“This is a lucky shot,” muttered Nagato under his breath. “Now we can get the fuck of there like in ten minutes.”

  So, they have already fulfilled the main mission, Luca thought, relieved for them. But the feeling lasted less than a second. A shiver rand down his spine, and cold spread through his blood. His widened eyes found the pale faces of his coworkers, and knew he wasn’t the only one being affected.

  A soft hum reached his ears, and for a moment, his mind crashed.

  The first thought he was able to formulate was that if taking a picture of the aliens would mean another mission. The second was that he needed to get the fuck out there at that instant.

  Ladon hissed out of nowhere, and seemed to broke out the ‘spell’. He stumbled forward, toward the yellow panel at the corner of the room. Out of the corner of his eyes, Luca found Nadeene’s face growing even paler, eyes filled with incredulity.

  “You,” Nagato hissed under his breath, body still frozen, but anger on his eyes.

  As Ladon pressed the yellow panel, Luca managed to move his fingers –and pressed in the closest injury on his hand. The sudden pain allowed him to recover control of his body, and he didn’t hesitate to stretch his hand and pinch Nadeene’s and Nagato’s hand, who in turn did the same for Liona.

  In that split second, Ladon screamed.

  Blood exploded –and bathed the floor and the closest devices.

  Luca moved without thinking, and pressed the capsule on. Blue energy flickered around them, as Luca dragged the three towards the corner. The hum pressed on, growing louder. But Luca didn’t felt the pressure.

  “To the door,” he hissed, and the three of them ran towards the same direction they had come.

  They managed to cross to the corridor, and from there took the first turn they found. It led them to another yellow panel, and it to another room. It was a larger chamber, with strange shaped-devices that Luca couldn’t understand. At the far end of the room was a ramp, sloping downward into darkness.

  “Down there,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “It’s our only way.”

  No one argued. They moved as one, descending the ramp into the unknown. The shield died down, leaving a simple message behind:

  Pocketing it, Luca scrutinized the area as Nagato illuminated forward with his flashlight. As they reached the bottom, they found themselves in a vast chamber barely lit. It was like the red veins had almost died down there. Looming towers were scattered around the space, together with square and rectangular smaller devices.

  As they took cover in a corner, the silence that followed left them in a tense atmosphere.

  “I cannot believe it,” Liona murmured softly, her voice shaken. “Ladon –why?”

  “He thought he found a chance and took it,” Nagato said. The anger was palpable on his voice. “I know thousands of men like him. Would happen sooner than later. Karma’s a bitch.”

  “We –we don’t know if he was really to left us,” Liona said quickly. “We shouldn’t speak ill of the dead.”

  Nagato sneered. “You wanted a monologue or something?”

  Liona’s face grew determined. “He saved me on the forest. With its item. If it weren’t for the shock, I’d have been already dead. Perhaps –perhaps he was scared, and couldn’t think well. But that doesn’t mean we should judge him for a last mistake.”

  Well. Things were starting to get philosophical. What a joy. It was exactly how he wanted to pass the next minutes.

  Nadeene sighed, and then looked at Luca. “You got something good there. If it weren’t for it, we would have been dead already.”

  And with that, the attention was focused on him. Thank you, he thought. At least she didn’t mention that he had technically ‘abandon’ them before. Although, it wasn’t like they owned others their lives. Cooperating was good and all, but Luca would prioritize his life in any given moment.

  “You’re welcome,” he said, simply, and ignored the looks from the others. “How much time is left?”

  Nadeene frowned, and glanced at her watch. “Three minutes.”

  “Not much,” Luca murmured, and glanced around. His eyes caught something at the opposite corner –a mighty device. One with a weird egg-shape but translucent, with dark liquid moving inside. Two tube were connected to it across the floor –one red, barely glowing, and one that looked like water.

  This was what I was talking about. Luca’s mouth curled up in a faint smile. Less than a minute was left.

  “… This place is so weird.”

  Nadeene chuckled. “Wait for more missions before saying that. My last one was in a giant landfill of a god.”

  There was a moment of silence.

  “God exist?”

  “Gods exist. In some places.”

  “Wait—”

  Before they could delve in that kind of talk, something happened.

  The time ended.

  But they didn’t go out.

  “… You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

  “What—?” Liona shook her head. “This —this cannot be happening. Right?” She looked around, lost.

  Nadeene’s face was so pale it looked like she had died and turned into a ghost in that second.

  Luca didn’t blame them. This wasn’t something that should happen… not until later, at least. He closed his eyes, letting out a deep sight as he rubbed his face. Really. That shouldn’t be happening to them right now. Was this what they called the butterfly effect? If it was so, he wanted to complain to the fucker that had invented that.

  When he opened his eyes again, everyone looked like they had already died.

  “We can get out through the hidden exit,” Luca said firmly.

  At that moment, a failing pin could have been heard.

  “That’s right,” Nagato turned to him, his voice steady but tinged with urgency. “A Split Rule, like last mission.”

  Nadeene frowned, crossing her arms. “I’ve heard about those. But—you do realize how rare that was, don’t you? The chances of pulling off something like that now…” She trailed off, shaking her head.

  Liona pressed her lips together tightly. “But we’re dead if we stay here. Trying something is better than just waiting around to die.”

  Luca raised his hands, trying to calm them down. “Hear me out. We got a couple of hours before the 'destruction' of this place. We don't even know how this will happen. So, we could find a way to leave."

  “But what if it’s a Death Rule?” Nagato muttered, scowling. “Last mission, there was nothing we could do to avoid completing our tasks like we were supposed to do. Going against our 'role' and whatever the guidelines are can get us killed.”

  “True,” Luca admitted. “But was I know from last experience, a Split Rule goes through activating a Hidden Mission. And, I got mine through fulfilling another ‘normal’ mission. I still have one I haven’t completed yet—‘Deadly Exploration.’ It struck me as odd because it wasn’t called something like ‘Survive the Spacecraft.’ Exploration... implies finding something at the end of all this, don't you think?”

  Silence fell over the group.

  "I've that one too," muttered Nagato, and Liona nodded, a bit of life returning to her face.

  “Me too,” Nadeene murmured finally. “But it’s not uncommon to pick up secondary objectives you end up not meeting.”

  “But what if this isn’t something we’re meant to ignore?” Luca pressed gently.

  Liona let out a shaky breath. “… We don’t exactly have a lot of other options.”

  “So, we’re just supposed to explore this place?” Nagato asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically. “Run around blindly and hope the mission completes itself before we get caught?”

  Luca rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “We’ve only seen machinery so far. Everything seems tied to the Energy Core. But what’s its actual purpose?”

  “Crashed Spacecraft,” Liona murmured, recalling Lacerta’s words. “That’s what she called it.”

  Nagato glanced around, piecing things together. “If they crashed, maybe their goal is to leave. They’d need something like a Control Room, right?”

  Eureka! Luca had to fight the urge to hug Nagato right then and there. Instead, he kept his tone measured. “That sounds plausible. If we can find a way out of this zone, we might be onto something.”

  “There’s another panel over here,” Nadeene said, pointing at the wall. Her voice carried a note of caution. “But—we should be really careful.”

  Luca nodded, his mind racing. Unfortunately, his trump card was useless for the next few hours.

  “Alright,” Nagato muttered, clenching his fists. “Time to figure out how the hell we’re getting out of here.”

  They took the path, and came into a narrow corridor. A turn led them to another corridor, and that to the next one. Red veins pulsed around them. Luca soon noticed that none of them seemed to be looking at the walls. It was understandable. Ladon’s death had been too sudden. And probably, their first contact with the death of a someone they were familiar.

  The world outside Pendulum’s was quite amicable, uh?

  As they reached a new chamber —high ceiling, a series of coppery devices glued to each other in three rows, and a ramp going upwards— the fact that they had been lucky until then fall over them, courtesy of the ‘hum’. Thankfully, it was distant enough for them to duck behind one of the rows.

  The soft hiss of a panel sliding open reached Luca’s ears as he glued himself against the wall, aware that every one of them could die in any moment.

  Fuck.

  If only he could access to his new Gem…

  The hum echoed on the chamber, bouncing off the walls.

  Luca could felt the coldness spreading through his body and sweat sliding down his back. He met Nadeene’s grim eyes, at the other row. Beyond her, Liona had ducked behind the last row with Nagato.

  His mind drifted —who knew for how long it was? Then, abruptly, he was back, blinking rapidly as something wet slid down his cheeks. But they weren’t tears—Nadeene wouldn’t be staring at him with such horror if they were.

  A choked gasp broke the silence, sharp and strangled.

  Something shifted in Nadeene’s expression, a flicker of resolve cutting through the fear. Before Luca could react, she lunged forward from her crouched position. Her hand struck his cheek with a resounding crack, the force snapping his head to the side.

  Luca staggered, his hand instinctively rising to his stinging face. But as he touched his skin, he felt it—something insidious, something that had been creeping into him, suddenly wavered and loosened its grip. He met Nadeene’s gaze and nodded, a silent thank you. If she hadn’t acted so quickly, who knows how far he might have fallen?

  There was reliable people. Even if they were depending on him to take them out there.

  As Nadeene pressed herself back against the wall, Luca’s eyes darted to where his two other coworkers were hiding. Nagato had a firm grip on Liona’s arm, his face taut with tension. Even through the mud caking their clothes, Luca could see the dark streaks of blood.

  They were so dirty.

  A thought nagged at him: was this the reason why they had been found? The trail of mud they must have left behind would have been obvious for the masters of that place. Of course it would. Perhaps… perhaps… Luca’s jaw tightened. He should have gone alone. He didn’t need more people complicating things, did he? His eyes flicked toward the nearest exit, calculating. Maybe he had been in something when he left them behind.

  Hadn't he already learned enough about this?

  Slowly, as thoughts crawled through his mind as little spiders, weaving malicious webs, Luca pressed his fingers against his hands. The sudden bolt of pain shocked him, and gave him a bit of clarity. He knew they couldn’t stay there or they would end doing something.

  “Hey,” he said, in a slow, cautious way to Nadeene. Her eyes darted to him, a haunted look on her face. “At the count of three, we’ll going to them, and then getting out there.”

  “... And that thing?”

  Luca pressed his lips. What was she so slow? Should she simply be listening to him? He then shook his head. “Mental. This thing is toying with our mind.”

  “How do you know it’s not waiting for us to move?” she hissed, her voice trembling. “Aren’t we already taking too many risks with this plan of yours?”

  Fuck. Great. She was being affected too.

  He really should get the fuck out from there for himself and let them to die, those fuckers idiots.

  Relax, he thought, breathing in slowly. “We’ll be dead anyway,” he said. “Better to die trying than crying in the dark.” With that, he quickly counted, “One, two, three,” and darted to his two coworkers.

  Liona and Nagato stared at him as if he’d lost his mind, but he didn’t have time to care. Crouching in front of them, he grabbed one of their arms and hissed, “We need to get the hell out of here before we end up killing each other.” Then, without another word, he yanked them to their feet and pulled them toward the exit.The hum grew louder.

  Nagato fought against his grasp. “Fuck you. I won’t listen to a guy that left us behind.”

  Liona’s eyes widened. “Hypocrites!” She cried.

  He should leave them there, see if he cared.

  Coming back to his brother was ten times more important than this bunch of idiots anyway.

  He should leave.

  If you want to rate or even leave a review, I'll be really grateful! It would help the story a lot. :D)