Outline of Xenomancy, Book 2: The Oneironauts

The story about how a conflict in Integra resulted in Hendrik's discovery of a kill list in the real world.

A couple found each other, but are now running from an unknown group of people that chased them. They're captured, coerced, and was forced to work for the group, prevented to meet their lover. Until one day, they offered a chance to escape this world and be together somewhere else. Would the couple take the chance?

A list appeared out of an anomalous case Hendrik is investigating as a WTF officer. Upon inspection, the names appear to be random, but one of the name was his name, with a wrong master title, followed with the name of his sister, also with a wrong title. Who wrote that list and what does it mean?

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Part Structures  

Moved here.

Existing Part Structures:

The Red Thread Of Fate (姻緣紅線)  

Elbert Hardiman (a Vishnu soul) and Febrian Gautama (a Sperry soul) are tied by fate. In this cycle, they are fighting for a better life, so that they could finally find their peace together. Meanwhile, there are three more Apex souls that are involved in their struggle: a Brahma soul, a Shiva soul, and a Fermion soul. This part would explore the interaction of those five Apex souls.

Apex souls participating in this part  

1. A Vishnu soul.

1. A Sperry soul.

1. A Shiva soul.

1. A Fermion soul.

1. A Brahma soul.

Mobile Task Force Alpha-47 "Samsara"  

More information here.

Mobile Task Force "Samsara" is a task force of the Department of Normalcy, Global Foundation of Esotericism. Specialized in dealing with Apex Souls. In 1993, the MTF was led by Sergeant Chandra Watthuprasongkh. It was a Squad of three Fireteams.

Part 1: Contact  

It begins with a normal day for Febrian (nick: Ben), preparing to enter his class. It also begins as the first day for Elbert (nick: Bert) to be the assistant lecturer of a class. And they attend the same class, one as a class attendee, and another as an assistant lecturer.

Have you ever felt like you've been waiting for someone you don't even know, but you know are there somewhere? That you would know that someone when you see them, even though you have no idea who they are. That at the moment you meet them, your heart rings, "That is the one."

At the same time, someone's wrist watch alarm is turned on. The owner, at the corner of the class, was slouching, now fully alert, and gazed around. He made a phone call, and his words were: "A Vishnu is detected."

Part 2: Memories  

Moved here.

Bert and Ben came to remember their past life as Ah-ping and Yun-fei. It wasn't pretty, as they were chased away that the only escape was through suicide.

Part 3: The Butterflies and The Esoteric Group  

Moved here.

The MTF Alpha-47 "Samsara" forces were on the move to chase Sperry and Vishnu. However they weren't the only one chasing the two souls. The Butterfly Initiative forces were also racing to obtain control of those two souls.

Part 4: A New Cycle  

Moved here.

What remains of the MTF Alpha-47 "Samsara" forces were preparing for a new cycle.

Part 5: A Dream Journal  

Main article is here.

Hendrik started his normal day and jot down his dream for an inspiration of the story he authored. However, his correspondence regarding of the dream with Dominic Muerte resulted in Dominic's past life's memories resurfacing.

Part 6: Finding The Other End  

Ben and Bert found each other again.

Part 7: Project Antarabhava  

Ben and Bert were given a chance to start over in a parallel world.

The List  

Part 8: Divine Problems Require Divine Solutions  

Ashton introduced Alt to Manov, Anthony, David, and Michelle, as his brother from 15k years ago. Ashton explained that they found a way to defeat the Divine Council of Earth, that is via a pair of divine weapons, Yagrush and Aymur, that they can obtain from Kothar, that according to Alt, is in hell. Manov and Anthony decided to find a way to learn more about Kothar and a possible bargaining position against him.

According to Alt, to get access to hell, they must first find El, as he is the key, according to Alt. Alt claimed that El is currently somewhere in Integra, that he had been observing and collecting information about the Divine Council within the last 15k years. They concluded, that they must first find El, and then extract Kothar from hell, and bargain him to get Yagrush and Aymur.

Part 9: Bargaining Position  

The Antichrist and The Beast clusters suffers after they went through all of it. The Christ Cluster, in the other hand, is intact, and healthy. They come with a solution, that is to directly attack the Divine Council. For that, they visited The Antichrist Cluster, and they said it was a crazy plan, and is impossible. Tweaking around, they need to have an insider among Powers, and Ashton suggested that it could be Kothar, which is currently in Hell. They could help him escape hell and have him return the favor for them. Heinrich objected, saying that they don't really have a bargaining position once Kothar is out of hell. After some convincing, Ashton said they first need to know why Kothar is in hell in the first place, which, could be their key to convince Kothar to help them. Manov volunteered to help, on which Ein objected. Ashton concluded that it means they can know Kothar's weakness, and afterwards, all they need to do is to find El. Ashton's source said that El had the key to the Hell, and so, they need to find him first.

Part 10: Kothar's Guilt  

Manov embarks on a journey to find Kothar's guilt, and he asked Anthony for help, considering that he had two favors to return to Manov anyway. They embarked on a journey, and discovers Kothar's guilt. During their trip to hell, Heinrich came to their body, and tried to kill Anthony, which is when Manov split and fought Heinrich at the same time. After some arguments, Manov said that Ein had to trust him in this one, and that he won't be hurt now. Ein finally softens, and gave Manov a hug. He said that if he ever caught Anthony hurting Manov, Anthony is going to be finished by his very own hands. Manov said he knew. So they learned that Kothar was in hell because of his guilt on betraying Yam. And when they return to the real world, Anthony was surprised to find the environment around them are devastated, which Manov casually said as: we got a visit by Ein. Before they part ways, Manov accidentally mentioned that he is curious about who is El, and Anthony laughs. Anthony said that El was never a part of his faction's goals. And it is fine for him to talk about it. And that El is the father of all Divines on Earth.

Part 11: The List of Names  

The List

Prawito Ardianto Francis Silvester Joseph Chandra, S.M. Elbert Hardiman, S.TK. Febrian Gautama, S.TI. Abigail Devi Putriani, S.Ak. Muzdalifah Rahmadani Putri, S.H. Hendrik Lie, S.H., M.Kn. Bright Spears, S.H., M.Kn. Nurhayati Maulidia, S.H., M.Kn. Tere Luxury, S.TI. drh. Ezekiel Tanputra

At the same time, a list of familiar names was found in front of the Kukermall, where there are two dead bodies. Hendrik was assigned by the WTF to investigate it. Curiosity appears as his name was in that list, but with wrong titles on it. Hendrik was supposed to be Hendrik Lie, S.H., M.H., but this one had an M.Kn. This is either a mistake, or a clue. The first three names had been crossed out.

Turns out, there had been killings reported, with those three names that had been crossed out in that list, died, in sequences. And the dead bodies he was investigating in Kukermall building, had been identified to be the next two names. He tried to find the next spot of the killing, and discovered that the next names are currently visiting at the Kukermall.

He looked through control room, trying to identify the attacker. Seeing the direness of the situation, and that the people on that list might be killed anytime soon, he ran to the middle of the mall. He casted protective fields toward the targets, and tried to locate the attacker.

He did find it, and it turns out, the Tiamat-invested woman was the culprit. She jumped, as all of the water from a nearby fresh seafood restaurant was drained and used as her weapons. With a very precise highly pressurized water jet, she managed to cross out the remaining two visitors whose name listed before Hendrik's name. More and more WTF officers landed on the mall, and a full-blown WTF task forces attempted to capture the woman. After some fights, they managed to capture the lady and had him brought to the WTF Containment Chamber.

Meanwhile, Manov came afterwards, to have some chat with Hendrik. Manov told Hendrik, that he is an active member of MTF "Samsara" in Integra, and he found out that they have a doppelganger in Integra. Hendrik was piqued, and after some inquisition, Manov revealed that the only difference is that Integra's Hendrik took the Master of Notary (M.Kn) instead of the Master of Law (M.H.).

Part 12: Parents in Hell  

Around this moment, David meets with Anthony and Michelle at their house. It appears the family brighten, as they've been reunited, and David is a healthy and decent speciment for Michelle's mate, despite them not dating at the moment. Besides, David is the son of Martha's boss, she is happy to have him here. They were supposedly hanging out. Anthony happens to explain a story about his familiars, and his profession as a necromancer. Michelle asked him what about her father, that is also his father, and he said that he has no idea who his father was, so he couldn't track him. Michelle went out of her room for a while, and returned with a photograph, an old one, and weathered significantly. In it, was shown the picture of Anthony as a baby, Martha, and their father. Anthony focussed on it, and he glimsed to hell. He found his father there, and he saw the scene, sequences similar to his dreams: his father wanted to leave him in the middle of the woods, memories of his father when attacked by Aurelia when he hit Martha and Anthony in their old bathroom. it appears, that he dreamed of that because he accidentally connected to his father in hell before. And it triggers his actual memory of that day. It also confirms that his father is in hell. But then, Anthony saw yet another face he recognize, David's mom. She was in hell as well. David asked what about her, and Anthony saw a man in her torture chamber. No, he said, there were two men, one is Steven, the other is, Fernando. Apparently, Anthony said, David's mom had an unrequited, unresolved feelings toward Fernando, while still having a relationship with his father.

Part 13: Quest of El  

Reunited, Hendrik, Heinrich, Manov, Ashton, Steven, Daniel, Fernando, Henokh, and Derictor, gathered around and discussed this matter. It is clear that they had to find El on Integra, as well as protecting the other guys whose name is in the list, from being killed. Their killings must have some reasons behind it, that they wouldn't know if they let them be killed.

So the party decided that they must went there, secure El, contain the malice, and protect the witnesses. Other than that, Steven put forward the intel he had from David, that Helena is in hell. This makes Steven, Daniel, and Fernando so adamant in finding El. Because of the time constraint, they must go immediately. With the help of Adran and Manov (which already is a volant), Steven, Daniel, Fernando, Henokh, and Derictor were uploaded and beamed to the Integra Paramundus Dataspace.

They took some time to orient themselves in Integra, they arrived at a local organization set up by WTF to facilitate transfer and policing on Integra, since Integra turned out to be a world where baseline to normalcy is calculated. The organization was called the Global Foundation of Esotericism (GaFE). They protect Integra from unauthorized accesses, sometimes anomalous to the locals. Afterwards, they were equipped with necessary tools to help them, including normal guns, resources, etc.

They were briefed with Col. Chandra and Lt. Colonel Haein. As recently MTF "Samsara" had been in a terrible loss of members, Sgt. Pride Loudgulf suggested that they're assembled into members of the MTF. Barong Ket step up and said that Romanov Dexter is a honorary member of his band, Band Airlangga, and requested him to be in his fireteam.

Col. Chandra hesitated, but Manov convinced them, that they also have their own battle experiences from where they come from. Henokh and Derictor are an active member of a clandestine organization where they come from, Fernando was an active Indonesian Marine, while Steven and Daniel had some experiences warding off aliens. Barong Ket said, he had been visiting their world as well, and he can confirm what they said. Col. Chandra, after discussing with Lt. Colonel Haein (that this case is related with the threat that Apex souls might face), finally agreed.

Barong Ket also offered Barong Asoo, that with his clairvoyance ability, and the ability to use aural attack of his barks to cast out unwanted weak enemies, helps Sgt. Pride's team. Col. Chandra approved the temporary reassignment of Barong Asoo to the 1st team. Sgt. Pride objects, as he's supposedly the squad leader, not Ket. However when asked who would he like to be transferred to his team, he said Asoo.

They were then split into two fireteams, of the MTF Samsara. The Iron Fists team was assigned to locate El, while the Band Airlangga team was assigned to secure and protect those in The List, then investigate why they were being chased.

Part 14: Getting to know Integra  

They left the GaFE base, that is currently disguised as an old DVD rental store, with two OAEVs, one for every fireteam. Each team leader briefed their team about the situations in Integra, including their possible doppelgängers. Henokh has no counterpart in this world, and a quick search to his family, discovered that his mother is not married, and his father marry another woman, and had a son named Sylvester Lisander. Likewise, Derictor has no counterpart as well. Daniel had a counterpart, but the family is poor. Steven, being half etoan, is not even exist here. Fernando had a counterpart, and his house is nearby. Manov, curiously enough, has a counterpart as well. Even though he is not technically Manov's counterpart, but Hendrik's, Manov's template origin.

So they decided to go to the house of Fernando's counterpart, that appears to be not present, and Team 1 took his car (as OAEV is too conspicuous in a city setting). It turns out the house possess a working internet connection, so they take the time to browse and familiarize themselves to the world. Daniel looked for El, but instead found a version of Hendrik in this world, that is a writer, that writes about their adventure, in the real world! Meanwhile, Manov, Henokh, and Derictor managed to pinpoint several names that are present in the list. They consulted on how would they do this.

Ket came up with a plan. First of all, for Steven and Co., as a part of the Iron Fists, finding El is their utmost objective, while for Henokh and Co., as a part of Band Airlangga, finding informations on why people listed on the list are killed, is their utmost objective. Besides, it is very weird for Manov to try and locate Hendrik, since he shares the same face as Hendrik. So it is decided, they are going to be split into two teams: Team 1, The Iron Fists, to find Hendrik and a way to use Hendrik to find El; Team 2, Band Airlangga, is to find and secure people listed on The List.

Part 15: Hendrik of Integra  

Team 1 tried to get the address of this Hendrik guy, but they had a hard time, since this guy left only a trace of online presence, other than his blog. Since his account is not private, albeit rarely updated, they use it to track his friends, and happen to find a recent story stream in the last 7 hours, that mentions his whereabouts. It is tagged with a map location, so they searched the direction to that location.

With Fernando's previous experiences on the military, they decided to impersonate officials, and asked in a manner as if they're investigators. They started to question the whereabouts of Hendrik to the store owner. It turned out, it wasn't in their shift, so they requested addresses of those that work in that shift. It turned out, one of them knew the friend Hendrik was with, it was a worker in that bar too. They locate the worker, and uses the picture they had with Hendrik in real world to convince her that they were his friends, and that they planned to make a surprise party. The friend asked, "what surprise party?" They remembered that Hendrik's birthday is yet to come, so they decided to say that it is the anniversary of his oath as a lawyer, and they're the colleagues of Hendrik from his university.

As absurd as it sounds, the friend of him actually believes in it. She also noted how different Hendrik is in that picture compared to his usual expressions when they took pictures together. They wished to exchange pictures, but unfortunately the Kaos of Kukerphones and the Android Operating System won't cooperate. Nor can Kaos uses internet connection in this world, due to vastly different protocols used. Apparently technology on prime Earth and Integra Earth, despite being superficially similar, is vastly different in the background.

Afterwards, they managed to reach Hendrik's apartment, only to discover that they'd need access card to get anywhere in it. They tried to ask the security guy, saying that they lost their key and if the lobby has a spare key. It turned out, the security guy don't have the spare key, they can only provide help with the access card. After some thinking, they decided to wait around, since they believe Hendrik will come home from the office, and then they can follow him to his room. They waited in the lobby.

Part 16: Shiva's Advance  

Team 2 arrived at Sylvester's residence, and apparently he's wasted, probably having a hangover since last night. So Team 2 took his phone, his wallet, and his car keys (again, as OAEVs appeared too conspicuous, that they started to wonder what's the merit of bringing those OAEV in the first place). They tried to find the four names listed in The List that happen to exist in this world, and happens to be in the city they're in. The first name that come in mind is Bright Spears, which happens to be in the Prosecutor Office.

Trying to meet him in the office is quite hard, they have to pretend to be someone important, Manov conjured badges of Badan Intelijen Nasional (BIN), and tried to convince the prosecutors that they need to find Bright. As it doesn't work (Manov realized that despite being one of Hendriks, he is not the lawyer Hendrik is, not enough to convince them). So they tried to sneak in, and capture Bright.

At the same time, Dominic and his men arrived at the scene, and wreck havoc on lower levels. Objects and people disappeared into thin air as Dominic casted his Shiva power, and his men uses gun laced with his blood, that provided almost the same effect to everything they shot. People are screaming.

Manov said: something that is hard to explain is happening downstairs, you need to follow us. Ket transformed into a lion and Bright was stunned due to the sight. Gajah was about to transform, but Ket reminded him that they're in an enclosed space, so Gajah prepared a stance instead. Henokh readied his gun, and Derictor pulled some knives off his vest. Manov drew Bright's attention with a snap, and said: we need to go now, be surprised later.

They finally traced through the corridor to find an alternative route to get out of the building, with the help of Ket and his clairvoyance. Ket felt something, and ordered them to step aside, while a bolt of something inscrutable screamed toward them. Ket's mane were straightened as he roared, forming a protective shield that bounced the bolt to the side, and the wall disappeared.

Ket: It's Juan's power, but he's dead long time ago.

Dominic: Yes he did die, and now he's back as Dominic.

Ket: Great, nice to meet you again (Ket waved his paws, and if a lion could smile, that's what Ket's doing.)

Dominic was confused with Ket's response, and Manov had been using the little time they had to prepare a spell. Manov told everyone to jump through the hole of the wall. Not having any other options, they followed, and then Ket followed. Dominic was enraged and dashed toward them.

Manov's spell caused the exterior wall of the building to be as level as the ground, and they use it to run to the streets. Bright had been screaming but Gajah carried him effortlessly and on their run. Bright told Gajah that he could run by himself, so Gajah dropped him, and he ran with them. On the junction between the wall and the ground, they step on the ground and their weight normal displaced from the normal surface of the wall and the normal surface of the ground. Bright, Henokh, and Derictor fell face first to the ground.

Gajah punched the wall, and it cracked, then concrete spikes emerged from the walls, hindering Dominic's men. Dominic could be seen trying to vanish some of the spikes, but it was a lot and he is yet to regain Juan's proficiency of massive disappearance wave. Dominic had to settle with only destroying an object at a time.

Manov ran the car toward them, and Ket, now in his human form, naked, grabbed them up and they boarded their car before Dominic's men followed them. To the car they go and left, but then the car disappeared and six of them fell to the ground. They hide behind a parked car, which also disappeared. They ran to the nearby building, returning the shots with their normal guns and Derictor's knives.

Part 17: Meta-narrative  

Team 1 waited for too long, and Asoo said he's hungry. They decided to eat around the apartment in turns, and take some meals, etc. Apparently the night dawned, and they haven't discovered Hendrik yet.

Daniel noticed, that the lobby could be entered from the parking lot as well, which means Hendrik could've been in his room already, but they didn't know. They asked the security guy again, saying that their friend that lives on the 31st floor replied, and they'd like to take the lift now. The security guy scanned his access card on the lift and they went to the 31st floor. There, they knocked, and after some pause, some rustles, etc, they found Hendrik opening the door in his small apartment room. They barged in.

Hendrik, baffled, asked them who they are. However his face told them that he recognized their face.

Steven asked: how did you know about my past, our past?

Hendrik, seemed cautious, asked: what do you mean?

Steven: you know about our school days. That Fernando proposed me, I was scared, and ran away from him. Then I almost killed Daniel who was confronting me at the wrong moment. Then I finally forgive each other, and Daniel is now with Fernando (he pointed at them, and looked at Hendrik again)

Hendrik just gave an audible "ah," and he thought for some more.

Hendrik: So, Integra is here?

Steven, Fernando, and Daniel, looked at each other, and then to Hendrik, Steven said: yes.

Hendrik: So, Xenomancy is real? (there's a brief moment of excitement in his eyes)

Daniel: what is Xenomancy?

Hendrik: The name of my novel, that is still in progress. It is named as such because foreign divinities are interfering with mundane matter, and the characters are trying to understand those divinities. So, to divine the intent of the divinities, hence the name, Xenomancy.

Fernando: I'm sorry, but we have other matters in our concern. We need to find El.

Hendrik: And I have no idea. I was stuck in writing because of that as well.

Some audible screams could be heard from the outside, far as in some hundred meters away. They decided to look at the balcony, and discovered that the screaming come from the ground level, there are guys thrown away to the air, some shouts from the securities, and people at the pool on the first level gazed down. Some guys jumped to the pool, and then more peasants thrown into the air.

Hendrik then commented: and there comes, um, **Zarah Walidah,** the Fermion Soul with the ability to control fermionic particles. Basically, all normal matter that comprises our world.

Part 18 Tere Lux  

Team 2 had their next target tracked, a public figure known as Tere Lux. She was having a photo session for her new project, as seen in her instagram updates. Manov asked Ket, that now wore a different, spare clothing, to translocate them there, as Ket can see the place. Ket said that he can only do translocation to places he could see in his direct line of sight. Looking through the live stream or story updates from a smartphone is not considered a direct line of sight.

Bright said he knew the place, it was near his usual hiding place, whenever he felt like he want to be alone at his office, and it was a break time. Derictor asked if it is near, so they can go there as soon as possible, and he said that it was quite remote. Henokh protested that he made it sound like he could reach it within minutes or so, as he often visited it in his break time. Bright said yes, he could reach it within seconds, in fact.

Manov had his attention piqued: How?

Bright: I kept it as a secret all of this time, but now it seems like we need to act quick, and you're all weird, like me. So there's no point in hiding it.

Ket: Hiding what?

Henokh: we're not weird, we're just not from this world.

Manov: elaborate.

Bright: it will sound crazy, and I don't know how to describe it as well, so I'd just show you guys. Come, close to me.

They move close to him, and he closed his eyes, then opened it again. His irises turned white, and his sclera turned pitch black. The scenery around them pixelated. Some of the pixels started to turn white, until they're in a space that could be described to be a space, but the color is inverted. The sky is bright white, and the stars are black dots.

Bright: Don't be alarmed, I usually call this place as the White Room. This is a buffer space before I would make us reappear somewhere else.

Gajah: The White Room? This is...,

Ket: Antarabhava

Manov: The space between paramundus?

Bright: Oh, so this place has a name.

Manov: Wait, how could you access this place?

Bright: I just can. I found it out when I was little. I often find myself wandering here, in the white expanse. Until I learn that I can control where I reappear. Anywhere in the world.

Gajah: He's an apex soul.

Bright: Pardon, what?

Ket: an apex soul is the soul with special abilities, that are being chased by powers of the world for their own advantages. You are a Tachyon Soul, the soul with a power of non-locality.

Bright: So I'm right, I'm peculiar, just like you guys.

Manov: No, don't get us wrong. We got powers because we're not from this world, we're, um, *extranatural* in nature. Your power, is something inherent to this world.

Henokh: Need I remind you that we need to get this Tere Lux lady soon?

Bright nodded, and pixels started to form around them, replacing the scenery with granulated shape of a forest side villa, as more pixels made the scenery crispier. The next thing they know, they're there, shocking the entire production team that was shooting there. Bright closed his eyes and opened it again, and his eyes back to normal: black irises with white sclera.

Henokh: We need to bring Tere Lux with us.

The team looked at the gun Henokh is carrying. It was sufficient to cause panic, and Manov said don't panic. He said that they need Tere Lux to be with them, so that she could be brought to safety. There are group of people that wanted her to die.

Bright, with his official prosecutor uniform, said that it is an official business, and he showed his badges, saying that he is a prosecutor. It was their luck that the production team didn't understand what a prosecutor do, and believed in their authority. They allowed Tere Lux to join them, who looked confused.

Manov, with his black cassocks and a white cleric collar, who looked more like a priest to her, appeared familiar. Bright and Tere Lux had a brief eye contact, and she thought to herself, she trusted this man, and that's why she decided to follow them.

Then some of the production team disappears, along with some large props, and a group barged into the site, making people screams. Derictor throws some of his knives, some of the enemy members fell, and adds more screams to the civilians. And it would be another set of clothes Ket had to destroy as he transform into a lion. Since they're outdoor, Gajah also transforms into an asian Elephant.

Ket translocate from one opponent to the other, mauling them one by one. Some of the opponents launch some shots to the group, but Gajah covered them, letting himself to be shot, and he charged toward those shooters. Until Dominic came face to face with Gajah, and launched a bolt of indecipherable shape toward Gajah's face. Ket translocate near Gajah at that instant and quickly translocate away from Dominic, but it was too late, Gajah's head is gone. It was a mess, but Ket didn't seem to be sad, while Bright almost fainted due to the sight.

Ket: He will be back. All of you, go first, I'd deal with them.

Henokh proclaimed that he never actually liked face-to-face fight with psychics before, on which Manov corrected that he is a reflexior, not a psychic, but paused to think awhile, concluding that reflexiors are just a thing on their real world, in this world it could be anything. Tere Lux asked, "real world? Isn't this the real world?" Manov took some moment to think, and only said, "long story, tell you once we're safe." Manov instructed Henokh to go with Tere and Bright to a safe place, then they can regroup. Henokh, Tere, and Bright disappeared to Antarabhava.

Meanwhile Manov and Derictor assisted Ket to slaughter the opponent.

Part 19 Escape Room  

Team 1 decided to go through the emergency exit, as, according to Hendrik, he believes that the gang members might not be well aware about the emergency exit. Steven readied his phone to the offensive mode, and Hendrik asked if he could see his exoself, and Steven said it wasn't the best time. Nodded, they barged through the emergency exit that leads to the parking lot. Soon after, they're only midway, Hendrik said that he forgot that they'd need some good minutes to actually finish the stairs, and the trio mentioned that it was quite hot here. There are no receptions here as well. They exited at a blocked exit. In the other side of the door were boxes, so they tried to push through slowly, and peeked.

The gang members are barging toward the entrance to lobby. They made the door disappears, while normally one would need access card to access it. Hendrik said he is not sure if his bike is a proper method to get out of here. Steven said they had a car.

So they tried to push through the boxes, only to find out that there is some box that prohibit the opening wide enough for a person. That is when Pride stepped forth and touched the door. The door melt, and so does the boxes, and he let them walk past it. The melt appear solid when they step on it, and after they're done, Pride let go his touch and the doors and the boxes returned to their normal shape.

Steven: "You can do that all of these time?"

Pride nodded.

Steven: Why don't you tell us before? We could just go to Hendrik's room since the beginning, we don't have to wait.

Pride: We must maintain normalcy, that's why we don't do that in public. There's a danger if a lot of Integra inhabitants realized that their world isn't normal.

Hendrik: But, um, there's a camera right in front of the emergency exit.

Pride: Oh shit.

Daniel: Let's get to the safety first.

They managed to sneak toward their car, when it was obliterated by the gang member that noticed them. Steven aimed his phone and flashed a blinding light to temporarily blind him. They ran, and now have no idea how to escape, with no car available. It would take some time for the OAEV to arrive there, even with autopilot. Hendrik said that he is currently taking care of his uncle's car, His uncle and his son were in a vacation now, and they decided to take the car.

Fernando drove, and they left the building, breaking the security bars, and full speed toward the exit gate. The gang members ran to chase them, but they turned north as soon as they reached an intersection, blocking the gang's view to the car. Hendrik suggested to go to a nearby empty field next to yet another, calmer apartment building, north to his apartment. They decided to contact Team 2, but Team 2 seemed to be busy. Soon after, they received a prompt to meet at the house of Fernando's counterpart.

In their trip, Hendrik took a moment to ask, "so, when I lost one of my phones and my wallet today, is it because of what I think it is?" Steven said that most probably it is.

Part 20 Nurhayati  

Nurhayati is a tall woman, and is currently working happily at a notary office. She had been worried because Bright hadn't replied anything to her messages. She was upset already, when her friends told her that Bright is here looking for her.

She was surprised and ran to the front gate, and Bright pulled her. She resisted, but then she discovered that he's not alone. There are four chinese-indonesian with him, one with a tattoo in his left face.

She recognized the one with tattoo, asking, "Hendrik?" Manov said, "No, I am Romanov, I just happen to share the same face with the guy you recognize. Now get in, we're going to meet Hendrik at our place." Her boss angrily bursted out of the office and said they can't leave, and Bright said it is urgent. They left.

Part 21 Fernando  

Team 1 was puzzled, Fernando's counterpart stood in front of the opened gate beside his motorbike, and the opened front door. He was surprised to find an OAEV parked at his house instead of his car. Then at another random car that stood right next to him, that belong to Team 1. The night was calm in the complex, and Daniel stepped down and approached him. Fernando's counterpart recognized Daniel immediately.

Fernando (In): Daniel?

Daniel (Xe): Listen, I and my friends can explain everything. All I ask is, for you to stay calm, whatever you're going to see, okay?

Fernando (In): Just explain everything already.

Fernando and Steven stepped off the car and approached Fernando's counterpart. Gasped, he asked them who they are, while backing down, and Daniel reminded him to stay calm. He explained that they're from an alternative Earth, and is currently here for a mission. And they happen to have Fernando's counterpart here. To ease things out, they used Fernando's facility to help their mission. After all, having the car driven by the owner-lookalike with a proper ID is less suspicious than having a stolen car around. They asked him to stay calm, and Fernando talked with his counterpart, while Hendrik drove the car in.

Apparently his counterpart prefers to be called Edo, and Fernando said he'd like to be addressed as Nando. So Nando told him again that they're from an alternative Earth. And they are currently in a mission to save their friend from hell. However, to help their friend, they need to find the Biblical El that hides here, in this version of Earth. Hendrik added that he is from this world that Edo inhabits.

Edo objected, stating that their excuse is just extravagantly ridiculous, how could the key to go to hell to save a friend requires the Biblical El, and that the Biblical El is in this Earth, let alone the part about multiverse shit.

Fernando (Xe): Okay, what about this, Asoo, show him your beast form.

Fernando (In): his beast what? (he gazed at Asoo that is stripping off) Hey, keep your clothes on!

Completely naked, Asoo transformed into a giant, long and slender black dog, about a meter tall. Edo couldn't say a word.

Fernando (Xe): believe me now?

Then they noted that another car came in to Edo's house. Edo went outside with the group to greet the second group. Team 2 arrived, and Hendrik was stunned to see Manov. Bright and Nurhayati were surprised to find Hendrik, and that Manov wasn't Hendrik. And Edo inquired, why are they on Sylvester's car, until Henokh came out, which, he recognizes, as resembling Sylvester, but not exactly Sylvester. Nando explained that Henokh doesn't have a counterpart here, because his father married another woman, and his mother is an old virgin in this version of Earth. Therefore, he was never born, but he had a biological half-brother known as Sylvester.

Until Ket exited the car, and then Edo was stunned for a moment, before calling, "Khemachat?"

Ket too, was frozen for a moment, "Edo?"

Then from inside, Daniel yelled that he found his pictures on Edo's yearbook. Tere shouted, that he finally remembers, when seeing Hendrik, that they meet in a training on an investment agency! Hendrik also recognizes Tere.

Part 22 Recollection  

Edo usually enjoys silence in his house, but today it was the exact opposite of what he enjoys. The house is full of people. Most are strangers, one an exact copy of him, one is a half brother of his best friend that never is a half brother, his ex, and a bunch of people he just met.

Daniel here turned out to be the doppelganger of his high school best friend, Daniel. He claimed that in his version of Earth, they went to the medical school together, but Edo said that in this version of Earth, Daniel never went to the same medical school as him, he is not even sure if Daniel here took the medical school. Manov explained that, Hendrik, Bright, Tere, and Nurhayati are in danger because a group of bad guys are chasing them, and it appears the gang are chasing the names in a list he hold.

Hendrik said he believed that the one behind this all was Tiamat, at least that's the way it is in his story. Manov gazed at Hendrik, then he stated that he can't track the last name that he must protect, Ezekiel, so they must make do with what they have now. And Steven added that they haven't able to locate El yet. Manov inquired, who is this Tiamat, and Hendrik said he had no idea. Hendrik said that Tiamat somehow led a group that seeks to find El, so El could be resurrected, and in doing so, she deceived Hadad to help her. Steven asked once more, "what about El?" and Hendrik said he had no idea yet.

Nurhayati asked them, why are their name on the list, and why are they chased? Manov said he had no idea. At first he thought one thing that all of them had in common is because they all know Hendrik, but it makes no sense, since in his version of Earth, where nobody knew about people from this version of Earth, he is certain that all the victims had no connection to Hendrik of this world.

While they contemplated about why the list exist in the first place, Edo withdrew from them, and approached this one guy that's trying to flirt Tere.

"Ket,"

Ket's attention was withdrawn completely from Tere, that discovered it was a perfect time for her to leave as far away from Ket and to the rest of the crows.

"Yes Edo? Long time no see."

There's this brightness in Ket's smile. That's the kind of smile he missed for many years already. Fifteen years to be exact. Yet this one face barely ages, looking exactly the same as the last time Edo looked at it, fifteen years ago.

"I missed you."

"I know," Ket answered.

Edo was stunned for a moment, "did you miss me?" But Edo didn't say that.

Ket's gaze appeared as if he understand what Edo wanted to say. "What is important is that we're here again, together," he let out another smile.

It was the smile Edo found to be irresistible. All it did was to draw Edo closer to Ket. Edo gave Ket a hug.

"Why did you leave me?"

"I'm not from this world. I had to take care other business beyond this world."

Edo and Ket gazed at each other for some moment. It was a moment, Edo could feel it, and they kissed, and hugged, and kissed again. Edo didn't know what to say, but he should just enjoy the moment. Instead, he let out a random topic that pop out of his head.

"Where's Macan and Bangkal?"

There's a stark difference in Ket's expression the moment he let out that question. His eyes emanate deep pain, that Edo regretted ever letting that question out. Manov came to them, "You don't mention about *Tako* and *Thang* to *Singto*."

"Who's Tako, Thang, and Singto?"

"cayen yen (ใจเย็น ๆ), calm down Ai'Singto," Manov said, hugging Ket that were crying like a baby.

Manov looked at Edo, "Tako and Thang, which literally means a tiger and a tank, are nicknames P'Kao," Manov paused, as he realized Kao is Chandra's nick in Xenomancy, not in Integra, "uh, I mean, those are nicknames P'Chan gave for Macan and Bangkal. Singto, which literally means a lion, is the nick P'Chan gave for Ket."

"And, what happened to them?"

"Tako and Thang died in 2016, when Tengus from another world invaded their world. The fight was quite intense, as it reached my world as well."

"I'm feeling fine now, thank you Manov," said Ket.

Ket hugged Manov, which Edo recognized as the kind of hug Ket used to provide for Edo. Edo realized that he's not the only one in Ket's heart. That was when Edo decided to return to the rest of the group. He couldn't stand it.

Part 23 El  

Hendrik started to talk, that in his design, Tiamat was on her quest to track down the last key required to open the gate of Hel. Actually, either that, or she just wanted to find her father, El. Hendrik couldn't decide yet.

And the protagonists are looking for a way to find the key required to open the gate of hell, the thing they need to save their friends. Then to do it, they have to find the Mark of El, that Hendrik himself still have no idea where. He just know it must be here in Integra.

So far, his lead was a vision he had, the biblical figure of Cain. He bore the mark that was given by El, now is known as the Mark of Cain. The problem is that, in his research to build up the character Cain, he did not find any mention that Cain could still be alive today. Biblical sources didn't provide any definitive clue that he would be an immortal, so most likely he is not.

"Whatever it is," Hendrik said, "perhaps our best chance is to track down Cain, if there's any here."

"How?" inquired Henokh.

"I have no idea."

Henokh then asked, what about these guys, why are they been attacked? Hendrik said that they're related to El in one way or another. Manov had his attention drawn.

"What kind of connection?"

Hendrik said he had no idea.

"But perhaps, it is that they had been interacting with El during their entire life."

"Have you?"

"I don't know,"

"but your name is in the list."

"Does it mean, I must've been interacting with him without my knowledge?"

Manov thought hard on this.

"Why are Tiamat chasing those that had been interacting with El?"

"Perhaps because we carry clues on how to find El, or his mark?"

Henokh stepped up and said that it is apparent that they have no other choice but to protect those whose names are on the list. Then they need to interrogate them and try to find who is this El they've been interacting with. Manov said, then they must secure Ezekiel first.

Part 24 Surabaya Run  

The next morning, the group of two OAEVs left Edo's house. They have to use OAEVs because of their group size, and splitting into 4 cars are quite risky, as they need to face Apex Souls and possible encounter with gods. The GaFE issued OAEV still had some remaining normalcy field generating capacities, those that remained in this world after Sperry and Vishnu were killed again in their real world exile.

Hendrik recognized the guy they're after, a cousin of one of his friend. Ezekiel are currently a professor at a veterinary school to the west of Surabaya. Team 1 is like yesterday: Steven, Daniel, Nando, Edo, Hendrik, Sgt. Pride, Asoo.

Team 2 is: Manov, Henokh, Derictor, Ket, Gajah, Nurhayati, Bright, Tere. They dispatched with the goal of securing Ezekiel. And afterwards, they could worry on how to extract the information that leads to El. Manov still wonders on why would Tiamat provided the list to Hendrik (Xe) in the real world, and why are they chasing them.

Steven, Fernando, and Daniel thought really hard about how to find El, as Helena is still in hell. There are two possibilities on Ezekiel's whereabouts. The first one is that he is attending his class on a veterinary school to the west of Surabaya, or that he is visiting his relative on the southern Surabaya.

So Team 1 decided to go to the western Surabaya, and Team 2 to southern Surabaya.

Part 25 Recap  

Here is the situation recap so far. Fernando, Hendrik, Tere, Bright, and Nurhayati from Integra had their life changed forever. They can no longer return to their normal life, not with the rampage of Apex Souls under Tiamat's rule are still on the loose.

Romanov, Henokh, Derictor, Fernando (Xe), Daniel (Xe), and Steven are yet to accomplish their missions. Romanov, Henokh, and Derictor are yet to secure all names in the list they found, and they still have to figure out why are they targeted. Steven, Fernando (Xe) and Daniel (Xe) are yet to find El, they need to find a way to track El down in this world.

Part 26 Crossover  

Team 1 was on their way. Daniel sat in between Nando and Edo, and he fell asleep due to lack of sleep. Out of curiosity, Edo asked Nando, are Daniel and Nando great friends? Nando said that it is more, he and Daniel are a couple.

Hendrik from the driver's seat asked, "wait, what?"

Steven, right beside Hendrik stated, "they had sex together."

Hendrik said: too much details,

Steven: you asked it.

Edo just asked, "so Daniel is gay?"

Nando: "No, more like bisexual. He was into Steven's wife, Helena. But as Helena chooses Steven, he moved on, and happen to be fond of me."

Steven responded: "We made quite a drama back then. I love Helena, and so did Daniel. We fought for Helena, which, as I lately learned, Helena had feelings for Fernando, but Fernando confessed his love to me back then. It was two thousand and three I believe. I freaked out, and because of that I almost got raped by a man-eater, and then I almost had Daniel killed because he confronted me at the wrong time. In the end, I stays with Helena and had four great kids, and Fernando-Daniel are together ever since."

Edo took some moment in silence.

Nando asked, "so what about you?"

Edo: "Your life is colorful. I didn't know that Daniel was bi. If I knew, I'd dated him back then, on high school."

Nando: "why didn't you?"

Edo: "Is your Earth more accepting to LGBT? Here it was harsh. I decided that I would rather be alone, and die alone, than to pretend and live my life with a woman that, despite being a great woman, I can't love."

Nando took some time to let Edo's words sink in him, "No, my Earth is just as harsh. But I accepted that as a part of reality, and just embrace who I am. I can't live forever in a lie I built myself. And I happen to discover Daniel, and he is great."

Edo looked at Daniel, "yes, he was great."

A flashback of Ket consoling Manov came to Edo's thought.

Edo: Actually, I found someone else that I love. But,

Nando: And what is the problem with it?

Asoo: He saw the one he loves being taken care of by Manov.

Nando: Manov? Manov is gay? How?

Asoo: Manov is a pansexual. I mean he had sex with Purpose, Pride's friend, a fellow higher porpoise.

Edo: Wouldn't it be a bestiality?

Steven: Would it be a bestiality if the other party is a thinking being? I always thought bestiality is a sexual relationship with feral animals.

Edo: But a porpoise is an animal,

Asoo: Then you're saying Pride is an animal? The one driving our car is actually a porpoise, but in this world he choose to represent himself as a human for ease of interaction with us.

Pride: While you're all having a little gossip in the back, we arrived at our destination already.

They parked at the campus, full with college students going by around. After some time walking around, they stumbled upon an administrative building. And at the time, they saw Helena.

Steven: Len!

Steven ran hard toward her, hugging her, and kissing her, and got a slap from her. On the floor, Steven confused, looking at this Helena. Different hairstyles, so energetic, and strong.

Slightly confused, she looked at Daniel (Xe).

Helena (In): who is he? And, uh, what did you do to your hair.

Daniel (Xe): "Uh, I just got a haircut, and this is my friend, Steven,"

Helena, confused: "You could grow your hair at the barbershop?"

Before Daniel (Xe) could even answer, Helena slapped another statement,

Helena (In): "Doesn't it bother you when a friend of yours kissed your wife in front of you?"

Daniel (Xe): "A wife?"

Even more confused, she looked at Nando and Edo,

Helena (In): "..., Edo? And, y, your twin?"

Hendrik: perhaps it wasn't the best idea to bring Edo and Nando together, (while trying to get Steven up)

Daniel (In): "What the hell?"

That was the voice of Daniel, but not coming from Daniel's (Xe) mouth, it was from behind them, where another Daniel (In) came by, with a freshly trimmed hard top. They could see Helena's (In) face is blanking, full of confusion. Hendrik backed off slightly, "Guys, I don't know anything about what is going to happen next. This part is yet to be written,"

Part 27 Tiamat  

Team 2 arrived at a dormitory next to a large campuss in Southern Surabaya. There is one dormitory painted in red, that exactly looks like what Hendrik described. But when they came by, people are running away from the dormitory. People wounded from the fall from higher up, some had broken bones, some had plenty of blood around. The never ending scream accompanied what looked like Zarah, among with her men, from the fourth level, the topmost level. People are flung away, and they tried to reach a locked room.

Romanov looked at the opening in between walkways. The dormitory's floor-plan is made by three rows of bedrooms set in parallel. The first row left to the entrance is facing right, and in front of it is the second row, facing the first row. The third row is right behind the second row, facing away to an alley in the back. The next levels are similar in floor plans, but there are open fenced gap where the first floor could be seen. Atop of it, at the uppermost ceilings, are translucent glasses, that allows passage of natural lights during daylight.

A lot of open spaces, and they could see most of the rooms effortlessly. It was a perfect battlefield for Ket's ability.

Romanov: Ket, can you see the room they are approaching on?

Ket: Right. I can see it clearly.

Ket grabbed the hands of all of the group members and put it on his body, he transformed into a lion and they translocate upstairs. They arrived right before Zarah and her men arrived there. Zarah looked at them, confused, but she recognized Ket.

Ket: Long time no see. You're an old lady now.

Zarah was enraged and she raised an arm. Ket let out a roar, and the shockwave threw her and her men, and they were thrown down the stairs. Manov knocked the door, room D-12.

Manov: Ezekiel, we're here to help you.

Ezekiel: Ko Hendrik?

Manov was going to say "Manov here, Hendrik is not here," but he just said, "Just get out now. We have to go."

Some of the men rushed back to the 4th floor. Derictor readied his knives, and Henokh started to spar with some of the bad guys, then he ordered, "Why don't you fight for me instead?" One by one, men that sparred with him and heard that phrase, ended up fighting the other men.

Zarah was furious, and the concrete around her start to crack. Metal beams that comprised the stair's handles were twisted and corked, and thrusted toward the group. Derictor threw many knives in quick succession and each knives faced the metal beams head-on, pushing them back. Some knives were thrown toward Zarah, and Zarah disintegrated them into dusts. Gajah readied his stance and a thump of his foot to the concrete caused the stair's staircases to flatten that the entire stairs be a slide instead. She slipped and tripped.

Nurhayati hide behind Bright. Bright's eyes turned to white irises with black sclera, and caused some of the men to be turned into pixels and disappear. Only for some of them could be found fell from the sky to the translucent roofs. Some break the translucent roofs and a mixture of flesh, bones, blood, and glass chunks rained the entire corridor.

Henokh: What was that?

Bright: I just want them to be gone, didn't specify where, and they just appear on the sky instead. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to,

Derictor: Great, keep it going.

Manov could feel that Ezekiel hesitated to come out, with all of the noise from outside. He kicked the door that it broke open, and pulled Ezekiel, wearing only undergarments.

"If you wanna live, follow us."

Tere barged in and pulled some clothes from his closet, and gave it to him.

Tere: bring it with you, wear it later. Now run.

Ezekiel: Where?

Manov, now right at the terrace: Here. Quick.

The front terrace was protected with bars of aluminum fences. Manov waved his hands, and they twisted to provide an opening for them. He casted a spell, and jumped. The outer surface of the building is now the normal surface again.

As if looking down at a trench, he who was walking by the side of the building called them,

Manov: Come here guys! Be scared later!

Enraged, Zarah wouldn't allow them to escape, so metal bars that comprised the fences of the walkways were bent and ready to impale all of them. A scream could be heard from Nurhayati, she shielded herself with her hands, and all metal bars approaching them were pushed hard by some unknown forces, away from Nurhayati. Manov sensed a change in electric fields around them, and currents flow on the metal bars.

Manov: the power of electricity

Ket: That's not the power of electricity, but the power of fundamental forces. She's a Boson soul!

Zarah was stunned, and more metal beams streamed to Nurhayati, but Nurhayati deflected them all away from the group.

Manov: Okay, she's surprised, this is our opening, run now!

Gajah raised a new stance, and pushed his feet to the ground, and the floor of the fourth story started to crumble behind them, as they ran toward the terrace. Zarah threw some floating stones, but Gajah quickly redirect them with his fists. Ket turned into a human, naked, and pulled Derictor and Henokh to run toward the terrace.

It was just some ten meters walk to the ground, but then another lady was standing at the side of the building, as if she was standing above the ground. They were in fact, stood perpendicular to the horizon, and supposedly it was just them that can do that. But this woman can pull the same trick.

The group stopped, Manov was confused. She was half naked, with only some pieces of clothes to cover her cleavages and her groin. Her body was full with inscriptions, they glowed light ocean blue. Her hair spread, almost giving the appearance of living snakes. Instead of eyes, she had stripes, extending from her eye sockets to the sides, flailing as if they were softly blown by the wind.

Manov: Tiamat?

Ket: She's gorgeous as fuck.

Manov: and she's more than capable to actually kill us.

Ket: Oh fuck.

Tiamat: You've collected those that are in my killing list. How convenient.

Zarah, flying by the side of the building: Do you think you can run from me now?

Ket: Fuck

Manov: Stop cursing will you, I'm thinking.

Part 28 Tiamat and Hadad  

Daniel (In): So this lookalike of mine, with unkempt hair, is me from another world?

Daniel (Xe): It is not an unkempt hairstyle, I just didn't get the chance to had a haircut, yet!

Helena (In): And that guy that kissed me earlier, is my husband there?

Steven: Yes, you're my wife in my world.

Daniel (In): He is the husband of your double, your husband is me.

Helena replied him with a smile. Her gaze landed at Edo once, then at Nando. Daniel (Xe) rest his head at Nando's shoulder. She tried to contain her giggles.

Edo: And we are together, Daniel and I, in their world.

Helena's attention were snapped. She wasn't sure what to feel. On which one hurts more, that someone secretly loves her husband, or that the one she used to love, or probably she still loves, loves her husband.

Daniel (Xe): We (pointing at himself and Nando) are together, not you.

Nando signed Daniel (Xe) to stop.

Daniel (In): So, um, you like me?

Asoo: He likes Ket now, Khemachat Thunyakorn, not you.

Helena wasn't sure what to feel. That the man that used to love her husband, now loves someone else. Or that the man that she used to love, or maybe she still loves, moved on from her already.

Edo didn't expect that it would be this hurtful. Ket is with someone else now. Daniel, is with Helena now. Even though his versions from the other Earth are together with the one he loves, he's all alone here.

Pride: Shouldn't we focus on a more important?

Steven: Oh, finding El, we must find El to save Helena.

Pride: Not that, (he pointed at a group of people approaching), those.

It doesn't seem weird at first, until they realized that there are two group of people. A group of men, and a group of women. All men wore tuxedos and they're all identical.

All women almost wear nothing but some piece of clothing to cover their groin and their breasts. The women's body had bluish white markings, and their eyes were light stripes. And they were all identical.

The weirdness didn't stop there. As the leading man instructed the group to split, some of the women and the men literally split, cloning themselves into more. They spread to all directions, ready to cover the university premises.

Steven: Can we do that too?

Daniel (Xe): Is it even the correct question for a time like this?

Daniel (In): Who are they?

Steven, Daniel, and Fernando (Xe) thought for some time, looking at Daniel, Fernando, and Helena (In).

Steven: I think you should go with us. We can explain later.

Pride: Great, (sarcastically) more people to be taken care of.

Asoo: The more the merrier!

Daniel (Xe): We need to go to the parking lot, our OAEV is there.

Daniel (In): there's another way to the parking lot, hopefully they didn't get there first.

They started to move, away from the incoming men and women spreading through the campus complex. However, some of the men noticed them, and the chase started. Steven activated his parser suite from his phone, and he started to shot bolts of fire. Some of the men returned more bolts of fire, and with a move, Nando's repellent field deflected the bolts.

Some of the men and women ran toward them, and some managed to get through, despite all the efforts of Nando, Steven, Asoo, and Pride. Daniel (Xe), having his power to be neurological in nature and requires physical contact, really couldn't do remote attacks, so he clustered with Hendrik, Daniel (In), Helena (In), and Edo. His defense, however, is very firm and rock-like. Every one approached them, is blocked by him, and it gave him a chance to use his powers. After blocking their attacks, he caused every one in contact with him physically and had their eyes met his, to collapse, unconscious.

Daniel (Xe): Apparently, despite being gods, they are subject to the rule of my power.

Pride: at least it confirms Hendrik's hypothesis.

Pride swam on the concrete, and pulled some bodies of Tiamat and Hadad to sink under the concrete. He resurfaced back beside Daniel (Xe).

Pride: So whatever can kill humans, can also kill their bodies here.

Asoo barked hard to some of the approaching Tiamat and Hadad, and they were thrown back hard. Some lifted pieces of earths and threw it to Asoo. Nando came and jump in front of Asoo, and repelled the pieces.

Steven did a rotating jump, and as his kick reached the ground, a piece of rock emerged up and flew in front of Nando. Nando maintained his stance, and jolted a fist, that the rock repelled it hard toward the approaching bodies of Hadad and Tiamat. Daniel (Xe), despite being the weakest, managed to dismantle and disable those bodies of Hadad and Tiamat that managed to approach the group.

Daniel (Xe): We're simply outnumbered! There must be a quick way out of here!

Daniel (In): We can try to get to the back door, but I'm not sure if the gate is open.

Hendrik: with their powers, I don't think it mattered whether the gate is open or not.

Daniel (Xe): Then, we'd go there. Daniel, lead the way!

It was just two steps ahead, a Tiamat came and hugged Daniel (In) hard, she tried to bite his neck, but Daniel (Xe) locked her arms from her behind.

Tiamat: So you like it through the backdoor, eh (she licked her lips, while jerking, trying to get off the rock grip of Daniel (Xe), and her hairs started to form snake-like properties, they're about to peck on Daniel (Xe)'s eyes.

Daniel (Xe): (releasing the grid, and pushed her away to the ground) I prefer to face you directly, (he pulled an arm of her to make her face him, and she fell unconscious immediately).

Hendrik: Wow, you neutralize a medusa with your gaze, how ironic.

Daniel (In): (patting Daniel Xe's shoulder) I know we can count on you

Daniel (Xe): Thank you

Daniel (In): No problem, I know I can always count on myself anyway (he laughed, Daniel Xe just raised an eyebrow)

A Hadad came to lock Daniel (Xe) from behind, but with a move, he caused the Hadad to fell in front of him instead, while still holding a hand in a lock, the Hadad fell unconscious afterward. He turned to face ahead, but a Hadad came in front of him, and with his palm, an immense pressure could be felt that push him backwards. He firmed his stance, and jolted a palm, trying to penetrate the Hadad's defense. His clothes torn from his penetrating arm, and to his shoulder, and his entire top wear is torn into pieces. When he managed to hold the Hadad's neck and maintained eye contacts, the Hadad fell unconscious.

Bright skin, smooth and calming gaze, firm and well-defined body features. Those qualities of Daniel (Xe) was more than sufficient to make any woman fall for him. Especially when the top wear was removed. Helena (In) and Edo were no exception in this case. Given this magnificent sight of a healthy male specimen like her husband's double, she and Edo couldn't help but to have their jaw dropped open. Daniel (In) held Helena's (In) jaw and closed it again.

Daniel (In): Contain yourself, will you? Your husband is right beside you.

Edo had to hold his jaw for himself.

Helena (In): I'm sorry. (she smiled at Daniel (In), her stomach fluttered and her heart raced)

Helena could never see her husband the same way ever again, she thought to herself.

A group of three Hadads approached Fernando, their fists thrust from all directions. He blocked the first one with a palm, that before the fist contacted his skin, got repelled back. The second one was deflected with a wave of his elbow, again without contact, got pushed back really hard. The third one, almost hit his neck, when Daniel (Xe) pulled that Hadad's feet back with his rock-hard grip. After wrestling with that particular Hadad, Daniel (Xe) managed to disable him, while Nando rounded up the other two.

Tall, dark, and handsome, was all she could describe about Nando. Nando exchange smiles with Daniel (Xe), and it was more than sufficient to boil her fujoshi soul. If not because of their current situation, she'd shriek as hard as she could.

Nando: You know, your power might not be a ranged one, but it complimented your rock-hard body.

A Hadad and a Tiamat approached the group, very close that they almost touched Hendrik. Edo came to protect her, Daniel (In), and Hendrik, but got slapped far from Tiamat. Steven came in between them and Helena-Daniel-Hendrik (In), and in a move too fast for their eyes to follow, the attackers fell to the sides. Nando helped Edo to get up, while uprooting paving stones and threw them to the incoming Tiamat and Hadad.

Daniel (Xe) came and rounded up the fallen Hadad. It was quite a spar, but Daniel's (Xe) defense was impenetrable. After he managed to both hold the Hadad's body, and locked his gaze at Hadad's gaze, that Hadad fell unconscious.

Daniel (In): Where did you learn to fight like that anyway?

Daniel (Xe): Well, you know that my boyfriend is a soldier. What do you think we do at our free time?

Helena (In): Making out?

Daniel (Xe): Yes! No, I mean, it's not completely wrong,

Nando: And we spar, when we weren't making out.

Hendrik: Can we save the details for later?

The Tiamat had her hair extended to grab Hendrik, but with Steven's fist thrusted toward her, a bolt of fire burned her hair. Asoo jumped to them, and with a bark she was thrown back far. Charging toward her, Asoo bite her neck at such force that it snapped.

Hendrik: This is so wrong, why are they after us?

Pride: Not just after us, but some of us. They don't really care about Asoo, I, Steven, Daniel (Xe), and Nando, we're more like a hindrance for them.

Another Tiamat run toward them. With Asoo's barks, she fell toward the ground, then Pride swam under her, and they both sank under the concrete. Pride came out after, alone.

Steven: If they're after those that are from this world, I guess they have everyone else but us to chase, but they're only targeting our group,

A Hadad bursted a large ball of fire, so Steven kicked the ground to erect a giant boulder. Nando came forth and with his power thrusted the boulder toward the Hadad. Steven jumped to the ceiling, stayed there upside down, and he thrusted his fists, launched his kicks, where firebolts came from his fists and kicks toward the approaching Hadads and Tiamats.

Nando: .., that aren't visitors like us. (continued Nando)

Edo: They were not chasing us before,

Daniel (In): Definitely our life was a normal one before you guys meet us.

Helena (In): Guys, that means, if we exclude my husband and I, the only ones that they chase would be either Edo and, um, this young man here.

Hendrik: I'm Hendrik (he sniffed, as she totally forgot about him). And for the records, they didn't chase me or Edo yesterday either.

Edo: But, Hendrik is the only one among us that is in the list that Manov held.

Helena (In): What list?

Steven: The list! I totally forgot about that.

Pride was swimming on the ground toward the incoming Hadads, but a Hadad penetrated the ground with his palm, and pulled Pride off the ground. Pride struggled, but before he could do anything about it, the Hadad snapped his neck. Asoo barked toward them, but the bark beams of Asoo was deflected by a group of three Hadads, with a single move caused a stone wall to be erected from the ground.

Asoo, surprised, didn't expect that two Tiamats are approaching him from the side. The two Tiamats had their snake-like hairs to launch attacks on his bodies. He bleeds, wailed, and with their bare arms, they tore Asoo into pieces, then they devoured him in his entirety, pieces by pieces.

Edo: Did they just,

Daniel (In): defeated our guardians?

A Hadad jumped to the front of them, and approached those that aren't visitors on their group, but Daniel (Xe) pulled his feet with his rock-like grip. He was about to establish eye contact with Hadad, but Hadad shut his eyes, and fought back. Without access to his eyes, Daniel couldn't turn him unconscious, so all he could do was to wrestle with him.

The group gathered close to one another, losing two of their teams really limits their defense capability. Steven and Nando wait patiently for an opening to separate that Hadad from Daniel, and Daniel managed to prevent him from closing toward the group with his impenetrable defense.

But more and more Hadads and Tiamats are approaching them.

Steven: I think they adapted with our tactics already.

Daniel (Xe): That's it. (He jumped and with a move around that Hadad's body, he pulled him down, and slammed him to the ground.)

He ran toward the group,

Daniel (Xe): Now Run!

They ran toward their OAEV at the parking lot. Steven and Fernando, the only ones capable of ranged attacks, were behind them to launch defense attacks. Daniel (Xe) and Daniel (In) lead them to the parking lot. Daniel (Xe) dialed his phone, and the OAEV turned on.

There was a fence hindering their move. With little effort, Daniel (Xe) jumped off the one and a half meter tall fence, and told them to follow.

Daniel (In): That's a freaking tall fence!

Steven prepared a stance and pulled a part of the fence down, it sunk to the ground. They ran to the other side of the fence, and Steven pulled it back up.

Nando: I don't think it is sufficient to stop them.

Steven: I know, I am still thinking.

Daniel (Xe) ran toward the OAEV and let the rest of the group to enter it.

Steven stomped on the ground and raised his stance, and columns of earth erected up. Nando moved close to the wall and with his power, pulled them that they compressed into a compact, solid wall, while Steven rooted his stance and pushed the stone away from Nando's body.

Steven: That should be more than enough.

Nando and Steven boarded the OAEV and Daniel drove it away from the campus.

Daniel (Xe): So where are we going?

Steven: To Henokh's team.

Part 29 (Part 16 of the Integra Crisis)  

The dormitory was next to a campus, it was flattened to the ground with Zarah's power. The group translocated to the campus, that Ket recognized to be the site where he fought Zarah in 1993, the day MTF Samsara lost a significant fraction of their force. Ket looked around, when Zarah and Tiamat landed near them.

Zarah: It appears, we're here again, Ket.

Ket: But this time, we will win, not you.

Zarah raised boulders of earths and all of them streamed toward the group. Nurhayati attempted to block the stones with a hand in front of her, and from her fingers, beams of lights blasted to the cores of each boulders. They shattered.

Derictor produced a number of knives again, and he bend them toward Zarah, she pulled the knives around her and threw it toward Derictor again. With his other knives, Derictor shot the previous knives away before they're reaching the group. So Zarah and Derictor had been sparring with the knives, and more and more knives were shattered by Zarah. That was when Derictor realized that he could also sense the shattered pieces of the knives he control.

Gajah stood firm, he shifted his foot, and the other foot advanced forward, and as it touched the ground, a column of earth was raised. His stance changed again, and with his fists, he pushed the rock hard toward Zarah. Zarah shattered the stone with ease, but it prevented her to notice that Ket translocate to be right behind her, and Ket bite Zarah's left arm hard, she screamed.

Zarah's fist were directed toward Ket's face, and he realized that the fist is packed with shear forces enough to torn his meat apart. Ket translocated and Zarah hit her own arm on where Ket was biting. Her arm was torn and bleed.

Tiamat raised her arms, and a river close to the university had its water streamed up in a serpentine manner, and started to charge toward the group. Ket transformed into a lion again and roared. The water stream split around them, keeping them dry.

Manov redirected some of the water and compressed them into a very thin stream of high pressure water. It almost got Tiamat, but she deflected it enough that it didn't reach anything vital. The stream itself, however, was able to cause cuts on her arm.

Tiamat redirect all the water and a stream was after the protagonists. It split into many streams and approach the team from multiple directions. Gajah assumed a defensive stance and a wall of earth rose to protect them against the stream coming from one direction. While from another side, Ket roared and produced an invisible shield that protect them from the stream. Manov had to hold the other side, but he wasn't strong enough to hold a steady shield.

Nurhayati had a glimpse, of something. In her vision, she was battling a group of people, from her hands were arces of electricity. Tere that was beside her, held Nurhayati's hands.

Tere: What you're seeing, is your past life. Focus on them, focus on what you feel and how did you do it. Remember it.

Nurhayati: How did you know what I'm seeing?

Tere: It's crystal clear in my head, the thought of every single one here. I got this power because of a similar thing I saw when I was little. I was in the middle of a random group I didn't recognize, but I can see their thoughts. Then I realized that I was listening to the thoughts of my mom, but I was her mom. Only after several moments did I realize, that I'm the grandmother of myself. I died before my mom got married. Then I focus on how did I do what I was doing in that vision, of how I see the thoughts of others. And it just come back to me.

Nurhayati: So, you're saying, we have the memories of our past selves?

Tere: No, it's more like, we're our past selves, reintroduced to this world again in a new packaging.

Nurhayati: Guys, I think I know what to do. Keep the water away from us!

Manov: What do you think we are doing?

She took a breath, and look at all the water surrounding them, deflected back to the river. Tiamat that was moving closer, making the stream more and more intense. Her hands were gathering near her chest, her index fingers joined her middle fingers, as if she was pointing something on her sternum. She separated them in a circular motion, away from her body, and an arc of electricity formed. Two arces, three, and more arces formed as she rotated her arms, moving them closer to her sternum, and away again. Every cycle made the electricity more intense.

With a rapid rotation, she aimed her fingers away from her body, one to the front of her, one to her back, and arces of electricity spewed out of her fingertips. A stream went to the water, the other stream went to the ground. They became more intense, and Tiamat's scream could be heard, as she was electrocuted inside the water body she used to attack them. The stream of water subsided, and so was Nurhayati's electricity.

Gajah lowered the earth wall, and they could see Tiamat laying motionless, her eyes glared open but lifeless. There were no external wounds typical in electrocution, as she was immersed underwater. Water prevents burn marks as it cooled the tissue down, and helped in drowning the body that was incapacitated by the electricity.

Manov: That was actually a very smart move.

Nurhayati took some moment to realize that she just killed someone.

Ket: No need to mourn, she didn't die. She's a visitor like me. When we die, we were ejected from this world and can return to this world again.

Nurhayati was slightly relieved.

Manov: Now we just have to deal with Zarah.

Zarah stood there in pain, her left arm was wrecked with blood and lacerations she made herself. She was furious, and with her right arm, she shot a bolt of disruption beam. Gajah raised a boulder and it shattered as the bolt contacted the boulder. Zarah made a fist and waved them to them, and random objects flew toward the group.

Manov: She started to make mistakes,

Ket: Yeah, I think we managed to piss her off. Now she's just a crazy old auntie.

Manov: Nur, can you do that trick again?

Nurhayati: I will try.

She made another arc and shot it toward Zarah, but she pulled a car and the arc hit the car instead.

Now they have a car flying toward them.

Ket: Shit.

Instinctively, all of them touched Ket, and they translocate to a building at the other corner of the school.

Ket has to translocate to somewhere in his line of sight, and Zarah knew it too well. They have been fighting one another for years already. When the entire group vanished, she knew where to look for them. She just followed the last thing Ket was looking at before they vanished.

Ket: She saw us!

Zarah flew at a great speed toward them, and Ket wasn't sure on which direction they should go, so with a move, they all returned to the field, while she was still going toward the building. She was enraged, so before she even turn back to the field, she snapped a nearby electric pole, and the wire was slithering toward the group, with arces of electricity came in between the wires. Nurhayati jumped and held the wires, all electricity passed through her, and with her other hand, she redirected those electricity toward Zarah. Zarah was electrocuted and was thrown to a nearby tree.

Nurhayati: I think it is coming back to me, on how to use my power!

Manov: Wait, so it means, in this group we already have two apex souls. Nurhayati, a Boson soul, and Bright, a Tachyon soul.

Ket: That's a coincidence.

Tere: And I'm a Freud soul.

Manov: Wait a minute. The one that died in the real world, were a Sperry and a Vishnu soul. They were in the real world as a part of Project Antarabhava.

Henokh: project what?

Manov: Project Antarabhava was a project to make the management of a Sperry and a Vishnu soul more, humane. So we need their body here, in Integra, in exchange of that, we allow them to take over their bodies in our world. The choice is either that, or we're going to make them live in containment for the rest of their cycle. But that wasn't what I'm going to say.

Henokh: Why do you need their body?

Manov: A Sperry can control the neurological states of one's brain. We use it to make amnestics, medicines that will make people forget, be it a broad spectrum amnesiac, or just a specific memory. A Vishnu's soul can produce a normalcy field, that will cancel anomalies of any form, normalizing them. We use that too to neutralize troublesome anomalies. But that wasn't what I'm going to say.

Henokh: But what did you mean by 'the rest of their cycle?'

Manov: Five generations ago, we found a way to bind their soul together. Ever since then, at the end of their cycle, we let them escape, and we chase them down, until they realize that the only way to escape us, is by committing a suicide together. Then with a technique we developed, we can detect them when they finally found each other again in the next cycle. And we will track them, and force them to be our subject, and we exploited them as I explained before. But that wasn't what I want to-

Henokh: Then, what about-

Manov: Please shut up okay. Okay, good. Listen well. It means, Tiamat is targetting the Apex souls. Which means, he (pointing at Ezekiel) must also be an Apex soul.

Derictor: And Hendrik too?

Manov: Yes, and Hendrik too.

Ket: But the rest of the names in the *manent* realm, is not the name of known Apex souls.

Manov: For that, I have a hypothesis, but we have to go to the GaFE base first, so I can confirm it.

Henokh: But they didn't target Zarah...

Manov: Oh for the love of God. Zarah is currently in their side, they need her. Being in their side means they can always dispose Zarah at any moment without her being suspicious. Or she volunteered for that, who would know. Please focus, let's get back to the base first. Now where did we park the OAEV?

Ket: In front of the collapsed dormitory. Oh.

Henokh, Derictor, Manov: (looking at the destroyed dormitory) Oh.

A group of half-naked women with bluish white markings on their bodies, and a group of men in tux were inspecting the OAEV, and the destroyed buildings. The group looked at the protagonists, and then they marched close.

Manov: Hadad? Hadad is with Tiamat?

Tiamat: I underestimated you by sending only one instance of me. Now it's all of me, against all of you.

Hadad: And all of me as well.

Tiamat didn't reply, but they're visibly annoyed.

The next thing they knew, they were surrounded by Tiamat and Hadad. Ket was visibly exhausted, and Gajah tried to ward off Tiamat and Hadad with a huge wall of earth. Nurhayati spread arces of electricity to some of Tiamat and Hadad, but a Hadad redirected all of her arces back to her. Bright tried his best to move some number of them to Antarabhava, but the more he throw them to Antarabhava, the more they cloned themselves.

Ket: Sending them to Antarabhava didn't do anything to them, they are visitors, not native of this world. They can always return if you kick them off this world.

Derictor came up with a new trick, he produced a large quantity of knives, and bend them around so that they hit each other, and become fine dusts of metals. He control the dusts around like a swarm. He made the swarm into a shield for defense, and extend tendrils out of the swarm cloud for offense. With fine dusts of metal, he could made an abrasive stream that would erode any kind of attack thrown at him.

Henokh managed to pull some of Hadad bodies and made them fight for him. But it becomes harder as the remaining Hadad were actively avoiding him, and those Hadads that had been made under his command were killed by the other Hadads. They didn't mind to kill themselves if necessary.

It comes to their realization, that they were vastly outnumbered.

Manov: Guys, I don't think we can hold it. I'm sorry, I failed you.

Steven: No, not yet.

Steven held up his phone, as he jumped off Team 1's OAEV that rushed through the bodies of Hadad and Tiamat. He landed near them, and was immediately surrounded by Hadad and Tiamat. He held his phone high, and it exploded, spreading a shockwave, that dusted all bodies of Hadad and Tiamat in his vicinity.

Manov: How did you do that?

Steven: We were visitors in this world. For our case, we were delivered here from Adran, and our shell is made out of Adran's matrix. In a sense, we were projected from Adran's instances. We had three, my phone, Daniel's, and Fernando's.

Daniel (Xe): But we came to realize, that if we overload our projector, it might intervere with other projectors. So we target the frequency of Hadad's and Tiamat's projection, and craft a specialized modulation to cancel out their signal. When one of Adran's instance is blasted, it's gone, but along with the targetted projections in our vicinity.

Fernando (Xe): It is not permanent, but for now they're blocked from this area. However, we can only do that once for every instance of Adran.

Ket: Where's Sgt. Pride and Asoo?

Daniel (In): They're, dead.

Gajah: When?

Daniel (In): Probably about half an hour ago?

Derictor: And, you brought along your clones?

Hendrik: Apparently they're chasing us too now. That's why we had to follow them. I don't understand yet why they're chasing us though. But they suspected it to be me. I mean, why would they want me? I'm just a regular person that wrote stories.

Manov: You're an Apex soul.

Hendrik was stunned, "pardon?"

Manov: Bright is a Tachyon soul, Nurhayati is a Boson soul, then Tere is a Freud soul. You and Ezekiel is also present in the list of names I had, that were all targeted by Tiamat. Our current hypothesis is that you and Ezekiel, might either be a Brahma, or an Ericson.

Ket: So, which one is a Brahma? A Brahma is our best bet now. In 1993, we had a Brahma in our team, he was able to bend reality according to his whim, at the expense of headaches.

Manov: Wait, wait here. We already have everyone in the list. Whatever the case, they're all not safe in this world, as Tiamat is after them.

Steven: They can be safe if we load them to Adran's matrix instead. Then we can investigate them, and discover why they're being chased.

Manov: yes, we should do that!

Steven: but no.

Manov: Why?

Daniel (Xe): We haven't found El yet. It is one of our objectives after all.

Manov: But we have to secure at least one of our objectives, finding out why they're chasing the names in that list.

Steven: We have to find El, so we can open the gate of Hel, and save Helena from it, and also release Kothar, so we have a leverage to get Yagrush and Aymur, divine weapons we can use to fight the Divine Council.

Ket: True. Tiamat was released, and together with Hadad, they seemed to aim for the Armageddon to happen. If Armageddon is to happen, the world population is to be decimated. Not only the real world, it will also apply to all Paramundus.

Hendrik: Which, which, is equivalent to our body having a fever! They were trying to get rid of Godfluenza, a divine virus that affects the behavior of gods!

Henokh: Are you being real?

Manov stopped Henokh, "let him speak."

Hendrik: The reason why all of the anomalies in Xenomancy happened, is because Hadad want to keep his throne, but it was threatened by Godfluenza. It affects the other gods in the Divine Council. It causes decoherence in the Divine Throne. Armageddon allowed them to declare emergency against the spread of this divine pandemic. This godfluenza spreads through mortals, and mortals that interact with gods, would transmit it to the gods, and they'd behave differently. To prevent the spread, Armageddon would decimate the active population of Earth, so the godfluenza wouldn't be able to spread and hopefully died off. Earth will survive, and gods will get better. Population would rebound back after several hundred years.

Henokh: We can't afford that, billions of lives were at stake.

Hendrik: Uncountable number of intelligent life! It is not only for humans in Xenomancy, but everywhere else in the Paramundi Complex.

Steven: I love Earth. It is my home. I wouldn't want it to happen.

Manov: It seems, that we can't allow that to happen. Okay, we will stay, but how would we handle all of those Tiamat and Hadad?

Steven: There's a way. If we detonate one more of our projector near their projector, we might be able to permanently compromise their projector, so they have to reestablish a new projector before they could come in. We would have more time to prepare.

Manov: So where could we find their projector?

Steven looked at Hendrik, "do you have any idea about it?"

Hendrik shrugged, "I just said everything that I know. I know nothing more past that."

Ket: I think, right now, we have to gather back at the base. A GaFE base. So we could discuss it with GaFE, and representatives of the WTF. Perhaps they have more clues than what we have now, on where their projectors are.

Part 30 (Part 17 of the Integra Crisis)  

They took a trip to the GaFE base they emerged from, but there was something weird, very weird in fact. As they approached the block the base was in, suddenly the planar dimension of the block expanded significantly, leaving the height intact. Trees went farther away from each other, buildings stretched on horizontal plane direction, but cars, people, and creatures remained with their normal dimension, only getting away from one another. Far in the middle, they could see that the base weren't expanded like other buildings around it, and six men stood surrounding the building, with their fists held in front of them, forming some sort of invisible wall that protects the dimension of the base. Their arms glow bright blue, and they seemed to struggle. A group of twelve surrounded the base, spreading their arms, stretching the dimension, they were comprised of men and women. It was a fight between Men of Tiamat and GaFE guardians.

The protagonists decided to act on it, and start to attack the men of tiamat one by one. The dimensional stretch start to destabilize, but one of the guard approached them, saying that it wasn't their fight. Asked why by Manov, answered by the guard that they need to go from yet another gate, and that their mission wasn't protecting the gate, but rather, to find El. He crossed his arms and a bright blue shockwave sends the protagonist team flew high to the sky, horizon start to curve around them, and from a distance they could see a translucent blue stream connecting the space ad infinitum to the gate they're banished from.

On the contact between the stream and the gate, they could see a bright red explosion, and the stream snapped, receding away from the gate toward the space. The gate was destroyed, Manov realized.

Getting further to the sky, and the horizon start to curve even more, they could see that there are a number of blue streams connecting space ad infinitum to certain points on the surface, the gates. Some of the streams receded away from the surface, that the group concluded to be the gates failing to the attack of the Men of Tiamat. They approached one intact stream, and from the stream they could feel themselves withdrawn from their core toward the surface. Horizon uncurved as they approached the ground at a great speed, so great they suffocated due to the rush. A meter before touching the ground they could feel like their inside was pulled with such a sheer force from the direction of space, and then the pull snapped and they fell to the surface, feeling disoriented, with short breaths, and upset stomachs.

Looking around, they find themselves in a field right in front of the Major's office. They could see that it was built on the side of a cliff, and there was a monument right across the road, before the hill slanted significantly. The monument was a tail of a dragon. Manov, which was now able to differentiate certain strands that connect objects in this world, noticed that the monument had the same invisible blue stream extending ad infinitum to space. It was a gate.

Part 31 (Part 18 of the Integra Crisis)  

Someone approached them, an old man with dark skin, large glasses, and tall. Manov and Hendrik (Integra) recognized the old man as Uncle Tahoo. The name stuck in their memories because in Indonesian, it is written as "tahu", which is also a word for both an Indonesian noun for tofu and a verb, "to know." It was said that he knew everything, he can repair anything, and is very resourceful. And he was currently there to repair the world, he said that there was an unauthorized gate forming on Batusori tourist resort.

Hendrik realized, that the projector for the Men of Tiamat originates there. He just knew it. Uncle Tahoo deliver them to a bus, driven by Erwin, a driver that both Manov and Hendrik (Integra) recognized as well, as the man that was known well to be able to drive any type of land vehicles, large or small.

Part 32 (Part 19 of the Integra Crisis)  

On the road to Batusori, suddenly cars appear on their front and from their behind, trapping them in the middle. Manov tried hard and flung any car in front of them. The cars behind them are approaching, at that moment, Hendrik realized that it is like lucid dreaming. Focussing, he "zipped" the road, the edges of the road closes together, wrapping anything on the road underneath, crushing them. Manov was surprised, and Steven et al. noticed a mark appeared on Hendrik's forehead: a cross encircled with a circle.

A narrative appeared, about oneironaut, about reversed causality. And to Hendrik's past, about his faith, his guilt, and his exploration to lucid dreaming, and now, realizing that the entire Integra was just a dream, and that they're all oneironauts.

Part 33 (Part 20 of the Integra Crisis)  

Romanov shaked Hendrik, and the Mark of Hadad disappeared. Romanov asked what happened, and Hendrik said he felt like the entire world is like a dream. Steven added that, in a way, it is. It is a virtual world after all.

Manov saw it with his mental eyes, there was that blue stream from the peak of Batusori resort. The stream beamed up *ad infinitum*, the signature shape of a gate. From it, some orange and green beam could be seen extending to multitude of directions. Green and orange are signatures of the projections of Tiamat and Hadad, The Men of Tiamat.

Manov knew it that they're coming from this gate originally, before spreading to the world. The team entered, and paid for 5k per individuals for entrance to Batusori. The peak is just a field, nothing much featured, just a field, and by the edges people gathered to take pictures. Their attention were piqued by a structure in the middle of the field, like a lobby, or a toilet. It was the gate.

From inside it, come out a number of identical men and a number of identical women. The Men of Tiamat went out along with sudden pulses of the green and orange beams. They're convinced beyond doubt that they came from the structure. Public around them just gaze with curiosity. They appear to care more about what is happening than their own safety. Some starts recording.

Hadad and Tiamat had a fight over how to fix this recording problem they had. Tiamat didn't listen and start attacking the protagonists. They fight, as Daniel began drawing his utility tablet, and Tiamat pulled it away from Daniel. With no utility tablets, Daniel and Steven fought with no armor, so Fernando, Daniel, and Steven exchanged Fernando's armor.

Daniel's utility tablet fell from the cliff to the sea, as he tried to recover it and Tiamat kicked it off. To prevent the recording to spread, Hadad caused Earthquake on Batusori, and with a surprise, blasted air waves toward the spectators, some fell through the cliff, their phones were taken away and spread across the sea around Batusori by Hadad. Amidst the fight, Daniel (In) and Helena (In) kissed each other. Helena had a moment with Edo via a brief gaze, while Edo thought of Daniel (In). In his head, Edo and Daniel (In) would kiss, and Edo announced his love to him, and Daniel (In) would leave Helena. Edo was about to move toward Daniel, Hendrik stopped him.

There was a moment between Hendrik and Edo, and Helena let go the gaze, melting in the love of Daniel. Retrospectively commenting the moment, Edo agreed that it wasn't the best option there is to relive his past love with Daniel (In). Given the moment, Edo realized how Daniel (In) was complete now, with Helena. Hendrik added, that if Edo told Daniel that Edo loves him at the time, Daniel would break, and torn between Helena and Edo. Daniel might eventually choose Helena, but a part of him would then be torn, he'd not be the same. Edo gazed at Daniel again, pondering about the possibilities of them being together. Hendrik added that in this world there's no Steven. With Steven around, Fernando would first love Steven, and both Steven and Daniel would want to be with Helena. When Steven captured Helena's heart, even though Helena loved Fernando as she is in this world, Daniel decided to stop. And Fernando was there for him. And they were together, both wounded, both understand each other, and both had the capacity to accept each other.

Edo asked, why does it felt like Hendrik knew them well, even though Hendrik never meets them. Hendrik said that he designed all of those characters, he knew every single one of them by heart. Or at least he thought he designed them. What is stranger is that they actually exist, both in the alternate Earth, and their own Earth. "Stranger than fiction" Edo muttered.

Part 34 (Part 21 of the Integra Crisis)  

Part 35 (Part 22 of the Integra Crisis)  

---

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This page was last edited on 2021-05-20 10:19

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