'Maybe they're still here?' Marion stood up hastily 'they're the only clue i got, i should go at least see if they're still there'
Marion took a step outside the store only to be met with blinding darkness mixed with the loudest silence Marion had ever heard in his life,
One never experienced silence in the modern world, it was a luxury long since lost, there was always a sound of some sort, this type of silence felt particularly jarring.
And the emptiness, roads where the lights never went off, where people walked and talked every hour of the day, bustling streets with not a single moving object, only the wind playing as it saw fit.
'it really is the end of the world... did i make the right decision?'
Marion walked through the empty streets, half expecting someone to show up at every corner,
Yet here he was, seemingly the only human left alive,
'i never liked how unpredictable people were, but this is unnerving... i guess i'm as human as anyone else'
Marion was starting to panic, what if he really was the last person left?
Picking up his pace, Marion arrived at his office building soon enough,
''i can't believe it'' Marion said between panting breaths ''it really is still here''
Right where it had first appeared, the ball of white, the perfect sphere, laid in its place, idle and unperturbed, an artifact of what came, the only evidence of the last day Marion experienced.
Marion stared at it in amazement, the same feeling gripping his heart and squeezing it,
'Ah i know this feeling'
This was the same feeling Marion got long ago, back when he was a kid and still in school,
There was this one girl he really liked, everytime he saw her he could feel his chest tighten and his throat dry up, he was feeling the same way right now.
'Ha, what the hell, i must be some sort of maniac, it's just a sphere, i didn't feel this way even for Jasmine, jasmine...'
Marion froze for a moment, just now realizing he had forgotten about Jasmine,
His hand reached for his face in disbelief,
'how did i not think of her all this time?'
Guilt washed over him, the only reason he even remembered the woman was because he got turned on by a sphere, how irrational was that?
'i shouldn't think about it too much, there was nothing i could do in the first place, i couldn't have saved her even if i wanted to, plus i may be the doomed one... i can't be blamed for this'
Marion looked at the sphere again, the same feeling welling up in his heart, the feeling of undeniable attraction, he wanted this object, he wanted it to be all his,
'Jasmine will forgive me for not thinking about her much, i have more pressing matters to tend to'
Marion closed in on the sphere, observing it while circling around it,
On closer look one could see glyphs similar to the ones on the angels on it, they appeared to be continuous running around the entirety of the sphere,
They were so thin and shallow that you couldn't observe them unless you were taking a close look and standing still,
The more Marion looked the more they appeared to blur,
At first Marion could make out some lines, but after a couple minutes he couldn't make out the lines anymore, even the sphere started to blur,
Marion rubbed his eyes over and over, the more he looked the blurrier things got, until he could barely see anything,
'christ why can't i see straight, is it the lack of sleep?''
Then rubbing his eyes and circling the sphere Marion collapsed in place.
Opening his eyes, He was marching on red soil,
His gait long and strong, his limbs of absolute white, the light reflecting off his skin so completely he would blind any mortal who laid eyes on him,
His 3 pairs of legs moving in perfect coordination, while he towered over the earth,
Looking around Marion noticed the swarm moving alongside him, they were many, they were one, moving along to gather what they needed to ascend,
Soon they reached their goal, a wall so high it appeared to have no end in sight, reaching far above the clouds and out of sight of even his perfect eyes,
enormous beyond what he could comprehend, it seemed to stretch infinitely,
Yet he felt no fear, for they were one and they were many,
His orders were known, no matter the scale they were bigger, and smaller,
The swarm marched and soon arrived at the wall,
Standing in formation the smaller pieces stood in front while the larger ones stood behind them,
He stood in front, then jumped, the larger piece grabbing him with his gorilla like hand, cocked his arm back, then threw him straight up,
He flew fast and far, so incredibly fast everything seemed to blur, All around him the other vessels were seen flying, they were many.
At the peak of their ascent, high enough that the bottom wasn't viewable anymore they all grabbed on to the wall, sinking their claws, hands and tentacles into the rocky surface of the wall,
Then he began to climb, a vicious climb, one limb after another,
As he looked up he couldn't see the top, yet it didn't matter, they would reach it, if not this vessel then another, and if he failed he would live on, for they were one and the same.
The climb continued, on and on, they were so many, and every couple seconds they were joined by many more, the wall was littered by pieces of the swarm,
Then after a long while, longer than he knew or cared to know had passed, the top appeared, so far yet so close, next to the stars far beyond the boundary of the rock they had once stood on, the swarm had almost reached the top,
Then it appeared,
From the top of the wall, a hand emerged, its size beyond what could be described, the porportions too monstrous to be quantified, the skin of the hand, no different from the fabric of space that surrounded it, yet he knew where it started and where it ended,
This was a being like no other, something so above that it couldn't be fathomed,
Yet they didn't fear, he didn't fear, for they were one and many, undefeatable and unstoppable,
Even when it all came raining down, wrath of the highest order,
When the sky came crashing down, when all the other vessels were pulverised to ether, they never stopped, never feared, never thought, singular was their will for that was what it meant to be a piece of the swarm.
The sun was up high by the time Marion opened his eyes again,
'what time is it? damn my head hurts'
Confused Marion sat up, he had laid down in the middle of the road a couple of meters from the sphere,
'well at least now i know for sure this isn't a dream'
Marion looked at his limbs and body and for some reason it all felt so foreign to him, like he had spent an eternity away,
'What was that dream?'