The forest grew denser, and the rain had nearly stopped, leaving behind a sticky mist that settled on eyelashes and crept down collars.
"We're almost there," Iron rasped without turning around.
Ephraim, dragging the unconscious Zeno on a makeshift travois, could barely keep up with him.
"Where are you leading us?" Ephraim asked as they stepped into a small clearing with a strange object looming in its center.
It was a cube of gray stone, half-sunken into the ground. Iron stopped in front of it. His dirt- and blood-smeared fingers touched the cold surface.
"This is the entrance."
He felt around for a recess beneath a ledge and pressed it. Nothing happened. He leaned into it harder. Click. A section of the wall slowly receded inward.
They dragged Zeno inside. The moment they crossed the threshold, Iron slammed the internal lever, and the door shut with a heavy shudder.
"It's warm in here..." Ephraim whispered, running his palm along the dry wall.
Iron was already standing by the wall, where dim indicators flickered faintly beneath layers of dust. His world narrowed down to this panel. The Skill fed him data: emergency nodes practically depleted. The batteries had turned into useless junk, but a faint remnant of charge still lingered in the deep cells.
"I need to..." Iron broke off, feeling his consciousness begin to split. "Need to connect him to the grid."
The problem lay in the interfaces—they were damaged, the cables crumbled to dust. The only way to deliver the necessary impulse to restart Zeno's core was direct contact.
Iron dropped to the floor beside him. He pulled out the scraps of copper wire he’d gathered back at the mill. He wrapped one end around the contacts on Zeno’s chest, and clamped the other in his good hand, pressing it against the bare terminals of the distribution panel.
"What are you doing? That'll kill you!" Ephraim cried, taking a step forward.
"Back!" Iron snapped. "Just... stay back."
He closed his eyes. It wasn't enough to just let the current pass through him. He had to act as a controller—stabilizing voltage spikes, filtering out noise, delivering the exact impulse needed to wake Zeno's systems without frying his damaged circuitry.
[SKILL ACTIVATION: MAXIMUM POWER]
The space before his eyes turned into an endless stream of numbers and waveforms. He saw the weak, dirty current flowing through the wires—and began to channel and level it out.
Every breath took massive effort. He felt capillaries bursting in his eyes. Blood began to stream from his nose, dripping onto the concrete.
Ephraim stood in the corner, pressed hard against the wall.
Suddenly, a bright blue spark flared and died in the center of Zeno's chest. A low hum filled the room.
Iron let out a sharp gasp. His palm unclenched, the wire skittering across the floor with a metallic ping. He slumped sideways, his head hitting the concrete with a dull thud.
"Iron!" Ephraim rushed to him. "What are you doing to yourself..." he whispered, feeling his throat tighten.
At that moment, a sharp click broke the silence. Zeno's lens flickered with a faint orange light. Something inside him began to whir and grind.
"System... restored to 12%," he stated.
"Who... what are you?" Ephraim’s voice cracked. He backed away, nearly losing his balance until his back hit the cold, unforgiving concrete of the wall.
He knew the name. But under the weight of everything that had crashed down on them over the past few days, Ephraim no longer recognized him.
"I am a mobile data archive," he answered flatly, entirely oblivious to the genuine horror in the man's voice. — Object Iron...
"Shut up," Ephraim rasped, his chest heaving in ragged jerks. "Just... act like you did before. Don't you dare call him an 'object.' He saved you! He's burning through his own health just to bring you back to life... And his eyes...
Zeno paused for a few seconds, processing the incoming information.
"Visual data analysis does not confirm thermal damage to the eyes," he finally rumbled. "The change in pigmentation and iris structure is merely a side effect of neural overclocking. Probability of irreversible changes: 18%."
"He's dying!"
"His vital signs are stabilizing," replied Zeno, who had managed to sit up, leaning against the wall. "The organism has entered a state of deep recovery. Fatality probability reduced to 8%."
Ephraim calmed down slightly and sat down across from Zeno.
After some time, their peace was interrupted by a sharp, scraping sound from above, coming from somewhere near the ventilation shaft.
Zeno froze instantly. His lens flared bright red.
"Attention. Active scanning signal detected. Frequency: 2.4 gigahertz. Academy protocols."
"What is it?" Ephraim whispered, feeling a chill run down his spine.
"A reconnaissance drone," Zeno said, carefully lifting Iron into his arms. "My activation triggered an electromagnetic spike. They've pinpointed us."
"We must move deeper," he continued. "These collectors stretch for miles. If we remain here, they will purge us with thermal charges within forty minutes."
"Lead the way," Ephraim sighed, picking up the bag. "Where else do we have left to go..."
Zeno, pressing Iron against his metallic chest, moved into the darkness of the tunnel.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter