Chapter 140 - Operation Scorched Skies
“Head’s up. The capital is in sight,” Cindy announced, her synthetic voice slicing through the hum of the boar Frame Unit like a cold chime. The sound pulled me out of my short nap, jolting me awake.
Instinctively, I reached for my phone. Just twelve minutes of sleep. I turned my head and found Myrrh beside me, barely awake, her pale face made even paler by the harsh interior lights, and dark eyebags casting soft shadows beneath her eyes like bruises. She looked like a porcelain panda, equal parts adorable and exhausted.
Slowly, she leaned over and nudged Fei, who was still peacefully asleep.
“Wake up, Fei,” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the rumble of the engine.
Fei stirred, rubbing her eyes groggily. Once I saw her blink into consciousness, I allowed myself a small, relieved smile, then turned my gaze forward—toward the windshield.
Stretching out ahead was a seemingly endless highway, cutting through the twilight haze like a silver ribbon. And at the far end of that road, rising like an otherworldly monument, stood a colossal spiral tower. It loomed over the horizon, its twisting spire spiraling into the sky as if trying to pierce the clouds.
Four smaller towers flanked it, echoing its form like loyal sentinels. Unlike the vibrant neon sprawl of the surrounding metropolis, the tower emanated only stark white light—pure, cold, almost divine.
We were still at least five kilometers away, but even from this distance, the structure seemed impossibly massive—and it only grew more imposing with every passing second. New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on ɴovᴇl_Firᴇ.ɴet
“Is that Exestia?” I asked, my voice hushed in awe.
“Yes,” Myrrh replied with a gentle smile, her eyes gleaming faintly. “See those four towers surrounding the main spire? Each one is an Archonlight Tower. Together, they generate a fourfold barrier that protects the entire capital. Exestia might be only a quarter the size of the metropolis, but it's four times as fortified. No Cosmic Beast has ever broken through its defenses.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, squinting at the glowing silhouette of the towers. “I mean, the Cosmic Beasts already got through the metropolis…”
“Myrrh’s right,” Remuel said, nodding solemnly. “Throughout all recorded history, the Archonlight Towers of Exestia have never faltered. Not once. They've kept the capital safe through every major incursion.”
“Hey, don’t jinx us like that!” Fei cried, her voice trembling as she clutched the edge of her seat. Her eyes welled up a bit, though she tried to hide it behind a laugh. “No need to invite disaster.”
“R-right... sorry,” Remuel muttered, suddenly sheepish.
I turned and glanced out the rear window. Far behind us, barely visible against the dusky sky, was a swarm of Cosmic Beasts. From this distance, they looked like a cloud of buzzing insects—tiny, flickering shadows against the horizon. But I knew better. Up close, they were nightmares given flesh. And they were still chasing us.
Then—without warning—there was a violent crash.
A deafening bang echoed through the cabin as our massive cyber-boar taxi slammed into an abrupt stop. The force launched all four of us forward, and I found myself colliding forehead-first into Myrrh.
“Ow!” I yelped, clutching my face.
“Kyah!” Myrrh cried out, recoiling with wide, teary eyes, her hands holding her head.
The two of us sat there, stunned and wincing, as the vehicle's engine hissed and the shock of the jolt lingered in our bones.
“W-what the hell was that, Cindy?!” Remuel shouted, his voice cracking with panic. He was clutching the side of his face—his left cheek clearly bruised from slamming into the windshield.
“Misfortune,” Fei muttered darkly, her trembling finger pointing dead ahead.
All of us turned to look.
Looming in the center of the highway, like a demon planted from the depths of a digital nightmare, stood a monstrous black beetle—one of the largest Cosmic Beasts we had ever encountered.
Easily sixty meters tall, its armored shell shimmered with obsidian sheen, towering like a mobile fortress. It was roughly the same size as Ismail Arondight’s Defense Operator, if not slightly larger.
Its entire body pulsed with life. Thousands of crimson, unblinking eyes dotted its exoskeleton, glowing malevolently—and all of them were locked on us.
The monster screeched in a garbled, guttural voice that sounded like corrupted code given sound. Then its carapace cracked open with a mechanical hiss, and from within unfurled a nightmare: hundreds of slick, writhing tentacles, each tip adorned with a single glowing yellow eye, like serpents with sentient sight.
“Cindy, open the hatch!” Myrrh barked, already on her feet and activating her morpher. “I’ll clear the path!”
“I’ll help!” Fei shouted, scrambling to retrieve her own morpher, urgency in every movement.
“No,” Cindy said firmly, her voice more mechanical than ever, but strangely calm. “I will take care of it.”
I froze. For a second, I thought she was joking. Then I frowned and tightened my grip on my WEEB System, disbelief flaring. “I know you’re an idiot, Cindy, but since when did you start taking drugs? There’s no way you’re beating that monster alone!”
“Shut up, Zaft,” she snapped, her tone razor-sharp. “Delivering you safely to Exestia is my mission. Mine, and mine alone. If we waste even a second, the swarm behind us will catch up. This is the only way forward.”
“Cindy’s right,” Remuel said quietly, his voice steady but heavy with finality. “But… I’m sorry. This is as far as we can take you.” He looked ahead, then down at his WEEB System. “Exestia is about two kilometers out. Fei, I’m counting on you. Deliver our power couple to the capital… as our last leg.”
He turned to Fei, locking eyes with her. There was no need for further explanation.
“Got it,” Fei replied with a firm nod. Her eyes hardened with resolve, as if she’d already accepted the burden.
Then—hiss—the hatch opened with a mechanical groan, and Fei launched herself into the air. With a swift motion, she raised her morpher high and shouted with all her might:
“Frame Unit, Awaken!”
As her Frame Unit descended from the sky, its transformation began mid-air. Even before it touched the ground, I understood what Remuel and Cindy were planning. They wanted Fei to be our transport, our escape train, our bullet through enemy lines. And I knew the perfect form to match that mission.
Without hesitation, I activated my WEEB System and selected two simultaneous options.
“Beast Transformation, Activate! Rollerblades, Equip!”
In a flash of light and shifting metal, Fei’s Frame Unit morphed into a massive, cybernetic sabertooth tiger—sleek, fierce, and fast. Each of its four paws bore reinforced wheels, ready to tear across the highway with blistering speed.
The moment its claws scraped the asphalt, Myrrh and I leapt onto its back, landing at the base of its nape. The Frame Unit’s metallic fur shimmered beneath us like chrome armor under the sun.
Remuel followed, vaulting in after us with his own WEEB System flaring to life, his eyes still locked on the battlefield behind.
And then—vrrrrrmmmm!—we were off.
Fei surged forward like an orange bolt, the wheels on her paws roaring against the concrete. Beside her, Cindy raced with matching speed, her own rollerblades whirring with raw power as she kept pace, shielding us from the monstrous beetle’s glare.
Time was no longer a luxury. The road to Exestia had become a race for survival.
“Remuel, cover me!” Cindy barked, her voice sharp and commanding.
“Copy that!” Remuel shouted, already locking onto her signal, his expression steeled with grim determination.
“Activate it the moment I give the signal!” she roared.
Without waiting for a reply, Cindy's cybernetic boar form dug its reinforced hooves into the asphalt. Sparks flared as she launched forward like a living battering ram. Her roar echoed through the battlefield—
With earth-shattering force, she rammed headfirst into the monstrous black beetle. Her gleaming tusks plunged deep into its armored carapace, cracking through layers of obsidian plating. The sheer impact released a concussive shockwave that rattled the ground and sent a deafening boom across the highway.
The giant beetle screeched in agony —a guttural, corrupted shriek like broken frequencies howling in pain.
But it wasn’t down yet.
The creature retaliated viciously. Its writhing tentacles lashed out in waves, hundreds of them surging toward Cindy like a swarm of spears. They punctured her Frame Unit’s armor with brutal precision—piercing through her limbs, her sides, her spine—until her entire structure was impaled and suspended mid-air, locked in place like a captured beast.
Sparks and blood mist filled the air.
“Initiating Operation Scorched Skies!” Cindy screamed, defiant even as her body was being torn apart. “For the Kaiserin!”
“For the Kaiserin!” Remuel echoed, his voice cracking with emotion. His hand slammed down on the WEEB System’s holographic interface. “Self-Destruct, Activate!”
A blinding white light engulfed the entire highway. The shockwave struck like the wrath of a fallen star. Myrrh and I shielded our eyes as the explosion blossomed into a titanic mushroom cloud that reached high into the heavens—consuming the monster, the battlefield, and the last known location of Cindy.