In Kazdel, clean water was a precious resource. Bathing was a luxury.
Back then, her body had always felt grimy, sweat and dust clinging together. If she went a few days without washing, a smell would start to build up. She herself was used to it and barely noticed, but every now and then, when she got close to someone and saw them wrinkle their nose, she knew exactly why.
But now, that sticky, unpleasant feeling was completely gone.
The dirt, the mud, even the residue her skin naturally secreted all seemed to have been cleaned away.
It was almost as if a tongue were constantly licking over her body.
...No, wait. Why would she think something like that?
Wis'adel forcibly cut off her wandering thoughts. She had realized that all kinds of strange ideas kept popping into her head on their own. Worse, she kept unconsciously imagining You Yi as some vague human figure, then attaching his words and actions to that image.
It made her feel deeply awkward.
That night, Wis'adel tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
Meanwhile, You Yi inexplicably absorbed a complicated knot of conflicted emotion from her. He had no idea what exactly she was so tangled up over, but he cheerfully accepted every last bit of it anyway.
The next day, the sun was already high in the sky.
When Wis'adel opened her eyes, she was dazed for a moment.
Sunlight leaked through the crack in the door, casting a warm band of light across the floor. The room was quiet, with only faint voices drifting in from far away.
She stared blankly for a moment before realizing that she had actually slept until this hour.
For more than ten years now—
She had never slept this deeply.
No matter how exhausted she used to be, she would always wake up several times in the middle of the night. The slightest sound could yank her out of shallow sleep. That was instinct carved into her bones, the price of staying alive on this land.
But this time, she had not woken even once.
She had not even dreamed.
"You're awake?"
You Yi's voice rang out in her mind.
Wis'adel parted her lips, about to answer, when she suddenly felt something damp at the corner of her mouth.
She raised a hand and wiped it.
Drool.
"What." She muttered, rubbing the back of her hand against the symbiotic suit covering her body.
"Look at your hand."
She lowered her gaze to her right hand. It was still the same black-wrapped arm as yesterday. Nothing looked any different.
"There's nothing there. Are you messing with me?"
"Look again."
The moment the words fell, the black substance along the outside of her right forearm suddenly bulged outward.
Several fine black tendrils extended from it, winding around her arm and converging along the outside into a dark energy track.
Wis'adel's eyes widened. "What is this?"
"The hand cannon you wanted. It's finished."
Staring at the small energy rail on her arm, Wis'adel's eyes shone brightly.
"Can it blow things up?"
"You want to test it here?"
Wis'adel glanced around the house, hesitated for two seconds, then reluctantly suppressed her urge to try it immediately.
"Then let's test it outside."
They went to a pile of rocks far from the settlement, a place scattered with weathered boulders and abandoned Originium slag.
Standing in front of a massive boulder at least two stories tall, Wis'adel raised her right arm.
The black symbiotic suit bulged along the outside of her forearm. Several tendrils extended, wound together, and formed a dark energy track.
"Ready?" You Yi asked.
"What kind of stupid question is that?"
"Focus. Try guiding that energy."
She took a deep breath and concentrated.
A current of energy spread outward from somewhere near her chest, like branching veins flowing through her limbs before finally converging in her right arm.
Then, within the rail on her forearm, a dim crimson glow began to circulate, restless energy gathering and straining to be released.
Wis'adel aimed at the boulder in front of her, then moved her will.
Boom!
A dark red beam of energy shot from the rail and slammed into the surface of the boulder, sending fragments of stone flying.
When the dust cleared, there was now a crater in the rock the size of a bowl. Its edges were smooth, as if melted by intense heat.
It was about half a meter deep.
You Yi's voice sounded in her mind. "Not bad. Good penetration, though the area damage is still lacking."
Wis'adel lowered her arm and stared at the crater, the corners of her lips beginning to curl upward.
"That's good enough. How many shots can it fire?"
She had tested the hardness of this kind of rock before. A normal grenade would struggle to leave much of a dent in it. Penetrating half a meter already far exceeded her expectations.
After checking the energy consumption, You Yi answered, "In theory, the energy in those two pieces of Originite Prime should be enough to support over a thousand shots. But that's only in theory. In real combat, you won't be able to fire continuously like that. Each shot needs a few seconds of charging time, and repeated use will disrupt the energy circulation in your body."
Wis'adel fired a few more shots at the boulder and was extremely satisfied with the results.
"This is even better than I expected."
More than a thousand accurate, point-and-shoot energy blasts, each stronger than a normal gun. Among everyone she knew, she could not imagine anyone who could take that head-on. And if one was not enough, she could always fire another.
A cold smile spread across her face.
"I'm going to settle accounts with them tonight."
By the time she returned to the settlement, it was close to noon. Unlike when she had left, she was no longer moving with particular caution.
Quite a few people stared in surprise when they saw the black symbiotic suit covering her body.
Still, clothing styles on Terra were strange enough already that something like a tight suit made from some unusual material was not beyond what people could accept.
But when Wis'adel reached the front of her house, her footsteps paused, and her expression changed slightly.
"Someone's been inside."
The door was slightly ajar. She lifted her arm and shoved it open.
There was indeed someone in the room.
A small, skinny figure was crouched by the corner of her bed, rummaging through the heap of junk there. At the sound of the door, the figure went stiff and slowly turned around.
It was a little Sarkaz boy.
He looked seven or eight at most, half a head shorter than her. His face was filthy, his eye sockets sunken, and he was as skinny as a starving wildcat.
In his hand, he clutched half a strip of dried meat—Wis'adel's last remaining ration.
Their eyes met.
The little boy turned deathly pale. His hand shook so badly the dried meat nearly slipped from his grasp.
Wis'adel said nothing.
She merely stood in the doorway, sunlight streaming in from behind her and casting her shadow long across the floor. In the darkness, the black symbiotic suit almost blended into the shade entirely, leaving only those amber eyes fixed on him with cold indifference.
The boy's lips trembled. Realizing there was no way he could run, he hurriedly began pleading for mercy.
"D-don't kill me... Someone else told me to come. They said the person living here was gone and wouldn't be coming back. I-I only came to see if there was anything to eat..."
She stared at him for a few seconds, then shifted her gaze and swept a glance around the room.
The straw on the bed had been turned upside down. The pile of junk in the corner had been scattered all over the floor. Even the empty cloth bags she had hidden in cracks between the stones had been dug out.
Her expression did not change.
"Put it down."
"Then get lost."
The boy froze.
He cautiously studied her expression, not daring to move rashly.
Wis'adel lifted an eyebrow. "What, you want to stay?"
The boy scrambled to his feet, staggered once, then bolted for the door.
Just as he was about to dash out, Wis'adel's voice came from behind him.
"If you come again next time, I'll break your legs."
The boy's steps faltered for an instant—then he ran even faster.
The sound of his footsteps gradually faded, and the room fell quiet again.
You Yi's voice sounded in her mind. "You're just letting him go? One look at that expression and it's obvious something's off. There's probably someone behind him."
Wis'adel replied calmly, "He took the box. He'll have to bring it back to whoever sent him."
You Yi froze for a second, then immediately caught on.
"You mean... you're using him to lead the way?"
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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