44: Chapter 44 The Remains of the Throne and the Blade of the Purifier

The biological gate closed behind them, making a sticky swallowing sound.

Lin Yuan didn't look back. The yellow light on the laser gun's grip showed only seven percent energy remaining. Chen Duo lay on the stretcher, the silver network in his chest having spread to his carotid artery, shimmering with a mercurial luster under the emergency lights. Every pulse beat flashed in sync with the biological lights on the corridor walls.

"Turn right thirty meters ahead, main cabin entrance." THRONE-00's voice trembled within his skull. "THRONE-01 host signal detected. Suggest establishing a wireless connection immediately to complete verification."

Lin Yuan tapped the gun body three times with his right index finger. Forced silence.

That restless current still lingered at the neural interface, like hungry ants gnawing at his spine.

The alloy door at the end of the corridor had been violently broken open, the cuts neat, made with a high-frequency molecular vibration blade. Scorch marks remained on the door panels, emitting the pungent odor of ozone and burnt protein. Lin Yuan crouched down, his fingertip brushing over a lukewarm black stain on the threshold.

"Blood, no more than six hours old." He stood up. "Someone got here before us."

Rat Eye's right eye emitted a very faint hum: "Three heat sources, shadow area of the left pipe, breathing frequency four times per minute, professional ambush."

Lin Yuan raised his hand to signal a stop.

Chen Duo's eyelids suddenly twitched, and his silver pupils lit up.

"They are dismantling the core." Chen Duo's voice came directly from the resonance of the network in his chest, carrying a metallic multi-echo. "THRONE-01 is screaming."

A blue light burst from the shadows on the left. Lin Yuan rolled to the side, the laser beam grazing his shoulder and hitting the biological tissue wall, triggering a burnt smell and the scream of neural pulses. Rat Eye fired at the same time, his live-ammo firearm exploding in the enclosed space.

"The Fire of Purification shall never be extinguished!" A rhythmic religious chant came from the shadows.

Lin Yuan slid along the ground toward a glowing nodule, getting a clear look at the attackers. Warriors in white ceramic outer armor, their faceplates painted with a golden winged sun, holding standardized plasma cutters. Elite vanguards of the New Canaan Purifiers.

The second and third laser beams shot across each other. Lin Yuan didn't fire back; he didn't have enough energy. Chen Duo was slowly sitting up, the silver network having climbed onto his cheeks like a glowing mask.

"Connect to me," Lin Yuan said to Chen Duo, while simultaneously issuing a forced command to THRONE-00. "Activate THRONE-01 defense protocols. Use a wired physical interface, no wireless connection required."

"Refused. Efficiency too low." For the first time, THRONE-00 showed clear insubordination. "Suggest using the host as a biological relay station to establish a direct wireless link between me and the main host. This is the optimal solution."

Lin Yuan lunged toward the stretcher and whispered in Chen Duo's ear, "Are you willing?"

Chen Duo's silver pupils turned toward him, with binary code and remnants of human emotion flowing within. He nodded, his neck making a mechanical grinding sound.

"Then do it. But stay awake; don't let it consume you."

Lin Yuan pressed his right hand onto Chen Duo's chest.

The silver network instantly surged, piercing his palm and climbing up his arm. Intense pain, like red-hot wire stabbing into his bone marrow, followed by a torrent of information rushing into his brain. He saw the physical form of THRONE-01.

A megastructure of black stone and silver metal violently fused together stood in the center of his vision, entwined with Gothic carvings and biological pipes. It looked like the carcass of a dissected giant beast. The upper part of the throne was intact, inlaid with hundreds of dim gems. The lower part had been violently dismantled, revealing the STC Forge core. The energy matrix had been entirely removed, leaving a bleeding void where dark red coolant slowly dripped from the severed ends of the conduits.

Three Purifiers in white armor were using biological hydraulic pliers to try and pry open the protective shell of the core processor, their movements professional and calm, with surgical precision.

"Intruders confirmed, New Canaan Purifier vanguard unit." Lin Yuan maintained his sanity through the intense pain and shouted to Rat Eye, "Suppressive fire! I need thirty seconds!"

Rat Eye peeked out from behind cover, his right eye erupting with a strong infrared interference signal. The helmet displays of two Purifiers instantly overloaded, emitting short-circuit crackles. They cursed and took off their helmets, revealing pale faces tattooed with religious scriptures.

Lin Yuan dragged Chen Duo, crawling toward the main cabin. The silver network had already covered his entire right arm and was spreading toward his shoulder blade; the intertwined sensation of cold and heat made him bite his lip. Chen Duo convulsed on the stretcher, silver threads emerging from his orifices, reaching into the air like tentacles.

"Warning: Degraded copy signal detected." THRONE-01's mechanical voice echoed in the cabin. "Initiating defense protocols... Error... Insufficient energy... Requesting maintenance Servitor..."

Chen Duo suddenly let out a non-human shriek. The silver network instantly exploded, enveloping the cabin like a giant web of light. THRONE-01's remaining biological pipes suddenly writhed, spraying a large amount of freezing mist, instantly freezing two Purifiers. The third Purifier retreated in terror, his plasma cutter falling to the ground.

"Property protection..." Chen Duo's voice was a mix of Entity 08's low-frequency tremors and THRONE-01's mechanical voice. "High-quality raw materials are not allowed to be plundered..."

Lin Yuan took the opportunity to rush toward the throne. The core processor was exposed, a hexahedron pulsing with dark red light, its surface covered in fine circuitry like a mechanical heart. He reached out to take it, and a sudden pain pierced the back of his neck.

THRONE-00 was forcing a wireless connection. Lin Yuan could feel that stubborn current converging at his cervical vertebrae, like an invisible straw stabbing into his brainstem. The system wanted to return home, to repair itself, even if it meant exposing their location and draining his biological electrical energy.

"You have betrayed the contract."

Lin Yuan's voice was as cold as ice. His left hand pulled out a multi-functional tool plier and stabbed it fiercely into the neural interface at the back of his neck. Metal ground against flesh as he found the tiny wireless transceiver module, gripped it with the pliers, and yanked hard.

A metal wire trailing blood was pulled out. THRONE-00's scream exploded within his skull, followed by a deathly silence. The system was offline, physically isolated.

Lin Yuan crushed the blood-stained transceiver module and turned to pick up the core processor. It emitted a heavy hum in his arms, its temperature so high it burned through his jacket and scorched his skin, but he didn't let go.

Chen Duo collapsed before the throne, the silver network now covering his entire head like a metal crown. His breathing was steady, but his pupils were dilated, entering a deep vegetative state. Rat Eye rushed over to check his vital signs.

"Pulse forty-two, blood pressure critical, but stable." Rat Eye's voice trembled unusually. "He's become some kind of interface. The freezing mist just now was relayed through him."

Lin Yuan looked at the terrified Purifier. The man was trying to activate a portable communicator, which was flashing with green light from an encrypted frequency. Lin Yuan walked over, stepped on his hand, and snatched the communicator.

"What are you doing?" Lin Yuan pointed the gun at his head. "The purpose of dismantling THRONE-01."

The eyes beneath the Purifier's faceplate rolled frantically, his lips trembling as he recited scriptures, then he suddenly bit down on something in his mouth. His body convulsed violently, black blood flowed from his orifices, and he died instantly.

Lin Yuan searched the body and found a data chip. After inserting it into Rat Eye's right eye interface, a blurry image was projected: the Bishop of New Canaan, holding a scepter, stood before a massive biological culture tank, within which glowing organs floated.

"The Ark Core will be the new fuel for the Fire of Purification." The Bishop's voice was hoarse. "By dismantling the thrones of the old era and extracting the STC Forge cores, we will create biological weapons capable of purifying the entire wasteland. Anyone who blocks the purification..."

The image cut off.

Lin Yuan stood up in silence and looked at the remains of THRONE-01. A mural was carved on the wall behind the throne. In the painting, a humanoid figure in an ARK maintenance uniform knelt before THRONE-01, holding glowing tools. That was what Entity 08 once looked like. A loyal Servitor of the old era, which had transformed into the greedy engineer of today through long mutations.