The town was filled with trash floating in the air – paper flyers mostly displaying announcements of the dictator to ‘clean up’ the world’s population. It was kind of windy and chilly when they walked and split up to search for Vesia.
Yasome went with Makov, while the rest followed Maggie.
“There seems to be a glimmering light on the farther end of the town…” Yasome noticed. “Let’s go check it out.”
“Right!” Makov said with enthusiasm, and at the same time, fear.
As soon as they got there, unexpected lasers fired at them. Some cut buildings in half and cracked the ground up.
Makov then noticed a poor girl lying on the ground.
“Vesia!” He approaches the android girl and attempts to wake her up.
“Are you alright? How did you escape?”
Vesia smiled back. “I’m…fine…”
The android girl then suddenly hugged the Weizan boy.
“You really did miss me, didn’t you?” Makov was relieved. “For an android, you’re not supposed to have emotions, but…I’m glad you seem to do…”
“Even as a Weizan, I feel gl—”
There was a sudden stab of metal on Makov’s chest. Black Weizan blood gushed though, as he tried to grasp the current situation. He backed out to see that it wasn’t the same Vesia he knew.
“Vesia…she’s been…modified…” Makov’s eyes became wide and slightly watery. “She might be the one who caused the lasers…”
“This is really bad…” Yasome launched a white aura shield to protect them from attacks. “What do we do, Makov?”
Makov thought really hard.
“If I don’t fight her…you guys won’t get to the capital, right? A-and…besides, I still have a sturdy emotion barrier…so I…I can do this…”
With that, Makov jumps in to battle his possessed friend.
“Makov…” Yasome thought. “I don’t think you need an emotion barrier…you’re a lot stronger than any of us…physically and emotionally.”
Meanwhile, after getting contacted by Yasome through telepathic message, Maggie and the others went to their spot.
“Looks tough for the kid…” Nieg shook his head.
“That may be true,” Norr interrupted. “But look at that agility and that sturdiness – even though his emotion barrier’s still intact, he fights as if he’s lost it.”
“I agree…” Maggie smiled for a bit. “He’s more human than us…and a lot stronger, too.”
With the battle continuing for about an hour, Makov finally corners the possessed Android, but couldn’t find any disengaging device because her internal processing unit has been completely reprogrammed.
“There’s only one way to finish her…” Makov closed his eyes and got ready to deliver a large amount of energy.
“Makov, that’s dangerous! Your emotion barrier—”
“It’s fine, Yasome.” Makov laughed. “I never needed one anyway – I’ve been numb to emotions from the beginning as a human, yet I still fight because…it’s the only way I could save my friends…”
There was a blinding explosion on that very moment – one that shook the whole town and circulated the paper trash all around it, like a tornado.
Then, there was a moment of silence.
Makov then took Vesia’s internal processing unit. But as soon as he touched it, he heard a telepathic message that’s slightly blurry and in statics:
“Ma…kov…we’ll meet…again…soon when…the white world…becomes black…”
“W-what?” Makov was surprised. “What’s that supposed to mean, Vesia? Where are you? What do you mean ‘white world becomes black’? Answer me!”
But not a single message was heard again from the device.
“We can help you out, Makov.” Maggie patted the boy’s shoulder. “You see, me and Norr happened to be good at examining android parts…”
And so, the group decided to stop by a secret spot in the town, which LENCO have told them that a secret hideout of the organization is located.
TO BE CONTINUED
