novelraw Chapter 268: Chain Reaction
Chapter 268: Chain Reaction
Time stretched to a crawl at that moment.
In Ethan's field of vision, the Jersey Devil was being sent flying backward in an extremely slow motion.
The two burning red points of light in its head were being extinguished bit by bit under the kinetic impact of [Evening Star].
Finally, the Jersey Devil's body, carrying immense force, smashed violently into the massive glass chamber imprisoning the Deep Sea Moon God.
Several cracks spiderwebbed across the surface of the glass chamber. Though it didn't shatter immediately, the structural stability had been catastrophically compromised.
But that wasn't the deadliest part.
What was truly fatal was the repulsion shockwave from [Evening Star] that hadn't fully dissipated and was still clinging to the Jersey Devil's body!
That powerful spiritual force, after impacting the glass, transmitted into the Deep Sea Moon God's body at a viral speed.
Imagine throwing a high-powered magnet into the core of a computer made of countless electronic components operating with precision. What would happen?
The answer—disaster.The energy core inside the heart-shaped UMA, which had been pulsing with a stable rhythm and rotating like a nebula, went haywire after being invaded by this foreign, alien energy.
"Thump…………thump-thump…thump! Thump! Thump!!"
Its heartbeat lost all rhythm.
It began to beat wildly, sometimes stalling, sometimes accelerating. Each pulse released bio-electrical energy several times stronger than before, yet also wildly unstable!
The electrodes deeply embedded in its body erupted with blinding, whitish arcs of electricity at their tips under the sudden surge of current.
Countless electrical sparks danced and crackled across its body surface, a spectacle like a nest of frenzied snakes.
The main cables connecting the electrodes, unable to bear the massive energy overload, began to melt and burn, their insulation layers giving off a pungent, acrid stench.
"Not good!" Lin Jie's expression changed.
He exchanged a look with Ethan.
They had succeeded, but it seemed... they had succeeded a bit too well.
They had only wanted to create a small "equipment malfunction," but they had accidentally detonated the entire power plant's "nuclear reactor"!
"Woo——Woo——Woo——!!"
At the same moment, a piercing alarm blared through every corner of the underground base, carrying the aura of a doomsday trumpet.
The white incandescent lights providing illumination on the ceiling went out. Red alarm lights, representing the highest alert level, lit up.
The entire world was stained with an ominous, bloody hue.
"Warning! Core power unit under unknown attack! Energy output showing three hundred percent abnormal peak! Repeat! Core power unit under unknown attack..."
A cold, mechanical broadcast voice began to cycle through the base in English.
"Go, now!" Lin Jie made the decisive call.
He and Ethan turned and sprinted toward the ventilation duct they had come from.
In thirty seconds at most, this place would be flooded by a horde of armed guards responding to the alarm.
However, their steps were once again halted by the scene behind them.
That Jersey Devil, blasted away by [Evening Star] and smashed into the glass chamber, was still not dead!
It struggled to its feet. Its chest had a terrifying, bloody crater, but its tenacious vitality still kept it standing.
The two red points of light in its head, now extremely dim, were locked onto the retreating backs of Lin Jie and Ethan, its gaze filled with bone-deep hatred.
It let out a roar truly saturated with pain and fury.
Then, dragging its grievously wounded body, the Jersey Devil charged at the two men!
"This lunatic!" Ethan cursed angrily, forced to stop and turn, raising both his revolvers.
At that moment, an even more terrifying chain reaction occurred.
The completely out-of-control Deep Sea Moon God seemed to interpret the Jersey Devil's roar as a provocation.
The light from the energy core within its body abruptly surged to its peak!
The next second, a powerful spiritual shockwave erupted!
The charging Jersey Devil bore the brunt of it.
Its body froze. Facing this irresistible torrent of spiritual force, the two burning red points of light flickered like candles in the wind.
Its body crashed to the ground, falling utterly silent.
Lin Jie and Ethan, who were slightly farther away, didn't fare much better.
Lin Jie felt as if something had smashed into his brain. The mental protective field of [Serene Heart], which had always been invincible, was fragile and useless before this overwhelming wall of sorrowful wailing.
Ethan's situation was even worse.
He was never good at mental defense to begin with. At this moment, he felt his very soul was being torn apart by this grief.
Fine traces of blood seeped from all seven of his facial orifices, and his whole body swayed unsteadily.
"Go!"
Lin Jie bit his own tongue, the sharp pain forcing a sliver of consciousness back.
He hauled up the nearly unconscious Ethan and stumbled toward the ventilation duct.
Meanwhile, other areas of the base also descended into utter chaos due to this sudden core meltdown.
...
"BOOM!!"
On a main passageway of the B2 level, Hawk split a heavy alloy security door, along with the three armed guards behind it, cleanly in half with a single swing of his axe.
The searing plasma blade, crackling with blue electrical arcs, left a deep, terrifying gash in the narrow corridor, its edges still molten.
The moment the piercing alarm sounded, this wild Native American warrior transformed into a primordial beast that had broken its chains.
He followed his most primal combat instincts, wreaking maximum havoc from within the base's interior!
"For the tribe!"
He let out an earth-shaking battle cry. The massive war axe [Thunderbird's Wrath] in his hands became a whirlwind of destructive blue lightning.
Before him, steel walls were nothing.
Patrolling guards didn't even have time to see his face before being instantly vaporized by the high-temperature ionic blade.
His objective was crystal clear—create chaos and draw fire, creating a favorable window for Lin Jie and Ethan's escape.
Hawk became a scalding dagger wedged into the enemy's heart, churning and stirring wildly, turning this scientific fortress upside down!
...
On the other side, in the Central Archives on the B3 level, Evelyn moved with agile grace, swiftly weaving between bookshelves flashing with red alarm lights.
The sounding of the alarm was both a crisis and an opportunity for her.
All the guards in the archives had been dispatched toward the power room, making this a temporary vacuum zone.
She didn't bother with the ordinary filing cabinets holding personnel records.
In the two hours since infiltrating, Evelyn had already determined that information on core researchers of her father's level would never be stored in such a place.
Her target was a secret vault deep within the archives, requiring triple passwords and a mechanical lock to open.
She had neither the passwords nor the key.
But she had her [Echo Goggles], and a brain no less brilliant than her father's.
Evelyn put on the goggles, pressed her ear tightly against the cold vault door, and listened intently to the extremely faint "clicks" made by the complex mechanical lock core turning.
In her vision, those sounds transformed into sets of constantly shifting, visualized waveform symbols.
She was... "hearing" out the password!
It was an unbelievable method of cracking, one only she could accomplish.
Finally, just before the sound of guards' footsteps approached again from the distance, the heavy vault door opened with a "clack," swinging open for her.
Evelyn slipped inside and quickly closed the door behind her.
The interior of the secret vault didn't have as many files as she imagined. There were only about a dozen metal document boxes marked "Confidential."
Her eyes swept rapidly over the labels—"UMA Modification Project," "Weaponization of Tesla Coils," "Application of Spiritual Frequencies"... Each title represented a terrifying piece of research that could shock the world.
Finally, her gaze settled on the box in the farthest corner.
The label on the box bore a name she knew to the marrow of her bones.
"Guglielmo Marconi—Failed Conjectures Regarding Aether Medium Propagation."
Evelyn's hand trembled as she reached out and opened that box.
Inside was a research notebook handwritten by her father, the script hurried and messy.
And beneath the notebook, pressed flat, was an architectural blueprint drawn on a large piece of parchment.
—[Wardenclyffe Global Wireless Energy Transmission Tower (Edison Modified Version)]
Evelyn's pupils contracted.
This was... the complete design blueprint for the entire Aether Tower!
Just as she was reeling from this unexpected discovery, the broadcast system in the archives, which had been cycling the "Highest Alert" directive, suddenly emitted a burst of harsh electrical static.
Then, a male voice that absolutely should not have been there came through.
The voice spoke only one word.
"Cinder."
This voice, transmitted through the broadcast network, reached every corner of the chaotic underground base.
Hawk, who was wreaking havoc on the B2 level and single-handedly drawing most of the enemy's fire, paused in his actions upon hearing the word.
A cruel smile then spread across his face.
Hawk no longer lingered in the fight. He aimed [Thunderbird's Wrath] at a thick main load-bearing pillar beside him and began his final rampage.
The armed guards frantically searching for the intruders in various corridors of the B3 level also collectively froze in shock and confusion upon hearing this unfamiliar voice.
"Who?! Who's speaking?"
"Control room! Cut the broadcast now! What's going on?"
"There's a traitor! Our comms have been compromised!"
Panic spread rapidly among the guards.
Phineas had successfully completed his most important task before evacuating. As a masterful technical expert, he had left a "backdoor" in the "neural network" of this scientific fortress, a way to speak at any time.
Inside the secret vault, Evelyn took a deep breath upon hearing the word "Cinder."
She understood it was the code word from Phineas, meaning "Mission successful, evacuate immediately."
Evelyn clutched her father's notebook and that crucial design blueprint tightly to her chest.
She glanced at this cold cage that had once imprisoned her father, a look of finality flashing in her eyes. She pulled from her pocket a brass lighter she had crafted herself, filled with high-concentration Alchemical Explosives.