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Realm of RadianceThe sound of a machine whirring echoed out as a faint blue glow began to emit from a diamond in the chassisof a hunched over figure. A humanoid creation slowly stoodup. Turning its screen facedown, it looked at its hands as thediamond grew brighter. Its wrists and neck began to dimly glow,the robot watching as its hands detached from its arms andhovered a slight distance away from the ends of its wrists. Therobot slowly opened and closed the four fingers on each of itsfloating hands as memories began to flow through its circuits.His name was R-X Diamond; he was designed to be acompanion and aide to the famous, brilliant, and dashing scientistwho had created him. At least, that’s what his programmingtold him. However, he couldn’t remember much of anythingelse. R-X continued to study his body carefully. He felt a thick,metal rod where his waist was supposed to be, connecting historso to his pelvis. Sharp shoulder blades reached out fromthe upper ends of his arms. His body was mostly spotless, savefor some areas covered in small scratches. The area where hisneck should have been was more of an indent, an opening thatseemed like a plug for his head. The neck area began to emit ablue glow as well, and R-X’s boxy head disconnected from hisbody, hovering a couple of inches above the rest of his chassis.During the examination of his body, a faint beeping behind himcaught his attention. Turning his head a full one hundred andeighty degrees, R-X faced the source of the noise. Shortly after,his body followed.A cracked computer terminal lay beeping against the wall,and R-X realized he was in a laboratory. As he walked to it,he saw the room was in shambles. Shattered glass covered thefloor, chunks of concrete had fallen from the walls and ceiling,and some areas even had moss and vines growing on them.Broken machines and smashed computers littered the area.R-X wondered what had happened to him, his creator, and thisfacility.His head was the first to arrive at the flashing screen of thecomputer terminal, his body catching up a moment after. R-Xblinked his eyes, studying it carefully. A single word appeared:“Hello.” Hesitantly, R-X reached down and pressed the enterbutton. “I’m not sure who may be reading this, but congratulationson surviving! Statistically speaking, I’m probably already deadif anybody is seeing this message. Ever since that solar storm,everything has gone to, quite literally, Hell. Unfortunately, thelast hope I tried to leave behind didn’t even end up working. Hisname was R-X Diamond. I pooled everything I had left into R-X,yet I don’t know what went wrong. Maybe someday, somebodycan get him up and working. I thank you.” Dr. Milo SharpMarch 29, 2088 R-X stared at the message in disbelief, realizing this was leftby his creator. The message disappeared as the computer closedout to its main screen, multiple icons scattered around it. Thebackground picture of the desktop showed an older man in alab coat with his elbows deep in an inactivated R-X’s chassis. Anumber of other robots surrounded the pair, all smiling. In thecorner of the screen, R-X saw the current date that was posted:03/21/2138. For almost a full fifty years, he had been broken andalone. Judging by the message and the time frame, he figuredDr. Sharp was probably dead by now. However, it was the otherrobots who piqued his interest. Maybe they could tell R-X moreabout what had happened. R-X carefully adjusted his head to belevel with the screen before his eyes disappeared and his entireface flashed, taking a picture. Could they still be alive? His eyesslowly began to reappear on his screen, the image being foreversaved in his memory.R-X pulled himself away from the terminal, searchingaround the rest of the lab. He ran his fingers across the walls,feeling every crack he came across with some vines runningthrough his digits. It wasn’t that this place just seemed abandoned,but he thought that something else had to have occurred here,given the current conditions around him. As R-X neared thecorner of the lab, a blinking machine that stood at twice hissize caught his attention. Besides the computer terminal, thisseemed to be the only other working piece of technology. Well,if he didn’t count himself. The machine had a wide opening,as if something was supposed to go inside it, with a clear basethat revealed dangerous looking parts underneath. On the sidenext to the opening, a series of colorful buttons and a lever werepresent, although R-X decided it’d probably be best to not messwith it.Moving on from the machine, he continued his explorationof the lab. A counter that ran against the wall was scattered withtools and papers, and the few stools that were present all hadtheir seats torn and decolored, resembling a dirty brown fromwhat R-X guessed was originally a nice tan. He sifted throughthe papers on the counter, hoping to find anything useful. IfR-X had a nose, he would’ve most definitely had to sneeze fromthe cloud of dust he just kicked up. Fanning it away as best hecould, he took his time looking through the papers. While therewas slight fading on most of them, it didn’t make any of themunreadable. A recipe for chocolate chip cookies, a flyer for someyo-yo championship, and a shopping list of only milk, eggs, andcheese. While the yo-yo one did actually sound fun, none of ithelped R-X in the moment. He wasn’t sure what he was hopingto find, but maybe some sort of instruction manual could help.R-X spun his head around fully, observing the rest of theroom as he followed the counter by touch. He was nearingthe only entrance in the entire lab, a steel door with a keypadnext to it. R-X quickly realigned himself and made his way toit, frantically pressing at the buttons. His head drooped as thekeypad failed to even make a beeping noise. R-X shook hishead and looked up, there was no way he’d give up that easily.If he was created in this facility, he might have some idea ofwhat to do in his programming. Closing his eyes, R-X tried torecall more about himself. Energy raced throughout his wiringas he searched his memory. R-X Diamond. Dr. Sharp. Boringscience stuff. Ugh, he knew all that already. He tried focusingeven more, thinking about his current situation. His facedisappeared on his screen as a full map of the facility popped up.Now he was getting somewhere! On each door of the map, fournumbers were present, which R-X assumed was the code for thecorresponding door. Even though this door didn’t seem to haveany power, getting the code was a good start. R-X ran his handacross the sealed door. There was a line running horizontally inthe middle of it, which made him think that each half retractedupwards and downwards. If he could find some way to powerthe lock, he could get out of here. While it’s true he wasn’t ascientist like his creator, he was still created to be able to helphim. If he couldn’t figure out something as simple as this, hedidn’t think he’d deserve to be Dr. Sharp’s companion.Just as R-X began to brainstorm, an abrupt banging shookhim out of it. R-X backed up as the banging became louder andmore frantic. From the sound of it, it seemed to be coming fromdown the hallway. According to the map in his head, the lab R-Xwas residing in was relatively close to the entrance of the facility.An ear-shattering clank of the door breaking down was followedby heavy footsteps nearing the lab. More banging rang out, thistime directly against the lab door as dents began forming in it.Backing up into the corner of the room, R-X, shakily hid hisface. While the prospect of somebody freeing him was hopeful,the way everything was happening didn’t sit right with him.Soon enough, both halves of the door gave way andclattered to the ground as a hooded figure stepped into theroom. A majority of its body was covered in a black shroud withdeep violet highlights, while its arms were covered in black,spiked gauntlets and its legs in similar looking greaves. Whereits face should have been was just a foggy emptiness. The figureseemed to be covered in multiple wounds, each wound leaking adark mist. Almost as soon as the figure entered, its faceless gazelocked onto the shivering robot hiding in the corner. Turning itscourse, the shrouded being bolted directly for R-X, leaping overthe desk in the center of the room. It aggressively pulled R-Xto his feet, holding him out in front of it. Raising its gauntlet,the being hovered its claws over the diamond in R-X’s chassis.Outside the corridor, R-X heard more footsteps barreling towardthem.A second figure rounded the corner and entered the room,covered head to toe in medieval armor. R-X couldn’t be sure ifthey just had a bulky set of armor, or if they were a beast of ahuman with their stature. The armored figure had a helmet witha T-shaped visor, along with a blue cross painted along and aboveit. Dirty, white fur stained with something blue surrounded thebottom of the helmet and the upper chest, connected to a darkblue cape around the figure’s back. A faded, golden medallionwas holding the cape together at their neck. Thick, metal plateswere plastered across their chest, held together by a differentblack metal. The knight’s arms and legs were also completelycovered in a similar manner. In their right hand, R-X noticed avery heavy-looking great sword, dark blue mist dripping fromthe edge, evaporating as it hit the ground.A cold, eerie voice came out from the hood behind R-X.“Stay right where you are, Albert. You wouldn’t want somebodyelse getting hurt because of you, now would you?”The knight seemingly known as Albert stopped in histracks. R-X assumed he was contemplating how to go about thesituation. Silence filled the room before the hooded one beganto slowly move around the outer edges, all the while keeping afirm grip on R-X.“You’re too soft. That’s always been your problem!”Albert glared at the duo. R-X, too frightened to act, coulddo nothing but comply with the one who had taken him hostage.A low grumble was coming from Albert’s helmet, as well aswhat seemed to be a spark of crimson from his visor. As thepair were slowly inching along the wall, R-X noticed a level ofmist beginning to form along the ground. It seemed as if Albertnoticed it too. However he showed no signs of action, which R-Xwas very grateful for. Only a few feet remained between R-X andAlbert, the knight glaring at the shrouded figure behind R-X.The mist had grown quite a bit now, and the hooded figure letout a chuckle.“Well, I’ll be seeing you, Albert. Next time you won’t get offthe hook so easily. I promise you that.”With that, R-X was thrown at Albert, causing them totopple together onto the ground. Albert’s sword crashed witha loud clang. The mist in the room swirled up, binding the pairagainst the floor as the hooded one sprinted out the door anddown the hall. R-X struggled as the fog thickened against him.How the heck was a gas becoming tangible? R-X tried flailingabout to no avail. Turning his head, he watched as Albertfought against the misty tendrils, grabbing at them with hisgauntlets. As he clenched them firmly and tightened his grip,the mist binds evaporated around him. R-X clunkily continuedhis struggle against the mist, Albert ignoring him as he rushedtoward the door. R-X attempted to break free as he had watchedthe knight do, but he had made it look much easier than it was.Even with his hands detached from his wrists, he was havingdifficulties. No matter how hard he grabbed the tendrils aroundhim, they wouldn’t evaporate. The knight let out a grumble as heturned back around and knelt by the entangled robot. Graspingat the mist tendrils, Albert ripped upward as a swoosh followed,freeing R-X.Albert strode over to his sword, picking it up and hoistingit over his shoulder as he looked down at R-X. He grabbed therobot’s arm and single-handedly raised him from the ground.R-X had to tilt his head upward ever so slightly to stare at thetaller figure. He assumed the knight would say something, butno words left his mouth. The strange silence was starting to geta bit uncomfortable. He decided he should probably speak upfirst.“Thank you for not letting that man hurt me, sir.” His voicewas a bit shaky as the words left him.“No need to thank me. It would have been my fault ifsomething had happened to you.”The knight’s voice echoed out from under the helmet, gruffyet strangely comforting. He looked up and down at the robot,then turned his gaze to the rest of the room.“What’re you doing in this destroyed laboratory? That doorwas sealed shut tightly. How did you get in?”“Well...I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing here. I just wokeup in this room. I was activated only today, you see, so I’m veryunsure of...pretty much everything right now. In a messageleft by my creator, he mentioned something happening to thisworld. What did he mean by that, sir...Albert, was it?”Albert looked around once more before turning around.Heading toward the doorway, he motioned for R-X to followhim out. The lab hallway was no better than the room, flora andvegetation overtaking most of the cracked metal and concrete.Albert walked forward without stopping to look if R-X wasfollowing him.“Well, might I be the first to wish you a happy birthdaythen, robot.”R-X perked up a bit. “Oh, why thank you! And, uh, myname is R-X Diamond, Mr. Albert.”The knight was striding through the narrow hallway,brushing against foliage as he went. R-X had to slightly jog tokeep up, his head bobbing above his body as he did.“You missed a hell of a lot, robot. Impressive how you’resomehow still up and running. The solar storm didn’t fryyour circuits and you’re not rusted to the Earth’s elements. I’msurprised the lab hadn’t been looted or scavenged yet, either.”“What...what do you mean? What’s happened? I’m afraid Idon’t understand anything right now, Mr. Albert.”R-X bumped right into Albert’s back as he abruptly stoppedin his path. Tipping backward, the robot caught his balance ashe quietly looked at the knight.“It’s getting late. This lab will make a decent resting pointfor the night. Robot, help me search this facility. There has to besome useful things around here.”R-X’s head drooped down slightly. Maybe if he helpedAlbert, he’d give him more information about everything goingon.“This way, Mr. Albert. I have the layout of this facilitypreprogrammed into me.” Albert rested his sword against the wall as he squatted down upon a couch. R-X Diamond sat on the ground and leaned hisback against the counter, watching the knight force open acan of meat. He had helped Albert locate the emergency foodsupply as well as this small room. R-X had contemplated leavingalone, but decided it wasn’t a smart idea. He was scared of theuncertainty and of what had just happened to him. He reasonedit was safest for him to be with this knight for the time being.On the ground, R-X crossed his legs and propped his head upin his hands, thinking to himself. Albert was the one who brokethe silence this time.“It all started with what people took to calling a hyper solarstorm. I don’t know all the astronomical details of what exactlyhappened, but that’s what kicked off the end of the world. Itwouldn’t have been that bad though, if that’s all it was. Smallerscale ones have happened in the past, but they were never asbad as this. Imagine a giant wave of energy engulfing the planet,a geomagnetic storm. It acted as a global EMP, knocking outpretty much all forms of energy and electricity. That wasn’t theworst part of it, though. Some of the solar flares were strongenough to launch literal balls of fire into our atmosphere... Itwas bad, but it was manageable at least.”Albert lifted the visor of his helmet slightly, but notenough to see his face. R-X watched as he tilted the can back,the contents dumping into his mouth. As Albert chewed, R-X’smind reflected upon what he had heard. He didn’t know much,but all the knowledge programmed inside his mind could neverthink of an event like that. Albert threw the can to the side andreached for a second one on the counter.“After that happened, well, leave it to mankind to do therest. The world was in chaos. Wars broke out among countriesbetween not only others, but their own people. Areas of Earthhad become scorched and barren thanks to the raining spacedebris. You can imagine the aftermath. Fear and anger. Humanswere all scared and desperate, a very dangerous combination.And then that’s when those bastards showed up to take advantageof the current situation.”Albert scraped the lid off a can of beans, scoffing down thecontents within. R-X scooched himself closer to the knight.“Who did, Mr. Albert?”Letting out a sigh, the knight crushed the can in his handas he tossed it to the side of the room. He reached for a can ofcarrots then fiddled with it.“Well, you just had a friendly encounter with one of them.That fella that got away? He wasn’t a human nor a robot. Hisname was Abaddon, a demon, and a Lord of Hell at that.”Albert forced the lid of the can open with his gauntlet,plucking the cut-up carrots out one by one and tossing them inhis mouth. R-X tilted his head as a question mark formed on hisscreen face. A demon? R-X had been programmed with a basicunderstanding of most known human knowledge, but what wasAlbert talking about? Mythology? Legends? The knight finishedhis third can and threw it with the rest, closing his visor as heleaned back.“Yup. You heard me right, robot. Demons came to attemptto control the chaos and hatred festering in the shattered world.Thankfully, if humans are anything, they’re determined tosurvive. The remaining forces of the world were able to uniteafter years, shoving the demons back enough. Not completely,but enough. They’re still a very prominent threat, don’t get mewrong, but they don’t roam the world freely in massive armiesanymore.”“Lords of Hell? Demons? What are you even talking about?”The robot felt a tinge in his diamond core as dread washedover him. What he had experienced with that mist definitelywasn’t normal, and he remembered the message his creator left—“everything has gone to, quite literally, Hell.” R-X shuddered ashe stared up at Albert.“Think what you will, robot. I have no reason to lie.”R-X kept his gaze upon the knight, examining him further.The more he thought about it, the more he felt off about thisman, too. If the forces of Hell are as devastating as he madethem sound, how was Albert able to go head-to-head against aso-called Lord of Hell?“We set out in the morning. You should rest yourself whileyou can. Who knows how long you can stay active after beingdormant for so long.”“Wait, Mr. Albert, I still have so many more questions! Likewhat are these demons exactly? Where are we going?”Albert settled down onto the couch. It creaked slightlyunder the full weight of his body and armor.“We’re going to a place called Valwall, I’ve got a friend whoowes me a favor. She’ll take you in once we get to her. Fromthere you can determine your own course of action. I can’t leaveyou to die out here, but you certainly can’t travel with me. You’llbe crushed into a pile of scrap metal. I’ll protect you for now,though, so you don’t have to worry.”R-X wasn’t fully sure what to think about everything, butAlbert at least seemed trustworthy for now. Without any otheridea of what to do, R-X figured he’d go along with the plan. IfAlbert kept his promise of protecting him, he didn’t think he’dever want to leave his side.“We set out in the morning. Now it’s time for rest. Do youunderstand, robot?”R-X nodded, staring at the floor as he did. “Mr. Albert?”“What is it?”“Are you a human?”“Yes. I’m resting now, Diamond.”“Yes, sir.”R-X hovered his head above his chassis, plugging it into hisneck as he let himself lean against the wall and started poweringdown his core for the night. He felt so many emotions, but mostlynervousness. While he had so much preprogrammed knowledgeabout the world, if what Albert was saying was actually true,none of that would help him now. At the very least, R-X thoughtabout how he was lucky to even be alive. For whatever reason,his core didn’t activate him until today, but that didn’t changethe fact it might have never activated and he might never bealive. He knew he would have to stay positive. As the light blueglow of his diamond dimmed, R-X let himself relax.