"You are not going in there alone," Chenxi pressed a hand against his forehead, looking as though talking to Wenzhi was the single most exhausting trial of his life.

Wenzhi just shot him a dry look. Outside the cockpit glass, the jet tore through the upper atmosphere, actively hunting for Xinyuan’s current coordinates.

Honestly, it wasn’t a difficult search. The entire sectors below them had completely lost roughly ten percent of its gravity, turning the weather patterns completely unhinged.

"Wenzhi, listen to me," Chenxi pressed, noticing the Guide’s mounting frustration. "Aside from the rift monsters and the literal apocalypse happening down there, the entire zone is surrounded by international military forces and elite Espers from all over the world. Xinyuan is a global threat now. They’ve established a tight containment border around the entire area."

The stress of the situation was starting to grind on Wenzhi’s nerves. He just wanted to get this over with, but he knew Chenxi was right.

The foreign forces probably wouldn’t shoot Wenzhi on sight, after all, he was the only Guide alive capable of stabilizing the Disaster class esper but those global factions weren’t any better than the CEA or the Old Blood. And to make matters worse, Wenzhi still hadn’t fully recovered from his time in the cell.

"Whatever you say, but we are running out of time," Wenzhi muttered, finally conceding to the plan.

Chenxi let out a heavy breath. "We’ll get there. We’re already crossing into his coordinate grid."

The jet zoomed deeper into the Red Zone, but the lack of movement on the radar was deeply unsettling. They passed right over massive, gaping rifts, yet there was no sign of mutated Dovos or any of the usual aggressive rift beasts.

The silence from the monsters was far more bothersome than if they had been actively swarming. Xinyuan had cleared them out entirely, leaving a wasteland in his wake.

Soon, the airspace grew crowded. Their aircraft began zooming past foreign fighter jets and massive military airships, ignoring the armored trucks moving on the terrain far below. The global military mobilization was massive with Espers, Guides, and specialized forces lingering everywhere.

As they crossed the coast, the world beneath them cracked entirely. They were approaching the unstable gravity field.

Massive chunks of bedrock hovered aimlessly in mid-air, followed by towering walls of seawater that stretched upward like frozen glass. Beyond them, vast, howling tornadoes of dark mist tore through the sky, ripping the landscape apart.

"We have jets on our tail." Gu Luhan’s voice announced over the comms from the pilot’s seat.

Before anyone could respond, Doctor Ruixin stepped into the main cabin, tightly clutching her phone. "I just briefly had Zhiyao on the line, but the connection cut out completely."

BOOM.

The jet rumbled to the side, the hull groaning as Luhan carried out a brutal maneuver to dodge an incoming strike.

"We are taking active fire!" he barked through the comms.

Wenzhi immediately marched forward toward the main cockpit entrance. "Can you land this thing?" he asked, looking past Luhan toward the windshield.

The thick, crimson haze of the Red Zone flooded their view, but Luhan was wearing a pair of specialized visor glasses that allowed him to navigate through the dense mist and the floating islands of earth.

"No way in hell!" Luhan grumbled, his hands straining against the flight controls. "There is no way I am dropping this jet down there. We’ll die before the wheels even touch the ground."

Chenxi arrived at the cockpit threshold right behind Wenzhi, his eyes locked onto the chaotic view as the alarms began to scream.

"Perhaps I should try?" he asked softly.

Gu Luhan snapped his head around, throwing him a furious glare through his visor. "Do you think I’m lying to you? Or do you just think I’m incapable of landing this piece of junk? If that’s the case, you shouldn’t have asked me to fly the damn jet in the first place!" he actually screamed, his voice cracking with tension.

He whipped his gaze back to the windshield, slamming the throttles forward. The jet rushed with a burst of speed as he tracked a fresh wave of incoming fire from the jets actively targeting them.

Chenxi’s eyes widened. He stood there, entirely stunned, clearly not having expected Luhan to snap at him. He slowly turned his head to look at Wenzhi, as if silently seeking confirmation that he had, in fact, just been screamed at by Gu Luhan.

"I didn’t say you weren’t capable," he murmured, his tone uncharacteristically defensive. "I am just..."

Before he could finish, the jet executed a punishing roll to dodge another missile lock. The sudden shift sent Wenzhi lunging into the co-pilot’s chair next to Luhan, swiftly buckling the harness around his chest.

Chenxi wasn’t as lucky. He was thrown to the side with a sharp, breathless gasp, his boots sliding across the metal floor before he managed to grip the edge of the cockpit doorway for support.

"What are you doing?!"

Wenzhi ignored the bickering, his brow furrowing as he stared through the glass at the large dark hurricane they were rapidly approaching.

At this speed, they were going to be torn to pieces by gravity before they even reached the center.

Come on, Xinyuan, where are you... Wenzhi thought, his heart hammering against his ribs.

Suddenly, his vision shook.

The jet vanished, replaced instantly by a horrifying view of mangled debris and raw, blood-drenched hands. The scent of ozone and copper flooded his senses.

He was seeing through Xinyuan’s eyes again.

His heart skipped a beat. "Xinyuan?" Wenzhi called out through the mental link.

"Wenzhi..." Xinyuan’s deep, husky voice echoed back.

The connection suddenly snapped. Wenzhi was jerked back, gasping for air inside the cockpit. Both Chenxi and Luhan were staring at him as if he had completely lost his mind.

"What just happened?" Chenxi demanded, his knuckles white against the doorway.

Wenzhi parted his lips, his chest heaving. "I..."

Without warning, an eruption of pitch-black mist burst directly out of his skin, wrapping completely around his body. Before Chenxi or Luhan could even reach out, the mist snapped backward, teleporting Wenzhi out of the jet.

The cockpit fell dead silent, the two men left completely stunned to their core.

Chenxi recovered first. He threw himself into the empty co-pilot seat, pulling the harness over his shoulders and buckling it in as he breathed hard. "What the hell just happened?"

Luhan’s face looked completely washed out, a pale mask against the flashing warning lights. He ruthlessly yanked the controls, maneuvering the aircraft away from the crushing gravity of the incoming hurricane to retreat. The military jets trailing them immediately adjusted their trajectories, following them out of the red zone.

"Shao Xinyuan happened," Luhan managed to grit out, his voice tight. "He.... took him."

That much was painfully obvious, but what caught Chenxi’s attention was the bitter rage and raw jealousy bleeding through Luhan’s voice.

The Guide sounded strained, desperately trying to mask his emotions under irritation, but the facade was paper-thin.

Chenxi let out a slow, heavy breath, leaning back into his seat. "We should head back to the safehouse now. They’ll be fine."

Luhan let out a harsh, mocking grunt. "I know."

"He doesn’t see you, Luhan," Chenxi said quietly, his voice dropping into a softer tone. "He only sees—"

"I do not want to talk about this," Luhan cut him off furiously, his hands trembling slightly against the controls as he focused entirely on putting distance between the jet and the rift storms. "We successfully delivered the Disaster-Class Esper’s Guide to him, which means none of us are going to die out here today. That is more than enough for me."

Luhan’s eyes flashed behind his visor. "I would appreciate it if we could return to Sector 18 without you constantly reminding me that he doesn’t see me. It’s not like you see me either, Wang Chenxi. You spend every waking hour pining after your dead Guide, and you don’t see me judging you for it."

Chenxi’s eyes widened, a sudden, sharp pain flickering across his features at the mention of his guide. For a second, he looked like he was going to fire back, but he ultimately slammed his lips shut.

He turned his head away, staring silently out at the red mist of the horizon as Luhan ruthlessly accelerated the jet back toward safety.