Chapter : 146
Chapter : 146
The giant centipede monster hissed loudly, pulling its stinger back, getting ready to launch another attack at the remaining team.
Raja dropped his tools. The quiet, nervous engineer suddenly found a surge of desperate courage. He lunged forward and grabbed Naomi hard by the shoulder of her uniform, forcefully yanking her back away from the dangerous ledge.
"Naomi, stop!" Raja shouted, his voice shaking but incredibly firm. He physically shook her to break her out of her panic. "We cannot get emotional right now! If we jump down there blindly, this thing is going to kill us too!"
Naomi stared at him, her chest heaving with panicked sobs.
"We have to butcher this monster first!" Raja yelled, pointing a trembling finger at the hissing centipede. "We kill this ugly bug, and then we mount a rescue operation for Ken! If we don't clear the hallway, we can't save him!"
Naomi looked from Raja, to the broken railing, and finally to the massive, grotesque monster clicking its razor-sharp legs in front of them.
The heartbreak and terror in her green eyes instantly hardened. The tears stopped falling, replaced by a dark, furious, and absolutely merciless fire. She reached down to the floor and picked her twin daggers back up. She didn't look like a strict friend anymore. She looked like a deadly, unstoppable executioner.
"You are right," Naomi whispered, her voice dropping into a deadly, freezing tone. She glared at the monster. "I am going to cut this thing into a million pieces."
----
In a completely different sector of the sprawling, maze-like underground laboratory, a small group of Royals and their servants were making their way across a wide, metallic catwalk. The metal grating beneath their boots groaned slightly with every step they took. Deep below them, heavy pipes hissed with steam, and the faint, red emergency lights made the entire facility look like the inside of a dangerous machine.
Princess Hestia walked gracefully near the center of the catwalk. Even in the middle of a dirty, highly toxic enemy bunker, she looked absolutely flawless. She held the edges of her pristine white silk dress slightly above the grated floor, making absolutely certain that not a single speck of industrial grease touched the expensive fabric. She walked with her chin held high, projecting an aura of total superiority.
Right beside her was Princess Iris. Iris was the exact opposite. Her dark blue Royal uniform was already scuffed and dusted with dirt from the earlier battles, but she didn’t care about her clothes. Her violet eyes were completely focused, constantly scanning the dark shadows and the heavy steel doors ahead of them.
Behind them walked two servants. Ira, the water magic user from the 13th Unit, moved silently, her face as flat and emotionless as a blank sheet of paper. Right next to her was Celia, the highly organized shield-bearing servant from Hestia’s 16th Unit, who marched with perfectly rigid, military posture.
Despite the fact that they were in the middle of hostile territory, the deep, undeniable tension between the two royal sisters was impossible to ignore. They were currently locked in a temporary alliance, but that did not make them friends.
Princess Hestia let out a delicate, highly annoyed sigh. She looked around at the rusty metal walls and shook her head in sheer disgust.
"This is completely unacceptable," Hestia complained, her voice echoing softly down the catwalk. "If I find a single oil stain on my shoes after this is over, I am going to hold that foolish 9th Prince personally responsible for dragging us down here. But since we are stuck together for the moment, Iris, I have a very important question for you."
Princess Iris did not stop walking. She kept her hand resting comfortably on the hilt of her silver rapier. "What is it, Hestia?"
"The points," Hestia stated bluntly, dropping her polite tone. She turned her head to look directly at her older sister. "We are here to recover the Core of Luminus from whoever stole it. That artifact is worth exactly ten points from the Upper Council. But the problem is, the Upper Council only rewards a single unit. You cannot split a physical object in half. So, tell me, Iris. If we actually manage to defeat these thieves and grab the stone, how exactly do you intend to divide the prize?"
Hestia offered a cold, challenging smile. "Because I can assure you, my unit did not come all this way just to hand the victory over to you."
Princess Iris didn’t hesitate for a single second. She had already thought this through completely.
"We will draw lots fairly," Iris replied, her voice perfectly calm and steady. "We will put the names of the 9th, 13th, and 16th Units into a hat. Whoever wins the draw gets to carry the artifact back to the Emperor and claim the ten points. It is the only fair, logical way to handle it without fighting each other."
Hestia let out a short, highly unamused scoff, but she didn't interrupt.
"However," Iris continued, stopping in the middle of the catwalk and turning to face her sister fully. Her violet eyes were deeply serious. "The points are only a small part of my plan, Hestia. More importantly, when this mission is over, I want us to establish a formal, binding peace treaty between our units."
Hestia blinked, her perfect eyebrows pulling together in genuine confusion. "A peace treaty? What are you talking about?"
"I am talking about looking out for each other," Iris explained warmly. "If we draw lots today, only one of us wins. But if we sign a treaty, we can promise to support each other in the future. We can agree that whenever one of our units faces mortal danger, or if one of us gets targeted unfairly by the Upper Council, the other units will step in to help. We can form a permanent shield against the older, crueler Royals."
For a few seconds, the metallic catwalk was totally silent.
Then, Princess Hestia threw her head back and let out a loud, mocking laugh. It wasn't a polite chuckle; it was a cold, sharp laugh full of absolute pity.
"Oh, Iris," Hestia sighed, shaking her head as if she were talking to a very confused toddler. "You are truly unbelievable. A peace treaty? Promises of mutual support? It is honestly embarrassing to hear you speak sometimes."
Iris frowned gently. "There is nothing embarrassing about protecting our own family."
"We are not a family! We are competitors in a death match!" Hestia snapped, taking a step closer. Her elegant smile vanished, replaced by a harsh, pragmatic glare. "Look around you, Iris. Look at the brutal reality of the Succession War. This is not a game where everybody gets a trophy. The Emperor designed this tournament to crush the weak. The only way to survive is to be absolutely perfect, and the only way to win is to step on anyone who gets in your way."
Hestia pointed a manicured finger at Iris’s dusty uniform.