Chapter 141: …Once More

  The mechanical Chimeras were relentless.

  Like a swarm of brass locusts, they hammered against the upper half of the silver structure. Their claws, sharp enough to rend diamond, screeched against the matte metal plating. Sparks flew in cascades, and the sound of grinding gears echoed across the dunes, a cacophony of industrial violence. They were programmed to breach, destroy, and purge.

  But then... they stopped.

  It wasn't a gradual cessation. It was instant. A dozen heads snapped up in unison. Their internal gyroscopes whirred as they pivoted, abandoning their primary objective.

  Their sensors had picked up something. A spike in energy readings that eclipsed the structure itself. A threat level that screamed 'Absolute'.

  They turned.

  Walking toward their formation from the shimmering heat haze were two figures.

  Raito walked on the left. In his hand, Koenka blazed not with its usual crimson fire, but with a roaring, pitch-black flame that seemed to drink the sunlight around it. The air distorted around him, heavy with gravitational pressure.

  Yukari walked on the right. In her hand, the metallic sphere had elongated into a sleek, elegant spear—Quintzel. Swirling around the shaft was a mist of silver frost energy, glittering like diamond dust and cold enough to freeze the air in the lungs.

  The Chimeras, more than a dozen of them, roared. It was a sound of challenging supremacy. They turned their full, undivided attention away from the structure and began marching toward the two runaways, their heavy footsteps shaking the earth.

  Inside the structure, the atmosphere was tense in a different way.

  Bob stood glued to one of the main monitors, watching the external feed with wide eyes. Behind him, Dr. Iskandar was moving with blurred speed between two medical beds, his holographic hands flying over controls as machines hummed and beeped, working to rewrite the biology of Zhu and Mila.

  "Is it just me," Raito’s voice came through the audio link, calm and conversational, "or are they focusing on us?"

  "They are definitely focusing on us," Yukari’s voice replied, equally calm. "You can back down if you want. Go hide with Tama."

  "And leave all the fun to you? Alone?" Raito grinned, the expression visible even on the grainy monitor. "Absolutely not."

  He rolled his shoulders. "Seriously though... we are not being overconfident, are we?"

  "A little bit," Yukari admitted. She tapped her chest, then pointed to Raito’s chest. "But after what we got in there... how could we not be?"

  "Fair," Raito nodded.

  GRRRRROOOOOWL.

  A loud, rumbling sound cut through the tense standoff. It didn't come from the mechanical throats of the beasts. It came from Raito’s midsection.

  Raito stopped, looking down at his stomach.

  "Urgh," he groaned. "I forgot I haven't eaten anything since that sludge."

  "Seriously?" Yukari sighed, shaking her head, though a smile tugged at her lips. "This is really not the time."

  One of the Chimeras, apparently insulted by the lack of respect, leaped.

  It launched itself through the air, a multi-ton projectile of death, its metal claws extended to tear both humans into ribbons.

  "Don't interrupt us!"

  They shouted in unison.

  They didn't dodge. They swung their weapons upward in a synchronized cross-slash.

  SLASH-CRUNCH.

  A blast of black void and silver frost intersected in the air. The Chimera didn't just break; it was dismantled. The metal was cut cleanly into three pieces—head, torso, and tail—before the energy detonated.

  BOOM.

  The machine exploded mid-leap, raining burning scrap metal down onto the sand.

  "So rude," Yukari tutted, flicking a speck of oil from her shoulder.

  "Well, to be fair, they are not really living beings," Raito commented, stepping over a smoking gear. "They don't know table manners."

  The other Chimeras, processing the instant destruction of their unit, roared. Their threat assessment spiked to maximum.

  This time, they didn't attack one by one.

  THOOM.

  All of them leaped. A synchronized pounce designed to crush the area with sheer weight and kinetic force.

  Their claws slammed down into the ground where the two stood.

  Dust and sand flew everywhere, creating a blinding beige cloud that obscured everything. The ground cracked under the impact.

  But once the dust settled... Raito and Yukari were not there. The Chimeras looked around, sensors confused.

  "Look up," Yukari’s voice drifted down from the sky.

  She was high above them, suspended in the air on a platform of solid ice. Her weapon, Quintzel, had shifted form. It was no longer a spear. It was a longbow, pulsing with silver light.

  She pulled the string back. Two arrows made of concentrated silver ice materialized, humming with cold power.

  "Release."

  She launched them with terrifying precision.

  THWIP-THWIP.

  The arrows streaked down like comets. They pierced through the skulls of two Chimeras, entering the top of their heads and exiting through their undercarriages, pinning them to the ground. The machines shuddered and went offline instantly, frozen from the inside out.

  "And down here!"

  Raito’s voice came from below.

  He was crouching directly underneath the belly of another Chimera. He held Koenka with both hands, the black flame condensing into a dense edge.

  He swung his sword upwards in a rising arc.

  A blaze of black flame erupted, cutting vertically. It melted and consumed the underside of the Chimera above him, slicing the beast in half from groin to chin. The massive machine collapsed around him, its edges glowing with null-energy.

  Raito stepped out of the wreckage, dusting off his hands.

  In less than a minute... four—no, five Chimeras, counting the one from earlier, were down..

  "Catch me!" Yukari shouted from the air as her ice platform evaporated.

  "Wha—" Raito looked up, panicked.

  He braced himself as Yukari fell towards him. He caught her, the impact jarring his shoulders, but he held on, cradling her in a princess carry.

  "Thank you," she grinned, wrapping her arms around his neck.

  But Raito’s arms were shaking violently. The adrenaline was wearing off, and physics was reasserting itself.

  "Too... heavy," he grunted, his face turning red.

  And before long, gravity won. He dropped Yukari unceremoniously onto the sand.

  THUD.

  Yukari sat there for a split second, blinking. Then she immediately stood up. She walked toward Raito, a flat, terrifyingly neutral expression on her face.

  SLAP!

  She slapped Raito so hard the sound echoed like an explosion across the dunes. Bob, watching the monitor inside the structure, winced. He didn't even need the audio feed to hear the damage she had caused.

  "Ouch," Bob yelped sympathetically, rubbing his own cheek. "But... at least they are back to their usual antics." He smiled broadly.

  "How..." Iskandar whispered, his hands frozen over the medical controls.

  "How are they... so much stronger than they were before?" Iskandar asked, bewildered. "I saw their previous battle with the Chimera models. The girl... she was utterly outclassed. Her attacks barely scratched the paint. And the boy... he had to lose himself to the Void to even put up a fight. How can one trip to a mentalscape boost their prowess this much? It defies every law of energy conservation!"

  He muttered to himself, running calculations that kept coming up with error messages. "Very illogical. Impossible."

  "Maybe to science," Bob said, watching the couple argue on the screen. "But to me... that's just how they always were. Chaotic as always, not a care in the world, as long as they are together."

  He turned back to the monitor. "Just watch and believe in them, Doc."

  Outside….

  Raito was kneeling in the sand, clutching his stinging cheek.

  "Sorry, sorry," he apologized profusely.

  "How dare you say that I'm heavy..." Yukari hissed, looming over him. "And even worse, you dropped me!"

  Her burning icy gaze overwhelmed him, leaving no room for discussion nor defense.

  "But it was just so sudden! I wasn't expecting that I had to catch—" Raito tried to make up an excuse.

  "Huh?" Yukari glared, interrupting him with a single syllable.

  "Sorry, sorry," he lowered his head to the sand in a full bow.

  Inside the structure, Bob sighed. "Alright, I take it back. Maybe worry a little."

  ROAAAAAR.

  The remaining Chimeras roared again, interrupting the couple's domestic dispute. They had had enough of being treated like a passing wind. Their threat protocols escalated to maximum.

  Collectively, they flew up into the air, abandoning the ground assault. They formed a perfect circle formation high above the structure, blocking out the sun. Their jaws unhinged, barrels glowing with a terrifying, synchronized light.

  "That doesn't look good," Raito said, standing up and dusting off his knees.

  "No..." Yukari narrowed her eyes, analyzing the energy buildup. "I think they are trying to take us out and the structure in one motion."

  "Then... what do we do?" Raito asked, looking up at the ring of death. "We can't really fly. we can jump, but not that high."

  "That," Yukari said simply.

  "That?" Raito questioned, looking at her. "We don't even know if we..."

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  "You don't believe in us?" Yukari asked, raising an eyebrow.

  With a single sentence, Raito's doubt vanished.

  "You're right," he smiled. "I guess I worry for nothing."

  "We never properly did this while awake," Yukari said, taking his hand. "But... I believe we can, now."

  Raito nodded.

  They intertwined their hands, fingers locking together. They stood side by side, looking up at the sky.

  "Void, Awaken!" they commanded in unison.

  FLASH.

  A blinding golden light began surging from their bodies. It wasn't the crimson of the flames or the white of the ice. It was pure, radiant gold.

  Raito's hair and eyes turned a bright, burning crimson. Yukari's silver eyes glowed with an inner luminosity that outshone the day. Their hair seemed to elongate, flowing in an updraft of power. They started to float, lifting off the sand as the golden light surrounded them like a robe of divinity.

  Their current visage could easily be mistaken for deities descending to earth.

  They flew up, higher and higher, until they were leveled with the circle of Chimeras.

  Their intertwined hands held up high. A golden blade of light formed around their grasp, growing bigger and bigger until it pierced the clouds.

  The Chimeras, not caring about this unnatural appearance, fired.

  A synchronized blast of concentrated fire, a miniature sun, shot toward the couple.

  "Perish," they both said calmly.

  Their voices echoed in the sky, layered and resonant. They brought their golden blade down with absolute authority.

  The ball of fire clashed with the blade.

  And... it disintegrated. It turned into motes of harmless light in the blade's presence.

  But the blade did not stop there. It kept going. The arc of gold swept through the sky.

  It found the Chimeras. It struck them.

  There was no explosion. No debris. The mechanical beasts simply disintegrated into light, just like the fireball, erased from the sky as if they had never existed.

  Silence fell over the desert.

  The two slowly descended back to the ground, floating like feathers on a gentle breeze. As their boots touched the sand, the blinding golden light unraveled, spinning away into the ether.

  Raito's hair faded from crimson back to messy black. Yukari's silver eyes dimmed to their normal, beautiful luster. Their hair shortened, returning them to their normal states.

  They collapsed backward, laying softly on the sand, looking up at the vast, unblemished blue sky above.

  "We actually did it," Raito whispered, his chest heaving.

  "I know," Yukari breathed, a smile tugging at her lips. "I couldn't believe it myself."

  "Wait," Raito turned his head to look at her. "But you said earlier that you believed... you know what, let's not think about it right now. We just did it!"

  "What Rara said was true," Yukari said, looking back at Raito. "That golden light... it was us. It came from within us. They told us that we possess the ability to use it."

  They looked at each other and giggled, a sound of pure relief.

  "So we did vanquish that serpent back in Hanyuun," Raito said. "That explains a lot."

  "I guess we did," Yukari agreed. She tried to sit up, but her muscles refused to cooperate.

  "I can't move," Raito announced flatly.

  "Me neither," Yukari said. "Ask Bob or Tama to pick us up."

  "Yeah. It's over anyway," Raito sighed, closing his eyes.

  ROAAAAAR.

  A lone, almost quiet but distinctly audible roar echoed from the sky.

  Raito’s eyes snapped open.

  "Uh... I think you just jinxed us," Yukari said.

  High above, a single Chimera remained. Half of its body was gone, sheared away by the edge of the golden blade when it had separated itself from the group to evade the strike. Sparks rained from its exposed circuitry. It was dying.

  But it wasn't dead yet.

  It locked its remaining sensors onto the silver structure below. Its frame was falling apart, shedding plates and gears, but it could still do one last maneuver.

  It folded its remaining wing and dove.

  It began to plummet toward the structure, faster and faster, turning itself into a kinetic missile.

  "It's trying to ram itself into the structure!" Yukari shouted, struggling to lift her head.

  "Urgh..." Raito grunted, straining every fiber of his being to move, but his body was lead. "Can't... move..."

  The Chimera accelerated. It was a streak of burning metal against the blue sky. It was only a few hundred feet away. Then fifty. Then a few inches.

  "No!" Yukari shouted.

  And then... silence once more.

  The two looked at the Chimera, puzzled. It looked like it had just stopped in mid-air, mere inches away from the silver roof of the structure.

  "You think I'd let you do that?"

  A voice spoke. Calm. Imperious.

  It was Zhu.

  She was standing on top of the structure. She had caught the multi-ton, plummeting mechanical beast with just one arm. Her hand was pressed against its nosecone, her feet planted firmly on the metal roof, not even sliding an inch. Her qipao fluttered in the wind, untouched.

  "Mother!" Yukari shouted.

  "I'm here too," Mila said.

  The warrior leaped from behind Zhu, vaulting over the frozen machine. Her greatsword pulsed with a kaleidoscope of seven colors—a rainbow of elemental power fueled by her upgraded Core.

  "HAAAA!"

  She sliced the Chimera clean in half, right down the middle.

  The two halves began to fall away from the structure.

  "Your turn," Mila gestured to Zhu as she landed gracefully.

  "With pleasure," Zhu said.

  She waved her hand. The air around her began to distort, heat waves shimmering violently.

  The sliced parts of the Chimera didn't just fall. They began to melt. In seconds, the solid metal turned to liquid slag, and then to vapor. By the time the debris would have hit the ground, there was nothing left but a puff of hot air.

  Zhu melted the Chimera into nothingness with just her innate heat.

  The two women jumped down, moving closer to Raito and Yukari. They looked radiant, powerful, and very much alive.

  "Mila, you're here too," Raito said, grinning weakly.

  "I just said that" Mila retorted, a tiny, genuine smile escaping her usually stoic mouth.

  Inside the structure, watching the feed on the monitor, both Bob and Iskandar exhaled long breaths they didn't know they were holding.

  "Phew..." Bob wiped his forehead. "That was too close."

  "But not late," Iskandar said, looking at the readings from the two women. "Perfect timing."

  Moments later, the adrenaline finally crashed. The group retreated into the relative safety of the structure's central chamber, leaving the scorching desert heat behind. Outside, Tama parked herself in the shade of the metallic entryway, contentedly chewing on a dry, thorny shrub as if she hadn't just witnessed a war.

  Inside, the air was cool and sterile. Raito and Yukari lay side-by-side on the medical beds, their bodies heavy as lead. They were completely immobilized, muscles refusing to twitch, nerves humming with a dull, static numbness.

  "Don't worry," Dr. Iskandar said, his holographic form shimmering as he passed a handheld scanner over them. Blue light washed over their tired faces. "This condition is not permanent. It is merely a systemic reboot—similar to extreme physical exhaustion. A few hours of deep sleep will suffice to restore your bodily functions back to normal parameters."

  "Phew," Raito exhaled, the sound whistling through his teeth as he sank deeper into the gel-like mattress. "That means I can finally get something to eat after a short nap. My stomach is eating itself."

  "You really have the worst timing for those jokes," Yukari murmured, rolling her eyes toward him, though a smile tugged at the corner of her lips, betraying her relief. "But yes... a meal would be incredible."

  "Alright, alright," Bob chuckled, the sound booming warmly in the metal room. He patted Raito's leg gently. "I will treat you two to the best meal Kah-Kamun has to offer once we are back. Roasted lamb, spiced rice, honey cakes—the works. After everything, you two deserve a feast."

  Raito and Yukari exchanged a look of pure, gleeful joy.

  "Before you start planning the menu," Iskandar interrupted, his expression hardening into scientific curiosity. "Tell me. What was that golden light emanating from your bodies earlier? My sensors went off the charts, but the signature... it didn't match anything in my database."

  "Void," the two answered simply, in perfect unison.

  "No, that can't be right," Iskandar shook his head, pacing back and forth, his hands twitching. "Void is pitch black. It is entropy. Consuming. Suffocating. That light of yours... it was warm. Radiant. It felt like creation, not destruction. That can't be Void."

  "No, that was Void," Yukari insisted, her voice steady.

  "The true Void," Raito clarified.

  "Void is just a term you coined to describe something you didn't understand," Yukari explained, her eyes soft with the memory of the mentalscape. "This Void... the golden light... is its true form. The form you never found because you were looking for power, not connection."

  "It is called by another name," Yukari added.

  "Resonance," Raito finished.

  "You told us you found Light and Darkness within the Void," Yukari continued. "But that splitting... that violence... only happens when the energy itself is imbalanced. When the harmony within is in jeopardy. The energy you found in the Himalayas... it had been shaken by the crash. Traumatized. That is why you never found the true meaning, or more accurately, the true form of Void."

  "And who told you this?" Iskandar asked, stunned, his projection flickering.

  "Them. The voices," Yukari said.

  "Voices in my head? Mind? Soul?" Raito shrugged as best he could against the paralysis. "Honestly, we are not sure who or what they were. But they showed us almost everything. The true nature of the energy, and how to properly wield it through acceptance, not dominance."

  "Huh. Is that so," Iskandar murmured, staring at his translucent hands as if seeing them for the first time.

  "You don't believe us?" Yukari asked.

  "After everything that happened today... I have no choice but to believe you," Iskandar said with a bitter, hacking laugh. "But I am also angry."

  SLAM.

  He brought his fist down onto a console. It made no sound, but the visual violence was clear. "If it was truly that easy... that the true form can be achieved once you find harmony... foolish. Those voices should have told me eons ago! If only they had told me... we... humanity would have never perished."

  His expression turned somber, grief etching deep lines into his holographic face, making him look ancient. "But it is what it is at this point. Everything has been done. The ink is dry. It was our punishment, in a way. We never truly tried to understand the Void; we only tried to claim and take it like greedy children."

  "Doc..." Yukari whispered, feeling a pang of sympathy for the ghost.

  "Anything else those voices said?" Iskandar asked, composing himself with a visible effort, straightening his coat.

  "Unfortunately no," Raito said. "Only that we will learn the truth from 'the Thief'. That was the last thing we heard before they disappeared into the light."

  "Thief, eh?" Iskandar mused, rubbing his chin. "Sounds like a little robot I knew. That means those voices wanted you two to face Silux one way or another."

  "Seemed like it," Yukari agreed.

  Iskandar looked at them—the boy and the girl who had achieved the impossible.

  "As genius as I am—or what people used to call me—even I can't predict what the future holds. Only your actions can shape your destiny. But... if it's you two... if what I see in what's left of my data is true... then maybe... just maybe, that future might hold what we Old Humanity failed to achieve."

  He smiled, a rare, warm expression. "But only a little, though." He held up his thumb and forefinger, pinching a tiny gap of air. "You two are still way too chaotic for my taste. A pair of absolute troublemakers."

  The two runaways giggled, the sound light and free. "That is us," they admitted in unison.

  Then, Iskandar turned to Zhu, who was standing protectively near Yukari’s bed, her martial aura humming with renewed vigor.

  "I have modified your body as much as I can," he told her, his voice clinical again. "I've limited and erased Silux's control protocols to the best of my ability. You should have a significantly higher output of your powers and greater freedom of being. But... it is not perfect. The source code is deep. There are still some of his markings left in there."

  He held up five fingers. "So remember this. Five... five minutes is all you have at maximum elemental energy output. If you exceed that limit, the safeties will fail, and there is a high risk of Silux regaining control of your neural pathways."

  Zhu nodded, clenching her fist and feeling the energy flow through her veins—smoother, faster than before. "Understood."

  "Good." Iskandar waved his hand. A small, concealed compartment hissed open on a nearby pedestal, revealing five small, intricate pills that glowed with a faint, multi-colored luminescence.

  "After I performed the procedure on you, I synthesized these," he explained. "Using the biological data I gathered, those five pills will grant the other Lords the same level of modification as yours. So take them, and give them to your companions."

  "Thank you," Zhu said, picking up the pills with reverence and tucking them safely into her sash.

  "Now you," Iskandar turned to Mila, who was testing the weight of her greatsword. The weapon hummed with a new, complex resonance.

  "I have finished modifying your Core. Instead of it being a simple Gust Core... it is now transformed into what I call an ‘All-Core’."

  Mila looked down at the crystal embedded in the crossguard of her sword. It was no longer a flat green; it swirled with a mesmerizing vortex of all colors of the spectrum—red, blue, yellow, green, white, and brown—dancing in harmony.

  "That Core will grant you the power to access and utilize all six elements simultaneously, with Wind acting as the stabilizer at its center," Iskandar explained. "However, please, beware. Even with me synchronizing your Core to your genes to its highest compatibility number, the strain is immense. You will still experience severe backlash if you push it too far without care. Pace yourself. And may that Core be a tool to help you forge your own future."

  "Noted," Mila said, bowing deeply, respect etched on her face.

  Iskandar turned to Bob. He raised a finger as if to dispense great wisdom. He opened his mouth, paused, and then simply exhaled.

  "Just be you," he said.

  "I would hug you if I could, Doc," Bob grinned, his eyes glistening with unshed tears.

  "Please don't," Iskandar replied dryly. "I prefer my photons un-squashed."

  RUMBLE.

  The room began to vibrate, a low tremor that quickly escalated into a violent shake.

  "Now... if everything is done... please, leave... quickly," Iskandar said. His form began to destabilize, pixelating at the edges.

  "Doc, what is going on?" Yukari asked, straining to sit up against the paralysis.

  The structure groaned, the sound of metal stressing under immense weight. Dust and debris began to rain from the ceiling.

  "I... had to use this bunker's central power core to synthesize the All-Core for her," Iskandar explained calmly, even as the walls around him began to buckle. "This place has served its purpose. The reactor is failing. And now... it's time for this place and me to rest."

  "Is there nothing that we can do?" Raito asked, desperation in his voice.

  "I am already long dead, son," Iskandar smiled, a sad, peaceful expression. "What's left is just a remnant of a forgotten time. A ghost haunting a machine. So please... the living should continue living."

  The group looked at each other. A silent agreement passed between them.

  "We may not see eye to eye," Zhu said, stepping forward. "But thank you. For what you've given us. We won't let you down."

  She picked Yukari up from her bed effortlessly, cradling her stepdaughter against her chest. Bob lugged Raito onto his broad back.

  "We will make sure your tales will be heard all over Calvenoor," Bob promised, his voice booming over the sound of collapsing metal.

  Iskandar nodded, his image fading.

  "Doc!" Yukari shouted over the rumbling. "Do you happen to know what happened to the old man in the underground tunnel?"

  "What old man?" Iskandar replied, genuine confusion on his glitching face. "There are no other bio-signs in the facility."

  "No... nothing," Yukari shook her head, filing the mystery away for later.

  "Oh, and you, boy," Iskandar turned to Raito one last time. "You look just like Luth and Charlie. Maybe not as pretty or handsome as them... nor as smart... but you are their son, no doubt."

  "Uhhh, I am a little offended, but thank you," Raito said, smiling through the tears blurring his vision.

  CRASH.

  The building lurched violently, tilting to the side.

  "Now leave!" Iskandar ordered, his voice echoing with finality.

  The group turned and ran, sprinting through the corridors as the ancient tomb began to collapse in on itself.

  Once they were out of sight, the hologram of Dr. Iskandar sat down on the edge of a dying console. He adjusted his glasses one last time.

  "Heh. Finally. This is it. Time for me to return to my time," he whispered, closing his eyes as the ceiling gave way.

  The building started to crack and crumple around him, burying the secrets of the past.

  "Dr. Iskandar...."

  A distorted, garbled voice called out to him from the static of the dying systems. It wasn't the computer. It was something else.

  "Who?" Iskandar asked, snapping his eyes open.

  "Please... come with me... if you want to live."

  A distorted hand, made of glitching code, static, and shadow, reached out to him from the main monitor, defying the destruction.

  "You still... have a role to fulfill," the voice hissed.

  "You!" Iskandar’s eyes widened in shock and recognition. "How—?"

  Then, the entire room collapsed into darkness.

  Outside, the group managed to safely escape the radius of the implosion. They stood panting on a dune, watching the massive structure crumple under the sands once more.

  The relic of a time long gone, held by hope and wishes. Now taken back to the earth.