"WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! AN UNCLEARED RIFT HAS BEEN DETECTED OVER SOUTH XING BRIDGE!!! PLEASE EVACUATE THE BUILDINGS AND CARS AND STAY AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE FROM THE THREAT!!!"
The announcement echoes and reverberates across the streets.
The retreating Sentinels all stop in their tracks. They turn towards the rift, their hearts hammering against their rib cage.
Uncleared rift? That only happens when a living human is inside the rift! They have encountered one their whole life!
"What the fuck!"
"Did a Yokai nab a human off the streets and bring them back?"
"What should we do now?"
"Report to the institute."
____
Director Chen. Simply enjoying his coffee after kicking out Xin Linhua and savoring the smell of cookies.
He stares out the window. The weather is cool. It might rain soon. What a beautiful day, what a beautiful sky. No dangerous rifts to supervise, everyone is in class or training, what a good day–
"DIRECTOR CHEN!!!" The door flies open.
The man uncharacteristically chokes on his coffee. The cookie slides down the wrong windpipe. He coughs and gags for a while, trying not to suffocate to death.
"Director!" His assistant runs towards him "Sir! Are you alright?"
"What do you think!?"
Thus, after a great struggle, a long time of fussing and cussing, the man finally recovers his ability to breathe.
"Kov." He glares at the man "Will it kill you to knock and not yell?"
"Sir! We have an emergency!"
A loud alarm echoes above him, the same announcement repeats itself. The Director frowns, turning the alarm off instantly.
"What level?"
"Low tier." The assistant replies "Some D-ranks were sent to close the rift. I received words that it’s a Yokai rift. They were able to kill most of them and force the rest to retreat, but for some reason, the rift won’t close."
"Ah..." The Director reclines in his seat "Yokais may be weak, but their abilities make them more of a pest than a formidable enemy. They could have brought a human in without alerting the Sentinels."
"Sir, what do we do? They can’t enter the rift, which means the human is still alive. But the Yokais might flood out again. That’ll be a pain to deal with."
The Director stands. For some reason, he can’t help but feel like something isn’t right with this whole situation.
Yokais are not intelligent. In fact, they’re stupid and easy to kill. If they find a human, they eat them on the spot, they’d never think to bring back their food and store it for later. So how did a human enter the rift? At least, their screams will have alerted the Sentinels below.
"Send a few C-Ranks there." The Director instructs "Once the rift opens, have them clear the place."
"How many C-Ranks, sir?" You are reading on g.com, the official source.
"About fifteen. Yokais may be easy to kill, but they’re a large colony. Their number is endless and also, have the Sentinels take some earplugs with them."
"Understood."
____
When the announcement is made, the entire institute is in an uproar.
An uncleared rift? The last time that happened, shit went to hell. It was a high ranking rift at that, at the time, Phantom was like heaven sent. He’s the reason why the institute is still standing and half the country is not burned up.
Though, this one is relatively easy. It’s a low tier rift and it’ll be easy for them to clear it, but if the human in there is still alive, they won’t be able to enter. The human has to die first for the rift to allow entrance. During that time, the monsters within can flow out and cause destruction.
C-Ranks were quickly dispatched to the scene. Most of them are Aeromancers and Geomancers.
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"Ugh!" Xin Linhua wipes the blood off his face "I’m getting sick of this shit."
Bodies. Blood. Grim. The massive cave is covered with them.
The once brightly lit cave with blue glow worms is nothing but a reflection of mass murder and pure horror.
"Is that the last one?" An exhausted Xin Linhua asks as he tosses the limb he’s holding aside.
"Yes."
"Ah..." Xin Linhua slumps against a relatively cleaner spot "The rift is still closed. We should go to them instead of waiting for them to come to us."
Rong Yizhan silently agrees.
After a short but much needed break, the two venture into the cave. Get faster updates on novelping.com.
There’s no need to worry about being lost or anything, the cave will eventually lead back to the start.
The more they walk, the more Yokais they encounter. Possibly because they had sent their strongest or best fighters at the start, the few Yokais they encounter once in a while are some run-of-the-mill weaklings.
"Yokais may be brainless, but they usually know when to retreat." Xin Linhua mutters "Why are they all rushing to die so bad? What’s inside?"
He exchanges a glance with Rong Yizhan. Wherever Yokais are, that’s the cave they follow. Slowly but surely, the Yokais dwindle.
"They’re probably a few left. We should– Woah..."
They had left the grimy and barely lit hallways, stumbling into a large opening. A cave inside a cave.
Glow worms line the cave walls and ceilings. At the very center, a large blue pond resides, the surface glistens with a soft light. At the edge, a large fruitless tree takes root.
In a cave that houses Yokais, a place that produces such monsters, it’s impossible to think that such a place exists. Such a... humane thing exists.
"Damn!" Xin Linhua whistles "Maybe I should relocate here, move houses."
He walks to the edge of the water, dipping his hand in. He exhales in relief.
Without thinking, he tosses the knife aside and takes off his coat first. His covered in blood and dirt.
"What are you doing?" Rong Yizhan asks.
"Taking a swim."
"You don’t know what’s in there."
"Oh, come on. I checked, it’s safe. So stop being a spoil sport."
Xin Linhua crashes into the waters. He swims around a bit, urging Rong Yizhan to join him.
"We’ll be here for a while." He splashes around "A few minutes won’t hurt."
Through dragging, persuasion and coercion, Xin Linhua does the unthinkable. He drags Rong Yizhan into the waters with him.
"Just relax." He shuts his eyes.
___
"How long is this going to take!?"
Xin Linhua snaps his eyes open. That voice... is the source of his nightmare. The man who took control of his life and turned it upside down, turning him into a cold killing machine.
He’s in a lab. A familiar and sickening scene. A memory he had buried so deep in his mind, he tries to hard to wipe it clean.
The familiar blue liquids, vials and white coats is all coming back to him.
He’s on earth!