Ryan was quick as he worked, a scalpel in one hand and his other ready to rummage through his subject’s insides and see how her body reacted. If not for the fact that most books had been ruined by the System’s machinations and that the internet was down, he wouldn’t have gone through so much work as to study human anatomy directly.

If not for that, the two women would have long been thrown to his failed experiments.

The deadly sharp tip of his instrument met flesh, and while he felt a tad bit of resistance from her Constitution, his superior Strength carried the act through. The blade dipped past her skin and drew a spurt of yellow blood. The blood of a Concept user, a Yellow, his heart whispered to him.

Slowly, he edged the blade along the length of her abdomen, splitting apart flesh and muscle alike until finally, he ended the incision at the base of her sternum. Ryan placed the item aside and with two hands began to tear the hole he had made bigger. Enough for him to readily study what was within.

There were no concerns about the woman dying, as it’d take something far worse to kill most people these days. That he knew. It was fortunate too, as he’d need to go get new test subjects often otherwise. As his science teacher all those years ago had said, ‘you never got accurate results by experimenting once’.

Ryan glanced to the blonde woman hanging limply on a crystalline hook, her plethora of cuts and taken flesh samples crusted with dried violet blood. He turned back to the black-haired beauty lying unconscious on his operating table. A gaping hole was left in her flank from his earlier attack, although it had healed up somewhat in the meantime.

If the results weren’t satisfactory, he’d have to throw her away. He might have done too much damage alread-

His Ascendancy skipped a beat, filling him with a brief moment of total weakness. Deep within his chest, he could feel the terror, the primordial dread flaring from within it. The ethereal organ beat softly afterwards, as if trying to hide from whatever had filled it with such emotion. Ryan didn’t understand what had happened, yet he too was racked with fear, his knees reduced to a shaky mess.

His breath came out shuddering, and Ryan’s right eye flashed crimson, the grotesque flesh growing around it pulsing to the beat of his second heart. It whispered to him, hushed and endless. It was terrified, it was furious.

And so was Ryan.

**

Maxwell kicked back in his chair, holding the handheld radio to his mouth and occasionally speaking into it. All that came from the other end were several bursts of static, although he knew they were hastily getting closer and closer to the right frequency. He had no idea who was on the other end, but it seemed to be another settlement, one having also repaired their comms.

Another seizure of static came from the device, although this time, he could make out words, “…Ahnjo…”

He had no idea what ‘Ahnjo’ meant. Maybe something in another language? He immediately discarded that thought. The so-called System translated everything fully for them. Possibly a name then?

“This is Ar-” the voice came out once more, one of a female, although it quickly stopped.

Abruptly, the lights shut off. Then his computer. The radio itself had been the first to lose power it seemed. People yelled out from the rooms over, walking into the hall and questioning others. Max clicked his tongue, wondering if their breaker box had fried itself. They still had plenty of daylight to power their solar panels, so the battery certainly wasn’t flat.

It was not Maxwell Washington’s month, it seemed. First, he was attacked by probably the most powerful person they had record of, and if not for Adam, he might have died. Then, a while later, one of his operatives went rogue. They stole a haul of equipment and left, disappearing off to who knows where.

He was so stuck on the idea of Skin Walkers that he completely forgotten about good old-fashioned espionage.

A woman called out from the breaker room, and Max took a look himself, studying the mess of blackened electricity flickering off the box. Had they been hit by some kind of new, energy EMP? The electricity wouldn’t have been black otherwise.

His month was getting worse by the minute.

**

Zin Keene floated among the realm of flashing colours as space continued to warp itself for his travel. By his best estimates, he only had one month more before he’d finally be able to stretch his legs and commit a betrayal to the core principles of his organization. Namely, ‘order’.

The Wormhole Generator was calibrated to drop him right on top of the Error, having tracked and located the unique energy emissions that all of them gave off. Zin sighed as he considered the wait ahead.

He couldn’t stand waiting until he reached D-Grade. In fact, the benefits to his devious Ascent that this Error might bring could be the very thing that gets him there. All he really knew for certain, was that he’d finally be able to use the plain old Jumpgates without fear of being torn to millions of molecular pieces.

In D-Grade, his body would become robust enough to withstand the resistance of the spatial division that Jumpgates used to accelerate the warping process. Wormhole Generators were suited for E-Grade. As for F-Grade, teleportation as a result of one’s Techniques was all they had as an option for spatial travel. Anything more would kill them outright.

With each grade of transportation, the maximum range grew and the teleportation speed increased, save for Jumpgates. Technique teleportation didn’t really have noticeable travel time as the distance it covered was so small. Zin brought his hands behind his head.

“Someone needs to invent another way to cut down on this accursed travel time.” The inquisitor snorted in derision. A sneer broke out on his face, “I should have brought my unit with me. At least I could have broken their legs to entertain myself.”

As soon as they assisted him in detaining the Error, he’d dispose of the imbeciles. He even had a few Rune Crystals readily infused to take them out in the case he was drained after the fight. He doubted it though. From the months ago where they had received the initial energy readings, the Error was only at the beginnings of F-Grade. It probably hadn’t even discovered its Curse yet.

Although, their growth has sometimes been known to be rather… unpredictable.

Either way, his unit was as good as-

The entire surrounding space shuddered, and the myriad of colours flickered. That… isn’t supposed to happen…

It shuddered again, this time dislodging pieces of solidified space and showering him with brittle shards of iridescence. Zin’s eyes bulged. This was definitely not supposed to happen. The tunnel trembled one last time and finally, it shattered in its entirety, sending splinters of colour drifting through expansive darkness.

Shellshocked, Zin drifted out among them, feeling a bone-deep chill settle into his bones. Impossible figures swam about in the surrounding void. Slowly, his eyes widened. He was here. He was HERE. He had always known that wormhole and jumpgate teleportation routed you through the Beyond, but he had actually managed to get into their realm.

Rapidly, he felt his sinister Techniques increase in proficiency. Even his Augment that had been stalled for months broke through to the next threshold instantly.

A terrible tear populated the oppressive silence and Zin looked over his shoulder at the forming rift in space-time. Revealed on the other side were vibrant, yet alien flora and the remnants of an ancient city. He glanced back to the dark realm and the creatures that were getting ever closer. He knew he only had so much time left here before he was consumed.

Reluctantly, he floated over to the rift and entered it. A scape of fused jungle and city met him on the other side.

As did the space-sundered corpses of his disposable comrades.

Zin grinned. Well that solves one problem.

**

The world was black. Endlessly black. There was nothing, only himself standing amongst that nothing, his fist outstretched and his body aching. A slight edge of a familiar chill tickled at his bones, yet so did the electric liveliness of the Original Life. It was muted, as though he was only smelling its scent, not tasting its flavours.

Within, his aura had quite literally receded to non-existence, far worse than it had been back when he’d first met Fon. He felt the edges of his vision start to close in, but he roused his considerable willpower and forced his looming unconsciousness back. Now was not the time.

Slowly, as Brock’s knees buckled and he struggled to stay upright, the darkness began to slough away like a thick coating of paint, revealing a monochrome world as colour leisurely seeped back to it. The first thing he laid his eyes on was enough to make his concentration lapse for a moment, and he almost plunged into unconsciousness then and there.

Directly ahead of him, a vast chasm had been torn through the Earth, extending kilometres into the distance and so deep that Brock couldn’t even begin to see the bottom. Far above him, the roaming clouds had been split in two, and remnant wisps of dark energy rose up from all around him, streaks of the stuff steaming up from within the chasm and smoking at the edges of it. They crackled with a light spattering of green and blue lightning.

Entirely opposite him, dozens of kilometres away at the very end of the earthen rift, lay Gor’eth Kung. Or at least what was left of it.

Brock couldn’t help but drop his jaw at the sight. The monstrous reptile was missing a sizeable portion of its right side, organs spilling out over its side and blanketing the arid ground beneath. If not for the fact the rugged earth seemed to be puncturing through its abdomen, he felt that the beast would have tumbled down into the depths beneath him and been lost forever.

His lower body was almost entirely detached, barely held together by some stubborn scales and the remnants of a shattered spine. The distance between the two halves was slowly increasing, and Brock knew it was only a matter of time until Gor’eth’s intestines hung downward and its lower body was lost in the dark. Idly, Brock detected the traces of various Augments, including his own, festering on the savage wounds.

Oddly enough, however, the insights in those Augments were entirely foreign to what were in his.

Several of its eyes had popped out of their sockets and now hung loosely down the monster’s snout from the pure pressure that the blow had placed on its body, and Brock couldn’t help but feel rather guilty. It would have been better if whatever Technique he had used had just killed it outright. Monster or not, Brock didn’t want anyone or anything to suffer.

He felt the attention of his foe settle upon him, and Brock began to stumble forward, keeping a distance away from the edge of the chasm in case he finally succumbed to unconsciousness and tumbled down into it. He knew Gor’eth didn’t have much time left.

It took a considerable amount of time for him to even cross a hundred meters, and eventually, Gor’eth spoke, his guttural voice cutting through the remaining distance and arriving right at Brock’s ruined ears.

“I… did not expect that…”

Brock opened his mouth to reply, but that was it. He sensed the final vestiges of life leave the creature’s aura, and a veritable surge of energy flooded into his pathways, boosting his level several times in one go. His body felt itself filled with boundless power and he nodded respectfully toward his opponent.

Hesitantly, he looked down to his own hands. What the fuck did I d-

Brock’s eyes drooped and he fell forward, only for someone to catch him and safely guide him to the ground. He felt something be crammed into his mouth, and as he instinctively swallowed, his eyes shot open, a small surge of his aura returning and revitalizing him. He suddenly felt so awake, at least compared to how he had felt before.

His eyes looked up and his blade was reaching out his sleeve the next second as the face of the shadow woman stared back down at him, “Relax. It’s a fruit we grow in our Garden. It restores aura.”

A silence flared to life between the two as they locked eyes, although fortunately, a voice calling out in the distance saved the potentially volatile scenario from progressing further. Brock glanced over his shoulder, and his expression brightened as he saw Harry and Fon running toward him. They looked at the woman with confusion, and he noticed Fon reach for the dagger on her thigh.

Harry on the other hand was too occupied with the feat his friend had just completed and paid the scenario and the woman no further notice, “You did it, dude!”

“I guess… I did?” Brock chuckled lowly, although the act aggravated his already wounded ribcage.

Fon stepped forward and eyed the other woman idly. She was fiddling with her braided hair that was slung over her shoulder, “That… what did you do?”

Brock shrugged, immediately wincing afterwards, “Dunno. Got some Technique and I swung.”

“Your Technique,” Fon gestured toward the chasm and fresh corpse with disbelief, “Did that?”

Brock licked his lips. Yeah, he was a bit disbelieving too, “I guess?”

“That’s not a real answer.”

“Mondays.”

“What?”

“Exactly.”

Fon groaned, “I swear every singl-”

“I’m sorry to cut your idiocy short,” the woman stepped forward and placed herself in between Fon and Brock, “but this man is needed somewhere else. Desperately.”

Finally, Harry realized something was up and reached for his axe. The ninja immediately flicked a needle at his neck, although it bounded off his skin harmlessly. Fon reached for her dagger and rolled to the side in case their foe tried the same attack on her.

“Guys. It’s fine.” Brock dispelled all pretences of combat and stood up, cursing several times in pain as he did so, “She wants me to save my sister.”

Harry’s expression brightened and he let go of his axe’s handle, “Oh? Then we’ll come t-”

“Unfortunately, that won’t be happening,” The ninja seemed to really like to cut people off, “I only have enough aura left to bring one other person with me. You’ll be staying here.”

Brock could practically feel the dissatisfaction both his friends were feeling inside, but he reassured them with a singular thumbs up as his shadow began to rise up and encapsulate him. It seemed to settle them somewhat, but they still watched on begrudgingly, along with a fair bit of worry.

He would be lying if he wasn’t worried himself. He was severely weakened right now and judging from the ravaging his new Technique had seemed to have done on his pathways just from a brief glance, he’d be completely barred from using both Augments of Techniques for a long while. Otherwise, he was pretty sure they’d just explode out of him any time he tried to use them.

Either way, he’d be going. If she said his sister needed saving, he’d just have to take that at face value and push through any obstacles in his way, like he always had.

Then finally, the shadows enveloped his head, and he felt the two of them sink downwards.