Chapitre 132: Chapter 48: At What Cost
'Master!'
As all of the upper echelon of Absolute Being retreated into the single fasted and most fortified shuttle within the area, it opened fire and ripped through the upper floor of the manufacturing complex and fled away from the planet at their fastest capacity. The protocol are for all of the soldiers to scatter and lay low for a fix period of time before making their way back into the nearest Infinity base away from the planet, or going back to the home base in the wild regions. The options vary, but it was a divergence strategy to minimize losses.
However, for the shuttle the artifact users are taking, they have the liberties of heading straight home, and from the look of things, that would be a great idea too. Zero is knocked out due to fatigue after the stunt he has pulled, and now resolved to fading in and out of consciousness while murmuring nonsensical words and inaudible conversations with someone. The soldier that took care of him in the office was, in the end, lucky enough to join the shuttle filled with monsters like Sir Deva.
He initially joined for a stable job and an adventure away from the wild regions, and being an artifact user was never part of his pathways, hence those that possess them are merely a thing of legend for him, and now there are four of them staying in the same short shuttle. One, who's the boss of the entire organization is going crazy right in front of him as he is on stand by ready to take care of him should the need arise.
Sir Deva, who's the most physically imposing of them was standing by the windows looking outwards towards the planet surface, his giant figure obscuring almost all of the window's view. He has spoken a word since getting into the shuttle.
Lady Lily, who was the one who called out to the barely conscious Zero, is sitting on the floor next to him and she doesn't look to be in any better shape. The soldier saw the work Lady Lily is doing keeping the girl on the table alive for all of that time. He doesn't quite understand every single action that took place, but it looked like a lot of work.
Then, there is the last one, who appeared frustrated and actually looked the worst of the group with visible burns throughout his entire body, and he actually looked dead. When Lady Lily entered the shuttle, he was still up and running, but after she spoke something to him, he has been sitting motionless in his seat ever since.
What the hell did I get myself into? The soldier pondered, all of this is crazy enough for him to think about alone, and that's not to talk about the arm and later the three people that appeared out of no where in mid air.
Shaking his head, he felt a jabbing sensation on his shoulder. He turned and saw Sir Deva gesturing for him to leave the room.
'Are you well?' Sir Deva asked after the tiny soldier escaped from the room and knelt down next to Lady Lily who's just looking up at the ceiling passively without much light in her eyes.
'I am if we have done it, but we will never know unless master verifies it.' Lady Lily said, her voice crackling. Sir Deva's eyebrows raised, and he went and got a glass of water with a shot of lemon juice for her.
'The enhancements can fix my throat.' Lady Lily said dryly, but still accepted the offering.
'But this will make you feel better.' Sir Deva responded, placing a hand on her shoulder, 'do you want to sit somewhere else?'
'No.' Lady Lily said, letting out a long sigh, 'if you know how many adjustmetns, operations and actions I have done in that short amount of time, then you know why I am so exhausted.'
Sir Deva didn't reply, as he chose to digest the shame of losing to Valerie on his own.
'On second thought, get me somewhere else.' Lady Lily changed her mind five seconds later, and her arms are reaching out towards the man's giant warm hands. Sir Deva smiled a little and went to pick her up.
Another hand appeared and grabbed onto Lady Lily's arm as she was held by Sir Deva, followed by a ghostly whisper, 'don't go...verifying...verifying...'
'Master?' Lady Lily said, as the man who started it all has finally spoken something other than jiberrish, 'I was joking about verifying now, you need to rest!'
'No, I want to see it succeed, for me, for you, for us all.....' Zero said, struggling to continue the phrase, 'then I will be able to rest.'
'I will watch over you.' Lady Lily rolled and flip in Sir Deva's arms to find the Pen of Rearrangement, but Sir Deva found it first and handed it to her.
'Aye.' Zero said.
'Aye?'
Memories and visions twist and spiral as lights flashing in and out of Zero's field of vision. His memories, Elmyra's memories, their common memories, their independent memories, all of those strands of fate intertwine and mix in with each other, and as he was forcibly exiting her dying body, all of those strands ruptured too, leaving a rip in both of their minds.
Despite all of Zero's past enhancements, he has never felt such a dull trauma from overload of information, the ambition of looking at the entire galaxy's present and future at the same time, and a sharp trauma from the ruthless exit of the neural dive from two levels down. His mind is all over the places, and the voices from his fellow trusted artifact users sounded as if someone's talking to him through two layers of neural dive.
Ah, and there was that kind soldier, he would have to make sure to reward him greatly for helping him, a nice gesture for sure for one human being, after what he has done to another human being, albeit one that he has interacted somewhat with? The goal was never to do harm to others for the sake of doing harm to other, but rather to achieve his final vision. There are certain assessments to be done, and certain choices to be made.
Human life has always had an assigned value since the dawn of the modern age, be it of economic, monetary, social or political value, there has always been of a specific value, and if something has value, then there are always things more valuable than it.
The fate of the galaxy is that thing. Zero had to know that this will pay off, after what everyone has done and going against the galactic government openly in its capital.
By his estimation, the acceleration gates for this system will be shut down immediately to catch as many of them as they can and trap everyone in the vicinity, which is why they have hidden a much smaller version of an acceleration gate on an asteroid near the end of the system. It was one of the experimental prototypes developed in Infinity, but it was only capable of sending one ship to the nearest system once every long while due to recharge time, and they will be taking the first ride.
But all of that is not for him to worry about. Activating his very own artifact, he searched for that future that would have been altered due to the early activation of all of the remaining artifacts. He could not tell how many are left and how many has been activated, the only thing he knew is that he has pulled them alone and made sure whatever will happen now happens earlier.
He searched for the fate, the flash of the image far out in the near future, the same image which showed the destruction through out the galaxy and a siege on a planet-sized city that ended with the group of artifact users looking onward victoriously at the ruins around them. The corners of the image was blurry, but now, they have...
They have remained the same as before, but now, the facial features of those artifact users become clearer.
What? Zero tried to force his way to see more, to see clearer, and yet the harder he tried, the less he can see.
The usage of this type of artifact is extremely infuriating for the lesser beings, due to how unintuitive and difficult the usage of it is. But Zero immediately realized the mistakes he is making and quickly adjusted both his framing and mindset, viewing the image as passively, letting the information about the future form and flow like water.
Standing next to the Rockie, were another three rockies and a human. And that human was Hong Fu. He looked to the side, and one of the Rockies was Vindy.
There weren't as many last time, Zero remembered distinctively, there were only two figures then, but now there are five artifact users? With two of them being ones that were once with Absolute Being too? How is this happening, is it because of what he has done? Did his act of trying to change the future only make things worse? Is this how time works in this universe?
And is what he is doing as Absolute Being making the upcoming war worse too? By opposing the artifact bearers and making them stronger to prepare for the upcoming war, is he only making things worse?
Taking a giant aggressive inhale as if coming up from an actual dive, Zero's eyes shot open and he sat up with shortened breath and pounding heart.
'Master!' Lady Lily got in close as his body began to settle as the artifact is deactivated, 'did we succeed?'
Zero looked towards her, his mouth opened but nothing came out.
How could he say anything? After all that has happened, Zero has only found less clarity and more doubt. He needed to think this through.
'Where is Vindy and Hong Fu?' Instead, Zero asked.
'They are...' Lady Lily said, opening up her personal interface to investigate, but her face quickly turned dark, 'unaccounted for.'
'We will find them again.' Sir Deva said, his voice calm and firm.
'Yes we will.' Zero said, trying hard not to let any emotions slide. Right now, there is no time for self doubt or pity, he needs to lead, and he needs to think, 'We did what we have to do, but there are more to do.'
'Yes, master.' The two users in the room bowed their head as a gesture of respect.
'Now, I need to think about our next steps. Rest up until we get back to the base.' Zero said as he stood up with all of his remaining strength and walked to one of the two small private rooms near the back of the shuttle as it escapes the planet's gravity field and flew towards the asteroid belt near the edge of the Olympus System.
'I want something to eat.' After Zero has left the room, Lady Lily turned her head towards Sir Deva and started acting like a baby while reaching both arms for a kiss on his chin, 'make me something to eat.'
Sir Deva simply nodded, held her tighter and brought her to the second private room.
As the upper echelon's of Absolute Being made their way out of the system, let's wind back the clock a little bit to just prior to their escape and see the progress of the bearers as they made their way out of the base with the help of Zel.
When Rydel and Zel appeared out of the base to seek help from Valerie, she was still figuring out what to do with the two captured artifact users. However, knowing that things have only gotten from bad to worse for Elmyra, Valerie decided to go with the two without a moment of hesitation. The regions that she is locking down is subsequently released as she entered into the Pocket domain and there is a small window in which all of the artifact users for Absolute Being is active. However, Zel made sure to move as quickly as possible and brought them into the operating room before Sir Deva and Sadie Allen have a chance to assist in preventing their entry.
At the same time, the reinforcements called by GBI has finally arrived and they prepared to storm the building as Zero made the call for the retreat and destruction of the base. Rydel was able to single out the pod that is housing Elmyra, Valerie locked everything down to prevent Elmyra's conditions from further deteriorating, and Zel brought both of them back into the Pocket domain before anyone can do anything.
However, despite the lack of a surface wound on Elmyra's body, she doesn't look good on the outset. Zel is focusing on bringing them back towards the shuttle away from the building while Rydel and Valerie tried to figure out what has happened to Elmyra.
'Did you see what happened?' Rydel asked.
'They were doing a neural dive into her mind, but it also coincided with the activation of her power,' Zel replied quickly as he continued to move the pocket domain and trying not to look back at the lying Elmyra, 'the activation was brighter than I have ever seen.'
'What were they doing?' Valerie asked, her voice sounds intrigued, 'what did they move? Did anything big happen?'
'Do you feel anything different?!' Zel snapped, 'it's all the same shit! They come and take one of us and do whatever the hell they want!'
There was only silence as the Pocket domain went back into the shuttle. Rydel and Valerie shared a glance before he walked towards Zel and placed a hand on his shoulder, now without the prosthetic arm.
'I know how you feel.' Rydel said, 'but we got her back now.'
'Just look at her!' Zel said, spinning around and forcing himself to look at the still Elmyra, 'you know what I am thinking.This is the same as before.'
Rydel bit down on his lips and lets out a light sigh. He does know what Zel is saying. Near the end of their escape from the arena for the fight between him and Dolon, Rydel was able to warp the body of Dolon away and bring it back on the ship with them.
She was lifeless, still, yet there were no obvious surface wounds or damage.
Just like Elmyra in front of them.
The only difference being they don't actually know what her fate is going to be.
'This isn't the same,' Rydel murmured, his mind still lingering in his past while his brain forced him to look into the future, 'this isn't the same! Valerie has already locked down her condition, and we will get someone to look at her after we get back! We can figure this out!'
Zel looked at Rydel and nodded, but both his prosthetic eye and his real eye told the same story. Then, he released the Pocket domain and let Rydel and Valerie out. However, as they headed into the shuttle to the surprise of the officers remaining on board, Zel is staying behind.
'Zel?' Valerie turned to look at the distraught man.
'You go ahead...' Zel said, 'I need some time. Alone.'
'Right.' Rydel said, 'I trust you, Zel, but don't do anything Elmyra wouldn't want you to do.'
'See you back at base.' Zel said, wiping his hand and shutting out the Pocket domain from the real world.
'Is she injured?' The officer approached the pod that Elmyra is laying in, 'I have medical training.'
'So did we.' Valerie said, shaking her head, 'but this might be different, and we will need an expert to look specifically into this, somewhere else safe.'
'Oh okay.' The officer backed off as Rydel stepped in front of the pod, 'um...our reinforcements are here, so we will leave now. Thank you for saving us, and I am sure you will appreciate that none of us will speak about this.'
Rydel nodded towards them, who all stood up from their seats.
'That would be appreciated.' Cellica's hologram popped up from the counsel, 'I will see you around, Officer.'
As they left, Cellica turned towards the two, 'everything okay?'
'Elmyra didn't look good, and Zel is really upset,' Rydel said with a shrug, 'but brilliant other than that.'
'Look bigger,' Cellica said, 'we have retrieved Cellica, exposed the base and forced them to retreat. Now, GBI will place more of an importance on looking into the Absolute Being.'
'Let's hope that would end up doing something.' Rydel said, 'is everything alright there for you? Is everyone safe?'
'Yes.'
'Alright, then let's get out of here.'
Suddenly, a loud sound of explosion came from the direction of the base that's shaking and breaking as protocol 3 is being enacted and the building is surrounded by a swarm of GBI shuttles and forces. Rydel and Valerie sprinted towards the window of the shuttle and looked on as a whole corner of the building is ripped open by a mysterious shock wave of sorts before a shuttle shot out. Then, as it approached the surrounding forces, a few more shock waves came out from the front of that shuttle and knocked a few shuttles to the side, not enough to down them, but enough to create an opening.
some of the ships turned and pursued this rogue shuttle while the rest of the surrounding forces tried to prevent the other shuttles from leaving as fires were exchanged for both sides.
Then, the building shook as the foundations were lifted up from the ground. Then, cracks that spanned the entire lengths of the building formed before it all implodes as a projected sphere of mass formed in the center of the building and began sucking everything towards it, completely demolishing the building and all of the areas nearest to it. It was obvious to Rydel and Valerie that it doesn't have the same amount of power as Sir Deva's artifact, but it still did the job and destroying as much of the evidence as they can, as the building is now set on fire after the implosion and compression before everything exploded, sending millions of building material, chemical and metallic shards flying everywhere.
An alarm is sounded throughout the orbital ring to warn about potential structural damage, as the GBI forces scrambled to reorganize.
It doesn't look like the GBI is going to get much of the evidence now.
'Well, I think that's enough for a single trip to the galactic capital, don't you think?' Valerie said, going back towards the pilot's chair.
'I don't think I would say this, but I do miss that stupid little mining planet now.' Rydel said, walking alongside Valerie before giving her a kiss on the back of the neck, to which she giggled.
'Let's get out of here.'
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone