Chapter 51: First Fortress 3

An He squeezed through the cracked gap into the fortress.

She activated Shatterblade Time, her movements blindingly swift. The collapsing wall sections perfectly shielded their figures. By the time she hoisted Tina and rolled them both behind the guard post, the chunks of debris had only just crashed to the ground.

They rolled away like a pair of massive concrete blocks, unnoticed by anyone. An He knew that using her Blade Break Talent in plain view would alert enemies to the discrepancy in time flow almost immediately.

But right now, the guards’ frame of reference was the Bone Eaters. Both sides were still clashing at normal speeds, so no one noticed An He deploying her Innate Talent.

Everyone’s attention was fixed on the Bone Eaters.

The Bone Eaters slammed into the wall with renewed fury. At the same moment, thirty soldiers armed with precision weapons formed a line, advancing under the cover of an armored vehicle and unleashing a relentless barrage on the creatures.

In the past, such fierce cannon fire would have driven the Bone Eaters to retreat. But today, these two kept ramming the remnants of the wall, their bones grinding together with terrifying screeches, as if enraged beyond reason.

An He knew why they had grown so agitated.

Just moments ago, before breaching the wall, she had unleashed her other Innate Talent, Parasite, attempting to seize control of the Bone Eaters via their mycelium. It was an experiment she had long wanted to try but kept postponing.

The instant the pink mycelium from her palm made contact with the Bone Eater’s strands, it seemed to sense the intrusion. All its mycelium surged like live wires, hyperactive and defensive.

An He managed to latch onto only a few strands. The result? She briefly controlled the Bone Eater for a few seconds—long enough to dodge its charge and use its momentum to close in on the wall.

But the parasitism was fleeting. Her Parasite ability wasn’t strong enough to suppress even a small Bone Eater. Once it broke free, the enlightened monster flew into a rage. Its scythe-like forelimbs locked onto An He mid-stride.

She had no choice but to abandon deeper control and flip over the wall.

The aftermath was chaos: the two Bone Eaters, fixated on the gap An He had slipped through, battered it in a frenzy. The already unstable wall crumbled swiftly under their assault, and the soldiers’ gunfire only stoked their ire further. The pair launched indiscriminate attacks.

Bullets flew in an instant.

This was no place to linger. An He needed to hustle Tina away from the warzone, find a spot to stash her, then circle back for Lola.

Tina was tall and uncooperative in her movements—a major hindrance.

An He glanced at her palm and hatched a plan. She gripped Tina’s wrist and tried Parasite again.

She had previously used her Parasitic Talent to probe Tina’s memories. The captain’s mind was a jumble; An He had spent time piecing together the Heroic Spirits Society’s slogan through guesswork.

Unable to seize conscious control, An He switched tactics. She bypassed the cognitive centers and issued direct commands to Tina’s motor functions.

It worked like a charm.

Tina followed An He’s lead in a daze, her superior physique letting her match pace effortlessly. An He led the bewildered officer away from the wall, vanishing into the pitch-black streets shrouded by night.

These streets were worlds apart from those in the Ninth Fortress.

Even in this abandoned zone, squat buildings lay vandalized—windows ripped out, walls pocked with blast scars—but the towering structures flanking the roads stood in rigid symmetry, exuding grandeur.

The buildings and streets alike were relics of the old city, their surfaces an eerie synthetic material, neither metal nor glass.

An He paid them no mind. She scanned the unfamiliar district, dragging Tina into a narrow alley. After passing a blocky building, she doubled back.

Tilting her head up, she saw it rose over a dozen stories, fully vacant, its front door hanging ajar into bottomless darkness.

An He cocked her ear to the distant gunfire, deeming the distance safe. They had cleared the combat zone; the booms now sounded muffled.

This building was beyond the danger area but not too far—perfect for a temporary hideout.

After a moment’s thought, An He pulled Tina into the shadowy doorway.

To guard against surprises, she planned to stash Tina on the third floor or higher. She first spotted an oval device resembling an elevator, but it bore no buttons or screens—nothing like she’d imagined.

The derelict thing was surely inoperable. An He spent a few minutes hunting in the lobby corner before finding the fire stairs.

Bless the stairs—they saw little use, choked with fist-high filth and trash, but no matter how advanced tech got, they remained an irreplaceable escape route.

The layout screamed office building.

Save for the ransacked interiors: from the ground-floor lobby to upper levels, everything was stripped bare—no desks, chairs, cabinets, or office supplies.

An He climbed to the fifth floor and, in a vast open workspace, found a spot for Tina: a row of sleek, elongated silver cylinders lining the wall in neat groups of three—three groups total. They resembled industrial water tanks or cabinets, with pull-handles for access.

The set before her stood open. An He slipped inside to inspect: smooth walls, empty, spacious enough for two.

She helped Tina step in, whispering not to wander or shout, to wait here until she and Lola returned.

Short-handed as they were, hauling Tina slowed them down. Separation was necessary.

Talking to Tina felt like soothing a giant infant—two meters of blank obedience.

What reassured An He most: Tina showed no reaction. She curled up inside, head tilted back, eyes wide open, posture and expression unchanging whether the door was open or shut. The woman hadn’t uttered a word the whole way, seemingly oblivious to her surroundings.

To prevent wandering, An He secured the pull-handle with a blanket after closing the door, leaving only a finger-wide vent. She summoned a Raven to perch atop the cylinder as sentry.

Confirming the floor empty of life, An He slipped out of the building and returned to the vicinity of the Shell Membrane.

The battle still raged.

Automated beam flamers behind the membrane had activated, igniting some synthetic debris in the rubble. Thick smoke billowed skyward. First Fortress soldiers donned neck-slung masks, ramping up fire to slay the Bone Eaters amid the haze.

An He crouched behind the guard post, assessing the situation.

These soldiers weren’t the elite killers she’d faced on the battlefield—just city-bound Patrol Squad members, lacking Embedded Spirit Bodies. Their reflexes and combat prowess fell short of modified Nestsouls.

Yet they were disciplined killers, each an elite pick from hundreds.

Even the First Fortress’s rank-and-file couldn’t be underestimated.

The officer directing from atop the armored vehicle stood out in her garb, epaulets on her combat suit akin to Tina’s style. Her hair was pinned up, jaw set rigid.

An He quickly deduced: this was a makeshift defense unit, a handful of Embedded Spirit Bodies up front, the rest Patrol Squad without.

Only two wielded Nestsouls so far—including the officer, whose was a shaggy brown Wild Dog with some combat Innate Talent. It focused intently on the Bone Eater with scythe forelimbs.

Smoke wafted toward the post. An He caught the acrid tang of burning plastic—ideal cover. She released a Raven.

It skimmed the battle’s edge toward the membrane’s perimeter, signaling Lola waiting in the sands.

Soon, the car-abandoned Lola followed its lead, slipping through the breach.

So brazen—they wove under the enemies’ noses. At closest, Lola was mere eight meters from the armored vehicle.

But both were masters of stealth. Lola activated her concealment Innate Talent: untriggered sensors meant total invisibility to those nearby. They became shadows, streaking through the smoke like nocturnal beasts.

Under An He’s cover, Lola entered the First Fortress smoothly. A glance was all they needed—no words—to align on the next move.

These two Bone Eaters weren’t breaching yet. Soon, the soldiers would repel them. The troops might not pursue beyond the membrane. Time was critical: grab Tina and bolt.

They exchanged a look and melted into the night behind.

But just as their silhouettes vanished into the buildings, cries erupted from the soldiers.

An He whipped around. A bizarre long stick arced through the air, hurtling straight at her.

A bone, mycelium clinging to it—the Bone Eater she’d briefly controlled had torn a forearm bone from itself and flung it her way.

It was furious. Or terrified. Resorting to such a harmless ploy.

The bone fell far short.

No—An He realized: it wasn’t trying to hit her. It wanted to draw human eyes with the anomaly.

Sure enough, many soldiers’ gazes followed the bone to her hiding spot.

An He yanked Lola flat against the corner wall.

Her breathing quickened, disbelief rising.

Such cunning was rare. She’d exploited the Bone Eaters to infiltrate the First Fortress—and now a Bone Eater was exploiting the Fortress’s soldiers against her.

This human-like ploy sent a chill crawling over her scalp.

They’re just mycelium.

The shouts faded, gunfire roaring anew. Most ignored the oddity, hammering the Bone Eaters.

But the guard commander was sharp. After two seconds’ thought, she reorganized the line, leaped from the vehicle, and charged An He’s position.

Her Wild Dog Nestsoul outpaced her, bounding three meters in a lunge. It led, halting before the bone, circling and sniffing with dripping nose.

The officer scooped it up, torching the mycelium with her flamer. Non-core strands, they died swiftly in the heat.

Clutching the bone, she peered suspiciously into the building cluster.

Three seconds later: “Forward. Check for unfamiliar scents.”