Shortly after the earthquake—whose scale and intensity far exceeded any previous tremors—subsided, a series of chain collapses clearly caused by explosions sent all the detectors in the Command Center flashing red.
Through the windows of the Command Headquarters, all the houses within the quarantine zone vanished like a mirage, turning into a gaseous state that rushed straight into the sky before dissipating without a trace.
The Spatial Anomaly had disappeared, along with the buildings it had transford.
The signals of the N4 Squad collectively reconnected. The flatlining physiological data and damaged cara feeds were terrifying to behold.
The only cara still transmitting a feed belonged to Agent Char (N4-3). In the footage, a Class-D Personnel in tattered clothes was spinning in circles like a madman, occasionally crouching down and spewing endless gibberish. Nurous black mosaic blocks, manually applied through relay processing, moved along with him to prevent any source of Cognitohazard from paralyzing the Command Room.
"This is the first detachnt of Warhamr. We have arrived at the mouth of the well and detected that the distance to the bottom has returned to normal—they succeeded. Requesting permission to fast-rope down."
"Permission granted."
The mbers of the Warhamr first detachnt threw down their ropes and rapidly rappelled down the Vertical Shaft, entering the massive underground space.
"This karst cave is so damn huge. It's a miracle the blocks above didn't collapse sooner."
"Probably because they were all illegal structures with no real foundations."
The team's chatter echoed through the communication channel. "Keep an eye on the N4 Squad's signals. There are still people with vital signs. dics are already on standby at the mouth of the well."
"There's light below."
"Reporting in. Suspected discovery of A-2048. It appears to be... in a dormant state. The falling rocks were deflected by it...
No, I haven't sensed any Cognitohazard. It's currently resting on a... shit."
Everyone hit the brakes on their descenders, hanging in mid-air as they looked down at the Divine Item—which glowed about as bright as a lightbulb—and its 'pedestal' that had shed its Black Stone exterior.
It was a mountain built from layers upon layers of human bones.
Even though the collapsed cave ceiling had buried it under countless tons of stone and hard earth, it still defiantly protruded from the rubble. Every single skull faced upwards, looking toward the unreachable well opening with hollow eye sockets, gazing at the living. The Divine Corpse, appearing as a piece of glowing flesh, covered the skull at the very peak of the corpse mountain, as if helping it close eyes that could not rest.
"...Stop spacing out. Secure the Subject, start search and rescue, and bring our brothers and sisters ho."
Even with the order given, and despite their anxiety to save the survivors, how could such a task be easy when faced with tens to hundreds of tons of rock?
However, when the Warhamr search and rescue mbers spread out, maintaining their vigilance, they hadn't taken two steps before they noticed a figure swaying in the darkness.
"Heads up."
The Squad Leader raised his gun.
The high-powered Flashlight pierced the darkness, outlining a figure slouched over the rubble. His helt and armor were completely shattered, his clothes hanging off his body like tattered rags. They could only identify him by his face.
He must have been trying to rescue his comrades earlier, but now he was frozen in place for so unknown reason, seemingly turned into a statue.
"Agent Kyle?" The Squad Leader found the man's na on the roster. "Can you hear ?"
Agent Kyle remained motionless. A team mber took the initiative to approach and discovered that his drooping hand was clutching a mangled detonator stained with blood.
The team mber's footsteps paused. He then silently stepped onto a nearby rock and bowed his head in a mont of silence.
Directly below was the source of Captain Holly's (N4-1) signal.
The corpse was likely torn to pieces.
"Pull yourself together, man. We're taking you ho right now."
The Flashlight beam falling on his face finally roused Agent Kyle. He blinked, cradling his right hand that still gripped the detonator, his lips moving slightly.
Only the team mber standing right beside him caught his words.
"...We promised we were going to get drinks."
The team mber could only offer a sigh in response. He reached out to help Agent Kyle up, but was stopped by a gesture from the latter.
Seeming to no longer care, or perhaps having already braced himself, Agent Kyle turned the back of his right hand outward to show them. A black Eye Pattern was marked vividly upon his skin.
"Don't touch . I need to be contained. Maybe I'll beco a source of infection... I don't even know what I am anymore."
"For your own safety, stay away from ."
'You have completed your mission, Captain. Now it's my turn.'
After isolating this chaotic and densely populated residential area in Green Island City, nurous investigative reports regarding this location were sent to the Frontline Command Center as clues to the Anomaly's possible origins.
Today, one of those reports was once again presented on the eting table.
It was a census list of the residential area over the past few decades, detailing the criminal records that made the community infamous, along with a numbingly high number of missing persons reports.
This community was established around the sa ti as the massive land walls that expelled the Eleventh and Twelfth Districts. Initially, it was nothing more than a gathering place for migrants and stowaways.
These people—whose lives were cheap and whose deaths went unnoticed—created a massive slum here in just ten years.
Although Green Island City was nad 'Green Island,' it was actually severely lacking in water. To obtain water, people dug wells dozens of ters deep, drilling into the earth to find a source. One of these unnad wells pierced straight through the bedrock, causing the well-digger to fall into a water-filled karst cave below, yet this discovery only allowed the slum to expand further. However, as the groundwater was illegally extracted, the cave gradually dried up, and the well was eventually blocked, buried, and forgotten.
Subsequent renovations failed to serve their intended purpose. The public security never improved. The dense row houses were cramd with far more people than they were designed to hold, and criminals treated the area as a perfect operating ground and safe haven. Evil took root here.
One day, a criminal who had committed accidental manslaughter dragged a corpse into a Basent.
The man tried to dig through the wall—perhaps drawing inspiration from a mystery novel—to hide the body.
But behind the wall was solid rock, making it too difficult to dig. Ultimately, the criminal turned his attention beneath his feet, prying up the floor tiles and digging downward, shifting his path whenever he hit a rock...
That forgotten well thus saw the light of day once more.
After tossing the troubleso corpse inside and realizing he couldn't hear an echo at all, the criminal realized he had stumbled upon a brilliant business opportunity.
Soon, rumors spread throughout the community about a convenient channel for cleaning up sses. Many criminals sought help from the well's new owner, making corpse after corpse vanish into the dark depths. As ti passed, the well continuously changed hands, gradually falling into the control of larger syndicates and bigger cri rings. The chaos of the Tenth District ensured this business never went out of style. Before long, living people were also being thrown down the well—the mountain below would sotis beco very soft, allowing people to survive the fall.
But that was a hundred ters underground, in the darkest place in the world.
Surviving was rely the beginning of an even longer tornt and suffering.
Those lucky ones groped their way into other corners of the cave, blending into the darkness.
A year passed, then another. A corpse today, ten more tomorrow...
The bottom of the cave was gradually piled high with bodies transported from all over and people who had gone missing from the community, forming a silent mountain of corpses.
An Anomaly was not necessarily related to large-scale cri, resentnt, or similar factors, nor did it necessarily follow the karmic law of 'an eye for an eye' that people wished to believe in, but there was definitely so kind of connection between them. This was also the answer the Managent Authority had been trying to find—it concerned the source of Anomalies and the deepest mysteries of this world.
The underground secret was carefully hidden until not long ago, when the Midnight Visitor appeared.
It arrived silently, gazing at drears from afar, then little by little, inch by inch, approached the selected houses and took away the living.
At the top of the corpse mountain, containnt personnel discovered the bones of several victims of the Midnight Visitor. Every bone was perfectly preserved and glowed in the dark. With no other anomalies present, they were registered as "CVA-A-2048-1".
Excavation and surveying of the well's bottom would continue for a long ti.
[Upon verification, the Spatial Anomaly within the community dissipated after two hours. The buildings have maintained the replicated structures from their anomalous state. It is recomnded to establish an Area on-site or demolish this community entirely.]
[Following file verification, CVA-C-8052 "Midnight Visitor" has been confird as a byproduct. The file has been discarded.]
[All Ovisacs within the underground space have died. It is preliminarily determined that A-2048-2 and A-2048-3 (naly the Midnight Visitor and Scythe Monsters) will no longer reproduce. Exploration of other areas in the cave is currently underway, pending the creation of a comprehensive cave map.]
[N4 Squad Status Report:]
N4-1, Holly, KIA.
N4-2, Benjamin, KIA. Body unrecovered.
N4-3, Char, critically injured and undergoing ergency treatnt.
N4-4, Igor, permanently disabled.
[Brief Action Log: After the loss of four exploration teams, Mobile Task Force Zeta-8 "Pangolin" successfully contained the Subject.]
[Currently, CVA-A-2048 "Divine Corpse" has been contained in a temporary unit. After being subjected to physical impact and burial, the Subject has entered a dormant state, awaiting further testing and research. ClassD 2157, recaptured near N4-3, has been infected by A-2048, and his end-of-month termination will be suspended. N4-5 is currently in an abnormal state; until confird otherwise, he will be contained as A-2048-4.]
[Latest Update: Due to the highest directive, N4-5 is to be treated as a Mobile Task Force mber suffering from anomalous effects, pending subsequent quarantine and observation. The designation A-2048-4 has been reassigned to ClassD 2157.]
[End of Report]
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