. While the constant stream of flames that burst out of their bodies was certainly a cause for concern, a bigger problem was their persistent, ungodly shrieks. If you got too close to them, your brain would eventually explode. That's where they got their names from.