Chapter 48: Final Chapter (II)
Several whistle-like notes echoed through the silent zerg starship section and reverberated through the valley.
Charles frowned in discomfort. By reflex, he tried to leave the area, only for several first-stage aliens to block his path.
As the piercing whistle entered his consciousness cloud, Charles’s senses were gradually stripped away by the surrounding illusion. As if he had been drugged, he sank straight into the strange illusionary cage of the valley.
Felix looked at the cobra whose eyes had lost focus. He dodged sideways, avoiding the spiked tentacle a first-stage zerg swung at him, then picked up the cobra beside him in his mouth and ran out of the starship’s remaining section, toward the valley outside.
At the same time, the disconnected optical computer reconnected.
Aphrodite, who was still inside the section, exchanged a look with Felix through the optical computer connection, signaling that he did not need to worry about his safety. Then he cut off their connection again.
…
At this moment, inside the Iskan starship, Jin Chi’an held his breath, his gaze locked on the aftermath displayed on the command room screen.
The zerg starship that had activated its self-destruct system was breaking apart. The fragments blown loose and falling from it were all caught inside the giant net drawn up by bird beastmen. Mixed among them were tentacles severed from first-stage aliens, still writhing on their own within the net.
Watching the scattered wreckage of the starship and the tentacles being swallowed by the giant net, the bird beastman pulling one corner finally let out a breath of relief. He lowered his guard and looked down at the white valley below.
Then a whistle sounded.
That bird beastman’s consciousness cloud was gradually overtaken by birdsong. Immediately after, his pupils began to lose focus. He fell into the strange illusion trap of the river valley, and his body uncontrollably began to plummet.
Seeing this on the screen, Jin Chi’an clenched his palm and asked Edwen beside him, “Can we contact His Majesty?”
“Not at the moment. There’s some distance between the starship’s position and the Burial Ground river valley. We can’t pinpoint His Majesty’s current location. We have to enter the river valley.”
“Tsk.”
Jin Chi’an rubbed his fingers irritably. His thoughts were pulled back to the last time he had entered the Burial Ground, and the scenes of the two times he had fallen into illusions. He could not help but break into a cold sweat.
Then a soldier’s report pulled him back to the present.
“Report! Another zerg starship has appeared outside District Fourteen’s star domain. A large-scale disappearance of controlled humans has occurred across multiple regions of the Empire. They are suspected to have used a spatial teleportation device.”
“Track that starship’s direction. Also notify the Empire and have the former United Army guides transferred to District Fourteen.”
After giving the order, Jin Chi’an turned and walked toward the command room entrance.
But just as he was about to leave, a hand caught his arm.
As if seeing through his thoughts, Edwen stopped him. “You can’t leave.”
Jin Chi’an looked at his solemn expression and gave him an equally firm look in return.
“The inside of the Burial Ground can’t communicate with the outside world. I’m the only one who can locate Felix.”
“You human guides have complex consciousness clouds. The chance of the Burial Ground’s illusion invading you will be greatly increased. Only if you remain on the starship will we have command authority over the soldiers within both sides’ agreement.”
Facing Edwen’s pleading gaze, Jin Chi’an remained unmoved.
“I have to go. I’m familiar with the situation inside the Burial Ground. You can trust me completely.”
“No…”
Before Edwen could finish stopping him, Amelie, who was standing outside the command room, spoke first.
“Let me go.”
Amelie, who had just left the medical laboratory, showed no sign of fatigue. She had changed back into an Imperial military uniform prepared for battle. She asked Jin Chi’an for permission.
“Illusion-type consciousness-cloud invasions don’t affect me. I can scout their mental powers. If you trust me, you can send me.”
Jin Chi’an met Amelie’s sincere gaze and stopped Edwen’s questioning. Then he nodded.
“I’ll leave it to you.”
“brother-in-law, she—”
Edwen turned to look at Jin Chi’an in disbelief, trying to stop the decision. But Amelie had already taken the command authority from his hand and led a group of beastman soldiers toward the Burial Ground.
.
The aircraft carrying Amelie and the others quickly departed the cabin.
The moment the aircraft left the starship, Jin Chi’an received a message from Amelie on his optical computer.
When Jin Chi’an opened the letter, information about the Imperial royal bloodline fusion poured into his mind all at once.
The mental power hidden inside the letter constructed a complete illusionary world inside Jin Chi’an’s brain.
In the illusion, Amelie was dressed in Loivette Academy’s graduation uniform and appeared at the award ceremony for the top guide.
The person in power over the royal family at the time, Charlemagne V, personally pinned the highest royal requisition certificate on her.
In June of the same year, Amelie moved into the capital palace and became Charlemagne V’s guide physician.
As her understanding of the royal family’s mental degeneration illness deepened, Amelie entered the royal underground level for the first time the following winter and came into contact with the research the Charlemagne family had conducted all along.
It was also that year that she first met Herta, the optimal fusion product of the sixth Charlemagne bloodline generation.
Amelie extended a mental tendril and entered Herta’s consciousness cloud.
For a moment, the boy lying on the operating table nearly fainted from the pain of having his consciousness cloud forcibly invaded.
At the same time, the structure of Herta’s consciousness cloud appeared completely inside Amelie’s mind.
Amelie took the recorder handed to her by her assistant and input the boy’s consciousness-cloud decomposition pathways.
Just as she was focused on entering the sample data, something nudged her back.
When she turned around, she saw a juvenile mammoth mental body.
It was the first time Amelie had seen a mental body belonging to the royal family’s high bloodline. A trace of doubt flashed through her eyes uncontrollably, and then she looked at the unconscious boy on the operating table.
“What’s wrong, Doctor Amelie?” the guide physician assistant beside her asked after seeing her shocked expression.
“No… nothing.”
Realizing that the other person could not see the mental body, Amelie smoothed things over and then placed her attention back on the experiment.
Only after the day’s experiment ended did Amelie organize the instruments in the laboratory and return the containers holding each generation’s optimal fusion bodies to their places.
It was at that moment that the juvenile mammoth pushed at Amelie’s back with its trunk, making her stumble.
Then a voice entered Amelie’s mind.
“Are you going to kill me? Like you killed them?”
The boy’s voice pierced through Amelie’s consciousness cloud, making her temples throb with pain.
Then she saw the mammoth’s trunk curl around a syringe and press it against Amelie’s neck.
“If you kill me, you’ll die too.”
“What did you do?”
Amelie looked suspiciously at the mammoth in front of her and carefully extended a mental tendril, trying to launch a covert attack.
But the instant her offensive tendril approached the mental body, Amelie’s consciousness cloud instantly activated its self-defense system. A defensive net stretched out and trapped the tendril that had been about to attack.
Immediately after, she heard the boy’s explanation.
“Forced mutual mental branding. If you kill me, you’ll die too.”
“Mutual branding?”
Amelie looked at the boy on the operating table in disbelief.
There was indeed a brand totem on his arm.
Amelie followed the strange sensation in her own body and looked down. A mental brand glowing faintly gold appeared on her left arm.
“This is clearly a beastman—”
Before Amelie could finish questioning him, the boy’s voice that ran through her consciousness cloud interrupted her again.
“You know, don’t you? I’m the optimal fusion body of beastman bloodline and royal bloodline. A forced brand is nothing to me.”
Facing the boy’s unconcerned words, Amelie angrily snatched the syringe curled in the mammoth’s trunk.
“Didn’t you say you don’t want to die? A mutual brand means that if anything happens to me, you’ll die too.”
“Is that so? That doesn’t sound too bad either.”
The boy chuckled softly. “If you die, no one will help that old man extend his life anymore. Looked at that way, it’s not bad at all.”
“Tsk.”
Amelie looked at the unconscious Herta and the mental body standing before her. Irritated, she left the underground laboratory.
From that day onward, a mental body that no one else could see always followed behind Amelie.
Until the final step of the experiment on the sixth-generation optimal fusion body.
Charlemagne V looked down from above at the boy on the operating table, whose body had remained unchanged for years.
He said to Amelie, “How are the preparations for the consciousness-cloud transfer?”
“They’re ready.”
Amelie hid her offensive tendrils in the shadows and answered the emperor’s question warily.
At this moment, the mammoth had collapsed listlessly beside her legs, transmitting its mental power to her.
The boy’s voice appeared in Amelie’s consciousness cloud again.
“The amount of mental-power extract my body can supply is running low. As expected, he wants to replace my consciousness cloud.”
“After the surgery, you won’t be able to see my mental body anymore.”
The boy chattered on and on, making Amelie frown irritably.
But under the emperor’s suspicious gaze, Amelie could only restrain her emotions and respond respectfully.
“Your Majesty, the consciousness-cloud replacement surgery can begin now.”
“Are you certain, Doctor Amelie?”
A trace of ruthlessness flashed in Charlemagne V’s eyes.
Immediately after, a group of Royal Guard guides burst into the laboratory. Their offensive tendrils pinned Amelie under control.
“You intended to assassinate your sovereign.”
Charlemagne V snorted coldly. “Was it he who ordered you?”
Charlemagne V glanced at the boy on the operating table, then, with great interest, wiped the sweat from Amelie’s forehead.
“Don’t worry, Doctor. I can’t kill you. After all, you’re the only one who can perform the consciousness-cloud replacement surgery.”
…
In Amelie’s tenth year after entering the palace, Charlemagne V died after the consciousness-cloud surgery failed. Charlemagne VI succeeded the throne.
In September of the same year, Amelie was dismissed from her position as royal physician and entered the Imperial military. And the mental body that had been with her ever since she took over the royal experiment never appeared again.
Jin Chi’an read the key information stored inside the letter.
That consciousness-cloud exchange surgery had proceeded as scheduled. But because the optimal fusion body and the emperor’s mental power were incompatible, the surgery ultimately failed, and Charlemagne V died on the spot.
As for Herta, the optimal fusion body, because his consciousness cloud had been stripped away, he lost almost all signs of life.
In the end, according to the royal family’s customary method for handling optimal fusion bodies, he was placed into life-sustaining cultivation fluid and reduced to an undying living corpse…
Jin Chi’an explored the memory inside the letter in confusion. A sudden text message finally answered the question in his heart.
The text message beneath Amelie’s letter read: Iskan Quetzal divine tree extract can neutralize the mental-power rejection reaction between an ordinary person’s consciousness cloud and an optimal fusion body’s consciousness cloud.
Jin Chi’an suddenly understood. Before he had time to contact Lin Chuan, who had taken over the experiment, a crested eagle beastman blocked his path.
A juvenile white tiger jumped down from the crested eagle’s back and threw itself into Jin Chi’an’s arms.
“Brother!”
The little white tiger called out to Jin Chi’an in a milky voice, rubbing his head all over in Jin Chi’an’s arms and affectionately sniffing his scent.
“Xiao Yi?”
Under Jin Chi’an’s frightened gaze, the crested eagle transformed into human form and said, “He said he wanted to see you, so I brought him here.”
“City Lord of Hundred Birds…”
“I received Amelie’s message,” the City Lord of Hundred Birds sighed. “That child is still as rude as ever. Just like when she first came and asked for our divine tree, she really knows how to trouble an old man like me.”
