It wasn’t Twi. That much was obvious right away.

The world they had entered – traveling via sofa – looked just like Twi did with subdued, gray-ish colors and a lack of shadows or light sources. But it felt wrong. The sensation on the skin, the taste of the air – even the nature of the eerie silence was different.

All of them had been to Twi multiple times on various occasions during training and in the field. It only took a look at their faces and Baekho knew they felt it just as much as he did.

“So we’re really here,” Aron said, standing up. “Ghoul-town. Ugly ambience. Zero-out-of-ten. Recommend redecoration.”

Baekho took to the air. Flying still worked. So far so good. Summoning Twi orbs was also possible – easier than usual even. Whatever this strange realm was, it had to be a lot closer to whatever plane the twilight power came from.

The others tried the same way of leaving the sofa and managed to fly all on their own which they had to get used to for a minute. Then Ren furrowed his brow.

“This is odd,” the empathy said. “I can still perceive Jason and the doctor. Their emotions aren’t cut off like they would be if I was in Twi. The General is leaving by the way. If I interpret his feeling correctly he’s eager to get the staff back into the compound.”

“Aron, explode a thing,” Junior said.

“Wha- Okay?” The American caused the half empty coffee can on the table to tear itself apart – glass shattered, metal melted, coffee evaporated.

“Ren,” Junior said. “Anything from the others?”

“Nope. No reaction. I don’t think changes here propagate to reality.”

The leader cracked his knuckles. “Alright. No caution necessary. Aron make us an exit.”

“Yes, sir.”

One hand motion and everything above the chamber – including its ceiling – were whisked aside with thundering noise.

The five boys rose into the stale, motionless air above the color desaturated world. In a loose formation – Junior at front – they moved towards Jade-Lion-City.

***

The historic city sprawled crescent shaped along the shore of the Jade-Lion basin, traditional tiled coverings with upturned ends and roof charms stretched out until the hills gave way to flatter terrain where homogenous, prefabricated buildings were common until high-rise constructions took over.

Over a million people. The reach of the body snatchers was already increasing exponentially.

Nuest was headed towards a populous, modern district bordering on the historical city. The tallest buildings surrounding a subdivided market square bustling with activity. Two helicopters were parked too closely between stalls, ignoring all safety protocols.

“There’s a whole lot of panic,” Ren said, “but I can sense people dropping out of my grasp all over the place. The ghouls must be infecting a dozen every second.”

They landed in the middle of the square, empty stalls and gray-ish trees loosely surrounded them.

“Where are they?” Aron asked.

“This is supposed to be their realm,” Junior said, eyes narrow. “I expected them to be here, in a more tangible form. Something we can fight. But I’m afraid they may be even less easily touched in their home world. Minhyun?”

Everybody turned towards the dream-walker. Around them – in reality – civilians were being converted, their bodies possibly already used for widespread destruction. All the boys could see was an abandoned city scape.

“I’m trying to sense specifics,” Minhyun said slowly, “but it’s like I’m being deflected. The ghouls are right here. The source is here. I can vaguely sense the pull through the link network. Maybe they divert my powers. Maybe there are multiple, spread out sources. Maybe they’re naturally camouflaged.”

“Great,” Baekho groaned. His adrenaline was dropping and replaced by cold horror. They were standing right in front of the ghouls but now the body snatchers weren’t just unbeatable, they were invisible, too. “Can anything go right today?”

The white tiger kicked a crushed lemonade can from the stone path onto a patch of grass.

Minhyun whipped his head around as if tracing an unseen projectile. “What did you do?”

“Wha- what?” Baekho looked back and forth between his shoes and the can. “Why? What did I do? Nothing?”

“It moved,” Minhyun said.

“What moved?” Junior asked.

“Everything. The source. The whole network vibrated a tiny bit exactly where the can flew.” Minhyun dashed around, shoving merchandise on display, rattling wooden posts and shuffling trash on the ground.

“It’s not real,” he said. “This part of the city is completely different. The location is where my link has drawn me to. Not anything here, but the here itself.”

“Why would this be a special place,” Junior said to no one in particular. “Unless…it isn’t. Yes, that’s it. Whatever place the ghouls are clustered around in the real world – the corresponding place in this realm acts as the source. That explains why they spread so inefficiently. Why didn’t some ghouls leave the head quarter immediately? Why did they all jump onto the truck together? Why did both helicopters land in the same area? Why not split up at all? Because they can’t! They have to stick together. They’re a hive mind in this aspect.”

“What do we do then?” Baekho asked.

Junior turned to the American. “Aron? Wreck this place.”

“With pleasure.”

Spreading his arms, Aron looked around with a grin on his face. The traditional stalls exploded in clouds of splinters and sawdust. Trees went up in flame and burned to a crisp within seconds. The ground opened as if an earthquake was casually walking through.

“Get down!” Junior yelled.

The world reacted. Violently.

The eruption of bursting concrete barely missed Baekho’s head. Several pieces impacted on his skin, sure to leave him black and blue.

All of them took to the air. Rising above the dust, Baekho saw the radius of the area that acted as source. A perfect circle, extending all the way to the high rise buildings, broke house by house and drew nearer, as if to cut them off.

Bursting stone, wood and concrete echoed through the realm’s quiet. Buildings were pulled and pushed by invisible forces, moving along streets and gardens as if drifting on water, crashing into fence posts, rhododendrons and letterboxes.

As the first houses came close enough to be dragged onto the market square they lifted off.

More and more houses came flying, encircling the boys from every direction. The torn buildings were held steadily in the air at every possible angle. Aron vaporized the one’s that came too close but it was clear that the house weren’t out to crush the boys – they formed into a three dimensional maze.

Nuest was in the middle of a rough sphere of concrete. Stray pieces hovered in place. Everything outside became increasingly obscured by layers of airborne shelters.

From the ground below, ghouls rose up into the center of the maze. The white, vibrating strings combined to a single entity the size of a zeppelin.

“Get down!” Junior yelled again. “I mean, get…uh, sideways.”

The huge entity wasn’t fully formed yet and already fragmented into tentacles that reached for the nearest piece of concrete and threw it at the boys.

All of them dodged the first few, then Aron began intercepting the assault with his own – forcing entire houses and plasma orbs in the projectiles’ way.

Baekho conjured Twi orbs and bombarded the enormous creature. None of them impacted properly, instead passing through the entity, only dispersing the foggy substance momentarily. Every hole closed as fast as it was punched.

Aron was frozen in place, focused on keeping everybody save. “Anyone…know…a way…to help?” he sent.

“Yes, brilliant!” Junior shouted, grinning brightly at Ren.

The empath smiled back. “So I assume what I just decided to try is going to work?”

“What’s going to work?” Baekho asked.

“The ghouls had to leave the human bodies to come into the realm and fight us,” Ren sent, his eyes closed in concentration. “But with all the frightened victims back in reality I now have… an army!”

 Though the dust of busted concrete was building up fast, Baekho could see the Conmotes as soon as the first few disfigured humanoids made their way through the spherical maze. They, too, were able to resist gravity as they wished within the realm and clawed their way right into the big ghoul-blob’s ‘flesh’. Despite being as successful as Baekho’s ammunition, the Conmotes were so numerous – there had to be hundreds already – their continued assault dissipated the blob’s outer layer.

Aron and Ren were both fighting with all they had. Junior had assumed the role of the strategist, predicting the path of the debris. Minhyun, of course, kept them all linked which was how they had to communicate to remain a functional unit during battle.

Baekho was idly hovering around, trying not to get hit. Which wasn’t hard seeing as the blob was unconcerned with him.

He had not one thing to contribute. What could he do? How ironic that the place which allowed him to make Twi orbs quicker and easier than before was the place where he had no use for them.

Deep in gloomy though, he realized too late that the battle had moved within the sphere and he had left Aron’s immediate field of view.

When a loose wall came flying at him, he didn’t even have time to call out for help. Tons of bricks slammed into his head at an obtuse angle.

Baekho lost consciousness and the link with Minhyun snapped from his -out mind.

He dropped back into reality and went free falling above the city.