Embers of Embers

Chapter 665 Overload
"Now it feels like we two are stunning beauties, and these monsters are eager to possess us and tear us to pieces."
Kestrel cocked his gun and muttered bizarre nonsense.
In fact, Kestrel and Merlin don't have much overlap. One of them is the technical chief of the Perpetual Pump, and the other is an elite employee walking on the front line. It's just that this damn disaster has connected the two, and thus Let the two of them have a deeper understanding of each other.
Merlin has realized that the weirdness of Kestrel's bad words is directly proportional to his pressure.
This made Merlin feel a little uncomfortable, but he didn't say much because talking nonsense helped Kestrel relieve stress. Merlin liked this slightly bullshit Kestrel better than this guy's dead look on his face.
Now he speaks very fast, and his bad words are interspersed with greetings to the demon female family members.
"That's not okay. Beauties won't like you guys who are rude, not to mention rude at all. You are clearly coming to someone else's house, but you don't even knock on the door."
His finger was on the trigger. The demon hadn't broken through the gate yet, it had just pried open a gap. There was no point in firing at this moment.
The pressure was high, but before Kestrel lost his mind, he waited for his moment and pulled the trigger.
The bullet flew by and accurately hit the gap in the next second, followed by blood spraying.
The restlessness behind the door stopped for a few seconds, and then became even crazier. The scratching sound of sharp claws became louder and louder, as if there were hundreds of sword-wielding warriors behind the door, slashing at the door and trying to open the way.
"This is a home invasion! Everyone!"
Kestrel shouted.
The crack was enlarged, and the demon's head poked out of it, smiling ferociously at the kestrel, and then the head exploded out of thin air.
Green smoke was still coming out of the gun, and Kestrel had no expression on his face.
The headless corpse was stuck between the cracks, and soon it was torn into pieces by sharp claws, and more sharp claws stretched out from the scarlet color.
Kestrel guessed that it must be very crowded behind the door. Maybe there was a stampede. Before he opened fire, a large number of the demons had probably been strangled to death. The corpses were piled up and squeezed in front of the door. You could see Streams of blood overflowed and covered the ground.
"Everyone is eager to eat us, and no one wants to fall behind."
Kestrel whispered and continued to fire. Every time a monster tried to crawl out of the crack, he would shoot it, and then be torn to pieces by the monster behind him.
However, this kind of relaxation may not last long. The cracks are getting bigger and bigger. Thanks to the disrepair here, the slide rails of the gate are covered with rust, and every time they are unfolded, they make a squeaking sound.
The frequency of firing has also become higher and higher. With the ammunition carried by Kestrel, he will soon empty all the ammunition, and then he will need to use a folding knife to cut a bloody path.
From here, chop all the way to the surface.
Kestrel tried to make himself angry in order to gain some strength, but soon, he gave up.
When it comes to survival, after thinking about it, he might as well forget it. He and Merlin don't have much chance of survival, and that's been the case from the beginning.
He slowly retreated into the central control room behind him. The space here was very large, with several huge pipes falling vertically from above. Behind the thick metal, there was a rumbling sound, as if something was rushing inside.
There are many such dense and huge pipes. With the Furnace Pillar as the main trunk, they continue to spread toward the underground of Old Dunling and spread to every part of the entire city.
It is most appropriate to call this place the core.
Merlin was busy on the console.
"This was the original control station. Later, after we updated and iterated, we transferred the control functions to the Mechanical Institute, where we can better control the furnace pillars, so this place was abandoned... but it is not completely abandoned. ."
"In the end, the mechanical institute was destroyed first, which is really bad."
Kestrel commented after listening to Merlin's words.
"It's not too bad. At least it can be used as a backup start." Merlin hit the valve hard, trying to knock off the accumulated dust and rust on it. "It's just a bit primitive. I have to twist it one by one!"
"I suggest you hurry up! Merlin, these ghosts are very impatient!"
The Kestrel emptied its ammunition, reloaded, and kept firing.
The central control room is probably the end point for the two of them. After it is activated, Kestrel and Merlin can't kill these monsters, and the merged gate can only delay the time, unless a strong man descends from the sky and the two of them are eaten by the monsters. Before, kill the troublesome Roger.
In that case, there may be a chance of survival.
"But if we can kill Roger, there must be a lot of movement."
Kestrel thought, Roger was invading the underground. Maybe Roger and Kestrel were just separated by a few iron walls now. An attack that could kill Roger might be so powerful that it would destroy the entire underground system together.
The more he thought about it, the worse it got. Kestrel gave up thinking and focused on the fight in front of him.
The crack was completely opened, and a demon rushed out first. It was covered in scars and its arms were twisted and broken, but it still ran wildly and was shot in the head by a kestrel.
"It seems we have no way out."
Kestrel pulled the lever on the side, and the door of the central control room began to close slowly. It was very slow, and every time it merged a little, mud would fall.
After the gate was breached, this was the last line of defense for Kestrel and Merlin. With the strength of the two of them, there was no room for resistance and they could only wait for death behind the gate.
Kestrel hated waiting to die, but he had no better solution.
He emptied the remaining ammunition. Outside the crack in the gate, there were piles of demon corpses, but as if there was no end, there were still demons trying to crawl out. They made hoarse sounds, as if they were calling the kestrel's name.
The doors slowly merged, leaving only a gap that allowed only one person to pass through. At this time, Kestrel threw the empty firearm into the exposed gear beside it.
The Pillar of the Furnace system was not built in one day, but over a long period of time, after countless iterations, it took on its current appearance.
So you can often see those very backward mechanical structures in the furnace pillar, just like some damn patina. The deeper you go, the more you can find the old equipment from decades ago, and the Kestrel is now The central control room where it is located is one of the first and most primitive facilities.
You can see the immature and improvised designs of technicians in many places here. There are no clear indicators on the operating table, only pointers one after another that are difficult to move, and a bunch of valves. The signs on them are almost invisible, and These are the exposed gears of the mechanism used to move the gate.
The strong gears broke the gun's bite, and the steel let out a fragile scream, temporarily blocking it and stopping the door from closing. The kestrel pulled out the folding knife and stared ahead.
"What are you doing?"
Merlin glanced back, confused by Kestrel's behavior.
"Relieve the pressure later... You are going to die anyway, so kill each one before you die."
Although Kestrel looks unreliable, he is also one of the rare elites at present. Aside from the mysterious luck, what really supports Kestrel to the present is the experience he has accumulated between life and death.
No matter how many demons there are, under the restrictions of this gate, for Kestrel, it is only a one-on-one confrontation.
"Relax," Kestrel said to himself, "It's just... I don't know how many one-on-one games I have to play."
With a helpless smile on his face, another demon rushed out of the gap. It shouted and approached the door, stretched its arm in, and tried to open the door.
The folding knife fell sharply, cutting off the flesh and bones together. A large amount of blood gushes out from the section. Then the knife penetrated the demon's throat, pulled it out, chopped off the head, and chopped it to pieces.
The demon fell limply, Kestrel wiped the blood on the folding knife, and peered through the gap at the thousands of troops outside the door.
"Aren't you afraid when I say Merlin?"
Kestrel asked confused.
"If I say that I have been waiting for this day, what do you think of this reason?"
Merlin knocked on the valve and twisted it hard. Every time it turned, it would make a low sound. He didn't dare to use too much force. These things were old things and they would break if they were not careful.
"What do you mean?" Kestrel asked. He did not understand the inner world of Merlin, an alchemist.
"You don't need to understand too much, it's just my personal... little taste."
Merlin turned the valve and heard a louder rumble from behind the pipe.
"Anyway... the last Merlin is about to jump off the cliff."
"Leap off the cliff? Is there a cliff here?" Kestrel couldn't understand the inner world of these technicians. He only knew that he and Merlin were not far from death.
More demons broke through the gate and headed towards the gate. They scrambled and tried to squeeze out of the narrow gap, but they were chopped down by the kestrel one by one, with blood and flesh flying everywhere.
The corpses overlapped each other, and the smell of blood rushed to the face.
"next."
Kestrel said, setting up the folding knife again.
……
Since its establishment, the Mechanical Institute has been undergoing the most frenzied offensive.
The sight of the demon was full of demons. The soldiers and the original sin armor were at the front. At this moment, the defense line had collapsed. They could not stop the demon's advance, but they still stood firm and made their last effort.
The deafening gunfire made the technician tired, and he had become accustomed to such numbness.
His eyes were a little lost, and then he was awakened by the violent impact and labor pain. Another technician ran towards him, lifted him up, and then yelled at others.
"Quick! Fall down into the furnace!"
The technician dragged his colleague and kept shouting. He didn't know if anyone heard his shout, but that was all he needed to do.
After a while, his voice was answered, and the iron furnace hanging on the track fell off, dumping the hot molten iron.
It's like a red-hot waterfall, with hot molten iron sprinkled directly on top of the monsters' heads. The violent body became sluggish under the high temperature and viscosity, and then burned into pitch-black coke. An ant nest washed away by heavy rain.
"continue!"
The technician continued to roar, and more iron furnaces hanging on the rails fell off, and huge pieces of steel hit the ground, splashing streams of molten iron.
They splashed and piled up, blocking the way, but this was not enough. In the technician's expectation, he hoped that such an operation would seal the road to the underground.
But in fact, the scope of its influence is very small. The demons have already found their way downwards. All they are doing now is just delaying... No, it's not even delaying, it's just a desperate struggle.
"We... where are we going?"
The colleague was dragged, and there was a lot of scarlet on his neck. Perhaps due to blood loss and impact, his consciousness was very muddy.
"Go to the control room! We're going to dump all the antimemetic matter and overload the Crucible Pillars!"
Surprisingly, the technician and Merlin thought of going together. In fact, his original job was to be responsible for this, but this violent offensive ruined all the plans.
"overload?"
"Yes, overload, use the pillars of the furnace as an antimemetic bomb, and eradicate all these monsters!"
The technician looked ferocious and continued to move forward with his colleagues. Contrary to what Merlin thought, the Mechanic Academy had fallen, but not completely.
The demons have captured the facilities on the surface. These high-rise buildings have not been attacked by them yet, but it is only a matter of time before they are devoured. The technician must hurry up and complete his plan before then.
He was very close to the control room. It was a semi-automatic system. He could control the huge furnace pillar by just pulling the valve and pressing a few buttons, instead of banging hard like Merlin. It's rusty, praying this thing still works.
Without any prior practice, the two groups of people's ideas unexpectedly collided.
There was a dazzling firelight flashing in the corner of his vision. The technician made an immediate judgment. He hugged his colleague and dodged into a shadow. The next moment, the blazing foehn wind came with a roaring roar. The high temperature washed away the metal, almost Burn it red, and then more explosions will sound, and the noise of bullet impact can be heard.
"what happened?"
The colleague gradually recovered, and he leaned to the side tiredly, not understanding what happened to the explosion.
"It was supposed to be an ammunition depot, and they blew it up."
The technician was breathing heavily, the cold air being heated made it difficult to breathe.
Looking in the direction of the ammunition depot, all I could see were dazzling fires, burning blazingly, and countless monsters running around with their bodies burning with fire.
"keep walking!"
The technician supported his colleagues. They were not far from the control room and they could not fall down here no matter what.
More roars sounded, like death knocking on the door, urging them forward.
"You can actually put me down."
The colleague told the technician that he felt bad. The technician could move faster without him.
"You think I want to take you? To be safe, overloading the Forge Pillar requires two people to pull the valve down at the same time, so you're still useful, man."
The technician gritted his teeth and moved his figure laboriously. Molten iron rolled below them. They seemed to be walking through the crater, only a thin line away from death.
(End of this chapter)