Homunculus Emergence

The night sky over Tokyo’s Shinjuku district rippled like a broken mirror, shattering into waves of unnatural light. A pulse, heavy and guttural, thundered from the heavens before ripping open a gash of darkness above the city. From within that bleeding void came the creatures; pale, humanoid figures, stripped of individuality and carved into grotesque uniformity. Their skin gleamed white and hairless, stretched tight over sinewy frames, and every movement left behind a faint dripping trail of Rift essence that hissed as it touched the ground. Their faces bore no humanity, only an angular mask-like visage with gaping jaws lined in crimson metal, opening and closing with wet clicks. At the center of their foreheads pulsed an unblinking circular eye, glowing faintly as though marking them with the Rift’s curse. They fell in droves, not like beasts leaping but like puppets dropped from invisible strings, landing with unnatural grace. The horde didn’t hesitate; it moved as if bound to one consciousness, surging into alleys and subways with perfect synchronicity. Their hands, long-fingered and veiny, tore at walls, ripping through steel and glass as though they were brittle shells. A subway car was their first stage, metal screeched and sparks rained as creatures swarmed into the packed cabin. Civilians screamed, but the Voidborne silenced them with snapping jaws, their teeth tearing into flesh with animalistic urgency. Each victim’s body convulsed as Rift essence seeped into their veins, corrupting, reshaping, until the husk rose again as another soldier for the swarm.

The ground trembled with every pulse of the Rift, echoing through sewer tunnels and electric grids, disorienting the powerless. The swarm spread like wildfire, their pale bodies darting across overpasses, their glowing foreheads tracing eerie patterns in the red-tinged night. One broke into a small convenience store, its body twisting unnaturally to fit through the shattered doorway. The clerk inside froze, unable to scream as the creature lunged, clawed fingers piercing flesh with surgical precision. Blood sprayed across the shelves, splattering rows of instant noodles and canned drinks, staining them with crimson. A moment later, silence returned and only the low gnawing of teeth echoed from the dark interior. What made them terrifying was not just their hunger, but their unity. Where one faltered, five others compensated; where one leaped, dozens followed, creating a wall of bodies too thick to penetrate. They communicated not through words but through pulses, vibrations of energy that spread like a heartbeat through the horde. Eyes turned in unison whenever prey was found, every mask-like face aligning like the heads of ritual effigies. An alleyway became a hunting ground, narrow walls splashed in arterial sprays as the creatures feasted. The corpses of men and women lay shredded, discarded, and then, moments later, began to twitch and convulse. In seconds, the victims were reborn into new husks, rising with the same glowing eyes and slavering mouths as their killers. The swarm didn’t pause to celebrate; it simply grew denser, more relentless, every life consumed feeding the cycle. Civilians, police, and even paramedics who had rushed to the scene fell victim, but their cries were drowned beneath the sound of tearing flesh.

Official broadcasts tried to contain the terror, branding it a localized disaster. "A power plant detonation has resulted in mutagenic exposure.” The newscasters droned, their calm tones almost mocking the chaos erupting outside. The city’s elite forces, ignorant of the Rift’s true influence, were dispatched under false pretenses. Hazmat suits and rifles stood little chance against the coordinated brutality of the Voidborne. Soldiers broke ranks as they watched comrades dragged screaming into shadows, their armor torn away like paper. Soon, silence spread through the communication lines, one outpost after another went dark. But those who truly knew, the operatives assigned to the Nexus division were not fooled. They had seen this pattern before, had walked into other cities where Rift pulses left only silence and ash in their wake. For the operatives, the mission was clear: eliminate the swarm before the entire district fell. Every second wasted meant another street drowned in pale bodies and crimson pools.

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Mission Operatives: Reina Sato, Ryuusei Shoya, Cairo Saja
Mission Objective: Eliminate The Homunculi
Time Limit: 4 Hours (IC)

Homunculus Statistics
Speed - Tier 3 | Strength - Tier 2 | Endurance - Tier 1
Stamina - Tier 4 | Willpower - Tier 2 | Presence - Tier 2
Mind - Tier 1
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[CairoSaja]

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The battlefield was already chaos, ribbons of violet light weaving through plasma fire, the streets coated in ash and smoking husks. Cairo’s pistol still hummed from the power of his last few energy shots as the barrel was still faintly glowing, when Reina’s ribbon cleaved a husk open in tandem with his bullet. Their combined strike was a perfect synch, and the husks collapsed in a shower of sizzling blood, and Cairo couldn’t stop the grin from tugging at his lips.
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Cairo: Damn, Rei… you make my aim look godlike every time we line up like that. I swear we were born for this combo shit!​

His admiration was cut short by the sudden, bizarre blaring of a horn, at the same time though; Three husks had broken through the chaos, crawling low on all fours, their sigil-eyes glowing like predatory lanterns as they rushed for Reina’s legs. Cairo’s instincts surged. His twin pistols whipped up with lightning speed, and in three quick shots tore through the husks’ skulls. Dropping them at Reina's feet. Then the sound of metal clashed with the guttural shrieks of Homunculi drew his gaze to the side. A car barreled into the fray, fire erupting from its chassis as it screeched to a halt before reversing.
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Cairo: …Who the hell? Are you serious right now?​

It was too surreal to process, a random dude crashing into their mission like this, blasting horns in the middle of a nightmare. Nonetheless, Cairo pointed his palm towards the homunculi horde and a surge of black voidfire exploded outward in a sweeping wave, devouring oxygen as it burned. The flames crawled along the street like a living organism, spreading far beyond his initial strike, slithering through the broken pavement and racing back toward the portal. Homunculi screamed as the fire clung to them, burning deeper than flesh, erasing essence itself. Their bodies shriveled and collapsed into ash as the blightflame devoured everything it touched. The tide broke, and for the first time, the swarm faltered, shrieks filling the city as entire ranks of husks were reduced to bone-dust. The wave of fire reached the Rift itself, and the black flames slithered inside like invasive roots. From within, a chorus of strangled screams echoed as the creatures still forcing their way through were caught in the spreading inferno. They never even made it out of the rift itself as they were consumed before they could breach it.
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Cairo: The fire sticking to them is spreading back more as homunculi come into contact with each other, which will draw us closer to the rift they're coming from. Hopefully it kills the others and keeps them there long enough for the portal to close. If not, we're fucked since there's 2 other rifts we need to take care of as well.​

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Current Location: Shinjuku
Post Order: Cairo - Reina - Ryuusei? - Maero - Story​

 

[IvyMishima]

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The city had become an inferno of colors, violet ribbons slashing through the smoke, and the red plasma bursts hammering through flesh. Reina’s chest heaved as strands of her silver hair sticking to her sweat-slicked cheek while she steadied her stance. Her lips parted, about to fire back at what Cairo said but the sound of a horn made her lose her train of thought. She had frozen mid-step before finally the sight registered, a mangled car screeching into the chaos, flames licking from its sides, its engine coughing like it was about to give up and Reina just stared for a few seconds.
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Reina: …What the actual fuck am I looking at right now?​

The surreal pause shattered almost instantly as she noticed out of the corner of her eye that 3 homunculi was rushing her position which caught her off guard, but then three sharp boom sounds went off. The creatures crumpled in a spray of molten gore as their skulls obliterated mid-lunge, their corpses collapsing just inches from her boots. Smoke curled from the back of their heads as they sprawled lifeless. Reina turned her head sharply toward Cairo, to speak.
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Reina: “...Thanks. Seriously—if you hadn’t—”​

Her words cut short. Another cluster of husks crawled out of the voidfire’s edge, writhing in defiance despite the blaze clinging to their limbs. They screeched and snapped at her feet, just as their essence began dripping like acid. Reina’s jaw tightened, violet light crawling up her arm as she summoned every ounce of her strength into one motion. She drove her fist down with full force. Space fractured around her knuckles, the air bending inwards before detonating as her blow connected. The husks beneath her imploded in an explosion of folded dimension and brute force, their torsos caving in with a sound like glass being crushed. Blood and ash sprayed upward, coating her arm up to the elbow. But there was resistance. Her eyes snapped wider when she felt it, a body with an entirely different density.

She pulled her hand back, crimson dripping, and her stomach dropped. For a heartbeat, everything went silent to her as she hoped it was just a bigger homunculus. No screeches, no horns, no fire. Her throat tightened, but before despair could swallow her, the world surged back into chaos—Cairo’s voidfire roared to life. She looked up, dumbstruck, as the black flames raced across the ruined cityscape like a living tide, crawling through cracks in the ground, consuming the homunculi in droves. The air shrieked with their death cries as essence was burned away faster than flesh could regenerate. The blaze didn’t just kill them, it invaded the Rift itself. From deep inside, muffled screams of husks echoed like an army dying in unison. They never even made it into the world. Reina shielded her face with her bloodied arm as the wave passed.
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Reina (half-whisper, trembling): Cairo… that fire—it’s devouring them all… All we have to do now is somehow get up there and close it.​

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Current Location: Shinjuku
Post Order: Cairo - Reina - Ryuusei? - Maero - Story​

 

[YatoruSenpai]

As the Homunculus which lunged at him in a frontal assault grew closer, with his guard still up, Ryuusei's fist being accelerated as the graviton circuits emitted a brighter glow also made his fist much heavier as in the instant it was in arms length, his fist would swiftly tear through the head of the husk creature. Its skull and contents within being shredded by the sheer mass slamming against it at an accelerated velocity causing its body to flop onto the asphalt of the streets. But this would not spare Ryuusei from the sneak attack as a sharp carving pain tore through his back, ripping his vest and shirt as blood splattered and gushed from the wound, with a quick pivot of his heel he drove his fist across the Homunculus's temple, its neck giving way and tearing off as Ryuusei's knuckles sent the head soaring to the raging inferno created by Cairo. An though there was an inferno blocking the homunculi from exiting the Rift, it was also preventing them from closing the rift. As a result, feeling the massive blood loss rapidly accruing, Ryuusei spoke with a calm tone, trying his best to conceal the pain that was befalling him,​

"Cairo. I need an opening... I'm going to do something, Once I enter the rift close it off with a wall of flames. I'm planning on destroying the rifts core directly inside the rift..."​

He stated, the graviton circuits on his legs and arms glowing brighter as he kept his back from their eyes, His loafers grinding against the asphalt, fully igniting his gravity circuits, surrounding himself in a sphere of distorted space that amplifies every strike. In this state, every blow carries multiplied weight and acceleration, shaking the battlefield like tectonic quakes. Ryuusei was preparing to unleash all his power in a two technique combo, the first being his Event Dash and the second being his Ultimate “Event Horizon Burst” As his legs slowly bent at a 65 degree angle, he just waited for Cairo to give him the opening to lung forth. the space around him slowly distorting due to his personal gravity being amplified and shifted between acceleration and Weight, making him a metaphorical projectile Black hole preparing to smash its way through the inside of the rift.

Current Location: Shinjuku
Post Order: Cairo - Reina - Ryuusei? - Maero - Story​

 

[Mr.ThrowSomeHands]

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Listen & Read​

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There is a point when adrenaline fuels the body so much that it makes one almost forget the havoc they wreak. Even though he had just entered the frey, it came to him quickly, as the sound of screams were overtaken by the roaring of the engine. The bones breaking and clawing at the steel frame of the vehicle replaced by the beating of his heart. The blaring music in the stereo replaced by the melody of mayhem he knew so well singing in his veins. To others, it might have overridden them to the point of anxiety, but to Maero?

This was the peace he secretly longed for.

As morbid as it may have been as the bodies of the Homunculi sprayed blood like geysers across his windshield, Maero turned on his wipers, flicking it away. Gazing beyond the now cracking glass, he saw one of the others in the midst of the combat aim their palm forward, releasing a torrent of black flame. It cut a swath across the Homuncli, the fire clinging to them like tar, burning them where they stood. Even more curious, however, is the way it began to trail upwards and into the rift that vomited the Homuncli onto the streets.

He may have given it more thought if it were not for the fact that his focus on the man was knocked away from him. Not by the hoard of the Homuncli striking the car, but rather, the way their numbers shook the street. Maero had known they were vast in number, but to be able to shake the streets so intensely in Japan of all places, showed just how many there were. That is when the ghost of a smile came across his lips.

Working in the factories throughout Tokyo, he learned a lot about the different districts, primarily because he had to work in them. Labor intensive days and nights spent learning about the endless labyrinth beneath the city through the diagrams and personal ventures. Maintenance tunnels, electrical lines, water, sewer, even storm drain systems. The only one he cared about at this point, however, had been a different type of infrastructure altogether. Maero may not have been able to read, but in this moment, those days he spent looking at those maps meant everything.

Maero looked into the rearview mirror and saw the hoard of Homuncli coming toward him from behind. It was like watching a wave of ivory flesh barreling toward him, bodies stacking over each other without care, even as the carcasses of those who died jutted forward as if passing through a grater. Most important of all, however, is how he saw the cracks in the asphalt begin to form. With that, Maero took in a deep breath, before hitting the gas as hard as he was able to at this moment.

The engine came to life like a lion, its roar echoing across the city street, as if challenging the Homuncli. Those in front of him that tried to climb on were struck, their bodies flying into the air, only to land underneath the hoard coming toward him. No longer were they gaining on him, if anything, it looked as if he was trying to get away. Nothing could be further from the truth, as seen when he slammed on the brakes as he neared the end of the street, turning the wheel as hard as he could. The rubber of his tires squealed as the car whipped around so that he was now facing the oncoming hoard.

Just as he had done before, Maero hit the gas, this time going toward the Homuncli. They came for him too, their ravenous maws open wide, almost foaming at the chance to devour his flesh. His heart felt like it was beating out of his chest, his ears rang, he wasn’t even sure if the sweat on his palms was from the flames consuming the car or the rush he felt. Nevertheless, it didn’t matter, he only had seconds to act and if he wasted a single one then he was dead. He knew this, that is why he let one hand off of the steering wheel, then motioned the sign of the cross.
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“En el nombre del padre, del hijo y del espíritu santo… Amén.”​

Maero watched as the Homuncli before him began to climb over each other like a rogue wave, believing their feast had come upon them. Their bodies, en masse, blotted out the false night and sun that soared high above. The height rivaled the nearby buildings, and in some portions, exceeded them. To the others, it looked as if Maero was doomed to die, taken by the ivory tide. The Homuncli came down like controlled demolition as they crashed down on the vehicle. Their combined weights suffocate most of the flames and flatten it down like a pancake.

The car was not the only thing that had crumbled beneath their weight, however, as the asphalt beneath them gave way as well. In a split second, the hoard seemed to disappear, falling into a pit. Their singlemindedness caused those who were at the bottom to try to climb up, similar to Lucifer in Paradise Lost, trying to escape what would become their damnation. They had already proven they cared little for one another, so in trying to climb higher, they only pulled others in with them. Little did they know, it had been too late, as a flame born from beneath the earth engulfed them like hellfire.

Methane Pipelines were the other form of infrastructure that ran throughout Shinjuku, as well as much of Japan, utilized by businesses and homes alike. Maero had worked on them a few times and knew all too well how dangerous they were. A single leak that caught fire was capable of burning for some time, requiring the city to shut off the valves in order to stop it, which they weren’t going to be doing any time soon. That wasn’t the scary part though, no, that was just how hot they burned.

The human body, for all intensive purposes, burned at nearly a thousand degrees celsius. Maero had to build a makeshift crematorium enough times to know that, but methane, that burned twice as hot. The Homuncli weren’t just being cremated, they were being vaporized, their flesh trickling down their now-blackened bones like water down a melted icicle. Those that were trying to gain any type of foothold on the bodies of the other would find nothing to grab on to, falling into the flames themselves, doomed to die.

Maero did not face this same judgement. As the wave had come down upon him, he had fallen back into his own shadow, entering a realm he rarely ventured into. It was a void, a darkness, endless and empty. He stood alone, as the wave crashed down into the car, it had sealed any chance of retaking his lost ride. All that lay before him now were rays of light shining down from above, places where shadows were cast all across Shinjuku, and he gazed into a few.

From one he saw from an impossible angle up in the clouds, looking down upon the rift and the chaos in Shinjuku, making even the burning pit look like nothing more than a blip on the map. Then from another, he saw into a room from the view of a lamp, a daughter and mother cowering in fear. Unfortunately, there were a few where it had been too late to save, the Homuncli finding them before they could. His journey ended when he had come upon the shadow of the building, looking upon the trio that had entered the fight first, their battle against the remnants of the hoard continuing.

It is here that Maero stepped forth from Mictlán, looking as if he stepped out from the wall itself, his hand open and arm outstretched. Not to shake their hands, or to grab at them, but at a Homuncli that had sprung forth. One hand immediately wrapped around its throat, yet before its claws were able to sink into his flesh, he squeezed tight. In that same motion, the Homuncli's neck broke, and Maero let its body strike the floor before he raised his foot into the air and brought it onto its head to ensure its death. Pulverizing its ivory skull into nothing more than a splatter of gore upon the sidewalk. His eyes then travelled between each of the three as if trying to discern who was the most capable.
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“No time for introductions, I can get any of you up to that gaping hole in the sky, just let me know who can fucking close it.”​

 

[Nexus Admininstration]

The Rift shrieked as the voidfire crawled through it, and the Homunculi screamed with it. The first ranks burned instantly, their bodies folding inward as black flame ate through flesh, marrow, and essence alike. Their ivory skulls split open under the weight of dimensional fractures, their screeches bubbling into nothing as they collapsed into heaps of ash and bone-dust. Still, the swarm pushed. Always forward.

Those in the back trampled the charred remains of their kin without hesitation, claws tearing through the broken street as if carving a path through their own dead. The flames clung to them, black tongues licking across their limbs, peeling flesh like paper. Their movements became jagged, twisted spasms as the fire spread through contact—one body igniting another until whole knots of them went down together in writhing piles. Their shrieks rattled the air, but not one of them turned back.

Some that breached past the blaze came crawling low, skittering like feral dogs. Their sigil-eyes burned red through the smoke, even as molten gore dripped from half-melted jaws. They lunged at anything that moved—at Reina, at Cairo’s silhouette, at the shadow that tore from the wall. Even as their limbs split at the joints and their ribs were cracked apart under crushing blows, they dragged themselves forward, fingers like meat-hooks scratching sparks into the asphalt.

From within the Rift, more bodies forced their way out, only to catch in the fire immediately. Their torsos buckled, screams muffled as the inferno burned essence before flesh could even harden. Dozens vanished before their claws ever touched the Earth. Yet the Rift kept vomiting them, a tide that cared nothing for the cost.

They were breaking. The swarm faltered, ranks thinning, the tide slowed—but it was not silence. It was not surrender. Even as the methane flames rose and their carcasses vaporized, even as voidfire slithered through their veins, their voices bled through the chaos.
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