The Cult of Korunathep: A Shattered Past Story

1: In a New Age

"Five meters." A female Exo thought to herself pushing her body to the absolute limit, she swore she could feel her shell start to crack and chip at the immense pressure that was being put on her body. This was arguably the most excruciating pain she'd ever felt in her existence. She groaned in agony as the gravitational force of the surrounding chamber began to crush her power core, her heart. She came this far away from home, she was not about to give up, even if it meant that she would die in the process, she go down a legend. Like her brother before her.---------------A few miles outside of the center of Hope, in a quiet neighborhood with a few houses a young female Exo walks out of her house. She looks around for a moment before taking a whiff of the air, it was a fresh smell, one of the growing leaves and flowers. Her blue angled antenna could hear the slight gentle hums of hover vehicles that were closer to the center of the city. She looked up and saw the sun begin to wane to the west half of the sky. As she started walking with her hands in the pockets of her sweatshirt down the road. Her blue eyes focused forward on the sidewalk of the street. She looked around and saw people were playing with their kids in the street, a good portion of them were mixed with all kinds of species, she swore she even saw an Exo and an Eliksni playing with their kid just a half a block away. She smiled softly to herself as she kept walking. "Okay...what's on the list for today.." She thought pulling up a mental list of things for her to do. "Gotta go get groceries. Okay, and what do I need...." She said expanding the list and looking at each of the bullet points as she walked. "Orange juice, milk, eggs, cereal, soda," She said reading off the list. After walking for a little bit, she boarded a sparrow she had parked just up the road and started driving to the nearest grocery store. In the ten years since the Red War had ended, Hope was bursting with life. People of all the different races who had helped in the conflict were living here now, Vex, Eliksni, Exo, Awoken, Human and Exhuman were all living peacefully together. As the Exo drove down the street she had to stop at a traffic light and looked to her left, seeing a large metal statue forged from the armor of the Red Legion's soldiers. It was massive, nearly three stories tall, and had the face of an Exo with two antenna angled to forty five degrees on the sides of his head. The figure is standing triumphantly over a steel replica of the Red Legion's commander: Dominus Ghaul, with a rifle in his left hand pointed toward the Dominus' skull, and his right hand raised up to the sky clenched in a fist. Just underneath the monstrosity was a plaque, that said; "In honor of the Vasquez-Andrews family, who showed us all the light in the darkness." The Exo smiled slightly and let out a soft sigh as the light turned green and she continued on her way. She always thought of herself as an outsider looking in with the Vasquez-Andrews family, even though she should be an insider looking out. The white and cyan Exo's name is Korena Andrews, the youngest of three siblings. As she drove making left and right turns past the statue she parked just in front of the grocery store and engaged the vehicle's gravity lock. The store itself wasn't a very large one, it was more like a convenience store than a supermarket. It had only twelve isles with two sided shelves that had about three to four rows of goods. As the Exo walked inside she grabbed a basket and started to pick up the stuff she needed. Carefully walking up and down the isles of the store grabbing the things on her list that she needed."What else do I have to get here...nothing," She sighed to herself and walked up to the counter with the basket and placed it on the conveyor belt. The person working the counter quickly scanned her items and rang up to total. "Fifty glimm, alright." She thought handing him a fifty parts per whole glimmer cube. She packed up her bags and started walking out of the store and started heading back home. Upon placing her groceries in her backpack she sped off down the road, thinking about her life. It seemed as if everywhere she went there was nothing truly interesting that went on. A few crimes would happen every now and again, but they'd be quickly resolved, the suspects taken into custody, and thrown into the extra dimensional prison called the Loophole. Yet another construct of her family's brilliance. Korena decided to take the long way home, the road that she would take to think. It was a weekend, so there was nothing workwise for her to do. Things went like this on a weekend a lot, do what is needed then do nothing at all. At least for Korena that's how it went, just existing at times felt like a chore. She wasn't a guardian like her brothers, or a scientist like her mother. Well, she did work at Suros, as a concept artist. It paid well at least, but her heart always dreamt of a day when she'd be out there, out in the wild reaches of space. Yet it seemed as each day passed that was becoming less and less of a possibility. She loved doing art and stuff like that but there was always an itch in the back of her mind. One she never shared with the others in her family. She got off her sparrow and brought her bags into the house unlocking the door. Things didn't exactly change that much around here either. The house was just as normal and ordinary as her life. A living room with a television, a single large leather couch that was an L in shape with a coffee table with a glass top that you could see the carpeted floor through was all she had in terms of living space. She had a kitchen with a stove, a fridge, microwave and a table that's about two square feet in area made out of wood. The inside of her home was painted a white, a color that she hoped would make her feel happy, a lot of important things in life were white. She had a few pictures of her family members that were in nice golden frames that she regularly cleaned to keep looking nice. She walked up to the kitchen and cracked open the fridge, grabbing a fresh apple out of the drawer she kept fruit in and took a bite out of it. She slumped down on her couch and grabbed the remote turning on the TV. She often just put it on as white noise that let her think. There were a few crucible games that were being shown as always, but there was never anything else that truly peaked her interests. She felt her phone buzz in her pocket and picked it out. The device itself was a white, curvy smartphone with the curved red R of the Suros Company. The device had a notification on it that said a contact name with a picture of an Awoken girl with vibrant pink hair. "Heeeey." It read. Korena with a few brief taps of her fingers opened it up, she tapped on the messages application and started typing back. "Yo." She typed before quickly erasing it and typing up something else. "What's up?" She typed before nodding slightly to herself, still laying sprawled against the leather couch's l shaped curve. She pressed the send button and sent the message. "Not much, just got my paycheck today, I'm thinking we get together and go out for a few drinks. Sound fun?" She got back. Korena smiled to herself as she continued to type away at her phone. "Yeah, I've got no work tonight, where'd you want to meet up?" "Why not that sushi place that your niece owns? She makes kick-ass poke." "Can we try somewhere different? We go there a lot, and the line's usually out the door." Korena replied. "Oh come on, the last time we went there was a month ago, it'll be fun." Her friend replied. Korena sighed to herself and sat back up on the couch and texted back. "Alright, you want me to dress nice?" "I'm just gonna wear my pants suit, I suggest you wear the same thing." "Aight, see ya then, what time you want me to be there?" "7:00, I got us reservations." "Damn, alright, can't say no to that." Korena typed back before closing her phone. She sat up and walked into the room that she had to herself upstairs. The stairway going up was made out of solid glass blocks with a banister on the right side that's made out of walnut wood. You can see the floor beneath you as you walk up. She looked down the small hallway that the stairs lead to and went to the right. This part of the house was the emptiest, there was really no need to put anything there in Korena's eyes, people are there for about a minute or two then they get where they're going. She opened her door to see the queen sized bed that had just a plain white bedspread with four blue pillows on the top of it leaned up against the headboard. The mattress was a plush thing, not much really to it. It made no noise when you went to lay down on it, no creaks, no squeaks, nothing, and it was almost like you were floating on a cloud. That kind of soft. Pillows were just as comfortable if not more than the bed. A window was just on the right of her bed let some light in from the outside, to the left of the window was a dark oak desk that had a computer and a large drawing tablet next to the holographic keyboard and the two monitors that were hooked up to the large tower that was on the left half of the desk. The thing was black and very angular, a SIVA powered juggernaut of a computer regarding processing power. This thing could run anything, from complex video games without breaking a sweat, to the softwares she needed to keep up her current job. Korena turned to the right and opened up her closet, it wasn't too big, all things considered. She just had her normal everyday clothes that a normal person living in the city would have. A few nice outfits, pajamas, shorts and t-shirts, a couple longer shirts and pants for when it got a little colder, and that was it. No special guardian armor or anything like that. Korena looked through her closet for a moment before grabbing a black linen pants suit. She really prefered this opposed to dresses when it came to formal wear, it was just easier to put together from her perspective. She turned the arrangement of garments for a moment looking at it to make sure there weren't any creases or wrinkles in the suit since the last time she wore it. There were a number of things that she wore this for that she remembered made her happy, and a similar number that made her jealous. She noticed there wasn't any visible marking that made her think that there was a problem with how it looked. She set the outfit down on the bed and started looking for the pair of shoes that she had to match. After sifting around through the bottom for about five minutes she found a pair of black dress shoes. She never really was one for a woman's type of dress shoe, having higher heels just made her feel like she looked insecure about her height. So rather than buy women's dress shoes, she bought mens. These were her favorites, a pair of black oxford leather shoes, she wore about a size seven mens shoe. She took good care of these, only really taking them out for special occasions, they still shined in the light of the room as if they were right off the shelves. She set the shoes just in front of the bed and looked around for other pieces that would let her put this together. She had no headgear in mind for the occasion, she liked the way that hats would look on her at points. She had a black hat that she'd wear on occasion that was fedora like in style and she thought looked good on her. Though, the last time that she wore it was several months ago. After getting her outfit planned, she walked across the hallway and into the shower. The bathroom was a very basic room, just white tiles for the floor, polished marble on the top of the sink, and a porcelain toilet. She took her clothes off quickly and walked into the shower, turning it on and grabbing a piece of white soap and started rubbing it along her body. She looked at the mirror that was in the shower with her. She looked at herself up and down, the sides of her face glowing a soft teal blue as exos like her had. While it isn't blue with every Exo it was for hers. Her body was built by her mother during the aftermath of the Golden Age and the first few days of the collapse and was lastly activated on the first few months of the Red War. In terms of age she was about twenty five, and in figure she was too. She looked down from the mirror down toward her feet, feeling the water run through the cracks in her toes and she walked out of the room and started to dry herself off with a towel she had just across the shower and walked out grabbing her suit and putting it on. A few hours after getting everything ready she walked out of her door and started driving toward the Sushi Restaurant as the sun started to go down. She loved Hope's nightlife, everything about it just made her feel more alive. She watched people hanging out with each other at coffee shops, college students studying in the park, and even a few times when a couple had proposed. The lights of Hope all powered up and the gentle glow of the street lamps started to replace the fading light of the sun. Korena stepped off her sparrow and walked into the restaurant, noticing that her friend was already sitting down at a table close to the window on the southern side. Hanamura's was the name of the restaurant that her niece Molly owned, it was destroyed in the Red War from what she had been told, but they had it rebuilt. It was a Japanese restaurant, indisputably the best in the city, poke, sushi, you name it, Hanamura's could make it. Even stuff that wasn't on the menu that day could be made for you, such as her famous Salmon Terriyaki. The inside, if you could describe it, looked like a palace in a modern era. The place had rice paper door dividers that hid private rooms from the other guests. A black wooden table with a pearl white table cloth was the normal thing around here, with an eastern paper lantern with a light bulb inside of it dangling overhead for the source of lighting. Hanamura's was frequented by couples, people looking to have a good time and a good bite. Korena stepped around and sat at the table on the inside. "Glad you could make it." Her Awoken friend told her as she took a sip from her glass of water that was on the table, hearing the ice clink against the glass. "Thank you for inviting me Sam," She replied as the waiter frame walked over and poured her a glass of water. "Thank you," She said to the frame as it walked off to take care of other guests. Samantha Vox was the name of her friend, one of the only ones outside of college that she had managed to keep in touch with after all this time. She was a particularly flamboyant student at the Hope College of Art and Design, often working days on just one assignment. Not even the major ones had earned her most dear and careful work. She now worked for a fashion company in downtown just a few blocks away from the Suros tower where she worked. "So, K, what's been new with ya?" She asked as she set her menu down on the table. "Eh, not much Sam, the usual, get into work, do whatever I need to do, go home and lounge around," "Ah, the same old same old then?" Korena just nodded in reply before taking a sip of her water and setting it down on the table afterward. She glared off at the glass for a moment lost in thought. "What is it like to be water?" She thought to herself. "To be not in control of where you go, who drinks you, what uses you? Or is it better to just sit in the reservoir...not being used at all." "Korena? Earth to Korena." Sam said snapping her fingers. The Exo then perked up like a startled cat at the mention of her name. "Yeah?" "What were you thinking about?" She asked as the jazzy music continued to play in the air around them, the gentle bobs of trumpets and basses dancing around in their ears. Korena looked at the glass again and held it twisting it around like it was some sort of vial of chemicals. She sighed then set it down again. "Nothing," She replied. "How's work?" "Korena it's always the same few questions with you," "What do you mean?" She scoffed. "It's either work, your day, or your week. Why not ask me about something...different?" "I don't know, I'm just used to asking those questions." "Break out of your comfort zone a little, come on, I know you want to try something new..." She sang toward the end of her sentence. Korena smirked at her challenge. "Okay Sam, how's your love life been?" She asked. "How's that for out of my comfort zone?" Korena thought victoriously to herself keeping the same smiling face on. "It's been pretty great actually, tried a little something new and chose to ask out a transgender guy." "Wow, really? That's pretty bold, what'd he...she? Or is it they?" "It's a girl who wanted to be a guy," "Ah okay, what did he say?" "He said no," Sam shrugged. "But, hey, at least I tried," "Yeah...at least you tried." "What about you?" She asked catching Korena off guard. "Sorry?" She asked trying her hardest to dodge the question. "Your love life, what's it like?" Sam asked. Korena sighed and rested her head on an arm she propped up on the table before starting to look out the window at the glowing buildings. Love for her was never easy, if anything it was the part of her life that she felt the most empty in. While her brothers got lucky and were married happily with a kid of somesort. Her? She wasn't so fortunate, nobody really seemed to ask her to do anything with her, man or woman. She didn't quite understand why. Was it because of her family? Because they were intimidated by their stature? She didn't know. "Oh...I see," Sam said as Korena leaned off her arm and looked at Sam. "Sam...can I be honest with you about something?" "Anytime," She said with a smile looking into Korena's blue eyes. "I...don't like my job," Korena said with a sullen sigh and a sad look falling over her face. "I don't like anything about my life right now. Things just...feel pointless, you know?""You don't like your job? I thought you loved working with Suros." Sam replied slightly shaken at this news. "And you feel pointless? Why? What's gotten into you?" She asked as an Asian woman in a white shirt and pants walked over to them. "Hi there, welcome to Hanamura's, my name's Molly, I'm the owner. If there's anything you all need me to do to make your night better, just let me know okay?" She said looking at the Exo. "Aunt Korena!" She said happily. "Hey Mo, how're you doing?" Korena asked her. "Business good as usual?" "Yep, just about, anyway I gotta get back to work. See ya!" She said running back off to the kitchen to keep working. Korena sighed again and started to spin her chopsticks. "That..." Korena whispered in a softer tone than normal. "Look..I'd rather not talk about this now, let's just enjoy our meal, right?" Korena said forging a smile on her face. "You want to talk about it later?" "Sure," She replied taking a sip of her water as their food came out. After the two finished eating Korena decided to go for a walk with Sam out on the sidewalk that went on for hours and hours. All the while she had her hands in her pockets and her head slightly down. As they kept walking Sam looked at her, she seemed to be more like this than usual now. "Hey, Korena?" "Oh, uh, yeah Sam?" She asked seeming to get out of her trance like state. "You been feeling okay?" Korena sighed and sat down on a bench and looked up at the stars that now speckled the sky, the few that she could see due to the light pollution. "You ever get the feeling that you're destined for something greater? That you know you're able to do more...but your stuck in a place where you know you can't..." She said watching the jumpships fly overhead, going off to places unknown. Korena felt her lips start to quiver a little and her head looked down. "Sam...this is something that you will not tell anyone, alright?" She asked as she felt some tears in her eyes start to formulate and she looked at Sam. "I understand. What's biting you?" Korena sat her head down on her hands, holding it up with her elbows placed on her knees. "I feel empty...like my life is devoid of purpose. Why I feel this way? It's because of my family..." "Your family? Why? What have they been telling you?" "They haven't told me anything...it's things that I'm telling myself." She said slumping over with her arms crossed over her lap. "Imagine, you live in a family of geniuses and super heroes and heroines..." She said turning her head up to the sky again. "And your just....mediocre," She said with a struggle to get the word out of her mouth. "Korena you aren't mediocre," Sam said scooting over to her and putting her right arm over Korena's shoulders. "I am in my eyes..." She said trying her damndest to keep herself together. "Look at what I'm doing...and look at everyone else in my family.." She said with another sigh slipping out of her mouth. "I'm worthless...""Korena..you need to understand that the lives other people live aren't meant for everyone. But that doesn't mean that you can't contribute n your own way, you can volunteer your time places, you know?" "I have an odd feeling that there's a disconnect here." Korena replied. "I want to be more...I know I can do more...I just don't know where I can start.." She said standing up from the bench and putting her hands in her pockets. "Look, I appreciate you helping me out or at least trying your best to, but...I think I need to go home now," "Want me to walk you there?" "No, I'll be alright." She replied sincerely as she started walking away from the bench that they had been sitting at. She pulled out her phone out of her pocket and looked at the time, noticing that it was roughly ten o'clock at night. She flipped to the application that controlled her sparrow and had it drive home without her, she just needed this time to think. Life for everyone else in her family seemed to enjoy lives that kept them in the limelight, in eternal public approval. And that was perhaps the pain that hurt her for so long. She continued walking down the street until she passed underneath one of the newest buildings to come out of this new Golden Age; The Bray-Andrews Labs. Dr. Andrews, Korena's mother, was quite eager to get to work on more advanced projects, and with an old partner by the name of Anastasia Bray. The Bray's were instrumental in the work that she did in the Golden Age, back when she was still human anyway. The two were quite good friends and Sara, Korena imagined, was getting Ana caught up to speed with what she was capable of and the time that they had spent together. Exoscience was now becoming more and more prevalent, new software, materials, and functions are being constructed by the company every few months. Only just recently they announced they were working on a new model of Exo, a model under the name of 21, which is supposed to function the same as a model seventeen but has an appearance that is more human. Korena looked up for a moment and started walking down the sidewalk in the gentle orange glow of the street lamps. It seemed as if everywhere she went she was standing in the shadow of one of her family members.When all she wanted was to get out. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the night drew on, a man, an Exo in a suit was walking down the street, it was roughly two in the morning, nobody was walking outside. It was incredibly dark, except for the dim glow of orange street lamps. He was in a poorer area in Hope, with eyes that shifted from the right to the left as he walked, with his eyes set to the lowest possible setting of brightness. He wore a thick coat over his suit with parts of it going down to the lower part of his pants. He looked down an alleyway, and noticed a soft blue light emitting from the basement of one of the places. The building was boarded up, windows were shattered and there was no light that was coming out of it. Like it was a black hole in the center of the City of Light. "That's the place..." He said to himself. With a little hesitation he drew out his camera. The blue skinned Exo was named Gerard-01, an Exo with a heart for journalism. He was always looking for his next big story, and recently he'd been doing some investigating about some strange lights that would appear around the City late at night. They were always blue or bluish white. The Exo quietly and slowly walked up to the window and peered into the room. What he saw, was unlike anything else he had ever seen before in his life. There were seven figures, each clad in a dark black robe with a metal clasp. The clasps themselves had the visage of a dark The hoods that they wore covered their faces in a shroud of shadow. There was nothing that distinct about them that made them different from one another. Their hands were raised and in each of them was a bluish white flame and their hands seemed to glow slightly blue. At the center of them was an altar, with a book and candles with fires that he could only assume were lit by the flames that now covered their hands. The wax and wicks of the candles danced eagerly toward the center of the room. As gerard watched this, a person clad in a more regal robe walked into the room. He stood at about six foot four, his arms were covered in golden gloves, with plates on the top that had strange symbols on them, not in any language he recognized. The closest he could think of was some sort of Hivish tongue, but he couldn't be too sure. The man unlike the others, had a mask, one made of silver that looked like a Hive Acolyte's face. Two dark holes were where his eyes were supposed to be. His robes had the symbol of a crescent moon and a star on their sides, and a hand made of darkness descending over them. His clasp was a symbol he had seen before in a book. Four diamonds that were empty surrounded by a v shape and a larger diamond going down and three prongs sticking up out of it. "The sigil of the Court of Oryx?!" He exclaimed in his head as he watched him come forth from the shadows. Gerard got a chill as he walked forward, and stretched out his hands toward the altar and started chanting something in a tongue he had never heard. "Soool, toru minrath Korunathep, rini solta minith Korunathep," He vaguely heard through the glass. As he listened, his body began to quake, as if he was witnessing the summoning of the devil himself. Or, perhaps something worse. He pressed onward, eager to learn more of this, or to see the end what would come. As he witnessed this, the men in robes caught fire from the blue flame; engulfing them into pillars of fire. He watched as the man in the mask chanted and drew the fire closer to the altar. As he witnessed this, two more of the hooded people brought forth a person, not clad in any form of clothing. This was a male Awoken, in prime condition. Broad, Muscular, and with short black hair that was swept off to the right. What could he be doing here? "What could they possibly be doing?" He asked. The two hooded men walked up to the central altar, where they placed an ordinary kitchen knife. One that was six inches in length from tip to the bolster. As the masked figure chanted the fires from those who were kneeling gathered in the middle, forming a dark and menacing cloud of flame just above the altar. The flames then started to form a donut like shape in the air. Then the fire grew wider, and the Exo could no longer see the ceiling, he just saw the inky darkness of space. As time began to grow painfully long, he watched as a tendril reached down from the mass and touched the blade, making it shift and change as if it's molecules were being tortured. It turned into a blade with a glowing white tip that turned blue as it went to the darkness of the handle. One of the hooded figures walked up and grabbed the blade as the hole into space was held open. He heard them whisper something, it was quiet, intimate, as if telling another person a secret. The Awoken male took the handle of the blade, with the tip facing his stomach. Gerard watched as he raised the blade with both hands, then slammed it with all of his might into his gut. It made the Exo want to vomit in sheer shock, but that, wasn't the end. He started to twitch, to shake, and shiver as a blackness grew from his stomach out into the regions around him, like a spreading stain of soda from a glass spilt on a table cloth. All the while the man in the mask continued to chant his spell. A few moments passed, and the darkness that was infecting him reached his hands and fingers, and made them so sharp and jagged that they looked like blades. His eyes changed to white as the darkness engulfed his head, and changed his mouth and teeth to look a cavern of knives. His hair now glowed white around the dark follicles of his head and he knelt to the ground as whatever power was contained within the blade left to the dimension from hence it came. The awoken man was now unrecognizable, and glared at the men in robes surrounding him. As he did this, the masked man walked up to him and removed the blade, chanting a new spell this time, and the black colors began to fade. Gerard in his foolishness, chose this moment to take a picture. The bright flash of the camera entered the room, and at that one instant, all of the men in the room glared back emptily. Under the darkness of their hoods, a series of white eyes began to pop up. Gerard felt his power core start to race, as the men in robes started walking toward him. He struggled to get to his feet and started running down the alley as fast as he could, but by the time that he got to the end there were two men in robes standing there with the same clasp as the one with the mask. He started running back the other way, as two more men in robes appeared from behind the buildings on the left and on the right. From both sides they started to move in on him. And the four drew crooked and curved blades from under their robes and walked toward him. Nobody heard his screams that night, as they echoed through the city streets, the emptiness of the streets at this time of night was perfect cover. After all, the Cult of Korunathep would not be undone by a simple nuisance such as a reporter. And they were always in need of some sacrifices to appease the deity which they praised.