Level 382/647961746c6f76

And there was light.
Light powerful enough to destroy a town miles away and to shake the Earth. Light seen for a thousand miles.
The light of death.
For this was the moment that humans found that they had truly forged weapons suited for gods. But, alas, though they had the brawn, it was not known if they had the brain to use it…
…and the control not to.
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Over the years, the world found that, yes, it could control itself. But the weapons remained, and multiplied, the expansion driven by, like so much more, distrust. Men in power hated those in control of other lands, and so created more of the divine light to destroy them.
But there remained a problem. Yes, the weapons, the delivers of the light, existed. But did they work? It was impossible to answer this question, both because of common sense and the need for secrecy. But soon, an opportunity presented itself.
Research suggested that there might be another world out there. Another world where the light could be unleashed in secrecy, without enemies lurking about. And, most perfectly of all, only a small group of people knew it existed, and had some inkling of an idea for how to travel to it. All of them had sworn allegiance to only one land.
Quickly, that country gathered together its best and brightest to build the machine which would get them to this undiscovered land. The first attempts were successful, others, not so much. It was years before they had a machine that could transport a person, and even then it would still not work.
In the meantime, the farmer who had begun it all was replaced, and a new leader took power, one who swore to himself that he would see the project finished. Indeed, under his leadership the first test occurred. Unfortunately, it succeeded.
Why is that unfortunate, one might ask? Because, in the process, those men, now more like sorcerers than scientists, tore open a hole in reality. They set in motion a series of events which would lead to the destruction of their planet. Only an unforeseen problem with a piece of metal prevented them from widening the hole they punched.
And, yet, the project continued. Despite several losing their lives in this quest for a way to test the light, it grew. A new group took control, with testing the light now just one of their goals. Now, this new world was to become a second home for humanity.
In the fall of 1988, the doorway was opened. Explorers were sent out, and the inhabitants of the world were discovered. Attempts began to aid the friends and to kill the foes. In the end, however, corpses of both would find their way back to the lab for study.
Then, in 1990, the weapons came to the new world. It was tested four times within it, and, although they could not know of their studies’ hidden results, they were pleased with what they could see. Now, at last, it was time.
Into the doorway came the most powerful weapon ever created by man. One could imagine that, with its pure power, it would make Zeus himself quake in terror. Indeed, some thought that it could destroy not just an island, but possibly an entire city. No—not just destroy, but eliminate.
And then… the doorway broke. The cargo was lost.
It could have ended there. It should have ended there. But it did not.
----
That was the year the Wall separating the worlds was discovered. It was believed, at the time, that breaking the Wall would allow one to easily cross between the worlds. Of course, we now know that such an event would instead result in a much more horrible fate for every living being.
But, to our regret, nobody knew that back then. It was a time bomb, waiting for the person who would try to break the Wall—not knowing that, in saving themselves, they doomed everybody.
And, as if God Himself was trying to ensure this, the weapon which had been lost was found at the Wall. It was no longer the bomb—it was the fuse to an infinitely more dangerous one.
But who would light the fuse? Perhaps a lonely wanderer, seeking his homeland. Maybe explorers on official business, doing it to see what would happen. Maybe both.
All that we know is that, in the spring of 1990, the fuse was lit. The Wall was attacked.
You might be wondering, reader, why I did not say that it was destroyed. That is because it was not. For the Wall is not a solid wall built of bricks or stone, but a fluid surface like a river. It was not pierced, but was stretched out. It became so thin that one could just walk through it. A pity that whoever triggered the weapon was not alive to do such a thing.
But what happened next? And how do the peaks play into this?
You must understand, reader, that the worlds do not solidly connect. A doorway between them might exist one minute, and be gone the next. The same is true with time—it might be 4:00 in one and 3:00 in the other, at the same time. And, to make it more confusing, an exit might lead to one time one minute and another the next. The worlds never have snapped together like building blocks. They have always just drifted together, touching and separating.
When the Wall was stretched, on the other side was a mountain the natives called Kholat Syakhl, set in the middle of a range of mountains. It was this place that bore the brunt of the bomb-lighter’s mistake.
First to appear was the light, unleashed by the weapon. But the Wall stripped it of its power, making it just regular light. Even so, it was light that illuminated thousands of miles, if even for just a split second.
Next to come was a horrible noise. And though this noise could not be heard by human ears, it still registered in some fundamental way. Those who heard it were struck by panic, a panic so deep it made them run in terror. A taste of the world it came from, one might say. It was accompanied by flecks of dust falling from the sky, created by the weapon, all emitting a horrible poison.
All of these would have caused those on the mountain to flee or die. But the mountain sat in the center of the wilderness. Nobody was there… at least, not normally. But, on this night, nine people were sleeping on the slope of the mountain.
Their corpses were found weeks later.
Their deaths have caused much speculation, for what killed them has never been clear. For, as if to fix the mess its damaging had caused, the Wall fixed itself. It untangled the two worlds which had been mishmashed atop and on the slopes. The area that the weapon had directly touched—all that the light had reached—was separated from the rest. The realities were pieced back together.
The result was the Toxic Mountain, or Level 382. But when two paints, both different colors, are mixed and then separated, one will always have a trace of the other.
What is done cannot be undone, and that can be seen in the Mountain.
The Mountain is the one place that more closely resembles the Front than the Back. The only anomalies one can point to are those created by the weapon. And, in the other world, the question of what killed those men will likely haunt us for some time, and, if it is ever solved, will live on in memory.
----
So, you now see how this was our mistake. A place we created through our own stupidity. But there is one more thread to add to this tapestry.
For, when the Wall was attacked, one other thing crossed it. But this one was alive—though not for much longer, as the cold would soon kill it.
It would later be dubbed горный зверь—the mountain’s beast. It was found months after the incident, and was impossible. Its body was vastly different from everything else humanity had ever seen. When they tried to recreate what lay under its skin, they found they could not. Years of study reached no conclusions.
Eventually, the corpse was smuggled over to another place. Studies there proved to be ineffective. But those in power now knew that things which defied all explanation were out there. Yes, things—for it was about this time that another unexplained organism came to light. An entire organization was created to study and make sense of these anomalies, stolen from their adversaries.
Decades later, the same organization would be the ones to deliver the weapon to the other world.
Now, you see the paradox. The organization could not have existed without the creature, but the creature would never have been found without the organization. What lies at the start? What lies at the end?
All in all, this raises more questions than answers, which likely will never be resolved.
This is what happened because of man’s meddling in affairs outside of his control. Ask yourself—should we try doing so again? Should we stop the meddling occuring today?
And thus the hardest question of all.
Should we try to escape our fate, or accept it?
Category:Tales
Category:ATLAS ARCHIVE