Chapter 134: For Their Sake, Anything

  In the silence that followed the carnage, the only sound was the heavy, labored breathing of the survivors.

  Bob carefully picked up the unconscious Raito, slinging the boy onto his massive back with the tenderness of a father carrying a sleeping child. Zhu knelt, helping Yukari to her feet, though the younger woman's legs trembled.

  With the scrap metal and destruction of the corridor behind them, the group slowly made their way back to the central room.

  Raito was here. He was back. Their primary objective was completed.

  However, they knew everything was not over. The Black Flame was still there, dormant but potent, woven into Raito’s soul. He still had a chance to lose his sanity again. And they didn't know if Yukari could bring him back a third time.

  Furthermore, the structure itself, and the projected man at the center of it all, still loomed over them. Every mystery and question gnawed at them, demanding answers that lay buried beneath layers of metal and time.

  With a complete, awkward silence, they made it back to the central room.

  KSSH-CLUNK.

  The heavy metal door slid closed behind them, shutting down any more attempts for exit or entry. They were sealed in once again.

  Bob was the first one to speak, shifting Raito’s weight.

  "Is... is there any place where I can set the kid down?" he asked, looking at the hologram man who was still watching them with a mix of curiosity and wariness.

  The hologram nodded once. He waved his translucent hand.

  WHIRR.

  A panel split open from the pristine floor. A flat, solid metal bed rose up with a hydraulic hiss.

  Bob saw this and walked over, slowly letting Raito down onto the surface.

  As soon as Bob took his hands away—

  KER-CHUNK.

  Metal restraints shot out from the sides of the bed, clamping tight around Raito's neck, wrists, and ankles.

  "Raito!" Yukari shouted, lurching forward. "Why did you do that?!"

  "Did you not see what transpired, girl?" the hologram asked, his voice cold. "He is a berserker. What if he woke up and started wreaking havoc again? We can't have that. His corruption is already taking most of his sanity. His 'Void' has already spread all over his soul."

  "No!" Yukari shook her head violently. "Raito is not like that! I know him! He will be normal again once he wakes up! Let him go!"

  The hologram shook his head slowly.

  Yukari, furious, moved toward the bed Raito was strapped to.

  THUNK.

  A thick, cylindrical glass pane lowered itself from the ceiling, encircling the bed and sealing Raito off from the rest of the room. A barrier.

  BANG.

  Yukari kicked the glass with her boot. It didn't even vibrate.

  "Let him go!" Yukari demanded again, a silent fury laced in her eyes.

  "No means no," the man said dismissively. "He is long gone. I have never seen anyone regain their sanity from being influenced by Void energy. It consumes. That is its nature."

  "You talk as if you know anything," Zhu stepped up, her eyes narrowing. "Who are you, really?"

  "If you all stay put for once, I will talk," the hologram demanded, crossing his arms of light.

  Zhu nodded. "Yukari." She called out to her stepdaughter, her voice firm. "Stop kicking the glass."

  She turned back to the hologram. "If you promise not to do anything to the kid."

  "Don't worry, I won't," the hologram said with a shrug. "He is already a lost cause."

  "You—!" Yukari reacted.

  Zhu put a restraining hand on Yukari's shoulder. "Let's listen for now," she whispered. "We need information."

  "Fine," Yukari gruffed, leaning against the glass wall, never taking her eyes off Raito. Her arms still wouldn’t lift. They trembled uselessly at her sides.

  The hologram sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "So barbaric. So this is how the world is now. How far we have fallen."

  He straightened his coat of light.

  "Alright. Now, hear it. I am—or what's left of—a man by the name of Dr. Iskandar Carlitz. The 'Albert Einstein of the 23rd Century', at least that is what everyone called me back then."

  "Dr. Iskandar..." Bob murmured, the name foreign and strange on his tongue.

  "I am here," Dr. Iskandar said, his expression turning grave, "to give everything to the Chosen One."

  He pointed a finger directly at Yukari.

  "Which just happens to be you. The answer... and the truth."

  "If I may," Mila interrupted, her brow furrowed in genuine confusion. "Who is Albert Einstein?"

  "Somebody," Iskandar waved his hand dismissively. "But to all of you? A nobody. Not that important. Just a name from a forgotten era."

  Yukari stepped away from the glass barrier.

  "Okay," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Then why am I the 'Chosen One'? What makes me so special that you had to choose me out of everyone on this world? Why drag me into this?"

  "You..." Iskandar pointed a finger of blue light at Yukari again. "Lin Meihua—or whatever name you call yourself now—has the perfect genetic makeup. Your DNA sequence is a statistical anomaly, a one of one occurrence that makes you a complete match with our Core technologies."

  He smiled, a proud, creator-like expression. "You have the perfect vessel."

  "I am not following here," Yukari said flatly. "Vessel? Match?"

  "The backlash. The incompatibility," Iskandar pointed out, tapping his temple.

  "You mean like the severe fatigue, the splitting headaches, and the muscle pain whenever you overuse your Core?" Mila asked, recognizing the symptoms every warrior dreaded.

  "Precisely," Iskandar answered, snapping his fingers. "That 'backlash' you all fear... it wasn't really backlash in the way you understand it. It isn't a cost of overuse. It is actually genetic incompatibility. Your bodies reject our core technology."

  "Our Core?" Zhu asked, her voice sharp. She stepped forward, her martial aura flaring slightly. "You keep saying 'our'."

  "Yes. Ours. We—or we used to be—were the ones who made those devices," Iskandar said, his voice carrying the weight of history. "The Core crystals... they were our creation. Tools. Not gifts from gods."

  The revelation shook everyone to their soul. The foundation of their world's power system—the Cores they treated with reverence and caution—were just... manufactured tools?

  Bob stepped forward, his massive frame trembling slightly.

  "Who is this 'we', sir?" he asked, his voice low.

  Iskandar looked at them, his holographic eyes shimmering with a mix of pride and sorrow.

  "We..." he whispered. "We are none other than the Old Humanity. The denizens of Earth."

  He spread his arms wide, encompassing the metal room, the desert outside, and the world beyond.

  "Or what you people call now... by the name of Calvenoor."

  No one spoke. Even the machines seemed quieter.

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  The reveal, the information, was too much to process. Too unbelievable.

  "So you are telling us..." Yukari asked, her voice shaking. "This world, our world, Calvenoor... is not Calvenoor at all? And this is a world named Earth?"

  "Yes," Iskandar responded simply.

  "Then who are we?" Bob asked, gesturing to himself and the others. "Are we your people's descendants? Survivors?"

  "No," Iskandar said, shaking his head. "You people have no connection to us. Our people have perished. Or... that's what I thought until recently."

  He looked pointedly at Raito’s unconscious form, then at Zhu.

  "I already said, your genetic makeup is incompatible with our Cores," Iskandar explained, his tone clinical. "That alone should prove that the denizens of this world share no family tree with us. You all were made by IT. A completely new breed of existence. A successful experiment."

  He sighed, the sound crackling with static. "I had almost given up. I thought I would never find a proper vessel. Which is why, your existence, it moved my non-existent heart, Lin Meihua."

  He pointed to Yukari again. "An anomaly like you... someone who is compatible... that you exist gives us hope."

  "A vessel for what?" Yukari asked, gulping.

  "What else?" Iskandar said bluntly, his face twisting into a sneer. "REVENGE."

  Yukari didn’t answer immediately.

  Against who? Everyone wanted to ask, but the answer hung heavy in the air, unspoken but understood.

  "Now," Iskandar spread his arms wide. "Take out your Core Crystal. I will upgrade it. Make it the perfect weapon for humanity's instrument of revenge. After hundreds of thousands of years, Silux will finally fall!"

  He laughed, a sound that bordered on madness.

  "What makes you think," Yukari said, her eyes narrowing, "that I will just accept something like that? Becoming a weapon?"

  Iskandar stopped laughing. He pointed a finger at the glass cage containing Raito.

  "You want to save him, right?" he asked. “I said earlier that he is gone, that is a partial lie. I might have something to stabilize him.”

  "You are using him as a bargaining chip?" Yukari hissed. "That is low."

  "To you, perhaps. Not to me," Iskandar said, his voice raw with pain. "I have been desperate. Looking for hundreds of thousands of years, stuck in this prison, seeing the world you once called home being transformed by that machine... you have no choice. Now, choose. What will it be?"

  "Tch," Yukari clicked her tongue. "You won't get away with this."

  She gestured to Zhu with her head. Zhu nodded and moved to her side, helping Yukari lift her limp left arm, presenting her Sakura ring in front of Dr. Iskandar.

  "What is this?" Dr. Iskandar asked, confused.

  "My Core. What else?" Yukari said.

  "No. I said your Core Crystal," Iskandar said, emphasizing the word.

  Everyone looked confused. "The standard Core Crystal?" she asked.

  "Yes. What else?" he snapped.

  "It's long gone," Yukari said. "Shattered. This is my new Core."

  "What?" Iskandar blinked, his hologram flickering. "There is no way. You are lying."

  "She is telling the truth," Zhu stepped in.

  "No, but it is impossible!" Iskandar shouted, pacing back and forth in his light beam. "Once you lose your Core, you won't get a second one! There are no factories! No one left who can make another Core! It is a finite item! A relic by your standards!"

  Everyone looked at each other, getting more and more confused.

  "And this..." Iskandar pointed at the ring. "You said this ring is your Core?"

  "Yes," Yukari simply answered.

  "You know that there is no such thing as a custom Core, right?" Iskandar explained, sounding like a professor correcting a particularly dense student. "The lattice structure required... the energy containment..."

  "Then..." Yukari looked around for an answer, shrugging her shoulders slightly.

  "Even this... is another anomaly," Iskandar muttered, pacing faster, glancing at Yukari's ring with every turn. "How in the world..."

  Everyone was puzzled. Everyone was confused. And in the silence of the ancient laboratory, no one had the answer.

  "No, no, no! This is all wrong!"

  Iskandar slammed his hand onto one of the consoles, but his fist of light just phased through the metal.

  "That custom Core cannot be modified!" he shouted, his face contorted in frustration. "Even if you are a perfect vessel, the one with the perfect genetic sequence, I cannot use you anymore! This is useless! A fad! This world... it's over!"

  Iskandar slumped over the console, his holographic form flickering with despair.

  "Yukari," Mila asked, her voice cutting through the scientist's meltdown. "Didn't you say you used to also experience backlash?"

  "Yes," Yukari answered, nodding. "But not anymore. Not since I got this ring."

  "Then..." Iskandar’s head snapped up. "You are modified. You are made into this. Great. A fake vessel, add another to my despair."

  He floated closer, his eyes scanning her intensely. "Have you made contact with Silux? No. Silas in your words?"

  Yukari shook her head firmly. "Never."

  "Then... who has the ability?" Iskandar whispered, his mind racing. "Someone so powerful... someone who can tap into... 'VOID'."

  His holographic brain seemed to light up with a realization.

  "Tell me, girl," he asked, pointing a trembling finger at the ring. "Is that ring a gift from someone?"

  "Yes," Yukari said, confused. "What of it?"

  "A gift from that boy, I presume?" Iskandar asked, pointing a thumb back at the glass cage containing Raito.

  "Yes?" Yukari frowned. "I don't see your point."

  "Don't you get it?" Iskandar laughed, a sound devoid of humor. "This ring! Your new Core! Your perfect genetics! All of it was made, modified, everything made to fit you! A gift!"

  "By?" Yukari asked, but a cold chill ran down her spine. She knew what he would say.

  "By that kid, who else." Iskandar said.

  Everyone—Bob, Zhu, Mila—gasped. Raito made a Core? Raito modified DNA? That sounded preposterous. He was a janitor. A goofy kid who liked bad jokes.

  Everyone was surprised. Everyone except Yukari.

  In the middle of this revelation, Bob noticed movement in the cage.

  "Hey!" he shouted, alerting everyone.

  "Raito!" Yukari cried, running to the glass.

  But his condition... something was wrong. Raito’s eyes were open, but they were pitch black. Empty.

  "He is already lost," Iskandar said grimly.

  ROAAAAAR.

  Raito roared inside the cage. It wasn't human. Black flames started to burst from his body, licking at the restraints. But they were weaker, more restrained than in the desert.

  "He is stronger than I thought," Iskandar noted, checking a readout on the wall. "The energy dampening field won't last long against that output."

  "Energy dampening field?" Zhu asked, looking at her hands.

  "Yes. It's designed to dampen any form of Void energy and all of its derivations. For example, elemental energy," Iskandar explained rapidly. "That is why your flame powers won't turn on."

  Zhu nodded, the pieces finally falling into place.

  "Hey! Is there nothing we can do to help him?" Yukari pleaded, boots banging on the glass. "He is suffering! Please! You said you have a way!"

  Iskandar hesitated. He looked at the boy, then at the girl. Something flickered. Something… A past long forgotten.

  "I do have a way," he admitted slowly. "But I never tested it. It's something I theorized from a hundred thousand years of solitude. I always wondered how to bring someone back from being consumed by Void. The theory is solid... but there have been no clinical trials."

  "I don't care! Do what you need, please!" Yukari begged.

  "I would, but we have no one with a deep enough connection to..." Iskandar paused. His gaze fell on the ring.

  "No... we do," he whispered. "Your ring. You. You are connected to that boy's soul via that artifact. You have a chance."

  Yukari perked up, a flicker of hope igniting in her chest. "Tell me. What do I have to do?"

  "I will connect both of you," Iskandar said. "Then you have to dive deep into his mentalscape. His soul. You have to find him, pull him back, and sever his connection to the Void manually."

  "Then what are we waiting for?" Yukari asked, ready to jump.

  "Wait!"

  Zhu stepped in front of Yukari, blocking her path.

  "What is the scenario if it fails?" Zhu asked the hologram, her voice hard.

  "If it fails..." Iskandar looked down. "She will also be consumed by Void. Their minds will merge into chaos. That boy will get free from his restraints, kill us all, and become a mindless berserker forever."

  "Then, no," Zhu said, turning to Yukari. "It's too risky."

  But Yukari had already made up her mind. She rested her forehead gently on Zhu’s chest.

  "I have to save him, Mother," she whispered. "Please."

  Zhu looked down at her stepdaughter, pain etched into every line of her face. She wanted to forbid it. She wanted to drag her away.

  Bob put his large hand on Zhu’s shoulder.

  "Sometimes," he said softly, "it's time to let our child go."

  Zhu closed her eyes. A single tear escaped. She nodded.

  "Go back safely," she said, stepping aside.

  Yukari nodded. She turned to Iskandar. "What do I need to do?"

  "A panel open," Iskandar commanded the room.

  Another metal bed rose from the floor, right next to Raito's cage.

  "Rest your body there," Iskandar instructed.

  Yukari quickly lay down on the cold metal surface.

  From the ceiling, two mechanical arms descended. Each held a thin wire ending in a long, menacing needle. One positioned itself over Yukari’s neck, the other over Raito’s.

  "Are you sure?" Iskandar asked, his voice unexpectedly gentle, his eyes pained. "You might never come back. You still have a chance to refuse."

  Yukari looked at Raito through the glass. "For him? Anything."

  She looked back at the hologram. "And if I do come back... please tell us everything. Stop this charade. You are holding something back."

  Iskandar was taken aback. "It's a hundred thousand years too early to tell me that kid... but... I understand."

  He nodded. "Safe flight."

  Yukari inhaled once. Slowly. Then nodded.

  CH-CHUNK.

  The needles plunged into the side of Raito's and Yukari's necks simultaneously.

  Both of them convulsed in pain as the connection bridged.

  Then... darkness.

  Silence.

  Yukari opened her eyes.

  She was standing in a hallway. It looked familiar—the same smooth, silver metallic walls of the structure she had just been in. However, the sterile white strip lights were dead. The corridor was plunged in gloom, illuminated only by a faint, ambient grey light that had no source.

  And there was no sound. No hum of machinery. No distant wind. Just absolute, suffocating silence.

  "No," Yukari corrected herself, tilting her head. "No sound is false."

  Perked in the corner of her ears, faint but distinct, she could hear it.

  Sniff. Sob.

  What seemed to be someone crying.

  She looked around, orienting herself in the maze. Then, hesitantly, she lifted her hand to check her face.

  Her arm moved.

  She flexed her fingers. She rotated her wrist. In this realm, the physical damage to her body didn't exist. She was whole.

  She exhaled, a long breath of relief and resolve.

  "I will save you," she murmured to the dark. "Wait for me."

  She moved. She followed the direction of the sobs, her footsteps silent on the metal floor. Right. Left. Right again. It was a maze of dark metal, a labyrinth of isolation.

  Finally, she turned a corner and came face to face with the source of the noise.

  In the middle of the hallway, sitting on the cold floor with his knees pulled to his chest, was a small, black-haired boy.

  Yukari was confused. But she kept walking, closer and closer to the small figure.

  She knelt right next to him. She smiled, soft and maternal.

  "Hello," she said, her tone gentle. "What is the matter?"

  The boy looked up. He wiped his nose with his sleeve.

  "I... I... I don't know where I am," the boy answered, his voice trembling.

  He looked at Yukari, his wide brown eyes scanning her face, searching for something familiar.

  "Do... do you know where everyone is, miss?" he asked.

  Yukari gasped a little, her heart squeezing in her chest. She forced the shock down and replaced it with a big, warm smile.

  "Who are you looking for?" she asked softly. "Where are your parents, boy?"

  The boy shook his head. "I don't have parents," he answered simply, as if it were a fact of life like the sky being blue.

  "I... where is everyone?" he asked again, his lip quivering. He started to cry louder, the sound echoing in the empty hall. "I'm all alone."

  Yukari moved without hesitation. She wrapped her arms around the small boy, pulling him into a hug. She felt him stiffen, then relax into her warmth. She felt how light he was.

  "Don't worry," she whispered, stroking his hair. "You are safe. I'm here."

  The boy sniffled, he trembled in her arms, pulling back slightly to look at her.

  "Who... who are you, miss?" he asked.

  Yukari looked at him.

  "Hmm..." she hummed, giving him a big, reassuring smile. "Someone you will know. Someone who’s been looking for you."