Ares couldn’t bear the sight and continued on, a volcano of rage erupting within him. Yet, driven by curiosity, he peered into another window. He saw robots attempting to fuse human and machine, experiments like severing a hand and replacing it with a mechanical one to test its efficiency and effectiveness. Other experiments involved transplanting a human brain into a robotic chassis. A torrent of emotions flooded Ares—rage, fear, disgust, and despair. He continued on, refusing to look into any more of the glass windows. He could not stand to see another such atrocity. He followed the robots, wondering about the gruesome fate that awaited his companions if he did not rescue them quickly. He quickened his pace, hoping he would not be discovered before he could save them.
At the end of the corridor, he found an elevator. It was descending to a floor marked with a strange symbol, which Ares memorized. He pressed the call button. After a few seconds, the doors opened, and Ares found himself face-to-face with one of the silver robots, staring at him. Ares reacted instantly, raising his pistol and aiming it at the robot’s head. He fired several shots until he struck the circular blue gem—its power source. It shattered, and the robot deactivated. He was grateful his cover hadn’t been blown and knew he had to be extremely cautious from now on, or he would end up as a suspended corpse for their horrific experiments. He stepped into the elevator, the dead robot at his feet, and studied the strange symbols on the control panel. He found the symbol he had memorized and pressed it. The doors closed, and the elevator began to descend. When it stopped and opened again, another robot stood before the door, staring at the deactivated unit on the floor. It raised its weapon and stepped inside to investigate its fallen comrade.
Ares, who had adhered himself to the elevator’s ceiling, ambushed him from above, leaping down and knocking the robot to the ground. He drew his pistol and fired two shots into the power core in its chest. The robot ceased to function and fell silent.
Ares dragged the metal corpses out of the elevator and found himself in another white corridor. To the left was an empty room. He pulled the bodies inside the small room, which contained some wooden boxes and a door leading to a side staircase for use in case of elevator failure. He hid the robots well among the boxes, then went back into the corridor and walked until it ended at a staircase leading down to a massive, cavernous chamber.
A helical staircase spiraled down before him, circling the room all the way to the bottom floor. Ares looked down and saw the robots dragging Sairi and Ivanov and placing them in a cell on the lowest level. They locked the cell and headed back up. Ares knew he was in a major predicament, but fortunately, his energy had returned. He transformed into their shape, gripped his weapon, and stood coolly by the elevator door. After a few seconds, he saw the robots approaching, moving in perfect harmony. They gave him a calm glance, then entered the elevator, which ascended once more.
Ares breathed a sigh of relief, feeling a heavy burden lift from his shoulders. He hurried to the end of the corridor and began to descend the spiral staircase. The cells extended around him in a circle, following the descent of the stairs.
Ares inspected the white cells and saw human prisoners inside, standing in terror and panic. Some were asleep on their beds, others paced their cells with excessive nervousness and extreme tension, some were on the verge of madness, and some sat in a corner in deep despair, awaiting their turn to be subjected to some vile experiment. Ares continued to stare at them as he crossed the metal staircase until he reached the bottom. He saw a robot standing guard. The guard looked at him and began to speak in a strange language that Ares did not understand. He remained silent and walked past it toward Sairi and Ivanov’s cell. He stood before it and pressed the buttons on the cell’s electronic panel. A strange sound came from the panel, and what looked like a retinal scanner appeared. Ares understood it wanted an eye scan.
He heard the robot guard approaching, uttering some words in a warning tone in its strange language. Ares waited until it was close, then spun around, grabbed it by the head, and pressed its eye to the panel. A sound emanated from the panel, and the cell door opened. Ares drew his pistol and fired at the power source in the guard’s head. The robot deactivated and fell silent to the floor. He entered the cell and shook Sairi and Ivanov vigorously to wake them. After a minute, they slowly opened their eyes. When they saw Ares, they were terrified, and Sairi kicked him away. Ares remembered his robotic appearance. He got to his feet and approached them, shifting back to his true form.
"Do not be afraid, my companions," he said. "I have come to rescue you."
Sairi leaped to his feet while Ivanov was still swaying, trying to stand. Sairi said in a skeptical tone, "Rescue us from what? I remember you... you were with us in the test. Your name was...?" The source of this content ɪs 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹⟡𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮⟡𝙣𝙚𝙩
"Yes, Ares. Now tell us, where are we? And who did you come to rescue us from?"
Ares recounted everything that had happened until he reached this point: from his awakening in the tower to his meeting with the General, learning about the situation, tracking them down, infiltrating as a robot, entering the magnificent city, and then the facility. He told them what he had seen in the laboratories. This disgusted them, and they thanked him for risking his life to save them before they could be turned into lab rats. After they understood everything, Sairi asked:
"So we are here because of these damned machines that rebelled against us and have surpassed human intelligence and strength many times over... becoming invincible... And now Atlantis is the only city left for Egypt! But what brought me to Egypt? I was in Japan!"
Ares nodded but had no answer for his last question.
They were all silent for a moment. Ivanov broke the silence, his voice gruff. "I will shatter the heads of these bastards for what they have done."
"We must free the prisoners," Ares replied with great firmness. "And reach the exit topside. If that means we have to destroy every last one of them to get out of here, then that is what we will do. We can figure everything else out later. The priority now is to escape."
Ares turned to the robot corpse lying on the prison floor. He then asked them for anything sharp that could cut. Ivanov and Sairi were surprised by this strange request and exchanged puzzled glances.
"Sairi," Ares said in a firm tone, "give me the light sword."