Nirvana Rebirth - Chap 3
Chapter 3: The Fall of the Patriarch
Translated by Vivian of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Addis
After entering the cell, A-Ka fell into a daze. He didn’t understand why he had stepped out in that type of situation just then and admitted that Heishi was looking for him.
He hugged his knees and sat in the corner, thinking countless times, What will become of me?
Humans were shrewd animals. In order to think about his insignificant life, he had already recited the law articles repeatedly. A-Ka turned them over in his mind and felt that the current trouble he was in wouldn’t necessarily lead to execution. After all, there was nothing in the law articles that mentioned how someone would be convicted if they brought back a human.
The only crime that could be pinned on him was him going out of bounds. But A-Ka had been very careful not to expose any traces of himself in front of the monitoring security cameras. As long as the law-abiding mechs had no way to determine whether or not he had left Ant Nest, then he couldn’t be charged with anything.
The problem of Heishi was even simpler; he didn’t have an identity, nor was he a runaway from another district. That way, it was very likely that he would also be determined to be innocent, along with A-Ka——that is, assuming that Heishi didn’t disclose the information that A-Ka had slipped out before to the mechs.
However, once the android filed a lawsuit against him, A-Ka would be arrested for theft and subsequently executed.
A-Ka was extremely glad when he realized that he had made the correct decision in rescuing Heishi, for he was actually rescuing himself.
Thinking up to here, A-Ka glanced at Heishi who was opposite of him, thinking how he could tell him his thoughts under the surveillance of the security cameras without being noticed. When he lifted his head, he discovered that Heishi was staring at him. There were two cells between the two of them, and the cells’ bars were composed of vertical and horizontal lasers that crisscrossed each other.
“Heishi,” said A-Ka.
Heishi glanced at A-Ka.
A-Ka said, “Exactly what did you come here to do?”
Heishi answered, “None of your business.”
“You…”
A-Ka really didn’t know what to do with Heishi. Heishi glanced around him, his eyes filled with uncertainty as he reached out a hand, about to touch the laser bars. A-Ka immediately said tensely, “Don’t touch them. Don’t touch anything!”
Heishi said indifferently, “Shut up!”
A-Ka said simply, “Go ahead and touch it, don’t blame me when you die.”
Heishi was silent for a long time but in the end, he didn’t try putting himself in danger.
“Don’t say anything.” In the end, this was the only thing A-Ka could say to him.
Heishi stood there silently, gazing at A-Ka. A-Ka turned things over in his mind. How should he explain things to Heishi? This adult man he had brought back was practically a mysterious lunatic.
He didn’t know anything. When he went to get interrogated, he probably wouldn’t lie. Even worse, he knew nothing at all about the current situation, nor Mechanical City, nor the position of humans, nor their relation to the mechs. A-Ka could only feel that this was extremely troublesome.
When A-Ka raised his head, he discovered that Heishi was still looking at him.
“Listen, Heishi,” said A-Ka. He realized that it might be necessary to show Heishi the reality of the dangers here, so he fished out a small screwdriver from his pocket and threw it at the laser cage. With a buzz, the plastic screwdriver was cut into two pieces and fell to the ground.
Heishi gazed at the screwdriver.
“Don’t say anything,” said A-Ka. “No matter what they ask you, don’t say anything, or else we’ll die. Be obedient and tell me, why did you come here?”
Heishi said, “No reason. I need to think of a way to get out. You can continue to stay here.”
A-Ka said through gritted teeth, “I saved you twice! Heishi! This is how you treat your savior?”
The two of them vigilantly heard a sound coming from outside, so they sat down in their respective cells. A-Ka constantly looked at Heishi, somethings thinking about him, and somethings thinking about the revolution of the androids. He closed his eyes and suddenly heard a dull thud in the distance, and the walls shook slightly.
Immediately after, the lights in the entire jail district faded, leaving only the flickering laser bars.
Gunshots sounded from afar.
A-Ka stood up in an instant. The power source had been disconnected! What was going on? According to the information he had obtained from the chip, shouldn’t the android revolution have been on the twenty-seventh?
The lasers fizzled, shining on their faces. The situation was weird, and several seconds later, all of the light sources disappeared.
A-Ka ran out of his cage, stumbled, and bumped into someone’s arms. He was grabbed firmly by a powerful arm and was startled. A-Ka said, “Let go of me!”
The person humphed coldly; it was Heishi’s voice, and he pushed him to the side. A-Ka thought, That’s enough… Upon the opening of the cells, all of the prisoners inside were trying to escape. In the pitch-black area, there was no way to figure out which way to go, so A-Ka could only go based on his memory of the path they had taken to get here. He shouted, “This way! Heishi! Follow me!”
He turned and ran towards the left side. However, he heard the wheels of mechs outside the exit. It seemed that a lot of sentinels were coming over. He subconsciously turned around and ran back towards the depths of the cages.
A-Ka said, “It’s dangerous! Turn around!”
A-Ka ran into the depths of the walkway where rows upon rows of cells stood. Once the lasers had disappeared, everyone was on their guard. Everywhere in the cells, there were disorderly shouting, pushing, and shoving. A-Ka was pushed and sent reeling, and he grabbed a person.
“Heishi! Heishi!” A-Ka shouted anxiously, yet there was no response. He had probably run off somewhere and gotten lost, and A-Ka couldn’t afford to search for him in the darkness. A disarray of voices sounded.
*****
“We’re free!”
“Quick, let’s get out!”
“There’s a problem with the power source!”
“Everyone, be careful! Get down!”
At that instant, A-Ka felt someone tackle him to the ground, rolling over, his body very fit, as laser bullets came flying in all directions. Mech guards opened the main door of the corridor, and spots of light swiftly swept past. Screams and blood were everywhere. A-Ka’s heartbeat stopped in that instant, and he could feel a slippery fluid on his hand, his mind in a daze.
“Over here.” Heishi’s voice was still calm, so calm to the point that it didn’t make sense. A-Ka felt his body fly up as he was pulled somewhere by Heishi. Immediately after, they started rolling and the main door closed with a boom behind him. They had entered the passageway outside the jail area.
A-Ka couldn’t see anything as he felt around in the dark passageway, and to his side, he found a cover of a box, pounded it a few times, asking, “Heishi, are you still there?”
There was no response, and it was silent all around him. Immediately afterward, a jarring sound came from the box cover in front of him; it had been smashed into bits. A-Ka was startled, and his hand brushed against a luminescent lantern, which he then turned on, and saw that Heishi’s hand was covered in blood. If it wasn’t for the blood, he would even have suspected that Heishi was a mech.
“You’re so strong,” said A-Ka, some fear still lingering in his heart. “Does it hurt?”
A-Ka inspected Heishi’s hand and saw that the back of his hand had a cut.
Heishi didn’t answer and said instead, “I am leaving now. Be careful.”
Heishi turned around and walked off, and A-Ka was completely out of patience. He held the luminescent lantern and carefully headed forward.
In the blink of an eye, Heishi had already gone to who knows where. A-Ka used the luminescent lantern to light up the path ahead of him, nervously and cautiously searching the passageway, scared that he would bump into a mech. However, after walking around for a while, he discovered that there was a person ahead; he had bumped into Heishi yet again.
“Let’s go together,” said A-Ka. “You’re not familiar with these passageways.”
Heishi didn’t reply and didn’t wait up for A-Ka either as he walked towards the depths of the corridor. He stopped at where he was, ahead of A-Ka, and turned around to observe him. When he turned his head around, his hands also grasped at the empty air, as if he was trying to grab the light from the lantern. It crossed A-Ka’s mind that Heishi was learning.
He guessed that Heishi was probably imitating him right now, as well as understanding his own movements. That is to say, besides knowing how to talk, there was a part of his behavior and thinking that was completely blank as if he was a human child. But right now, he couldn’t afford to ask Heishi about it. First and foremost, he had to preserve his own life.
He followed Heishi while telling him what he was thinking.
A-Ka said, “This place is called Ant Nest, and it’s where humans live. You’re also a human.”
Heishi still had a cold and indifferent expression.
“Right now, we need to think of a way to get out of this place.”
Heishi didn’t react, so A-Ka spoke again. “The light can help us see the path clearly, and this type of lantern is used by the androids. They aren’t mechs. Mechs have infrared lenses, so even if it was pitch-black, they can still see humans. So…”
“You are too noisy,” said Heishi.
“…”
A-Ka finally exploded and roared angrily, “Meeting you was unlucky on my part!”
Heishi turned around, looking at A-Ka threateningly, and A-Ka became cowardly immediately, not daring to shout at him anymore.
Heishi said coldly, “What did you say?”
A-Ka didn’t dare to say anything, and fortunately, Heishi didn’t beat him up, only turned around and walked forward.
“Other people are fighting outside,” said A-Ka as he followed behind Heishi, realizing that this was not the moment to argue with Heishi, “so we can take advantage of the chaos to get out of here.”
Heishi made a perfunctory “mn” and turned his head aside as if he was trying to identify the sound in the darkness. A-Ka knew that he understood perfectly, so he followed him forward the entire way.
The luminescent lantern lit up the passageway, shining on the structure of the paths ahead: hall, passageway, hall, passageway. Most of the steel walls that separated the areas were open, and there was an occasional steel wall that was stuck halfway, probably having stopped because of the problems with the power source. A-Ka shone the lantern towards a few of the walls, hoping to find a map of these passageways, but he gradually realized that that was in vain.
Only the living areas in Ant Nest had maps, and after leaving Ant Nest, the mechs and androids were all equipped with navigation systems, so they didn’t need maps. Since he was blindly going forward and didn’t know where he was, he could only follow Heishi and dazedly walk forward.
After Heishi had appeared, A-Ka was gratified to find that his luck was pretty good, and he seemed to have brought the goddess of luck, as well as change, to A-Ka. If it weren’t for Heishi, then A-Ka probably would’ve been taken away by the androids and executed by now. As for whether or not the reason that the androids had warned them and started the fight in advance was because of losing the chip, it was entirely out of A-Ka’s grasp.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, A-Ka’s physical strength gradually dwindled and he said, “Wait a moment for me, I need to rest.”
Heishi looked at A-Ka impatiently for a while before saying, “I am leaving.”
A-Ka said, “Where are you going?”
Heishi answered, “None of your business.”
A-Ka really didn’t know what to do with Heishi, and he seemed to always be stubborn about the conversation they had had after he had woken up from when A-Ka had found him by the ocean. That conversation was an unhappy one. But it still boiled down to the hostility Heishi had shown when he had first met A-Ka.
A-Ka said, “Wait for me, you won’t survive here by yourself.”
Heishi’s footsteps receded into the distance, leaving behind A-Ka at his original spot. He had left.
A-Ka turned his head to the side and pressed his ear onto the wall, yet he couldn’t hear anything. Ahead of him was a long tunnel for transporting supplies for people. There were a lot of these tunnels inside Ant Nest, and they crisscrossed each other. They were packed into the underground, transporting things that the humans needed. Finding the tunnels was like finding the network of paths.
A-Ka rested for a while and walked slowly along the tunnel. Unexpectedly, he bumped into Heishi again.
There was no exit ahead. Heishi was lifting his head, examining a device that looked like an electrical box.
A-Ka said, “Pull down the gate outside. This is activated by magnetism, so it isn’t affected by the power outage.”
Heishi pulled down the gate and a roar sounded from the railroad, opening an iron door that was inlaid into the ground.
*****
“Well done,” said A-Ka. “If you had gone by yourself, then you wouldn’t have been able to find the exit.”
Heishi didn’t reply, and A-Ka jumped in. The railroad there was so long, the end couldn’t be seen. He walked forward, going along the tracks. Heishi followed him in, and faint noises of an explosion sounded from afar.
He didn’t know how the androids’ plans were going, so A-Ka was a bit worried; if he couldn’t escape and the androids failed collectively, then what would he do? He walked a while longer, and Heishi suddenly grabbed A-Ka. The two of them had nearly bumped into a minecart.
The passageway was blocked off.
“What do we do?” asked A-Ka.
Heishi walked forward and pushed the minecart with both of his hands.
The minecart had to at least be a ton, but Heishi bent over and pushed with his strength. A-Ka was about to stop him when he discovered that the minecart was starting to move, so A-Ka also bent over and joined Heishi in pushing the minecart that was like an iron wall, panting as they advanced along the rails.
After a while, they arrived at a temporary storage place. The railroads that were like a spiderweb all met in one big hall, and there were holes on all four walls. Heishi listened intently for a bit and chose a path.
A-Ka stood at one of the entrances and heard a groaning sound issue from inside. Was it the exit?
All around him, it was gradually getting colder, for the air conditioning system had stopped because of the disconnection of the power source.
“What is it?” Heishi asked.
“It’s cold,” said A-Ka.
Heishi clearly didn’t understand what “cold” meant, but he walked off.
A-Ka was very melancholic and he couldn’t help but complain in his head, Then why did you ask… He trembled a bit and noticed that Heishi had been wearing the linen robes he had given him this entire time. He supposed that although his body was robust, he still had to find some clothes to wear… Otherwise, once he was sick, it would be even more troublesome. As they walked along, he tripped inside the dark tunnel in which he couldn’t even see his hand if he held it in front of himself.
A few corpses of androids were laying on the tracks, and from a distance, someone groaned, “Help me… help me…”
A-Ka took a deep breath, his heart pounding fiercely.
“Which squad are you from…” The surviving android turned his head around and saw A-Ka and Heishi.
His head was already destroyed, and one of his eyeballs was protruding from its eye socket. His stomach had been punctured by bullet holes, and upon seeing that A-Ka was a human, he said, “Humans.”
He raised a trembling hand as if he wanted to grab A-Ka, so Heishi pulled A-Ka back, making him stand further away.
“What happened?” A-Ka wanted to know urgently whether or not they had won or lost this war.
“Humans,” said the android weakly, “go.” Soon after, he closed his eyes.
A-Ka lifted up the luminescent lantern and looked around. It appeared that a fierce battle had occurred here, and there were quite a few destroyed mech guards in front of them, the light of the electricity in the wreckage of the mechs flickering.
A-Ka peeled off the clothes of an android’s corpse and gave it to Heishi to wear. Heishi undid his linen robe, reached his hands into the vest, and, the entire time he was putting it on, his gaze was fixed onto the androids, so A-Ka knew he had questions. Sure enough, a moment later, Heishi spoke, he was puzzled about the scene in front of him, “Why do these people all look the same?”
“They’re androids,” said A-Ka. “They were created during the regime of the mechs, and they serve the mechs as messengers.”
“What about you?” Heishi asked.
A-Ka answered, “I’m a human, and in Mechanical City, our class is even lower than that of the androids.”
“Class?” Heishi had heard a word he didn’t understand.
A-Ka let Heishi finish putting on the clothes. He then walked while absentmindedly explaining the classes and how Mechanical City worked to him, as well as the structure of the society of humans, including how the androids carried out the mechs’ orders and how they helped with managing humans by doing work that the steel life forms had no way of doing.
The androids managed them in a unified structure. They didn’t fear getting wounded, nor were they scared of sickness. Whenever their organs were damaged, they would naturally get replacements. Their blood types were all the same, so organs could be matched among themselves. Thus, the androids survived much easier than humans did, and they were just like biological mechs.
“Where did they come from?” Heishi brought up his second question.
A-Ka replied, “Humans created them.
“In the most glorious era of humans, they had every means and there was nothing they couldn’t do,” A-Ka explained to Heishi. “The legion of mechs led by Father and the androids were all the creations of humans, and they were created to serve humans. But the androids first betrayed humankind, and then Father did. During the regime of the mechs, they controlled the production line of androids, so in the end, the androids were dominated by the mechs.”
“How about humans?” asked Heishi. “Humans like me.”
“Some stayed here and became slaves,” said A-Ka. “Just like me. The rest fled, and I’ve heard that they established a new nation on the other side of the ocean.”
Heishi nodded, and A-Ka’s mind whirled, remembering when Heishi had been washed ashore. Could he have come from the faraway lands? Regarding the Ideal Nation on the other side of the ocean, people had various rumors. Some people said that the Ideal Nation was a world of magicians, and they could summon the winds and command the rain, as well as command nature itself, using their spiritual power to change the world. Others said that the refugees had all already died, and the so-called Ideal Nation was simply a faded, false legend.
Some other people believed that the armies of the Ideal Nation would someday arrive at Mechanical City and destroy Father, the devil they had created themselves all those years ago, and free the humans here.
But instead, the androids inside Mechanical City had taken the lead to overthrow the mechs with this revolution.
After finishing listening to A-Ka’s elaborations, his expression became even more indifferent. A-Ka suddenly thought of something, and he guessed, “Did you come from the Ideal Nation?”
Along the way, A-Ka had imagined what Heishi’s past was like several times. Perhaps, he had been a survivor of a shipwreck and drifted over here; maybe, three thousand years ago, he had come to the third mainland with a mission. However, Heishi had already forgotten everything, so he could only hope that he would remember it again someday in the future.
After Heishi and A-Ka had met, besides asking him questions, Heishi had been silent most of the time and simply observed the outside world. A-Ka didn’t bother him and threw him a pair of shoes for him to wear.
The air gradually grew chillier, and A-Ka’s breaths turned into white mist. Wrapped up in thick layers of clothing, the two of them walked past the scene of the aftermath of the war. The ground was littered with the corpses of androids and the wreckages of mechs as far as the eye could see. It was clear that they had undergone a bloody war.
The deeper they went, the more corpses there were. It continued like that all the way until the outside of a door, where there was practically a packed pile of them. A-Ka realized that this place might be a really important location. However, it was just a normal corridor and a door that didn’t have any signs labeling it.
“Why would they all die here?” A-Ka was puzzled; this walkway contained nearly a hundred corpses and wreckages, so by the looks of it, they seemed to have been guarding some really important object. However, there was only the door at the end of the corridor.
Looking back, he couldn’t back out now, so he could only brace himself and proceed forward. A-Ka suddenly thought, Is it the Central Control Room in which they store Father? But he immediately cast the speculation away. This place was only the area where the railroads of the living supplies intersected, so it was impossible that Father would be stored in this sealed, remote place underground.
Heishi moved the corpses and wreckages of mechs away, revealing the entirety of the door. He braced his shoulder against the wall and pushed, but it didn’t budge. A-Ka contemplated for a moment before saying, “Let me try.” He turned on the keypad next to the door, and on it were dozens of password-protected locks, making it considerably troublesome.
He inadvertently discovered that the android that was lying on the ground, closest to the door, had a card gripped tightly in his hand, and understood that the rebel army was just about to get through this door.
Exactly what was behind the door? A-Ka’s curiosity had practically peaked. He used the keycard to open the large door that was solely electronically powered. Inside, it was dark. The light of the lantern shone on Heishi’s face, and all around them were empty nutrient pods. A dying human sat in the center.
An old man.
“You’ve finally come…” spoke the old man.
The sudden voice startled A-Ka.
“Who… who are you?” A-Ka hastily approached him and examined the old man’s condition. He found that there were lots of tubes of different colors inserted into him; he was on life support.
“Where is General Libre?” the old man lifted his cloudy eyes, looking at A-Ka.
“Gen… General Libre?” said A-Ka. “I don’t know… There are a lot of dead androids outside, are you okay?”
“The revolution failed…” the old man faltered. “How did you get here?”
A-Ka briefly described the process of his escape, and after the old man did his best to finish listening before saying weakly, “In the end, it is actually a human that comes to me… One of my kind…”
“What… what do you mean?” A-Ka was baffled and tried to carry the old man, asking, “Sir, can you move?”
“I am about to die soon…” said the old man. “Child, do me one last favor… Help me bring this out…”
Heishi raised the luminescent lantern towards the old man’s face, and A-Ka looked closely and carefully at his wrinkle-covered face. He vaguely felt a sense of familiarity, as if he knew him. Especially those indigo eyes, he kept feeling that he had seen them somewhere before.
“Do we know each other?” A-Ka was puzzled, for he kept feeling a sense of deja vu towards the old man.
The old man didn’t answer, and instead reached out a trembling hand towards A-Ka, so A-Ka quickly put his hand in his. The old man pressed A-Ka’s finger onto his wheelchair’s grip. Soon after, a light click sounded, and A-Ka felt something prick the tip of his finger. He let out a cry of pain.
A-Ka stumbled backward a few steps and Heishi advanced, gripping the old man’s neck. He was about to push him away, yet A-Ka shouted, “Wait!”
Dozens of tubes had been inserted into the old man, yet he was lifted off of his wheelchair by the hand on his neck. The movement accelerated the time he had left, and his eyeballs rolled. The hint of a complicated and strange smile showed on his face, and he spent a lot of effort to lift his finger.
“Don’t be so rough with him, put him down,” A-Ka said hastily.
Heishi placed the old man back onto the wheelchair and A-Ka lowered his head to look at his ring finger. Drops of blood covered the tip of his finger.
He had a bout of dizziness and he heard mech sounds from a distance, thinking, Uh oh . The old man said, “Give this… to General Libre…”
He handed a chip to A-Ka and closed his eyes. A-Ka said worriedly, “Hey! Wake up!”
The old man’s head drooped down; he had died.
The mech sounds grew closer and closer, so A-Ka quickly hid the chip and turned around. “Let’s go.”
Heishi ran quickly into the passageway. Outside, laser bullets flew everywhere, and A-Ka shouted, “Be careful!”
“Quick, go back! There are enemies outside!” replied Heishi.
A-Ka swiped the keycard and the door shut with a boom. Explosion sounds came one after another, and they had been trapped into the room.
“Find an exit,” said A-Ka immediately after.
A-Ka and Heishi promptly separated to search for an exit. A-Ka examined all possible places that an exit could be at while he constantly thought back to the old man’s indigo eyes, as well as his familiar appearance. He kept feeling that he had seen the old man somewhere before, and moreover, he had seen him often… As he was thinking, he suddenly saw Heishi stop, standing in the room, full of uncertainty as he looked closely at the old man’s corpse.
“What is it?” A-Ka asked as he straightened up.
Heishi said, “I know him.”
A-Ka was shocked and asked, “What’s his name?”
Heishi shook his head and didn’t answer.
A-Ka wanted to ask him about where the old man had come from, but Heishi knew nearly nothing, for he had forgotten everything.
A-Ka could only say, “Let’s keep searching closely for an exit.”
Heishi said, “There is no need. This place is a prison.”
A-Ka woke up to the situation in an instant. Heishi’s inference was pretty good. From when they had entered just then up until now, every sign had indicated that the old man was a prisoner. That was to say, besides an entrance in here, there was no other way to go.
What should they do?
At this time, a series of violent impacts sounded outside the door, making the huge door deform. A-Ka was about to find a place to hide, but the door distorted from the smashes from outside, and flames shot in from the slit of the door. Subconsciously, A-Ka turned and ran towards Heishi, and Heishi agilely jumped towards him. The two of them met midair, hugging each other tightly.
At the same time, the door was blown up with a bang, and flames shot everywhere. Still holding onto A-Ka, Heishi rolled away into the corner.
“Quick! Bring him away!”
“Oh my god… He’s already dead!”
“A human?”
“There are two humans here!”
“Don’t attack!”
“What’s going on?!”
The room was in a disarray, and several androids rushed inside. A-Ka stood up dizzily and was protected by Heishi, who stood in front of him. A glaring light shone towards them.
A-Ka explained, “We were escaping and came in here.”
“When did you come in?” asked an android anxiously. “When you two came in, was Doctor Kalan still alive?”
Heishi was about to answer, yet A-Ka squeezed his hand and replied, “Yes. He had something for us to pass along to General Libre.”
The noise of explosions issued from outside. This time, the sounds were clearer than ever, as if the entire world would be blown up and overturned. The ground shook, and some people nearly lost their balance. The leader of the android troops said, “There’s no time to say anymore! Bring them with us!”
Under the protection of the android army, they rushed out into the passageway. The number of mech guards around them grew and grew. Sometimes, someone would shout “Stand your ground! They’re counterattacking!” and other similar things. A-Ka didn’t know why, but he was dizzy and had a head-splitting headache. He stumbled as he ran out, and was hit with a bout of dizziness and weakness.
A-Ka clutched at the empty air a few times and grabbed Heishi’s hand, but was blocked by Heishi. He really couldn’t hold out any longer, and he fell headfirst onto the ground.
Heishi came back and frowned. “Why are you so fragile?”
A-Ka said angrily, “Leave me alone!”
A-Ka panted heavily, his vision was blurry, and he seemed to have gotten a fever. Heishi carried him in his arms and ran after the androids. Behind them, soldiers of the rebel army ran as they carried the corpse of the old man and the wheelchair.
The path was full of bumps as they traversed the corridors, and A-Ka drifted in and out of consciousness. After a while, a blinding light that suddenly appeared shone on him, making him even dizzier.
They had gone outside, and A-Ka used his hands to cover his eyes from the blazing sun. He had never breathed such fresh air from the surface as he was now, though the blazing sun was like a ball of fire, radiating and incinerating his very soul.
Something white obstructed his line of sight as if a wind of particles that had come from the stars was enveloping him.
Inexplicably, A-Ka felt extremely weak, “I’m going to die…”
“Hold on!” Heishi shouted worriedly next to his ear.
Heishi had been carrying A-Ka the whole time, one arm around his back and the other supporting his legs. It had been very jolty, and A-Ka could feel that Heishi was running. Then, he heard the conversation of some androids.
“He’s only temporarily weak…”
“I can’t tell what the cause is…”
“Humans, follow me! Quick, get moving!”
The sound of the ocean tides engulfed all else, and A-Ka was calmed down in an instant. This was the most magical moment of his lifetime. The movements around him seemed to be indefinitely far away from him, yet he could see everything extremely clearly. It was as if there was an overwhelming magnetic field radiating from his mind, and every single movement within the range of the magnetic field appeared crystal clear.
Gradually, the magnetic field receded, and the last focal point was the outline of a person next to him——Heishi.
Heishi’s outline grew clearer, and he said something to A-Ka. A-Ka’s five senses gradually returned.
“Are you okay?” Heishi’s brow creased in a good-looking manner.
A-Ka said, “I’m… I’m fine.”
He regained his senses, and his body was covered in sweat. He subconsciously raised his hand and saw that Heishi was observing him worriedly. He lifted Heishi’s hand and their fingers interlaced, giving Heishi some peace of mind. A-Ka thought back to his momentary lapse of weakness just then and associated it with the prick of a needle that the old man had given him. Exactly what had he injected into him?
“Humans, board the craft quickly! Don’t stay here!” an android came over and advised them.
Heishi made to carry A-Ka, yet A-Ka said, “I can walk by myself.” He staggered to his feet and followed the androids to board the small aircraft. The moment they walked onto the boarding platform, A-Ka was dumbfounded.
On the platform that took up an area of nearly a thousand square kilometers, tens of thousands of military aircrafts were either turning, taking off, landing, or flying in the air. The layer of magnetic protection field surrounding the platform shot down the mech sniping aircrafts that were in the air, one after another.
There were fireballs everywhere in the sky, and amid the deafening thunder, aircrafts exploded, leaving a trail of flames in their wakes as they fell into the ocean.
As if a hornet’s nest had been poked, over ten thousand aircrafts took off and rose, sending out row after row of laser bullets, and flew towards the center of the city.
