Embers of Embers

Chapter 666
Why move forward?
Sometimes the technician himself can't figure it out. He knows very well that he has no way out and death is doomed, but he still can't stop, as if he is afraid of death.
In other words... before death, do more things, more meaningful things.
Indeed, at the end of his life, he remembered his father's teachings, that guy who was always drunk and often said this to himself.
People can't be idle, even if their lives come to an end, they can't be idle and do more things...
It probably means something like this. It has been so long that the technician can no longer remember it, and he didn’t care much about this sentence, because the father who said this just did nothing every day, which was contrary to what he said. .
But inexplicably, now this sentence is like a curse, lingering in my ears.
He couldn't figure it out, he could already see the figures of monsters behind him, they were attacking along the fragile corridor in the air, their sharp claws pressed on the metal, and they made low noises, and below was a surging sea of ​​flames, and the molten iron was turbulent It looks like flowing lava.
"Don't look back, keep moving forward."
The voice of his colleagues sounded, and he was dragged to the ground by the technician, facing the demon. He tremblingly raised the muzzle of the gun, and then pulled the trigger.
Sporadic gunfire rang out, making a final resistance.
"To be honest, I was originally going to keep this thing to myself."
The colleague smiled bitterly. He had emptied the last ammunition. Unfortunately, his marksmanship was poor and he could not stop the demons at all.
"Leave it to you?"
The technician continued forward, tugging him hard.
"Well, that's right. I'd rather commit suicide than be eaten by a demon."
The fellow officer sighed, and a large amount of blood spilled from his neck. It had become scarlet and it was difficult to distinguish the location of the wound.
But this kind of thing didn't matter anymore, he tried to relax himself as much as possible.
"Then I'm really sorry. It looks like you have to die in a different way."
The technician opened the door with force. The reason for the explosion of the ammunition depot was that a large number of metal fragments were scattered in all directions. They were densely nailed on the wall and stained with scarlet blood. The impact of the explosion also overturned many buildings. At this moment, the door was twisted. , but fortunately there is a gap left and you can continue to move forward.
The two of them climbed into the control room with great difficulty, and the journey finally came to an end. They both took a long breath, and it seemed that the weight on their hearts had been relieved a lot.
"This place has been attacked by demons."
The technician looked around. There were broken corpses everywhere. When he raised his head, he could see a big hole in the wall high up. The demon probably broke into it along that way and killed all the technicians stationed in the control room. Light.
"Here, this thing should still be usable."
The technician picked up a firearm from the pool of blood and handed it to his colleague, and then moved his body vigorously so that he could directly face the crooked door, so that if a demon tried to enter, he could fire back.
"Aren't you afraid that I'll shoot you?"
The colleague smiled miserably. In the face of terrifying despair, people can do anything.
The technician didn't respond to his words, but was busy on the operating table. He could see a few corpses lying nearby. They probably had the same idea as the technician. The operating table was full of their blood, but unfortunately they failed. , when they tried to overload the pillar of the furnace, the demon broke through here.
"It's too bad..."
The technician whispered.
He observed that these guys were indeed doing the same thing as him before they died. Many processes had already begun, and the technician only had to continue his work.
Like a baton.
"You better hurry up!"
The colleague shouted, and he could see the following demon approaching quickly. He tried hard to keep his heart calm, and then raised the muzzle of the gun.
Gunshots continued, and at the same time, sharp claws penetrated the gap in the door, and a ferocious head poked out, and was then beaten into blood by bullets.
As the technician ordered the process to start again, the roaring sound continued. Because the explosion caused the pipe to rupture, a large amount of non-lethal liquid gushed out and mixed with the molten iron, causing a more intense fire.
Under the raging flames, the Mechanical Academy was crumbling.
"Come!"
The technician ran over, picked up his colleague, placed him on the other side, held his bloody hand, and said to him.
"Hold it."
The colleague nodded and pressed the lever firmly to prevent it from rebounding.
The technician moved to the other end of the console. At the beginning of the design, in order to prevent single-person operation from causing irreversible consequences, the two control levers were far apart.
His hands began to tremble, and there were violent bangs on the door behind him. The god of death was coming and was slamming on the door.
The technician took a deep breath and maintained inner calm. He finished the final work and all preparations were ready, just waiting for him to pull the lever.
At the same time, the door was full of cracks. It began to dent inward, and the whole began to shatter. Countless claws stretched out of the gaps, hungry for flesh and blood.
"We...probably succeeded."
The technician was overjoyed. He looked at his colleague, but the guy didn't respond. A pale face with blood loss appeared along the way. His expression was dull and he looked dead.
The joy turned into a slight loss, and turned into a helpless sigh.
The long-term bleeding had taken away his body temperature and life. The still stiff body pressed the lever and completed its final mission.
The technician pulled the lever hard, and all the preset processes started to run. For a moment, he felt that everything was quiet.
Then there was nothing left.
"Ah...it's not considered mediocre."
The technician muttered, and the door shattered.
……
"Damn it! Hurry up!"
When death was imminent, Kestrel still did not forget to curse.
Blood and corpses filled the cracks in the door, and Kestrel's whole body was dyed scarlet as he was slashed back and forth.
The jackknife cut repeatedly, the sharp blade began to dull, and finally it was ordinary beating.
Kestrel tried to comfort himself, this was just one-on-one again and again, although Kestrel didn't have much confidence in facing the tide of monsters, he was still very confident in one-on-one fights.
But this kind of confidence gradually collapsed under the almost endless wheel battle.
The hand holding the folding knife began to tremble. This was not because of fear, but just fatigue. After all, he was just a special ordinary person, and his physical strength was limited after all.
"I'm almost there!"
Merlin responded, wiping off the dust on the dashboard, barely able to see the rusty pointer inside, and observing the reaction of the Forge Pillar.
Turning rusty valves one after another and pressing buttons.
These operations are not difficult, but after a long period of disrepair, these things have become extremely tight, and in the end Merlin started to smash them with his hands, shaking up puffs of smoke and dust.
"Damn it, move it!"
Merlin pulled the lever and stared at the pointer, but nothing happened. Then he continued to try, still the same.
What he was most worried about had happened. The purely mechanical mechanism would be rusted and oxidized, but at least it had the possibility of movement, but the same could not be said for those old lines.
This place was originally planned to be abandoned. Merlin rushed here with the mentality of taking a gamble, but in the end, he seemed to have lost the bet.
"No!"
With a scream, Kestrel fell back and fell to the ground. Even so, he still kicked fiercely, trying to kick the approaching monster back out of the door.
After hacking for an unknown amount of time, the folding knife finally couldn't hold on any longer. It broke apart, leaving only a crooked half.
Kestrel leaned on it, struggled to get up, and smashed the gun fragments stuck between the gears until the gears bit together again, rumbling to merge the opened door.
The monsters roared and were squeezed into minced flesh under the heavy pressure, but there were still more sharp claws sticking out. They scratched hard, trying to prevent the merger and open the door.
"Ah... we are safe, but only temporarily."
Kestrel looked at the scarlet door and took a look at the broken knife in his hand. This thing was not only difficult to kill monsters, but also to kill people.
"This time we are really out of ammunition and food."
He sighed and walked towards Merlin, leaning aside and watching him busy.
"How's it going?"
"Bad, I'm trying."
Merlin took a deep breath and stopped all the work he was doing. After pausing for a few seconds, he followed the process in his memory and walked aside again.
Turn the valve, turn the knob, one after another, and finally pull the lever.
no response.
There was no response, as if everything refused to respond to Merlin, leaving him with only absolute silence.
"damn it!"
Merlin cursed loudly and hit the machine hard, as if he wanted to break it.
Gradually, the anger became difficult to maintain, he leaned to the other side, sat down slowly, and looked at the Kestrel from a distance.
"So, did you fail?"
Kestrel asked, staring at the scarlet door. There was a shuddering sound behind the door, as if there was hell behind the door.
"more or less."
Merlin looked dejected.
"In other words, our death is meaningless, right?" Kestrel asked again.
This time Merlin didn't respond. He just lowered his head, wrapped in darkness.
In the gloom, heartless laughter sounded.
"Not bad. In fact, not everyone can die meaningfully."
"I have thought about this," Kestrel seemed to be open-minded. "After all, this is not a novel plot. This kind of gambler-like action cannot be successful every time."
“If you think about it carefully, we have succeeded so many times before, so losing this time doesn’t seem to matter.
It's just that for people like us, if we lose a bet once, it's probably the last time. "
Kestrel seemed to be talking to Merlin, but also seemed to be talking to himself.
"By the way, Merlin, this is the last time, don't you want to say something? I read that the plots in novels are like this. When some characters are about to die, there will be more nonsense, as if in the last time, It’s like retelling your own life.”
Kestrel said, throwing the broken knife over and hitting Merlin on the head. Merlin slowly raised his head, his empty eyes filled with bloodshot eyes.
"I thought about my death, Kestrel."
Merlin said softly, "I always dream that I die in front of the door of truth... I am only one step away from it, and in the end it is impossible to reach it anymore."
"Sounds pretty bad, then you shouldn't have taken on these responsibilities, you should have escaped from the beginning, I don't believe, there is no place for you on the list of death row." Kestrel said.
"But there are always things that are higher than personal pursuits."
Merlin ignored Kestrel's words and continued.
"So many Merlins jumped off the cliff. I am very happy that I adhered to the rules until the end and was not swallowed up by the fanaticism of truth."
On the cliff of reason, only the last Merlin was left at this moment, the rational Merlin. He was alone, looking at the mountain of corpses below.
The atmosphere was silent for a few seconds, leaving only the endless roars from behind the door. After a while, Kestrel asked inexplicably.
"what are you saying?"
Kestrel looked at Merlin slightly blankly. He didn't understand even the slightest bit of his noble words. Seeing this, Merlin's mood became weird, and finally he sighed helplessly.
"I never thought that I would die with you in the end."
"Do you think I want to?"
Kestrel got angry and yelled and cursed.
The commotion behind the door became louder and louder, and the door could be seen being opened abruptly, revealing some gaps.
The two of them had expressionless faces, and then at a certain moment, there was a roaring sound in the pipes, and then the pointer on the instrument panel began to rotate hard, shaking off dust.
Kestrel and Merlin stood up at the same time and looked at the pointer on the dashboard.
"This...is it done?" Kestrel said happily.
"No, that's not right, we didn't do anything."
Merlin didn't understand. It was obvious that he had failed, but then he thought of something, raised his head and looked upward.
"We are not the only ones working hard, Kestrel...it seems like we are still supporting roles this time."
Even though he said this, Merlin still tried his best to raise the corners of his mouth and show a smile.
That's good news, great news.
Hearing this, Kestrel shook his head helplessly, picked up the discarded broken knife, and walked towards the door.
"Oh, I thought I was the savior, but someone else got ahead of me."
he said very happily.
"If there really is an afterlife, I will definitely buy that unfortunate guy a drink."
Kestrel smiled, and the next thing to do was to accept his ending.
The two couldn't relax, and even the fear of death was diluted with the rotation of the pointer. They were smiling, as if they were not going to die, but a party after get off work.
"If I could, I would die on a sunny afternoon."
Kestrel prayed.
"Sounds pretty good."
Another husky voice answered him, not Merlin's.
The scarlet door opened at this moment, and countless corpses rolled in, wrapped in blood.
The gray figure stood in front of the gate, holding weapons, looking at the two people coldly. Behind him were more similar gray figures, holding weapons, suppressing the attacking demons, and they were still advancing. .
"Not dead yet, right, Kestrel."
Galahad threw the weapon at the Kestrel and said mercilessly.
"It's time to work overtime."
Kestrel held the weapon, his eyes were dull, his expression changed from calm to distorted, and finally he cursed loudly and stamped his feet.
"Fuck! Fuck!"
I don’t know if it’s the ecstasy of surviving death or the complaint of returning to death.
(End of this chapter)