Chapter 14.1 – Habit
Frozen Throne.
The moment Su heard this word, he felt an indescribable oppressiveness. This was also an instinctive feeling, one that was shockingly accurate. At the very least, from what Su could recall, every time he had this strong of a feeling, the probability of it being true was at least 60%. In reality, as long as the probability remained above 50%, it already no longer belonged to the category of chance or randomness, instead entering the domain of luck. Su’s luck was always quite good.
Even if he didn’t have this premonition, he would still pay Frozen Throne a visit because of Pandora. He couldn’t let the apostle obtain what rested in Frozen Throne, no matter what it was; this was the conclusion Su came to. This was a conclusion made without any preconditions or logical reasoning, but Su still insisted on it. Unlike in the olden era, this world had already repeatedly proven that one often didn’t need reasoning to reach the correct conclusion. If was almost as if this wasn’t a world formed from strict numbers and logic.
During the past few days after Pandora left, Su had always been busy cleaning up the base, testing the power unit as well as well as planning the base’s applications. Cleaning up the base was an extremely long process, but with Sinking Blade’s support, this process was sped up substantially. Following the initial 150 workers, Victor sent over another 200 sturdy staff members, as well as an experienced engineer crew. He also delivered enough food, water, and tents. These were the most urgently needed items, even more important and pressing than labor or even soldiers. Even though the number of survivors in the new era was just a tiny fraction of the olden era, no matter where one went, as long as there was enough life preserving food and water, there were still enough men who were willing to respectfully offer physical strength, technical skills, as well as dignity.
Su already guessed that the reason for Victor’s sudden energeticness and enthusiasm was most likely because he already received news of Vale’s death. Judgment knights’ leader seemed to be a well known figure not only in Steel Gate, but throughout this entire region west of the great lakes. However, due to Pandora’s overwhelming power, Su’s impression of him became much weaker. The few times he did think of him, it would at most be complaints about his sword lacking weight and sturdiness, its imposing appearance in vain.
Base N69 would soon be operational, and Su had a close to 100 man army. This army consisted of experienced veterans, and as for their loyalty, there was no need to worry about it. Overwhelming military strength and supplies for survival were the best ways to ensure loyalty. In between the cleanup of the base, Li would make this army train every day, but what they trained in was not physical capability, but rather tactics. Li reorganized the military rankings and system, reiterated discipline, established a simple and complete set of battlefield terminology, and at the same time reorganized everyone based on their different abilities. There would no longer be the mess of an army where if they were far away, they were shooting, and if they were close, they would be engaging in physical struggles.
Su was waiting for this army to develop some preliminary strength, and at the same time waiting for his subordinates and himself to recover from their injuries. The three subordinates looked like they were seriously injured under Pandora’s hands, but when he inspected their conditions after the battle, none of them suffered fatal injuries. This type of precise control of power left Su incredibly shocked, as well as made him once again acknowledge her combat strength. Now that he thought back to the battle of that night, he realized that the black flame seal never displayed its true power. However, Su was quite clear that at the very start, Pandora truly was going to kill him, just like how it would be if he didn’t pass her test.
Su’s injuries slowly improved, but if he wanted to recover all of his fighting strength, he still needed more than ten days of time. He already completely lost connection with his own flesh, however, the blood within Claudia’s body only died after absorbing and transforming all energy that could be transformed. That was why, even before Pandora’s attack, Su already knew that Claudia already died, moreover, he was sure that there were no traces of her death to be found.
The energy that was entrenched within his wound continued to tenaciously exist, constantly fighting against Su’s power in a war it would inevitably lose.
This energy fought alone out of desperation. It was stubborn, tenacious, but couldn’t find a way forward, just like Claudia who, from start to end, had struggled between memories and reality alone.
For some reason, during these past few days after Pandora left, Claudia would often appear in his mind. It was perhaps because his body’s injuries were finally about to recover, the energy that had tangled within his injuries on the verge of completely disappearing, right? After all, this was the final trace Claudia left of herself in this world.
What Claudia said was extremely true; there were many similarities between Su and herself. Even though they were enemies that fought for life and death, even though he almost died under her hands, Su didn’t hate her.
Didn’t hate her, but had to kill her.
Su and Claudia were like two trains that were moving on the same track from opposite directions; they either ended in mutual destruction, or one side was destroyed, there was no third possibility. Perhaps in this era, for most people, they were all riding a one-way train, one that would never meet a fork in the road.
