Chapter Twenty-Four
EVE
3rd Station of Pyrene-F. Grenoble, Isère. France.
While the objectives were being met in the complex, a completely different battle was taking place on a third floor, in a large space on the east side of the base.
At first it had all been limited to an exchange of blows worthy of martial combatants.
The girl in the armor had fought against both of them, demonstrating that she could move at incredible speed. But the same was true of the droids, who were more focused on Ignis than on Enfer. The exchange of blows between the smoke, the flashing lights, and the darkness that from time to time was present, had been changing to a red and yellowish color on one side, and to a cold and sharp black and white flashes on the other.
It was a battle of fire and metal.
Enfer had removed his trademark cap, and now his head was ablaze with flames. Not only his hair, but his face and hands had also taken on a fiery hue, while the rest of his clothes remained untouched. This was not to demonstrate his abilities. Something, deep inside him, told him that the girl in white in front of him was something completely different from anything he had ever faced before.
The presence of the girl was ominous, and made her even more terrifying than the droids.
Meanwhile, there was another dance of flame and metal in the same space. It was Ignis against a whole group of those droids. Her eyes glowed through the smoke and from her hands, wreathed in fire, came spheres more akin to incandescent red plasma that she fired at her farthest enemies while intermittently throwing blows at those who came dangerously close to her.
Both did not expect such a fight, their original plan was to go and get their weapons, but there was no time for that. No one would have ever told them that something like that would happen. The base was like home for both of them. A safe place to return to with no imminent danger.
But that had changed and they were both facing the unimaginable.
For Ignis, there came a point in her fight where she was no longer sure if she was fighting six or more of those droids. There could even be more than ten but, due to the chaos of the situation, it was hard to tell. Many of them got up, after receiving her fire spheres, while some fell down and never got up again, but the numbers did not seem to diminish at all. It was a swarm of metal limbs, seeking to reduce her in any way they could, and she had to employ all the knowledge she had acquired in fighting over so many decades working as a special agent of Pyrene.
Enfer, meanwhile, raised one of his hands and, pointing it towards the armored girl, sent a tongue of embracing fire towards her. The tongue changed shape as if it had transformed into a kind of whip and wrapped itself around her, sealing her movements. The girl did not even say anything in response. As if those flames that could even melt cement didn't matter much to her. She simply made a downward movement, as if she was gaining momentum for a jump that she never made and, immediately after, the flames that enveloped her vanished into thin air, leaving a few sparks behind.
The armored girl charged at Enfer at full speed, before new strong flames were summoned in Enfer's hands. Other flames which enveloped him as if it were a protective shield. But that too was in vain. Enfer was truly surprised to see how the girl crossed his fire shield, as if it were nothing more than a curtain of water.
The temperature of his attacks could range from 500 degrees Celsius, to 3500 degrees Celsius if he got serious. That was impossible for metal armor. Although he couldn't be sure how resistant it was, since it was actually organic metal. He had heard that a certain agent, recently added to Nevermore's SID ranks, had something similar.
But that didn't matter at the moment. Enfer was sure he had a monster before him. The girl pierced his flame shield and, in a movement more like lightning speed, she had hit him in the face with a sure punch that sent him flying several meters backwards.
Quickly and taking momentum from the same attack, Enfer counterattacked again raising the temperature around him, melting the glass and window frames, while the temperature rose even higher in the room. Then he launched what looked like a gigantic arm of fire, which he controlled like his own, and with it he caught the girl, who seemed to have been caught by the hand of a colossus. This time he approached her at full speed, while with the other arm he would increase the temperature even more to form a gigantic fist to attack her. He was barely three meters away from his target, when suddenly the flames disappeared.
"What?!" Enfer said in confusion. That was impossible.
The girl hadn't even moved from her place. In fact what she did next was completely out of place. She simply sighed as if she was bored. "Can I go now?" she asked through the white mask.
Enfer was still not out of his astonishment, when he felt a new blow that he was sure had just broken some ribs. As he approached, the girl had jumped up and moved at a much faster speed, spun 360º on herself and delivered a devastating kick that sent him flying again. His body spun around like a spinning top and bounced a couple of times on the floor until it crashed against a far wall, while new sounds from the ground indicated that the fight was further weakening the structure in that part of the building.
The flames began to leave Enfer's body at intermittent intervals, but the hair of fire was still present on his head. He spat a lot of blood on the debris he had just produced with his crash, and crawled as he gathered enough strength to get up again. The only flames that remained on his body were those in his head, but his fighting spirit had not been extinguished and, with his face pale, he readied himself for a new attack. The blood on his chin contrasted against the pallor he now had.
It had been over a century since anyone had struck him in such a way. His instinct had not deceived him. That girl was a monster in a fight and she didn't even show signs of being tired.
Enfer took a long breath, filling his lungs and focused his vision on the white figure, while behind her he could see his partner unleashing a dance of fire on the droids and destroying a couple of them to molten metal. He would have to use that. An even stronger flame even if it would knock him out for days.
He gritted his teeth and adopted a position as if he was about to sprint at the armored girl. The next thing that happened was that again his hair of fire grew, but there was a change. The flames, once yellow and red, had now changed to an almost ghostly blue and the fire was reaching his face. Even more powerful flames that had reduced to ashes all those who had treated him as a mere steak. Flames that had not burned in a long time.
"It would have been better if you had stayed on the ground," the girl's voice said in his ear, in an almost bored manner.
"Eh?"
She had been away for less than a nanosecond but, subtly, had disappeared from his vision. Enfer could see that she was now in front of him. She had moved quickly and he had her in front of him. What was more, she didn't seem to care that those flames could be even stronger than the previous ones. Time seemed to stand still for him at that moment, as if he could not move at all.
No, it wasn't that. It was rather that she had moved at a terrifying speed. She was in a position as if she was running against him, with her right arm back, while her left hand was dangerously close to Enfer's chest. The hand was not clenched into a fist, on the contrary it was open as if it were a palm strike.
The blue fire around him burned out and disappeared, as if the oxygen had dissipated. In just a tenth of a second he felt cold and a sensation as if his body was light.
Slowly, but with a determined voice, that girl said two words in a language that Enfer's Neurowire could not interpret the meaning.
"Dvrak-Ken-Gnet!"
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/42dd80f9-5ac6-42d5-8ccc-bcea020b6152/dgajxgc-818311a4-e80c-49b3-b949-f58e6755b2a6.jpg/v1/fill/w_1063,h_751,q_70,strp/nevermore_enygma_vol_3_chapter24_by_hasegawakein_dgajxgc-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9ODY4IiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvNDJkZDgwZjktNWFjNi00MmQ1LThjY2MtYmNlYTAyMGI2MTUyXC9kZ2FqeGdjLTgxODMxMWE0LWU4MGMtNDliMy1iOTQ5LWY1OGU2NzU1YjJhNi5qcGciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTIyOCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.ImIvDc51OdXBecXzTaugdZ2K6LvpEjVPi_gRSNaxcfk [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/42dd80f9-5ac6-42d5-8ccc-bcea020b6152/dgajxgc-818311a4-e80c-49b3-b949-f58e6755b2a6.jpg/v1/fill/w_1063,h_751,q_70,strp/nevermore_enygma_vol_3_chapter24_by_hasegawakein_dgajxgc-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9ODY4IiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvNDJkZDgwZjktNWFjNi00MmQ1LThjY2MtYmNlYTAyMGI2MTUyXC9kZ2FqeGdjLTgxODMxMWE0LWU4MGMtNDliMy1iOTQ5LWY1OGU2NzU1YjJhNi5qcGciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTIyOCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.ImIvDc51OdXBecXzTaugdZ2K6LvpEjVPi_gRSNaxcfk]
The pain was excruciating and Enfer spat out a large amount of blood. It was as if a demolition hammer had struck him in the center of his chest, and he felt as if his heart had been crushed by his rib cage. Behind him, he could feel as if the wall behind him, for some reason, had also suffered the effects of that attack.
But something else was happening. Suddenly he saw his body being slowly pushed backwards. He was seeing his body as if from outside it, located a couple of meters behind, almost as if it were a residual image, but in reverse. He had already experienced out-of-body experiences as part of his training, but that felt different.
The sensation was so slow for him that it seemed as if the whole battle was moving slowly forward. As if he was a ghost that was getting ahead of the journey his body would make later. That was it. He was getting ahead of the journey his body was making backwards. The pain in his chest seemed very real to him and he believed that he would almost certainly be dead when it was over, turned into a bloody mass of scattered organs from the attack.
His vision was blurring and the last thing he saw was that girl in the armor with her open palm still in the air.
Ignis suddenly turned around.
A sound of an explosion reached her ears and for a split second she thought she saw a flash of blue flames from Enfer, which was extinguished the next moment. What followed was his body crashing into the wall behind him which, already damaged from the previous blow, exploded throwing debris everywhere. The sound of that explosion was as if a shockwave had gone through the whole place, and even the droids that were still fighting Ignis were surprised and turned to look at what that attack had been.
A cloud of dust was raised in the center of the attack, which, when it descended, showed Ignis a desolate scene.
The wall had indeed been destroyed and on the rubble rested the body of Enfer. He must not have been dead because, although in a weak way, some slight flames were still coming out from where his hair should have been, although they had dimmed considerably, giving the impression that his companion had decided to cut the combustion by leaving a gas stove at a minimum.
A few meters away from the wall was that girl, who returned to a posture as if it had been easy. Impassive, monstrous, as if nothing could move her.
Ignis could feel her blood boil within herself at the sight, while a mixture of anger and fear rose in her.
But there was no time to think more as she returned to the fight. The droids had rushed at her again. But this time it would be final.
In her right hand flames returned, which quickly took on a spherical shape the size of a tennis ball that floated several centimeters. Then she looked at those who were almost on top of her and quickly pointed the sphere at the one in the middle.
A new explosion filled the place, but it was different. That explosion sent a shockwave that ended up blowing up part of the wall facing the outside of the building and the droids were turned into an amorphous mass that upon reaching the ground had turned into melted metal while new crackles were produced throughout the room and the floor began to crack.
Ignis had to act quickly.
Her plan was to at least knock out that armored girl and bury her under rubble, while she would grab her partner and jump to the outside, so she could make a new attack. She couldn't do it inside and risk those inside getting caught up in the destruction her counterattack would cause, as she was sure she could destroy the entire facility if she was careless.
Ignis turned to face her enemy, and had begun to gather enough energy from her fey core so, that with a new explosion, she could deteriorate a space in the ceiling below the armored girl and bury her with debris. It would not be a powerful attack, but it was enough for them to gain enough seconds to escape, and for her to make sure that the woman could follow her to the outside, where she could transform her into a sausage with a new attack of her flames.
But as she turned around to launch her attack, her hopes vanished, like a flame without oxygen fades.
That girl had moved at incredible speed once again.
Ignis' eyes widened in surprise and terror. That movement would not give her time to prepare anything on her part. She would not open an opening or anything to summon a flame to defeat the one in front of her. The attack of the girl in the armor suit came swiftly and brutally.
It was so fast that Ignis barely had time to see how the girl's arms moved even faster. It was a different attack than the one she had made on Enfer but, given the speed, and due to her own fight, Ignis couldn't tell.
The armored girl hit her repeatedly in the same place, focusing on her solar plexus as if she had a repeating trigger on her forearm, while with her right hand she held her by the throat, cutting off her breath at first.
For a girl smaller than her she was incredibly fast, and her fists had a power that could well be compared to those of a professional wrestler. Ignis could only assume it was due to the armor she was wearing, which could increase the punching power several times. But she must have had body enhancements to move so fast beyond human capabilities and normal feys.
Ignis first felt a sour taste in her mouth, then a metallic taste and the next moment she vomited some blood.
The pain in her stomach and chest prevented Ignis from summoning new flames. She was breathing heavily. That damned girl had concentrated a lot on hitting her in the parts she needed to fill with oxygen to be able to summon for her flames.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Because Ignis' ability with fire was special and required deep breathing, relegating a lot of oxygen to the lower lungs. Oxygen could provide sufficient concentration of energy to her fey cells of the kaloricite type, since the process in her body's erythrocyte cells changed as she used her fire ability, producing a process of metamorphocytosis. That was the process behind her own thelesic system. But this process could not be carried out under such circumstances.
Without giving her any respite, the armored girl grabbed her by the collar of her blouse as she threw a formidable punch in the face that slammed her to the ground.
A cracking sound was heard from the ceiling and the girl in armor looked up and acting quickly moved away, leaving Ignis where she had fallen. More creaks were heard and a crash of debris and dust filled the scene.
That part of the upper floor had just collapsed on Ignis.
The armored girl watched as Ignis was buried by the debris and then as, under the weight of the debris and the structural damage caused by the fight, the entire part where Ignis was already lying fell to the floor below causing a deafening sound.
The girl approached and looked down. She was sure that Ignis was not dead, but she had no reason to continue the fight. Enfer, still unconscious on the other side, was still lying on the ground and it would probably be a while before he regained consciousness.
The objective was accomplished anyway. That fight had been to buy time for the droids to leave the place and go to the vehicle ready for the escape.
The girl approached the walls where a huge hole had opened up that, after Ignis' attack on the droids, led outwards and she looked in an easterly direction, towards where she had to flee. Some droids were coming out of other parts of the building and were making a mad dash, while others were flying away.
Two of the ones that were flying away, came out of one of the holes and, in their arms, they were carrying Stan and Rum, still in a confused state due to everything that was happening, and because they were still not out of their stupor due to one of the anesthetics they had been given to perform the Deep-Dive. But, due to the chaos that surrounded them, they knew one thing for sure: they were involved in something much bigger than a simple theft of a relic and kidnapping. This was a scenario of proportions they could not have imagined.
This is it, thought the armored girl and, from where she stood, jumped out, landing just a few meters away from the two thieves, who were surprised by the sudden appearance of the girl in her strange white outfit. She had jumped from a height of ten meters from the third floor and landed as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Come on, run, get out of here! We have to go!" ordered the girl.
Wasting no time, the droids set off on a swift flight through the forest, along with Stan and Rum, dodging trees and obstacles with surprising agility. As they advanced, Stan and Rum began to regain lucidity, feeling a mixture of adrenaline and gratitude towards the girl for having rescued them, while the landscape passed swiftly before their eyes. If she was the one Janus had sent to get them out of trouble, she must have been pretty good to have caused all that mess.
Although those droids could have at least given them a robe, the cold night in that place was enough to make both of them chatter their teeth.
Stan, in his race, looked back, but realized that the girl was not running after them.
The truth is that the girl had stopped the second she had thought of running after the others, but something had stopped her.
What is it? she wondered.
She was trembling.
But it wasn't from the excitement of the fight she just had. Her heart was pounding with a mixture of adrenaline and terror. Slowly she turned to look. Behind her there was no one. Just a hole with smoke coming out of it and flames in the distance.
But there was something else.
The destruction that surrounded her and that she, along with the scarab drones and tactical droids, had caused seemed insignificant to her with what she was feeling at that moment and that was flooding her entire being.
Then, trusting her instincts, she felt it.
The terror she felt was not coming from something behind her back. It was coming from somewhere in that base below her.
A shiver ran down her spine under that armor, and she felt as if that armor suit she was wearing was nothing more than a weak shell for what was underneath it. She had no doubt, underneath the base there was something much more monstrous than those two fire feys and, probably, much stronger than herself.
She could not understand it, but her body was telling her to run away with all her strength from that new unknown threat.
Whatever it was, she would not stay to find out and, clenching her fists tightly, she tried to hide her fears, and started running at full speed, behind the droids that were still escaping from the place among the chaos of the alarms and the smoke.
In a matter of seconds she was able to get into the forest, away from the chaos and began to feel that, even though the fear was still there, her extra mission was over. The hardest part was behind her and whatever was under the base she could no longer reach it because, as far as her instincts told her, that thing seemed to be located very close to the area that had been sealed off at the beginning of the attack.
The place where she, the tactical droids, and Stan and Rum were running was a downhill slope but with little incline, that was making it easier to get away from the place. Rum could see on their run as they crossed paths with the security droid dogs that had been put out of action by the black droids.
The forest seemed endless to the two thieves and, although they felt grateful, it was too early to say they were safe and they still didn't know where that girl in the armor was taking them.
Soon that was answered, though. Almost without realizing it they had reached an area cleared of trees and where tall grass grew, swaying in the night breeze.
The moonlight was enough to illuminate the landscape, but in the middle of that field there was something that stood out and that was where all the droids were running to. That part of the mountain was a plain that stretched for at least three hundred meters before it began to descend again.
Stan and Rum looked at the opening in the middle of the open field, with a ramp. It was like some kind of mouth, with a metal tongue that had opened up in space. They both slowed down and watched the droids enter that two-dimensional hole. They stopped and looked at each other, not sure whether to cross.
The girl in the armor suit caught up to them very quickly. "What the hell are you waiting for? Invitations?"
"I can't cross a teleport door!" Stan said, looking at the girl's white mask and how the pink hair was blowing in the wind.
"It's not a teleport, get on it already, you idiot! We don't have all night!" ordered the armored girl, visibly angry.
They both climbed up the ramp, which must have been about four meters long, from the opening to the floor and another four and a half meters wide. They entered what looked like the stomach of a whale with metal ribs. Inside it had a slight oval shape, but there was no doubt, it was a ship that had activated a state-of-the-art optical camouflage system.
Stan and Rum looked sideways again at the sight of the ship.
But while that had happened, the group had not noticed something else.
A shadow was running towards them from the base. It was Ignis, full of dust, wounds and bruises and with some of her blouse torn due to the last blow. But the girl had not lost her fighting spirit.
After having fallen to the floor below and, spending about a minute buried, she had awakened due to the stabbing pain in her chest. Broken ribs had pierced her lung and heart, but her body's survival instinct had awakened her before the wound could become fatal. And thanks to that her body had been regenerating enough to keep going.
When she emerged from the rubble, she had jumped into the hole in the upper floor and found that her companion was still alive. All the fighting was over and the attackers were escaping into the trees. Most of them should have already escaped, and she just saw that outside some damaged droids were running in the direction of the trees at a slower speed.
After reporting that she was going in pursuit, and receiving approval from the commander, she had jumped out and made a full force run towards where the droids were fleeing.
As she ran she could feel her body regenerating, producing more pain, but the pain was little compared to the fury she felt. This base had been her home, and Enfer's, for decades.
She felt the fire in her fey core activate and a series of patterns appeared on her body like faintly glowing tribal markings. Her eyes lit up and her fists seemed to want to burst into flames.
"Son of a bitch," she muttered and started to run.
Meanwhile the girl in the armor suit simply walked up the ramp and it began to close behind her. Many of the tactical droids were there and one of them was carrying the somewhat rusty box. Stan and Rum looked at each other overwhelmed by the whole situation. Some droids barely managed to get half of their bodies through the ship when it closed, and they were cut in half leaving part of their bodies inside, while the other halves were left outside the ship.
There must have been at least twenty-few, of the forty or so who had made the attack.
"Take your seats and put on your seat belts. There are some clothes if you want to put them on. We're leaving," said the girl in the armor. The fact that they couldn't see her face and that white mask gave them the impression that they were facing a ghost.
"Who are you?" Rum finally asked.
"I'm the one who had to lift that," she said and pointed to the droid with the precious cargo that was the suitcase box they had stolen. "I'm also the one who had to bail you out if you screwed up."
"Are you the one Mr. Janus sent?" asked Stan.
The girl nodded and after that they both watched as the mask began to recede down the face as if it were a living film. It was organic metal after all. Not only that, for a second they saw how her face was also ivory white. But that changed. That white color also disappeared and the skin took on a much more natural cream tone. It was a face of fine facial features.
In front of them stood a green-eyed, young-faced girl who couldn't have been more than her early twenties. "You can call me EVE," the girl said and walked toward the side of the cockpit.
As she walked they could both see how the most protruding parts of the armor, such as the shoulders, belt, wristbands and the claws of the hands and feet, first receded and then disappeared as if they were melting, giving the impression that she was simply wearing a tight-fitting suit on her naked body.
Stan and Rum would have been lying if they said they didn't find that girl beautiful, but lethal.
She sat in the cockpit and took control of the ship. Stan and Rum felt a small tremor, indicating that the ship was already lifting off the ground.
Stan looked around and estimated that the entire space they were in was at least twenty meters from the cockpit to the ramp. In all the cargo space it was just them and twenty or so of those drones that had managed to get on.
The droid with the box disarticulated some of its parts, and its body was transformed around it, as if it were a security structure, giving it a new aspect that was an industrial and futuristic looking safebox. The other droids also disarticulated parts and began to transform, acquiring angular shapes first, while hiding their mechanical parts, until they acquired the size of spheres that were one meter in diameter. Those spheres had faces that, given their geometrical organization, must have been a spherical tetrahedron.
"Origamium," Stan muttered to Rum upon seeing the transformation. "That's from Io. It's the same system that Nevermore's Zodiac satellites use."
"Whoever Janus is, he must have pretty high connections to have those."
"I'm beginning to wonder if he doesn't own one of the companies. Those droids must cost a fortune."
"This is a Manta, by the way," Rum whispered.
"A Manta?"
"Yes, the structure inside is oval, but this thing can go underwater too."
"Aren't mantas only for military use on Europa and Callisto? What the hell is one doing here on earth?"
They both turned toward the cockpit. The girl named EVE wasn't paying attention to them, she was manning the controls of the ship.
At that very moment, on the outside, a girl on fire had arrived on the scene.
Ignis jumped out of the row of trees and ran towards the place where two straggling droids were heading. Their speed was much faster than hers and they were several meters ahead of her. There was nothing where they were headed, but the grass in the field was a slightly darker color without being a perfect shade, and the grass was moving in a circular pattern several meters long. A wind was picking up that was beginning to hit her in the face. Ignis had no doubt that there was a ship rising there with a cloaking system activated.
The droids reached what appeared to be their destination and jumped about ten feet into the air and Ignis watched for a few seconds as they latched onto something and then began to climb up its invisible surface. The shadow below was beginning to fade. The vision then changed and both droids had disappeared as if absorbed by the ship's cloaking system, while the shadow on the grass disappeared completely leaving only the wind and moonlight.
An adaptive camouflage, Ignis thought.
Ignis stopped over the spot where the droids had jumped, but the only indication of the ship was already disappearing, for the circle in the grass was no longer moving and the wind was no longer blowing so hard beneath it.
Without giving up she raised her right hand and snapped her fingers, for a second the metal decorations on her clothes shone and tribal march-like patterns formed on her skin. On his cheeks, chest and stomach, but especially on his right arm. On his right hand new flames had appeared, which quickly transformed into a ball of fire, which was like a miniature sun. Ignis brought her right hand back and, as if she were a major league baseball pitcher, threw the fireball to the distance she believed to be the right distance.
The fireball hit already over 80 meters high, on what should have been one of the sides of the big ship. There was a big explosion, but at the same time Ignis saw a chromatic change in the middle of the air. It was a wave of iridescent color that drew for a moment an invisible silhouette of a wing.
It was a deflector shield.
Although the fireball had exploded, a second effect was produced, and that was that from the ship some turbulence was produced and EVE, looking at the panel, printed more speed. From Ignis' point of view, it was as if the image in space was contracting and concentrating in one point for a tenth of a second at the place of impact.
Then there was a second impact, much stronger than the first one, but it was simply a pressure wave that went all over the place in a radius of a little more than one hundred and fifty meters.
Inside the ship EVE, with no emotion on her face, simply maneuvered and rose even higher while Stan and Rum rubbed their heads, for due to Ignis' attack there was a turbulent movement just as Stan was buckling his belt and their heads had collided.
"Damn it," Ignis mumbled looking up at the sky while shaking her still smoldering right hand. Not even the second effect of her attack had worked against that ship.
But the silhouette of the wing lasted only a tenth of a second and the next it had disappeared and with it the buzzing sound. Moving away in what seemed to be an easterly direction.
The ship was moving away and there was no way to follow it, because the ships on the airstrip and the hangar of the base had exploded.
Ignis crouched down and put her hands on her knees, gritting her teeth as she tried to catch her breath and the symbols on her body disappeared. She looked behind her and saw the plumes of smoke rising from the base.
To her regret, that was a battle she had lost.
***
After EVE's fight against Ignis and Enfer, something else had happened at that moment, but it remained hidden from the eyes of the others.
The hand, light blue in color, was moving intermittently on the ground, in what seemed to be a mute attempt to call for help.
But the arm of that hand was buried under tons of debris from the attack that had taken place. The forearm and hand were all that protruded from the shattered pieces of debris and nothing else. They were the parts of a nurse droid, which had been on one of the base's floors below the surface, when the first detonation had gone off.
Its function had been only one, and she had performed it to perfection. Her job was to monitor any changes in the comatose old man.
But she could no longer do that.
The power was cut off in that part, because it depended on the room where the main attack had taken place and which was also where the base shields had been lowered from, along with the structural supports of the force fields. If those force fields had been in line, they would not have collapsed the entire building in a matter of minutes with simple explosions.
The place in that part was in complete ruin.
Because what was upstairs was part of the building's maintenance facilities, along with the quantum monitoring room. The first attack had taken out everything that could have been used to activate the entire second layer of security in the building, which consisted of sealed compartments to modify the internal structure by means of SSD devices.
But that didn't matter anymore. That part was completely destroyed and that was that. The backup power could run for several days, but it wasn't going to be that fast for someone to get there.
The place was almost completely collapsed. What was originally a three meter high are was now barely a meter and a half high and no one could tell how long it would hold before it all came crashing down.
Several meters away, from where the droid nurse was standing, was the intensive care capsule with the old man. Part of its support had fallen off and because of this the old man now lay with his head pointing towards the ground on the floor, but he was still inside. The debris had hit the capsule, but not much and so it was still intact, but with several of the readings displayed on its surface with distorted parts and unreadable patterns, because the projection film had been damaged.
If the emergency readings had been being received at the time in the medical wing, someone would have noticed them later.
But this was not the case.
Slowly, but surely, the old man had begun to move his fingers almost imperceptibly.
What had started slowly, as the minutes passed, had begun to become more evident. After a few minutes that tremor had completely disappeared from his hands. Not only that. His countenance, which had been calm all the time, had started to become more serious with each moment, even though his eyes were still closed.
His hands were clenched into two fists that showed none of the weakness he had been found with in the lake.
They were bony fists, with thick veins that throbbed in fury, as if he was remembering or sensing something that could make him furious.
If the monitoring system had been working it would have detected something else. Some hairs of his beard and hair, in a microscopic manner, were also changing at that moment.