The group walked through corridors as wide as city streets. Gale looked up, searching for the ceiling. Points of light dotted the darkness high above with thin clouds. The lights twinkled just like when they were far away from the tower and the lights seed to flicker and twinkle.
"How the hell do you build sothing this big?" Kyle said.
The floor ran straight ahead, wide enough for four lanes of cars to drive through. Buildings lined both sides with windows and doors that had a clear difference between what was outside and the inside. These buildings were more blocky but took on rhomboid and multiple shaped patterns on their walls, suggesting they were part of the technology that ran this whole place.
Rachel walked close to one wall, running her fingers along its surface. "The materials feel different here. More refined than outside, built instead of grown."
"Temperature's controlled too," Clyde noted, adjusting his rifle strap. "No wind. No weather. Just... perfectly room temperature."
"How would you know? We've never been to the room temperature room," Kyle said.
"Shut up, you get what I an," Clyde said.
Lily had stopped moving, staring upward at the distant lights. "Those aren't just lights. They're moving. Following patterns."
"Enough gawking," Ollie said. "Lily, use the red marble. Find us an exit."
Lily grabbed the marble from her pocket. She put it between her thumb and index finger. Then, she flicked the marble into the air.
However, instead of the usual spin at the apex, it simply dropped like a normal marble and hit the floor with a soft clink. No direction, nor any pull toward any path. The marble rolled to a stop near her feet.
"Let try again," Lily said, picking it up.
She threw it higher this ti, focusing harder on finding an exit. The marble spun, fell, and again hit the ground without showing any direction.
"Broken?" Kyle said.
"No," Lily said. "It works fine. There's just nothing for it to point toward."
Gale gulped, pulling up the mission interface.
[Available Missions]
[Close a Rift][Repeatable][Practice skills][Daily][???][???]
[Current Active Missions]
[Vianne's Origin Fragnts][1/8][Exterminate the Corrupted][Find the City's Energy Source][Create the Exit Rift]
It said to create an exit rift. It didn't say to find one or to exit the right. That would an that the only way out of here was to literally create an exit rift. He gulped again. They'd literally have to find a rift making machine in this hunk of machine, find the coordinates back ho, power it up, and then hope it takes them to the right 'ho'. To do all of that, powering up the city was no longer a side quest.
"Guys," Gale whispered. "What if there's no exit?"
Ollie stopped walking. The entire group froze, everyone turning to look at Gale.
"What do you an, no exit?" Rachel asked.
"What if the marble isn't pointing anywhere because there's nothing to point to?" Gale said. "What if we have to make our own way out?"
"What do you an make our own way out?" Ollie's face went white. "That would classify this as an unclassified rift. Unknown paraters. Unknown rules. Unknown everything. Besides, it could just be out of range, like back in the Eclipsed."
"It could be out of reach, but think about it," Gale said. "This rift wasn't natural. Alexei created it artificially using Project Threshold. The normal rules might not apply."
Ollie's expression changed imdiately when Gale said that. That was the look of the thought dawning on him.
"You an we're stuck here?" Kyle said. "Permanently?"
"I don't know…" Ollie said.
"Great. Just fucking great," Kyle said. "Your brilliant idea to go up against the Silver Lions. Your decision to break the deal. Your fucking mont of self reflection got us all trapped in robot hell."
Clyde took a step beside his brother. "Kyle's got a point. Fuck around with the families. Now we found out."
"You want to bla soone?" Kyle pointed at Gale. "Bla the rookie over there. He's the one who told that piece of shit to save that other piece of shit in the first place!"
"Kyle, lower the weapon," Rachel said. The room temperature took a sharp ten degrees up.
"Why should I? This asshole got us into this ss by wanting to save the soul of soone who's killed thousands of people with his dust research. Thousands, Gale. n, won, children. All dead because of Ollie's fucking science experints."
"The Golden Boy of the Path. Mr. Money-Solves-Everything. The sa guy who's been covering up dust corruption incidents for years," Clyde said.
"You think he deserves saving?" Kyle asked Gale directly. "You think one life is worth six? Because that's the trade we're looking at."
The life of the helpless and innocent is worth whatever number this asshole said. Six, ten, hundreds. He'd let the world burn to save the innocent that Gale himself cares about. "Would you have left a teammate to die?"
"If that teammate was responsible for genocide? Yeah, I'd have left him to rot."
"What if it was your brother, would you have abandoned him?"
Kyle laughed. "He's not that stupid. We'd do anything to stay alive and then get paid."
"Ollie made his choice," Clyde said. "He chose to save one person over the greater good. Wasn't even the logical choice."
"And you made yours," Kyle said. "You pushed him to make that choice. You guilt-tripped him."
Rachel stepped between Kyle and Gale. "That's enough."
"Is it?" Kyle asked. "Because last I checked, we're all going to die here. Starve to death. Get torn apart by tachikomis. Or worse, live long enough to go crazy from isolation."
Gale winced at that last one.
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"The rookie doesn't get it," Clyde said to his brother. "He's never seen what happens to people who get stuck in unclassified rifts. He doesn't know about the expeditions that never ca back. The hundreds of Aurians stronger than any of us that all died in vain."
"Shut up, Clyde," Rachel said.
"No, fuck you," Clyde said. "Soone explain reality to our fearless squad lead and his bonehead pet over there."
"And you know what's worse? Ollie's probably not even fucking sorry. I bet he'd make the sa choice again." Kyle turned away from the rest of the group.
Ollie t Kyle's stare. "You fucking bet I would."
"Then you're an idiot."
"Maybe I am."
Rachel's gauntlets flared, tal glowed orange red like tal right out of the furnace. "Everyone here is a team. Heck, we treated you as a team too. Even if Gale hasn't known both of you for a long ti, there's enough bond there. He would've done the sa thing for both of you. Saved you from yourselves or whatever family that cos after your asses."
Kyle snorted. "Right. The rookie who barely knows us would risk his life for a couple of assholes like us."
"You think he wouldn't?" Rachel stepped closer, an ember sparked on her gauntlet that caused her arm to engulf in flas. "Technically, he's only known and Ollie for a couple of months. He's done a lot for and Ollie in just those couple of months alone. He wouldn't be associating with both of you if he really didn't care."
"There's no way that's true. You're just covering for him like you always do," Clyde said.
"You're biased," Kyle scoffed. "You've been protecting the rookie since day one. Making excuses. Giving him special treatnt."
"Biased?" Rachel's fire near the gauntlets grew white hot. "You want to talk about bias? How about your bias against anyone who isn't part of your little twin club?"
Kyle and Clyde exchanged a look. Clyde's hand moved closer to his rifle.
"We judge people based on competence," Clyde said. "Not feelings."
"Competence?" Rachel laughed. "Gale's proven himself more in the last few hours than you two have in years of fieldwork."
"You're just mad because we called out your boyfriend," Kyle said.
"If insubordination happens now," Rachel's gauntlets turned white hot, "then you might as well die now. Save us all the trouble of watching you fall apart when things get serious."
Kyle's hand moved toward his pistol. Clyde shifted his weight, ready to grab his rifle.
Gale stepped between them, giving a glance at both twins. "Survival cos first. Before feelings. Before bla. Before everything else. Even if the road to a cure is longer, it doesn't matter. One shard at ten percent chance in five years is nothing. Look at where we are. In a place with tech way more advanced than anything on Earth. What if sothing here could lead to a cure for dust corruption? And a cure slls like money to ."
Kyle's hand eased away from his pistol in its holster while the temperature started to cool.
"Alexei said this group is this generation's stars," Gale continued. "We got an origin shard that the Silver Lions couldn't get for fifty years. Who's to say we can't do the impossible again?"
"Gale's right. No point in pointing fingers now." Ollie sighed. "All of us are a team, and a team sticks together. We solve this rift as a team. And if there is sothing here, we also get sothing to solve the dust corruption and you two get rich."
Kyle kicked at the tal floor. "This is still bullshit."
Clyde nodded. "Guess we're stuck with each other."
"Great attitude," Rachel muttered as the heat receded fully.
"You want a better attitude?" Kyle asked. "Get us out of here alive. Then we can all have a nice chat about feelings and teamwork."
"Deal," Gale said.
Lily stood apart from the group, now gaining her cue to progress. She pulled out the red marble again, holding it in her palm.
"What are you doing?" Ollie asked.
"Trying sothing different," Lily said as she tossed the marble into the air.
This ti it spun twice before dropping. Instead of hitting the ground uselessly, it pulled towards the left side of the vast space. The marble rolled several feet before stopping, pointing at a large structure that stood taller than the buildings around it.
"What did you point it toward?" Ollie asked, moving closer to see where the marble had stopped.
Lily picked up the red marble, looking at the building it had pointed to. The structure was the tallest of any building there, going up beyond the clouds they couldn't see through.
"Sothing that could help us in this situation," she said. "Very vague, I know. But it's the best I could manage."
"Help us how?" Kyle squinted at the building.
"I don't know," Lily said. "The marble doesn't give specifics. Just direction towards what you're looking for."
"Better than nothing, I guess," Clyde said.
The spire was about four blocks away. Compared to other areas around in the inner city, this one stood out with its similar organic designs from the outside.
"Formation," Ollie said. "Sa as before. We move together."
The team dropped into position. Gale was at the front line, walking a couple of tres ahead of Ollie, Rachel, and Clyde while Kyle flanked left and Lily was up ahead.
"Stay tight," Ollie called out.
They moved through the inner city's streets. The stars that peeked through the clouds above twinkled, but now, Gale knew that those weren't stars. They were lights for whatever was above.
Lily reappeared at the corner ahead, signalling all clear with a raised fist. She moved to the next intersection, checking both ways before waving them forward.
"Empty so far," she called out.
Kyle jogged to catch up with Gale. "Too quiet if you ask . Those spider chs were everywhere outside."
"Maybe they can't get in here," Gale said. Tendrils also scouted around the radius that Lily didn't cover. Nothing so far. Either that or there was nothing moving among them, like the spider chs were turned off.
"Or maybe they're just waiting for us to get comfortable," Clyde said.
Rachel looked back down the street they'd travelled. "Nothing following us. Whatever opened those doors didn't trigger any alarms."
They continued through the city as Lily reached the next intersection and stopped, crouching behind a low wall. She held up a closed fist.
The team froze in place.
Gale sneaked closer to Lily, staying as low as he could, then whispered, "What is it?"
"Nothing," Lily said. "That's what's bothering . This place should have security like the outside, but every corner I check is empty."
"Maybe that's a good thing," Kyle moved up as well and whispered, "Less shooting. Conserving resources is always a good thing."
Clyde followed his brother. "Empty doesn't an safe. Could an everything's hiding."
Ollie moved up beside Gale. "Are we there yet?"
Lily pointed ahead. "Two more blocks. Straight line from here."
"Let's go," Ollie said, standing up.
They moved out again.
Gale suddenly felt the stare. It was the familiar feeling of when he killed that eyeball spider thing. This ti, it felt further away.
Spreading out the tendrils of Breath of the Void, he tried to find it, scouring through corners and shadows. As expected, the eyeball thing didn't give out any signatures, signals, visuals, or movent. No blank spots either that would indicate a being that could hide its presence like the shadow.
If sothing was planning an ambush, it would have happened by now.
He kept the tendrils spread out, but the feeling of being watched didn't go away. It beca stronger than before, from one to three watchers.
"Sothing wrong?" Kyle asked Gale.
"Just staying alert. This place feels too convenient."
"Convenient, how?"
"Clear path to our destination. No resistance. Like we're being guided."
"Guided by what?" Rachel asked.
"That's what I'd like to know."
They reached another intersection. Lily checked both ways before signalling them forward. The spire stood one block away now, its spiral shape filling their view.
"There's our target," Ollie looked up at the buildings. "Sa question as before. How do we get inside?"
Two large panels marked the entrance, about the sa size as the ones at the tower's main entrance. The sa circuit patterns covered their surface, though these followed the spiral the of the building.
"Hopefully easier to open than the last ones," Clyde muttered.
They approached the final intersection before the spire. Lily went ahead, checking the surroundings for any threats. She crouched behind what looked like a central fountain in the middle of a plaza.
After a few sweeps of her head over the plaza, she signalled to the squad to co over.
The team crossed the plaza in front of the spire. The building rose above them, spiral in design with the sa organic-looking tal circuitry in mostly rhomboid patterns. Light pulsed like a heartbeat on the circuits.
Gale and Rachel reached the doors first, the rest of the team spreading out to cover the approaches. The panels had the sa intricate complex network of lines, shapes, and patterns they had seen in the entrance to the inner city. One thing different, though, was that the network all flowed upwards.
"Sa drill as before?" Kyle asked.
"Hold on," Rachel reached for one of the panels.
Before her hand made contact, both doors shuddered. They opened just enough for the group to see the dim light flickering inside.
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