boyutpedia 084 Awakening
084 Awakening
Chu Zihang had previously devised a security plan, with the Lionheart Society and the Student Union each occupying one side and not interfering with each other. However, all the plans made before the ball were now useless, and no one expected that an empty space would be blasted open outside the Amber Hall.
The students, armed with guns, advanced in groups of three, following the standard tactical formations in the search manual. Before each corner, they would crouch down, peek out to the side, confirm safety, and then stand up and proceed. They kicked open the doors of each classroom, scanned the area with their guns to ensure no one was there, then closed the doors, marked the location, and moved on to the next location.
Chu Zihang stood outside the main entrance of the Amber Pavilion, listening to the reports from various groups coming through the walkie-talkie one by one, and issuing instructions from time to time.
A group of people spotted two figures in the bushes behind the teaching building. They were on high alert, and six guns were pointed at the target simultaneously, with flashlights shining in their faces.
Marcus from the student council and Eileen from the Lionheart Society were kissing, still in their evening gowns. A sudden burst of bright light blinded them, and Marcus instinctively shielded Eileen behind him.
"Team F has found two students in the green belt west of the library. A boy and a girl. They are unarmed. They are currently—" A cough came through the walkie-talkie, "...kissing."
"We'll let you through after verifying your identity," Chu Zihang said.
"receive."
"...It's a misunderstanding," the student in charge lowered his gun, "Continue."
"Continue the search or continue kissing?" someone asked from behind.
"Continue!"
"Did you hear me? Go back to the dorm and keep kissing. Don't come out until the alarm is lifted!"
"Hahaha," the F group laughed. They were all elites with B-grade bloodlines and weren't worried at all about a few intruders who only knew how to use bombs.
"Group G reports: A male student has been found at the back door of the old auditorium. He is unarmed. We are currently—"
"Kiss?" Chu Zihang asked.
"Someone is crying." Group G's voice became very subtle.
Chu Zihang paused for a moment, then said, "Verify identity."
"What are you doing here?"
"Let's drink." The boy sniffed. "It's my last year, and I haven't even gotten a girlfriend."
The team leader patted him on the shoulder and told him to go back to the dormitory.
Just as the search was about to end, the ground shook again.
"Another explosion?"
"No fire! It's underground!"
"Alert level raised across the entire school! Dragon King-level threat! A Dragon King awakening signal detected in the Ice Cellar area!" Norma issued another alert. "All personnel, immediately enter combat readiness. This is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill."
Manstein pushed Mans' wheelchair, Guderian helped Schneider carry the respirator, and the four of them ran out of the library and stood panting in front of the main gate of the campus.
"Holy crap! The Dragon King has been released!" Manstein exclaimed, still in shock.
As soon as the commandment was lifted, Manstein activated his Word of Power, Serpent, and immediately sensed the Dragon King's awakening.
"The intruders' goal isn't to steal anything, it's to wake Constantine!" Mans said.
"Constantine? Isn't it Norton?" Guderian asked.
"The Dragon King is a twin. We scanned him before; the one inside is Constantine, while Norton has already awakened ahead of time," Mance replied.
"Now, with the liquid nitrogen and the quartz chamber inoperable, the King of Bronze and Fire has reclaimed its power," Schneider said. "This explosion..."
The four looked at the ruins that stretched from the gate all the way to the square, where students were running around without any obstruction.
"It was just fixed after Freedom Day ended. I wish I hadn't fixed it," Manstein said.
“Strictly speaking,” Guderian said, standing next to him, “this is now the largest open space on campus, enough for an outdoor sports meet.”
Manstein turned and stared at him.
"Did I say something wrong?" Guderian put down his cup. "Look, it's all clear from the school gate to here. You could park several helicopters or hold an open-air concert."
In the underground server room, Fingel was staring blankly at the screen.
The screen freezes on the last image of the ice cellar captured by the monitoring system: the quartz glass chamber shatters, the liquid nitrogen pipe collapses, white mist intertwines with steam, and a glowing copper canister sits in the center of the frame. Red light shines through the white core, and extremely heated air ripples along the canister in a mirage-like pattern before the image shatters into snowflakes.
"Eve," he said.
No one responded.
The computer room below the library was separated from the ice cellar by a long maintenance passage. Fingel pushed open the fire door of the computer room, and a wave of heat hit him.
Hot, humid winds were blowing in from the direction of the ice cellar, but fortunately the automatic fire sprinkler system had been activated to cool the room, and the indoor temperature was dropping rapidly.
Fingel walked towards the elevator. Along the way, the insulation coating on the surrounding walls had twisted and peeled off, revealing the blackened concrete underneath. The debris grew denser: shards of quartz glass, remnants of a lab table, and twisted metal supports, all creaking underfoot.
The elevator didn't respond. He peeked through the crack in the elevator door and saw that the steel cable of the car had broken, and the entire car had fallen to the bottom, turning into a pile of scrap metal.
He took two steps back and closed his eyes.
Word of Power: Bronze Throne
A dark bronze sheen rose to the surface of Fingel's skin. He kicked open the metal door that had melted into the stairwell and began to walk up.
Half of the stair railing on the first floor had melted, and the remaining part was twisted into strange shapes, like steel bars from a steel mill. He climbed up the still relatively intact steps, the heat making his vision blur with white mist, and his breathing felt like inhaling steam from a sauna.
Fingel walked through the library's first-floor lobby. The library doors were wide open, and the metal trim on the doorframes had turned into flowing liquid, dripping down the doorframes and pooling on the floor in a small silver puddle.
Outside the door, a burning figure strode forward.
Inside the library is an emergency isolation door, an all-metal structure, used to seal off the passageway in the event of a fire. That door weighs two tons and is normally embedded in a groove in the wall.
With a sharp metallic scraping sound, Fingel hoisted the massive door panel onto his shoulder. He turned toward the burning figure outside the door, lowering his center of gravity slightly.
"Hey," he said.
Then, he threw the two-ton metal door like a discus thrower.
The door panel, like an ice block falling into lava, rapidly melted into molten iron from the outside in, yet never touched the ground. The boiling molten iron swirled around the figure, then suddenly tightened, shooting straight back at Fingel.
Fingel rolled to the side, molten iron grazing his back and slamming into the ground, splashing liquid metal that ignited the bookshelf behind him. Flames erupted, his back burning, his clothes and skin hissing.
The communications channel erupted in chaos.
"The use of metal weapons is prohibited! Repeat, the use of metal weapons is prohibited!"
"Frigga bullets, only Frigga bullets!"
Fingel lay prone on the lawn, looking up as a burning figure stepped out of the library doors, flames dancing around it. Molten iron flowed beneath its feet, turning everything it touched to ashes.