"I'm fine, Uncle Arendi." Amidst the chaos, Ephrenia finally managed to steady herself and respond to her companions.
At the same time, Ephrenia's gaze fell upon the golden incubation pod, as tall as two people. With just one glance, the little girl was mesmerized.
Its incomparable golden color, the symbol of a soaring double-headed eagle, and the cryptic XIX symbol engraved upon it, all drew her eye. Before Ephrenia could examine this newly arrived golden behemoth more closely, a sudden pain flared on her scalp.
"Ah!" The little girl barely managed a cry of pain before she was lifted by her hair and struck hard across the mouth.
A team of armed overseers had arrived in this mine shaft unnoticed. Their eyes, falling upon this cultivation pod – clearly neither a Lycaeus nor a Kiavahr creation – immediately gleamed with immense greed. If they turned this object in, they might be able to leap to become minor nobles on Lycaeus.
In Ephrenia's terrified eyes, both Uncle Arendi and the brothers who dared to resist were already sprawled on the ground. From their occasional twitching limbs, Ephrenia realized their lives were not in immediate danger. The electroshock guns equipped by the armed overseers could incapacitate them with just one shot.
"A heaven-sent opportunity." Zoe, the captain of the armed overseers, lifted Ephrenia, and an extremely bloodthirsty and brutal look filled his eyes. Immediately, another thick arm reached for Ephrenia's head.
Such an opportunity naturally required a sacrifice. Since this golden behemoth hadn't crushed this mere slave to death, there was no one more suitable than the little girl in front of him. How could a mere slave be worthy of a device that was clearly not ordinary?
The merciless iron hand pressed down on Ephrenia's head without hesitation. No matter how much she struggled, Zoe's thick, strong arm held the girl's small body as firmly as a steel clamp.
"Click..."
A crisp mechanical whirring echoed throughout the mine shaft. Zoe, who was about to exert force and crush the girl's head, froze.
The door of the seamless golden object suddenly opened, and a somewhat thin figure emerged from it—a boy with long, pitch-black hair like a waterfall and snow-white skin.
"Let... go... of... her!!" The boy's pronunciation, in those three short words, went from halting to fluent, quickly transitioning to the language of Lycaeus.
"As you wish!" Upon hearing this, Zoe threw the little girl aside like trash, then drew the long whip from his waist.
"Electroshock guns ready, be prepared to fire at any time!" Zoe issued his command to the other team members over his comms, then suddenly whipped the long whip in his hand towards the boy in front of him. The long whip cut through the air, bringing with it a deadly hiss as it fiercely struck the seemingly frail boy. A cruel smile appeared at the corner of Zoe's mouth.
He anticipated the long whip in his hand tasting blood, anticipating the grisly scene of skin tearing open and blood flying.
But the next second, the playful look in Zoe's eyes instantly vanished, replaced by an expression of extreme terror. The boy, who was incomparably thin compared to him, was gone.
"Ah—!!!"
An inhuman shriek suddenly tore through the silence of the mine. The howl seemed to be squeezed from deep within his organs, carrying the stench of blood, bouncing back and forth in the narrow mine shaft. His vocal cords were stretched to their limit, emitting a harsh, metallic tremor, but the tail end suddenly rose, becoming a high-pitched wail, almost like a dying beast.
In a flash, the boy appeared directly in front of Zoe like a ghost. One hand firmly grasped the arm that was wielding the whip, and his pale palm crushed it as easily as if it were butter.
Zoe's howl was filled with pain and fear, a sound that grated on the young boy's senses. The boy, displeased by this violent enforcer, felt a cold resolve.
"Rip..." With a slight frown, the boy directly tore off the enforcer's head, then tossed the headless body aside like trash.
At the same time, the heads of the other armed overseers, who were preparing to raise their guns and shoot, suddenly exploded, as if...
The boy walked towards Ephrenia. The mining workers in the crowd scattered away from him, whispering in fear.
The little girl smiled at the Primarch, tears cutting streaks through the dirt on her face. The boy wanted to make the girl happy, to somehow reassure her that everything would be alright.
"What is your name?" the boy asked the girl.
"My name is Nasturi, Nasturi Ephrenia," the girl replied.
"I am 19" the boy stated, and then, inexplicably, tore off the enforcer's head and handed it to the girl.
The boy didn't know why he was doing this; his subconscious simply told him that the skull seemed important, a standard for judging whether the other party was a pure human. So, the boy naturally assumed that the other party would definitely like a human skull.
"Ephrenia, are you alright?" Swain, having heard the commotion, arrived panting and witnessed this scene. He didn't understand, but he was profoundly shocked. Who would give a girl a gift that was a head just torn from someone else's body? Still warm?
"Brother Swain, we're fine. It was 19 who saved me..."
"Brother, I'm sorry, I... I didn't mean to..." Ephrenia looked at Swain somewhat awkwardly. Her left hand was still holding Zoe's head, and drops of fresh blood continuously dripped from it, forming a small pool on the mine shaft floor.
She knew that things were serious. With five armed overseers dead, the Tower would definitely not let them go.
"It's already happened. You take that 19, Corax, and hide for now. Leave the rest to me." Swain didn't say much. The most important thing right now was to hide Corax and avoid the Tower's search.
"Little brother, you should hide with Ephrenia for a while. Things are a bit troublesome," Swain said to Corax, who had just exhibited such power. He needed to prepare to face the Tower's interrogation.
"Enemies of this level don't need to be hidden at all. I'll just kill as many as come." The boy didn't feel anything was wrong. His instincts told him that these enemies couldn't pose any threat to him.
"As expected of a pure war weapon. When faced with danger, killing is the best way to solve all problems," Swain sighed.
"Killing is a solution to many problems, but not the only one. You need to use your remarkable mind and make decisions based on the specific situation. Now, please hide, okay?" Swain stared into Corax's eyes and spoke seriously to the boy, who barely reached his waist.