The only people crazy enough to enter the Wild Lands voluntarily were high-level mercenary hunters. They went in looking for resonance stones or unhatched half-life beast eggs to sell to the rich families. And even then, half of those hardened hunters never returned. They usually ended up as a mid-day snack for a tusked predator or a stronger human.
It was said that those who lived within the Wild lands were crazy, and they had surrendered their humanity to cannibalistic instincts.
To make matters worse, the Wild Lands were situated right up against the edge of the Protective Veil!
She almost stepped into a pothole in the road, but quickly walked around it, trying to calm her heart. It was beating faster because, she had not even thought about that, the Veil. Every child grew up learning about it. It was the massive, shimmering, three colored energy barrier that kept humanity from being completely wiped out by the Somnivores, an alien race.
The funniest or cruelest part is that the aliens hadn’t even forced their way on earth. Humanity had practically invited them over like they were inviting neighbors for dinner.
Zyra had not been born yet when the aliens arrived, or when the apocalypse started, but the stories were told and re-told. They were taught in schools as precautionary tales and part of science.
It all began with a spark of naïve hope. On 30th January 2029, a crew of astronauts from a nation called the UKA had intercepted a drifting, damaged spaceship near Jupiter’s orbit that was sending out a distressed signal. Inside, they found twelve alien beings that called themselves Somnivores.
They were not creatures of flesh alone; their bodies shimmered like translucent sculptures. Their tall frames etched with faint lines of light which pulsed beneath their skin. Their veins were like neural circuits, exposed as if their anatomy was designed for observation. Their eyes were black like ink but shimmered like crystals which reflected many layers.
They looked strange, but they were polite, trembling with gratitude as they pleaded for rescue, claiming to have been attacked and lost contact with their mother world. They had no idea how to find their home ever again.
Earth, being entirely too trusting and greedy for their knowledge, welcomed them with open arms as interstellar guests. For a year, humanity basked in the wonderful glow of alien friendship. The twelve guests shared advanced formulas, fixed global energy issues, smiled for the cameras and moved to different continents on tour, settling down around the world.
But fate likes to mock the foolish.
Human scientists finally managed to decrypt the deep hidden fragments of the alien spaceship’s flight logs. These twelve beings weren’t peaceful explorers like they seemed or lost victims in need of rescue.
They were escaped prisoners!
And they weren’t just petty thieves.... they were the worst of the worst. Warlords, cruel tyrants, and twisted manipulators who had been exiled by their own advanced civilization for twisted experiments.
By the time Earth’s leaders realized they had invited twelve alien serial killers into their world, it was already too late.
The twelve unleashed their real plan without mercy.... which was to take over the planet and rebuild it in their own image, with earthlings as slaves. Their tours had been information gathering missions. Their desire to settle on different continents was simply a division of the spoils of a war which had not even been fought.
It was the scramble and partition of earth!
They caused an earthquake--the magnitudes of which earthlings had never seen. Every government was busy rescuing their people. They had not even realized that the Somnivores had been releasing toxic gases into the air, during their tours.
At first, it was subtle, but after the earthquake, it became much more obvious. Strange radiation spread faster than the governments and scientists could keep up.
Beautiful forests twisted into terrifying jungles of black thorns. Mighty seas boiled with unnatural toxins. But the worst part was the animals.
Earth’s wildlife mutated into horrifying, monstrous forms. Regular wolves grew massive tusks and doubled in size. Tiny birds sprouted razor-sharp reptile scales. Insects swelled to the size of pots. Plants developed a taste for human flesh.
The aliens didn’t just let the monsters run wild, either. They wielded their highly evolved souls as literal weapons, mentally binding these mutated beasts into absolute servitude. Packs of these soul-controlled predators swept across continents, tearing through human tanks, missiles, and armies like they were paper toys. Traditional human technology utterly faltered against creatures fused with alien willpower.
The resulting war lasted for decades. Old nations collapsed entirely. The skies turned a permanent, dusty gray, and proud cities were reduced to smoking ruins. The human population dwindled to a fraction of its former size, surviving like rats in scattered, heavily fortified fortresses that did not stand a chance against the monsters.
But eighteen years into the war, the tides of fortune finally shifted.
A group of human soldiers managed to capture one of the Somnivores alive. A team of brilliant female scientists, led by a legendary woman named Eve Johnson took charge of his interrogation. They systematically peeled away his psychological defenses, extracting the secrets from him.
What they learned changed human history forever. As long as they could extract the resonance core in the chest of the Somnivore or and mixed it with specific mutated herbs, they could create a resonance serum. The serum could change human biology and spirituality, granting them the power of resonance.
This power could grant their souls the ability to bond with souls of mutated beasts, giving them an extra layer of protection and strength.
The discovery was a revolutionary miracle. Seven women from the team volunteered to be part of the experiment, including Eve Johnson. The other six were Sonia Karras, Lynette Fontaine, Aldrine Draxier, Sophia Scorpion, Daphne Moreau, Sandra Armitage.
The seven risked their lives and they were rewarded, becoming the first seven Soul maidens of humanity. Not only did they bond with mutated beasts that were named half-life beasts, but they also found that they could heal with the touch of a hand.
They hunted mutated beasts, entered Somnivore strongholds and brought back herbs.
Experimentation continued, proving that resonance cores of high-level mutated beasts with the right herbs could also be used to grant humans the power of resonance. But, it was just not as strong as that made directly from the core of a Somnivore. Still, it was all they needed to make waves.
Within a year, the human military transformed. Soldiers threw away their useless guns and began forging soul-bonds with creatures, turning their enemies’ own weapon against them.
With this new power of soul bonding, humanity launched a massive counter-offensive. Slowly, painfully, they reclaimed about 65% of the planet. Cities were rebuilt, though they remained deeply scarred. The twisted forests were now heavily patrolled by armies.
Two more Somnivores were captured. Eventually, the surviving alien prisoners retreated deep into the shadows, hiding in dungeons of their making that were hard to infiltrate.
Humans had long grown weary of the war. They wanted to rebuild and re-grow the dying population. From the billions that once existed, only about three hundred million remained!
The seven women split up, moving to different continents, taking control of the population there as clan leaders.
The Soul maidens used the power of resonance cores harvested from the two Somnivores and the of power of their own souls to create the protective Veil around the reclaimed parts of earth.
Humans started rebuilding, but they did not forget their enemies. There were nine Somnivores to kill. The enemies were inside dungeons.... sprawling, multi-level labyrinths of stone, shadow, and concentrated radiation, packed with mutated beasts, rare minerals, and life-sustaining herbs needed for humanities survival.
Inside those dungeons lay the absolute lifeblood of the new world.....Resonance Stones and energy stones. For those two things alone, humans were willing to risk it all.
And right now, so was Zyra.