The Emperor’s Angel of Death

"No!"

Seeing everyone's morale plummet, Mendoza sternly interrupted Ayla's fantasy. →

"We must continue forward. We have a responsibility to bring these munitions and supplies to the warriors who need them. We all knew the risks when we set out."

"But he saved us along the way! Can't we even give him the most basic burial!"

"The best funeral for a warrior is victory!"

Mendoza said with a voice of steel:

"Our only path is through these mountains. We will fight here, we will avenge here, until we completely eliminate those red-robed slavers, or our children and grandchildren will become playthings in their laboratories, until they are tired of us and throw us into incinerators. This is the countless generations of tragic fate that our ancestors have experienced!"

Through inspiring words and an iron will, Mendoza reunited the group. Ayla also stopped crying, and she turned back into those strong girls.

After a short rest, until the sun completely set, Mendoza was sure they could set off again. The night would give them some cover, and the gene gifts that the Star Emperor gave them would allow them to see clearly in the dark.

"Let's keep going. Although we lost the map guidance, I have already heard the distant songs of the Pureblood Angels. We should be able to find compatriots in this direction."

With their packs on their backs, the team of seven began to crawl cautiously through the rubble. Each of them was draped in a gray cloak, which allowed them to blend in with the colors of the slag mountains.

After a difficult march for more than ten minutes, the song in Mendoza's mind became more and more approaching. This is a low hum that only the Cult's followers can hear, from the Purebloods. They are like a lighthouse guiding the scattered Newbloods to various strongholds.

Then, just as Mendoza grabbed a rock, he suddenly felt someone hit him from the side.

"Mechanical firefly!"

It was Ayla. Mendoza could see naked fear in her eyes, it was despair.

He raised his head and saw three dark things appearing above. From the outline, they should be Raven-type machine soldiers, which are the most feared enemies of the Newbloods.

At that moment, his heart seemed to be clenched.

Then, the lights illuminated their location, followed by the machine soldiers' deadly buzzing.

In a sharp sound, the machine soldiers' automatic cannons began to fire, and dense bullets were scattering towards them. In an instant, two teammates were hit, and their bloody corpses rolled down the mountain.

Then three machine soldiers flew towards them, and the missiles on their sides were ready to launch.

"Run! To the cave ahead, run!"

Mendoza grabbed Ayla's hand and ran forward. His goal was a cave in front, although there should be no Cult compatriots active there, but at least they could hide.

Just as he and Ayla were about to jump in, the roar of the missile explosion hit the top of his head. He heard Ayla's scream, and then the ground began to tilt violently, and perception gave way to momentary weightlessness.

The next second, it was a darkness, a sense of empty fall, the roar of the mountains knocked in his ears - and then silence.

"Ugh"

He didn't know how long it had been, but when he woke up, he found himself in a cave.

Mendoza groaned and carefully turned over. There was a deep wound on his forehead, and a layer of crusted, dried blood on his face.

Nevertheless, his body only suffered a few cuts and bruises, and no fractures.

→

Mendoza frowned in pain and sat up, staring into the shadows. This was a narrow space composed of rough rocks, with two forks in front, both leading into winding passages extending into the mountain.

He looked up again and found a jagged crack on the top. The missile caused a collapse, covering the entrance, but also blocking possible pursuers.

"Kaisa."

Just then, a groan came from behind him. Mendoza was startled and saw Ayla lying in the rubble. Her leg was bent and deformed backward, her right eye socket was bloody, and a broken bone protruded from her forearm.

Mendoza quickly knelt beside her. The girl was breathing rapidly, and the pulse in her throat was beating weakly. Even the Star Emperor's blessing was of little use for such a serious injury.

"Ayla! Can you hear me? I'll get you out of here, I promise. I'll find someone to help, you just need to hold on."

But Ayla was just unconscious, occasionally mumbling to herself. Mendoza rummaged through his backpack, took out a precious water bottle, and dripped the valuable liquid into her mouth.

"I'll find someone to help."

He didn't even know if she could hear him.

"There may be another way out in these tunnels, not far from the nearest stronghold."

After standing up, Mendoza suddenly noticed that there were traces of artificial excavation in the cave, and some places still had abandoned tools, and there were secret Cult symbols on the rocks.

Obviously, this should be connected to a stronghold, which immediately excited him. Finding someone would save Ayla!

But before he could act, a scraping sound of metal and stone alerted him, as if something was crawling closer, dragging its feet, and muttering some strange tones unclearly.

"Hmm?"

Mendoza looked towards the tunnel on the left side of the cave. It seemed like something was moving in the shadows, but even with his superhuman vision, he only saw a pale skin and scarlet eyes, or the light reflected from fangs or claws.

But what made him shrink back the most was the smell, an ominous stench, mixed with the rotten smell of dead meat and dried blood, more appropriately called the smell of corpses.

Even Purebloods rarely emit this kind of smell. In fact, they don't like being mixed with corpses.

The vigilant Mendoza immediately slid behind some large rocks that had fallen from the mountain road, and carefully peered at the open ground of the cave.

The shadows then lengthened, and those creatures slowly crawled into the light.

They had obvious human forms, but walked on all fours, wearing only moldy rags. Their skin was as pale as tubers dug out of the ground, with a faint lilac color. Fragments of bones pierced their flesh, giving the impression of corpses that had been rotting for a long time, and their hands were more like claws - even bigger and more barbaric than Pureblood Angels.

And their faces were very twisted, their mouths unable to close due to madness, but Mendoza always felt something was wrong.

Their faces didn't look like living things at all, too stiff.

At this time, the stench of rotten flesh was too strong, and Mendoza almost vomited. As these creatures crawled into the cave, he endured the nausea.

But suddenly he realized that he had forgotten Ayla!

Now their attention has been drawn to Ayla's weak cry.

The next second, the originally slow-moving creatures jumped nimbly through the rubble on the ground like rats, rushing towards Ayla's body like a pack of wolves.