77th Armageddon: Codex I [Tyfrea-Unkur]: 77th Armageddon, #1

By ARX COLLECTIVE

"A i t i o s 

 Is.
a divine being

which - when pregnant - hold billions of fetuses in the womb at once.

One day a disease breaks out amidst the fetuses. A disease which causes the cells to recognize those of other fetuses and the womb as foreign.

The affected fetuses see the womb as flesh as good for eating; as good as the flesh of other fetuses.

Which of the two is the more excruciating pain?

Look at the pyramid. Stacks of fetuses feeding upon one another. The grown ones at the top suck their thumbs in contentment.

The children see the womb as the entirety of their world. As a result, they are deathly afraid of leaving it. They avoid being born with all that they could muster, seeing birth as the end.

Not knowing that after leaving the womb,

they will spend their lives with

Mother.
 
CIII - CV - XCIV
3-15-18-18-21-16-20-5-4"

- Prologue I, Codex I 

77th Armageddon: Codex One

First created as a cryptic anthology of flash-fiction, [ 77th Armageddon ] merges elements of sci-fi, crime, and the supernatural to rapidly unfold an apocalyptic saga. 

Codex I: The Heaven-Destructors is centered on a true kidnapping case, from which an intricate puzzle emerges with an array of personalities each set on their own adventures, all crossing paths in a philosophical maelstrom. 

Winner of the Empire 72 Dominion Award 

"...a most intellectual and endlessly-intriguing contemporary novel….entertaining as a literary puzzle on its own, the novel is further bolstered by its intricate construction and invocations of human thought." - Empire 72 Awards

Cipher. And Code.

With arcane passages and embedded code which unlocks further content,  [ 77th Armageddon ] features nearly a dozen hidden passages and theory-crafting contests for a truly interactive reading experience. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: ARX COLLECTIVE
• Release date: May 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9781999545062

Book preview

S e v e n t y-

S e v e n t h

A r m a g e d d o n

or

[ A i t i o s  :  T h e  A n n o t a t i o n s ]

––––––––

flourish-2750479_960_720.png

by

t h e  A r x  Co l l e c t i v e

Seventy-Seventh Armageddon

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Copy ©2019 by the ARX COLLECTIVE

ISBN

77th main.gif

[ C o d e x  I ]

T y f r e a – U n k u r :

The

Heaven-Destructors

––––––––

C o d e x I-page-001.jpg

P  r o l o g u e  I

A i t i o s

––––––––

Is.

a divine being

which - when pregnant - hold billions of fetuses in the womb at once.

One day a disease breaks out amidst the fetuses. A disease which causes the cells to recognize those of other fetuses and the womb as foreign.

The affected fetuses see the womb as flesh as good for eating; as good as the flesh of other fetuses.

Which of the two is the more excruciating pain?

Look at the pyramid. Stacks of fetuses feeding upon one another. The grown ones at the top suck their thumbs in contentment.

The children see the womb as the entirety of their world. As a result, they are deathly afraid of leaving it. They avoid being born with all that they could muster, seeing birth as the end.

Not knowing that after leaving the womb,

they will spend their lives with

––––––––

Mother.

CIII - CV - XCIV

3-15-18-18-21-16-20-5-4

P  r o l o g u e  III

"  T h e  D w a r f  C h i l d  &

H e r  D w a r f  G r a n d m o t h e r  "

Today is the day she would receive her birthday gift.

She's been waiting for a long time. She knows to wait, but could not help but ask Grandma every day.

Today, Grandma smiles; it is a yes. It is the day chosen by their Zeata.

Under a bright blue sky

by a bright blue sea

two naked female figures clad themselves in white.

One jumps into the sea.

Another jumps into the sea.

and they do not come back up

until four days later.

CXXXIX - LXXX - LXXXIX

19 - 12 - 5 – 23

C:\Users\Free\Desktop\Downloads\segments.jpg

Year 649 [ DXLIX ]

C h a p t e r  I

[ Ea I ]

It is midnight, 12:15. On a train traveling 122 storeys in the sky, she sits in the very back – trying to drown out a noise with her music. It cannot work.

Between a whimper for help and a child's command, the man's moaning goes on and on. In the air, the moaning fathers an unbearable anxiety, over whatever pain or malfunction that fathers the moan.

She looks at the man.

He is a large, overweight man on an electric wheelchair. His eyes look upwards; one arm is stuck in a clawed position to his side. He seems to be unaware of the noise he is making, and of everything else on the train.

The noise goes on and on.

The noise repeats itself.

Suddenly, she takes off her headphones.

She pulls out a pen from her backpack, and marks on the back of her hands the looping pattern of his moans:

... -—-.—. / -—..-. / -.-. .-. . .- - .. -—-.—..—/—.. -. .

*******

My Name is Nyaemias

[ Ea II ]

Ea pulls out her phone and enters the search term: nyaemias

There is a sole video link to the man. 96 hours long. Of him sitting in an empty room aside from the white chair he is on. He is looking at the ceiling, moaning - throughout the entire video.

She clicks through the video and gets off the train at the 96th sky-tower.

*******

Upon arriving at her unit, she slams her bedroom door. No one is home again. At least these days, the men and women are not brought home.

She pulls up the extremely long video to extract its audio, and speeds it up 12 times faster.

There are no conventional breaks between moans, but only long pauses that divide the entire audio into one-hundred and forty long segments.

She starts decoding. The first long segment reads:

X.2.0700OOOOOOOOOOOOOOZZZZZ$ZZZZZZZZZZZ$ZZ

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ$$Z$$$$$7$$$$$$$7$$$7$$

$$$$$$ZZZZOOO€O€€€€€€O?,:++?IIIIIIIII777777777777$

She does not give up.

[ The First Three Segments ]

X.2.0700OOOOOOOOOOOOOOZZZZZ$ZZZZZZZZZZZ$ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ$$Z$$$$$7$$$$$$$7$$$7$$$$$$$$ZZZZOOO€O€€€€€€O?,:++?IIIIIIIII777777777777$

––––––––

"€€€€€OOOOOOOOOOOOOOZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ$$$$ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

$$$$7$$777777777$$$$$$$$$$$$$ZZZOOOOOOOOOZ$::++?IIIII777$7777777777777777 "

"€€€OOOOO€OOOOOOOZZOZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ$$Z$$$..$OZZZZZ$ZZZ$Z$

$$$$777777I7777$7$$$$$$ZZ$ZZZZZOOOOOOZI:~.,:=+IIIII77777777777777777777$ "

[ The Solution of Ea ]

All nineteen-thousand and six-hundred characters, broken into 140 segments.

X appears once.

C:\Users\Free\Desktop\aitios2\a.png

[ F U L L   S O L U T I O N ,   H I G H L I G H T E D  ]

C:\Users\Free\Desktop\aitios2\a2.png

[ The Tryst ]

She recognizes the painting. It was in the papers. 79 years ago on Monday, September 21st, the painter – a young girl – went missing. The country held 16 separate ceremonies at the central gallery, honoring the painter and the painting.

X.2.0700. Ea marks down the monthly occasion. Second of the month, seven o’clock.

***

In the emptiness of the early morning, she’s been circling the art gallery, which sits at the 109th storey with an outdoor garden. She is waiting for something to happen. In secrecy. Knowing, that something ought to appear. It is the 2nd of the third month, 07:00 after all.

From behind, a boy walks up to Ea.

He opens up an umbrella over her head.

It was my father’s favorite painting. He says.

Slightly shaken, Ea looks up at the boy. He is in his teenage years. Brown hair, pale skin. And a motionless expression.

She can see the resemblance. And the same distance in the eyes.

***

The boy continues. He said he saw the same vision. He said he can see that world, the one the painter visited. A world of unseen natural beauty, magnificent landscapes, and... beings of titanic stature. He was autistic.

Ea stares at him.

He said he could not paint with colors, but he could paint with his voice....

***

Ea speaks. Where is he right now?

The sunlight on the side of his face disappears. And it starts to rain.

After a moment of silence, the boy says calmly. He’s dead.

***

Her face tells him that she didn’t understand. So the boy goes on.

My father died in a robbery assault. He was an obvious target; frail, awkward, not able to communicate much aside from moaning. They killed him years ago.

The boy gives her time.

And so what was on the train was... Ea asks.

His corpse.

[ The Tryst II ]

Believe what you will. I could just as easily tell you that I’m making all this up for fun because I am a bored and useless youth. But here is the true story. After his death, I really did miss him. I grew used to hearing his moans; I could see the colors in the painting by listening to him. The hidden figure in the sea. The silver-lining on the clouds...every stroke.

I told myself that it was not to be the end of my father. I sold his body. For money. They bought him for an average price; because I told them they cannot deform it further. They bought it, and brought him back to life. As a robot. But not really. My father has no artificial intelligence; he is just mobile skin encasing an audio device, repeating the same pre-recorded audio.

***

They use him. As bait. He still is the obvious victim that he was. They send him around the city to fish out potential predators and offenders. But as a machine, my father can no longer be hurt. No matter how bad he gets cut up in the dark corners of these towers....the medics just sew him up.

***

My father, now, saves lives. He diverts attention and aggression away from real people, real victims. He helps throw people in jail for attacking him. He baits out criminals.

The boy winks. But he doesn’t smile.

[ The Tryst III ]

So it was you who planned all the code? Why all this? Ea asks.

Yes, I modified my father's message. I guess I just want...someone who listens. Someone who can understand, and not dismiss what I have to say because they are too stupid to comprehend all this. Someone who knows, how proud I am of my father.

Ea gives him a smile. I think your father feels the same about you. How is your mother? Ea says.

I am alone. You?

Similar. But I have my sister.

What’s she like?

Younger and more active...good with people. I don’t really need to take care of her. My parents asked me to though. Ea laughs. At herself.

"I’m sure she’s proud to