14xx/8/20

201 days since arrival…

Hito and Luka arranged another visit to the Tartarus Rift. This time, he's carrying me as well.

Hito told me that there is something else that I haven't seen yet which only Luka has ever seen before. Considering how the world seems to bend over for him, I have no doubt that he'll probably find something new. While I am not keen on revisiting that cursed place, it is nice to have some confirmation on this new phenomenon that seems to make Promestein worry to hell.

We are an 8-men crew (or 9 if you include Sophie). Luka and Alice lead the way, Sonya is the dedicated medic that uses white magic to heal, Promestein wanted to dissect the cadaver left behind by us as well as observe how Nuruko could exist in such environment, Nuruko just joined for the hell of it (I've heard that Promestein bribed her for some apples), and Saki wanted to find a new muse for her next song. Hito will be my partner for the excursion as well, hoping to find more stuff on the rift itself.

I loaded up with some bullets crafted by Papi in the castle. I didn't ask for much as I saw how exhausted the poor girl was. Even if ammunitions are easier to make by a dragon, she probably was overwhelmed by the standard number of bullets needed and how much I wasted it every day. Imagine making 5000 rounds every week for ten different types of ammo, even a dragon can get overwhelmed. I made a mental note to standardize ammo production soon.

Our first excursion is into the Tartarus Rift at the Southen Ilias Continent. I remembered going to that rift long ago, thinking that this place has the key to my path back home. No such luck. The only lucky that that happened to me back then is that I found a machinegun from a marine's body while I was besieged by Apoptosis. I wonder if the research crews found his corpse?

Anyway, there is a slight aura of hope coming from the camp itself. One of the scholars there walked up to me and asked me thousands of questions, wondering how any of the stuff the group found there actually worked. After my rampage down in the rift, they manage to explore deeper and further into the chasm, only stopped by a strange door nobody can enter. They manage to scrounge up more artefacts from the rift, only to be stopped by another wave of Apoptosis that pushes them all the way back to the small outpost at the base of the ladder itself.

They enthusiastically showed off what they found down there. The machines they found were placed on top of a simple wooden table, flanked by scholars and artists whom are busy cataloguing everything that was laid on top of the table itself. Behind them are more artefacts, lain on a simple rug to prevent them from incurring more damage.

I recognized a few of the guns here. Some Soviet-bloc AKs that looks older than my dad, a couple of Lee-Enfield rifles with jagged cuts similar to a claw mark, a variety of Glocks and revolvers in various chambering, the same M249 SAW that I left behind because I ran out of ammo. I also saw a few trenchgun here and there, one even has a bayonet attached to it.

No, what surprises me the most is the thing that isn't guns. Radios, personal computers, smartphones, headphones, powerbank, portable cables, hell, I even found a makeshift hand-cranked charger made out of bicycle parts and copper wire. (further testing shows that it actually worked much to my surprise. The voltage maybe low, but at least it worked!).

Anyway, it seems that we were called out again to help in the investigation as there is an alarming development happening inside the rift. Using Sophie's scope, I saw the troopers down there fighting off a fresh wave of Apoptosis in a brutal melee. I told the crew to go down there immediately while I'll cover them from above. Good thing my rifle is tailor-made for sniping.

Anyway, as I was setting up camp, I was greeted by a familiar sight. At first, I didn't recognize him, considering how ubiquitous brown hair is around the world. Then I saw his eyes and nose and recognized him afterward; It was Andrew, my guide into the cave at Pornof many, many weeks ago. Guy grew a beard and has a longbow strapped to his back. After he settled with his newfound wife, he realised that the boring lifestyle of farming doesn't suit them both, so they decided to continue their life as adventurers. They were hired by the archaeologist group researching this very rift I am about to plunge into as muscles, providing overwatch from the edge of the abyss to support any retreating troops.

It is strange to finally not be in the thick of it; not having to worry about dodging bullets while trying to headshot some eldritch abomination with tits is refreshing to say the least. It was almost relaxing, popping off skulls with well-aimed shots after shots like shooting clay pigeons with an AA-12. Again, most of the time I wasn't doing much to be honest; after clearing out the landing zone I found myself deprived of target when Luka got his foot on the ground and start hacking away with his sword. Hell, his first kill technically doesn't even reach the ground; he jumped off the ladder and slammed his sword right on top of this weird lady attached to some kind of futuristic soap dispenser, cleaving her skull in half.

After seeing the group bulldoze their way through, I was finally given permission to join them. With a sigh and a wave to Andrew and his wife, I descended into the abyss once more. This time, I have some crew backing me up down there. It's a nice change of pace after so long fighting on my own…

The trooper down there were finally relieved by a fresh troop from above, and we are given permission to explore. Not like we needed it though, we literally on speed-dial with most of the world's leader anyway. Even then, not much can be found down here actually. Most of things that can be grabbed by hand has been pulled up by the excavation crew, while the heavier one is simply unfeasible to transport. You wanna try carry a fucking industrial furnace?

Anyway, the target is not the rift itself. No, it is something that we all didn't expect.

I did write long ago that I was stopped by the iron door inside the rift, right? Well, Luka decided to simply touch the damn thing and it opened wide like a hungry crocodile in Nile river. That door probably is an electronic vault of some sort with fingerprint recognition device. Either that, or Luka knows where the button to push without any of us knowing it.

After having a small crisis attack regarding the door, we went through the door and found ourselves in a whole new dimension. I'm fucking serious, it's a whole new fucking world up in this bitch.

When we pass through the door, we found ourselves standing in the middle of a town, a little bit like San Ilia at some point, but the entire place is literally covered in some kind of purple goo shit. When I tried to poke one, Sophie yells at me to not touch that shit with her muzzle. I used a stick nearby, and it looked like this weird-ass goo is not covering the structure, it was converting the material of the structure into the weird goo like stuff. Hell, most of the bigger goo structure around more resembles an intricate system of vines that seems to hold the purple goo together in tight formation, with some of the endings of the vine secretes out the same purple stuff that covers the sidewalk.

To say that everybody was freaked out would be an understatement. Promestein looks like she got a heart attack, saying that the 'chaos' has spread so fucking fast and so much. Luka told me that this city name is Remina, but it was destroyed around 30 years ago, give or take. They were terrified of how fast this thing was spreading. In fact, it was almost reaching the door we came from.

It doesn't make sense to me. What the hell is this thing? Are these things that creates the eldritch abomination I fought before? How did it spread? What did it eat? How do we stop it? Lots of uncomfortable questions starts to be thrown around, and I can feel the terror rose in every word we throw willy-nilly. Hell, even the sky itself were maddening to look; a kaleidoscope of purple and blue colouring that coalesced into one another presented with a smoke-like texture.

Luka thankfully reigned in the situation. It has spread true, but it doesn't have the ability to directly changes us yet, so that means we can still move around and interact with the phenomenon itself, thus making our original goal still attainable. I asked him if he truly believed his own word, as even Sophie is feeling mighty uncomfortable at the moment. He told me that the wind spirit inside him tells him that we're safe for now. Normally I would've just walked out of that; but my own curiosity and the unanimous agreement from my comrade stays my lip.

So, we spent the entirety of the day just doing our thing; Promestein and Hito studies the chemical composition of the goo itself even deeper, Sonya looks after Nuruko, who seems to be at home in this place. Sonya did tell me that she lived here once, that cute little monster. Saki is silent for the first time since I met her, almost having a sorrowful contemplating gaze in her eyes as she takes in the surrounding. Considering how most of her songs are pretty bog-standard idol pop stuff, you can't glean much happiness from a dead zone like this. Unless she wants to flip the script and write about how wonderful it is to not live in this hell hole.

Me? I just spent my time trying to understand the creature that came out of this place. There is one guy who stood beside the door, but the guy's face was blurred out like someone takes a paintbrush and haphazardly draws over his face, creating a nightmarish smudge over a light-skinned canvas. Poor guy didn't even utter a single coherent word, other than some pained intelligible screams.

The rest were too mad to even consider talking, even though they were babbling as they assaulted me again and again. They all seems to share the same theme though; most babbling seems to hint on a normal life before the incident that brought this world to end, and their body seems to be a mixture of bug-like being and metallic yet organic machines, a cyborg perhaps? If so, who makes them? What changes them into those cyborg entities? It's an utter shame that they all crumbled to dust after being killed. The Monster Girls on the surface will instinctively teleport back home as long as they have a Harpy Feather in possession before a truly lethal blow, hence why I never really killed any of them. Here? I can clearly see my bullets ripping their innards and limbs apart, seeing their black blood spurting out of the exist wound before their entire body turns to dust. Monster Girls doesn't do that, only Apoptosis actually died that violently.

As I just finished mopping up another wave, I turned around a street corner and met face to face with the White Rabbit herself. I didn't recognize her at first, considering how long since I ever heard from her furry ass anywhere. Then she smiled and reminded me of Richo, the Dog Girl I saved from a slave-trafficking ring up the mountain like ages ago.

I asked her why she wanted to meet me, as if her last message she gave me give any indication, is that my destiny is to meet Hito in the Second Chapter, whatever does that mean. So, I asked her to clarify her message as I technically found him. She told me that while what I did was technically true, my journey is far from over, in fact, she said that it's only the beginning.

I asked her of my friend's location, my Hito, the one that I climbed Mount Fuji together and has been searching for ever since. She told me not to bother, as his fate is already sealed long ago, and the only thing that was left is how to reach him, as freeing him from his misery is the only way of ending my story.

Her red gaze became serious, and I felt my fight-and-flight instinct kicks in as I felt a very ominous feeling emanating from her body. "Be prepared"

I raised my rifle, aimed for the head, and then she just walked away.

She turned around a corner of a building, and disappeared like she never existed in the first place. To say that I have the chills would've been an understatement. Her words earlier, no, it sounded more like a command, echoed in my ears. Be prepared, she said. Prepare for what?

As I regrouped with the boys, I told them what the White Rabbit told me beforehand. Alice was surprised that I met her, especially in this type of world. Hito has a very strange expression on his face, as if he's imagining something terrible happening to him. To be honest, what she said earlier does make it sound ominous as fuck. Luka thought it was strange, but he felt something bad might happen. Promestein agreed wholeheartedly; she said that the chaos thing is spreading much faster than what she anticipated. While she believes that the chaos may not be an immediate problem, she theorized that in order to end my story and find my brethren, I have to be prepared to face any opposition that lies in the way.

Sonya then chimed in, wondering if she meant that I have to prepare against the chaos incursion. She didn't specify any kind of fate my friend has suffered, for all we know he could probably be fine and just sleeping in a pod for all we know.

Speculations were thrown between us, but the facts remain the same; my Hito is held captive to a certain fate, and it is my duty to prepare to save him at all cost. Alice then asked me how I am going to prepare. In her opinion, if the White Rabbit is telling me to prepare, then there's something ominously powerful enough to make her second-guess our ability to win. It could be anything; a Monster? A demonic Multiverse-Class World Ending entity? A black plague? Hell, maybe the Second Monster-Angel War?

I'll told her that in my personal experience, a wall of guns always solves everything. If it doesn't work, make a bigger wall.