At this very moment, Salome’s heart was similarly consumed by utter turmoil. Ever since her birth into this world eleven years ago, her stern, hyper-rational mother had ceaselessly drilled into her the necessity of maintaining absolute rationality and a clear mind, never to succumb to the sway of emotional impulses—a directive she had always faithfully upheld.
When ordered to dissect the very sisters with whom she had lived, conversed, and shared laughter, Salome had mastered her emotions. During the raid on Saint Tir City, the headquarters of the Human Revival Council, as she exacted vengeance upon its members, she had remained perfectly composed. Yet, at this very moment, all the methods and tricks Salome had once employed to rein in her feelings had utterly failed her, as a maelstrom of surging, contradictory emotions now engulfed and drowned her.
Salome’s plan had been clear: upon discovering a way to return her mother to her original world and reuniting with her, she would mercilessly tear apart her mother’s everyday facade, forcing her to reveal her ugly, rotten essence for all to see. Then, she would bring her mother before their sisters, where she would wailingly confess her crimes and beg for forgiveness, leaving her fate to be decided by the sisters, who would determine how to ‘repay’ her. However, reality had deviated drastically from her expectations.
Indeed, Shirley’s initial innocent demeanor might have been dismissed as mere acting, and the friendships displayed by those around her, perhaps just products of deceit. Subsequently, Salome had proposed that Shirley exchange other lives for weapons and ammunition for self-preservation, even deliberately lowering her standards, asserting that even parasitized hosts would suffice, hoping to tear off her opponent’s mask of hypocrisy in this manner. Yet, Shirley and her friends had refused her again and again, ultimately willing to kill only those hybrids who no longer considered themselves human.
Of course, in Salome’s eyes at the time, this might have been nothing more than an elaborate performance, meticulously calculated to minimize risk. After all, even without the weapons she offered, the initial parasites and their hosts that invaded the academy were not difficult to deal with. However, as more swarms of parasites surged forth and the situation grew increasingly dire, Shirley and her companions still chose to raid the security room where Salome was, seizing weapons, rather than killing the parasitized students and exchanging their lives. Shirley even severed her own palm, offering it as a trade for the vermifuge needed to save others.
In truth, Salome’s heart had already begun to waver even then. While Dr. Irmindada was indeed skilled at performance and deception, she was also, quite literally, a miserly individual. She had, on more than one occasion, declared to her ‘daughters’ that self-sacrifice and devotion were traits of the foolish and the weak. Thus, it was utterly impossible for her to make even the slightest self-sacrifice.
Even so, Salome stubbornly refused to admit the possibility of her error. After deliberately severing Shirley’s limbs under the guise of ‘self-defense,’ she unleashed her final gambit: ‘The Mermaid’s Trial.’
This was the ultimate trial she could conceive.
It was widely known that enduring continuous, extreme physical pain was far more arduous than mustering the courage to kill others, or even gritting one’s teeth to make a sacrifice—even if that sacrifice involved one’s own flesh and blood. The ‘Huntress Goddess,’ personally modified by her mother, was not merely a formidable weapon; in a sense, it was also a highly efficient torture device, capable of making even the Black Sprouts of the Comoro Network salivate with envy.
More significantly, even Salome, when she originally underwent this ‘trial,’ had suffered far less torment than Shirley was currently enduring. Back then, the ‘Huntress Goddess’ at least provided a minimum supply of painkillers to slightly alleviate the agony.
When Shirley was placed inside, Salome had deliberately set the painkiller system to ‘off.’
“Why… why go to such lengths?”
As Salome’s hands instinctively clenched, the binoculars she held began to dent and deform in her grip.
‘Could I have been wrong? Even if she genuinely doesn’t remember the past, to endure this much…’
“I told you before, Mother’s demeanor isn’t an act,” Cassandra said timidly. “While I don’t know what she experienced when she went to another world, I can say for certain that she is Shirley now, a completely different person, a… a good person.”
Salome offered no reply. Two kilometers away, Shirley, piloting the ‘Huntress Goddess,’ was locked in fierce combat with the surging enemy at the breach in the wall. Since the swarming ‘hybrids’ were clearly no longer human and their safety was not a concern, and more than one of them wielded anti-armor weapons capable of threatening the ‘Huntress Goddess,’ Shirley had no intention of holding back. She immediately concentrated all available firepower, unleashing an extreme saturation bombardment upon the enemies gathered outside the wall.
Amidst the deadly rain of high-energy plasma, whether it was the chitinous carapaces of giant insects, the flesh of parasitized vertebrates, or the makeshift add-on armor mounted on dilapidated vehicles, all were indiscriminately vaporized, ionized, and utterly annihilated. If such a barrage could be sustained for long enough, repelling this assault might not have been impossible.
The problem, however, was this: as a puddle of blue liquid began to spread around the ‘Huntress Goddess”s chassis, both Salome and Cassandra knew it wouldn’t last much longer.
What limited its attack efficiency was not the weapons’ energy supply, but rather its heat dissipation. Much like a certain colossal battle station from ‘Star X Wars,’ the ‘Huntress Goddess”s extremely high energy consumption meant an equally high demand for heat dissipation. Unfortunately, due to poor maintenance and Shirley’s inability to concentrate, coupled with her overly forceful movements while in extreme pain, several areas near its joints had been damaged during the previous operation to support the kindergarten section, leading precisely to the rupture of several primary coolant lines.
As copious amounts of ice-blue coolant spilled onto the ground, the internal heat dissipation efficiency of the ‘Huntress Goddess’ began to plummet. Not long ago, it had automatically opened its hatch precisely because the internal temperature had risen to a level that threatened Shirley’s life. Worse still, to minimize the risk of being targeted by enemy fire, this quadrupedal mech did not opt for external weapon stations or turrets, instead embedding all its armaments deep within its chassis. This meant that the vast amount of waste heat generated by simultaneous energy weapon volleys simply could not dissipate naturally through the air.
“This is bad! If this continues, we’ll be in trouble!” Cassandra exclaimed anxiously.
“Yes, the ‘Huntress Goddess”s automatic failsafe is about to activate.”
Salome shuddered violently, muttering softly.
‘If it activates twice within a short period, that means…’
Just as expected, mere seconds after all the modified vehicles armed with heavy weapons were destroyed, the ‘Huntress Goddess’ suddenly belched thick smoke and ceased fire. Its mechanical legs, locked forcibly in place by the automatic failsafe, kept it rooted to the spot, while the hatch abruptly sprang open, spewing forth billowing clouds of superheated gas.
“This is… uh… the mech is unresponsive?”
Meanwhile, inside the cockpit, Shirley opened her eyes amidst the swirling heat haze. Intense pain, searing heat, and profound exhaustion had severely impaired her cognitive abilities; prior to this, she had largely relied on intuition and instinct to pilot the ‘Huntress Goddess’ in battle, leaving her not entirely aware of her surroundings.
Now, as the myriad pains abruptly receded from her battered body, Shirley realized that the suffocating heat had withdrawn from around her. She knew, however, that this was not a good sign, for she had clearly lost all sensation and control over the entire mech.
‘No way? Could it be…’ Shirley’s first thought was that perhaps, unable to endure the agony any longer, she had subconsciously switched the mech to automatic operation. This would mean that everyone, including Ji Bingyao, Eileen, Alice, and Yurizumi, might become prey for the ‘Huntress Goddess,’ just like the monsters and hybrids controlled by the parasites.
This doubt, however, lasted only a fleeting instant, because she immediately noticed that everyone else, including the entire ‘Pink FM Frequency’ band, was gathered around her and had not been attacked by the ‘Huntress Goddess.’
“System overheating detected, automatic failsafe activated. Status: Level 3 Incapacitation.”
As these red words began to flash before her eyes, Shirley finally understood her predicament. On the bright side, this mech was at least slightly more humane than old Phalaris’s bronze bull; it had stopped in time before she could be roasted to a crisp and served on a platter. The problem, however, was that it had stopped at a truly inconvenient moment. Although all the modified vehicles piloted by hybrids and equipped with heavy weapons had been destroyed, a significant portion of the surging enemy’s forces remained. Worse still, not all of the hybrids had perished.
“What a close call… Ladies, I didn’t expect us to meet again!”
As the smoke from the energy weapon bombardment began to clear, a petite figure stepped quickly through the large hole in the wall, treading over smoking, charred debris. This girl was the same hybrid who had previously infiltrated Dormitory 7, leading to the near-total parasitization of the elementary school students sheltering there. Now, she looked radiant, as if she had just seen something particularly amusing.
“Oh dear, oh dear… Miss, what did I say before? Ah, yes, I said I would cut you into human sticks and offer you to the swarm, to become the cornerstone of our prosperity and flourishing,” the girl revealed an unpleasant smile. “Hmm, I didn’t expect that in less than a day, you’ve already become like this! Which kind soul did me this great favor?”
“This is our family matter, outsiders should mind their own business,” Shirley muttered. “Besides, you can’t even fully be considered human.”
“Oh? That depends on how you define ‘human’… In my view, only those of us who are integrated with the swarm are ‘human,’ while you inferior beings are merely our sustenance and breeding ground,” the girl sneered. “Now, give your body to me. After removing most of your useless brain, you’ll still be very useful, you know.”
“You wish!” Ji Bingyao raised her B-9K plasma assault cannon, firing a green orb of light towards the girl. The latter did not resist, but hastily dodged to the side, simultaneously clenching her hands in the air. A ‘shield’ appeared out of nowhere beside her, deflecting the residual damage from the high-energy plasma orb.
“That thing again!” Eileen mumbled. Previously, this hybrid girl had used similar means to conjure protective power out of thin air, thus escaping the dormitory building. “This… this is also the power of the Lihentian, isn’t it?”
“In your inferior language, ‘Supreme Force’ is indeed called that,” the hybrid girl sneered. “Yes, I am a blessed one… However, the blessing I received isn’t strong enough yet to deal with you all…” After scanning the weapons in their hands, she took a step back. “But this one can.”