Gaston Hardy placed the debris down after Ayumi got out. She felt like she just got out of a death trap. It was then that Ayumi noticed that around Gaston’s mouth was this black chrome face mask that was deployed from the back of his neck. From the looks of it, it was an exoskeleton that protected his mouth. He was emitting dark and red electricity.

“I know that you have questions. But this isn’t the time.”

He pointed at the biomass objects rapidly growing around them. These translucent pods were soon going to birth creatures that would make this place a nest of biomass entities. Ayumi felt her stomach cramped at the sight of this mess. She took a glance at Gaston who remained calm at the face of this threat. His eyes remained dispassionate as he took out his holstered pistol and handed it to Ayumi. He was unarmed.

“What about you?”

“I can manage. I’m wearing an exoskeleton. Besides, I don’t think we can salvage any more weapons than this. Better leave one bullet for yourself, Miss Ayumi. Who knows, you might need it.”

Ayumi swallowed. She followed Gaston as he began to navigate the twisted and pervertedly changed corridors that the space tore up. Each wall had these meaty growing pods that dimly glowed in red colors. There were also beings birthed by these pods that Gaston calmly observed. Ayumi wondered if Gaston was going to act them. It was then that Ayumi heard a ping on her HUD.

“Right now we are communicating with the internal speakers. I must confirm this. Do you have the Overwatch Control of the defense grid system? Is it functional?”

“It is. It was on automatic before this happened”

Gaston nodded his head. “Good. That's good news. Right now, we are in a split-realm that should be in the middle of realspace and otherside. These monsters are growing rapidly and there is a worrying amount of ichor around us that it would drown us. Your bioshield generator is working fine, but even that wouldn’t last here. Not to mention that we aren’t exactly in friendly space. We need to get out now before we are crushed by realspace and the otherside.”

Abruptly, as he talked, a skinless creature tried to grab Gaston’s head. Gaston reacted by pointing his right index finger at the mouth of the creature and pierced the creature with this concentrated beam of dark-red light that dispersed into static electricity.

“T2’s around so watch your steps. Never go ten feet away from me.”

The skinless creature dropped dead. Ayumi looked around her and recognized that there were more of these skinless creatures trying to take a bite out of their flesh. Gaston pulled her close and then threw the same attack, but this time the attack chained from one creature to another.

Ayumi didn’t comment. She followed Gaston who remained deathly silent as he lifted fallen debris and released volts of dark red electricity from his hands as they continued on. Although the headquarters of the Consortium was large. Ayumi had thought they would be able to get to the surface within a minute. She felt like she had walked for minutes.

“We are still going?”

“The area has been stretched and like I said. We are in the middle of realspace and otherside. We are in the in-between of the tunnel connecting to the realspace. Once we find the entrance we should able to get out.”

“Can we even get out?”

“It is already fortunate that we were able to survive the initial space tearing. This is beyond a storming event, Miss Ayumi. But I can still feel a tear somewhere so that means we aren’t helpless yet. The fact that you are still breathing means that space isn't entirely closed.”

Ayumi thought to herself that this was truly beyond her paygrade. But working for the Earthside Consortium was already dangerous. Events like these are unfortunately not abnormal to the world they are living in. Ayumi had already rationalized it inside her head that for now she just needs to follow the Adjutant who was calmly weaving through these changed hallways.

They found themselves in front of an elevator shaft. Gaston instructed Ayumi to cling on his back as the same dark-red static electricity gathered around Gaston’s limbs. Ayumi held on to Gaston as he started running up the elevator shaft vertically. Each step denting the elevator shaft’s walls as he ran fast enough to dodge the pods and the pimple-like mass of flesh that was growing.

They reached the top of the elevator shaft where Ayumi felt this hair-raising feeling. She looked around her and recognized that the walls no longer had the same meaty pods that were growing. Gaston moved forward and then studied the columns supporting the ceiling. He gestured for Ayumi to step back as he then kicked on the concrete column until the ceiling started to give in and blocked the entrance of the elevator shaft.

“What about the people that might have survived?”

Gaston said nothing. He took a low crouching position as he softly moved forward while followed by Ayumi. Ayumi heard voices from the direction that they were going. Gaston, who was taking the lead, signalled Ayumi by raising a palm. Ayumi stopped. She clung on the wall and slid next to Gaston who was observing the strangely-dressed individuals who wore ceremonial robes. They were strapped with weapons but there was one thing that they all shared was the symbol of a tree. Ayumi took a snap of the symbol and quickly ran a database search on them.

It was the qliphoth tree

“Sīṭrā Ahra Cultists. It looks like they really are involved in this.”

“What do we do?”

Gaston brought his hand on his chin. He eyed the lights on the chamber they were standing on and stared hard at the equipment they were wearing. He then hid his head back to cover and then instructed Ayumi.

“Do not move unless I say anything. Understand?”

“Roger.”

Gaston gathered a ball of dark-red electricity on his palm and lobbed it to the center of the chamber, releasing a shockwave of electricity that stunned the people in the chamber and disabled the lights.

She saw Gaston move. Ayumi heard grunting and fist meeting flesh. She heard bones crack and liquid splattering sounds. A fleshy noice that came with the thud and some of the screams made her wonder what else was breaking. But Ayumi didn’t look up. She remained in cover until the light that was temporarily disabled returned.

In the center of the chamber was Gaston shaking off his bloodied fist. His black suit remained buttoned and other than the exoskeletal metal reinforcement forming around his black gloves. He looked uninjured. Around him were the cultists sprawled over the floor with their heads smashed on the concrete flooring. Some of them looked as if they were electrocuted and were electrifried on the spot.

She approached with slow careful steps. Her eyes were shaking.

“Are you alright, Adjutant?”

“I am fine. From the looks of it they aren’t the only ones. I advise caution. There should be equipment that we can use. Not that they’d need it.”

The two exited the half-fallen building after gathering supply from the now-dead cultists. Ayumi was sure that the event only happened for a few minutes, but from the looks of it time had passed.

“We’ve been gone for an hour. There is a time difference. I don’t know how they did it, but it looks like they’ve done their worst on the main branch.”

Gaston said coldly.

The state of the area around the branch of the consortium was awful. There were many members that were littered on the ground. Some of them were cleaved in half by something awful. Gaston remained in cover as he then spotted a creature with a mantis-like appearance. The difference was that there were rock-like scales on the creature that should be around seven-foot tall.

“What is that?”

She spoke in the internal speakers. Gaston didn’t move. He remained on the spot before slamming his feet down, pouncing on the creature like a predator hidden in the dark. Gaston raised his exoskeleton reinforced fist and smashed it on the upper-right side of the creature’s head. Before the creature could react, he followed with a compressed dark-red beam that pierced the head of the creature. The creature fell to the side. The creature was moving but Gaston landed on the creature’s head and splattering the ghastly contents on the road. Before Gaston could take a breath, he ducked down, and then threw the same range-attack at someone. Ayumi heard the sound of a bioshield reacting against an attack.

Before she could identify who Gaston was attacking. Gaston had already moved to the direction where the attack came. The cultist wearing the symbol of Sitra Ahra Cult tried to move when Gaston tackled the man. Gaston pressed his knee on the legs of the bastard before producing electricity from his left hand.

With the man temporarily stunned. Gaston stomped on the legs of the attacker and then made the man kneel while his legs were facing the opposite direction. Gaston’s left palm was just above the ear of the attacker. He looked at Gaston as if he was a devil. His palm was releasing dark-red electricity.

“I know how stubborn you cultists are. So I won’t bother. Either you speak up or fifty thousand volts of bioelectricity is going to run around your nervous system,” he grabbed the man’s jaw and released a spark. The man’s jaw hung as he stared fearfully at Gaston.

“That should prevent you from biting your tongue. Don’t worry, you can take your time to tell me what you know.”

Gaston waited patiently. Ayumi looked around while holding on to the rifle she took from the cultists inside the lobby. Gaston continued to stare at the cultist with uneasy eyes.

“I will never tell you anything!”

When those words came out Gaston slammed both of his palms on the side of the cultist’s head and released a burst of electricity that immediately fried the eyes of the cultist. The cultist fell backwards without a sound.

Gaston searched cultists and found a mobile device he then pocketed. Ayumi approached the cultist and saw that there was no movement.

“Was that necessary?”

“No. But we do not have time to worry about securing this cultist for further interrogation. Better disable him rather than let him go. And we are still in the vicinity of this beyond-storming event. I don’t want these guys pointing their weapons at us. It’s cruel, but we’ve got to make sure.”

“So what do we do now?”

Gaston moved to her and then put one of his arms under her legs and his other arm behind her back. Ayumi held on to Gaston’s neck before Gaston pushed against the road, jumping ten-stories high and started sprinting vertically until he reached the rooftop of one of the skyscrapers.

Ayumi stared at the unfazed expression on Gaston’s face. When Gaston let her down she stared at him for a moment before activating her homing beacon.

“Looks like we aren’t safe yet… but it doesn’t hurt to try.”

Gaston said loudly. He operated his bracer and spoke on it.

“This is Adjutant Gaston Hardy of the Earthside Consortium, and Adjutant of the Babaika Lions. Requesting backup on our GPS coordinates. I repeat there has been an attack on the Earthside Consortium branch. We’ve identified them as the Sitra Ahra Cult.”

Gaston repeated his message. It was then that hee saw a corvette-class split-realm ship approaching them. Ayumi was about to breathe a sigh of relief when she saw energy gathering on the main guns of the corvette-class split-realm pointed at them.

Gaston saw this and immediately reacted. He grabbed Ayumi by the waist as he took a leap off the skyscraper and leaping to the other building. Gaston’s leg shattered the high-rise glass of the building. He grabbed on the side, throwing Ayumi up first before pulling himself up. The corvette-class ship changed its direction and started chasing after them, prompting Gaston to grab Ayumi again and start running the opposite direction of the corvette-class ship.