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What can you do when you come face to face with death?
The answer is simple... absolutely nothing.
Kneel down... press both knees against the ground and accept your fate.
Maybe you should try using that latent talent flowing in your blood... you know? The one he always expected from you.
But thinking about it again...
Y̶o̸u̸ ̵d̷o̶n̸'̵t̷ ̷h̴a̵v̸e̷ ̶a̵n̷y̸,̶ ̷d̷o̴ ̶y̷o̶u̵?̴
Murmurs began echoing through the darkness.
The reality around her seemed to warp like a grand theater. Deformed faces appeared in invisible stands, all watching... all waiting.
Waiting for a speech.
"Ladies and gentlemen... today we celebrate not only a scientific achievement. We celebrate a moment that will be forever etched in the history of humanity."
"In a world where great discoveries usually take decades... sometimes an entire lifetime... someone has appeared who changed everything before even reaching adolescence."
"At only twelve years old, she presented the world with a discovery that shook the very foundations of the scientific community and opened doors we once believed impossible."
"For that reason, the Council of the Treaty of Humanity has the honor of granting the highest scientific recognition in existence..."
"M̵e̶l̷i̶s̴s̴a̴ ̷H̷a̵l̸l̴... p̵l̶e̷a̴s̴e̴ ̷c̷o̵m̵e̵ ̷t̸o̸ ̵t̴h̴e̷ ̸s̷t̵a̵g̶e̴.̶"̴
Applause echoed.
Soft at first. Then louder. Then... grotesque.
Fake smiles stretched across distorted faces, hollow praise repeating endlessly like a warped echo. Every word sounded more twisted than the last.
Melissa pressed her hands against her ears... but it didn't help.
"Shut up..."
She raised her head with difficulty. And then she saw it...
In the darkness before her... that cadaverous face. Hollow eyes weeping tears of blood.
The applause and praise only grew louder, more distorted. Comments about her appearance, her genius, her talent... all coming from those irrelevant faces, smiling grotesquely.
"Shut the fuck up..."
But above all of them...
Above everyone.
A pair of eyes watched.
Cold eyes, heavy with contempt and disappointment.
Eyes positioned on a level she would never reach.
"F̵o̴c̷u̵s̴ ̶o̵n̸ ̷w̷h̴a̷t̴ ̵y̴o̴u̶'̴r̸e̸ ̵g̴o̷o̸d̴ ̴a̸t̸.̷.̸.̴ ̵c̵o̵m̵b̷a̷t̷ ̵i̵s̷n̸'̴t̵ ̶y̶o̵u̵r̸ ̶f̷i̷e̴l̸d̶.̴"
Go ahead...
Train until your hands bleed.
Mask your frustration with meaningless awards and hollow achievements.
You play such an amusing role in this theater.
But I suppose it's time to stop walking in circles on the stage.
Beside her, a figure crouched.
A small body wearing a worn-out hoodie. The hood completely hid its face, plunging it into shadow. Around its neck hung a small, ancient ocarina corroded by time.
It was a familiar figure... yet completely distorted.
Time itself seemed frozen.
The Blood Titan stood motionless in front of her, locked in the exact moment of its appearance.
The hooded figure stopped beside the creature.
Then it raised a finger to its lips.
Shhhhh.
A faint smile appeared beneath the shadow of the hood.
Suddenly the darkness shattered. A burst of white light consumed everything. Melissa felt her body being lifted off the ground.
An electric thunderclap echoed through the corridor, and the colossal creature seemed to grow rapidly distant.
The hooded figure dissolved like mist... waving goodbye before disappearing completely.
Lucidity returned to Melissa's mind.
The environment shifted back into the ruined laboratory corridor. The Blood Titan was still there. But now... it was getting farther away.
That was when she realized. She was being carried. Yuto was running through the corridor like lightning, thunder exploding beneath his feet with every step.
"What the hell is something like that doing here?!"
His voice cut through the fog in her mind.
And in that moment Melissa realized something absurd... not even five seconds had passed since the creature appeared.
He isn't going to fit through the corridor... right?
I glanced back quickly as I ran.
The Blood Titan was far too massive to fit there.
So the moment I realized what was happening, I grabbed Melissa and bolted.
With Thunder Breathing, my speed had become ridiculous. I figured something that big would never be able to keep up.
I was completely wrong.
The ground trembled violently, nearly throwing me off balance.
When I looked back again, I saw the creature charging forward, even though it couldn't fully fit in the corridor, smashing everything in its path as if the building were made of paper.
"You've got to be kidding me..."
"Yuto, watch the front!"
Melissa shouted.
I lifted my eyes and saw a massive chunk of concrete that had just fallen from the ceiling.
I dodged by a hair's breadth. The block scraped past where my head had been.
But the shaking didn't stop. Now the entire corridor was collapsing. Concrete, iron beams, shattered pillars.
Everything was falling ahead of us, turning the path into a deadly obstacle course where a collision at this speed meant instant death.
"Hold on!"
I slammed my foot into the ground.
My breathing condensed into a burst of electricity that illuminated the dark corridor. My speed skyrocketed.
"Thunder Breathing — First Form: Hekireki Issen, Eightfold."
I shot forward, ricocheting off the walls, leaving a trail of electricity behind me while dodging every obstacle.
I risked a glance behind me, hoping I'd shaken the creature.
My mistake...
The Blood Titan was even closer.
Charging down the corridor like a runaway train.
"He's fast as hell!"
"Obviously. At that size, one step of his equals thirty of yours."
"Damn your logic..."
That old idea that giant monsters were slow suddenly felt like nothing more than a comforting lie. Being chased by something that big was agonizing, a feeling impossible to describe.
"What do we do?! We can't go to the main hall!"
If we brought that thing into the hall, not even Donna could stop a massacre. It was simply impossible.
"Turn left!"
Melissa shouted.
I took the corner, nearly losing control. At this speed, changing direction was incredibly difficult. I almost overshot it.
"I think I have an idea. Remember the regenerative liquid that's making that thing move?"
"Yeah... I think so!"
I barely dodged another iron pillar.
"Its freezing point wasn't that low."
The moment she said that, something clicked in my head.
"You remember the map route?"
"Yes. Next right, then left, then straight ahead."
"Alright."
I accelerated even more.
The Blood Titan kept chasing us, completely out of control.
But just as I nearly slammed into a wall because of the darkness, a realization hit me
like a punch.
How are we going to turn the machine on without power?
...
Damn it... can't anything go right?
I knew Ren was working on that with Amanda. I'd seen it earlier in the book.
But... well. He could hurry up a little.
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"This is going to be troublesome..."
Ren sighed while staring at the completely electrified floor. The accumulated water reflected blue sparks snapping violently across the surface. Stepping there meant certain death... and probably a very painful one.
"How are we supposed to get across..."
He spent a few seconds thinking.
Maybe he could jump across the overturned machines in the middle of the room... but they were too far apart, and the metal would probably conduct the electricity.
Another option was using the rings from the new martial manual Amanda had given him. Since they were physical manifestations, they might work as small floating platforms.
But Ren dismissed the idea almost immediately.
He didn't have enough control over that technique yet. The rings were too unstable, and one mistake would send him straight into the electrified water.
Then his eyes drifted upward to the ceiling.
The earlier explosion had badly damaged the structure. Huge chunks of concrete were cracked, some on the verge of falling.
"Hey, Amanda... think you can hit that?"
He pointed to one of the larger blocks.
Amanda followed his finger.
She understood instantly.
Without a word, she simply nodded and pulled her bow from her dimensional storage.
Fwoosh.
The whistle of the arrow cut through the air as it struck the exact point.
The impact shattered the already weakened structure. A sharp crack echoed... and the section of ceiling began to give way.
Then it fell... and the collapse triggered a chain reaction.
Dozens of concrete blocks crashed down one after another, plunging into the electrified water with heavy splashes. A thick cloud of dust filled the room for several seconds.
"Cough... cough... I think that was a little too effective..."
When the dust finally began to settle, the result was clear.
Several stones were now submerged in the electrified water, forming a series of improvised platforms leading to the other side of the room.
"Huff... finally. Let's go finish this."
Ren didn't hesitate.
He jumped to the first stone and then the next, moving with surprising agility. His recent training seemed to be paying off, and he couldn't help feeling a small sense of satisfaction.
Fwoosh. Fwoosh.
Amanda wasn't far behind.
She moved with incredible precision, leaping from platform to platform with absurd lightness, as if she were simply walking on air.
"Alright... now we just need to— whoa— what the— earthquake?!"
Suddenly the ground began to shake violently.
It felt as if an earthquake had seized the entire building.
Ren reacted on instinct. He drew his sword and quickly traced a ring in the air, which immediately materialized beneath his feet, allowing him to maintain his balance.
When he turned his head... Amanda was about to fall.
Without thinking, he leaned forward and grabbed her arm at the last second, preventing her from plunging straight into the electrified water.
"Got you."
The shaking continued. Ren didn't waste time.
Holding Amanda firmly, he jumped to the final platform, right beside the main control panel of the room and therefore the only truly safe place there.
A few seconds later, the trembling stopped.
Silence returned. Ren let out a deep sigh of relief.
"I think you can let go now."
Amanda's cold voice came from beside him.
Ren blinked.
Only then did he realize he was still holding her arm.
"A-Ah— sorry! I didn't notice."
He released her immediately, expecting some aggressive reaction.
But Amanda simply kept her usual neutral, indifferent expression.
Ren sighed in relief.
"Alright... now we just need to turn this back on."
He looked at the massive panel in front of him. Thick cables, power boxes, and control systems covered the entire wall. At the center was a huge metal lever in the lowered position.
He didn't hesitate... he grabbed the lever and pulled it up.
CLANK.
A metallic sound echoed throughout the factory.
Around them, every machine and every lamp gradually began to light up.
The engine room, once dark and ominous, was slowly flooded with bright white light. Farther ahead, the lights along the staircase they had used earlier also came back to life.
"Done... hopefully that helps the staff."
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THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.
Finally, Ren... perfect timing.
The sound of the lights turning on was loud... but completely drowned out by the monstrous crashes of the Blood Titan smashing everything while chasing me.
"Turn right!"
I immediately obeyed Melissa's command while still carrying her in my arms. She had been guiding me through the corridors for a while now, clearly leading us somewhere specific.
After several turns and obstacles, I finally spotted a sign at the end of the corridor.
Cryogenic Chamber.
"Here we go. Hold on."
I planted my foot on the ground. My breathing condensed explosively. For a moment everything seemed to slow. Then I vanished in a burst of electricity.
"Thunder Breathing — First Form: Hekireki Issen: Godspeed."
The entrance to the room, more than sixty meters away... appeared instantly before me.
A speed so absurd it could easily be mistaken for teleportation.
I burst through the cryogenic chamber doors in an explosive dash, putting a good distance between us and the Titan.
But even so... I knew he would catch me within seconds.
As the name suggested, the room was divided into several wings separated by reinforced glass, each equipped with liquid nitrogen release systems. In one corner stood a large control panel that seemed to operate the entire system.
"Throw me the card!"
Melissa jumped from my arms and ran straight toward the panel. Her movements were unsteady, clearly weakened by the Titan's mana pressure.
I threw the access card I'd grabbed earlier. Melissa caught it midair with precision and kept running.
"Alright... now where is the—"
POOW!
A brutal impact exploded against my body.
For a moment all I saw was a gigantic fist... red like raw flesh.
I knew he would be fast... but that was beyond anything I expected.
The Titan burst into the room, destroying the entrance completely... and the punch hurled me through the air like a rag doll.
I flew across the entire chamber and slammed into the opposite wall, cracking the concrete on impact.
"Brrgh— BLEARGH!"
A torrent of blood surged up my throat.
I spat it onto the floor as my body collapsed completely ruined.
The pain was indescribable...
I could feel dozens of bones broken. Maybe even organs ruptured.
But my mind could barely process anything.
My vision was becoming blurry.
"YUTOOO!"
I heard a distant scream, but the voice sounded distorted. My consciousness was slowly fading away.
When I lifted my gaze, all I could see was that monstrous figure standing before me. With my vision blurred and wavering, its presence looked even more terrifying and overwhelming, as if the world itself revolved around the creature.
I watched the Titan raise its colossal fist above its head. Its shadow fell over me like an inevitable omen. Even though it was incredibly fast, everything seemed to happen in slow motion, as if the universe itself wanted to give me time to understand that this was my final moment.
Memories flashed through my mind like camera bursts.
Moments of happiness... sadness... anger... frustration... shame.
Everything slowed more and more.
Too slow.
Until a strange thought appeared in my mind.
Isn't this taking too long?
I'd heard that at the moment of death, time can seem slower while your life flashes before your eyes... but this had gone far beyond that.
That's when I realized... time wasn't slow.
It was frozen.
A chill ran down my spine, a spine that was probably completely shattered by now. The pain was still real, pulsing throughout my body while my consciousness crept closer and closer to its limit.
But when my eyes instinctively shifted to the corner of the room, I saw something that seemed to last only a single instant.
Shhhhh.
A small figure stood there.
The hood of a worn hoodie completely covered its face, turning it into a shadow. The only visible thing was its lips, curled into an enigmatic smile while a raised hand before its mouth made a gesture asking for silence.
Then time began to move again.
The figure slowly dissipated like smoke in the air.
My consciousness was reaching its limit. Darkness was already creeping into the edges of my vision when, in my final moment of lucidity, I felt something wrapping around my chest.
"NOT YET!!"
Melissa shouted as she pulled Yuto's body with all her strength, using the vines she had just wrapped around his chest.
POOW.
Immediately a colossal fist crashed down where Yuto had been just a moment earlier, opening a crater in the concrete with a thunderous impact that seemed to shake the entire factory.
"Take this, you bastard!"
Melissa pulled Yuto closer with one hand, dragging his body until it stopped beside her. At the same time, with her other hand, she slammed a massive red button on the panel.
A red alert flooded the chamber while a robotic voice echoed through the room.
{Cryogenic processing initiated}
Immediately every mechanism in the chamber activated. Valves opened everywhere, releasing torrents of liquid nitrogen that engulfed the Blood Titan's body.
The regenerative liquid circulating through the creature froze instantly due to its extremely low freezing point, completely paralyzing the monster.
Within seconds, a gigantic statue of ice had formed.
But the frozen creature's own weight became its downfall.
With a heavy crack, the structure collapsed in on itself.
The Titan's body fell to the floor and shattered into hundreds of frozen fragments.
The crushing pressure filling the room vanished instantly.
Melissa finally felt her legs give out. She dropped to the floor beside Yuto, breathing heavily as silence filled the chamber.
"It's finally over..."
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Lying on my back, I was stretched across a soft mattress, watching the ceiling fan spin slowly above me in an almost hypnotic rhythm.
Yeah... I'm still alive.
And in the end, what was the summary of the whole mess?
Well... strangely enough, things turned out in a surprisingly positive way.
After the Blood Titan was defeated, Melissa immediately went to the main control room. Of course, only after stabilizing my condition first.
Honestly, I'm still not entirely sure what exactly she did to me.
I was practically on the verge of death. Almost every bone in my body was broken. Some organs were probably damaged too.
But whatever Melissa did... I was completely healed.
When I woke up a few hours later, I didn't even need to go to the infirmary.
It was probably some absurdly powerful regeneration potion. I knew potions like that existed in the original story... but they were so expensive the price was almost ridiculous.
Something like more than half of my entire current budget.
Thinking about it now, though, maybe she used something else. It doesn't really make sense for her to waste something that valuable on me.
Or... who knows. Maybe she just mixed up the labels.
Anyway... back to what happened afterward.
Melissa shut down the ventilation systems in the control room, which was located right past the containment wing.
Almost immediately, all the proto-monsters attacking the main hall were deactivated. Without the regenerative liquid circulating, they simply returned to being corpses.
And finally, that hellish chaos came to an end.
The final result was curious.
No students died. A few suffered minor injuries, but nothing serious.
On the other hand... more than ten factory employees lost their lives.
A full investigation was conducted afterward. In the end, everything was officially classified as an accident.
An explosion in the underground electrical network supposedly affected the control room above it, releasing tons of regenerative liquid that ended up entering the factory's ventilation system.
But even with that official conclusion, Melissa's report about the illegal possession of an S-Rank corpse belonging to a Mountain Titan, combined with the complete lack of safety that led to the accident, was enough to permanently shut down the factory.
With no chance of reopening.
Other than that... everything eventually returned to normal.
Since no students had been seriously injured and the event was officially treated as an accident, the excursion to Hollberg continued as planned.
In fact, right now I'm lying in bed in my room at the main mansion where the Lock Academy students are staying during this trip.
It was a long day...
My head feels so full of questions it's about to explode. But thinking about it too much right now won't change anything.
So... it's time to move forward.
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