Chapter 160 –

Zola wore her exoskeleton while looking down on a snake-like road. There were people garb in unknown uniform. Most of them were uncanny and pale. She recognized them as people from the Empire. They wore different uniforms and their gait was akin to scouts.

But what did that matter to her? She nodded at the pup that was with her and took a dive down. She felt the air, and behind her was Titus beaming with a purple light. She could see that the people down below didn’t notice. But as she approaches it was already too late.

The scouts looked up above. They felt the ground tremble and dust covered their eyes. They raised their rifles and scanned the area. But without any visibility, they were killed by a single punch to the chest. The only thing they could hear before their death was the sound of their chest getting pierced by Zola’s fist.

She fanned her fist off the blood. She looked at the scouts who were lying dead on the ground, their eyes rolled back. There were holes in the middle of their chests. Their hands were still holding their rifles. Titus circled around the dead before walking back to Zola.

Her eyes fixated on their necks before moving towards their arms. She kneeled on one knee and took the blue crystal that was strapped on their wristbands. She narrowed her eyes. With her perception, she could see the tiny blue electricity inside the crystal.

“This is one of the many crystals that I’ve found on their bodies,” she thought. “Most of them have these currents.” She called out. “Omni-Forge, INSPECT, Cpl. Zola Dawn,”

“INSPECTING,” a mechanical voice sounded out. Zola has reinstated the AI functions of her Omni-forge after getting materials from the demesne. Although there was still something wrong about the AI. She could still at least do some repairs. The materials from the Freelands and the Holy Midland were not suited. But the demesne had tools and materials that were passable. The AI was fixed but it was not as powerful as before she used it to compensate for her inability to speak the language.

“PROCESS COMPLETED,” the mechanical voice rang out. “THE MATERIAL POSSESSES ELECTRIC IONS CAPABLE OF ABOUT 15.25 VOLTS, ONCE THE MATERIAL IS EXHAUSTED, IT COULD BE FILLED. THE MATERIAL HOWEVER HAS BEEN TAMPERED TO CAUSE A SHUTDOWN OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. HOST IS ADVISED TO STAY CLEAR. A DIRECT IMPACT MIGHT STUN THE HOST FOR ABOUT FIVE SECONDS.”

“Interesting,” Zola muttered. She looked at the empire scouts and focused the Psion on her body. Her focused mind turned cold and soon purple-like smoke came out of her body. Pointing her fist at the bodies, she exhaled and the bodies slowly dissolved as if acid was poured on them. She has Psion-based powers but she was making use of the nanomachines to fuel them. They would feed on her Psion energy and use it a fuel. With the fuel they are able to disassemble the body in a clean manner, leaving no trace.

The cleaning was quite fast. Zola looked at the dissolving corpses and frowned. “No matter how much I look at it. It’s still peculiar as ever.”

She had seen these things clean a whole field of them. Although they were used to kill the enemy in her world, they were once terrifying but the enemy made countermeasures and thus they were converted into cleaning tools. Although she could turn them back to their original function, Zola didn’t have the right tools.

The cleaning of the corpses was done neatly. There were no traces of the corpses or the weapons that they were using. Zola only had the blue crystals and she had already made of them to supplement her Omni-Forge. It could help her Omni-forge and the blue crystal could power an ancient automobile.

“That’s it, then,” Zola’s eyes shone. She took a breath and nodded at Titus. Then she leaped away from the ground and went back to the vantage point she has used to scout for enemies. She has received a mission from Cyra. Although she is by no means a citizen of the demesne or has any obligations towards the nation. She considered Cyra as her friend, not to mention that she was concerned about this Empire that seemed to have made use of the ‘ruins’ to harvest the technological treasures of the Quietus.

The Quietus are sentient AI’s that have fused with the organic and inorganic material. They are cunning beings that would make use of those who clueless. So she could imagine the Quietus tricking an entire Empire. But she changed that idea after finding the ‘Quietus’ that the Demesne had used to elevate the nation and make its technology capable of producing skyships that have thrusts and capable of hovering without a rotor.

In fact, she found it odd that there was a technological discrepancy among the nations of Livia continent. Not to mention that through her Omni-Forge she has discovered that the planet was titan-size and there were many odd elements and phenomena around that were not recorded by her Omni-Forge.

The runic energy and the blue crystals were one of them. Although humanity in her world and timeline has discovered many planets and many new elements, she has never seen anything other than the Psion-based powers that were a product of many years of studying psychic abilities.

This world was a pleasant surprise. If this planet was discovered by the people of her world, she would receive news from her Omni-Forge about a new planet to conquer. This planet was worthy to be turned into a fortress planet. The size of it was capable enough of building planetary artillery.

Sadly, that would never happen. Zola was well verse of the technology of her world and timeline. There was no technology in her world that could allow anyone or anything to travel through another dimension. It was plainly impossible and they would need numerous amounts of Dyson Sphere to successfully power a machine that could rip through space. Not to mention that they simply do not have the ability to create many spheres with the Quietus around.

So there was no hope for any sort of rescue. Oddly, Zola has accepted that she might have to live her life here. Still, she wanted to know how she ended up in this world. There was a single clue. And that clue was the space storm that carried Joshua and possibly her in this place.

She wanted to investigate it but there was a problem that made her unable to do so. The Empire threatening Livia Continent was getting nearer. She could sadly not afford to do so.