1

Distorted dreams and visions awaited Miyuko Sadohara in the darkness.

She could barely remember the forms that passed her by, but the sounds that came from the film struck deep into her heart.

Even more so the lonely and dreary feeling that she had with each of the intangible images.

Despite being intangible and barely visible, she knew what they represented.

For as much as she experienced a depressing nostalgia about graduating at the top of the class and getting all those accolades, she had nothing but regret when the images of her first love flew by.

They were never meant to be, and after seeing him very intimate with another girl, it was when Miyuko had said farewell to dating.

She remembered the highlights of her time at school but also hear the sound of a girl, battered by her father's own hands, crying herself to sleep.

As much as the celebrations with friends were great, it was also the time she learned her way around the bars and drank her sorrows away, the law be damned.

While she joined Elysium as a very excitable prospect, she hid from everyone the fact that it would not be possible had she not run away from home.

How could she not feel all those strong emotions when seeing her highest of highs and lowest of lows? It pained her heart that she could not experience those highs again, and it hurt her even more to see her trials and what could have been.

"Is this what dying feels like? Your life plays back, and you start thinking of what could have been."

In the end, the images gave way to a bright light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Stretching out her hand, she reached out and surged right past the tunnel.

Miyuko's eyes weighed down on her, but she slowly forced them open.

"The sky is red..."

The first thing she saw was a crimson carpet placed her. Air that made her skin crawl also wrapped around her.

Sitting up, she finally got a clearer view of the environment that reeked of loneliness.

Nothing but mountains and broken down structures surrounded her. There were likewise no signs of vegetation or animal life in this world.

It finally dawned to her how it would feel like to be the sole survivor of a nuclear holocaust.

"Ah, is this Hell? Just the fitting place for a rotten woman like me," she sighed. "If only I knew, I should have canceled the experiment altogether."

Before regret can fully take hold of her, her eyes scouted an object in the distance.

Quickly recognizing the body of her lawyer friend, Miyuko ran as fast as her legs can take her, arriving by her fallen friend.

"Guren, wake up! Answer me!"

Her hands tapped on his arms, and when her fingers tried finding a pulse, she pleaded for any signs of life. In spite of breathing heavily into the sulfuric air that threatened to rob her of life, she held on with a prayer.

"Miyuko..."

The first sign of life came in the form of his eyes twitching.

"Yes, it's me, Guren. Wake up!"

Then, his eyes opened. Red and veiny, the dried up tears on his eyelids reminded Miyuko of her own wild emotions prior to them landing in this place.

To her surprise, the silver-haired man sprang up, not giving her the chance to help him up.

"Where are we?" asked Guren as he started looking around. He coughed repeatedly, each strike growing more intense than the previous.

With nothing but sadness in her eyes, Miyuko shook her head.

"Guren, I'm so sorry. It's all my fault! If only I knew..."

To her surprise, the silver-haired man placed a finger over of her lips.

"It's not your fault, Miyuko. I understand what your intentions were, and I'm sure that Kiyone will have no regrets in partaking in the experiment. Besides, she's here. She's alive. We are. I know this ain't the afterlife, and we still have hope."

"Wha-"

"I know you'll find it hard to believe, but in my vision, she called out to me. In fact, she told me that beyond those mountains, there sat a tower surrounded by ruins. That's where she's stuck, and she's calling out for us."

"Doesn't that sound suspicious as hell? And Kiyone's voice?"

When she locked eyes with Guren, it was enough to cause her to pull back. Guren may not be blaming her, but she will never forget the desperation that he showed just before they got waltzed into this world.

The fire in his eyes remained.

She would like nothing more than to disappoint her longtime friend, and in the best case scenario, Kiyone might really be here. Together, they'll find their way out of this nightmare.

All three of them.

2

From as far as she can see from the mountaintop, she spotted towers that stretched all the way to the heavens. Standing out like rusty nails in the midst of a ruined field, it looked like the sole remnant of a civilization once ravaged by complete war.

Though differing in height, the towers all had a signature look: their tops were made of broken triangles, as if they were abandoned in the middle of construction.

Upon a closer look, Miyuko also noticed another thing.

The structures, or what remained of them, were arranged in a neat pattern.

She did not notice it at first, but upon closer inspection, she started making it out.

They were arranged side by side in circles. No, a helix. Soon, the lined up ruins of houses and walls inch closer to closer to the center of the helix, the great tower.

Looking up, she also saw two smaller towers that floated beside the great one. As if connected to the main one with a magical link, the two levitated around the biggest one in an orbit, while rainbow-colored fields and energy bars flowed from them to the main tower.

She cannot help but feel amazed at the thing that seemed like a childhood fantasy of many coming to life.

"Babel. That's what she called it," said Guren.

"An immortalized symbol of human hubris," she instinctively muttered in response to Guren. "I had a feeling that the name's not a mere coincidence."

"That's where Kiyone is. We must hurry!"

Before Guren can set off and run towards the tower in the distance, Miyuko pulled him back.

"If we're going straight into a possible trap, might as well be ready for whatever awaits us. I doubt the interiors of Babel will be any less challenging than the terrain that we spent minutes traveling past."

"But, Miyuko...!"

Cocking her head back, Miyuko pulled out something from her lab coat. Twirling it around her second finger, she aimed it at the distance.

It was the pistol that she had kept with her for emergency use.

"Will that do us any good?"

"It's got twelve bullets I can shoot. That's still something."

However, upon holding onto the pistol carefully, she felt a surge of electricity flow from her hand into the gun.

The gun lit up and emitted a wheezing sound when she pulled the trigger. Guren stared in awe as bluish purple energy particles gathered at the gun's barrel before letting loose a concentrated laser beam.

Instead of the bullets being shot, energy burst out.

"Wow..." said the two at the same time.

Both of them stared at the gun in wonder before Miyuko chuckled in amusement.

"Just what's going on? This thing is like an energy blaster here!"

Miyuko cannot help but smile at the results.

Now, who are you calling crazy now? Will that do us any good, Guren? Hell yeah it will!

She cannot wait to tell the higher-ups back at the lab about this and gloat in their faces. However, they need to first save Kiyone and find their way out. Gloating would have to wait.

"I'll protect you, Guren. Stand back and follow closely."

Despite his initial reluctance, Guren nodded in agreement.

3

Guren Izaya's intuitions were never wrong. He knew that he could trust this longtime friend of hers in their bid to save Kiyone.

Despite being a scientist and someone unquestionably disinterested in physical activities since their schooling years, Miyuko Sadohara had more than enough agility and mental awareness in these situations. Much more than he did, at least.

His heart had calmed down after his first encounter with those shadowy beings, horrors that came from the depths of the world. When they reached the ruins that surrounded the tower, those monstrosities appeared out of nowhere; their presence heralded by ominous growls, a drop in temperature, and a sensation that seemed to crawl onto the body.

They had come in all shapes. Some resembling humanoids with long fingers, while others resembling fauna that he had learned about from his advanced studies.

He couldn't get used to this world, yet his friend had expertly dispatched those horrors with multiple shots from her trusty blaster.

With many of them falling to the energy shots, the monsters had become a lot less intimidating. Even the heart-pounding sandstorms and uneven terrain of the ruins were no match for Miyuko's supreme awareness.

Yes, as long as she's with me, we can get through this.

He confidently thought so. Gone was his pre-existing knowledge of his friend and her longstanding anxiety towards the mysterious and spooky.

The Miyuko Sadohara inside this world seemed like a completely different person from the one he knew from his schooling years.

Was it the gun? Or was it the rush to save Kiyone?

Despite the shortness of breath and the occasional loss of balance, the two had been able to fight it out and stick together in their travel.

His feet sored after the long trek through the wilderness, and the soles of his shoes began showing signs of splinter from the unforgiving terrain of the mountains. Not helping things was the terrible air that urged him to throw up every now and then.

However, reprieve was in sight, and the two of them had just crossed the large gates of the tower.

Babel. A name that carried symbolism and irony.

"Stay alert, Guren."

Miyuko firmly held the blaster on her hand as the two of them walked into the great hall of pure white.

White, as far as his eyes can see.

The pure monotone hurt his eyes a bit, from the marble-like floor to the Victorian-era statues that decorated the hall. At the end of it all was a flight of stairs that soon branched off into two opposite directions.

Eerie silence was all he heard. With only the sound of their careful footsteps registering, Guren felt like they were being watched despite the absence of the audible cues.

Such a feeling of danger made admiring the arguably-amazing architecture difficult. Otherwise, he would have split away from Miyuko to take a better look at the incredible replications of things he can only read about.

"These are amazing..." he cannot help but whisper while looking at the statue of an armored being, a knight with his sword raised to the heavens.

"Guren, you're here. Just a little bit more. We'll meet each other again."

He felt his hair on the back of his neck stand when he heard the inviting voice. It was the same one that once called out to him numerous times.

When he fell into the darkness in the IRIS' chamber, it was this voice that helped him maintain his hold on sanity. It saved him from falling into depravity, and even as he slept for so long, that was the voice that gave him the will to live.

He had lost all hope back at the lab, but with the proof that Kiyone was still alive, he steeled on.

"Can you confirm if Kiyone is here?" asked his partner, apparently disinterested with the statues that captivated him so.

"Yep, she's here," he replied, looking at the stairs.

Only his voice wavered ever so slightly. He himself was aware of it, yet he prayed that Miyuko didn't notice something with him. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, his friend's words had rattled him a while ago.

What if it was a ruse all along? A figment of his imagination if not a trap.

What if he had been chasing a phantom while taking another person with him?

Does it even matter?

Whether it was the truth or not, he cared little, all for the hope of being able to reunite with the love of his life. If a possibility existed, he would take a hold of it for as long as his body can move.

With his unwavering will, he scaled the stairs with his partner.

4

Guren Izaya's eyes marveled at what he saw.

He gazed at the floating islands. Circling around the endless beyond while being held together with what seemed like magnetism.

Thunderclouds that generated the magnetic pull filled the horizon, or what should have been it.

Unable to put his feelings to words, he just resigned himself to staring at the structures atop each rock island. They were broken down and looked like remnants of a time way past.

He recognized them.

Parodas. Temples. Ancient shrines.

Like the statues of armored beings and the abstract paintings that he saw in the castle, the structures reminded him of a world he only knew from research and literature.

A world he never got to see with his own eyes, until now.

Numerous chunks of floating rocks likewise moved around in their own orbits, slowly sliding through the sky. It did not take too long for him to realize that where the portal dropped them was also a large floating island.

He glanced at the veiled portal which he and Miyuko had come from.

This was simply unbelievable.

It was a marvelous phenomenon that should not be possible as far as natural laws are concerned.

One moment, the two of them were traversing the castle, dodging and fighting the monsters that spawned from the pearly white floors and phased through the walls. The next moment, they had entered a strange portal at the end of the labyrinth.

One step into it, and it seemed as if they had been transported into a completely different dimension.

A dry breeze swept through and relaxed his spirits, and he felt more than happy to say goodbye to the ominous atmosphere that the eerie silence of the castle had given him. Despite being in no man's land, he had never been more at ease ever since the two of them woke up in this strange world.

"You still good? We could take a break here if you want," suggested Miyuko, who confidently trotted ahead. With the trusty gun in hand, she was able to make short work of the monsters that appeared.

If there was any doubt regarding her competence, those doubts had long been erased.

"All good."

After giving a good look at the other floating islands, the gray-haired woman paused.

"Just how big is this place, really?" she asked.

"It certainly is a lot bigger than what it seemed from the outside."

"Are we on the right track? Do you still hear Kiyone's voice?"

Guren shook his head, causing the gray-haired woman to click her tongue.

"The last time I heard her voice was when we're in the entrance."

The moment he saw Miyuko's eyelids drop, he immediately interjected, "But I'm sure that if we keep moving forward, she will be there. Waiting for us."

"Yes, I believe so," she replied, surprising the silver-haired lawyer. Having been caught off guard, he looked on, his eyes following her movements towards the remnants of a shrine ahead.

Finding a pillar to use as a resting place, she leaned against it before sliding down with a soft thud. She put her hand over her forehead and exhaled.

"Whew, I'm exhausted. Let's take a break, Guren. We cannot save Kiyone on tired legs, right?"

Sensing none of the chills and hearing none of the deep growls, Guren walked towards her and touched the ground. Rubbing his hand across it, he carefully sat down and faced his longtime friend.

"If you're the one who's tired, you should have said it instead of trying to bait me with a question."

"Hey, I'm the one doing all the fighting. Be thankful a young, sexy woman like me is doing this. Where else could you find such a badass wingman who would literally traverse alternate worlds for you lovebirds?"

Her playful tone was enough of a cue, and he immediately called the joke and chuckled. "Never change, Miyuko."

Meanwhile, the female researcher playfully gripped her blaster with her fingers, twirling it in place. She gave him a wink before putting down her weapon.

"I'm sorry I didn't bring any food with me," she started. "You must be tired and hungry by now."

Placing his hand over his abdomen, he smirked. "That's probably something I should be saying. You're the one who's never been without sweets of some sort."

"It helps calm me down. Don't you find it strange, though? Ever since we came here, I never got hungry."

"Yeah, I'd expect you to do so after fighting those things. You're not good with horror movies, too. But it was amazing seeing you in action. Thanks for everything, Miyuko. Thanks for protecting me, and thanks for honoring my request of finding Kiyone."

"You know I can't reject a request from you two. Remember, I still have a big surprise for you two. When we wake up from this nightmare, perhaps."

"That's your main concern? We're not even sure we're still alive. Who knows? We can be spirits wandering the spirit realms now."

Miyuko chortled, perhaps in response to his absurd theory.

"And if we do find our way back, who knows what state the lab would be? I still have to apologize for wrecking your doors. Plus, the cops would surely be upon us once they put out the possible fires and such."

"You really gonna act concerned about the cops? Come on, it's your time to shine, Prodigy!"

"H-hey, it's not that easy, you know? I have to pull some miracle out of the hat here."

Both of them laughed in unison.

"Anyway," Guren was the first to speak up. "Thanks again. I know it's not easy for you... but thanks for trusting me."

It was the woman's turn to look up at the sky. "Divine intervention, perhaps. I wasn't able to hear her, but now that I think about it, perhaps you are right about Kiyone. Kiyone could really have been watching over us and guiding us on our path."

It was Guren's turn to ponder.

"You've never believed in things like divine intervention, Miyuko."

She nodded. "Natural laws simply do not apply in this world. Having been here for hours, coming to terms with the capabilities of the IRIS, and managing to survive for this long, I don't know what to believe in anymore. More and more absurd things kept happening one after the other, and I feel that there really is a lot that we have yet to know. As a scientist, it only triggers my thirst for knowledge, but on the other hand, finding my beliefs challenged is not a pleasant feeling."

Guren caught a glimpse of a floating island that passed them by. Miyuko also caught a glimpse of it, her eyes widening as they saw a near-pristine shrine on it.

"You planned to take Kiyone outside Shiroki City for your proposal, right? She always liked reading about history, and she caught you doing your research on mountain getaways every other day. Also, she knew you're preparing to file your leave for several days."

Guren chuckled. "Maybe I should change plans if she got me all figured out."

"That's futile. You can't hide anything from a woman. Especially a future wife," said her with a sly smile. "Besides, it's perfect for the both of you. You've also never been to a traditional shrine yourself, right? It's just too bad that those beautiful structures have lost their place in Shiroki City for decades. Would have made things a lot more convenient."

"Now that we're on the topic. Mind coming with us, Miyuko? I read about Tenka Peak, and it looks like an awesome getaway."

The woman's eyes widened, and she was left blinking at Guren.

"Me?" she asked, pointing a finger at herself. "Why should this Christmas cake be intruding on your special day?"

Guren stifled a laugh from her self-depreciating sense of humor, but he easily recomposed himself.

"Why would your civil status matter? We want our best friend to be there. Mark it down. Once we decide to get married, you better wait for that call."

Thinking of that dreamy moment, Guren finally showed a genuine smile to his friend. It was the first one he gave ever since they found themselves in this world.

"But to do that, we must find Kiyone and rescue her."

"And I'll make sure that we get the job done," replied Miyuko.

Guren got up and set his sights on a stationary island in the distance. From his narrowed eyes, he managed to make out a small speck of light.

"Miyuko, you ready?" he said, pointing to the island.

Readying her blaster, Miyuko stood up.

"Ready as always."