Chapter 65: Descent.
『"Falling feels like flying until you hit the ground."』
The wind kept screaming in Amara’s ears as her hair flailed in the air.
At first, she found it hard to breathe. The fall was threatening to rip the breath from her lungs while lights and shadows blurred together into a dizzying kaleidoscope.
But the terror quickly transformed into something else. A rush. In this moment, she didn’t have to think, only fall. And falling felt almost like freedom.
To her right, Ethan grinned, glancing at Hiro before meeting her eyes again. "Think Hiro needs me to make him a suspension harness?" he called over the wind.
Amara watched Hiro’s arms windmill frantically, legs kicking at nothing, and pressed a hand over her mouth to suppress a laugh.
"Let him figure it out!" she shouted back, unable to hide her smile. "But let’s put a pin on that idea!" She shouted again, with a small laugh this time after looking at Hiro once more.
This was where their training would pay off. All those hours learning to channel their energy in order to achieve various effects, one being the creation of leverage.
As they approached the ground, Amara focused her energy downward, creating resistance in the air beneath her. Then she pushed against it and leaped down from air to air like she was descending invisible stairs.
Around her, the others descended in their own ways, each technique reflecting their individual approach to problem-solving.
Ethan, Dante, and Yelena all used variations of the same method, letting themselves fall until the last possible second, then creating resistance that stopped them flat just inches from the ground before dropping down quietly.
Maya on the other hand, created a sphere of light that slowed her fall like a parachute. While Sophia simply floated down, surrounded by a soft golden psychic aura that made her look like some kind of angel.
Raj had the right idea, pushing off the air in controlled bursts to slow his descent. But about thirty feet up, his concentration faltered for just a crucial second, and his leverage failed.
He landed feet-first, creating a small crater in the pavement that sent cracks spiderwebbing outward. "I’m good!" he announced immediately, stepping out of the impact crater. "Meant to do that."
"Sure you did," Sophia said, smirking.
Hiro, meanwhile, had opted for circling his arms so fast they became a blur, generating a vortex of air beneath him that slowed his descent as he touched down safely if somewhat dizzy.
"Channeling energy is not my cup of tea," he muttered, staggering slightly. "Give me good old-fashioned helicopter arms any day."
Within moments, the team had regrouped, weapons manifesting as they formed up near the crater’s perimeter. Raj’s impact crater still smoked faintly.
"So much for stealth,"Dante said dryly, eyeing Raj’s crater.
They were gathered near Nakanoshima. Close enough to reach their target, far enough to avoid unstable ground.
The moment Amara’s feet touched solid ground, Angel’s Bane manifested fully in her hand.
Beside her, Hiro had gone completely still, staring at the devastation with an expression she couldn’t read. His hands trembled slightly.
"Hiro?" she said quietly.
He didn’t respond. He just kept staring at streets that should’ve been filled with people, lights, and life.
She touched his shoulder gently and he flinched, then nodded once. "I’m good," he said in a hollow voice. "Let’s... let’s just get this done."
Amara finally took a moment to look around, taking in Tokyo from ground level. And all she could see was nothing but the ghost of civilization.
There was nothing for miles. The devastation, only made worse by the eerie silence that accompanied it.
It felt wrong.
Tokyo at night was meant to be alive with sound of traffic, voices and the ambient hum of the city. Instead, there was nothing. Just the wind whistling through empty streets.
"That’s not creepy at all," Hiro whispered.
"The evacuation was weeks ago," Maya reminded them quietly. "Government cover story is gas leak. Anyone still here are either looters, homeless, or..." She trailed off meaningfully.
"Or spawn," Raj finished.
"Sophia, what do you sense?" Maya asked.
Sophia took a deep breath, then her eyes went distant, that thousand-yard stare that meant she was extending her telepathic senses.
After a moment, she gasped and staggered.
Amara caught her. "What is it? What did you sense?"
"Minds. Hundreds of them." Sophia’s voice shook. "But they’re all... fractured. L-like looking into a broken mirror where each shard reflects something different."
"That’s some vivid poetry," Dante whispered.
"Yeah, thanks Mick O’jagger..." Sophia met Amara’s eyes and continued. "Amara, something is watching us."
Maya pulled up a holographic map from her wrist device, the projection casting blue light across their faces. "Our target zone is three blocks east, then down. Nakanoshima Station, Level Three. According to scans, the highest concentration of spawn is gathered there."
She pointed to a subway entrance half-collapsed. "That’s our way in. Remember, standard formation. We encounter resistance, we eliminate it. We encounter civilians, we extract them. We encounter the Apostles..." She paused, meeting each of their eyes in turn. "We report and withdraw. Clear?"
"Crystal," Amara said as she tried to control her breathing. Then they moved through Tokyo’s empty streets like ghosts haunting a dead city.
The subway entrance loomed ahead, a gaping hole in the street where concrete had collapsed into darkness below.
Emergency tape fluttered in the breeze with yellow and black stripes and markings on it that meant "DANGER" in multiple languages.
"Hold," Maya whispered, raising one hand in a closed fist.
They froze immediately, weapons ready.
For several heartbeats, nothing happened, just the wind blowing, and the sound of their breathing.
Then Amara noticed movement in the darkness of the subway entrance. Not one shape, but many. Writhing and shifting.
They looked almost identical to wraiths. It made Amara wonder if the origin of wraiths weren’t actually directly from the Chaos Sea but from Malices. But there wasn’t time for pondering.
"Here they come." She exhaled slowly as the spawns emerged, dozens of them.
"Weapons free," Maya commanded calmly. "Engage."
The spawns charged and Amara dashed forward, swiftly slashing through the first, its body dissolving into black mist the moment it was cut down.
Two more came from her left and she slashed again in, her blade severing both in one horizontal arc.
"Left flank covered," Ethan called out, his shields catching three more spawn in mid-air. The barriers contracted suddenly, crushing the creatures like insects.
Raj’s massive fist came down like a hammer, cratering the pavement and obliterating two more spawn in the process, the shockwave knocking three others off their feet.
Hiro simply zoomed past multiple spawns and they all exploded into black mist from the too-fast-to-see strikes he landed.
"That makes how many now?!" Sophia shouted from the center of their formation, eyes glowing as five spawn suddenly lifted into the air, before being slammed into the ground with enough force to shatter their forms.
But more kept coming. They poured from the subway entrance in a tide of darkness, far more than the initial dozen. Twenty. Thirty. Fifty.
"Fall back!" Maya commanded, her lantern flaring bright. Golden light erupted outward in a wave that forced the spawn to retreat, hissing. "Defensive positions! We’re being overrun!"
They were being overwhelmed. For every spawn they killed, three more poured from the subway entrance. This was becoming a battle of attrition. At this rate...
They needed to break the momentum, push forward instead of defending.
Dante, who probably had the same idea stepped forward and brought his fingers down on Requiem’s strings, unleashing a wave of sound.
Dozens shattered instantly, dissolved into mist by pure acoustic violence. Those that survived were thrown backward into the subway entrance, tumbling over each other.
He then looked specifically at Sophia and flashed a cocky grin. "Mick Jagger wishes, sweetheart."
"That’s our opening!" Amara shouted. "Everyone, Now!"
They charged into the darkness of the subway entrance, leaving the destroyed spawn behind. And as they descended into Tokyo’s underground, the darkness swallowed them whole.
***
Three hundred meters deeper in the tunnels, something... a huge core that looked like a pulsating egg with a transparent membrane and veins all around it, felt them coming.
It was completely surrounded by machinery and equipment that still looked incomplete. Like something was being built around it. Mechanical tubing stuck out of it, pulsing like arteries.
Yet, even with no face, mouth, or features, it seemed to smile with a malevolent aura radiating off of it.
***
[COMBAT STATUS]
Spawn Eliminated: 67
Team Status: No casualties
Current Location: Nakanoshima Station - Level 1
Target Location: Level 3
Distance: 2 levels down
Estimated Spawn Remaining: 170+
Warning: Core entity aware of presence