Chapter 176: Encounter and Blessing
Chapter 176 – Encounter and Blessing
Kairos was surprised to see me appear with Myne .
[What happened? Why are you in tatters like that?]
[A ferocious tiger just hit me . ]
[I see . Sure is a ferocious tiger . ]
Myne was in a bad mood . I waited for her to wake up while keeping watch on her .
But apparently she sensed my gaze and woke up . Then, feeling embarra.s.sed that someone saw her sleeping face, she jumped and bit me .
[Trying to attack me while I sleep, what a crafty guy]
[Fate! You… . ]
[No, I didn’t . That’s a false accusation! I was just trying to wake her up]
[Well…that’s what they always say]
[Not Mikuria-san too…]
You two, even though all of you knew that I went to wake Myne up . How could you?
Myne really hates being woken up like that then . I could sense a small bit of Wrath skill leaking from her .
[Okay, let’s stop with the joking . We need to go . Is the preparation done?]
[ [ Yes ] ]
Kairos nodded back to us . Then he took the black sword that was left leaning on the wall behind him .
[Are we going at last? Took you long enough . ]
[My bad . Things just not the same as usual . And it’s all thanks to Fate . I haven’t been able to find anything as funny for a long time . I guess I’d been too focused on how much time I had left . ]
[You are…such a horrible man . You haven’t really changed at all . ]
Kairos looked happy .
[Alright then, let’s go . Mikuria, until later . ]
[Yes . Be careful . ]
Mikuria saw us off while waving her hand .
We left the room and walked along a clean white pa.s.sage . We saw n.o.body along the way .
[There are actually not that many researchers in this facility . And most of them tend to stay in their own room doing research like Mikuria does . Two researchers rarely pa.s.s each other in this pa.s.sageway . ]
According to Kairos, the facility was automated to maintain a good living condition for the researchers, as well as keeping them safe .
The reason why my dirty clothes suddenly became clean, was because that’s one of the facility’s functions .
But it was easy for us to sneak in only because Mikuria-san had disabled the facility’s surveillance system .
[Let me tell you, this looks so easy only because we have an insider . ]
[If we don’t…what would happen?]
Even the strong looking Kairos actually paused upon hearing that question .
I could see fear in his face .
He then pointed to the back and told me .
[Look at that . Although it’s currently inactive now . ]
[The bronze statue?]
[It’s not just a statue! It’s a machine . A mechanized doll that will attack immediately once it detects a suspicious person . The most troublesome part is that more of them will continue to come . Not to mention that those things have no soul, so Gluttony skill cannot devour them . ]
[Cause it’s not fulfilling, so it’s a bore?]
[That’s right! That’s why, it’s better to not awaken them if possible . ]
We proceeded through the path that Mikuria-san had designated .
Next we entered the engine room . Greed unlocked the system lock for us . Despite how he looks, he’s really a sword that can do something like that .
I remember him doing a similar thing back when I sneaked into the research facility at the capital’s military district .
[Okay then, how should we proceed from here?]
Kairos asked me since I’m in charge of navigation .
According to the portable floor plan, the engine room manages the electric power and air conditioning of each floor .
In other words, it’s like this again, huh…?
I felt like I had a weird case of deja vu .
[It seems that we’ll have to go to the underground level via this ventilation shaft . Apparently, even though Mikuria-san couldn’t secure a regular path to that place . ]
[Well, of course . She didn’t even know what’s in there after all . ]
I pried open the cover of the designated ventilation shaft, as per the instruction .
[Ugh… the inside is a bit dusty . And just after I had shower . ]
[Indeed . Myne, I don’t think piggybacking will work here . ]
[… . . I’m going back . ]
That said, Myne walked back toward Mikuria’s lab .
Kairos promptly blocked her path .
[Oy you, wait! How about your promise?]
[Myne… . will go]
[Just kidding . I know . Promise must be fulfilled . ]
The heavy sound of the huge fans echoed through the shaft .
The huge fans was meant to circulate air from the outside into the facility, and apparently to the underground floor as well .
[Fate seems to be very familiar with this . ]
[Ahahah… I did something similar in the past . ]
[As expected from our guide . I made a good choice . ]
He pushed me onward after a tap on the shoulder .
Myne followed after me, with Kairos being the last to enter the shaft .
[Don’t you think, it’s getting somewhat cold?]
[Cold…]
[Indeed it is . Don’t let your hands cling too long . Greed, what’s the current temperature?]
[You really like to work your sword roughly . The temperature is -10 degrees . It also gets colder as you get down . You might become a clattering mess if you keep going down . ]
[I thought so . Let’s make it quick then . ]
Thus we sped up a bit, albeit while making sure to not make any noise .
When we finally reached a dead end, our breath had become visible due to the cold air .
I wish I had winter clothes on . I’ve been running to keep my body warm . If I stop, the cold would likely invade immediately .
[What do they keep in such a place? Although it’s not excessively cold, it’s not the temperature where most living creatures could stay in for too long . ]
[It’s too cold . ]
[The place marked in the floor plan is just around the corner . ]
Our destination was just beyond this vent right in front of us .
I gently cut the vent with my greatsword .
[That’s not bad at all . Although there is still some roughness there . But I can feel that you’ve been forged through actual battles . ]
[This is the first time someone actually praised my swordsmanship . ]
[I guess Fate’s teacher was a very strict person, huh?]
[I guess so…]
I have many that can be considered as my teacher, but Aaron certainly at the top of the list .
And indeed, everyone was strict .
Especially when Myne and Eris trained me . Those two were exceptionally strict .
They even mockingly called me [Raggedy Rag Fate] when I got too exhausted to continue the training .
[What?]
Recalling those days of h.e.l.lish training, I unconsciously turned my sight to one of the demonic instructors .
Although I suppose the current her has no idea what I’m thinking .
She tilted her head in question, then urged me to proceed onward .
[Quickly . I’ll push you if you don’t . ]
[Okay, I know . Heave ho . ]
After making sure that no one was around, I jumped out of the ventilation shaft .
And the first few things that entered my sight… . what scattered around to be exact, made my body feel colder .
Body parts were scattered everywhere .
Mutilated arms and legs that had been frozen solid .
And it seemed that those severed limbs…belonged to humans…
At that point Myne spoke as if to confirm my suspicion .
[The leftover food . ]
[You two, look ahead . ]
What…what in the world…is that?
A machine angel? No,
It’s like several machine angels were melted together and kneaded into one large blob of slime .
Even in this extreme cold, the blob seemingly survived without freezing .
Boko, bokoboko…boko……
Now that I looked at it more intently, I noticed a large number of faces and limbs sticking out .
There were humans in the blob as well . Did they end up becoming the core for those machine angels?
No, they aren’t . I don’t think they function as a core like Luna did . This one was more distorted than that .
Even now, the humans’ cries could be heard leaking out .
I noticed Myne stepping back .
[Myne?]
I called her name, but she didn’t reply back to me . Instead, one of the individuals mixed together into that blob of horror responded .
When I turned around to see the source, I saw a pair of eyes that was shedding tears .
[My…ne, you are…finally here . ]