Chapter 148: Pledge
[Timeline: Time skip Year 4]
[Location: The Old Iron Mines – Vertical Ventilation Shaft 3]
The mountain was screaming.
Deep beneath the earth, the Void Reactor had gone critical.
The hum that had permeated the facility was now a deafening shriek, a sound that vibrated the very fillings in Lyra’s teeth.
"Move!" Lyra roared, blasting a gust of wind upward to push the stragglers.
She and the twelve Valkyries were in a vertical shaft, scrambling up the rusted maintenance ladder.
Or rather, Lyra was flying, riding the updraft, while the Valkyries were climbing.
They moved like insects, just as they had in the chamber below.
Their bone claws punched through the thick steel walls of the shaft, allowing them to scramble upward with terrifying speed.
They didn’t need ladders. They were like predators fleeing a forest fire.
KR-RUMBLE.