In the boundless wilderness, a person was slowly walking, resembling a survivor struggling for survival in a desert, walking forward with slow but resolute steps.
On the back of this person was another person and on the body of this person hung a heavy weapon.
Perhaps, the slow pace was due to the weighty weapon, but that was uncertain at the moment.
Only, whether it was the person walking or the person being carried, their bodies bore traces of scorch marks, indicating the kind of battle they had just experienced.
"Hū——!"
A chilly wind blew with a touch of coldness in it, lifting the clothing of both individuals and causing dust to swirl in the air.
With this depiction, the steps of the person walking seemed even slower.
"Ugh…"
At a certain moment, the person being carried on the back emitted a slightly pained groan, and hearing this voice, the footsteps of the former momentarily faltered but quickly resumed, continuing forward.
Alisa felt a surge of intense pain throughout her entire body as she regained consciousness. The sensation made Alisa involuntarily whimper, and then she slowly opened her eyes.
Almost at the same time, a voice reached Alisa's ears.
"Are you awake?"
The sudden voice startled Alisa, completely bringing her back to full alertness and it was only now that Alisa realize that she was being carried by someone.
Being carried by someone whom, from a certain perspective, she considered an enemy.
"You…?!" Alisa instantly raised herself from the body of the person carrying her, however, this overly intense movement caused Alisa's already weakened body to emit a cry of pain.
Severe pain spread throughout Alisa's body, causing her to whimper again, and she quickly laid back down.
This made the person carrying Alisa smile faintly and say, "It seems I don't need to remind you to refrain from moving."
Hearing this, combined with the current situation, Alisa could not help but understand what had happened.
"You saved me?" Alisa furrowed her brows tightly and said frankly, "Why?"
"Why?" Fang Li chuckled, "Then why didn't you retreat? Didn't you receive the order to withdraw when things went wrong?"
If the captain was willing to sacrifice a whole army and the mission itself to eliminate Fang Li then he could understand it. After all, placing landmines for the mission wouldn't have a decisive impact on the battlefield, even if it failed.
The army composed of ordinary soldiers would be of little value if they couldn't fight against the Aragami and only the God Eaters who came as bodyguards would be the substantial loss that the Russian Branch had to bear.
So when the Aragami began to attack, the Russian Branch should have sent a retreat order.
But Alisa did not retreat and in doing so, she even disobeyed the orders from above.
"Thanks to your actions, all the soldiers who were saved by you boarded the remaining helicopters and escaped. Only the two of us were left fighting desperately against the Vajra, and now we've ended up like this," Fang Li shrugged and said, "Although, even if there were remaining helicopters, I couldn't have piloted one."
Listening to Fang Li's nonchalant words, Alisa's brows furrowed deeper. Enduring the pain in her body, she struggled to raise one hand and pressed the communicator near her ear.
"It's useless," Fang Li seemed to know what Alisa was doing and said, "Don't forget, you were directly hit by Vajra's lightning current. Under such intense electrical discharge, the communicator would have malfunctioned long ago."
It was also because of this that Fang Li was unable to contact Hibari as well.
Originally, before setting off, Fang Li also had a communicator, ready to communicate with Hibari at any time. But now, the device was also malfunctioning and completely useless.
Alisa fell silent immediately.
There was no means of leaving this place.
There was no tool to establish contact.
It was now certain that they were stranded here.
This fact made Alisa unconsciously bite her lip.
"What happened?" Fang Li didn't turn back, but he seemed to sense Alisa's mood once again and said directly, "Feeling unwilling?"
One sentence struck straight at Alisa's heart. Moreover, Fang Li didn't stop there. He continued to expose Alisa's inner thoughts one after another.
"This is your first mission, and not only did it end in failure, but sacrifices were made, and you were seriously injured. And in the end, you were even saved by the enemy. All these facts make you feel unwilling, right?"
Every word hit the mark, touching Alisa's thoughts and making her bite her lip harder.
To this, Fang Li casually said, "Your pride is indeed strong. But if you can't even accept your own failures then there's no way you can grow."
This time, Alisa really couldn't bear it anymore.
"You don't understand at all," Alisa spoke in a low voice, "I don't have the luxury to dwell on failures. I have things I must do."
"Things you must do?" Fang Li's tone remained unchanged as he casually asked, "Does it have something to do with that Vajra? Did you lose control of your emotions when facing it?"
Alisa's heart trembled slightly.
Obviously, Fang Li once again struck a chord with her inner thoughts. However, this time, only half of Alisa's thoughts were touched.
Alisa did lose control to some extent when facing Vajra, but it was not because of Vajra itself. It was merely because Vajra's presence reminded Alisa of the nightmare she dreamed of defeating.
Having thought of this, Alisa asked, "What happened to Vajra in the end?"
After Vajra unleashed its astonishing lightning current, Alisa was struck and lost consciousness.
In the end, the last scene Alisa saw was Fang Li holding a dagger, charging toward the berserk lightning.
It was a scene that made people doubt whether they were dreaming or not. But since she was still alive, it proved that Fang Li indeed took action; otherwise, they would have died long ago.
Now, Alisa just wanted to know what exactly happened in the end.
"You don't seriously think that I could have managed to defeat the enemy, right?" Fang Li's tone seemed indifferent as he answered, "I'm not a God Arc user, so all I could do was run away. At most, I just took you with me before that."
After speaking, Fang Li glanced at Alisa and quickly changed the subject.
"More importantly, let's quickly think about what to do next."
....
You can read ahead upto 10 chapters on my patreon and I've also activated (date to date) subscription model on my patreon https://www.patreon.com/GGS6395