Ceres Chaos [Exosuit Progression]

Outside the ancient temple, the thirty warriors assigned to guard the entrance to the ancient temple grumbled amongst themselves, but it was hard for them to find common ground as Paska had smartly chosen them from different tribes.

They smartly used the abandoned expedition’s barricade as a defensive wall, mounting their rifles on it for support as they scanned the horizon.

“Why we not allowed to enter the ancient temple, but others can? Look, those in the same tribe as Paska all enter!”

“What bullshit? I am his tribe, and I did not enter!”

“Stop arguing. We should feel honoured to defend the temple.”

“But we never get holy artefact unlike others.”

“Brothers, there - shining blue object coming?” One of them peered into the far distance of the outside cavern.

“The monster! Shoot it!”

The warriors with energy rifles fired everything at the blue object from afar, but it dodged most of the shots, and those that landed barely did anything to slow it down.

Soon the blue object came closer to the barricade at unbelievable speeds, before suddenly stopping right at the barricade walls. The warriors kept shooting at it as the humanoid monster held its hands up.

[Stop shooting, I’m friendly!]

The shooting paused. “Wait, the monster speaks human!” The warriors were all confused.

“If he’s friendly, let him in?”

“Are you idiot? How can you trust just because friendly?!”

One of the warriors popped his head out. “Are you ‘Chosen’!?”

[‘Chosen’? Oh…]

The warriors looked at each other and silently nodded before resuming their shooting at the humanoid monster. “Be careful! It learnt human and is trying to trick us. Quickly send message back to Uron!”

One of the warriors quickly ran as the remaining warriors fended off the humanoid monster, running into the ancient temple with haste.

“Uron! The monster is at the old expedition camp now outside the ancient temple!” The warrior yelled as he entered the final hall. The expedition members who were left outside the inner door were now cuffed and watched by three warriors.

Uron stood up and cracked his hands. “Finally, some good action. Fighting this weak expedition was not enough for me. Twenty warriors, with me!” But before he could move a step, he suddenly felt an all too familiar tremor, except it was not coming from the inner door, but from the main temple door.

“The monster dares damage the temple. CHARGE!” Uron yelled as he rushed out of the final hall towards the first hall. However, when they reached the first hall, they immediately stopped due to their astonishment.

The first hall now was completely lit up, the carvings on the walls and the spheres placed on the ceiling all shone with greater intensity than they had ever seen. The murals were now fully visible, pulsating.

But that was not the most shocking part - for the ancient temple door was fully opened.

At the door stood a towering humanoid monster, its body and skin glistening dark blue coated with red bright blood under the brilliant light. If the warriors did not know any better, they would have assumed a god had descended.

Uron immediately realized that this humanoid monster was related to the ancient temple, but he saw the blood dripping from the spiked mace and its body as well as not a single sign of the thirty soldiers he posted outside.

“Brethren, look. Its mace is dripping with the blood of our fellow brothers. We must stop him from defiling the ‘Chosen’!”

The warriors immediately woke up from their stupor, fanning out in a battle formation and immediately shooting at the humanoid monster.

Uron stood at the back of the warriors, shouting at the humanoid monster: “FOUL BEAST! TODAY YOU SHALL DIE BY MY AXE AND I’LL EAT YOUR LIMBS!”

Without a reply, the humanoid monster rushed forward with unbelievable speed, swinging its spiked mace wildly as it pummelled and smashed through the warriors. Uron gasped in horror as no amount of strategy nor tactic could take down the monster’s absolute strength as it killed all the warriors in a short few minutes.

Uron quickly dropped his great axe and tried to flee further into the ancient temple, but the humanoid monster suddenly appeared in front of him, causing him to immediately prostrate himself. “Oh great one, I apologize deeply for not recognizing your strength. I will submit myself to you for the rest of my life.”

[Where’s the expedition?]

Uron was shocked. The humanoid monster had a voice. “Great one, they are at the inner door, follow me.” He respectfully said as he led the monster towards the final hall. Uron was internally panicking as he walked in front of the monster, who somehow decided not to kill him.

Walking through each of the halls, the ancient temple seemed to be activated along with wherever the humanoid monster is.

Uron gulped as he witness the carving and spheres all light up with brightness – it seemed that he was truly the owner of the ancient temple. Uron knew that now that his warriors had been hostile to the monster, he had no choice but to wipe him out.

When they reached the final hall which too lit up, Uron suddenly let out a shout to rally the warriors stationed there. “CHOSEN! ATTACK THIS – “

Before he could continue, his head had already been smashed to pieces by a single swing of the humanoid monster’s swing, the blood splattering on the floor.

The remaining warriors looked on in horror as one of their strongest warriors fell to the ground headless, while the humanoid monster slowly walked towards the temporary expedition camp.

The final hall’s carvings and spheres lit up as well, illuminating the entire hall and allowing the warriors to see the copious amount of blood that had drenched part of the humanoid monster.

Regardless, they still charged forward, firing everything they had at the humanoid monster who did not even bother to dodge any longer, simply taking it.

The battle was swift and furious, and Ren just stared in shock as he witnessed an absolute massacre occur, the bodies and organs of mutilated warriors flying everywhere like a dance as the humanoid monsters smashed them into pieces directly.

“That’s – that’s an exosuit!” Ren exclaimed to himself.

As the last warrior desperately tried to fend off the humanoid monster, the monster grabbed him by the head and crushed it easily.

Ren gulped as he saw the humanoid monster face him, desperately trying to get out of his handcuffs.

“Captain, he’s coming towards us!” Another expedition soldier screamed.

Suddenly the humanoid monster staggered before collapsing on one knee, its hands holding its head. “Quickly, this is our chance to run - We got to get into the inner door now!” Ren ordered the expedition soldiers to escape.

Suddenly a hissing sound was heard, as the monster stood upright and opened up, revealing a tanned boy inside with the same protective suit that the town wore, who fell out of it and collapsed onto the ground, struggling to get up.

The tanned boy wore the same town’s protective suit that Ren recognized immediately. However, on his face was a pure black mask, only tainted with a blood stroke in the shape of a crescent brush stroke.

“What the… how do you have the town’s protective suit? Who are you? What did you do to the town?” Ren immediately became paranoid as he still tried to break free of his restraints, fearing that the town had been overtaken by strangers.

The tanned boy looked up, and the black veins that surged and pulsed all over his hands freaked out the expedition soldiers even more. “It’s a mutant surface dweller, RUN! I’LL STOP HIM!” Ren ordered the other soldiers to move towards the inner temple door.

The tanned boy struggled to speak and get up, while Ren bought the time to break off his handcuffs using a nearby weapon. He quickly picked up a nearby Chosen axe and adopted a battle posture, inching slowly towards the tanned boy.

Ren naturally wasn’t sure if he could fight off a mutant that effectively wiped out the Chosen warriors on his own, but he had to give his life to buy time for the remaining soldiers who just entered the inner door. He rushed at the tanned boy and tried to chop the head of the tanned boy off, but realized that the boy had already disappeared.

“Are you the expedition?”

Swivelling around, Ren swung around with the axe, slicing at the boy’s neck but his arm was stopped by the boy’s hands. “Answer me. Chosen or expedition?!”

“What did you do to the town!?” Ren roared back, struggling with all his might against the boy’s hand which gripped his arm even tighter. He realized that even his battle-hardened body was unable to fight against the overwhelming strength, wincing at the grip.

“The town sent me - my name is Ceres. Captain Kai and Mercer are on their way soon. Where are the rest of the expedition members? I thought you were under siege.” Ceres asked frantically.

“Wha…? “ Ren was confused. Didn’t this boy wear the exosuit and break the siege on his own? What in the world was he asking? “Didn’t you kill all the warriors?”

Ceres looked around him, seeing the body parts of the warriors that he killed strewn on the floor. “Wait, that’s it? That’s the siege?” Ceres said with a hint of dissatisfaction. He had expected a Shattered Empire level of the battle of five hundred or more.

“Yes, we fought them for more than a week… The leader! The leader of the warriors is chasing us further in the temple. He brought ten of his best warriors in there - the rest of the expedition is behind the inner door!” Ren hastily pointed at the inner door after Ceres let go of him.

Ceres frowned. Should he wait here for the supply convoy to catch up? “What’s behind the inner door?”

“I have no idea, but we were forced to enter because the enemy caught up to us. The original exploration team has yet to return as well.”

“Everyone in the expedition wearing the same uniform? No tattoos on their forehead?”

“Yes, yes! The enemy leader is wearing white shaman robes and has a tattooed ‘Y’ on his forehead. Don’t underestimate him, he’s extremely strong!”

Ceres’s left arm twitched upon hearing that, forcing him to use his right arm to suppress it. The black goo was still running rampant in his body, pumping adrenaline into him. It took him all his effort to suppress it as much as possible.

He walked back to his heavy exosuit while Ren slumped on the floor, breathing hard. It was too much excitement and battle for a day for Ren, who heaved heavily.

Ceres frowned as he checked the heavy exosuit. He had been effectively running almost non-stop for close to three days straight in order to get here, so the legs of the exosuit were close to being totalled. The motors could barely move any longer, forcing him to exit the exosuit.

With his superhuman strength and enhancements, he could still use the heavy exosuit but was afraid of having to abandon it inside the ancient temple or having it fail on him during a critical moment.

“Better stick with what I know. Hey you, stay here and wait for Captain Kai to come. I’ve placed markers along the way, so don’t you dare move.”

Ren was furious that such a young kid was ordering him around, but was reminded of the fact that the ‘kid’ brutalized more than fifty warriors on his own.

He nodded slightly, ashamed at himself for being unable to stand up against such horrific strength. If Ceres was lying to him, what could he even physically do to stop him?

Ceres didn’t care what Ren thought, only focused on saving the rest of the expedition. He did not expect the expedition to actually enter the ancient temple, but when he entered the first hall, the ancient temple doors actually opened for him.

The carvings that all lit seemed to tell him a story that only he could feel, but he blocked it all out of his mind and focused.

If he couldn’t use the exosuit inside, then he would have to go in on his own. He picked up the spiked mace, swinging it easily as Ren watched in horror, wondering how the kid could even lift that with one hand like a feather.

Combined with the blood crescent on the black mask that the kid wore, he looked like a violent fighter from the depths of hell.

Ceres took apart a few armour plates and merged with some of the combat armour that had been ‘retrieved’ from the fallen bodies of the warriors.

He also picked up an energy rifle just in case, strapping the heavy mace to his back. Without knowing what sort of opponents or types of wildlife he might encounter, a ranged option would always serve him well.

It took him close to three hours to get ready, making sure he had everything he needed.

It was too hard for him to get the heavy exosuit working again due to a lack of parts and tools, so he had to make do.

Now he looked like a normal tribal warrior, albeit without the tattoos and a large ten kilogram mace on his back. The mawsie armour plates strapped to the stolen combat armour protected his front, back and limbs, while he wore the town’s protective suit as the inner layer.

“How long ago did they enter?” Ceres asked as he walked up to Ren.

“First team went in maybe seventeen hours ago.”

“Okay, I’m going in. Wait here for two days – if the rescue squad doesn’t come, head back to town if you can. I already cleared the route.” Ceres walked towards the inner door.

Suddenly the inner door too lit up, the carvings on the inner door glistening blue. Ren watched in awe, as he had never seen the ancient temple react to someone before. In fact, to enter the inner door they had to blow a hole inside.

Ceres felt suspicious, staring intently at the inner door, who started to open fully. Instead of showing whatever was inside, a completely pitch-black barrier appeared, not allowing one to see what was on the other side. “What the fuck is this?”

“It’s the reason why we don’t know what happened to the exploration team, this barrier blocks all form of communication and scanners.” Ren explained to the best of his ability, paraphrasing the science team.

Ceres tried to search for emotions, but somehow could not see anything past the barrier. Either there was no one left for the one kilometer ahead of him, or the barrier somehow also managed to block his vision.

He had never encountered a material that could block his vision – was the ancient temple related to the enhancements that he had received?

He recalled the fact that the planet Athen used to be owned by the slovesa more than 200 years ago before the original colonists took over. Was this temple a remanent of the slovesa? If it’s reacting to him, does it mean his black armour and black liquid originates from the temple, or is related to the slovesa? Was he a slovesa now?!

“No time to hesitate!” Ceres resolved himself, walking through the pitch black barrier. The darkness enveloped him, Ren watching him walk into the barrier and releasing a ripple across the black barrier.

The inner door then began to slowly close again, the carvings returning to their normal state. The third hall began to dim as well.

Ceres walked forwards, but all around him he could see nothing. It was pitch black in every direction and he could not even see his own hands.

He tried to look at his own legs, but he could not do that either. Not even a single living being was in sight. “What in the world is this ancient temple about?”

Suddenly, a white speck of light appeared in front of him, looking like an exit. Ceres smiled, and was about to walk forward when the white speck of light suddenly rushed at him, enlarging to blind and cover his surroundings!