Chapter 176: Encounter and Blessing

Chapter 176 – Encounter and Blessing

Kairos was surprised to see me appear with Myne .

[What happened? Why are you in tatters like that?]

[A ferocious tiger just hit me . ]

[I see . Sure is a ferocious tiger . ]

Myne was in a bad mood . I waited for her to wake up while keeping watch on her .

But apparently she sensed my gaze and woke up . Then, feeling embarrassed that someone saw her sleeping face, she jumped and bit me .

[Trying to attack me while I sleep, what a crafty guy]

[Fate! You… . ]

[No, I didn’t . That’s a false accusation! I was just trying to wake her up]

[Well…that’s what they always say]

[Not Mikuria-san too…]

You two, even though all of you knew that I went to wake Myne up . How could you?

Myne really hates being woken up like that then . I could sense a small bit of Wrath skill leaking from her .

[Okay, let’s stop with the joking . We need to go . Is the preparation done?]

[ [ Yes ] ]

Kairos nodded back to us . Then he took the black sword that was left leaning on the wall behind him .

[Are we going at last? Took you long enough . ]

[My bad . Things just not the same as usual . And it’s all thanks to Fate . I haven’t been able to find anything as funny for a long time . I guess I’d been too focused on how much time I had left . ]

[You are…such a horrible man . You haven’t really changed at all . ]

Kairos looked happy .

[Alright then, let’s go . Mikuria, until later . ]

[Yes . Be careful . ]

Mikuria saw us off while waving her hand .

[There are actually not that many researchers in this facility . And most of them tend to stay in their own room doing research like Mikuria does . Two researchers rarely pass each other in this passageway . ]

According to Kairos, the facility was automated to maintain a good living condition for the researchers, as well as keeping them safe .

The reason why my dirty clothes suddenly became clean, was because that’s one of the facility’s functions .

But it was easy for us to sneak in only because Mikuria-san had disabled the facility’s surveillance system .

[Let me tell you, this looks so easy only because we have an insider . ]

[If we don’t…what would happen?]

Even the strong looking Kairos actually paused upon hearing that question .

I could see fear in his face .

He then pointed to the back and told me .

[Look at that . Although it’s currently inactive now . ]

[The bronze statue?]

[It’s not just a statue! It’s a machine . A mechanized doll that will attack immediately once it detects a suspicious person . The most troublesome part is that more of them will continue to come . Not to mention that those things have no soul, so Gluttony skill cannot devour them . ]

[Cause it’s not fulfilling, so it’s a bore?]

[That’s right! That’s why, it’s better to not awaken them if possible . ]

We proceeded through the path that Mikuria-san had designated .

Next we entered the engine room . Greed unlocked the system lock for us . Despite how he looks, he’s really a sword that can do something like that .

I remember him doing a similar thing back when I sneaked into the research facility at the capital’s military district .

[Okay then, how should we proceed from here?]

Kairos asked me since I’m in charge of navigation .

According to the portable floor plan, the engine room manages the electric power and air conditioning of each floor .

In other words, it’s like this again, huh…?

I felt like I had a weird case of deja vu .

[It seems that we’ll have to go to the underground level via this ventilation shaft . Apparently, even though Mikuria-san couldn’t secure a regular path to that place . ]

[Well, of course . She didn’t even know what’s in there after all . ]

I pried open the cover of the designated ventilation shaft, as per the instruction .

[Ugh… the inside is a bit dusty . And just after I had shower . ]

[Indeed . Myne, I don’t think piggybacking will work here . ]

[… . . I’m going back . ]

That said, Myne walked back toward Mikuria’s lab .

Kairos promptly blocked her path .

[Oy you, wait! How about your promise?]

[Myne… . will go]

[Just kidding . I know . Promise must be fulfilled . ]

The heavy sound of the huge fans echoed through the shaft .

The huge fans was meant to circulate air from the outside into the facility, and apparently to the underground floor as well .

[Fate seems to be very familiar with this . ]

[Ahahah… I did something similar in the past . ]

[As expected from our guide . I made a good choice . ]

He pushed me onward after a tap on the shoulder .

Myne followed after me, with Kairos being the last to enter the shaft .

[Don’t you think, it’s getting somewhat cold?]

[Cold…]

[Indeed it is . Don’t let your hands cling too long . Greed, what’s the current temperature?]

[You really like to work your sword roughly . The temperature is -10 degrees . It also gets colder as you get down . You might become a clattering mess if you keep going down . ]

[I thought so . Let’s make it quick then . ]

Thus we sped up a bit, albeit while making sure to not make any noise .

When we finally reached a dead end, our breath had become visible due to the cold air .

I wish I had winter clothes on . I’ve been running to keep my body warm . If I stop, the cold would likely invade immediately .

[What do they keep in such a place? Although it’s not excessively cold, it’s not the temperature where most living creatures could stay in for too long . ]

[It’s too cold . ]

[The place marked in the floor plan is just around the corner . ]

Our destination was just beyond this vent right in front of us .

I gently cut the vent with my greatsword .

[That’s not bad at all . Although there is still some roughness there . But I can feel that you’ve been forged through actual battles . ]

[This is the first time someone actually praised my swordsmanship . ]

[I guess Fate’s teacher was a very strict person, huh?]

[I guess so…]

I have many that can be considered as my teacher, but Aaron certainly at the top of the list .

And indeed, everyone was strict .

Especially when Myne and Eris trained me . Those two were exceptionally strict .

They even mockingly called me [Raggedy Rag Fate] when I got too exhausted to continue the training .

[What?]

Recalling those days of hellish training, I unconsciously turned my sight to one of the demonic instructors .

Although I suppose the current her has no idea what I’m thinking .

She tilted her head in question, then urged me to proceed onward .

[Quickly . I’ll push you if you don’t . ]

[Okay, I know . Heave ho . ]

After making sure that no one was around, I jumped out of the ventilation shaft .

And the first few things that entered my sight… . what scattered around to be exact, made my body feel colder .

Body parts were scattered everywhere .

Mutilated arms and legs that had been frozen solid .

And it seemed that those severed limbs…belonged to humans…

At that point Myne spoke as if to confirm my suspicion .

[The leftover food . ]

[You two, look ahead . ]

What…what in the world…is that?

A machine angel? No,

It’s like several machine angels were melted together and kneaded into one large blob of slime .

Even in this extreme cold, the blob seemingly survived without freezing .

Boko, bokoboko…boko……

Now that I looked at it more intently, I noticed a large number of faces and limbs sticking out .

There were humans in the blob as well . Did they end up becoming the core for those machine angels?

No, they aren’t . I don’t think they function as a core like Luna did . This one was more distorted than that .

Even now, the humans’ cries could be heard leaking out .

I noticed Myne stepping back .

[Myne?]

I called her name, but she didn’t reply back to me . Instead, one of the individuals mixed together into that blob of horror responded .

When I turned around to see the source, I saw a pair of eyes that was shedding tears .

[My…ne, you are…finally here . ]