Amidst the dust and smoke, the white cha, bearing six wings, slowly landed.
At this mont, Pavela could feel the entire cha vibrating.
It was the kind of vibration one feels from a steam engine that has been running overloaded for too long and is about to break down.
The six wings vanished.
Those crimson lights slowly dimd, like smoke dispersed by the wind.
The patterns on the cha's body also faded.
They shifted from a piercing scarlet to a dull, deep red, finally vanishing completely beneath the white armor.
Then ca the steam.
All the cooling vents opened simultaneously.
White steam gushed out, forming a thick fog around the cha.
Pavela looked outward.
The steam gradually dissipated.
Her vision slowly cleared.
She saw the ruins.
That giant, once forty ters tall, no longer existed.
After it fell, the destruction continued.
Now, the entire ground of the hill was scattered with countless tiny fragnts.
There were wood chips, dust, and charred ashes.
They blanketed the earth as if soone had put an entire forest into a grinder and then scattered the powder here.
There were no large wrecks.
No broken tree trunks.
No intact vines.
Only powder.
Pavela stared at the ruins.
Hmm.
The target was eliminated.
Very thoroughly.
When she made the throw, she had already marked that woman in the green dress as the target.
Then the spear went to find her.
To find her.
To pierce her.
To destroy her.
And—to destroy everything related to her.
The giant's body was constructed by the woman using Return Power.
Those trees, vines, and roots were all connected together by her will.
So, when the spear struck her, all the plants that had established a connection with her were judged as "part of the target."
And then they were dissolved together.
The woman herself, as the core target of the spear, didn't even leave behind any powder.
She was dead through and through.
Regarding this, Pavela didn't have any special feelings.
That woman wanted to kill Victoria.
She wanted to kill her, and she wanted to kill others too.
In a situation where there was absolutely no room for negotiation, she would never go soft.
If she had to kill, she killed.
There was nothing to dwell on.
She continued to observe the ruins.
Then she saw several people wearing guard uniforms.
They were lying on the ground.
Motionless.
But their chests seed to be rising and falling.
They should still be alive.
Perhaps it was because they were not constructed by the woman, but just happened to be trapped inside the giant's body.
Perhaps it was because they had passed out earlier and did not harbor any malice.
In any case, the spear did not identify them as targets.
During that explosion, the spear bypassed them.
Pavela thought for a mont.
Hmm, this could be considered a good thing.
For those few guards, it was a stroke of luck to escape with their lives.
For her, it ant a few more witnesses.
And a few more subjects to interrogate for information.
It would be fine to take them along in a while.
However—
Pavela looked down at the dashboard on the console.
Fuel reserves: 2%.
Coolant /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ temperature: Danger.
Power system: Overload.
The state of this cha now was basically that of scrap tal.
The power of that strike was indeed imnse, but the wear and tear on the cha body was also extre.
And...
-- 【 Warning! Warning! host physiological indicators abnormal! 】 --
-- 【 Heart rate 192 beats/minute! 】 --
-- 【 Nervous system load 256%! 】 --
The familiar chanical voice exploded in her mind again.
It seed the toll on the pilot was not small either.
"Yo," Pavela said.
"Long ti no see."
Ever since she began to possess both the Path of the Tower and the Path of the Magician, the system's dormancy periods had beco longer and longer.
It only woke up whenever her body underwent significant changes, and then it would start, like now, emitting sharp, screeching blasts.
-- 【 The hell you an, long ti no see?! 】 --
-- 【 I worked my ass off repairing this body of yours halfway, and the mont I turn around, you poke an even bigger hole in it?! 】
"Eh?" Pavela blinked.
"So you weren't sleeping?"
-- 【 Sleeping?! 】 --
-- 【 You call this sleeping?! 】 --
-- 【 I'm working my life away repairing this broken body of yours! 】 --
-- 【 I finally managed to fix the bone fractures halfway, and you imdiately go and cause three brand new ones! 】 --
-- 【 I just got the nerve damage suppressed, and then you have to go and connect to that damn Spinal Probe! 】 --
-- 【 Ever since you touched that Return Power, I haven't had a single good day! 】
"...Oh, oh." Pavela's voice softened a little.
"So you were... repairing the body."
She paused.
"Um... thanks for your hard work?"
-- 【...Thanks for your hard work? 】 --
-- 【 That's it? Thanks for your hard work?! 】
"I..." Pavela's voice was even quieter.
"It's not like I did it on purpose."
"Wasn't it an ergency..."
"And... I didn't know you were helping repair it..."
"You didn't say..."
-- 【 I didn't say?! 】 --
-- 【 I warn you every single ti! 】 --
-- 【 Heart rate too high! Nervous system load overloaded! Remaining survival ti insufficient! 】 --
-- 【 When have you ever listened?! 】
"I'm sorry," Pavela said, feeling a bit guilty.
"I was wrong."
"Really."
It was quiet in Pavela's mind for a few seconds.
-- 【...Forget it. 】 --
-- 【 I'm not going to argue with you anymore. 】 --
-- 【 It's useless anyway. 】 --
-- 【 You'll just do it again next ti. 】 --
-- 【 Anyway, let tell you the specifics of this ti. 】 --
-- 【 First, I have to admit that Dr. Lovelace really has so skills when it cos to cha technology. 】 --
-- 【 The design of this cha is indeed very intricate. 】 --
-- 【 She embedded resonance stones into every node of the Spinal Probe. 】 --
-- 【 By connecting directly to the nervous system through the spinal cord, she let the resonance stones make direct contact with your nerves. 】 --
-- 【 Then, by utilizing the resonance between the Return Power and the resonance stones, she forcibly raised your sequence and boosted your Return Power. 】 --
-- 【 It can even help you share the ntal burden through this system. 】 --
-- 【 But— 】 --
-- 【 This power is not free. 】
-- 【 The Path of the Magician is one thing. 】 --
-- 【 You are only Sequence IV, and the resonance stones just pushed you to the edge of Sequence V. 】 --
-- 【 The sequence isn't high, so the erosion amplification isn't too extre. 】 --
-- 【 But the Path of the Tower is a different story. 】 --
-- 【 You are already Sequence V to begin with. 】 --
-- 【 And then you actively released the restrictions of the Return Power to the resonance stones. 】 --
-- 【 It pulled you directly from Sequence V all the way to the critical point of Sequence VI. 】 --
-- 【 You were just a tiny bit away from beginning to manifest the essence of the Path of the Tower. 】 --
-- 【 Do you know what that ans? 】
"...I don't know," Pavela said honestly.
-- 【 It ans you will start to beco destruction itself. 】 --
-- 【 At that point, everything you see will automatically reveal the trajectory of destruction. 】 --
-- 【 The ground you walk on will crack. 】 --
-- 【 The walls you touch will collapse. 】 --
-- 【 The people you gaze at will... forget it, never mind. 】 --
-- 【 In short, a Sequence VI Wayfarer of the Path of the Tower is basically a walking natural disaster. 】
"Oh." Pavela thought about it.
"Sounds like it's actually quite powerful?"
-- 【 Powerful, my ass! 】 --
-- 【 Do you think the erosion of Sequence VI is a joke?! 】 --
-- 【 The erosion of Sequence V of the Path of the Tower has already made your body unbearable! 】 --
-- 【 Not to ntion this ti it was forcibly pulled up! 】 --
-- 【 Those erosions didn't go through an adaptation period, didn't go through a buffer, and just smashed onto you like that! 】
Pavela looked at her own hands.
Nothing unusual.
"But I feel... fine right now?"
-- 【 No shit! 】 --
-- 【 You're still connected to the cha! 】 --
-- 【 The resonance stones are still helping you share the load! 】 --
-- 【 Once you disconnect— 】 --
-- 【 All the backlash will return to you. 】
Pavela blinked again.
She asked cautiously: "Then... about how painful will it be this ti?"
-- 【... 】 --
-- 【 Do you rember the feeling of connecting to the Spinal Probe for the first ti? 】
"I rember." Pavela nodded.
She would never forget that feeling.
The mont the tal probe pierced her spine.
The nerves being forcibly torn open.
The feeling of consciousness being dragged into the cha.
It was painful enough to make her want to die.
-- 【 Multiply that pain by three or four. 】 --
-- 【 Then stretch the ti to over thirty minutes. 】 --
-- 【 Plus... 】 --
-- 【 Plus you will clearly feel sothing taking root in your spirit. 】 --
-- 【 Twining like vines. 】 --
-- 【 Crawling like bugs. 】 --
-- 【 You will hear whispers. 】 --
-- 【 You will see hallucinations. 】 --
-- 【 You will feel destruction blooming in your brain. 】 --
-- 【 Your consciousness will be put into a at grinder, slowly ground. 】 --
-- 【 Ground for half an hour. 】 --
-- 【 And you won't be able to pass out. 】 --
-- 【 Because the Return Power erosion will force your consciousness to remain awake. 】 --
-- 【 Making you experience the whole process completely, clearly, second by second. 】
"Hiss—" Pavela gasped.
"Um..." Her voice was a bit dry.
"Is there any solution?"
-- 【 Yes. 】 --
-- 【 Don't disconnect. 】 --
-- 【 Call for rescue now. 】 --
-- 【 Have soone send a dical team over imdiately. 】 --
-- 【 Preferably the kind with sedatives, nerve-blocking drugs, and ntal stabilization devices. 】 --
-- 【 Then, with professional dical supervision, slowly disconnect. 】 --
-- 【 This way, at least you can reduce the pain to... hmm... 】 --
-- 【 Reduce it to the level of just wanting to die. 】
"..."
-- 【 Listen to . 】 --
-- 【 Don't try to be a hero. 】 --
-- 【 This is really not sothing you can tough out. 】 --
-- 【 If you disconnect now, I guarantee you will pass out on the spot. 】 --
-- 【 And while passed out, you will remain conscious. 】 --
-- 【 That feeling... 】 --
-- 【 Trust , you won't want to experience it. 】
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