Split Worlds: The End-A Splitgate Story

I knew it was coming. I warned them. The end of all things. The very technology that revolutionized our way of life, would be our undoing. It wasn’t locusts or a rain of frogs that signaled our demise. It was portals.

As a member of the Sabrask, I’ve seen proof that time and space are infinite. I’ve encountered alien life forms. I’ve fought for my life against unthinkable monstrosities and threats that the average person couldn’t begin to comprehend; Space faring nightmares. With each species that we encountered, the ceiling kept being raised. Every time that you think that you’ve seen it all…Every time that you think the horror can’t be topped, some new grotesque form of “life” would make itself known. Despite our constant and relatively successful battles for survival, I always knew that one day, we would find ourselves outmatched. That day has finally come.

Three weeks ago, an impossibly large portal appeared in the sky, without warning. When the initial sightings came in, people thought that the sky had simply turned red. My unit was sent to investigate this mysterious event. And it was us who determined that the so called “red sky” was indeed a portal. The portal was so large that you had to approach it from miles away in order to see its full scope. What terrified us the most however, was the realization that the portal was not yet open. Its sister portal had not yet been placed. It was this detail that made us realize that something was seriously wrong. Why was this portal so impossibly large? Who had placed it? What was their intention? What would come out of this massive red hole in the sky, once it opened?

The military began an investigation and leading scientists quickly formed a variety of theories. Was this some Meridian experiment gone wrong? Was it an optical illusion of some kind, simply magnifying a “normal” portal at magnificent proportions?

But the reality was that my greatest fear around portal technology had come true. It was the most basic tenant of mankind’s existence. New scientific and technological advancements always become weaponized. They always lead to death, in the hands of human kind. Steel lead to swords, ignition lead to firearms, fission to the atomic bomb and now, portals. A technology that was meant to revolutionize transportation and the delivery of commodities as we knew it, would lead to our ultimate destruction.

My leading theory was that the portal would be used as an entry point for an intergalactic invasion. Some hostile alien race would launch an armada of ships through the portal and be able to instantly engage us, without notice of approach. One moment they would be on their home world and the next, they would be here. Since we lacked any real way to close the portal, their reinforcements would be only moments away. But sometimes, the real horror isn’t the unknown. It’s what was right there all along.

This “portal into hell” as many would call it, wasn’t the first time that something objectively bad had happened with portals. Anti-Sabrask terrorist organizations had utilized portals to pull off assassinations and bombings before. But this was on another scale. The sheer scope of this particular portal made its intentions known to the world. We were staring into an apocalyptic event.

Days after the portal’s appearance, strange signs began to appear in our cities. It started with graffiti. Then came a series of mentally disturbed individuals with the runes carved into their skin. The signs could be described as runic in appearance but the runes weren’t anything that we had seen before or could comprehend. Was it some type of foreign or alien language? Some type of codex that we just couldn’t decipher? We worked but made little progress.

But seven days ago, everything changed. All forms of communication were suddenly interrupted at 6:33pm and a message was broadcast. A speaker who identified himself as a member of “The Cult of Rhastor” spoke directly to the people. He warned that in exactly seven days, the Cult would summon a being unlike anything known to man, through the portal in the sky and bring an end to our civilization. The apparent “leader” of the Cult of Rhastor explained that man was a plague upon the stars and through extinction, they would set things right. They placed their “faith” in “the end.” They believed that man is doomed to repeat the same violent mistakes, again and again and the only “honorable” thing to do would be to defer to the intergalactic “nature” of “the void” to set things right. The broadcast ominously ended with the statement “Fear not. We will be cleansed, forgiven and all will be made right in the world that we leave behind.” The broadcast ended and the Cult of Rhastor was never heard from again.

Here I sit, with only minutes before the Prophecy of the Cult of Rhastor comes to fruition. While some doubted the Cult’s heeding, I never did. Not for a second. I’ve seen war. I’ve survived every battle. But the Cult is right about one thing. Wherever humanity goes, death follows. And in the end, I want to be alone.

We asked the Meridians for help but it’s pretty hard to sell tickets to a sinking ship. While many stayed home with their families, friends and loved ones today, here I sit on the edge of the world, staring into the portal, waiting for the end. Civil unrest has taken hold on many parts of the planet. Rioting, looting and violence has spilled into the streets as anxiety has become desperation. Our world had been consumed by doom and the government simply didn’t have the man power to control worldwide hostility. The military was called in to try and control the chaos, but I didn’t report. I went rogue. So here I sit, staring up into the sky, awaiting the horror that will bring about our destruction.

As the portal opened and the creature came into view, taller than the mountains themselves, I contemplated the irony of it all. Do we really blame this demonic beast? Humans had summoned this unholy being. And our embrace of portal technology made it possible. There was no one to blame but ourselves, in the end.

Despite this fact, my will to live didn’t dissipate. It didn’t waver for a moment. If this was the end, I wasn’t going to just sit down and take it. The world may be a cruel place, but it’s my world. This is my life. I’m not going standby while everything that I ever lived and fought for is destroyed. I loaded an incendiary grenade into my rifle and laid it across the handlebars of my motorcycle, pointing forward. If this is the end, I’m going to give this thing a scar to remember humanity and the Sabrask by. Everywhere it goes, it will carry a reminder of manking; a species that lived and died through violence but also sheer, undeterred will power.