Chapter 79
An Unexpected Battle/ Part Two
The creatures
The soldiers more near the lake had seen those smoke discharges from the sphere spreading, but they had not had time to get away in time. The smoke had touched the shore and as if they were some kind of evil genies those creatures had begun to take shape from the smoke.
Most of them were about two and a half meters tall and had a shape that could vaguely be judged as anthropoid, although their features were anything but pleasant. Others, however, were much larger, easily reaching a height of three and a half meters upright or two meters tall and four long, for those that ran on all fours.
The skin was leathery black and elastic looking, over a body with a torso broad at the shoulders, but quite slender towards the stomach. Long legs were ungulated in a strange way. Their arms were elongated, reaching almost to their knees and ending in huge four-fingered hands with claws, as well as huge feet with even larger claws. The strange predisposition of their limbs gave them the ability to run like an animal and they were horribly agile on all fours, as well as running and jumping at the same time.
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Their heads were covered with protuberances that looked like short horns, but those horns were covered with the same black skin. The eyes were just two yellow lines that glowed in the dark and one moment they seemed to have no mouth, but the next moment they had sharp teeth several centimeters long. Those teeth seemed to appear and disappear, but they had no lips as such. It was some kind of camouflage system or perhaps a muscular membrane that covered the teeth completely and showed them when the jaw moved.
From the back, at the level of the shoulder blades, sprouted two elongated limbs that at first some people mistook for arms, but which bent in the opposite direction to normal arms. They were two appendages that had a primary extension, as if it were an arm of about forty centimeters and then a joint that ended in a long blade at least a meter long. The joint bent in the opposite direction of the arms, but one could imagine why. Those appendages could move upwards, appear above the shoulders and attack with the blade. At the same time they could use it on the back as well. It was a system of attack and defense
The creatures began to run across the grass as they touched the ground and devastated anything in their path. Several soldiers had been slaughtered and were dead before they hit the ground. Gathering equipment, technological material, vehicles, nothing was spared. They attacked everything in their path. With great leaps of several meters, they jumped from target to target.
Despite the fear, Mii knew perfectly well what to do in that situation. She was about to say something when a voice came up ahead of her.
“Thor! Help me! This is going to turn into carnage! Noki, Mimi! You know what to do,” Rein said with a frown and her tail had started to wag like a whip.
Thor looked at Rein and nodded. The dwarf began to run towards the nearest creature and under that scenario the battle began. From Thor's fists appeared dark colored gloves with metal parts and he began to punch the creatures in his path with electric shocks.
The first one he killed made him realize that those things evaporated when they died. And those horrible sounds they emitted seemed to come from the top of their heads. The air being expelled through a series of slits emitted those sounds and whistles that chilled the blood. There was no time to analyze it at that moment. It was better to concentrate on fighting and getting them out of the way.
Noki's adrenaline began to surge and the next second she had disappeared from the stage, leaving a streak of yellow and purple behind her, composed of her residual image as she moved very fast. Several creatures were flying through the air in the path left by Noki. Speed was her skill and the speed of mental processing during those moments was skyrocketing as she kept running.
Mii took a breath and took off her coat. She was wearing a knee-length dark one-piece dress but, growing claws from her hand, she cut it off and transformed it into a mini-skirt. From the back of her back began to emerge appendages that might as well have been a kind of tentacles, but did not have suction cups. They were red in color, but at the junction with the spine they showed a bioluminescent bluish glow. Using one of her tentacles, she propelled herself into the air and landed several meters above one of the creatures. Another of the tentacles formed a mouth composed of razor-sharp teeth. One of the teeth ripped off the creature's arm.
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Everything had turned into chaos.
In spite of the fallen and dead synthetics, almost all the soldiers had reacted in time and fear had given way to survival instinct. Weapons of all calibers and ammunition echoed in the morning. Uniform shields were activated. Normal ammunition did not seem to make a dent in those creatures, who stopped at nothing. Plasma weapons on the other hand seemed to stop them but not kill them, unless they were shot several times.
Van, even though she should have been resting, joined the ranks of the soldiers offering support with her own device's weapons. At that moment she was grateful to have changed into her usual clothes as they offered her better defense thanks to the material of which they were composed.
Rein activated the levitation equipment of her turtle backpack and moved off into the sky, while her tail waved like a whip. With each flick of her tail it seemed that the clouds around swirled wherever she wanted them to and lightning began to rain down from the sky. The mist dissipated a little within a radius of two kilometers, but as a result the copious precipitation of rain began again.
The sky, a tangle of dark clouds with electric flashes, swirled above the base, as Rein flew all over the place, her figure coated in a blaze of electric discharges around her. From that height, she could see the sphere with its eye that dilated and contracted like an evil heart, and the rings from which the abominable creatures emerged. Seen up close there were rings where shadows by the thousands of serpentine creatures writhed in those rings and changed shape, their yellow eyes glowing with an ancient malevolence.
Basically, those rings were what contained those creatures in an unknown, non-physical form. And those creatures did not materialize until far enough away from the sphere. She would have to destroy them before they had a chance to get far enough away
As part of the SID library team, Rein had a lot of knowledge of hundreds of different types of fantastical creatures and other anomalies, but those she had never seen. They almost reminded her of the legends of the evil version of the djinn, but they were different. They were not in any catalog. Whatever it was, it was not the time to study them.
It had been a good move to decide to go to that place. Her instinct had not deceived her.
Since the destruction of the space distortion by Mai and Azusa, anomalies had appeared, but none of them had sprouted enemies. That was different. Could it have been a summoning? Impossible. There were very few wizards who could create such a large magic calculation circuit and to create those creatures it would take all the summoning class wizards that had existed in the last hundred years. That was not possible. It was not a summoning, but it had still manifested itself in the place where the plane crash had occurred.
Rein's analysis had been quick, but it was the best she could do in those seconds when the combat began. They were not fractus. They interacted with matter and could attack, but they did not destroy the matter around them like fractus. Their strengths were in their attack speed and in the fact that they were very resistant, but they could be destroyed.
That they disappeared caught her attention but she could not worry about it at that moment. Even so, they had to take care of the problem quickly and prevent it from spreading. If the smoke rings continued to came out from that sphere, who knew how far it could spread.
A Class 6 or 7 Dark Event, but what kind of alert? Yellow? Red? Violet?
“Thor!” shouted Rein, her voice mingling with the crackle of lightning that was beginning to form around them. “Let's keep the fight at this range and try not to let it spread!”
From the ground, Thor responded with a roar, his fists wreathed in sparks that illuminated his figure. “That's what I'm trying!”
With a wave of her hand, Rein channeled her electromagnetic power, raising fragments from the ground that floated around her like projectiles ready to be fired and then with a flick of her tail she directed them at the creatures.
As the creatures emerged from the rings, a guttural sound echoed in the air, as if the earth itself trembled at their arrival.
Rein launched an electrical discharge, a concentrated flash of lightning that slammed into another monster. The creature shrieked, its body convulsing before vanishing in black smoke. They were coming apart, that was convenient. Using her powers Rein used one of the detroyed vehicles and warded off others, while lightning kept the dangerously approaching ones at bay.
Thor, meanwhile, was cutting through the enemies, his body vibrating with energy. Each blow from his fist echoed with a blast of electricity, knocking down any monsters that dared to approach. The combination of his strength and the electrical discharges turned him into a storm on the ground.
“To the right!” shouted Rein, pointing with her hand. A group of creatures rushed toward Thor, and he, with a twist, connected with an electrifying blow that caused the nearest monster to burst into a thousand wisps of smoke.
Rein felt a pressure in her chest. “We have to shut that thing down, it sure is an aberration,” she muttered, her eyes fixed on the eye-shaped portal. “We must do something before…”
A cracking sound echoed through the air. A ring of dark mass emanated from the sphere in a westerly direction, much larger than any of the previous ones. That ring was spreading and with it she knew it was transporting those abominations away from them. Rein shivered at the thought of it reaching the nearest cities. From what Lefreve had said, the houses on the opposite shore of the lake on the Swiss side had been evacuated, but if it spread it could have worse consequences.
Rein concentrated as much of her power as she could to control the cloud conditions, to concentrate it all into a lightning bolt strong enough to destroy that ring, that was getting farther and farther away.
The impact was so thunderous that a column of water rose from the lake and much of the army equipment in the lake was damaged by that discharge, but the power had been enough for that lightning to destroy that ring full of creatures in a definitive way. Or at least Rein hoped so, since the distant mist made her not sure of it. Curiously enough, it had only gone in a westerly direction and had not spread elsewhere.
However, it was likely that she could use that a few more times only. They needed reinforcements and urgently.
Thor stood up after wiping out another creature on the ground, fury shining in his eyes and raised his voice to Rein. “We cannot allow this to continue! If we keep this up, it's a matter of time before they slaughter us all here!”
Rein nodded, catching her breath. “We have to join forces! If you concentrate your energy in my direction, I can amplify it!”
“Induction and electrostatics?!”
Rein nodded. “Yes!”
Without hesitation, Thor nodded and readied himself. His fist lit up with a discharge that seemed to vibrate in the very essence of the storm and he directed his energy toward Rein. “Now, Rein!”
Rein extended her hands toward him, absorbing the energy. A beam of light shone between them, and in an instant, it launched a storm of concentrated energy at various points where the creatures stood. Rein made the calculation on the Neurowire for that operation and the explosion illuminated the place, revealing for a brief moment the landscape.
“Don't stop!” shouted Thor, rising again, his fists sizzling with renewed fury.
With each attack, with each bolt of energy launched, the battle grew more intense. Shadows of horror danced around them, but Rein and Thor stood their ground, facing the unknown with every flash of electrical power they possessed.
Two kilometers to the east another confrontation was taking place.
The battle raged around them, but for Noki, the world slowed down. With a single thought, her body shot faster than the wind, turning into a bolt of pure energy. She ran through the shadows and the screams, her feet barely touching the ground, as she searched for the soldiers who needed help or to destroy those ghouls that had made it that far.
Here I go! she muttered to herself, feeling the wind whipping her face. In the distance, she saw a group of soldiers cornered, surrounded by two monsters that were pouncing and looking to them with those yellow eyes vomited by the underworld.
Without a second to lose, Noki rushed towards them. In an instant, she was at their side, lifting one of the soldiers in one fluid motion. “Hang on!” she exclaimed, and before he could respond, they were on the move. With her small body she carried him to a couple of hundred meters, where another group was resisting more favorably, and repeated the same operation a couple of times more.
As she ran to rescue the last one, the creature turned, its sharp claws ready to fall on the soldier.
Without thinking too much, Noki slid down, carrying the soldier to safety just before the monster's blow hit the ground, creating a ripple of uprooted grass and mud. The creature, stunned by the missed blow, was unable to react in time.
Noki did not stop and returned to the spot. With a leap, she turned towards the two monsters, taking advantage of her speed to ram them. Her body became an unstoppable force, and the impact threw them several meters away. Without looking back, she continued onward, looking for more soldiers in danger.
As she ran, every turn and every movement was a careful dance between life and death. Noki used her skill to move amidst the chaos, her mind calculating every possible route.
Suddenly, she heard a muffled scream.
“No!” her heart raced. A soldier was cornered against a wall, with a creature right in front of him, its eyes glowing with ravenous hunger. Noki felt time stretch, and without hesitation, she lunged toward him.
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“Hold on!” she shouted, catching the soldier in one fluid motion and bringing him to her side just as the monster lunged toward them. Noki used his momentum to slam into the creature, running it over with her speed and throwing it to the ground, where it disappeared in a cloud of wisps.
“Thank you!” the soldier gasped, still dazed.
“No time!” Noki replied, heading back to the battlefield. “You'd better grab a gun and start shooting at those things!”
As she moved again, her mind was focused on the other soldiers. She knew that time was running out. The creatures in the sphere were coming out in increasing numbers, and every second counted. With each rescue, her determination grew.
Suddenly, she found herself in front of a group of soldiers fighting a particularly large monster, its claws tearing through the air. Noki launched herself into the attack. With dazzling speed, she slipped between the creature's legs and shoved a soldier to the side, saving him from a fatal fate.
“Leave it to me!” she shouted, and as she turned to face the monster, her heart pounded. With a leap and a precise punch, she used her speed to crash into the monster's side, destabilizing it enough so that a group of soldiers could attack it with more confidence.
“Faster!” she exclaimed, as adrenaline fueled her. She knew her skill was key to keeping the creatures at bay and saving lives. Each time she saved a soldier, hope shone a little brighter amidst the chaos.
With each rescue, she felt more alive, more connected to the battle. Noki knew that her speed wasn't just a skill, it was her way of fighting, her way of facing the unknown.
She saw a group of about twenty of the creatures moving toward a nearby tent. She couldn't tell if there was anyone inside, but it was better to get rid of those things.
She knew that bullets didn't work, but electricity did. At least that worked in her favor. Her body could generate incredible energy with every movement thanks to her Shy Organ and on the other hand she still hadn't used the ace she had. Those straps that moved from her clothes were not something decorative. They were multipurpose. She could use them to change direction, bend in the middle of a long run and due to the smart structure they could harden for tenths of a second, acquiring enough edge to cut through almost anything like nanofilaments or generate a strong enough grip as if they were whips.
She headed towards the group and ran over a few of them, while the ribbons received an electric shock to acquire a sharper shape. The result was that those monsters didn't know what happened but something had torn them apart in mid-air and they dissolved.
To the west of Rein and Thor, Mii was picking a fight of her own.
The storm of chaos was intensifying, but in the midst of the maelstrom, Mii moved like a shadow, her senses sharpened and her mind focused. Like a mimic, her body was a malleable canvas, capable of transforming into whatever she needed at a moment's notice. On her back, tentacles snaked into the air as if alive, ready to attack, to destroy with teeth or to help her move. A plasma weapon in her left hand from her turtle backpack and claws in her right. She was already barefoot, but she didn't mind her mud-stained legs. She had lost her boots when she had attacked one of the creatures by transforming her legs into bladesand with a kick she had cut off the creature's head.
Every part of her body was a weapon. A Death Lily, as some had baptized her during the Great War against the fractus.
Monsters, grotesque and deformed, emerged from the dimensional sphere, and Mii knew her only option was to adapt and fight. Every creature that approached was a challenge, an aberration that sought to devour everything it encountered. Be it feys, humans or aeons.
Mii concentrated, letting her body transform. The tentacles elongated, glowing and moved with grace and ferocity, and as she prepared for the attack, she felt a connection to the essence of the fight. It was as if her powers made her part of something greater, an entity that defied the abyss but at the same time was a double-edged sword.
Don't lose control, she muttered to herself.
With a resounding cry, she lunged toward a group of approaching monsters. The tentacles, resembling tails, swung like whips, tearing through the air as they lashed out with force. One of the monsters was struck in the side, its body contorting and screaming in agony through those gills on its head. Mii felt a dark satisfaction as she watched the creature vanish in a cloud of shadows, as one of the tentacles made an attempt to bite its face off.
“It's been a while since I've fought like this...” she muttered to herself, focusing her energy on the tentacles, that danced around her with those sharp mouths, tearing apart any of those creatures. Each movement was a mixture of elegance, power, and at the same time a brutality rarely seen. Each attack sent a ripple of fear through the creatures that dared to approach.
In the heart of the battle, her tentacles became more than tools of attack; they were extensions of her will, capable of unleashing a barely contained fury. The monsters were pouncing, but Mii knew how to play on their instincts. She lured them to her, like a hunter using cunning to lure her prey.
One monster, larger than the others, lunged toward her with a piercing howl, its jaws open in a grimace of madness as those teeth appeared. Mii, in a swift turn, used her tentacles to catch the beast. With a decisive move, the lashes struck its body, causing the monster to stop dead in its tracks. The tentacles tried to destroy it in equal parts but in doing so it dezhed into those wisps of dark smoke.
“Well, at least I'm calmer,” Mii said quietly, feeling the power wash over her. With a sharp twist of her tentacles, another creature was thrown backwards, crashing into a wall of rubble.
As the battle continued, Mii realized that each monster the tentacles bit into gave her renewed strength, but that was normal for her, she was a mimic after all. Nevertheless, she used her power only to assimilate those parts she had obtained by biting the creatures. She would have time later to examine them more closely, although it was true that her sense of taste felt disgusting at the moment. Those creatures were dissolving inside her body in smoke form, but they were there long enough to leave her with a horrible taste.
There were only a few parts of her dress left, but she didn't care if she even ended up fighting naked. It wouldn't be the only time and on the other hand it had been her fault for not having equipped the special clothes that the clothing department had for cases like that. She would never have imagined that she would end up fighting.
Mii glanced sideways at the lake and looked away quickly.
The sphere was still there, and the darkness emanating from it was a constant reminder that this was the real enemy. In fact, although she was calmer fighting now, the truth was that Mii had tried by all means not to look at that thing. She didn't know why, but she felt that if she looked at it for too long something bad would happen. She didn't want to do it in any way.
Suddenly, a group of soldiers attacking the creatures appeared in her field of vision. Without hesitation, Mii approached them, her tentacles still poised for attack. “Stay back! Don't come near me when I'm attacking, it's hard for me to control my whole body if I'm in the middle of an attack!” she shouted, knowing that their presences could be a nuisance to keep the monsters at bay.
The soldiers, stunned by the scene of horror, backed away, “Just keep your distance! Together we can take them on, but take care of those farther away!”
The tentacles danced in the air, reminding them that she was not just a combat tool, but a symbol of resistance in that place. They were trying to keep the attack from escalating and to keep any of those things from escaping into the forest. The objective was to keep the fight in place and not to let it spread for the time being.
Lefreve was calling for reinforcements at the same time as the whole situation was being communicated to the command center in Dovaine, and others command centers of the French and Swiss army.
As they fought, the battlefield continued to fill with indescribable chaos. The shadows were intertwined with the light emanating from Rein and Thor's powers to the east, but Mii knew that every second counted.
However, all was not plain sailing. As the creatures died, the sphere began to emit an ominous sound, a humming that resonated deep within her being. Mii felt a shiver run down her spine, a warning that something even darker was about to emerge if they didn't hurry.
There was no doubt in her mind who they needed. The Director of Operations.
They needed Mai with her bow to shut down that aberration.
Where was that silver fairy when they needed her there?
***
Meyrin, Geneva. Switzerland.
The battle to take control of the accelerator facility had come to an end.
After establishing contact with Peter Vazziri, he had given the immediate order to cancel the contract with the Gianicolo capital entity, whereupon the mercenaries in Meyrin and at the other points were to surrender to the armed forces and the SID. It was going to be a bureaucratic mess for months for the owner, but that was the best option rather than seeking international trouble that could tarnish the image of his private military companies.
The mercenaries had surrendered quickly upon receiving the order from their respective controls and surrendered their weapons, at the same time that the droids were deactivated.
Down below almost everything had gone as planned and Lizbeth, Natsuki and Ryuuji, accompanied by a still confused Oxy, had taken over the control point that supplied power. The same with Granger and Jade who had taken control of the elevator and with it Swiss and French army droids had descended to take control of the place. The few mercenaries alive had been escorted out, while the other dead had already returned to their conscience containment controls in the private company after their mission had failed.
Lizbeth took the opportunity to send Oxy upstairs to be seen by a doctor, even though she wanted to stay to make sure Professor Reubens and Jim Stuart were okay.
Odin Squadron gathered in what appeared to be the main control room to find the spectacle of all those dead scientists on the scene. They didn't quite understand what had happened, but it appeared to be some sort of mass suicide. None of them showed any signs of external violence. But the strangest thing happened when Lizbeth checked the identities of several of them and, contrary to expectations, the database showed that they were alive in another part of the planet or outside of it.
The objective achieved by them had given way to a look of concern, when they verified that only five minutes ago there had been a large amount of energy sent to those chambers that were the targets of Shin and Jim Stuart. Energy that it was not clear where it had gone.
Much of the data had been erased after that energy disappeared and the programs were generating errors.
Where were Shin and Stuart? Both were nowhere to be found. They checked the cameras that were still working, discovering how they had detected them in the first moment during the infiltration, but they still did not appear on them. They could only see many parts destroyed by the squadron's attack.
The chambers L1 and L2 now showed red alerts, indicating that they were sealed. It could be that they were there. Lizbeth wanted to check.
It was at that moment that the tremors began.
“This can't be good,” Granger said.
The walls began to show cracks and parts of the ceiling had started to fall. That place wasn't stable at all.
The army droids evacuated the last of the mercenaries and the screens in the control room were beginning to show how various parts of the accelerator ring were beginning to collapse.
“We can't leave!” Lizbeth said.
“We're going to be trapped if we stay!” Jade told her.
“Liz. Even if they're here they can survive the collapse,” Ryuuji agreed. “We, on the other hand…”
Lizbeth knew. Shin had his armor, and it was likely that he could escape under his own power, but the fact that he was nowhere to be found distressed her. She hated the idea of leaving him, but she knew it was true, he was the strongest on that team. On Jim Stuart's side it was different. He was in a synthetic body. If he was in a place that had collapsed his consciousness would return to his original body and the synthetic one could stay down there. He was in no danger.
Another tremor and parts of the roof of the control station fell.
“All right. Let's go,” Lizbeth agreed.
They had started to move out of the control room when Natsuki stopped and grabbed hold of the old glass door. She was feeling a kind of itching all over her skin. More on the one that was exposed to the light.
“What's wrong?” Ryuuji asked.
Natsuki clutched her stomach. “I don't feel well.” She felt a retch and threw up. But she had just vomited blood. Red-colored blood that stained the floor.
The whole team's eyes widened.
“I thought you were 100% invisible,” Granger said, confused.
“Huh?” Natsuki looked at everyone staring at her in shock. “What's wrong?”
“Nat, we can see you...” Lizbeth said .
“Huh?” Natsuki looked at her hands. She could always see herself normally, it was the others who couldn't see her unless they had the magic function activated in their retinas to see her. If this was a joke, it was in bad taste.
But why did she feel so dizzy all of a sudden? It had been a long time since she had felt that sensation.
She remembered. The last time she had felt dizzy of a similar nature she had disappeared from the world visible to everyone, including her family.
She gagged again and vomited more blood. Her eyes had begun to hurt. Everything seemed very bright. Almost as if her eyes were opening for the first time in a long time and were being engulfed by a very bright light.
A new tremor.
Lizbeth and Ryuuji held her by the side, still surprised, to see that they could grasp a visible Natsuki. Another question they could not answer in that hell. They had to hurry to get out.
Ryuuji looked at Natsuki with a strange face. “She disappeared,” he muttered.
Lizbeth checked too. Her body was blurring together with parts appearing and others disappearing as if it were an existence so weak that it was in danger of disappearing if it was left unobserved completely.
“Come on, quick!” shouted Lizbeth, her voice firm, but her gaze reflected panic and at the same time unease.
The group headed for the elevator, their hearts beating in unison with the echo of falling debris all around them. Hurrying as fast as they could, the team reached the elevator, which was currently descending to where they were. Granger, always scowling, pressed the call button so hard he almost plunged it all the way down.
“How much time do we have left?” Natsuki asked, her breathing quickening, as Ryuuji held her. She appeared and disappeared at intervals. Even Natsuki couldn't believe it.
“Less than five minutes, considering structural damage,” Ryuuji replied, checking a mental clock. “If we're not at the surface before this thing collapses, there'll be no turning back. We'll be trapped like Agent Stuart and Aogami.”
The elevator doors opened with an ominous creak, and the group squeezed inside. Jade, was visibly nervous, her hands shaking. “What if Agent Stuart's device doesn't work?” she asked, her wide eyes reflecting the dim light inside.
“It will work,” Lizbeth assured, trying to instill confidence. “We've trained for this. On the other hand the synth and Ataud emergency equipment has enough capacity to survive for a week when activated.”
“The consciousness transmission fails once in three million,” Jade said.
Once inside, Granger pressed the button for the top floor. The elevator began to ascend, but soon, a violent creak echoed throughout the space, followed by a loud bang that caused the elevator mechanism to lurch. The group looked at each other with concern.
“What was that?” asked Natsuki, adrenaline pumping in her veins.
“Just the place falling,” Ryuuji replied, but his voice lacked conviction. “We can't stay here for long.”
They had the anti-gravity and sustained flight devices of the turtle backpacks, but they could not risk escaping that way through the elevator shaft. If parts of the structure were falling, it was too easy that if they escaped by flying something heavy would fall on their heads. The elevator could fall, but they were confident that in the event of a fall they could use the anti-gravity devices to levitate inside the elevator the moment it crashed.
Suddenly, the elevator stopped with a bang, and the lights flickered. A scream escaped Jade's lips. “No, please!”
“Calm down,” Lizbeth said, squeezing Jade's arm. The truth was that while she was trying to instill confidence in the doe she was most likely the most terrified of them all. She didn't like the underground at all and the idea of being in that elevator so many meters below was the same feeling as being inside a coffin.
Suddenly there was a new knock at the bottom of the elevator and the mechanism started up again. The ascent seemed like an eternity. But they were more disturbed by a series of knocks at the bottom of the elevator. But they could hear the sounds of debris around them, so they judged them to be normal for the situation.
Finally, they reached the door leading to the outside. The team got out of the elevator and ran as best they could to the exit of that place. The battle on the surface had destroyed the entrance, so they only had to go out through a large hall where outside soldiers and army droids were guarding the place. But there was no time to celebrate. The building was still collapsing behind them.
The team moved as far away as possible, but after a minute the collapse seemed to stop. It was likely all over. The accelerator was so deep that it could not cause more damage to the surface. The most that could happen was the collapse of all the entrances to the site. Stairs, elevators were what had collapsed.
The search teams would have to sort themselves out later.
Lizbeth breathed in the humid morning air but there was something she didn't like. And it wasn't just the feeling of having left her loved one down there. There was something that was tightening in her chest at that moment. She helped Ryuuji carry Natsuki to the newly arrived first aid doctors who were treating Oxy.
They had taken over the facility. But the professor had not appeared.
That was not a battle won.
Lizbeth was looking at the cloud of dust that had risen from where they had left, when she saw a black shadow in armor emerge from the building. The particle mask covering his head was removed.
Lizbeth sighed in relief. Shin had escaped after all.
She approached him and grabbed his arm. “Are you ok? How did you come out?”
Shin stared at her and patted her on the head, even though he had a somewhat disgruntled look on his face. “I was going underneath you… didn't you hear me thrashing around the elevator?”
“What?”
“Yes, I was clutching at the bottom of the elevator.” Despite the gesture he waved his hand over Lizbeth's head trying to calm her down
“What happened?”
“There was nothing in the chamber I went to. I opened it using the particles but when I went in there was a smell of burning and a pile of glass on the floor. Where's Jim and Oxy?” Lizbeth pointed a hand in the distance and Shin sighed. “So you found her. I looked around a bit while I was on my way to the other chamber, but I couldn't find her either, so I figured they'd be out by now.”
“Wait a minute. You went to the other chamber?”
“Yes. When I didn't find anything in mine I figured it would be the wrong one. I ran over there and found the same thing.”
Lizbeth stared at him. “We didn't find the professor. Agent Stuart didn't come back either.”
Shin nodded and looked off into the distance. “Then it's just as I thought. It was meant for the professor to be the target of the time travel.”
“But, who was in the other chamber then?”
“The old man who alerted me on the plane,” Shin replied and walked a few steps forward, his back to Lizbeth. His eyes were fixed to the northeast and he frowned. “What's that?”
“The what?” she asked, looking in the same direction. She couldn't see anything but it was true that since she had stepped out of the elevator she hadn't looked relieved at all. There was something strange in the morning air.
“I'm not sure. There's something strange.”
“How do you know?”
Shin turned and looked at her, puzzled. “I have no idea,” he said.
His yellow eye was bleeding.