Rachel froze in front of the locked screen, the message "Project Vortex has begun again" still glowing in red letters. Her mind was a whirlwind of questions and fears, but her journalistic instinct still burned fiercely within her. She didn't know how much time had passed since she started reviewing the classified files from her grandfather, but now everything felt different.
The piercing screams coming from outside broke the tense silence. Rachel felt every fiber of her body tense as she heard the unmistakable sounds of gunfire, explosions, and cries of panic. She forced herself to climb the stairs slowly, trying to stay calm even though her heart was pounding like a runaway drum.
When she reached the second-floor window, what she saw left her completely frozen. The streets she once knew so well were now an open hell. Deformed creatures—like the ones she had seen documented in the classified files—ran along the sidewalks, destroying everything in their path. Their grotesque bodies, made of malformed limbs and clumsily stitched-together human parts, shimmered under the streetlights. But the worst part wasn't these creatures—it was the aberrations.
The aberrations emerged from the shadows like living nightmares. Their bodies, covered in iridescent black scales, reflected the light from nearby explosions, while their floating clusters of eyes seemed to drain any trace of hope. Their long, sharp claws sliced through the air with lethal precision, searching for victims among the civilians and soldiers trying to resist.
From her vantage point at the window, Rachel watched as dozens of soldiers from New Philippines and New Indonesia fought valiantly against the deformed creatures. The military was equipped with modified weapons, special bullets designed to penetrate the mutated flesh of the creatures. For a moment, it seemed like they had the upper hand. The creatures fell one after another, their twisted bodies collapsing under coordinated fire.
But then, the aberrations sprang into action.
One of them suddenly appeared in the middle of a group of soldiers, moving with superhuman speed. Rachel held her breath as she watched the creature extend its claws and pierce the armor of three soldiers simultaneously. Blood splattered the nearby walls, painting a macabre scene. The men's screams echoed through the night but were quickly drowned out by the roar of the aberration.
Another group of soldiers tried using threshold pulse grenades, devices that emitted waves of blue energy designed to weaken the creatures. The deformed creatures screamed as the energy hit their bodies, slowly disintegrating them. But the aberration barely seemed affected. Instead of retreating, it absorbed the energy as if it were a delicacy, growing stronger with each pulse.
"Grenades!" shouted an officer, throwing more devices at the creature. But this time, the aberration was faster. With a casual motion, it caught one of the grenades mid-air and hurled it back at the soldiers. The explosion sent bodies flying in all directions, leaving smoking craters where the men had once stood.
Rachel felt tears begin to well up in her eyes as she witnessed the massacre. The soldiers, trained to face conventional threats, had no chance against these creatures. Every attempt at defense was met with relentless brutality. The aberrations didn't just kill—they seemed to enjoy it.
Just as she thought she couldn't take it anymore, her phone vibrated in her pocket. It was a message from Spectro. With trembling hands, she opened the conversation:
Spectro: Rachel, you need to get out of there. Now.
Rachel: What the hell is going on?
Spectro: Geneva is a battlefield. This isn't like Silver Ridge or any other threshold event we've seen before. Aberrations are pouring out of dimensional rifts all over the city. Militaries, organizations… everyone's here, but they're losing.
Rachel: How do I get out? Everything's blocked.
Spectro: Find the man who contacted you days ago. The stranger who sent you the initial information.
Rachel: Who is he?
Spectro: His name is Ethan. He's also in Geneva, and he has crucial information. You need to find him and work together to escape. I'll send you approximate coordinates, but be careful. He's already on the move, so he might not be exactly where I indicate.
Rachel: And if I can't find him?
Spectro: Then you're on your own. And trust me, you don't want to be alone in this hell.
Rachel gripped the phone tightly as the coordinates came through. She knew she had no choice. If she wanted to survive, she had to find this Ethan.
Rachel felt an unusual tingling coursing through her body. The bracelet she had worn for years, the "lucky charm" her grandfather had given her, now lay shattered on the basement floor. Since the dark figure had appeared before her, the device had begun to glow intensely before exploding into a thousand pieces. Now, for the first time in her life, she could feel her threshold energy flowing freely, though that didn't mean she knew how to control it. Her mind was still gripped by fear, but her body seemed to respond in ways she had never experienced before.
She looked out the window and saw a new wave of creatures emerging from a nearby street. The remaining soldiers were trying to regroup, but it was clear they were being overwhelmed in both numbers and ferocity.
She knew she couldn't stay there.
As she descended the stairs, she heard a deafening roar. A nearby explosion shook the house, causing the windows to vibrate violently. Rachel instinctively ducked, protecting her head with her arms. When the dust began to settle, she slowly got up and headed toward the front door.
Rachel observed from the window as the deformed creatures and aberrations slowly advanced down the streets, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. The last soldiers who had tried to resist now lay scattered across the pavement, their bodies torn apart like broken dolls. The air was filled with distant screams, explosions, and the unsettling sound of claws tearing through metal and flesh.
"I'll wait," Rachel thought to herself, trying to calm down as she watched the creatures move among the wreckage of abandoned vehicles. She knew she couldn't face them directly. However, something inside her told her she couldn't stay there forever. Her threshold energy flowed freely now, without the restraint of the bracelet she had worn for years. But that freedom also brought a sense of chaos, as if something inside her was spiraling out of control.
The aberrations seemed to pause for a moment, as if assessing the area. Their floating clusters of eyes turned toward the house where Rachel was hiding. A chill ran down her spine as she felt something within them detecting her. Without the bracelet blocking her energy, she was no longer invisible to them.
"They found me," Rachel murmured, instinctively retreating into the shadows of the house. The aberrations began moving toward the structure, their claws gleaming with anticipation under the dim light.
But just as it seemed Rachel's fate was sealed, something incredible happened.
A young boy, no older than fourteen, suddenly appeared amidst the creatures. He wielded a short sword in his hand, its blade glowing with a bluish light. His movements were so fast they were almost impossible to follow. In the blink of an eye, he cleanly cut down eight deformed creatures, their malformed limbs falling to the ground with a wet thud before their bodies disintegrated into black ashes.
Rachel watched, paralyzed with shock. The boy showed no trace of fear. On the contrary, an almost manic smile spread across his face as he advanced toward the three remaining aberrations.
The aberrations attacked first, moving with impossible speed. But the boy was even faster. He dodged a claw strike with superhuman agility and launched a devastating counterattack, driving his sword into the torso of one of the creatures. The aberration roared in pain, but he didn't stop. With a fluid motion, he freed his weapon and unleashed a burst of threshold energy that struck the floating eyes of another aberration, causing it to explode into fragments of dark light.
The third aberration tried to circle around him, seeking an angle of attack. But the boy simply extended his free hand and channeled his threshold energy toward it, creating a shockwave that tore through the creature's body as if it were paper. The remains of the aberration fell to the ground, slowly dissolving into black particles, leaving behind only what appeared to be pulsating organs, glowing with a sickly violet light.
When it was all over, the boy stood in the middle of the battlefield, his chest rising and falling slightly as he caught his breath. His eyes glowed with an almost feverish intensity, as if he were enjoying every second of the carnage.
It was then that four figures emerged from the shadows. Two women and two men, all dressed in casual clothing but equipped with modified weapons. One of them, a tall man with dark hair, approached the boy with a serious expression.
"Niel, wait," he said, his voice firm but controlled. "We need to coordinate our next move. This isn't over."
Rachel, who had been watching everything from the window, heard the words clearly. "Niel," she thought. That must be the boy's name. But what truly caught her attention was what one of the other members of the group said—a woman with short hair and a cold gaze.
"Hopefully, we escaped that entity a moment ago," she murmured, adjusting her saber with elegance. "We can't afford to lose focus now. Let's concentrate on our mission." She bent down to collect the pulsating organs, the only remnants left behind by the creatures that hadn't disintegrated.
Niel didn't respond. Instead, his eyes continued to shine with excitement, as if he were eagerly awaiting the next wave of creatures.
Rachel felt a chill run down her spine when, suddenly, the four figures and the boy named Niel stopped talking at the same time. It was as if an invisible string had pulled them taut, forcing them to turn their heads in perfect unison toward the window where she was hiding. Rachel froze, her body betrayed by the threshold energy now flowing freely without the bracelet to contain it. She knew they had detected her.
"Interesting," said the woman with short hair, her voice cold but laced with curiosity as she narrowed her eyes toward the window. "An untrained resonant. It's not common to find someone like that in this kind of situation."
The tall man with dark hair, who seemed to be the leader of the group, crossed his arms as he assessed Rachel through the glass. Though she was partially hidden in the shadows, it was clear she was no longer unnoticed.
"Do we take her?" asked one of the other men, a young man with visible tattoos on his neck holding a modified rifle. His tone was pragmatic, as if they were deciding what to do with an object rather than a person.
Niel tilted his head slightly, his now-blue eyes glowing with intensity as he stared at the window. There was something almost predatory in his expression, as if he were considering whether Rachel posed a threat or was simply another piece in his personal hunting game.
Before they could make a decision, a device on the leader's wrist emitted an alert. He quickly checked it, his expression changing immediately.
"Just received word from Umbra Division," he announced urgently. "Teams Nova, Ragnar, and Viper are entering Geneva as reinforcements. We've been ordered to regroup at the designated meeting point."
The woman with short hair let out a low laugh. "Looks like our little untrained resonant is no longer our responsibility."
"We can't waste any more time here," said the leader, adjusting his weapon. "We have clear orders: coordinate with the support teams and establish an attack point."
Niel frowned, clearly dissatisfied with the decision, but he didn't protest. He knew that orders from Umbra Division weren't to be questioned.
"Let's move," the leader commanded, gesturing for the group to follow. "She's not our priority now."
As the team began to walk away, Rachel remained frozen behind the window, her body trembling involuntarily. She could feel her threshold energy pulsing under her skin like a second heartbeat, completely out of control. She watched as the figures disappeared into the darkness, leaving her alone with the chaos still raging in the streets.
Only when she was sure they were gone did Rachel allow her body to collapse against the wall. Sweat ran down her forehead, and her breathing was rapid and shallow. She didn't fully understand what had just happened, but she knew one thing: she had just had a close encounter with something far more dangerous than the creatures lurking outside.
"What was that?" she thought, her mind spinning. "Who were they? And what did they mean by 'support teams'?"
Outside, the sound of more gunfire and screams filled the air. The creatures were still advancing, and Rachel knew she couldn't stay there. With great effort, she got to her feet and began to move, searching for a way out that would take her away from the hell unfolding in the streets of Geneva.