<h4>Side Story Chapter 39 - Wee To Earth (4)</h4>
<i>Tsssssssssss!!</i>
The thick steam filled the control room like fog.
“Arghhh!!”
“S-So hot!!”
“I’m burniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!!”
The soldiers of the Gctic Federation remaining in the control room screamed in agony. Their skin melted due to the heat from the steam. The scent of burnt flesh filled the control room in an instant along with horrifying screams.
“Kurgh! A-Are you nning on killing me as well?!”
A translucent energy barrier had formed around themander, pushing away the steam and its heat as his subordinates were burning to death; he seemed to be the only one wearing special protective clothing.
Lactheon Alpha clenched his fists in silence. His eyes gleamed brightly under the visor. “Fuuu, haaa.”
<i>Tsssss.</i>
Scorching steam poured from the gaps in the suit each time he breathed.
<i>Ker-thunk!</i>
The suit''s backhand portion opened and shot out from it another de. Lactheon Alpha crossed the two glowing-red des into an X.
“Sheesh, here’s another dual-wielding simp.”
<i>‘One Varian green teatte, please!’</i>[1]
<i>Boom!</i>
Lactheon charged at Kang-Woo without a word.
“Twin des are best matched with twin des.”
Kang-Woo snickered and extended his left arm. The back of his left hand split and from it shot out a ck de as he activated the Authority of des. Kang-Woo swung his arms at the charging Lactheon Alpha.
<i>ng—!!!</i>
The four des shed hundreds of times in a fraction of a second, each aiming for the opponent’s vitals.
“Kaaah, this is it!!”
Sparks ran throughout his body. It had been a while since he had this much fun swinging swords. The mes of Voracity, which he had been relying on far too heavily, was so overpowered that he had forgotten how fun it was to use swords.
“Starbust Streeeeeeeeeeeeeam!!!”
Kang-Woo swung his des as if he were in a trance. Sparks flew from each sh of the des. It was even more fun because his opponent was not a martial arts master like Kim Si-Hun; Kang-Woo would have been floored almost instantly if he faced Si-Hun with twin des.
“Haaa, haaa.”
Lactheon Alpha, who seemed to have used his trump card, was the first to tire out. He panted heavily as he widened the distance between him and Kang-Woo and gritted his teeth.
“Wha? Are you gonna bring out another de? Are we going three-sword style this time?”
Lactheon Alpha retracted his des into his suit in silence.
“The hell, man? I was having so much fun. Stop fucking around and take out your weapons ag—”
“Rocket—”
<i>Click.</i>
As Kang-Woo approached Lactheon Alpha in disappointment, Lactheon Alpha extended his arm and pointed it at Kang-Woo. He lowered his stance and grabbed his right forearm with his left hand.
<i>Tsssssssssssss!!</i>
White steam burst out of Lactheon Alpha.
“Punch.”
<i>Boom—!!</i>
Lactheon Alpha’s right arm shot forward from the elbow down along with a thunderous explosion. The right arm, elerated by a jet engine, reached Kang-Woo before he had time to react.
“What?”
Kang-Woo’s eyes widened.
<i>‘The hell? What the fuck is he using his arm to attack for? What are you gonna do after? What kind of garbage technique is this?’</i>
“Kurgh!!”
Kang-Woo’s Deific Essence barrier was prated by pure physical power before he had a chance to resolve the questions in his head. A fist-sized hole was made in his chest and the resulting shockwave tore apart his body. Kang-Woo was turned to mush from his waist up and exploded, his internal organs sttering all over the ce.
“Haaa, haaa, haaa,” Lactheon Alpha panted heavily after firing his <i>Rocket Punch</i> and staggered.
“D-Did you kill him?” Themander smiled brightly and stood up.
“Hand over... the code,” said Lactheon Alpha, copsing as if he would shut down at any moment.
<i>Crackle!</i>
The glowing red suit was dismantled as sparks flew from his body.
“H-Hahahahah!!” Themanderughed wickedly, overjoyed by the situation. “Using Overheat with an unstable core... You’ve practically killed yourself without me having to do anything!”
<i>Bash!</i>
He kicked the copsed Lactheon Alpha and then typed on the holographic keyboard.
“There should be at least one escape pod remaining— Kurgh!”
<i>Wriggle.</i>
Someone ced their hand on themander’s head along with the sound of sticky mucus.
“Wh-What the...?” Themander turned back in shock. “H-How are you still alive?”
It was Kang-Woo, who should have died from his upper body being torn to bits. He couldn’t be alive.
“WHY WON’T YOU DIE, YOU DAMN MONSTEEEEEEEEEEEEER?!”
Kang-Woo looked down at themander apathetically. He had heard that line from his enemies countless times and had be sick of it.
“Shut the hell up, man.”
<i>Crack.</i>
He grabbed one of themander’s teeth and yanked it out, a fountain of blood pouring from where it was.
“Urgh! Uuuuuuuuurghhh!!”
Themander trembled and burst into tears. Kang-Woo paid him no mind and turned to look at the copsed Lactheon Alpha— to be more precise, at his right arm, missing from the elbow down.
“What the fuck? Why is it so cool yet stupid at the same time?”
Kang-Woo tilted his head in confusion after getting a taste of a rocket punch. It was weirdly badass despite being a garbage technique that fired a fully functioning limb at the enemy.
“Anyway.” Kang-Woo walked toward the copsed Lactheon Alpha as he dragged themander by his head. “Thanks. You helped me stimte the Demonic Sea.”
The Demonic Sea’s energy circted due to an attack it had never experienced before. To survive, it released the demonic energy it had been preserving. Kang-Woo nodded in satisfaction as he felt his demonic energy that had be thicker than before.
Lactheon Alpha looked up at Kang-Woo with deeply sunken eyes. He was calm as if he had known Kang-Woo would not die from that attack. “I have... a favor to ask.”
“What? Are you gonna ask me to get that code or whatever it is for you?”
Lactheon Alpha nodded.
Kang-Woo smirked and replied, “Sure. I’ve been curious to death about what you guys were talking about anyway.”
He gripped themander’s head harder.
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!”
“Now, it’s time for you to talk. What is this code thingie?”
“Harghh! Z-Zdop! Zdop!!!” Themander shouted incoherently because of his yanked-out tooth. “A-Ayy daak!!!”
“What?”
“Ayy daak!”
“SPEAK PROPERLY, MOTHERFUCKER!!!”
<i>Bash!</i>
Kang-Woo kicked themander in the stomach.
“WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU SO INARTICULATE?!!”
<i>Bash! Bash! Bash!</i>
“Hurgh! Z-Zdop! Zdoooooooop!”
Unable to contain his rage, Kang-Woo beat themander senselessly. The raggedmander became even more of a mess than before.
“Fuuu. That’s what you get for fucking around with me.”
It was themander’s fault for pretending to be inarticte to mock Kang-Woo.
“I-I’ll... talk...”
His speech was much better than before.
“Good. Now we can get somewhere.”
As Kang-Woo thought, violence was the best mode of conversation.
“<i>Sniff... Waaaaaah.</i>”
Themander pulled out a small chip from his pocket as he bawled his eyes out. He inserted it under the holographic monitor and typed aplex password to deactivate the security programs. A file named <i>Project </i>appeared.
“Is this what you were looking for?” asked Kang-Woo as he looked down at Lactheon Alpha.
“That’s... correct.”
“Let’s see.” Kang-Woo opened the file and checked its contents. “Project Deus Ex Machina?”
It was a rather overblown project name. He checked the file’s contents with the Authority of Insight activated, but there were so many terms and skills he did not know that nothing stuck in his mind.
“Well... I understood that an android is going to be sent to another. What does this mean?” asked Kang-Woo, tilting his head.
“There is... no... time.” Lactheon Alpha grabbed Kang-Woo’s ankle as sparks flew from him and begged, “The battleship’s...munication system... will soon be.... down. The project... must be stopped... before...”
<i>Crackle!</i>
The sparks flew from Lactheon Alpha even more aggressively as he began to fall apart.
“H-Hurry. Stop... the project.”
His body, made of machinery instead of flesh and blood, was falling apart like a sand castle.
“I still don’t know what’s going on, but...” Kang-Woo smiled as he looked down at the dying Lactheon Alpha. “Since you helped me gain tons of demonic energy, I’ll do you a favor.”
Based on the little of what he understood from the project file, it was about sending an android to a faraway to conquer it.
<i>‘If the android being sent is anything like Lactheon Alpha, then that would be razed to the ground if the project isn’t stopped.’</i>
There was no question the destruction a machine, who prated a Deific Essence barrier with pure physical power, could enact on a, even on its own.
<i>‘That’s fate has nothing to do with me, but that’s not reason enough to do nothing when I can stop it.’</i>
<i>Beep.</i>
Kang-Woo used the Authority of Insight to set up amunication array as it was exined in the project file.
<i>Zzzzt.</i>
Themunication was filled withrge amounts of static, likely because the battleship was half-destroyed.
This is a message from the Gctic Federation,” said Kang-Woo in a deep voice into a microphone. “From today, the federation is disbanded. Hence, all ongoing projects, including Project Deus Ex Machina, are to be suspended.”
He did not know if anyone was listening to his message.
“I repeat.”
Nor did he know what would result from his message.
“All ongoing projects are to be suspended.”
<i>Beep.</i>
The hologram turned red and a message appeared on it before themunication array was shut down.
[Forcefully endingmunication with ‘Deus Ex Machina Mk. 0’ due to bad connection.]
1. This is a reference to Varian Wrynn, a character in the Warcraft lore who uses a sword named Shmayne, made of two fused swords that can be detached. He dies from being flooded with Fel magic and exploding, which Koreans turned into a green tea meme. ?