Chapter 214: The 6th Herrscher
"Something that can cause this kind of disaster… Don't tell me… Run!" Aldemir bit his lip, then, after a brief hesitation, chose the most pragmatic course of action.
But Kosma couldn't just abandon the people Fire Moth was supposed to protect, could he?
"No!"
He jumped down from Aldemir's shoulders, scrambling over the seatbacks, trying to stem the tide of panicked people. A lot of people from the European branch signed up for the Vishnu experiment. Some of them must be here.
If I take the lead, Dystopia will follow, and we can do what we practiced, save as many as we can!
He held up his Fire Moth badge and ID, shouting, "This is Fire Moth! Everyone, please… Woah!"
He missed a step and tumbled into the surging crowd, his imagined counter-flow never materializing. But his falling body suddenly stabilized mid-air, landing gracefully on his feet.
Is this… the telekinesis Dystopia mentioned?
He had no time to savor the strange sensation. The crowd was upon him, faces contorted with fear, panic, and madness. Their eyes bulged, frog-like, in their exertion. These must be the ugliest faces they've ever made, he thought.
Then his own face twisted in horror as the deadly black fog rolled in with the crowd.
"Damn it, another kid from the slums… Why are you so reckless?!"
A strong hand grabbed his collar, yanking him backwards. He saw the distance between him and the black fog widen, felt the fine dust of disintegrated humans, like ash from burning paper, brush against his face.
Aldemir dragged Kosma towards an emergency exit, only to find it blocked by a wall of bodies – a grotesque barricade of crushed and suffocated people, many still moaning faintly.
"What are you waiting for?! Help me push!" Aldemir slammed his body against the wall of corpses, only to bounce back, the gruesome structure unyielding.
"Dystopia , you're a MANTIS soldier, do something!" Even if she claimed to be a mental-type, unskilled in direct combat, her augmented physique should surpass a normal soldier's… But Dystopia opened her eyes and shook her head.
"It's no use."
With her mental perception, she could see the wall was over ten meters thick. Impossible to move.
"Then what do we do?!"
As another wave of people surged towards the blocked exit, Aldemir pulled them along the wall of the opera house, searching for another escape route. The black fog continued to spread. If they stayed, they'd be reduced to dust.
Dystopia , scanning their surroundings, stumbled, her hand instinctively grasping a nearby bronze urn.
Suddenly, her eyes lit up. "I have an idea!"
"What?"
"This is an opera house! To project sound throughout the hall without microphones, they placed bronze urns around the walls. But that's not all!" She stamped her foot. Though the sound was lost in the chaos, the others understood instantly – the floor was hollow!
"And to break through, we need to find the weakest point – the stage!"
They looked towards the center of the circular hall, the lowest point, where musical instruments lay scattered, abandoned by their owners in the frantic rush to escape. Only one lone figure remained on stage.
"If we go that way, we can save Eden-san too!"
"But how do you know there's an escape route under the stage?"
"We have to try! Do we have any other choice?!"
They didn't. Fighting against the tide of panicked people, they carved a path to the stage.
Eden stood alone. Hearing them approach, she turned, her eyes dull.
"It's you..." She managed a weak smile, unable to mask the despair in her eyes. She stared at the chaos around her with a mixture of bewilderment, disbelief, and utter hopelessness. Not even the dullness of ashes, but the sodden remnants of a doused fire, incapable of being rekindled.
"Ah! You guys!" Evangeline rushed to support her as Dystopia rolled up her sleeves, the veins on her forearms bulging. She slammed her fist into the stage floor.
Crack… crack…
A fissure snaked across the floor. Aldemir and Kosma joined Dystopia , kicking and punching at the crack until the floor gave way with a resounding crash.
"Aldemir!"
"I'm… okay!"
Aldemir's head popped up from the hole. The cavity beneath the stage, designed for acoustics and safety, wasn't very deep.
Which means there's no escape route… Evangeline thought, her heart sinking.
"Don't worry, if we break through the ceiling below, we'll be in the underground parking garage!" Before Aldemir could finish, two more thuds echoed from the hole, followed by another crash. He disappeared.
Evangeline peered into the hole. Aldemir was right. Five or six meters below lay the parking garage.
Looking up, the black fog was descending like a tidal wave, closing in on the stage. She quickly unbuckled her belt, grabbed an armor-piercing spike from her thigh holster – designed for smaller Honkai beasts – and hammered one end of the belt into the floor.
"Eden-san, hold on tight!"
She grabbed the belt with one hand and Eden with the other, and jumped. Letting go at the end of the belt, they landed safely.
...
Moments later, Kosma's voice, amplified by Dystopia 's telekinesis, echoed through the opera house: "This way! Run to the center of the stage!"
Many had already noticed what they were doing. With the black fog closing in, escape seemed impossible. The panicked crowd reversed course, surging towards the stage.
But it was too late. The fog advanced faster than the crowd, engulfing people, turning them to dust, absorbing them into its darkness.
The last person scrambled onto the stage, crawling desperately towards the hole. As his hand reached the edge, his skin withered and blackened, leaving no trace.
"Code 13308, Level 2 access, patching through to European Branch—This is Aldemir, I'm at the scene. What the hell is happening here?!"
Beep… beep… beep… Hello, Vice-Captain Aldemir. Branch lines are currently busy. Please try again later.
"Son of a…!"
They'd escaped the opera house only to find the entire street engulfed in the deadly fog. They climbed to the rooftop of a tall building. The fog, denser than air, seemed to cling to the ground. Up here, they were temporarily safe.
"This… cough, cough, cough!"
Safe was a relative term. They'd all been exposed to the fog. A racking cough tore through their lungs. Their skin was starting to rot, their flesh stiffening. The decay spread relentlessly.
They could only pray Fire Moth had developed a cure.
From their vantage point, the situation became clear. Aldemir immediately spotted the girl in the white dress wandering the streets below.
She was the only living thing in sight. And wherever she went, silence followed. Lights remained on, television screens flickered, a car sat motionless after a sudden stop, seemingly undamaged.
"No doubt about it. That's the 6th Herrscher!"
"Cough, cough… Wait… cough, cough… Doesn't that girl look familiar?" Eden's question, barely audible, was swept away by the night wind.