Rescue Fantasy (30)
After the commotion ended, I became interested in the robot arm that Celestia brought.
I'd sensed it from the first time I saw it—this was clearly different from the security robots usually in operation. Its specs looked superior.
"Where did you get this?"
"Over there. It's close by."
Celestia guided me to the place where she had found the robot arm. As she said, after taking just a few steps, we arrived at the spot where she had picked it up.
This place too was filled with debris from a collapsed corridor. What was different from before was that there was a deep pit filled with water below.
'So this is it.'
Not bothering with the water for now, I looked at the robot frame that must have once belonged to the same body as the arm. I guessed it was a model between a security robot and a power loader. If it were intact, I thought it would have been quite imposing.
Now, however, it looked pathetic. It was heavily armored, but parts of it were broken and crushed. The core was melted, and the location where the eyes should have glowed was completely blown off at the top.
"The center's pierced through... Must have been a vicious fight."
"The chip section is damaged too. It seems to have destroyed its own data. This kind of feature is used in military models..."
Celestia commented after checking the data chip on the back of the neck of the robot. The chip itself was melted.
"A robot like this wouldn't just be here for no reason. There must be something down there, too."
"It's time for me to step up!"
"..."
"Wh-why are you looking at me like that? There was a fuss, but you have to admit it ended well."
I must have unknowingly given her a sullen look. Celestia got flustered, trying to hide her embarrassment.
"Be careful. From what I saw earlier, the water doesn't seem that deep, but you never know."
"Just watch. I'll impress you."
"I just hope it's not just a sigh."
"That's too mean."
Celestia grumbled as she put her helmet back on and slowly stepped into the water with one foot first. The gentle splashing echoed quietly as ripples formed.
"I'll be back soon."
With that, she submerged completely. Celestia moved her body in various directions under the surface, exploring inside.
Shining her flashlight here and there to check for new spaces, she dove deep once, and then resurfaced with agile movement.
"Hyun-woo, I found it. There's a U-shaped space at the back, and beyond that there are more robots just like this one. Of course, they're also deactivated."
"Oh."
"It really looks abandoned. The atmosphere is bleak."
A space that looked abandoned like that—that wasn't just how that space felt, it was the feeling throughout the whole corridor.
"Let's go together and check it out. I'll go in, too."
"Okay."
I entered the water through the spot Celestia made room for me. A chill instantly cut through me, but my heating system quickly regulated the temperature back to normal.
"You ready?"
"I'm always ready."
"I'll go first, follow me. The path isn't complicated, but if we move, some debris might be stirred up."
There seemed to be more that had sunk here than in a lake. I nodded in understanding, then dove under the rippling surface with her.
Rising bubbles briefly blocked my view, but didn't last long. After waiting a moment, I followed Celestia's hand signal downward. The slippery resistance of water wrapped around my body.
Some debris did float up, but it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. The things that had sunk formed walls on the bottom.
Seeing roots growing in some places, it looked like these had forced their way through crevices and brought the collapse.
'Roots spreading here too, huh.'
Though I knew mutations had gone far, it still seemed extreme. Turning my body at the U-shaped bend, I saw a surface leading to a space beyond the wall.
The surface shimmering in our flashlight beams was soon shattered as we broke through.
"Phuaah—"
"Held your breath?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. My helmet doesn't seal properly anymore."
Apparently the cumulative impacts had really rattled Celestia's helmet, so she took it apart again. Even disassembly was getting creaky—maybe it really was wearing out.
When I shot her a look meaning "Why didn't you say so earlier?" she gave an awkward laugh.
"The suit's still working at least."
"As if! Don't you remember earlier? You almost ended up bald!"
"Ahahaha..."
I climbed out first and helped Celestia up as she masked her embarrassment with laughter. Water poured down in streams. We shook off the rest of the moisture and regained our tension.
The security robots Celestia mentioned were the first things we saw. Some were leaning against the wall, others toppled over, some forcibly sitting with torso and lower body separated.
I wondered what had happened here. Clearly there had been violent conflict—the scratches and black scorch marks on the walls were proof. There were traces of melting and re-solidification too—likely made by a laser emitter used to pierce the wreckage.
I inspected a relatively intact robot. Hercules. That was the model name of this hulking machine. The data chip, likewise, had melted, so no further information could be retrieved.
Celestia checked the model name and spoke.
"As expected, it's military."
"I thought so."
"Looks like an early Titan type—if these are here, it means this place can't have been abandoned for more than a few years."
"Titan?"
I'd thought it was some kind of power loader, but maybe I was wrong. Sensing my confusion, Celestia explained briefly.
"It's a combat model, the next development stage after the military power loader. As far as I know, it's still being developed. Even the early models were never deployed widely."
In short, this meant this place might not be as old as I'd thought.
"Looks like we found exactly the right place, huh?"
"Maybe too exactly. If military robots got wrecked this bad, there could be something just as dangerous inside."
She was right. Lobelia had warned us separately, too. We had to assume there were definitely hazards here.
I took a deep breath. The acrid stench soaked into the very fibers of the place filled my lungs.
'The smell of ash.'
It was the same scent I'd noticed ever since I first entered sector level 6, but now it was stronger. The floor was covered with thick, mushy powder—judging by the nearby machinery, this place was a kind of incinerator.
A machine that once held immense heat now gaped empty and hollow. There was also equipment designed to shred things into fine pieces.
A quick glance inside revealed some suspicious lumps. The powdery things had clumped together, soaked with moisture.
'I don't like this feeling at all.'
The very existence of a facility for burning and grinding things in such a secretive space made me uneasy. What exactly did they want to erase all trace of?
At my signal to move on, Celestia took a deep breath, a stiff expression on her face. We passed between the deactivated robots. There was a thick door, but it was already half open so we didn't need to make extra noise.
After passing through that door, a space dominated by white tones appeared—stark contrast to the sooty, yellowed area we'd just left.
Strangely, the place felt familiar. Even though it was my first time there.
"Looks like they left in a hurry. What a mess."
"If we go over there, we might be able to find something."
Celestia was pointing at the control room. It was the only place with emergency lighting on, so it was easy to spot. She continued.
"The power isn't completely dead. If the facility is being preserved at minimal power, it means somewhere there must be a system still consuming energy. Specifically, one that needs to."
Celestia insisted we had to check the control room to figure that out. She thought it'd be good to restore more power if possible. I agreed.
Well-lit is always better than stumbling around in the dark. Besides, we can't just keep breaking through doors by force forever.
Celestia and I crossed what looked like a lobby and headed to the control room in the corner. Papers spilled everywhere on the floor—but we didn't bother with them,
Maybe for security reasons, everything was handwritten. Most of it was soaked, soggy, or shredded. In short, there was nothing to gain.
Quietly, I opened the control room door. Rusty metal scraped together, "welcoming" the visitors. Inside, too, was a mess.
Bloodstains that hadn't quite been wiped off spattered some panels, and about half the monitors were cracked or broken.
"Can you handle this?"
"I have to. That's what I followed you for."
Telling me to just trust her and wait, Celestia stood in front of the panel, raised a hologram screen, and plugged a cable from her glove into a port.
Behind her focused expression was a torrent of longing and sorrow too strong to be hidden. She must have been thinking of her older brother—after all, reuniting with him was the main reason she came with me.
Celestia, yearning for her lost brother. There is something ironically beautiful about the expression of someone longing so desperately for someone who's gone. It wasn't because I was some pervert who got pleasure from others' pain.
Longing, after all, is a feeling that arises from the desire for lost beauty, the happiness of the past.
For some, their brightest days, their most peaceful times, their most intense moments become the subject of longing.
In Celestia's case, it seemed all those facets applied.
Just my personal impression. Even though she never told me her own stories, I knew she'd lost her brother on the day Myosotis fell.
'But what was her brother's name again?'
I thought I'd heard it, but I couldn't recall. So on a whim, I decided to ask.
"Celestia."
"Yes?"
"What's the name of the person you're looking for?"
"... What? You're asking that now?"
"..."
I answered with silence. My mental state was too delicate to withstand her disappointed, incredulous look—she was completely derailed by my question.
Celestia looked at me, lips trembling, and spoke in a wounded voice.
"I told you back then..."
"You mean when we first went to Heaven, right?"
"Exactly. You remember that, but not my brother's name? Hyun-woo, you already forgetting things like this..."
Celestia gave me a look as if I was hopeless. Maybe she thought I had early-onset dementia. Since I volunteered to help her find her brother—but couldn't even remember his name—I really had no excuse.
Celestia sighed lightly and spoke.
"@^₩."
"... Sorry?"
"My brother's name. It starts with the same letter as Hyun-woo. @^₩."
Was there something wrong with my ears? Celestia's words didn't make any sense to me. It was like hearing sound underwater.
"I can't really hear wha—"
Mid-sentence, I suddenly clutched my head from a bursting headache and sank to my knees. It felt like someone was branding my brain with fire.
"Hyun-woo?!"
Celestia, startled to see me stagger and lose balance, rushed to support me. She frantically asked,
"Are you okay?! What's happening?!"
"I... just felt a little dizzy."
"Must be aftereffects. You don't have to force yourself—just sit here and rest. I can handle this by myself."
"Yeah, please."
Maybe, as Celestia said, it was a delayed side effect from the fall. But inwardly, I felt it wasn't that. This wasn't the first time I'd felt this way.
It was like some sealed information was being unlocked, the fog in my brain lifting just a bit.
The name that surfaced in my suddenly cleared mind was Ian Myosotis. That was the lost family member Celestia so desperately wanted to find. I was confused.
I couldn't say exactly when, but I'd felt the same way when I suddenly recalled memories of Earth—not like a dream that evaporates, but something that stays branded in my mind, persistently provoking me. This was the same.
Ian Myosotis.
That name was imprinted in my mind. The flashes of recognition were strongest at first, but like an afterimage, it lingered, refusing to fade. Just like how closing my eyes brought up scenes of Earth.
'Why this name...?'
Why did thinking about him leave me so shaken? While I struggled to calm my confused mind, Celestia succeeded in rerouting significant power from another part of the facility using the control room panel.
As she finished her work and turned around with a wide grin, the facility hummed to life. The sound of energy cables activating and distributing power filled the place.
The lights flared on, spotlighting Celestia. Embarrassed, she awkwardly gave a thumbs-up and quickly relaxed her pose.
"Hyun-woo, can you stand?"
"Yeah, sitting down helped—feeling a bit better."
"Take care of yourself. Hyun-woo, you're my hope, you know."
It hit me anew. Hearing such words from someone who wore a bracelet emitting the crimson light of blood. Just a few months ago, I was a low-rank worker drifting through tunnels, and never imagined a day like this would come.
I didn't mind the feeling, but remembering the situation that brought it made me wish it hadn't come to this.
"Don't worry. I can take a hit."
"That's a relief."
"Let's look around—see what they're hiding."
"Yes!"
We left the control room and entered the lobby. The light wasn't glaring, but even this much made it much more comfortable.
"Let's check over there first?"
The place I pointed at had an unusually thick door. After getting Celestia's consent, we moved there.
〈Specimen Storage Room〉
「Warning. Highest security clearance. No entry for unauthorized personnel. Status: Locked.」
Using Myosotis's authority, Celestia unlocked it. Chunk. The sound of metal mechanisms engaged—the door slid smoothly open. Must have spent a lot of money on this.
For signage with such ominous warnings, the interior was simple.
A few bunk beds, toy building blocks for small children, a rabbit doll with stuffing leaking out through a torn seam, damp flower patterns on the wall. If not for the signs, you'd mistake this for a kindergarten, not a lab.
There, I found an old notepad wedged between the bedframe and mattress.
Thinking I might find some clue about this place, I carefully took it out and opened it.
「When will Mom and Dad come? I hate being sick. I don't want to take medicine, but if I don't, my body itches too much.」
「I took the medicine, but my forehead got so itchy I kept scratching. It was so bad I cried. Nothing bad will happen to me, right? Eri left today. I wonder if the one who went over Paradise's Gate is meeting their family already. I want to leave soon too.」
「I can finally leave too! Like that Eri, I grew horns! If Mom and Dad won't come get me, I'll go to them! The doctor came just in time. I'll write the rest tomorrow. Tonight I don't think I'll have any bad dreams.」
There was nothing after that. On the back of the page was a map to the place with Paradise's Gate. Judging by the retraced lines, it had been redrawn many times.
Childish, wobbly lines scrambled across the map. At the end, something sprouting from the body was drawn—spikey things, maybe horns, and above those, an angel with wings blowing a trumpet.
Trina. Was this the name of the child who had written the memo? Angels with happy faces surrounded the smiling figure in the drawing.
The location written on the back was around the left corner from our current room—the same way Celestia and I had come in.
'... But that was where the incinerator was.'
Celestia and I, thinking maybe, turned our heads in that direction. As power returned to the area, a holographic warning message flickered into view.
〈Waste Incinerator〉
「Caution. Area is sealed according to security procedures. Do not open under any circumstances.」
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
Damn, Paradise's Gate is the incinerator.
I'm assuming this is Lobelia's lab, if so, she's a madwoman.
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】