Chapter 308

Chapter 309: Beyond the Breaking Point

A thread of crimson rose in the clear pipe and spread with shocking speed. In almost the blink of an eye, the blue medicine being pumped into the Holy Coffin turned the color of fresh blood.

The lead operator saw the change at once. Terror and instinct exploded together. He moved faster than he ever had in his life, blurring as he slapped the emergency stop beside the Holy Coffin.

The stop failed. Not just the stop. Every control near the Holy Coffin failed.

“The operating System is offline!” an assistant cried in a near wail: “Cultivator, this thing will not stop!”

“Smash the pipe. Cut the power,” someone shouted: “Give me the axe!”

With a thunderous crack, the lead Hermitage Member lifted a fire axe and brought it down hard on the feed pipe to the Holy Coffin. He did not hesitate, swinging again and again to smash the power harness and neural bundle along the platform. The Holy Sarcophagus Chamber rang with the huge noise. The System alarm howled in a weird, off key voice, then cut off. Sparks burst in a chain along the base of the Holy Coffin, lighting terrified faces for a heartbeat.

Then everything went quiet. Only the Holy Coffin at the center still smoked, its fault lights blinking without pause.

“Did we… stop it?” the lead operator asked. His voice shook. He stared at the smoking Holy Coffin and spoke like a man talking to himself.

“We are done,” a low ranking Cultivator groaned, “we ruined the Holy Coffin, and the Saintess must be damaged. How will Sage punish us?”

“We saved her,” another low ranking Cultivator said at once, though fear trembled in his tone, “we stopped something worse. You saw…”

“Shh. Quiet,” the high ranking Cultivator cut him off.

Everyone fell silent. Then they heard it: a faint sound from inside the Holy Coffin.

A soft scrape of metal, like nails against a shell.

A low ranking Cultivator’s face twisted with fear. Before he could speak, a blast split the air. The heavy lid of the Holy Coffin blew open. A huge force tore the jammed locks free. A metal component spun through the air in a blur the eye could not track and struck the high ranking Cultivator squarely, shattering his mask and shearing off half his head.

A tall, slender figure leaped from the Holy Coffin and, almost in a blink, stood in front of a low ranking Cultivator.

“Sa… safety protocol, execute E twelve…” the man blurted, the emergency stop command he had drilled before serving in the Holy Sarcophagus Chamber. He managed only a few words before a cold shock and stabbing pain punched through his chest.

He looked down and saw several sharp blades being drawn out of him, a shredded heart hanging between them.

“Da…mn…” he choked as he fell. In his dimming, tilting sight, he saw the other low ranking Cultivators already down on the floor.

Only the low hum of machines remained in the Holy Sarcophagus Chamber. The Artificial Saintess, wrapped in a black shell, stood quietly before the Holy Coffin. Blood from the fallen Cultivators stained her frame. Warm yellow light poured down from above like a beam from heaven, shining on her body like a sacred statue filled with holiness yet ringed with dread.

After a long, still moment, the “statue” moved.

She lifted her head with a stiff, slow motion. Her neck joints squeaked. That pale smiling face, lovely yet empty, turned toward a corner and held that spot in a hard, steady stare.

Moments later, a figure stepped out of the shadow.

Yu Sheng stopped a dozen meters from the Artificial Saintess.

He had already come back to life. For some time now, he had paced the nearby halls and rooms at his leisure.

Most of the ship’s structure had become an extension of his body. The cameras in every space were his eyes. The tight hull sense System was his nerves. He had walked in plain sight the whole time. With most of the ship’s Systems now “under new management,” no cultist could find him.

This death and return had given him new lessons. For the first time, he had moved his will to another “vessel” at the moment of death. The blood he had spread beforehand had soaked the ship. The plan came from how he had shaped Irene’s body out of clay and his own blood. With that preparation, he managed to keep his senses and his power to act even after “dying.”

[Maybe I can use this next time.] It would take some prep, but now, after death, he had another “optional mode” besides falling into the Dark Space.

That was for later. For now, he had to deal with the “Saintess” in front of him.

This steel Metal Doll was in chaos, yet still fought his power hard.

Through the blood, Yu Sheng felt fierce emotion pouring from the cold shell before him: anger, hate, sorrow, and… heat driven by a sense of justice. He was not sure his blood sense was accurate, but he felt it, and it puzzled him.

This killing machine was moving under a sense of justice? She was not just following orders from the Hermitage Order. She had her own judgment and drive.

The Artificial Saintess trembled. She fought the alien force in her body and stepped toward Yu Sheng. Her motions were stiff and slow, no longer elegant, but they were steady.

“I think we can talk first,” Yu Sheng said after a brief pause, “if you really have a full mind and can understand me, I have some questions.”

[The dark monster let out a grating roar.]

The Metal Doll staggered, then clearly sped up, killing intent boiling.

Seeing this, Yu Sheng frowned, but kept talking: “Can you understand me? When I tried to touch that coffin, I saw some strange images. There is a wheat field in your memory, right?”

[The voice of demons, full of illusion, still tries to tempt me.]

The Metal Doll stepped over a fallen Hermitage Member. Her foot sank into a pool of blood, then she kicked aside the corpse’s limp arm.

[A martyr lies here for reasons unknown. May my kin rest.]

She raised her head and saw the Holy Sanctuary lit by flickering flames. Unlucky purple smoke drifted under the splendid glass dome. The hymn was broken and ragged. Spirit Bodies who served the Holy Sanctuary shrank behind candelabras and curtains. Filthy blood dripped from the iron chains stretched high above. A demon in human shape stood not far away, speaking blasphemous, tempting words.

She looked down and saw her Holy Sword shining. Blood stained armor still carried the light.

The Knights who had left home with her were dead, yet their brave, noble souls still stayed at her side.

When this long crusade ended and they marched home in triumph, she would bear their spirits back to their quiet homeland.

She smiled, like she had at eight years old when she raised a wooden stick and charged a scarecrow in the wheat field. Then she quickened toward the demon.

The Metal Doll lunged. Because the reboot had gone wrong, harsh noises rattled inside her body. The empty alloy face kept its smile, but blood like fluid leaked along the edge. She leaped high, twisted into a terrible angle in midair, and drove Fingertip Blades lit by Chilling Light straight at Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng had to slip back, and at the same time he felt a great pressure.

It was not from her strikes. In truth, this Artificial Saintess was far weaker than when he had seen her before. She was slower, her force reduced. Her fierce rush was full of openings. Without Irene and Foxy, she would still not be hard to handle.

He felt something else instead.

A heavy weight pressed on his mind, coming through the blood link straight into his head.

He shifted aside, but at once the blades stabbed at him again.

The Metal Doll attacked like a wild beast gone out of control, slashing without form.

Clashing steel boomed through the room, mixed with the sound of tearing metal.

Sparks burst from the Artificial Saintess’s joints. Something inside her shell seemed to be melting. Fire and smoke spat from the seams. A viscous liquid began to ooze by infiltration from some of her joints, like spilled blood plasma. It dripped to the floor and ate small pits into the deck.

“Wait. Your body is failing,” Yu Sheng shouted as he dodged and blocked, “stop for a second. You are about to die.”

The Metal Doll did not answer. She only attacked.

She fought like a saint eager to die for her faith.

Yu Sheng pulled back, ready to seize the near floor and walls and bind this raging Metal Doll.

As soon as he retreated, the Metal Doll seemed to snap back to her peak. She wrenched her pose against its momentum and slid in like a ghost.

“Oh crap.”

Yu Sheng only had time for that one shout. He raised a hand on reflex, and a cold bite struck his chest.

Another double strike. Eight holes.

He fell beneath a pillar. With a twisted smile, he looked up at the pale face close enough to touch: “Ma’am, try a different move.”

The Metal Doll gave no reply and no motion.

Had she finally… died?