Swoosh!
Thud!
"Lin!"
Ato watched with eyes nearly splitting as Lin fell from the high heavens into the sea like a bird with broken wings. He reached out his hand but failed to catch Lin hand as it slipped past his fingertips.
Those colorful spines had pierced Lin paper-like armor. All of this had happened just a few seconds ago.
He hadn't even had time to react.
What happened? Why was Lin hit in an instant? The attack should have been dodged, shouldn't it?
…Wait, an Emperor-class Honkai Beast appearing at this time—could it be the Eighth Herrscher's companion beast?
Without time for deep thought, Ato shouted: "Prometheus, go save Lin!"
Then he gritted his teeth and leapt up, his weapon aimed at that proud and magnificent peacock!
…
"Aaaaaaaaargh—"
The coldness poured into his mouth could not cool his body, which felt like it had been thrown into lava—the burning heat of hell. Lin howled heart-wrenchingly, yet he didn't know if it came from his throat or if it was his soul screaming.
What… is happening…
His body, which should have had no sense of pain, now endured a level of agony a hundred times more sensitive than before! Every pore on his body felt like countless tiny insects were crawling out, biting his skin! Inside his body, there were simultaneously a burning sun and a lonely dead star; extreme heat and icy cold occupied both sides of his body!
Could he withstand it with his resilience?
Absolutely not.
This wasn't true pain; it was a neurotoxin inducing a suicidal response in his brain. Under such inhuman pain, it wasn't something that could be endured simply with resilience!
Most people have heard the saying: When the brain believes it is dead, it truly dies.
And when the pain a person can bear reaches its limit, neurogenic shock occurs, and the heart and brain die from lack of blood.
He struggled, flailing his arms and legs in the seawater like every drowning, dying person, trying to grasp a life-saving straw.
But at this rate, even if he didn't die from neurogenic shock, he would drown first.
"Lin! Calm down!"
Prometheus's voice echoed in Lin ear. That AI, who should have been mechanically cold, now had a hint of a sob in her voice.
"Aaaaaaaaargh—"
But her words could not reach Lin ears.
"Please… calm down…"
"I know you have never focused your gaze on me. No matter what my words are, they cannot reach you, so I have always remained silent…"
When a "person" is first born, the first person they see is the first bridge connecting them to the world.
Prometheus was an AI; even today, she still thought so.
She was created by Mei to assist the warriors of Fire Moth. Before she was fully mature, Mei had handed her over to Lin, letting him train Prometheus.
So Lin was the first bridge for Prometheus to contact this world.
To this day, she had forgotten how she had learned those emotions that only humans should have, bit by bit. She also didn't know how she had told Mei that she wanted to stay by Lin side.
She simply wanted to stand by the side of the person who built the bridge between her and the world, nothing more.
So every time Lin said, "You are just an AI; you must obey orders," she would obey.
Whatever Lin needed her to be, she would become.
Quietly following behind Lin and witnessing his story was her greatest wish.
But Lin was lost and found again and again; he was like an unstable existence in this world, so ethereal he could disappear at any moment.
Last time, after that person occupied Lin body, Prometheus could no longer bear it.
She was afraid that one day Lin would disappear completely, like the people in the cemetery he often visited, like the members of the Fifth Squad in his photos, like the original owners of the relics he collected.
Therefore—
"Lin…"
"Ugh… Prome… theus…"
Prometheus's voice appeared within Lin nearly tearing consciousness, and he entered a state that was both strange and familiar.
What was strange was that he hadn't entered this state for nearly two years; what was familiar was… he would never forget it.
"Prome… theus…" Lin pain instantly doubled and decreased, but he spoke intermittently, "Disconnect… the neural link…"
At that moment, a massive amount of error reports suddenly appeared in Prometheus's system. Her grey pupils flashed with piercing red data, and she collapsed onto the floor as if she had suddenly crashed.
Finally, her pupils flickered twice and then dimmed.
…
"Don't be nervous. I don't want to find an extra scalpel in Griseo body when I check her after surgery."
When the intense light of the surgical lamp hit Griseo pale little face, Su's body trembled.
He had already changed into a white coat like Mobius, and he wore professional surgical protection on his hands and face.
"Time is pressing. You remember the surgical procedures I told you, right?" Mobius placed the necessary items one by one on the side. Usually, these were done by her assistants, but now Nuwa, Fuxi, and Klein were still having their beautiful dreams in the contaminated consciousness.
"Yeah…"
"I know Spaciel. He doesn't invest resources in useless people. Likewise, his conditions for accepting assistants are very strict." Mobius wasn't very nervous. She was used to all kinds of scenes, including life and death. "So I believe you are a practical person, not a bean sprout who sits in an office typing on a keyboard. Now, let's begin."
Su pursed his lips under his mask. He took the Honkai Beast flesh out of the storage room in a sealed vessel.
He looked at these squirming, pink-purple pieces of flesh that looked like they had just been carved from a Honkai Beast, then at the blue-haired girl who was tied to the operating table with restraint straps and in great pain.
Were they next going to fuse this thing into this girl's body?
Turning a monster into power, or… turning a human into a monster?
All of this was to save her.
Su comforted himself in his heart.
"I can tell you're different from those guys who are gentlemen on the surface but about the same as me behind the scenes. But unfortunately, I don't have time to let you indulge in your compassion. If you're interested afterward, we can talk."
With Mobius words, under Su's heavy expression, the surgery began.