The Weeping of the Moon

There is an age-old legend telling of a time when the Moon was dark and, frightened by the surrounding abyss, it wept. From its tears, the demons that populated the Earth since time immemorial were born. This weeping continued until the Sun, moved, decided to give the Moon a part of its own light. The Moon stopped crying, but not before shedding one final tear made of light. This gave rise to the first humans, who defeated the demons and took over the Earth.

When the Moon began to swell on the side facing Earth, and a pitch-black stream of darkness trickled down toward the planet, some believed the apocalypse was upon us, while others thought it was filled with the demons coming down to Earth to reclaim it.

The great powers reacted strongly: dozens of antimatter missiles were launched to repel the lunar tears. At first, they worked and dispersed the mass of darkness into space, but then the flow increased, and it was clear that nothing could stop it.

In the Citadel subnet, in some almost forgotten virtual layers, there are still images of the day when the flow of Sheol touched Earth’s atmosphere. Like ink that spills into a glass of water, the darkness began to contaminate the atmosphere, little by little, obscuring the sun and expanding across the Earth like a black tsunami. I was never as frightened as I was that day, or perhaps I should say that since that day, I have only known fear.

The black tide was neither water nor gas. It was something different, something no one had ever seen before. It was more like a fog or dense smoke capable of devouring you, of stealing life right from within you, if you just ended up immersed in it. Only light could keep it away; only light could save you but how can you escape something that keeps getting stronger?

Those were terrible days. Millions died as the darkness grew more and more dangerous. The nights were always longer and colder, and resources scarcer. In less than a year, the sun was completely obscured. Nations collapsed. Those who did not defeat the shadows suffered death from the ensuing chaos and the sheer struggle to survive. There seemed to be no more hope for humanity.