Scenes of pure carnage flashed before Lutini's eyes; manna around the world erupted from Nibiru's mantle and consumed all living things. Humans and beasts twisted into mindless creatures. Their eyes driven by a thirst for madness and insatiable hunger for destruction. Flames spewed from shaken earth, waves as tall as mountains swallowed the cities, continental shifts grinded mountains to dusts, winds howled and moaned with cries of tortured souls- devouring everything in its path.
Tormented cries rang in Lutini's ears. Deep in Lutini's heart, it knew they belonged to the living beings on Nibiru. Desperately wanting to retreat into the safety and comfort of a nearby hole, Lutini found itself immobolised by fear. Although, the slime knows no harm will come, but the immersive experience felt menacing and life threatening.
Paralysed, Lutini could only experience temporary relief after the peaceful scene of Milotic Sea's "Point Nemo" entered its vision. The sea waves were gentle and skies were clear and peaceful. Even the atmosphere was soothing. Lutini felt a deep sense of unease in its heart. "What will happen next? It seemed that this is the calm before the storm."
The setting transitioned to the control tower where the expedition team and the scientists were stationed. From a bird's eye view of the station, Lutini "dived" into the building and dropped into a room full of men in black militant wear.
A man in black military uniform entered Boardroom, "Sir JianLong! Reports of manna fluctuations and unstable energy flows are reported across the planet."
A stern and pale officer with dark hair turned to face the corporal and commanded, "Continue monitoring! Send me the images and increase godstone's manna veil output."
After the man left the room, another corporal entered the Boardroom, "Sir Bryan! The expedition team activated the return beacon, commence teleportation?"
A gentle looking man in white shirt and brown pants calmly questioned, "Strength?"
"2 down, 5 remaining. Sir!"
The lieutenant replied calmly, "Commence."
"Yes sir!" The corporal left to relay the message to his office.
"What's happening? 2 lives were lost because of your incompetence. Why were the risk analysis reports inconsistent with the results?!" The officer JianLong snapped at the chief scientist.
The chief scientist could not reply, the truth was stuck at the back of her throat like a lump of rock. Their calculation did not include errors nor anomalies in their report as previous extractions proved that the errors were negligible. With the satellite, videos reported unprecedented scale of destruction on their screens before their telecommunication system were jammed. Now, the station could only rely on the psychic reports from rare trustable sources. But to rely on such unscientific resources only wound her pride further. The chief scientist felt the burden and guilt resting heavily on her heart. Depressed that her miscalculation and mistake had caused the world to sink into destruction.
The officer shook his head, troubled. He glared at the chief scientist and continued, "Gather the report from the emerging expedition team and surmise the data captured on their device. Let's hope we can salvage this situation."
"Noted." The chief scientist with shoulder length nutmeg brown hair replied. Keeping her poker face intact, she give a quick bow to the officers before leaving.
"Currently this is the safest place on earth." Lieutenant Bryan spoke in a firm voice and paused before continuing, "all communications are down, the only reliable sources we have currently are our expedition team and the psychic spies. Even then, they are rapidly disappearing."
A flutter of gasp and murmurs flooded the room.
"What is the situation in Atlas?" Jianlong asked.
"I am afraid there is no more country we can return to. It is every man for himself. To survive, we will need every details from the expedition team." Bryan suggested.
The room fell into silence, the men hoped it was all a joke but people who knows the Lieutenant knows every single words he says is important. After all, he was the second most powerful psychic spy the world ever known. The first was obviously the esper placed in the expedition team.
At the teleportation gate, the engineers and scientists were gathered around the machine. The mechanism on the machine indicated dangerous energy level. If the teleportation gate is activated, there is a potential for the whole place to blow up. The soldiers and scientists felt conflicted and were both speculating the cause.
Right at this time, a voice boomed through the speaker with some static in between, "Hi, this is captain of the expedition team speaking, we are at the gate. I repeat, we are at the gate. Teleportation crystal is activated, control room please commence."
The mercenary with silvery chin length hair and black military cap grabbed onto the mic and replied, "Hi Control Room to Captain, have you activated a barrier? The machine is not able to detect you."
"I recognise that deep voice! It's May! There must be some trouble with the teleportation device!" The witch spilled her thoughts.
The alchemist gathered his thoughts and continued with a strong urgency in his voice, "Captain to control room. Affirmative. Commence with immediate teleportation. I repeat evacuate us immediately!"
"Did he say 'evacuate'?". May pushed the lever decisively knowing that the team was in peril, but the machine did not activate. The safety mechanism prevented it from working and reprogramming it will take several hours. The scientists and engineers stationed at the gate failed to see any response from the machine. They did not know May had activated the gate back in the control room.
May gritted her teeth and contacted the expedition team. "Control room to Captain. The device is down! I repeat the device is down! We have to proceed with manual teleportation. Madam Butterfly will teleport to you."
"Control room to Madam Butterfly, suit up for rescue mission." May blasted her message through the PA system.
As soon as the message reached Madam Butterfly's resting lounge, the slender woman rested on a lounge chair-like capsule and wore a metallic helmet. The machine manifest her abilities and allowed her to pass through planes in different dimensions: all she need to do was focus where she wanted to go.
Lutini hopped onto the woman's lap and witnessed the reality thinning and overlapping with a different dimension until they arrived at the other end of the teleportation gate.
"Where is Maria and Rango?" Madam Butterfly asked the expedition team after she saw them.
The expedition team wore a grave expression, their eyes betraying their guilt. They all knew their words will not escape Madam Butterfly's discerning eyes.
"We left them ." The esper replied coldly. "We have to go, the manna went crazy and it won't be long before it reach us." The alchemist summarised in a hurry.
"I can only teleport one adult at a time, that's my limit. Maybe I can teleport both Mitch and his father at the same time, but they have to go last because it will expend all my manna." Madam Butterfly said while feeling disappointed at her limited ability.
"That is good enough. I will go second, the rest can go first."
The team decided the phantom will go first followed by the summoner, alchemist, the witch and lastly the father and son.