Chapter 975 - Call 975

Sofia watched with fascination as the stocky man pushed a few buttons, turned a dial, and adjusted the position of two thin metal bars on top of the cube, which made a black and white text appear on the screen. A few sentences appeared one after the other in a loop, a strange and slightly distorted voice reading them without emotion.

Disaster Prevention Emergency Broadcast

Dangerous unexplained events are currently underway in Northern Hersire

Stay indoors.

Do not look outside.

You risk burns and permanent blindness.

Close your blinds and curtains.

Do not look outside.

Regular emergency services are not available at this time.

Regular programming will resume once this emergency is over.

Do not look outside.

If you have witnessed the appearance of a second sun, call 975.

“That is quite worrying,” Sofia commented, watching the message loop back to the beginning.

“Worrying…” the farmer grumbled, “unexplained events my ass. The government is probably testing war weapons in the northern sea again. Come, help me close everything up,” he said, turning the volume dial on the tv to zero and walking up to one of the large room’s windows.

“Alright… Thank you again for letting me in. Are you not curious about this second sun thing at the end?” Sofia asked, closing the curtains in the open kitchen on the opposite side of the living room.

“Tssk, you’d better forget all about it. You’re not from around here, right, miss?”

“N- no, indeed just passing through…”

“Hah, you look too young to remember anyway…” the farmer commented, walking up to his fridge, one of the few appliances Sofia actually recognized. He pulled out a small bottle, “Drink anything? We might be stuck here awhile.”

“Water would be nice, thank you.”

Making no comment, the man grabbed a large glass pitcher out of the fridge alongside his bottle and poured Sofia a glass before opening his beer. He placed it on the counter for her without a word, and sat down on his couch, staring at the text that kept flashing on the TV.

“Twenty four years ago, we had a situation just like this. Everyone rushed indoors, a similar weird emergency broadcast on the radio. The instructions were just as strange. Do not look outside, do not open doors. Call if you witness a strange fog. It was a bright, sunny day much like today. Far as I know, no one’s seen any fog that day.”

Sofia almost accidentally broke the glass in her hand trying to contain her facial expression.

“Was the fog just not a thing?” she asked after sipping on the cold water.

“They never admitted to it but everyone knows they were testing chemical weapons. That’s why nobody saw it. Those who did are dead. Information didn’t travel as fast as it does now back then. Three villages on the flank of mount Farsun disappeared overnight. They blamed it on a landslide. Folks around here all think they faked that too, but what power do we have?”

Sofia put on an act of being shocked at the revelation. “Isn’t it dangerous to stay here then?! Should we flee?”

Jeremy downed his entire beer with a satisfied sigh, and leaned back on his couch, lightly shaking his head. “Flee where? My entire life is here. You’re free to leave if you want.”

“This– This isn’t right! I’m going to call them, surely– This cannot be right!”

“Again, I won’t stop you. My landline’s been out for weeks, though. There is a payphone in the town square, if you really want to call, but it’s a bad idea going against the instructions. If they are really testing secret weapons outside again, ultimately they might get rid of you for being a witness. That might be the true purpose of the phone number, even.”

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Sofia looked at the front door hesitantly.

Really she was just processing the information about phone numbers and payphones and how it probably related to the smartphone keyword she had gotten before all the while being different.

She was now really hesitating on what to do, of course she had no qualms about going outside, as she was the ‘Dangerous unexplained event’ the broadcast warned the citizens about, but she wondered what the results would be if she managed to contact the local government or the ECA.

The ECA in particular might even view me as the sole responsible person for their facility and the nearby city’s people disappearing. Not knowing how much they know is quite disadvantageous… My first instinct was that they couldn’t possibly cause me too much trouble with their level of power, but they still somehow restrained other entities like that fucking doors space monster, so they must have special means…

Still, if I could access their information network it would likely make the trial much easier…

I would infiltrate them but I don’t have that much time. I see why starting with the identity of one of their agents was considered an easier start.

After some hesitation, Sofia bid farewell to the farmer, he looked worried but did not try to hold her back, only wishing her good luck and closing the door behind her.

Sofia left an invisible eye above his door and flew to the center of the village. The deafening alarms had stopped, but everyone was still hiding indoors, so the place was deserted, market stalls left out in the open, cars stopped in the middle of the road.

Now… What in the Lords’ name does a payphone look like?

Thankfully for her, Sofia found the wall-mounted apparatus relatively easily, as it was under the town hall’s porch and clearly labeled ‘telephone’ in bold letters. Being faced with a dangly black handle with holes and a wheel of numbers, however, she had no clue how to proceed.

She did force open the coin compartment to have money to insert in the coin hole, but that was as far as she managed.

After a minute she gave up and summoned Pareth.

You were looking, right? Any ideas?

Pareth fumbled around with the device for a bit, and soon beeping sounds started coming out of the black handle, which he thrust toward Sofia.

“Hello?” Sofia tried, staring at the holes the beeping was coming from.

The beeping stopped.

Shit, was that not it?

A crackling female voice suddenly came out of the device. “Hello, Disaster prevention center on the line. What is the reason for your call?”

Let’s test them a little and see what happens.

“S; One; Zero; Nine,” Sofia answered in a serious voice, reciting her own ECA codename.

There was a moment of silence.

Did they not hear me? Do I need to push a button somewhere to answer?

Her worries were unfounded, after a very short wait, a serious male voice came from the other side.

“Lieutenant general Remsei on call. Identify yourself.”

Oh? Sounds like someone important. That was fast.

“I already did,” Sofia answered, “Are you not interested in hearing about the ‘second sun’ right from the source?”

Again there was a moment of silence.

“My aim is to rid the world of those who would destroy it,” Sofia added, “we can be allies or we can be enemies. Choose wisely.”

“I would like to offer you our most sincere apology,” the man on the other side decisively answered, “Please understand that your previous… Imprisonment– was precisely in that goal. We will send a team to your location so that we may communicate in person. Please wait.”

“Then I shall wait. You will not like what happens if you try anything, Lieutenant general Remsei.”

There was no immediate answer this time, only the muffled voice of Remsei yelling undecipherable orders, before the call cut, replaced by the previous beeping noise, and a pre-recorder voice coming out of the phone alongside it. ‘You have run out of credit, please insert another coin to continue.’

“Huh… Well that should be fine. I wonder how long we’re going to have to wait…”

Somewhere else, far from the gigantic explosions and the ECA’s dominion.

A group of knights in heavy white armor, holding tall silver staves, were kneeling in perfect rows in a packed cathedral.

An eyeless man in white robes stood behind the altar, his voice carrying an extreme pressure despite his frail frame.

“My brethren. My sons. The end is nigh! Calamity has descended. Hold fast, for this is our ultimate trial. The last crusade. This is not the end, but an opportunity! OUR LONG-AWAITED CHANCE OF CLEANSING THIS WORLD FROM EVIL!”

The white robed man grabbed the silver staff which was lying on the altar. It was a much more ornate and ancient weapon than the ones the knights were holding. As the man thrust the staff up, golden light enveloped it, its warmth and glory spreading through the entire cathedral in an instant.

“Rise, proud warriors! YOUR TIME HAS COME! IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!”

The knights all stood up in unison.

“FOR THE LIGHT!!!”