Stopping at the edge of the Rift's influence, Ester found a relatively flat patch of land which he could set down the hover cart, turning off the hover board before magnetically locking the board to his back,
Having just finished admiring the beautiful appearance of the Rift with continued to glow in an ethereal light, it was now to harness that ethereal light for their own purposes.
"Do you want to do the honors of extraction or the honors of condensation?" Carefully dropping the bag filled to the brim with glass casing carrying emptied crystal casings, Ester placed one of their remaining two Aether batteries into the Extractor's open socket.
Letting out a distinct hum as the Extractor began to greedily devour what little Aether remained in the crystal, blue light lined its insides with a belch of acrid smoke through the side vents
[Hand me the hoover, I'm feeling dangerous today.] Eva replied.
"As Milady suggests." Ester shrugged his shoulders, grabbing and tossing a harness attached to thick wires her way.
Catching it without a second thought, her body habitually wriggled into the Harnesses straps, tightening it to the point that it wasn't so tight that it cut off her breathing and it wasn't to loose that she could slip out of it.
While she was adjusting the Harnesses straps, Ester had grabbed the other end of the harness she was using to tie herself with, tying the strap around a protruding chunk of whatever vehicle had found itself dumped here.
What it was exactly was unknown, it was to destroyed to tell. Ester could tell it used to have wheels though.
"Are they tight enough? Do you need any help over there?"
[What are you, my dad? I'm good on the safety front.]
"If you get sucked into the rift because of cosmic forces beyond my control then don't blame me." Ester grunted as he tied the straps a bit tighter around the vehicle chunk.
[If you have time to bitch about my safety, then you have time to toss me the Hoover.] Eva threw a pebble she grabbed from the ground and watched it instantly get tossed around as if in the center of a tumultuous hurricane. [...While your over there, make sure that thing is tied down tightly.]
"Where'd all of that courage go?" Ester laughed, his hands looping the straps around the axles of the wheel one more time before he tested it.
Eva's ears flushed red underneath her hood [Just hand the Hoover over you ass]
Grinning smugly underneath his mask as Eva took the Hoover from him, Ester barely saw Eva take more than one step before his vision was replaced by something happening some place else.
Blinking in confusion yet being unable to see the brief interruption of his whole world being coated in black for a brief moment, Ester's attention was stolen by what was happening...
Right in front of him? Around him? Was that the right word when he could see whatever this was at all angles?
It was weird, strange and definitely confusing but Ester had the distinct feeling that it had something to do with those visions that he seemed to see when Project Void Buffer just began.*
It was the inside of some sort of facility similar to the Ground to Space Array he and Eva had found out about the Project in that much was certain.
But unlike the Ground to Space Array that was just a collection of emptied seats placed in front of blacked out computer screens surrounded by flashing dots and dashes, these chairs were very much filled.
People filled the seats, their faces blurred as if covered in a thick mist, hands running along both rectangular boards with square blocks that let out quiet clicks every time they pressed down on them and oval shaped things that also clicked every time they pressed down on them.
Their words came out fragmented, broken, incomprehensible.
But the words on the screens weren't.
[PROJECT: VOID BUFFER]
[PHASE 1 STATUS: COMPLETE]
[PHASE 2.01 STATUS: . . . INITIALIZING]
The number of fragmented, broken and incomprehensible words being exchanged kicked up in intensity, their hands sprinting across the boards as they clicked on their ovals.
Then the words on the screen changed.
[PHASE 2.01 STATUS: . . . . . . . ]
[COMMENCING]
[-wake? Helloooo, celestial to Ester, art the... thou? thine? Bleh, are you present?]
"Hweh-?" Ester let out a dumb sound as his vision returned from whatever place that was, his eyes now burning painfully alongside a new ache in his skull as he looked down at the ground.
[Oh your back.] Eva poked his side. [Are you okay? You kinda stopped breathing for a few seconds before trembling with pain. Is everything good? Is this the aftereffects of drugs? Did we have drugs? Did you take them without me knowing about them? Can I have some of whatever your on? Answer me.]
Poking him in the side with every successive question, Ester let out an annoyed groan tinged with the slightest amount of pain as he resisted the urge to hold his head right in front of Eva.
"No it's... I didn't take any drugs." Ester rubbed the back of his neck as the pain in his head lightened somewhat. "At least I don't think I did."
[Very doubtful but I'll...] Eva's mechanical petered out before she somehow input an unhealthy mix of fear, denial and confusion into that monotone voice of hers. [Oh Architects tell me you injected with whatever drugs your on.]
Ester rubbed the back of his neck with greater force as he looked up from the ground, trailing off. "Again Eva, I don't think I... took any drugs."
"At least I don't think I did." Ester continued as he stared towards the North.
At the time of hearing it, Ester didn't understand why Z talked about the sky being filled to the brim with flames.
Now he did.
Staring at the sky over the North, a gargantuan blue flame could be seen blooming over the horizon, range petals spreading from its blue core as it blasted away the surrounding clouds in waves.
Light filled the perpetually dark atmosphere revealing things that had previously been hidden in the dark.
Sounds and screeches of the dark seeing denizens of the Trash planet instantly filled the sky as the light of the flame darted into every crack and crevice decorating the surface of the Trash Planet.
That was until the sound of the torrential flames piercing the sky forcefully pushed it away as the Earthquake that was far slower than the Light finally caught up.
CRRAAAAACK!
The cracks instantly tore up the ground underneath Ester as the Rift in front of them undulated intensely, the light and vibrations from its surroundings affecting its shape and form.
Transforming into a myriad of brand new forms, the gathered influence surrounding it shifted forms similarly.
"Eva!"
Stumbling against the ground as Eva lifted up off of the ground against her will, Ester watched as Eva let out a surprised hiss of air before the intense gravity surrounding the Rift took hold of her body.
Swiftly being pulled inwards towards the rift as a scream in the form of hisses of air escaped her throat, she jolted violently as the rope was pulled taut, the harness tightly holding her body as she hung leg first towards the now circular rift.
[E-E-Ester!]
Letting out a glitching voice that was ironically calm despite the panic glistening within those grey orbs of hers, despite how much Ester wanted to get sucked into those eyes of hers, this was neither the time or the place to do it.
Crackles of tiny lightning bolts clung to her legs as the Electroaethermagnetic storm surrounding the Rift assaulted the modified Faraday's cage Ester had fitted around it.
The faraday cage made the limb much clunkier than the two of them were used to, but right now it was already paying off the cost of its creation in spades.
Hurriedly grabbing the rope holding Eva in place with both of his arms, Ester clenched his teeth as he pulled against it, his right arm flashing with bright blue light as he desperately tried to find footing in the rapidly breaking earth.
Arm roaring as Aether pulsed within its wires, he slowly planted one foot back, then the other, then the other.
And just like that, he began to pull Eva away from the lightning the clung angrily against her legs.
Watching as Eva herself began to grab the rope on her back before pulling on it, at the rate things were going, she would be able to escape the now Grunger shaped rift.
ROOOOOOAAAAAARRRR
Then the Sound that was slower than the Earthquake
Ester instantly stumbled backwards as force of the soundwave pushed against his body, the scream of flames shrieking into his eardrums, shaking his already shaken brain.
It was terrible.
And as if to continue the chain of bad luck, the ground underneath his feet finally gave way to the soundwaves that broke down the final supports keeping the ground from collapsing in on itself.
Stumbling forwards as his feet desperately tried to find new footing, all of the progress he had made in pulling Eva out of the Rift's influence rapidly began to decrease to zero.
'Gotcha!'
Letting out a cry of triumph as his feet found two stable points of support, although a strong shock travelled up from his legs to his head, at the least Eva wasn't going to be shocked to death by electroaethermagnetic waves.
'Oh Architects.'
She was pretty damn close to being shocked to death though.
Eyes widening as visible crackles of lightning began to snake across her legs, Eva let out another sharp hiss of air as she pulled herself on the rope.
[Puuulllll oonnnn the Slaaagggiiiin r-rope!]
Hearing her distorted voice, although Ester wanted to retort, he was trying very hard to not let his footing slip.
FWOOOOOOSHHH
Then the heat that was slower than the sound appeared.
'What the fuck.'
Cursing inwardly as a terrible heat washed over his body, it seemed that Z wasn't lying in the slightest when he talked about the heat as high temperatures washed against his face.
It seemed to be a bit of an exaggeration that his mask melted into his face though...
Ester belatedly recalled something.
Gunpowder and Laser weapons weren't used on this planet mostly because of the heat they produce which would 99% of the time react negatively with the chemicals in the air.
And with this terrible heat now filling the air like the innards of an overclocked engine...
'Fuck'
Cursing inwardly, he closed his eyes as his mind began to make calculations as swiftly as they could.
'With this level of heat it's safe to say that every single fucking thing is going to react.'
'I have the hoverboard, is that fast- No, the heat wave already passed by, the hoverboard isn't faster than a heat wave.'
'It might be faster than the reactions if I overclock it. But that only works if I do it now.'
'Can I get Eva out? No. No Hoverboard then.'
'I have a Faraday's cage, is that strong enough to withstand the Rifts Electroaethermagnetic pulses?'
'Might last for a few moments but the arm will fail in a minute at best in these conditions.'
'Constant ADP exposure would render flesh broken and Internal Aether mixed in the same minute. Plan scrapped.'
'What the fuck do I do- Wait.'
Ester's mind instantly turned towards the new idea, testing how feasible this new plan was.
Chemical signals firing rapidly within the many neurons within his thick skull, within the half second when all other functions had been suspended, Ester thought up a plan for his continued survival.
Opening his eyes in the next second as he took in a deep shuddering breath, his legs straightened powerfully as his left hand loosened its grip on the rope.
Demagnetizing the hoverboard from his side, Ester watched as the hovercart bearing the Extractor was forcefully pulled towards the Rift, plunging into its bright blue surface.
'Well that's good.'
Ester felt the blood rush into his ears as the initial sparks of chemical reactions began to appear around him, a blade sprouting from within his arm.
'At least I don't have to worry about us being torn to shreds by the rift being to small.'
A mad laugh forcibly slipped past his lips underneath his mask.
'Architects above this is stupid as Void.'
He let go of the rope as Eva stared at him with shock and betrayal in her eyes.
Seemingly saying What the fuck are you doing with her eyes, Ester answered to the best of his abilities.
His abilities included jumping towards her with a sword in his hands.