Chapter 1867: The Golden Spire Race
"Well, well, look who"s here," said Miranda, noticing Carl and Drake appearing. "Looks like the Bullet Demon is no longer that intimidating anymore, hm?"
Once the two reached the restaurant, which had a very vintage wooden interior decorated nicely like a home, Miranda was the first to greet them with a slightly cynical att.i.tude. "Miranda! Don"t be like that with the man, he has gone through a lot, you know?" Benladann sighed, facepalming. "Sorry about that... She"s kind of dumb sometimes."
"Hey!" Miranda complained. "I was just trying to lighten the mood a little bit... Whatever."
"It"s alright, I don"t mind," Carl said. "My name is Carl by the way. I wanted to thank you for everything, I never thought I would regain my body... It"s a lot to think about, and process."
"Do you feel better now, mister Carl?" Benladra wondered. "I did my best to heal you back. I was surprised to find your body in such a deteriorated state."
"So you must be Benladra, yes, thank you... Your healing abilities are miraculous, if not even beyond that," said Carl. "I"m truly grateful."
"No problem!" Benladra nodded, feeling accomplished.
"Um, I"ve already modified your armor, uncle," said Kate. "The armor is ready, should I give it back? I"ve a.n.a.lyzed its components to recreate its power though, I hope you don"t mind."
"I didn"t even think it was possible to modify my robotic body, so thank you," Carl said. "I don"t mind, don"t worry."
"So come, let"s sit down and eat, there"s a lot we have to talk right now," said Drake.
At the end, they ate a huge feast of alien dishes, which were both extravagant looking and rather delicious... well, not all of them, but some were fine, and others, incredibly delicious for some reason.
They talked about the race more in detail, about the partic.i.p.ants that had arrived, about the area they were covering and more, and when it would begin.
"So the race will begin in about thirty minutes from now," he nodded. "I had come here just to eliminate the Crimson Star. But now that I"m finally free from that burden, I was considering repaying your help by trying to a.s.sist you in this race. I never cared about the prize either, so it"s all yours. But I"m sure you could get something from my knowledge about these areas."
"So you want to join our racing team? Sure!" nodded Miranda. "Anyways how do we even do this race? Like in cars or...?"
"Cars? Of course not, it"s a race using s.p.a.ceship," said Carl. "Hm? Judging by your looks, it seems you had little idea about this... Oh well, do you even have a s.p.a.ceship?"
"We could make one, right?" wondered Benladra. "Sis?"
"I can make something yeah," nodded Kate. "Don"t worry about it."
"Huh, so she can even do such things..." Carl muttered. "Drake, your daughters had been truly blessed with amazing abilities, you"re a lucky man."
"Ah, well, I know." Drake felt quite proud. "Anyways, having you with us would be great! If you can give us any tips and tricks to the race then that"s for the better."
"Sure, I"ll do whatever I can," nodded Carl. "First of all, I would like to tell you about where the race is taking place. It"ll be three distinct zones within these areas. Each one of them connected through Warp Gates you"ll have to take to teleport across them."
"Sounds more dangerous than I imagined," said Benladann. "And what if we can"t take the Warp Gates?"
"Then you simply can"t continue the race," said Carl. "Some racers will likely try to stall others by leaving traps near them, so you should be careful... The first area is the one you"re seeing, a big arid desert full of sandstorm, sandworms, and other terrifying monsters."
Carl pointed at the distance, as everyone glanced at their surroundings, right outside the little village there was an untamed wild desert.
"Once you reach the Warp Gate at the Kariko Mountain, you"ll quickly be teleported to a much more dangerous area," Carl said. "It"s called the Meteoric Plains. It"s a wide, expansive area with volcanic eruptions everywhere, areas that have been completely consumed by the void, and meteors. This is where most people will croak."
"That sounds fun!" said Benladra excited. "I can"t wait!"
"Hm, sounds great," Kate nodded.
"Uh..." Carl didn"t know what to say when these two children were so happy to see something terrifying. "Anyways, the Warp Gate here... according to my research, is in an area known as the Rotation Bridge, where there"s a huge bridge of floating asteroids surrounding a volcano."
"That sounds interesting," Drake nodded.
"And lastly, the final zone where the Golden Spire is located," said Carl. "The reason why the race is called like that to begin with. It"s an even more dangerous zone called the Cosmic Zone, this is just an empty area near this planet full of Starlight Dust, Asteroids, Meteors, and Alien Beasts that live in outer s.p.a.ce. Golden Spire is at the end of everything. It is said that it has the sun behind it, so you"ll be able to see it from afar."
"Understood," nodded Drake. "Sounds like we"re in for quite the journey... Is there a time limit to this race?"
"Probably no longer than a day," said Carl. "I would say, twelve hours, at most, to be honest. But I believe the winner will be decided in less than five hours, s.p.a.ceship can move very
quickly after all."
"Hm, alright then," nodded Drake. "Gabriel, can you also help Kate create the s.p.a.ceship? Perhaps merging with her technology."
"Very well, master," Gabriel appeared and then went to Kate"s side, which then disappeared
again.
The Bullet Demon didn"t even know how that worked at all, but once they were done eating, Kate brought out his armor, which he instantly equipped anyways.
It was the same look as before, but now it fit his entire body, it was amazing.
"Ah, that"s more like it," said Miranda with a nod. "You look intimidating as h.e.l.l!"
"..." The Bullet Demon remained in silence, glancing at his armor. "It"s good, thank you."
"The race is about to begin, so let"s get going," Drake said. "Let"s get first place."