Down With The Gods

“Wow! You’re older than our Oppa back there,” Yu teases, mocking Anish’s age.

“I’m only twenty years old on the inside!” Anish retorts.

During the ride, Mira continues holding onto Wyn’s arm, gazing out the window with hope that she might miraculously spot her sister. Wyn, on the other hand, enjoys the view, his curiosity piqued by the sleek, high-tech city. He wonders why it’s referred to as "abandoned." Since the journey will take over half a day, Anish suggests they transfer at the nearest metro station. The intricate metro lines are free but often crawling with creatures. While there aren’t any stations near the campsites, the closest one is a forty-five-minute drive away.

“What were your PPs on social media?” Anish asks, breaking the silence.

“Our what?” Wyn replies.

“Profile pictures. Mine was a family photo. I wish we could choose our own profile pictures here.”

“Maybe submit a request for that feature?” Wyn suggests.

“I did. Haven’t heard back.”

“I hated social media. My last pic was just my back, flashing the victory sign,” Wyn admits.

“Mine was a silly picture of me as a toddler,” Yu chimes in.

“You’re still a toddler,” Mira teases. “Mine was, of course, me in a bikini showing off my features!”

“Wish I could’ve seen that,” Anish says.

The team feels more lively than usual, chatting and laughing until they reach the metro station. A long stairway leads down to the island platform. The whole place is infested with large rat-like creatures. They aren’t particularly strong, so the team doesn’t have much trouble dispatching them. However, the creatures keep crawling out from under the platform, squeezing through the gaps between the tracks and platform gates. Wyn leaves the fighting to his team while he takes in the details of the station.

The platform, surprisingly clean despite the infestation, is spacious enough to fit hundreds of passengers. Metal benches in the middle can extend indefinitely by pulling the handles on either side, though they’re limited by the station’s size. There are no signs except for the route map and the station's name, East End Station, displayed on the platform gates. A digital map dynamically updates to show the train’s current location.

A horn sounds, and a bullet train arrives at platform one. The train hovers, using magnetic propulsion rather than traditional tracks. After a beep, the platform doors open, allowing multiple souls to exit, some of them still busy fighting creatures onboard. When another beep sounds, the doors close, and the four enter the train.

“Shit! We missed our exit!” a male soul grumbles as the train takes off.

In the same car, three souls are fighting a gray creature with two appendages extending from its torso, fusing at the thighs. The legs resemble gargoyle limbs, complete with clawed feet. The creature’s slanted red eyes are unnervingly located on the upper parts of its thick thighs.

“You guys need any help?” Wyn asks.

“No. But you should keep an eye out for more of them.”

“More of them?” Wyn repeats.

“They come out of the cabs and bathrooms somehow. There’s another one like this but with just arms!”

“Huh. I haven’t been on a train for so long, I didn’t know there were new creatures onboard,” Anish comments.

Wyn creates a rock pillar to shield his team from potential stray projectiles while the other souls fight. Inside the train, the same digital map is displayed above every door, showing their progress along the line. According to Anish, the twelve-stop ride will take about two hours.

At the first stop, the three souls exit, limping from their wounds. Wyn lowers the pillar, and so far, his team hasn’t encountered any creatures. At the fourth stop, a group of five souls boards the train, chatting loudly as they take their seats.

The train’s interior is sleek, with two rows of orange-cushioned seats along the sides, facing each other. Dim strips of night lights run beneath the seats. The light gray ceiling is marked by two parallel orange lines, where lights are embedded in the inner sections. The orange grab handles hang from matching aluminum bars, and the gunmetal floor completes the clean, modern look of the train.

Aside from the loud chatter, the ride has been smooth. Not intending to compete with the noisy group, Wyn’s team chats just as loudly. But before the train reaches the seventh station, it comes to an abrupt halt. The ceiling lights flicker and finally go dark, taking the map panels with them. The night light strips and the dim glow from the tunnel provide enough visibility for the souls.

Suddenly, the doors open automatically, followed by an ominous creaking sound. The train starts to wobble. Outside the windows, a massive shadow slowly envelops the train from the front, moving toward the back, blocking out the tunnel lights as it progresses. Sharp-clawed hands appear at each door, emerging from the shadowy mass, attacking the souls indiscriminately. For every hand destroyed, another takes its place.

“I have no idea what we’re up against,” Anish admits.

“This has to be the traineater. Never thought I’d get to fight one,” says Amélie, the laser soul.

“Let’s head to the first car. We need to see exactly what we’re dealing with,” Wyn suggests.

“Right! If it is a traineater, we’ll have to go for the eyes,” adds Lucas, the lightning soul.

The group fights off the relentless hands as they make their way to the first car. The door to the driver’s cab is wide open. In front of the train, a pitch-black entity looms, covered in countless bright white eyes, all staring into the cab.

“Every part of the train is indestructible. How the heck do we even attack the eyes?” Yu asks.

“There’s only one way…,” Wyn says.

“I don’t want to do this, but he’s right,” Amélie adds.

Yu and Mira continue battling the hands near the driver’s cab, while Amélie and Lucas fend off attacks at the next set of doors. The rest of the group huddles, hastily forming a plan.

“I’ll go out and clear a path for the rest of you. Anish, be ready to help Yu and Mira get off the train,” Wyn instructs.

“Wait. Why you?” Aaron, the ice soul, asks.

“He has over two thousand essence. If his attacks can’t stop it, then we’re all doomed,” Anish explains.

“Two thousand? The strongest one in our group only has twelve hundred!” Aaron exclaims.

With no further delay, Wyn launches two fully charged cyclone attacks from both hands, targeting the doors where Amélie and Lucas are defending. The cyclones tear through the shadowy creature, leaving gaping holes in its dark form. Wyn quickly exits through one of the doors, leaping out and firing two more vertical cyclones along the side of the train before the creature can regenerate.

Amélie follows him, shooting lasers upward to cover Wyn from above, while Anish pulls Yu and Mira safely out of the train. One by one, the others exit and join Wyn on the ground in the tunnel. Anish lifts the group to the train’s roof with a gust of wind.

Screams and chaos echo from the other cars as the creature continues feeding on souls, dragging them into its shadowy body. Due to its massive size, several of the creature’s eyes catch sight of Wyn and the others on the roof. It lifts itself slightly, revealing even more eyes.

Wyn quickly summons a protective cyclone around the group, shielding them from all sides. Laser and lightning, the only abilities capable of piercing the cyclone, are directed at the creature’s eyes. Despite their efforts, only a couple of eyes are taken out, each requiring multiple hits to destroy. Maintaining the strong cyclone saps Wyn’s stamina.

When the cyclone finally fades, Anish takes over, creating an outward wind barrier infused with Mira’s fire, slowing down the creature’s attacks. Under this protection, the group moves closer to the front of the train, hoping to get within range to strike again.

But the traineater retracts itself from the train, its numerous eyes merging into one large, singular eye. The shadowy mass condenses into two short yet powerful arms. Slowly, it crawls toward the group.

The souls’ attacks are blocked by the creature’s regenerating arms, which now heal even faster than before. While Wyn charges up for another cyclone attack, the traineater rolls out shadow balls onto the train roof. Wyn quickly summons a rock pillar to block them, and Aaron adds an ice wall in front of it. The first shadow ball shatters the ice wall effortlessly, and although the rock pillar manages to stop the next one, the second ball crashes right through. All nine souls are caught inside the sticky black sphere, rolling further down the roof.

Beyond the mid-section of the train, Wyn’s fully charged cyclone orb finally breaks, sending the shadow ball flying back toward the traineater. The ball smashes through the creature’s arms and hits it squarely in the eye. The impact shatters the ball, sending the souls flying in different directions. Meanwhile, the traineater is knocked onto the tracks, dragged along by the force of the crash.

Wyn lands directly on the creature’s eye, but Amélie isn’t as fortunate – she lands below the eye and begins to sink into the shadowy mass. Reacting quickly, Wyn grabs her, cyclone dashes, and lets his back slam into the train. Though he struggles to stand, Amélie helps him up, and soon Aaron and Josh join them in front of the train.

As the creature starts to rise again, two water fountains fused with ice freeze its hands. A laser shot, wrapped in a cyclone, strikes its upper eye, forcing it back down. Leading with Wyn’s chakrams for the finale, Amélie fires a fully charged laser fused with a cyclone, propelling the chakrams forward at incredible speed. The attack pierces through the traineater’s eye just as it lunges at them, causing it to collapse once more. This time, the creature disintegrates into essence, releasing the souls it had consumed earlier. Though free, many of them bear wounds resembling acid burns, while some appear to be missing parts – likely the result of the final attack that finished off the creature – but none was fatal.

“Oh hey! Catnips!” Amélie says as they gather around the essence dust, while the rest stand firm, keeping a watchful eye on the stash to prevent anyone from trying to steal it.

“If you’re not taking the essence, then you should get all the catnips,” Janine, the earth soul, offers.

The amount of catnips Wyn collects is more than enough to get Yu a guitar. Yu jumps in joy when she sees Wyn’s total catnip count displayed on his screen.

“Holy mother of cows! This thing is worth one thousand and fifty essence?” Anish exclaims.

“‘The rare lone shadow creature roams within the tunnel. Despite its name, it eats souls. If you see one and you’re still new, just run,’” Aaron reads aloud from his screen.

The train’s power flickers back on, and everyone climbs aboard once more. The doors beep and slide shut, and the journey toward the city center resumes.

“We should all get off at the next station,” Wyn suggests.

“Where are you headed?” Aaron asks.

“City center. You?”

“The Island Park. It’s two stops after City Center Station. Let’s all ride together.”

“You guys are strong. You should join us,” Janine suggests.

“...” Wyn starts to say something but hesitates, glancing at his teammates.

“Or maybe we join you?” she offers.

“You guys are strong, but we prefer keeping our group small. You know, for management reasons,” Wyn replies, a bit awkwardly.

“‘Management reasons’?” Mira whispers to Yu, who just shrugs in response.

The nine souls spend the rest of the ride chatting, genuinely enjoying each other’s company. It seems the traineater has scared off other potential threats, making the rest of the trip much smoother.

“From now on, let’s just take the car pod. I don’t mind traveling slower if it means avoiding things like that,” Wyn says, joining in on the conversation.

Then, the train’s speaker announces: “City Center Station. City Center Station. Please mind the gap between train and platform.”

Wyn and team bid farewell to the other five souls, waving to them through the windows as the train departs for the next station.

“Huh? A special event? OH YESSS!” Anish exclaims excitedly as they emerge from the station.