Welcome to Hell

Shion and Chizuru left the research lab side by side. They scanned the surrounding buildings for potential snipers and armed guards. There were few snipers spaced sporadically on building tops and some scattered guards at the ground level. This was nowhere near enough force to take a city. The majority were probably having a battle at the base or protecting another, unseen location.

Shion and Chizuru split up, taking rooftops on opposite sides of the street, quickly dispatching the armed gunmen as they flew effortlessly between the buildings. This was quite suspicious indeed. When the enemy was capable of making killing machines like that big guy at the lab, why would they use these numbed out useless drones to defend their central location? Why not use more people across the city or highly skilled fighters like the two officers? With the info they had now the situation was not making a whole lot of sense to Shion or Chizuru who were both veterans of battle, and experts at military strategy.

If the true motives were to conquer the city it wouldn't make sense to station such few and unskilled people as sentries, but if they had ulterior motives maybe it would make a bit more sense. Like for instance, if the troops were just for show to trick non-combatants, or if they intended a secret attack while posting these fighters as a distraction.

Again the lack of military presence during this take over made zero sense as well. Maybe the cult resorted to the use of their chemical agents to drive the soldiers at the base insane. They didn't know and with so many neurolink blockers active long distance communication was impossible.

Rather than wasting too much time contemplating all the possibilities the two focused on their own situation. They braced themselves for the possibility that they would be walking into hell. Ambushes, assaults from multiple Adam test subjects all at once, or even chemical attacks were all possibilities they faced. At the very least they would be facing these challenges together and not alone. Both women were some of the most skilled at hand to hand and close combat that the two of them together were typically overpowered for most battles. It would have been a real challenge though if more combatants as skilled at killing as the big Adam attacked in a coordinated way.

Shion was just beginning to understand romantic love, but the more time that she spent with Chizuru the more she began to understand that what she was feeling was all part of what it meant to love someone else. It wasn't too different from love for family, there were just added wants and desires. For instance, why did she feel like she wanted to kiss Chizuru so often and why did her body try to touch her whenever it got the chance? That must be part of the desire that people spoke about between lovers.

When Chizuru was in trouble, her heart beat the same way it had when Shion's parents were being executed, and she was sure Chizuru felt the same after seeing her reaction with Dr. Feist which wasn't like Chizuru at all. She must have really been upset at Shion's injury. Shion was secretly glad about how defensive Chizuru got when she got hurt, but she would never admit that to her.

The girls met in the alley next to the Temple of Nietzsche. Chizuru started the conversation, "That was suspiciously easy".

Shion replied, "Yeah makes me think we are going to have it way harder inside... Chizuru, I've been thinking. In case we don't make it out of there, I just want you to know that I love you more than anything in the world. I wasn't super sure at first but I am now..."

Shion walked over and gave Chizuru an uncharacteristically warm hug and continued, "If we get out of this alive, can we get married right away?"

Chizuru's eyes were full of tears, "Absolutely, I love and need you just as much as you love me. Let's spend forever together after this mission."

With one final squeeze, they made themselves combat ready, drawing their blades and club. At the count of three, Chizuru swung the door open while Shion burst through the doors of the blinding white sermon room.

Once they realized the space was empty the two lowered their weapons. Chizuru was seemingly in awe of the sterile white that coated the entirety of the temple interior.

Chizuru wandered around the pews then sat. "Yeah this place definitely screams cult. What now? No one is here so how are we going to find the entrance to the underground area?"

"Like you said, its a cult. I'm guessing the answer lies in a combo of Oroboros and in the creepy motto these guy recite all the time. To die is to change, to change is to evolve, to evolve is to ascend, to ascend is to become the Ubermensch, to become the Ubermensch is to become god. Look around and see if you find some kind of puzzle or something."

After about 30 minutes, neither one of them was able to find any clues as to what they should be doing or how to find the entrance to the underground. Shion remembered she had one of their rings in her pack from the guys that assaulted Chizuru. She pulled it out and checked for any kind of twisting or button, but no luck. She tried the business card. She held it up to the light and could see a watermark of a man with a double halo on it but no other writing.

With an exasperated sigh, Shion laid back in one of the pews and looked up at the ceiling. She noticed the marble carved into the ceiling for the first time. There were several images carved across the entire white ceiling. There was a depiction of an eviscerated man, then another man crawling out of the man's gut. Then a person from the sky pulled the man from the gut into the sky, the man gained a halo, in the next scene he killed the man that pulled him up and gained a double halo. All images formed one big circle.

Chizuru noticed Shion's eyes fixated on the ceiling and laid on the same pew as Shion placing her head right next to Shion's.

"Wtf Shion?"

"I know. I think we have found our way in."

Shion followed where the arm hanging to the first man's side looked like it was pointing and it led her to the podium, she felt around it and pushed down on the ouroboros label.

Something out of sight grinded and shifted making the entire floor shake. Chizuru did the same for the man crawling out of the gut which led her to a pew. She noticed a small ouroboros symbol and pushed it down followed by more grinding and shaking. They did the same for all steps of the man's ascension and after more grinding, a hole opened in the floor of the hall adjacent to the podium.

The hole had rough, jagged edges as if it was hastily gouged from the earth itself. The stench of wet earth and rock filled their nostrils as the girls made their way down the sharply steeping tunnel that was lined with small wooden beams to keep it from collapsing. To those two a sense of foreboding overcame them as they descended what literally felt like the road to hell.

Chizuru and Shion gripped their weapons tighter as the temperature dropped, and the space between the small lights lining the top of the tunnel became farther and farther. Long stretches of darkness laid ahead. When the two were about 3/4 down the tunnel it had gotten so cold they could see their own breath.

In a puff of steam, Shion let out a quiet sigh. The feeling of uneasiness that she had when they started the trip down the mystery tunnel was becoming overwhelming. Shion looked to Chizuru whose knuckles had turned white from the death grip she had on her knives and could tell she was feeling the same.

In a show of solidarity, Shion fell back and walked close enough to Chizuru that their hips were touching. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the tunnel opened up into what appeared to be a natural underground cave system. The sound of running water echoed off the high ceilings and shadows danced along the walls of the large area they entered. Artificially lit by a few large stage lights, a podium stood at the far end of a wooden platform and a natural rock bridge led further into the caves. Some strips of ripped fabric and discarded metal cups adorned the floor of the space.

Shion knelt and picked up a cup, after smelling it, she put it back down. "They must have drugged all the cult members and taken them somewhere else. I can smell the bitterness of some kind of medicine or poison in these cups."

Chizuru commented, "Wow i guess they all willingly drank the kool-aid. Fucking cults. These types of blind faith groups always give me the creeps. Anyways, there seems to be only one way to go and that's across the bridge. I guess we have no choice but to push forward. Sucks. This place gives me the creeps too. I'm just waiting for some kind of monster to pop out and attack us.”

"Yeah and it's freezing as hell too. Hopefully we find something over there so we can wrap this up quickly."

The two cautiously crossed the natural granite bridge. The water running under the bridge appeared clean and almost glowing which helped to dampen the sinister vibe that the platform was giving. The two crossed without issue into a much larger cave. The same fluorescent lights hung at the top of these tunnels as well.

The two followed the lighted path before reaching a gigantic opening in the cave. Above their heads, Shion heard the shuffling of something living. She looked up and saw hundreds of large bats. In fact, these bats were so large that they could have easily carried away an 8 year old child.

Chizuru shuddered. Shion stepped back and whispered in Chizuru's ear, "They just look like bats. It's day time so they probably won't bother us. If we are quiet I bet they would never notice we were here. Hopefully, these aren't the result of some fucked up experiment and they aren't aggressive or something, most wild bats aren't."

Chizuru took a moment to regain her composure and the two began to cross under the bats. All was going well until a guard came out of the other side of the cave and accidentally kicked a rock on the ground under the bats. Once one woke up, all the bats in a swarm came flying towards the guard. They surrounded him and circled around him a few times, once they left and returned to their nests the only thing left of the guard was some scattered bones and his shredded clothes.

"On second thought, maybe we need to be more careful crossing this area. Let's be quiet and just walk along the wall. Maybe if we stick close to the wall, we'll be safe since bats use echolocation”.

The two silently followed the walls of the cave and made it to the other side of the large opening. Once on the other side, a tunnel led further into the caves. At the end of the tunnel more armed guards stood watch. Shion and Chizuru simultaneously dispatched them with coordinated snaps of their necks. The two stood in awe at the sight before them.

Hundreds of tanks full of green liquid, about ten with naked men in various stages of development were present near the entrance. Further in the room, a gowned and masked surgeon was implanting those mystery chips into the brains of unconscious people. Rows and rows of men and women laid out on stretchers waiting their turn for the man with the clippers to shave them bald, one to tattoo them and another to clip tongues.

The lab appeared to go on forever. The two realized that they had found what they were looking for but it was more hellish than they had initially imagined. The presence of armed guards was overwhelming with 50-75 patrolling the lab. If the two were discovered they would be in for one hell of a fight.