CHAPTER 43: PHANTASM INITIATION

She stared at the monitor as cold sweat dripped down her cheeks.

What the…

Scribe-of-Worlds had given her a quest.

She had heard about this from the case file she had read. Members of the website were occasionally given random quests. According to the records on file, these ranged from simple acts like obtaining and selling ritual items on the site to other users who had requested them, to more sinister crimes like murder and rape.

She glanced back at the time limit offered.

Time Limit: 23:57:23

It’s real… I am not hallucinating…

This was extremely worrying. From what she understood of IRE A-1549, the quests it granted start off fairly tame and only progressively get more and more perverse as the user continues their interactions. And what was worse about her situation was the penalty it offered.

Death.

Although she did hear that some quests did have such clauses added to them, they usually only appeared to users once they interacted with the website a lot. For her first ever quest to have this extreme of a penalty was completely unprecedented.

Julie cursed her luck.

What do I do now… She watched as the timer slowly ticked to zero. Only 24 hours before her inevitable death.

She needed to make a decision fast.

Should she consult the organization about this? Or continue to keep it a secret.

After a few more agonizing minutes of thinking, the choice became obvious: snitch on herself and hope for the best.

There was no way she could solve this problem on her own. And, she also theorized that her current containment showing no results would simply keep her isolated forever. After all, the HPP’s core tenant was prevention was better than cure. If isolating her until she dies meant preventing the spread of corrupted anima, then it was a sacrifice they were willing to make. She doubted they would ever free her unless it provided them some sort of benefit.

Think of the bright side, Julie. She thought to herself. If you gain a Soul Weapon, whatever that means, you’ll get stronger!

She did hear the term once before, but she still had no idea what exactly it meant. All she knew was that PTF-0 was composed of people with Soul Weapons.

If I gain a Soul Weapon, would they add me to PTF-0?

The prospect both excited her and terrified her.

Don’t get ahead of yourself, she reminded herself. Glancing back at the metal vault door preventing her exit, Julie stood up and slowly walked toward it, making sure to stomp out any of her remaining hesitation with every step.

By the time she reached the reinforced door, her breath had hiked significantly. She took a deep breath before knocking.

Annoyed, the officer asked what she wanted. She took a second to reply,

“I would like to speak with Dr. Miguel. A new development just occured—IRE A-1549 has entered my computer screen and conversed with me.”

The officer paused for a second before radioing someone—it was too muffled for Julie to understand what they were saying. A second later, sirens began to blare all around the facility. Julie almost panicked, but held herself together.

She stood there before the metal door mulling over her decision. Was it the right choice?

She didn’t know.

A few agonizing seconds later, the door busted open, startling her. Colossal soldiers that towered over Julie stormed inside, armed with countless strange weapons. They wore ominous, rounded masks with two small holes for their eyes. Their clothing was also very strange—trench coats paired with black trousers—weapons hidden beneath them most likely.

PTF-0, “The Black Watchmen” squad.

This was a squad of PTF-0 that dealt with IREs that hold a codification of Alpha (Anomalous). Unlike the group she faintly saw arriving at Soren’s house during their investigation of the ritual he had conducted, this group looked to be much more specialized. Her senior colleague, Eve, once called them the executioners of the Mysterious World. Rather than finding ways to contain the IREs, they were usually deployed to missions in which the goal was destroying the enemy completely. This was especially scary for Vagrant Occult Activities. In one of the stories she heard, a group of amateur astrologers tried to undergo a group divination technique that had roots in demonology.

The Black Watchmen were apparently deployed to that location. The aftermath?

A complete bloodbath. A colleague of hers described seeing brain matter all across the floor—not even the children of the people involved were spared. All traces of their existence and lineage were destroyed.

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When she heard of this story, she was completely mortified. Eve tried to justify it by saying that the people involved in that ritual were being misled by a demon. If they had undergone the ritual they assumed would help them understand Runology, their flesh would be sacrificed and morphed into a vessel for the demon's descent upon the world as a Pandaemonium class IRE.

Still, the story left a mark in her. She vowed to never mess with those bastards, or even get close to them.

Who would have thought they would come to her first? It was truly comical.

The one leading the pack held a strange revolver in his right arm that pulsed in a dark red energy, as if it was alive.

He glanced over at her monitor screen and walked toward it, violently shoving Julie to the side.

She winced in pain—her shoulder had been bruised just from a slight shove from him. She wanted to curse him out but held her tongue.

The masked man scanned the information displayed on the monitor screen before nodding to himself. A second later, Julie watched in horror as he robotically aimed his strange revolver toward the monitor screen and shot several shots nonchalantly.

Frozen in shock, Julie witnessed the now destroyed screen flash with light. She swiftly covered her eyes before glancing back out again—countless golden butterflies were swimming out from the monitor screen, forming a flock of flying ethereal insects. They rushed out of the steel-reinforced door.

“After them,” the man ordered—his voice sounded more alien than human. The others in his squad silently rushed out of the room and back into the hallway to chase after the butterflies. Sirens were once again blaring all across the facility.

Julie couldn’t believe her eyes. That man’s revolver… it definitely did damage to the IRE! It was different from when she first encountered Scribe-of-Worlds. Her method of engaging it was similar, but her pistol yielded no results and instead got her into even more trouble. She had been mulling it over ever since—what if she had simply run away rather than confronting it? Would her situation have changed?

“Get up,” the cold and alien voice startled her back to reality. She looked up at him in fear. Is he going to kill me now? She had been marked by a rogue IRE that had somehow even snuck into HPP Facility 004 just to meet her again. Her situation was definitely dangerous—if even the organization couldn’t detect its presence, who could? And this dangerous IRE was somehow deeply tied to her. Disposing of her would definitely be a great solution to the problem.

“I have orders from Direct 004,” he declared. “You will be escorted to Site A3 to meet him.”

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Facility 004 was a large, underground metropolis built underneath New York City. It was apparently once a nuclear bunker meant to survive in the event of World War 3 that got acquired by the organization after the Cold War ended. The facility went deep underground, forming multiple layers labeled F through A.

Julie and the Black Watchmen captain who was responsible for escorting her were currently riding down the elevator to floor site A3, the lowest layer on the A floor.

She straightened her collar and hesitantly glanced over to the colossal man. Earlier, she couldn’t really get a good glimpse of his features—the situation was too hectic. Observing him closely, Julie noticed a strange symbol of a spade surrounded by a spider web tattooed to the backside of his neck. His skin looked caucasian and he had black jet-black hair. She couldn’t tell his age, but it was most definitely above 30. His stature was also very well built—she could basically see the outlines of his muscles through his trench coat sleeves.

Julie shook her head, this isn’t the time to gawk…

“We’re here,” he interrupted her thoughts. The elevator slowed its descent and came to a stop. The reinforced door slid open, revealing a large, expansive void. Julie was shocked at what she was seeing. This is site A3? She had never been here before.

The entire location was pitch black, except for a single narrow path that led from the elevator into the distance. There were no railings on each side—Julie couldn’t even tell how deep the chasm was. One wrong step and it's over—goodbye.

“Move it,” he ordered, his voice was even more visceral this time.

“S-sorry,” she replied. Julie scurried in front of the man and walked across the narrow path surrounded by darkness on both sides. Looking toward the horizon, she couldn’t even see the end of the road ahead.

Regardless, there was no way she could complain right now—not with a damn super soldier right behind her who could blow her brains out before she even realized what had happened. She continued to walk and walk and walk. It felt endless. And yet, she also knew she was most definitely getting closer to something.

It was only five minutes later that her eyes focused on the end of the path. The narrow platform expands into a large circle. And on that circle… Was it a silhouette of a man?

Director 004. She finally pieced his identity together after her eyes refocused some more. The darkness made it really hard to tell who it was until they got closer.

“Intern B34. You’ve arrived.”

She straightened her posture and saluted him, “Yes sir!”

“Site A3…” He spoke in a mellow yet husky voice. “Do you know what this location is called?”

“N-no sir.”

He paused for a moment before answering. It was only then that she noticed that he wasn’t wearing his signature thin, rounded glasses. His eyes were deep crimson, as if his irises were orbs filled with blood. He stared coldly at her while frowning.

Julie could feel her skin crawl as his gaze landed on her.

“The Echo Chamber of Ascension—that is what the previous 004 Director called it. I gave it a new and more fitting name according to our new sheet of standards.

“Soul Weapon Forge.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “T-this is where Soul Weapons are forged?”

He slowly nodded his head in response, though, she was sure there was more to it than that.

“Intern B34. You will be undergoing Phantasm Initiation as outlined by Article 3, clause 4 of the Human Preservation Project’s Protocols & Guidelines Handbook.

“Failure to comply with this order will result in immediate execution.

“Do you understand?”

Julue gulped down her hesitation the moment she heard what the penalty was.

“Yes sir!”