The world of the red had no official name. Its residents were simply too scattered for a consensus to be reached. If they ever referred to the world, it was either with ‘here’ or a short description followed by copious amounts of profanity. Perhaps the very first civilisation atop the lands had created a name, but it would now be buried beneath decades of imported history.

It was another clear day in this nameless world. Minimal clouds floated in the sky and the hue was cherry-red as ever. A group of West Junction refugees trooped down the streets of the Collapsed City. From their place, the concrete ruins appeared as stone, crimson-shrouded titans dotted with thousand of empty eyes. It was a place of great danger, but also remnant treasures of a bygone age.

The group of seven kept to the shadows just at the edges of the buildings. This would shield them from the prying eyes of any loose vagrants, while also keeping distance from any that might be lurking at the edges of the interior. None of them wanted to take any chances today.

They halted at the entrance to a stairwell. A nearby decaying sign pointed this as a former subway station. The group leader, a grizzled veteran by the name of Matt, held up a rectangular scrap of paper. A city map was printed on it, with several additions scrawled in black marker.

“Right, this is the place.” He barked. “Anyone need a recap of the mission?”

A chorus of shaking heads and ‘no’s echoed throughout the group. They had been briefed extensively before setting out from West Junction.

“Are you all sure? Rookie, tell us what this is about, then!”

“Go in, kill the tumor beast nest, collect the red and any scrap, then get the hell out.” Adam responded. His gear had changed, going from street gear to proper explorer wear with long sleeves, sturdy pants and hiking boots.

Matt gave a single nod. This was not praiseworthy. It was to be expected. If the rookie failed in this, they might as well pack up and leave right away.

“Everyone got their gear ready? Then let’s go! We’ll get this done and eat plenty tonight!”

The team raised their fists into the air and descended down the stairwell. Adam’s skin tingled. Deep within the dark maw of the abandoned subway, the red was leaking out. Unlike the red inside his fellow Exiles and humans, this felt putrid. Like smelling a rat corpse, except the sensation was conveyed directly into his mind.

A lump formed in his throat. This was his fifth official mission from West Junction. The previous four had been simple exploratory and collection jobs, where the only danger came from vagrants. Tumor beasts were a whole another matter. From what Lucy and Saria had told him, the only reason they came out on top against the one during his retrieval was because his berserker state did most of the legwork.

“Adam? Are you okay?” Lucy asked. She and Saria were accompanying him on this mission. Saria had to work with him because of their pact. Wherever Saria went, so did Lucy.

“I’m fine.” Adam said. They had a plan. Nerves were always a thing before fights. The important thing was to not let them control him.

He swallowed down the lump and proceeded down the stairwell.

Pitch-black darkness awaited for them, coupled with the faint stench of decaying flesh and dust. The group lit their torches, revealing the shells of once busy facilities. Adam was familiar with this place and not just for their convenience of transport. The rush of the crowd led to wandering minds and open pockets. Perfect for idle hands to pinch wallets. Even if he got caught, it was a matter of burying himself into the crowd and heading for the nearest exit.

“Ew.” Saria muttered, scrunching up her nose. She pointed down the tunnel. “It’s coming from there.”

“Might be a crashed train or a cave in.” Adam said. Either would produce enough soul energy and corpses to form a tumor beast.

They shone their torches down the tunnel. The beams disappeared down into the darkness.

“That’s farther than I expected.” Matt said. “We’ll setup a bait and ambush. Lucy, can you handle that?

“Of course.”

“Definitely.” Matt said. “Perimeter setup, everybody! Keep quiet or the beast will hear us.”

The team got to work. Torches were placed around disused ticket stands and light fixtures. Locked doors were broken open in case of lurking vagrants. Matt, Adam and others gathered up chairs and debris to form makeshift barricades. The team checked their weapons, then double-checked, before settling into position.

“Right, here I go.” Lucy said. She shed her cloak and pack, placing them off near a support pillar.

“Eyes sharp, stay safe.” Saria said, patting her friend on the back.

“Don’t worry, I will!” She jumped onto the tracks to run down the tunnel. Adam crouched on the side of the platform, watching Lucy fade into the distance. Several seconds passed.

Then, a piercing roar reverberated down the tunnel. It was followed by a short explosion and a wave of hurried footsteps. Lucy re-appeared at the end of the platform in a flash of red. Behind her, the tumor beasts’s head came into view, the many eyes on its neck bulging with fury.

“Fire!” Matt roared. Lucy activated her Talent once more, teleporting up onto the platform and out of the beast’s maw. Saria squeezed the trigger, sending a round straight into the beast’s skull. Adam focused and pulled out the golden light from within him, synchronizing himself with Saria.

The shadows of the beast’s future appeared within Saria’s sight. She reloaded, aimed and fired at them, damaging the beast’s front legs. Its body slammed against the platform. Adam leapt off with Lucy and the others and drove a fist shrouded with gold and crimson into the beast’s hind.

The abomination brayed, a scream that was both animal and man. An tail made out of intestines whipped madly, only to be blocked and sliced by Lucy’s machete. Adam didn’t stop, pummelling the beasts’s side with his fists. With each blow, red trails snaked up the beast’s side, then twisted inwards, creating shallow wounds that soon deepened into serious ones thanks to the others.

This was the synchronization between him and Saria. She received his future sight, whereas he received her tendency to seek out weak points—by simply creating them himself.

It had taken them a while to coalescence their Pact to this extent, then train their bodies to make it usable for more than a few seconds, but the results were worth it.

The beast spun its body around, knocking them both into wall. His neck cracked…

“Back off!” Adam shouted. He and the team leapt back as the beast flailed. It then paused, confused at the lack of death. Lucy jammed a machete into its neck and sliced with all its might. Filthy ichor and red spewed out like water from a hydrant. Adam punched a hind leg—more of a repurposed rotting arm—and snapped it in two. Saria and Matt rained bullets and fire from above.

Flashes of adrenaline, shouting and his fist sinking into flesh and the beast collapsed onto the tracks, unmoving. Lucy dug in and tore off the head. The team watched it for several seconds, making sure it was dead for real.

“Good work everyone!” Matt called. “Anyone hurt?”

“Fucking thing kicked by ribs…”

“It caught a bit of my side.” Lucy confessed.

“Saria and Rick, treat the injured! The rest of us will begin collection!”

They ripped apart the tumor beast’s corpse for the red. Entire backpacks of bottles were filled that afternoon. They then scavenged through the station for any leftover supplies. Most of the food was rotten, save for a few tins they found beneath a guard post (and even those were perilously close to expiring). The paperwork was useless and most of the electronics were too corroded to use. Saria did find a laptop stashed away in a shop. An old model, but it still booted up, and that was enough.

The last job was to destroy the tumor beast’s nest. Since it was a job no-one wanted to do, Adam was roped into doing it with Saria and Lucy. They marched down the tunnel with torches and incendiary grenades. Halfway down the tunnel, Lucy stopped.

“Hey, look at this.” Lucy shone her torch onto the side. It was a human corpse, a bullet wound positioned in the middle of its head. Male, young and with a faded tattoo running up the side of the neck. Adam pinched his nose and tried not to let his disgust show. Lucy crouched down, wincing at the terror marked on the corpse’s last expression. An empty pistol was clutched in the corpse’s right hand.

“Suicide.” Lucy murmured, “Perhaps he didn’t want to be taken by the tumor beast?”

“Poor guy.” Saria said. “Let’s burn his corpse after we’re done with the nest, then.”

“Wait. That tattoo…” Lucy rifled through the corpse’s clothes. She took out a scrap of paper. Her eyes widened. “This is one of Raz’s gang!”

“Shit, really?” Adam said, “What’s he got?”

“Intel, from the looks of it. This is a map.” Lucy said. She then held up a paper-wrapped box. “He must’ve been a courier who fled into the tunnels. We should take these. The heads back at home will know what to do.”

When they reached the nest, Adam saw an unholy amalgamation of discarded flesh and vagrant corpses, spread across like a vast tapestry in the shell of a train carriage, that almost made him retch. They tossed the firebombs there, burned it out and left.

Mission complete. It was time to go home.

“Oh, interesting. This is very interesting.” Brigid said. She, Matt and the rest of the senior West Junctions members were in a meeting room, poring over what Lucy had found. “This is a map, showing what I believe are the locations of Raz’s lines and hideouts. That would be good enough, but as for the package…”

She held up a metallic, silvery tumbler. “It’s a key.”

“To what?” One of the members asked.

“We don’t know. Which is why we should bring one of their members in for questioning.” Brigid said, “Matt, how is our Pactbearer doing?”

“Adequate.” Matt rumbled. “He did good today. Tore chunks of a tumor beast alone. Saria is in better spirits, too.”

“Then, shall we launch the offense on Raz’s group?”

The approval was unanimous.