Chapter 7
Dead Man on Dead Land
I finished my conversation with the AI, and it seemed that I really needed to go to this Cube61 to find some particular … ingredients. The problem was that I couldn’t tell exactly how much time Ryola’s body still had before crumbling.
Cordi also mentioned that there was something else we needed to obtain at the Cube, but she refused to tell me about it, saying that it was private.
A slight burning sensation engulfed my whole body for a few seconds. Cordi said that she just changed my biosignature so I wouldn’t be trackable anytime soon. I didn’t really mind the pain as I didn’t want any more people chasing after me.
I was going to start cursing at her for not doing that earlier but my eyes detected the outskirts of a city, approaching faster by the second. We finally reached our destination. Kaiserstein.
“Welcome to the capital city of Kaiserstein travelers. ETA: 25 seconds. Thank you for using United Taxi Service,” echoed the monotonic voice throughout the vehicle.
The city was nothing like Neo Roma. If I could describe it in one word, it would certainly be Order.
A huge rectangular city of black, orange and white buildings were erected in a magnificent harmony and surrounded by the sea on three sides. It looked like it was built using the same weird material I saw in Neo Roma but with far better quality and maintenance.
The many advertisements were still present, but not as chaotic as they were in Neo Roma. Stacked in different groups of the same size, the holograms of colorful animations and actors of many species used and demonstrated the promoted products.
Land, water and aerial traffic all flowed with ease, both inside and outside the city. A huge port in the middle of the northern coastal area something to do with how people traded or something.
In the middle of the city, an island stood in the middle of an impressive two-thousand-kilometer circular lagoon.
A massive statue of a robed Noran held out a sphere—that looked like a planet—to a statue of a human which wore a crown on its head. Six other almost naked human statues encircled the two, facing outward and lifting a flat platform high above their heads.
On the platform stood the largest building I still had yet to see. The Royal Palace, where king Sven Kaiser IV and his family reside. It looked extremely well made with an insane attention to detail.
We landed on top of a huge skyscraper owned by the taxi company. The view was quite impressive from up there. Cars and security bots flew all over the city, and looking at the scene, I suddenly thought of a crazy idea.
“Cordi, can I get something like … wings?”
“Now is not a good time for that Adam,” she responded. “The energy levels are sufficient, but the sight of a human spontaneously evolving wings out of nowhere would grab the attention of many unwanted eyes, so I strongly advise against them. Also, you’d probably fall a couple times before you get used to flying.”
“I guess you’re right. Maybe later then,” I replied with a small sigh of defeat as I covered my bald head with the sweater’s hood and headed towards a floating elevator with my party.
Right after we got out of the building, we were met with thousands of people of all shapes and sizes going about their business in a neat systematic manner, almost like a bee hive.
“What now Adam? I don’t know why you brought us here, but I follow you wherever you go,” stated Mahaar while covering my shoulder with his family sized palm, the golden arm strapped on his back like some sort of a weapon.
“I’m here to look for something I have yet to know my friend. For now, we explore the city for a while and hope we don’t run into trouble like last time. We also need to cover up that arm with something until we find a way to attach it. It’s gaining too much attention,” I told him, repeating the lesson Cordi taught me just minutes ago. “We might also get you a new PDA rather than finding the one you lost in Neo Roma.”
“Cordi, can you find us a place where we can grab one? Maybe hack some cash into it while we’re at it.”
“I can’t do that here Adam. It seems that the capital city is riddled with Noran Hexadron firewalls, and my available computing power is insufficient to hack it in time. If I tried to initiate a hack, it would take approximately nine seconds for a complete detachment of police force to reach my location, followed by whoever is seeking us.”
“But I thought you’re like… the most advanced AI ever,” I said teasingly, wondering how she’d take it.
“I am an advanced AI Adam, not a miracle worker. Maybe I can teach you hacking and you try giving it a shot yourself.” Her cheerful voice came back at me, reminding me not to mess with her again.
“Okay, okay I give up. You don’t have to be stingy. Can you at least find us a place to sit down and rest from the long six minute journey from Italy? I need to clear my head and think about what I’m going to do next.”
I looked back at my two companions walking beside me. Mahaar tried to shove the arm in his clothes and failed miserably while Ryola focused all her four irises in the direction of the royal palace held by the giant statues.
Looking in the same direction and focusing my gaze, I found hundreds of humans in military attire patrolling around the palace. Some were holding long sniper rifles and others were using something that looked like large binoculars.
Holy shit, she can actually see that? it’s like thirty kilometers away. Cordi already told me that the Laireen had the sharpest eyesight, but damn, that far?
“Ryola, can you actually see the soldiers?” I couldn’t resist asking, and to my surprise, she nodded.
“Adam, her vision is even sharper than yours. She could probably see the hair strands on their unshaven faces. The available research I found is not that accurate either; her sight could be even sharper,” Cordi’s threw another fact bomb at me.
I looked at the woman with complete amazement. She really was something.
“Adam, why do you want to cure the poison in her body that much when she is the enemy?” asked the AI, a question we already discussed on the way here multiple times.
“I don’t know Cordi, I just feel like it’s the right thing to do.”
“Are you sexually attracted to her?”
“W-What? NO, I mean yes, I mean NO. Ugh! Look Cordi, it’s just something I can’t explain. I know for certain that she’s probably waiting for a chance to end me, but I can’t explain the feeling that keeps attracting me to her, it’s just like what I did with Mahaar.” I tried explaining something I didn’t even know myself and the AI didn’t respond, probably sick of arguing.
“O well, let’s go somewhere to sit a bit. Anyone hungry?” I asked my companions, and after a couple of furious nods, we went on our way.
After walking for a while, we found a café that also served food. The words “-Star Buckets”- were engraved with big English brown letters above the establishment. Entering, we sat down and a couple of menus popped up in front of our faces.
Oh! Dear coffee, how I missed you so much. I nearly cried from happiness when I saw the beverage on the menu, because I always considered myself a coffee addict back in my old world. That sacred dark brown liquid always made me calm and happy.
From the menu, I picked my favorite, the normal black boiled coffee. The cup size varied so much that I could even order a cup the size of a bathtub. It looked like the café catered to people with unusual sizes too.
The image of a giant adjusting his glasses and reading the morning paper while sipping from that tub-sized cup made me chuckle.
In less than ten seconds, a small area on the table split open and a steaming hot cup of coffee came out.
Taking a final look at the trays of food coming out from the table per my companion’s orders, I saw that Ryola got herself a considerable amount of food. That girl sure had a strong appetite. Mahaar got his usual load of a large pyramid of food.
Holding my holy grail, I closed my eyes and braced my nose for a sniff of the aroma I always loved.
*Sniff*
It smelled far different from the coffee I knew, but it wasn’t a bad smell.
Well, future coffee sure smells weird.
I cautiously took a sip from the cup, and with my heightened senses, the taste hit me like a kick in the face.
“What the fuck is this?” It was nothing like coffee. It looked like coffee but tasted like distilled shit.
I called a girl in white and brown I identified as a waitress and asked her about the carp I just tasted. She said that this was coffee while looking at me like I was a madman speaking about unicorns or something, especially when I mentioned the coffee beans. The weird thing that she shook and stuttered while talking to me as if afraid I’d bite her head off.
“Cordi? Some help here please, translate the word coffee bean to whatever language she speaks.”
“…”
“Cordi?”
The AI didn’t respond, I thought she searching for some kind of translation or an equivalent word in this era. What I didn’t know that the AI was about to hit me with the truth I subconsciously kept running away from.
I waved the waitress off after apologizing for being rude. My companions were devouring their food and I was just sitting there, staring at the brown dirt in my cup in wait for the AI to wake up and explain why she took so long to respond.
“Come on Cordi, what is taking yo-”
“Adam, do you know what a walker is?”
Now it was my turn to go silent. The Noran lord called me that two days ago but didn’t elaborate.
I really wanted to ask Cordi about everything, but with everything that happened, I didn’t have the time to. Or maybe I was running away from this conversation from the day I woke up at that lab.
“No, I don’t Cordi.”
“Did you see any animals or plants around since the day you obtained your vision back?”
“No,” I answered while making was was probably the most stupid look on my face. It was actually true that I knew something felt wrong. In all these two colossal cities and the areas between, I didn’t notice a single animal or a piece of green I could identify.
“When Universal empires discover an uncharted system with a sentient species or a precious resource of value, a race for dominance in that sector starts. Each empire tries to take control over whatever galaxies they find and make them part of its own, along with all resources and nations.”
“This sector, however, was a special case. The grand empires made a treaty not to touch the sector this particular planet resides … Earth. The treaty was made because of-”
“-unknown reasons approximately seven hundred thousand years ago, between the twelve strongest empires in the universe back then, ensuring that the human race would continue living in the dark.
“Strict laws prevented any species from even approaching the sector, let alone contacting Earth. It was so severe that a certain race called the Zeta Reticuli was entirely eradicated because they sent two ships to contact earth. The united empires alliance ordered a complete wipeout of the entire race from existence for what they did nearly two thousand years ago.
“However, 1500 years ago, the Noran empire breached the treaty and decided to take over the sector for cultivation, planet Earth included. That’s when you were first contacted by the Exorians, and me… Adam?”
“Y-Yes Cordi, please continue.”
“Then a fierce war between the Noran empire and the Exorian empire erupted on Earth, each with their own set of allied empires, and sadly, the Noran empire won and claimed the sector for itself.
“The planet itself was nearly destroyed. With an unstable core Earth was doomed, but for the cultivation process to work, the Noran empire started repairing the core and terraforming the planet, allowing humans to stay alive. At least that is what the information I currently have states.”
“You mentioned cultivation. Is this something like Chinese mythology or something?” This word was the only one that clearly grabbed my attention.
“Please let me finish without interrupting.”
“Sorry Cordi, please go on.”
“In order for an empire to cultivate a planet, they drop a set of Borotanium bombs in the inner atmosphere of a planet. The living element itself is non-lethal at first glance with an odorless purple color. It stimulates the brain and the reproductive system upon contacting a living organism. In the case of humans, the symptoms are ruptured blood vessels and extreme muscle tension.
“Borotanium completely takes over the reproductive system within five to ten hours and locks it completely. So, by the time the war ended after 126 years of conflict, only nine hundred million humans survived, along with only a handful of creatures with high tolerance to extreme conditions and partial immunity to the element. For example, two percent of the order Blattodea were completely.
“This cultivation process has been done countless time by many empires. However, only one universal empire stood against this brutal method for eons: the Exorian empire.
“A species of vast intelligence and hunger only for knowledge, the Exorians always promoted peace while seeking knowledge. However, in this brutal universe, knowledge alone will not grant survival, so they used their knowledge to make vast armies to defend instead of conquer, but they couldn’t fight on all fronts and save planets on countless sectors across the universe.
“So, they came up with the WALKER project, where they preemptively harvest samples of every species they could find on a planet and insert it inside a single individual, known as the planet’s walker, and in Earth’s case, they picked you, Adam.”
“Why would they do that if the planet already was gone?” Not caring if I was interrupting her or not, I stormed the AI with a barrage of questions. This was a serious matter.
“To grant that the planet’s legacy survives, multiple walkers were already relocated to planets located in Exorian territory, where they released their planet’s essence and sown the seeds for new life.”
“And why would the empires kill all life on a planet while keeping the dominant species alive?”
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“Expansion, power, resources, constant armies and war fronts—these are just various reasons why they keep the dominant species on a planet, tricking the survivors into thinking that they were saviors. As for why they eliminate all other kinds of life, it is to ensure their own survival.”
“From what? Aren’t they already like the masters of the universe? With all their weapons and technology and shit”
“They fear the natural way the universe uses to counter species that reaches the epitome of power, and that is probably what Earth excelled at, and what the Noran and their allies feared the most”
“And what exactly is that, Cordi?”
“Evolution”
The AI only said one word, a word powerful enough to shake universal empires to its cores. After a small pause, letting me digest what she said, she continued.
“Earth’s evolution started to grow rapidly, throwing the universal empires into a state of panic. No one wanted to see the rise of another universal power with that insane amount of diversified evolution paths.
And to make matters worse, nobody knew where the race called Human came from. Every race can be traced back to its origin in a certain degree, but research states that the human’s origin is unknown, like they just appeared from nowhere”
“For example, all other creatures on earth could be traced back to its first Phylum, but not the humans. That was probably what made the Noran make their move on the entire sector”
“If what you are saying is true, the Noran p-probably will do everything to end me, right?” I couldn’t hide my fear, that was a pill way too hard to swallow.
“Yes, Adam. In fact, not only the Noran empire are currently searching for your whereabouts, but also almost all the universal powers, galactical bounty hunters, anti-walker fanatics and many others”
*gulp*
“Thanks, Cordi. C-Can you please order the machines in my body to attack my brain and end my life? I’d rather d-die than be on the run for the rest of my life” I was serious, the whole universe was after me. I was scared to my core that moment, I just wanted to disappear, to take a rest from all this shit I have been through in my lives, both of them.
“Hee-hee… still weak-willed, aren’t we” I was startled and nearly fell back from my chair, it was the little girl’s giggle.
“WHAT? WHERE?” I shot up from my seat, looking left and right, searching for that little girl to no avail.
“Adam, what’s wrong?” Mahaar’s voice woke me up from my trance. I looked back at the table to find both my companions staring at me. Mahaar looked concerned, scanning me with his green eyes from head to toe, trying to find anything wrong with me. Ryola on the other hand just kept staring at my face with her usual lifeless look.
“It’s nothing guys, I was day dreaming” I waved them off wearing a fake smile and turned my attention back to the AI while sitting back down.
“C-Cordi”
“Yes, Adam?”
“Let’s say I impossibly survived through all that shit somehow, what happens to walkers when they release their essences?” I asked, feeling droplets of sweats sliding down my back.
“They die, Adam”
“…..”
“…..”
“Can I fight back somehow?”
“Walkers usually are extremely strong individuals, capable of facing off immense powers and winning, giving enough time to reach high degrees of evolution. There was once a walker of planet Maekola, called Lanam, who single-handedly took out an entire fleet of two and a half billion highly trained soldiers over five years”
“Yes, now we’re talking. Tell me what happened to this Lanam? Can we meet him or something? Or did he already released his essence and died?” I caught the glimmer of hope and started asking more questions.
“He died. The empires alliance just sent a bigger fleet and finally took him out”
Cordi you fucking bitch, you not helping at all … I’m so screwed now!
I looked around to see some people stealing glances at us, probably at the sight of the one armed Grokati and the mysterious woman in black gnawing on a piece of meat like a hyena with her pearly white teeth.
“Look, mama, the guy to beat the black monster we saw on the holovision. Look! Look, his big friend is here too” A little boy around seven years old grabbing his mother’s robe and pointing at us. I turned my head at them and the moment they saw me, the mother held her child and stormed off like she saw a ghost or something.
Why would they even allow children to watch this bloody shit?
“Hehe, dammit Cordi, couldn’t you make me look a bit cooler? I look like a bunch of animals put into a blender, I don’t even know if I’m even human anymore” I tried joking around to ease my fear, putting the hood back on my bald head to hide my hideous face.
“You can’t fool me, Adam, I can see your fear still lingering. If it will ease your mind, I just want to state a fact that you have what no other walker had before”
“And that is?”
“Me”
I just laughed her comment out, it really eased my worry to some degree. She has been very helpful since the day I met her. I just hope she’s on my side like she said, unlike that red eyed eating machine over there with the big guns… I mean gun.
----------------------------------------
When everyone had their meals, we left the café with 4000 fewer credits, Kaiserstein was really expensive.
We visited some clothes shop similar to the one we shopped at Neo Roma to buy something we can hide the golden arm in from the prying eyes.
I got myself a plain-looking white mask to cover my face. After that, we took a walk around the city, with Mahaar looking left and right admiring everything he sees and comparing it to something on his home planet.
I couldn’t enjoy the stroll one bit, all that filled my mind is what Cordi told me about who I am and the dangers surrounding me in every corner now and in the future. I had to hide behind the hood and the mask since Cordi couldn’t hack most of the cameras and eyebots behind the sixth generation of Noran firewalls.
Mekshima didn’t lie when he said they could counter her after all.
We kept walking until we were stopped by the sight of a large crowd staring at a gigantic screen hung on the side of a building.
“Looks like they’re broadcasting the finals at the colosseum. Adam, let’s go watch” said the enthusiastic Mahaar while dragging me along, diving through the crowd.
On some kind of a 3D screen, the final match of the Neo Roma colosseum tournament took place between the last two contenders.
On one side, there was a red skinned humanoid creature holding a metal spear with a sharp tip and a small energy shield that constantly changes size and shape based on what is it blocking.
He had a familiar Spartan look with the gimmicky armor he’s wearing, covering only his vital organs, each move he made were met by a loud wave of cheering from the spectators. He looked like the crowd’s favorite.
On the other side of the fight, there was some kind of a female cyborg, she was hovering above ground while spreading her arms wide. Countless snake-like tentacles coming out of her back, moving around like some uncontrolled water hoses.
Her body was full of metallic parts that keep making subtle moves, probably controlling the stuff hovering around her body.
Around the cyborg woman was ten metal orbs the size of a bowling ball, rotating nimbly in harmony around the woman while constantly shooting laser beams at the red man.
The man kept dodging and blocking the incoming beams, trying to cover the distance between him and the cyborg woman. The woman on other hands was backing away, increasing the distance while maintaining the same firing pace.
They kept going like that for a while until the woman stopped backing away and bent forward like she lost consciousness. The man probably knew what she’s doing and instantly dashed backward while bringing his expanding shield forward, almost covering his entire body.
Four giant tentacles shot forth from the middle of the smaller ones on her back towards the red man. Now the situation was reversed, she went back to her normal stance and charged forward behind her tentacles, her orbs are still shooting at the now cracking shield.
The arena was so spacious that the man wouldn’t hit a wall anytime soon, but her charge was way faster than him. In mere seconds, she caught up to him and slammed all the four of her tentacles on the shield, shattering it completely and sending the man flying.
Loud booing filled the air coming from the crowd, but she paid no mind to it and kept hovering towards the man at high speed. She grabbed him with two of the tentacles and starting lashing him brutally with the other two a couple of times before flinging him in the air, allowing all the orbs to fire at him freely, filling his body with hundreds of laser beams. The man crashed into the ground, making a small crater under him.
The camera changed to show the man’s state. He was lying on his back, his dark blue eyes staring at the sky. Then the man smirked, throwing the whole colosseum into a state of utter chaos.
“OOJIN, OOJIN, OOJIN” Thunderous roars came out from everywhere, from the stadium to the people around us watching the match, even Mahaar was repeating the red man’s name, at least that was I thought.
“looks like that man named Oojin guy is pretty popular, but why are everyone cheering for him like that, he’s clearly losing” I curiously asked the excited Mahaar beside me.
“Losing? Hah! He’s just toying with her and putting up a good show. Also, his name is not Oojin” replied Mahaar without even looking at me, his eyes are fixed on the screen.
“The enlighten me Mahaar, what is Oojin, his race?” I sarcastically asked again, curiosity about that Oojin sparking in me.
“Oojin is what he’s about to do, just watch Adam” Mahaar just shooed me off with a hasty reply, making me even more curious about what’s that man lying on his back going to do next, and boy that was … incredible.
The man stood up, grinning like an idiot, not minding the hundreds of beams hitting his body and raised both his arms like he just won the match.
The cyborg woman didn’t waste any time and charged him with all her tentacles once again, but she stopped midway like she just crashed into some hidden wall.
The grinning man body was … transforming? Large horns coming out of his forehead and wings out of his back, his muscles were multiplying and popping out of place on his body that logically shouldn’t even have muscles in it.
Holy fucking shit, this is a fucking demon! I gasped with shock at the sight I only saw in games and movies.
The man completed his demonic transformation, the large spear in his hand fell off, leaving only the tip which is only a tiny knife, I looked back at the cyborg woman who regained her posture and started to vibrate fiercely, probably having a hidden card of her own.
However, the demon didn’t give her a chance to do anything. His figure blurred and appeared behind the cyborg who probably sensed him and instantly moved her tentacle to hit him, but the man disappeared again, making the tentacles swoosh into empty air.
I didn’t see the man again for a few seconds, only some red blur appearing and disappearing around the cyborg, like some glitchy visual effect.
Bits and pieces started flying away from the woman, being torn alive bit by bit like a poor animal that fell prey to a school of piranhas. Her tentacles, big and small, were ripped one by one over the course of seconds. Out of desperation, she started flailing everywhere, the orbs firing randomly in all directions.
In less than a minute, the demon was standing in the middle of the arena, holding the dead woman’s head like a trophy. Blood, wires, organs and cybernetic limbs everywhere around him in pieces. The floating orbs now lying motionlessly on the ground, losing its bright glow. The mad thunderous cheering was now at its peak, both on the screen in the colosseum and here around us.
I had no idea what just happened, so I just kept looking at the scene with wide eyes and a slack jaw. Fortunately, the instant replay came to rescue my dying logic.
A video replay several thousand times slower than the real thing, showed the man still moving very fast in an extremely slow world, cutting away the poor woman body piece by piece with a frenzied smile on his face. He must have hit her a million time over the course of a minute.
Okay, this is some next level anime shit! I was stunned at the scene, so happy that I didn’t pass the preliminaries. That demon literally disintegrated her… with a knife.
“You saw that Adam, a Glorious win” Said Mahaar excitedly while tapping my shoulder.
“So, this Oojin is not a demon race, but more like a technique?” I curiously asked Mahaar while walking away from the crowd into the direction of our waiting companion.
“Something like that. Most species can achieve Oojin with rigorous training, soul techniques and luck. Only a handful of Grokati achieved lower levels of Oojin, but that was a long time ago, not much known about Oojin though and whoever archives it doesn’t talk much about it”
“So Oojin is different from what you did while fighting Komaal?”
“That was Awakening, a technique only the Grokati could do. It’s entirely different from Oojin. It heavily burdens our bodies after using it, most of the Grokati who awakened died right after activating it. Oojin on other hand is something even more powerful and mysterious. My father didn’t really explain too much about it, only that it is very hard to obtain and even harder to train”
We reached finally Ryola, she probably was watching from where she sat with her unreal eyesight. I made a mental note to ask Cordi about Oojin and soul techniques later.
The sun was setting and I noticed that my companions showing signs that they were tired, so I led them to a nearby hotel. They fought hard this morning and deserved some rest.
We sat in our suite, Mahaar cleaning the arm slowly like he’s polishing a piece of diamond while ryola sitting on some comfy chair in the balcony, her weapon on her lap and staring at the bustling city from above. The city was really beautiful at night with all of its colors and lights.
As for me, I was waiting for them to sleep so I can sneak out freely, I had a bigger plan for the night. I didn’t want a clingy Grokati following me in a wild goose chase or the woman who I am almost certain that she could anytime put a bullet in my head, or whatever that red shit coming out from her weapon is.
Mahaar finished cleaning the arm and went towards his bed next to me. he lied down, holding the arm like a teddy bear and closed his eyes.
One down, one to go I thought while grinning, only Ryola remains, but the grin suddenly disappeared with Mahaar’s voice.
“Adam”
“Yes, Mahaar?” I replied hastily. It wasn’t his usual tone but a more serious one.
“Since we arrived here at Kaiserstein, I noticed that you weren't acting like your usual self. Something happened to you at the cafe’ after you drank the coffee. I know I don’t know much about you Adam, and I’m still in no position to ask, but I want you to know that I’m always here for you. If something is bothering you, do not hesitate to lay it on me, we’re friends, right?”
“Yes Mahaar, we definitely are. And don’t worry about me, I’m perfectly fine, just a bit stressed from what happened with the bounty hunters this morning” I lied with a blissful expression on my face, this Grokati was truly someone who really cared for me.
“Okay Adam, good night”
“Good night my friend”
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A couple of hours have passed after midnight, Mahaar’s pillow starting to get wet from his constant drooling. Ryola locked herself up in her room, probably sleeping too since I saw her figure lying on her bed with my vision from through the wall.
I waited until everything became quiet and stealthy left the hotel. Covering my head and face, I went directly north to where the sea is.
Upon reaching the shore, I was completely alone with not a single soul in the area I gazed upon the dark water reflecting the city lights. hesitating to do when I intended to do.
“Cordi, I’m scared”
“From what Adam?”
“I never took a liking to water at night, I always feared that some kind of monster will pop out of the water and devour me”
“Don’t worry Adam, there is nothing in the water. even if there was something lurking there, I am sure that it is nothing you can’t handle. Now, tell me what are you really scared from”
I couldn’t argue with her, the night water was scary, but not as scary as the revelations she told me this morning.
“Adam, my mission is to keep you safe and sound until you find your purpose and save your planet. I will do everything I can to prevent any harm that could even touch you. for now, you have nothing to fear until-”
“-Until I release the essence on a remote planet and d-die” I completed the sentence for her, tears flowing out of my eyes, I couldn’t hold it anymore. after finally getting a second chance in life, when I thought I would be finally able to live freely the way I wanted, I was still a dead man.
“You remember the walker I told you about this morning, the one called Lanam?” Cordi suddenly asked.
“The one who destroyed an entire fleet?”
“Yes Adam, you know how many DNA strands he carried inside him?” with a soothing motherly voice, Cordi continued with yet another weird question.
“How the hell could I know?” I replied with a bit of irritation at her irrational question.
“Lanam carried 78.876 DNA strands, only 250 of these strands were augmented with his body, giving him the immense power he had. Now tell me Adam, how many species you think have walked the earth?”
I was shocked, this question opened so many possibilities I never thought about before, if that Lanam was really what she said with the power to take out a fleet with only 250 mutations, I maybe could…
“N-Nine million?” I answered her instantly, cutting my own train of thought.
“Not quite, the Exorians found over twenty-five million DNA strands, it was way too much for the human body to contain without perishing, that is why I was installed in your brain Adam”
“W-What?”
“Also, the evolutions on Lanam’s body were uncontrolled and happened randomly, it lacked the efficiency I provide for your mutations. Now, imagine you had more time to fully integrate with the Earth’s essence Adam, how powerful you think you can be?”
“I-I d-don’t kn-”
“Adam, movement, behind you” A red dot, appeared in the corner of my vision. I also sensed the movement from the corner of my eyes.
“We’ll continue our conversation later, thank you for always taking care of me, Cordi” I thanked the AI who just gave me a big confidence boost, saving me from my miserable way of thinking.
I turned my head, facing the figure standing before me, the night lights dancing over the horizon, but she reflected none.
“So, you weren't sleeping after all” I spoke first to the fully armored Ryola with a smirk on my face. She shook her head in turn.
Just when I thought I could be powerful enough to fight back whatever comes at me.
“Did you kill him?”
She shook her head again, indicating that my friend was sleeping safe and sound. It also seemed that he was the sole reason she didn’t attack me so far.
What was I thinking about saving her, I probably should have been more cautious. heh! what a dumbass I was.
“Thank you Ryola. Can you take off your helmet? I want to see your face” I asked her, wanting to see her beautiful face one last time.
She strangely obeyed, her helmet disappearing into the rest of the armor showing her beautiful unmoving facial features and her long braided hair.
She took out the weapon on her back and pointed it at my head, energy building up and moving to the tip of the weapon, she probably wanted to end everything with one shot.
“Adam... Run” Cordi’s warning echoed in my mind, but it didn’t really matter
“You saw for yourself Cordi, she probably could snipe me from the other side of the city,” I said back, giving up on any idea to counter the assassin in black.
I looked at her in the eye, asking my final question. Betting everything I felt towards that woman in four words.
“Do you seek salvation?”
Her eyes widened for just a moment but I caught it with my eyes, but she shook her head and gripped the weapon tightly, probably thinking that I was bluffing.
“I wasn’t speaking to you,” I said, shifting my eyes from hers to the weapon she carried.
*Click*
*Click*
*Click*
*Click*
Nothing happened. Clicking sounds came out from the trigger on the weapon. The red beam forming on the tip dissipating gradually. Her doll face finally breaking into a state of disbelief.
“Can you really save her?” An otherworldly and ancient voice hit my ears, speaking in the Laireen tongue.
“I probably can… XA-0” I said after a small pause, a wide grin forming on my face.