Bane of the Dead (Seraphim Revival Book 1) by Jacob Holo

gray and utterly lifeless. Dim lights from the spire revealed long stretches of rubble surrounding skeletal structures. Some buildings stood tall but decayed. Others had fallen over or leaned into their neighbors.
    “Being pushed into another time axis had a side effect,” Quennin said. “While the planet’s inhabitants were still alive and capable of surviving, the planet slowly grew colder. The rest of the universe was at a standstill in their eyes. There was no sun, no stars in the sky above Ittenrashik. Only a joyless black film, a barrier that could not be crossed and that absorbed every morsel of heat and radiation that touched it. Ittenrashik grew colder, and the inhabitants fought to survive.”
    Tevyr nudged Jared. “That’s what the shell fragments in orbit were for.”
    “Oh, I see.”
    Quennin nodded. “One of many attempts. At first there were domes like this one. Simple encapsulations to preserve thermal energy. Grander attempts were made later to prevent heat loss. Heat was also produced in a variety of methods, prolonging the inevitable. Over eons, they consumed the oceans for fusible hydrogen, leaving nothing but empty pits on the surface.
    “The inhabitants made many brave attempts to combat the problems. However, entropy was always present, and the years went on for an eternity. The people of Ittenrashik began to break apart. Despite this, many banded together to build the mirror shell, hoping to enclose the entire planet. Others retreated towards the core. Each day saw the planet grow colder. Nothing could halt the remorseless advance of entropy.”
    Lights from the disc’s edge illuminated a vast open shaft leading into Imayirot’s subterranean depths. They descended rapidly through immense shafts that intersected one subterranean city after another. Some of those cities stretched on for hundreds of kilometers, their grand chambers filled with the cold remnants of dead societies.
    “Wars eventually broke out,” Quennin said. “How could they not? They fought over energy, food, air, and other resources. The planet’s oceans shrank, and the atmosphere froze. Survivors headed towards the core as heat became more and more precious, hoping to use the planet as a buffer.”
    The disc passed city after city, sometimes heading at diagonals, but always moving towards the planet’s core.
    “How long did this go on?” Jared asked.
    “Anyone?” Seth asked.
    Yonu stepped forward.
    “Pilot Nezrii,” Seth said.
    “Ittenrashik was pushed into the accelerated time axis for twenty million years,” Yonu said. “The inhabitants only lasted a fraction of that time.”
    “Correct,” Seth said.
    Yonu raised an eyebrow at Tevyr.
    “What?” Tevyr whispered. “I could have answered that too.”
    “Sure you could have,” Yonu whispered.
    “Ah. We’re almost there,” Quennin said.
    “Where?” Jared asked.
    “The Last Death,” Quennin said.
    The disc passed through a slender, roughly-cut shaft. It opened up into a small sphere much more primitive than the earlier cities. This close to the core, gravity was almost nonexistent, and the living space appeared adapted for that. The walls were lined with a honeycomb of rooms, machinery…
    And bodies.
    Thousands and thousands of bodies, all dried up and mummified.
    “Super creepy,” Jared said.
    “Would anyone care to explain?” Seth asked.
    Yonu stepped forward again.
    “Anyone besides Pilot Nezrii? No? Go ahead then.”
    “The water in their bodies was extracted for fusible hydrogen,” Yonu said.
    “Correct.”
    The disc settled against an enclosed walkway and stopped. The clear tunnel led to one of many dissimilar compartments in the sphere’s honeycomb. Pilots followed Quennin into a small room and gathered behind her.
    Quennin pointed to two corpses, both clothed in insulated pressure suits. One was a small child. The other was a headless body with a small device in one hand.
    “The last two people on Ittenrashik to die,” Quennin said.