Monsters At The Gate (CHAPTER 0)

Monsters At The Gate (CHAPTER 0)

By JunkkFactory

Chapter 0:

“The Goddess of Time and the End of the World”

All was dark and absolute space, with no edge or beginning, but the mantle of that creation was adorned only by the lights from stars that had been dead for millennia, and their lights still shone in the firmament, leaving only a faint vestige of their existence.

Despite such a dark and desolate wasteland of space, there was a very bright shaft of light in the midst of the dark desert that is space. The light began to grow brighter when it finally revealed its origin.

An absolute monument in the void, which stood as the ruler of said dark space. A golden pyramid rose from the darkness, and surrounding it lay a vast ocean of stars.

The crystalline brilliance of the pyramid in the void could easily serve as the mother star for a small galaxy, and its ocean, which emitted not a single wave, maintaining a calm and silence that was hard to imagine, was the perfect mantle to shelter the planets.

Even so, the entire magnificent creation of the void wasn't the panorama or the main work being carried out, but rather, there was something else mysterious and strange occurring. Above the enormous pyramid of the void, a platform rose from which someone maintained their presence in view. A figure that seemed to belong to a woman.

With an appearance resembling an Egyptian pharaoh, she shows her full image. Long, blue hair, adorned with gold jewels at the tips, and two large horns of the same precious material perched on the sides of her head. Her body is covered with worn bandages that reveal much of her dark, immaculate skin.

A look and beauty only possessed by a goddess, but the most remarkable aspect of that pharaonic perfection are her penetrating and deep yellow eyes, which were on the verge of being golden like the jewels that adorned her body.

Only her eyes shone as intensely as her monument of the void, as did the great sphere above her head.

A mechanism rested on the monument, floating in the dark space. A clock kept its hands moving in reverse, a countdown about to begin.

“Everything must come to an end. There are no exceptions. Worlds, stars, galaxies, and the universe itself, bound and dragged by the relentless and merciless time. There is no life, there is no death. Only time rules, governs everything. We are all bound to a countdown. Time is mercy and cruelty, as everything should be.”

“There is only passion and cruelty. I am the end of time.”

With the words of a prayer released from her lips, the mysterious woman atop the monument had remained still for a long time. Her eyes had remained closed, as if waiting for a call, maintaining her calm and composure. Absolute patience.

“So it's time to begin. What do you say? Shall we do it?”—with a calm, almost muffled voice. The woman, with the beauty of a pharaoh, did not take her eyes or attention off the strange object above her head.

The clock, which was counting down to the start of an event, had begun to move in a disturbing way, as if reacting to the woman's words.

Finally, and in a bizarre and terrifying way, an eye opened in the middle of the clock. Their eyes connected, both the bandaged woman's and the clock's mechanical eye.

"Already started," with a deep, mechanical voice, the clock spoke with a start signal.

Finally, it happened, and the clock stopped, and the number selected was 12, with which, at an extremely slow motion, it began to rewind. Indeed, it was a countdown; the clock was moving in reverse.

"Very well..." With a determined look, the woman took a few moments to close her eyes, with an aura of meditation and complete serenity. But that serenity was just a facade, especially for a goddess like her.

“Hehe…”

Her face formed a light laugh, along with a laugh that even she found difficult to hide; she simply couldn't do it anymore.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” “HAAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!”

A maniacal laugh began to echo through the emptiness of space. It was the goddess herself, who couldn't stop holding back her laughter, to the point where it seemed her lungs were about to burst out of her mouth.

“FINALLY! FINALLY! FINALLY! FINALLY!”

The words kept coming out with great euphoria and joy.

But... What was it that kept this goddess so happy?

(….)

“The time has finally come, MY TIME! TO PUT AN END TO THOSE DAMN, USELESS WORMS!” With words filled with anger, but also madness, the goddess now laid her eyes upon a huge board in front of her.

With a flick of her fingers, a small sphere began to manifest on the table, an image of a tiny planet that could easily fall into her delicate hand.

“Wow, just look at this,” her gaze and face zoomed in on the small image of a planet, as if she were about to devour it.

“It's still just as pathetic as I remember it, an insignificant, filthy swamp of dirt and mud. Well, isn't that the place where worms and insects should always crawl?” With just that last word, her eyes sharpened and her smile faded.

“I would only need a hand to crush these fucking sons of bitches. Yes, that would be the best, if only I had that chance, but no.” Her hands acted like claws as they surrounded the image of the small planet.

The goddess exclaimed with sadistic delight and uncontained hatred. “But I have a much more fun way”

The goddess's gaze once again twisted into one of madness itself. “What if I sent a bunch of monsters to gut them and break their bones? What if I used their fragile and wretched lives to feed the worst beasts I could imagine, and then buried them in pits full of their own shit! That would be a good ending for these useless, bastard sons of bitches! Wouldn't that be beautiful!!!?”. The goddess's words revealed nothing but a single desire to eliminate a world and all its beings.

There were many emotions unleashed in her actions, and there was a specific reason. So much noise and unleashed rage had only aroused curiosity in the monstrous clock, and also an annoyance at the sound of the screams.

"You're still not tired of your screams, are you, Nif?" the monstrous clock had spoken, revealing the goddess's name.

Nif.

She showed a confused look.

"Do you wish to erase them from existence itself with such fervor?" the clock spoke again with its mechanical and monstrous voice.

It wasn't just a mechanism; it also seemed to have a life of its own, or something similar, and with it, a kind of "curiosity" about its mistress's actions.

"Uh?" That was the only answer that could come from her mind and her lips.

"You were praised by them, and you had emotions for them. They showed you every expression of affection and love, all of that was given in your name. Now will you seek to end it all?" A curiosity escapes from the mechanical being, but this question, rather than being answered, reveals a certain anger in the goddess.

"Heh." Nif lets out a small laugh instead of an angry shout, but after fully digesting the "CLOCKMAKER's" words, her gaze changes to a frown.

"Time out! Are you trying to stir my emotions to make me retract my decision? I would suggest you not analyze someone without their permission, you damn bastard." Without paying attention to her vocabulary, Nif shows her anger to the "Clockmaker." "And besides, what does all this matter to you? You've always been completely neutral."

The watchmaker takes his time formulating a response, although, truthfully, there's nothing interesting about it. "Honestly, I don't care. I don't understand those things. I'm just a watch," the watchmaker replies in a monotonous, mechanical voice, rolling his mechanical eye into space, a way of nullifying any importance to Nif's affairs.

"I see. You talk too much just because you're a watch. Isn't it also because my power is tied to yours? It's quite convenient, and it's the same reason that allows you to disrespect me, asshole."

"What vocabulary," says the watchmaker, more surprised by the goddess's vulgar vocabulary than by the fact that she wishes to destroy an entire civilization.

"And just one more thing. Although I need you for this task, and you have certain privileges before me," Nif stands at attention in front of the watchmaker, coughing and arranging his voice and mouth to pronounce something.

“DAMN MECHANICAL MOUND OF SHIT, YOU ARE IN THE PRESENCE OF A GODDESS! HUMBLE YOURSELF, BOW DOWN TO THE GODDESS OF THE END OF TIME!!!, ME!, NIF!!!”

With shouts and a vocabulary that one would expect to hear inside a slum or a prison, the goddess of the end of time cannot tolerate such flippant attitude toward her. It is an insult, and in any other case, it would be a guaranteed death penalty.

“…” There is no response to the incomprehensible insults for the giant mechanical clock, only slight attention at the goddess’s abrupt change in behavior.

“Okay, what were we talking about?” Nif smiles maliciously, “Oh, I remembered, we were about to condemn and eradicate those fucking parasites! Once and for all, it’s time those monkeys remember my name, tremble and vomit on themselves when they find out who’s back in action, HA!!!”

Nif laughs madly at his intention to destroy humanity and make his name known to them again.

"Then tell me, are you going to raise any objections?" Firmly, with the goddess's staff striking the ground, Nif wonders if the clock of judgment will give another opinion on the end of a civilization.

"I don't understand this kind of thing. Like you say, I'm just a clock, you just do what you want." He makes it clear that he doesn't understand or really care about Nif's motives for destroying humanity. He will simply mark the agreed-upon time for the end.

"I see, just fleeting curiosity."

"YEAH!" Nif makes a small victory gesture with his fist. Seeing that everything is ready, Nif rests his eyes once again on the planet Earth that lies on his altar.

"How should I kill them? A slow death or perhaps a quick one? Or what if...? Hehehe." In her thoughts, countless ideas, more macabre and sadistic, began to take shape in her interpretations.

Throughout the history of the human world, Nif had already attempted to put an end to humanity at various times that would go down in history. Wars, diseases, or simply natural cataclysms, but even with all of that, her brutality was severely limited by certain "Rules" that the goddess herself could not completely ignore.

"I could simply send a swarm of twisted monsters to tear out their guts and all their bones." Bringing one of her fingers to her thin lips, Nif stared into nothingness, unable to decide. On her path of plotting destruction, Nif had stepped down from her platform atop her pyramid and now walked through the grand corridors and statues of her personal palace.

In this place, not only did she live; strange beings made of robes acted as her personal servants, emitting no sound, not a voice or essence of mind. Her only interaction with her goddess is to pour her a glass of wine and watch her continue on her way. In her thoughts, the symphony of destruction was being orchestrated, but another reminder returned, one that makes Nif's smile fade and her face express annoyance.

"No..." The macabre goddess's smile fades at the initial thought of monsters. An idea that was discarded after her own secret attempts to eradicate humanity.

They all failed, because of certain humans who managed to oppose her a long time ago.

"I'm sure there are still more of those bastards. Sending the 'swarm' would have the same result. A GODLAMB can be used for another occasion, when I've cleared out and killed every last one of those pesky 'weird humans.'"

Her thin lips make contact with the wineglass, draining it in one gulp and then throwing it to the floor, shattering it into several pieces in an act of mild frustration.

"GODKILLERS, huh?" Nif gives a smile, almost mocking the name, as if something on the human planet were capable of killing her, although many years ago, humans did show such intentions. "What a fun little name."

In their memories, the humans known as GODKILLERS were able to stop swarms of their monsters called GODLAMBS, divine beings who, after unleashing such devastation on humans, were reduced to mounds of flesh and blood. An act carried out by "humans" with special abilities, powers, and a certain magic.

These were the humans who managed to protect humanity and make Nif wipe away its destruction. Although it was only momentary.

Nif now walks on his ocean of dead stars, which only wets his feet with delicate care, observing another strange clock in the distance.

This one had an appearance similar to the Doomsday Clock, but its metallic eyes were wider with a certain expression of "fear." Both hands rested on his head, not marking any specific time; it was simply static.

"What goddess of the end times doesn't like to prepare a few surprises for a big occasion?"

Nif observes the second clock above her, which has begun to move and release its hands, followed by a swift and frantic movement, as if the clock didn't know what time it should mark or as if it were broken. Its hands move in a circular motion without stopping.

"This time, I'll send them." With a big, wicked smile and great pride, Nif reveals who will put an end to humanity.

The clock's golden hands mark a total of 12 numbers, a detail that only reveals that, with its colossal size and strange symbols on each number, this clock was anything but a normal timekeeper. And now it had begun to move at the command of the goddess of time.

"Definitely, they must be the ones to do this to me, my beloved children. They will put an end to your pathetic existence. HAHAHAHA!!!!"

Nif caresses her belly with a maternal aura, and with that act, the clock's gears begin to tick.

Nif laughs like a true lunatic as 12 dark silhouettes approach her, ready to obey their mother's wishes. Beings with terrifying powers. The end of time for the human world.

The hand of the giant clock strikes the first number indicated by its needle.

Thunder…

To be continued