#technogone

It was the coldest I had ever been.

The chilling Antarctic wind tore through me like daggers, freezing me to my very core. How long has it been? Hours? Days? I didn’t care to keep count. All I knew at this point was that I had to keep moving forward, to survive, to take that next step forward. I had to know if the legends were true.

It became harder and harder to trudge forward through the endless frozen desert, each step more difficult than the last. I felt nothing save for the searing cold. My vision was clouded with snow and ice, my cloak rippling in the harsh winds.

“Why am I here?” I couldn’t help but think. “What’s even the point?” the voice inside me kept saying.

But I knew I had to block them out. I had come this far already, I couldn’t stop. If it was true, if it was still here, it would all be worth it in the end.

As I kept pressing forward, I couldn’t believe my eyes. “No, surely it’s just a hallucination,” I kept saying. It looked like a small, dark, distant speck in the endless white expanse, but I felt drawn to it.

The air stirred around me in an unfamiliar way at the sight of it, chilling me even deeper than before. It looked old, abandoned, almost haunting. A dark monolith in the frigid air. My feet were guided by a rotted, frozen over railway.

Finally. I was here. This place looked like it was once so beautiful, with remnants of the stone carvings crumbling into pieces. I ran my hand along the wall, it felt as old as it looked. I could tell, there were stories in these walls.

Banners flew high above me, casting their billowing shadows on the snow below. They had been ripped and torn from endless harsh days and multitudes of battles.

But they still flew, blue and strong.

I scanned the area around me. A structure laid nearby, rusting in the snow. Iron, it seemed. It may have been operational at one time, but now it lay there still and immobile, an empty shell of what it once was. This whole place was an empty shell, taken over by the forces of nature.

I returned to the monolith. I pushed against the heavy doors, trying desperately to force them open. They clearly hadn’t been moved in a long time, but they finally budged against my weight. They groaned as they slowly moved, unveiling the darkness inside. They smashed against the wall with a loud metallic bang. Light was pouring in from the shattered windows around be, illuminating the darkness within. Glass was scattered across the floor, everything caked in dust. There were chests once full of supplies, now tipped over and broken open. What was left of their holdings was scattered everywhere, many emptied completely.

The fountain, once full and flowing freely had been deactivated and frozen over long ago. Something felt…different about this place, but my curiosity pushed me forward. The stairs, once grand, now rotted beneath my feet. There was no way I could make upstairs like this, so I continued my search of the ground level. There was a nearby room, so I chose to look around in there for a clue, a hint, anything pointing toward my goal.

In there, I found my treasures. Against the wall laid a beautiful sword, obviously used. This blade had seen battle, and likely taken lives. I would love to know its stories, but now was not the time. Just above was a grand painting. Large and immaculate, it once kept watch over the room, but now it was as broken as its surroundings. The colors were faded almost entirely, the face of the figure ripped to shreds to the point of being unrecognizable.

But then, I found it.

In a few short words, the signpost told the story of a ruler, a conqueror, and a friend.

“Blood God, World Conqueror, King of the Antarctic Empire. Here Lies Techno, ‘Logging Off The Final Time’ 10:15pm 4/10/20”

It chilled me to the bone.