Chapter 75: Do Miracles Exist? |
Agent Vanessa had never believed in things like miracles.
She had a best friend in the Coven Mobile Task Force who spent all day praying for miracles and acting all mystical. It annoyed her to death—she couldn't even say if she accepted the assignment to provide support for the Pangolin unit just because she was so incredibly frustrated.
To be honest, she had regretted it the moment she arrived in Green Island City.
That ominous premonition made her realize that she probably wouldn't make it back alive to share any good news with her sisters.
But after free-falling through the air for more than three seconds and crashing squarely into a Hatching Ovisac, she began to believe that miracles did exist.
The viscous incubation fluid absorbed all the impact, and her Life Support Suit isolated the slime that could be toxic, corrosive, infectious, or perhaps all three at once. Agent Vanessa pushed aside a monster egg the size of a fist, adjusted her posture within the glowing solution, and stepped onto the nearest rock. She struggled to climb upward, but there was still a significant distance to the edge of the Ovisac.
[Suit integrity compromised. Please quickly move away from the Corrosive Liquid.]
'Sure enough, it's corrosive.'
She glanced at her level indicator and realized she was actually tilted at an angle. She immediately drew her Ritual Dagger and slashed a massive gash across the surface of the Ovisac. Along with the slime sliding out from the tear, she and her backpack tumbled heavily onto the ground.
Falling from a height of dozens of meters without a single scratch—if that wasn't a miracle, what was?
Maybe, she could actually make it out of here alive...
Once separated from the Ovisac, the slime's corrosiveness rapidly weakened. She lay there for a few seconds to catch her breath and tried to get up, only to find her hands sinking into the soft ground.
She looked down and saw a massive cluster of "fish eggs." They were densely packed together, covering the nearby walls and floor, creeping up as high as three to five meters.
She hurriedly stood up, shaking off the gobs of "giant snot" that coated her body.
'To hell with miracles.'
She was the only person standing in the vicinity.
Scattered across the stone floor beyond the cluster of Ovisacs were the evaporating remains of Scythe Monsters.
They had actually plummeted to their deaths right at their own front door, a sight that made her want to laugh.
'If only Number 2 were here to crack a joke...'
Her submachine gun had fallen not far away. Agent Vanessa picked it up, found it was damaged, and switched to her Handgun. Following their signals, she dragged her less-fortunate teammates out of the nearby Ovisacs—Number 4 had fallen into an Ovisac positioned vertically against the ground and was dog-paddling helplessly inside.
Number 3 and that D-Class were in the same boat, only it was much harder to fish them out. It took the combined efforts of her and Number 4 to get it done. The former couldn't respond to their outstretched arms, while the latter was soaking in the slime with absolutely no protection.
Number 3's neck guard had been shattered. Lying flat on his back, the towering man looked as fragile as a child.
The only silver lining in this disaster was that the Suit's fiber layer had caught the bullet.
The metal was deeply embedded in his throat, but it hadn't torn his blood vessels or windpipe, so there was no massive hemorrhaging. Thanks to his armor's protection, he hadn't been contaminated by the Corrosive Liquid either. Beneath his mask, Number 3 still had a faint pulse. The Lazarus Type-II could keep his heart beating for a while longer, but there was no telling how long he would last.
As for the D-Class, Agent Vanessa had braced herself to find a dissolved corpse when she pulled back the remnants of his sleeping bag. However, even though D-2157's orange jumpsuit was nearly corroded away, the man himself was perfectly intact. Wiping away the glob of slime on his face, she saw the chest of the man, who had long lost his Oxygen Mask, actually beginning to rise and fall.
Just as Agent Vanessa hesitated over whether she should shoot him to prevent a mutation, he suddenly opened his eyes, sprang up screaming like a madman, and then collapsed rigidly after inhaling a lungful of Anesthetic Gas, passing out completely.
The red moths on his leg had somehow all turned black and were now slowly shifting back to red—her Eyepiece wasn't censoring the black moths.
Good lord, this was two kilometers underground!
'Could miracles actually exist?'
"What do we do?" Number 4 asked beside her. "We can't just leave these eggs alone. We need to burn this place down, or blow it up... Do you have any Explosives left?"
The Captain and Number 2 were gone, and Number 3 was critically injured and incapacitated. In theory, Number 4 should be next in line to take the baton of command, but even through his mask, Agent Vanessa could feel his profound bewilderment. She had never been a Squad Leader either, but she knew that against such a massive cluster of Ovisacs, the few Explosives she had on her would do nothing more than throw them a grand funeral.
'How strange. They haven't made a single move so far. How exactly are these eggs triggered?'
Actually, it had been strange from the very beginning. The Scythe Monsters should have spotted the light sources of the four people long ago. They could have easily surrounded them early on. Why did they wait so long to ambush the team?
"We need to get out of here," she declared.
"Forget the D-Class, he's a lost cause. I'll grab Number 3 by the shoulders, you take his legs—damn it, no. His neck is injured, it's best not to move him. Then we, we..."
"Leave them here. These Ovisacs aren't showing any activity. The monsters shouldn't hatch for now."
Number 4 fell silent.
He knelt beside Number 3, wiping the Corrosive Liquid off the injured man's Suit, using his silence to resist her overstepping of authority.
But he knew this was the best option available.
Look at the two of them, a couple of battered stragglers—hardly any bullets left, physically exhausted, lost in the dark, and disconnected from the network.
Let alone saving Number 3, they couldn't even save themselves.
Agent Vanessa initially wanted to twist open a Beacon and leave it here to guide any potential rescue teams. But recalling that Number 2 was the last person carrying a sonar system that could be considered a signal source, she abandoned the idea.
This place was conspicuous enough anyway; they should be easy to spot.
She hoisted her backpack on again, poured out the liquid that had seeped inside, and took out a box of bullets and an empty Magazine. Loading the ammunition one by one, she picked a random direction and walked out of the incubation area.
Number 4 took a moment before following her. Along the way, he constantly wanted to look back, but forced himself to stop each time.
They slapped their shoulder lights on in the darkness, providing a meager, almost useless sliver of illumination.
A few meters away, they stumbled upon the main culprits responsible for all this.
Two unidentified intruders were smashed to pieces on the ground. Not far away, another Visitor lay on the floor, confirming the whereabouts of the third intruder.
The Visitor had no interest in the two Mobile Task Force members—the giant Maw on its chest was clamped shut, and its abdomen bulged high, as if a living creature was struggling inside.
'What a terrifying "pregnant woman."'
Agent Vanessa cursed under her breath, shoved the bullet in her hand into the Magazine, and was about to raise her Gun when Number 4 stepped forward. He viciously stabbed through the Visitor's pale skin over and over, driving each thrust in deep.
The thing inside stopped moving.
"Right, a knife is the way to go," Agent Vanessa agreed.
"Let it off too easy," Number 4 muttered.
They continued moving forward.
"Do you believe in miracles?" Agent Vanessa asked.
"A miracle is exactly what I need right now."
Agent Vanessa heard the alienation and reproach in his words, but she didn't argue. She didn't have the energy for it.
It was perfectly reasonable; she understood the feeling.
The temporary helper transferred from another Mobile Task Force was still perfectly alive, while the comrades he had fought alongside day and night had suffered heavy casualties. It wasn't fair at all.
Any encouragement or consolation at a time like this would only sound like sarcasm. So, the two of them stopped talking entirely, dodging the starlight-like glow emitting from the Ovisacs as they kept their heads down and marched on.
Miracles, miracles...
If miracles truly existed in this world, an eternal super-soldier would drop from the sky right now, eliminating all the monsters as easily as Chopping Melons and Slicing Vegetables like a god of war. Then, grabbing the Hazard Item with one hand and leading their despairing selves back to the surface with the other, they would even help carry Number 3's stretcher.
The omen of death coiled tightly in Agent Vanessa's chest, the premonition growing even stronger.
That invisible yet massive entity stalking her was watching, waiting for her to drop her guard so it could kill her...
She shouldn't be here. She shouldn't have been reduced to such a state.
She didn't want to give up.
She didn't want to die.
Their monotonous footsteps echoed in the darkness, as if they were crossing the legendary Realm of the Dead, heading toward the River Styx and the Land of Rebirth.
The two Mobile Task Force members were completely exhausted, so it wasn't until they were within ten meters that they heard a noise coming from diagonally ahead.
They hurriedly raised their firearms, aiming at the approaching faint light in the darkness.
"Number 4? Number 6?"
"Good heavens, is it really you guys?"
Perhaps they really had plummeted to their deaths long ago, because the voices of Captain Holly and Agent Kyle echoed out from the void.
Soon, their two long-lost teammates stepped into the light.
Number 4: "You guys look like you got run over by a car."
Agent Kyle: "And you look like you were swallowed by a slug."
Their reunion was followed by a brief, joyful exchange of intel—things like Dump Truck already knowing the situation down here, the information being relayed back, backup being on the way, and so on.
After Agent Kyle finished sharing everything the Captain could disclose, it inevitably became Number 4 and Agent Vanessa's turn.
Number 4: "We lost Agent Benjamin. As for Number 3... we had no choice but to leave him behind."
Captain Holly let out a long, exhausted sigh. "We have to continue the mission, or find a place to set up a defensive perimeter."
Having a pillar of support was more effective than anything else right now. After exchanging their precious intel, the regrouped remnants picked a direction and continued their death march.
When light-colored spots began appearing in the endless Black Stone beneath their feet, they thought it was a good sign. It meant they were approaching an exit. Even Captain Holly, who had to lean heavily on Agent Kyle just to walk, quickened her pace.
However, the light-colored spots rapidly expanded into fissure-like veins, converging forward from all directions. At their end, deep within the cavern, a massive, floating orb of light faintly emerged.
Filtered through the color grading of their Eyepieces, the dense, black veins pulsing across the luminous body were clearly visible. It looked like a sun, sealed deep underground, waiting to die right alongside them.
Its brilliance was impossible to look at directly. It illuminated the abyssal cavern, allowing them to see the light of day once more—yet it only brought an even deeper despair.
Everyone except Agent Kyle stumbled to a halt.
The Suits with functional visual shielding auto-initiated their protocols. In the brief moment before the protection kicked in, even from such a great distance, the intense glare left them dizzy and delirious.
But Agent Kyle remained completely unaffected.
He only realized this because the Captain had stopped—when Captain Holly lowered her head to dodge the blinding light, she gave his finger a subtle squeeze to warn him to be careful.
The back of Agent Kyle's right hand began to itch under the light. He hurriedly gripped his bandages tight, hiding his hand behind his back as he lowered his head, pretending to be dazzled as well.
That wasn't an exit.
He suddenly understood.
That was the core of this place—the source of the moths.
"Are you planning to speak up now, Captain?" Since Captain Holly and Agent Kyle had appeared, this was the first time Agent Vanessa had spoken. Her tone was ice-cold. "Or are you going to take your secrets to the grave?"
Number 4: "What kind of nonsense are you spouting?"
Number 4 turned sideways to look at her, clearly waiting for the Captain to reprimand such insubordination. But Captain Holly seemed fragile from her injuries, keeping her head down in total silence.
Agent Kyle could feel that her breathing had suddenly grown unusually heavy.
"That's the real reason I'm here, isn't it?" Agent Vanessa pointed straight at the luminous orb, too bright for the naked eye and obscured by the black framing of her Eyepiece.
Agent Kyle looked back and forth between them in confusion. "What? What are you guys talking about?"
"I couldn't believe it earlier either, but it's crystal clear to me now. Just look at the cavern structure over there—it has a fragile dome. The geological stability here is poor, making it absolutely perfect for a demolition... They knew exactly what was down in this place."
Captain Holly struggled to lift her head. "They didn't know."
"Then answer me this: Why am I here? Why was I transferred into a caving squad just to carry out a specialized underground demolition?"