Chapter 324
Chapter 324
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 324
Chapter Title: Underground Messiah
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That meant she still harbored feelings for her old friend. The fact that she hadn't agreed right away went to show just how deep those sentiments ran.
"...Alright."
After agonizing over it for several minutes, Isabel let out a short sigh and accepted the condition laid out by the Mother of the Sky.
She pulled an object from her tattered clothes that looked similar to a shield generator. While a shield generator was hexagonal in shape, this device was pentagonal.
'An energy blocker.'
Any contract with a Vortex One inevitably produced energy. Even the tiniest contract to prevent lies. The energy blocker could only suppress a limited range of emissions, but in a situation like this, it would be plenty useful. That little gadget ought to contain any energy leakage.
'One more thing I've learned from this.'
She wasn't on good terms with the Cult rankers on Berzan-02. There might be some unknown connection between them, but they clearly weren't close enough for open friendliness. That must be why she carried an energy blocker around.
As those thoughts crossed my mind, she activated the blocker and formed the contract with the Mother of the Sky. A faint black gleam flickered inside the barrier, but no energy leaked outward.
"It's done."
Isabel finished the contract in under a minute, then deactivated the barrier. The Mother of the Sky looked fine, aside from her fur settling down and her appearing a bit drained.
"Now tell me what you want."
"Got it. Follow me."
Isabel picked up a basket of food she'd left in the corner and spoke.
"Follow you?"
"It's a safe place. Now that we've made a contract, I have no intention of harming you."
She couldn't lie until the deal was done. I glanced at the Mother of the Sky to check if she was okay with it, and she nodded.
We followed Isabel out of the alley.
She stuck to blind spots from the surveillance towers, moving without the slightest hesitation. It was clear she'd traversed these paths many times before.
She eventually stopped at an old warehouse. Isabel fiddled with a worn terminal to disable the barrier blocking the entrance.
The first thing I noticed inside was the clutter of junk strewn about haphazardly. Beneath the mess lay a floor thick with dust.
'Huh?'
It looked like no outsider had set foot here in ages, but my Aimorph auxiliary organs weren't so easily fooled. I could sense traces of someone deliberately scattering fine sand to hide footprints.
And parts of the floor only appeared the same on the surface—the material beneath was entirely different. Air whistled faintly from below those sections.
'There's empty space under the warehouse.'
Sure enough, Isabel traced a specific pattern on the altered flooring with her foot. With a clunk, the floor vanished, revealing stairs leading underground.
｢Isabel, what the hell have you done?｣
"Something my sister didn't."
With that cryptic remark, she headed down the stairs.
[Zuzuzuzu (Let's follow her)]
We descended after Isabel. There wasn't a single ordinary lightbulb along the way down. The stairs themselves were so crude they could hardly be called Cult workmanship.
Only after reaching the basement at the bottom of that long staircase did I understand its rough shape.
And what Isabel had meant when she spoke to the Mother of the Sky.
Dozens of presences stirred in the underground darkness. That many Coldbloods knelt in prayer.
Isabel gazed at them as they prayed to some unknowable entity.
｢Isabel, you...｣
"Help me get them to a safe planet. That's my request."
Coldbloods, lost and wandering in search of their paradise and salvation.
Isabel was their underground messiah.
The space beneath the warehouse was as crude as the long staircase leading to it. It was hard to believe it had been built in an era where planetary environments could be reshaped and star systems traversed at will.
The ceiling varied wildly in height, and the passages—barely wide enough for one person—looked ready to collapse at any moment. It housed dozens without a single advanced energy-consuming device. Not even a small electric lamp; candles were the only light illuminating the depths.
It was so shabby it might as well have been called a burrow rather than a structure.
The Coldbloods praying there weren't in great shape either.
Coldbloods were slightly taller than humans on average. Males around 2 meters, females about 180 cm. Their weight was far heavier too, thanks to muscle mass and scales. Isabel, under 150 cm and slender, was an outlier.
Yet the Coldbloods here were even more emaciated than her. Their scales were in terrible condition, and their arms, legs, and torsos were grotesquely twisted. With no clothes on, their wretched bodies were fully exposed.
The reason for their state became clear thanks to Isabel's actions. She set down the fruits and rations she'd gotten from the shop in front of them.
"Today's provisions."
The Coldbloods stopped praying the moment they heard her. They crawled forward on all fours and devoured the food ravenously.
They barely reacted to us strangers. More like they were too fixated on the meal to notice anything else.
'They're in worse shape than slaves or hired hands.'
No one but Space Dogs would keep slaves in such conditions. Judging by their lack of clothing and physical state, they were likely escaped slaves.
'And they live here full-time, so yeah, runaways.'
The air carried an unpleasant odor, and the Coldbloods inhaling their food reeked too. Proof they handled all their meals and sleep down here.
'She wants me to take them to a safe planet?'
Auxiliary organ scan: 40 Coldbloods underground, excluding Isabel. Too many to sneak onto the shuttle. And their health was far from good, even as a polite exaggeration.
'Not gonna be easy.'
Then one of the eating Coldbloods stood, bowed to Isabel.
"We thank the Savior for her grace."
"Th-thank you, Savior, for your grace."
"Savior... grace... our thanks."
One by one, the others stopped eating and expressed their gratitude to Isabel.
"I am no savior..."
'?'
She muttered something faintly, but the echoing voices off the burrow walls drowned it out. She nodded silently in acknowledgment, then approached us.
"We'll talk details upstairs."
She knew this wasn't the place for explanations. Isabel led us back to the surface.
The Coldbloods kept bowing until she was out of sight.
We climbed the long stairs back to the dilapidated warehouse.
｢...｣
As Isabel erased the traces on the floor, the Mother of the Sky said nothing. She'd been deeply shaken since seeing the Coldbloods.
'Come to think of it, she said it.'
Her sister hadn't done this.
'Is she blaming her for abandoning her?'
She'd dropped that line on the way down. Maybe it was a jab at her sister leaving her behind.
While I mulled it over, Isabel finished cleaning up and turned to us.
"Ask whatever you want."
The Mother of the Sky wasn't in any state to speak. So it fell to me.
"Which planet are you sending them to?"
"A jungle-type world. Undiscovered, so no official name yet."
Figured as much.
To relocate escaped slaves safely, it'd have to be an unregistered planet. Probably something like the icy world where Adhai's kin resided.
"Forty down there. All of them?"
"Yes."
"That's too many."
"Don't worry about that."
She pulled a pad terminal from her pocket.
"Transport ship info's here. Destination's preset, so just get them to the vessel."
I took the pad and checked the data with my chest's smaller arms.
The ship was a Cult-style corvette retrofitted for civilian use. Beyond transport details, it listed rations, fuel, and even ship-related contacts in detail.
"Separate owner? Who's this?"
"Another slaver. You can handle him easily."
Isabel assumed I'd use my parasite abilities as a matter of course. In the game, 'Mimicry Organ' and 'Parasite Swarm' were my signature traits, so her expectation wasn't off-base.
Problem was, I couldn't use Parasite Swarm right now.
Thanks to the relic Sihyun Yujin used, the Outspacer genes in my body were gone. No new gene essence absorbed, no swarm.
So I'd have to pilot the ship myself.
"Ship leaves in three days. Handle the slaver at least two days prior. That's when we can load them up."
"You coming too?"
Leaving Berzan-02 meant strict surveillance; re-entry wouldn't be simple. If Isabel tagged along, no need to return.
But she shook her head.
"Got unfinished business. Can't leave."
"Unfinished business?"
Then a message popped up on her terminal I was holding. Sender: 'Manager'. From the hotel that employed her.
"That's it for today. Time to head to work."
"How do we contact you?"
"Same alley, tomorrow at this time."
She took back the pad, ushered us out of the warehouse, restored the barrier, and left without a goodbye.
"This just got complicated."
｢...｣
"Gonna need to replan."
｢...｣
The Mother of the Sky didn't respond to me. She just stared blankly in the direction Isabel had gone.
I nudged her shoulder with my left head. She blinked a few times, then hurriedly apologized.
｢...Sorry.｣
"We'll talk details on the shuttle."
I headed back to the airfield with her. Maybe feeling guilty about how things turned out, she stayed silent the whole way.
She'd risked coming here because Isabel was her old friend. Naturally, she felt responsible for the outcome.
'No real need to, though.'
I'd anticipated it might not go smoothly before we even arrived. Isabel colluding with Cult rankers, or us getting hunted by them first. Those would've been far worse.
The only surprise was Isabel's actions.
'Saving her kin.'
As far as I knew, she was on the run from the dominant-faction rankers. Protecting escaped slaves while evading pursuit was no small feat.
'All while living as a slave herself.'
You needed ironclad conviction to pull that off.
'Going for the ending?'
The Coldbloods' ultimate goal was leading their kind to paradise. It wasn't just evacuating to safety.
To see their ending, they had to eliminate the greatest threat to paradise: a Vortex One.
'Technically, sacrifice another Vortex One to break the curse on the entire species.'
That required a special ritual site, an altar of ultra-rare materials, ritual tools. Once prepared, kill the Vortex One as offering.
'Impossible while minding escaped slaves.'
Obviously, fulfilling those demanded immense power and wealth. Dozens in a burrow wouldn't cut it. Her motives had to be something else.
As I pondered Isabel's driving force, we arrived at the airfield.
"Welcome. Mission. Complete."
The shuttle door opened, and MPS-05, waiting inside, greeted us.
"No trouble?"
"'Little Baby.' Headache. Headache."
"Hangover. Give it lots of water."
"Main controller, water. Supplying!"
MPS-05, specialized in comms and machine control, was synced with my main body, PS-111. As long as we were in range, we could link up anytime.