CHAPTER 11: Instability

  —"Is everyone ready? We will put our plan into motion soon," asked a deep, hooded voice inside a building.

  —"For the moment, it is not necessary to take action yet," the voice continued.

  —"I disagree with what you're saying, sir," a sweet voice belonging to a slender, pale figure said, raising a hand.

  The figure stepped toward the deep voice and lowered his hood. His hair consisted of long, sharp spikes pointing to the right; he had pink eyes, and beneath them, two red stripes.

  —"Xerox, control your impulses," said the deep voice, which remained in the shadows.

  —"But sir, at least let me start planting... just one," Xerox complained with the attitude of a child.

  The deep voice let out a heavy sigh—the sound of someone accustomed to dealing with a difficult subordinate. —"Just one, Xerox. But do it carefully. We don't want the exorcists tracking the origin before the network is complete."

  Xerox gave a little hop of joy, clapping his thin hands. His pink eyes glowed with a maniacal intensity. —"Thank you, thank you! I promise it will be a beautiful specimen. I already have the perfect place: A train!" he shouted gleefully.

  —"Keep your voice down," the deep voice growled.

  —"Oh, sorry..." Xerox whispered.

  —"Go at once," ordered the deep voice, hiding his face deeper under the fabric of his hood. "And make sure it’s something... memorable."

  Xerox nodded energetically, his sharp spikes vibrating with every movement. He skipped out of the building, humming a lullaby while the afternoon sun cast his elongated, deformed shadow onto the pavement.

  —"Chief, the suicide rate has dropped lately," reported a short-haired young man in a police uniform.

  The woman called "Chief"—a detective with a weary gaze and an impeccable uniform—stopped observing the city map and turned toward the young officer. Her fingers drummed on the desk.

  —"I don't like that, Sato," she replied in a raspy voice. "But I think I have a strange hunch," she continued while looking at a photo of the temple.

  —"Do you want me to go investigate, sister?" A boy with dense, layered chestnut hair that fell in soft peaks over his forehead asked. He wore a brown suit and carried a briefcase. He stood beside the woman.

  —"Would you do me that favor, Yukio?" the Chief asked with great confidence.

  Yukio adjusted the handle of his briefcase and smoothed his brown suit. One of his eyes was brown, while the other was white. Despite the climb, he didn't seem winded; his breathing was rhythmic, and his gaze, fixed on the temple's architecture, searched for any irregularity.

  —"Don't worry, sister," Yukio said, closing his phone after the call. "If that temple is the epicenter of what's happening, I'll bring back the evidence. It won't take me long."

  Yukio began to climb the final steps toward the main entrance. He stopped in front of the temple's large wooden arch. The air up there felt different—denser, as if time moved at a different speed. His white eye seemed to glow subtly as he scanned the ancient beams.

  —"Interesting..." he muttered to himself, adjusting his briefcase. "The architecture isn't just aesthetic; there’s a containment pattern here."

  Upon reaching the temple doors, his eyes widened in shock. The crowd there was massive—three rows of twenty people. Ren was in the center, and the two temple assistants were at the other two stations receiving people.

  Yukio stood motionless for a moment, processing the image. He had expected shadows, whispers, and mystery, but what he saw was an impeccable logistical operation. Sixty people waiting patiently, the scent of incense mixing with the murmur of prayers and consultations.

  —"Thirty... no, sixty people?" Yukio murmured, tightening his grip on his briefcase. His white eye contracted slightly. To any policeman, this was a normal civil congregation, but to him, the energy flowing in the center of those rows, where Ren sat, felt like the eye of a hurricane.

  Ren, sitting with impeccable posture and a kind smile that seemed carved from wood, looked up to receive each person. He didn't look like a master of warriors, but like a spiritual guide dedicated to his community.

  —"Next, please!" one of the assistants exclaimed cheerfully, gesturing toward the left row.

  Yukio didn't move toward the lines. Instead, he began to circle the courtyard, observing the details. He noticed that, despite the crowd, the ground was spotless. There were no traces of trash, nor any out-of-place modern technology. His gaze stopped at a corner of the courtyard where the dirt floor seemed to have been recently disturbed... almost as if someone had been practicing high-impact physical combat there just hours ago, until he bumped into someone.

  —"Passage is not available here," Kumiho interrupted. He wore an impeccable black suit that clashed with the traditional air of the place.

  —"Oh, I'm sorry. And you are?" Yukio asked calmly, fixing his mismatched gaze on the young man in the suit.

  —"I should be the one asking that question," Kumiho replied, crossing his arms without yielding an inch.

  —"Eh? Are you from the temple?" Yukio asked innocently.

  —"That’s right," Kumiho replied without interest.

  —"Sorry, I'll go back to the line," Yukio said warmly.

  Yukio turned around and left the temple.

  —"What an interesting character," Yukio whispered, pulling out a pocket watch. —"I must head back," he commented and left the premises.

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  Kumiho watched Yukio’s back as he descended the steps with the same elegance he had shown while climbing them. He didn't lower his guard until the figure in the brown suit disappeared from his sight.

  —"That guy is no ordinary civilian," Kumiho muttered to himself, adjusting the sleeve of his black suit.

  —"This is going to be fun, haha," Xerox laughed under his breath.

  Xerox was in the subway, and as he saw the conductor step out, he touched the man's neck without him noticing.

  —"Done!" he said before leaving the place, whistling.

  The train conductor felt a slight shiver on the back of his neck, as if a blast of icy air had brushed his skin, but he shrugged it off and climbed into his cabin. He didn't see Xerox skipping away down the platform.

  The sun began its slow descent behind the city buildings, tinting the sky a bloody orange that gradually faded into violet. At the temple, the crowd dispersed as the assistants closed the heavy wooden doors.

  Mugen, Nao, Yumi, and Haru gathered in the center of the courtyard. The atmosphere was no longer about training; it was about preparation. Nao adjusted the bandages on her hands, feeling a prickling sensation at the base of her neck. With the daylight fading, the air began to vibrate in that way only she and the exorcists understood.

  —"The sun is gone," Mugen grunted, stretching his neck until his bones popped.

  —"It seems like there’s something... in the subway?" Yumi doubted, looking toward the location of the Gate.

  —"Yes, the signal is clear. It’s a large-scale Gate," Kumiho confirmed, appearing beside them with his usual silent stride, his black suit blending into the shadows that were beginning to swallow the courtyard.

  —"Hmm, that’s strange..." Ren murmured to himself.

  —"All of you, go find out," Ren declared with confidence.

  —"Yes, Master!" they replied in unison, though Haru couldn't help a slight tremble in his hands as he noticed the lack of joking in Ren’s voice.

  Mugen adjusted his jacket and stepped forward, leading the way toward the temple exit. —"Don't fall behind, noodles. If it’s a large-scale Gate, it won’t wait for us."

  —"I already want to break some spiritual bones!" Nao exclaimed, showing her smile.

  The group rushed down the stairs while the streetlights began to flicker, turning on with that electric hum that announced the reign of the night.

  The train conductor had fallen asleep at the station; a pink glow shone on his neck.

  —"This is it," Yumi confirmed.

  The Gate in front of them was intact, but the strange thing was that it appeared right there.

  —"It looks like a customer fell asleep here and had an amulet," Kumiho commented.

  Kumiho placed his hand on the door, but it didn't open. Yumi delivered his two strikes to the door, and it still didn't open.

  —"What?" Yumi wondered. —"That means..." Everyone’s eyes began to widen.

  The Gate was neither C-rank nor B-rank.

  —"I didn't think it was possible," Kumiho said, sounding slightly impressed for the first time.

  —"Eh? What’s happening?" Haru and Nao asked, seeing the veterans' shocked reactions.

  —"In all the years we’ve been exorcising, we’ve never seen a Gate like this," Yumi whispered, thinking seriously.

  —"There’s no turning back; we’ve trained for this," Mugen said, stepping forward. —"Besides, if we already crushed the B-ranks, how hard can this one be?" he continued with a smirk.

  Then Mugen punched the door; the three hands made contact with it, causing the inside of the frame to transform into the portal.

  —"We have to go," Mugen said as he entered, his face serious.

  Then, they all went in.

  When Haru opened his eyes, the first thing he felt was a sticky moisture on his hands.

  —"Where... where are we?" Haru whispered, struggling to stand up.

  They were in a circular room of colossal proportions. The walls were covered in a white silk tapestry so dense it looked like marble, but as they got closer, they realized the silk was moving. It was millions of threads vibrating in unison.

  From the shadows of the ceiling, articulated silhouettes began to descend.

  —"Heads up!" Mugen roared, materializing his axe in a burst of red force.

  They were spiders, but the size of wolves. Their bodies were a glossy black. Their eight legs, long and sharp as obsidian stilettos, tapped against the stone floor with a metallic sound that made their skin crawl. The most disturbing thing was that, instead of insect eyes, each one had a row of human teeth on the front of its cephalothorax that screeched against one another.

  —"How disgusting!" Nao shouted, her expression of surprise quickly transforming into a grimace of pure contempt. —"They have teeth where they shouldn't! Mugen, move, I want to crush the first one!"

  Aquí tienes la traducción completa y detallada. He aplicado las cursivas para los pensamientos internos de los personajes, diferenciándolos claramente de los diálogos y la narración:

  Nao didn’t wait for the creatures to finish their descent. Her golden eyes let out a savage glint; her spiritual force was green and purple, but that wasn't the impressive part. Two bracelets had formed on her wrists; the moment Nao clenched her fists, two large blades—wide and curved, made of ink—emerged from the bracelets. The blades looked like shark fangs.

  —"Take this!" Nao roared.

  She lunged off the ground, leaving a crack beneath her feet, and threw herself toward the nearest spider. With a cross-motion of her arms, the shark-fang blades sliced through the monster's abdomen as easily as a hot knife through butter. The spider couldn't even hiss; it dissolved into a puddle of black liquid and frayed silk before hitting the floor.

  Mugen, who already had his steel fists ready, spoke up.

  —"Seems like you adapted pretty quickly to your weapons for having created them only a few days ago," Mugen said with a hint of pride.

  —"Don't talk like you're my grandfather, grumpy!" Nao replied without slowing her advance, spinning on her axis to decapitate another creature trying to leap at her. Her golden eyes shone with an almost feral intensity, enjoying the fluidity with which the ink fangs cut through the air.

  Mugen let out a snort, but the small smile of pride vanished when he saw that the number of spiders wasn't decreasing; on the contrary, for every one Nao sliced, two more descended from the silk dome.

  —"Shut your mouth and concentrate!" Mugen roared, throwing a punch into the air that released a shockwave of red force, crushing a group of spiders against the silk tapestry.

  Haru just watched in shock at how well Nao was getting along with Mugen, while he had suffered the entire time. —How did they bond so fast? I can barely keep up... —Haru thought. But there was no time for doubt; a spider approached Haru, who summoned his sword and ran it through without trouble.

  —"Yumi, do you know where the nightmare is yet?" Kumiho asked calmly, while attacking the spiders with his sanchaku.

  —"Yes, I found it," Yumi replied while crushing spiders with his fists. —"It's right behind that silk wall at the back," Yumi indicated with a firm, dry voice, pointing quickly toward where the vibration of the threads was most violent. —"That’s the source."

  —"Then clear the way!" Mugen roared. His red force erupted with such power that the heat began to scorch the legs of the spiders that dared to get close.

  Nao, with her ink fangs dripping that dark, viscous liquid, let out a laugh that sounded more like a predator than a girl her age. —"Watch me closely, because I don't plan on leaving even the legs of that bug!"

  Haru, though still shocked by the strange camaraderie Nao had managed to forge with the temperamental Mugen in such a short time, gripped his sword tightly. He pierced through yet another spider trying to flank them, noticing something off. —These shadows are too weak... their bodies' resistance doesn't match an A-rank.

  When Mugen reached the nightmare, it was a spider nest.

  —"[TARGET ANALYSIS: C-GRADE NIGHTMARE – SPIDER MOTHER]"

  —"This thing isn't an A-rank..." Mugen said seriously before shattering the nest.

  Once Mugen absorbed its strength, the spiders disappeared, but the world didn't seem to crack. The team gathered.

  —"What is happening here?" Yumi asked, confused by the situation.

  However, in seconds and as if it were made of paper, the scenery changed. The floor was no longer that of a room; as the walls and ceiling fell away, they revealed an orange and black void. There were trains flying around something—a giant mechanical monster made of gears, train lights, rails, and more.

  Our protagonists were standing on a large train moving around the beast.

  —"[TARGET ANALYSIS: A-GRADE NIGHTMARE – SIDERAL-GOLIATH]"