Chapter 185 185: The Trial Of Irma Phoenixborn I

When Cole woke up it was to a rather busy cradle Facility. It seems it was just the people of Glade solitude that felt the need to sit on their ass and do nothing, there was no shortage of people here, but then again the amount here was till rather small. There was roughly about a 100 or so aspirants here, perhaps even lesser. Of course this could not be the only cradle Facility, and he got the feeling that there were still others in the second floor still trying to find their way, but ultimately he had no idea and it was not information that would be readily available to him unless he actively went looking for it.

Never the less he was ready for the next step, and as soon as he made that affirmation to himself, a notification window popped up in front of him, Cole smiled as he saw the notifications were for a quest. He nodded to himself as he stepped out of cradle, drawing attention to himself as he looked at what he had to deal with next.

[Fourth Floor Main Quest(II): You Have finally found shelter and a Cradle Facility, but your fight against the Handlings is far from over as an enemy has sent them all rushing in your direction. Defeat at least 15 waves of Super powered Baneling Zombies heading in your direction.// Rewards: +3 Silver Prisms Of Defense, +1 Level, And The Path To The 5th Floor]

[Fourth Floor Sub quest(II): Survive No Less Than Ten Waves Of The Incoming Zombie Rush, Surviving More Than Ten Waves Would Increase The Quality Of The Rewards. (0/10)// Rewards: +1evel, +1 Silver Ranked Prism, 1 Basic Anti-Baneling Sentinel Blueprints]

Honestly the quests themselves pretty anticlimactic, if that was all that was left for him to take care of on the fourth floor then, perhaps this floor wasn't as dangerous as the thought it would be. Then he paused and looked over the wordings of the quests, there were the words 'survive and defeated at least' that popped up right back into his face. It meant that whatever these waves were, there was almost no hope of being able to defeat all of it, and then there was no telling how long just one wave could possibly last, this truly was the apocalypse.

He grunted as he marched out of the cradle facility. If this was going to be a problem then , he had to figure out a way to tackle it. For one against a horde of enemies like this, he has pretty much learnt the value of having a dedicated team or partners to deal with them there truly was strength In numbers, and with the way the quest seemed to be going, even Aspirants who have yet to make it to the fourth floor would end up facing the waves too. By this point he really wished he carried Cassandra along this time, she would have been an invaluable help.

The first thing or rather the first person he noticed as he made his way outside was the Grand General. The cybernetic dog had been cleaned up, thoroughly in fact, as the parts of him that were once rotting have now being replaced with more cybernetic implants making him a full blown cyber dog, with the complete absence of the rot that would have made him a zombie cyber dog…. But a leopard can never change it spots.

"Yo! We have been waiting for you, we need your help, Irma's going to be executed!" Cole raised his eyebrows at that, he just could not seem to understand how her getting executed was any of his problem, but he could humor the dog for a while. He needed to stock up on supplies, particularly of the exploding kind.

"What happened?" Cole asked as he started following the Dog across the former space port now turned Sanctuary for survivors and refugees. The dog seemed to know his way around the base, as he led Cole straight through a few checks and into an elevator that would lead them straight down. Through it all, joke of the people within the base looked at the Cyber dog with a look of wariness, some of them even waved at him.

Cole could not understand that, if it were him, and he knew the damn dog had the potential to go crazy from it's rotting brain, he would have put a bullet in it by now. That way he could save both the damn dog and a lot of people future misery. It really was worrying, even if nobody gets killed the dog could still infect them all with the virus, so being careful and cautious is the best way to act around the Cyber canine.

"We don't really know, all I know is that the head of Sanctuary had a visitor and then he also got a witness from amongst her group. Whatever it is that they're blaming her for, it's strong enough that they decided to execute her as punishment and a means to placate the people for when the news gets out. Though I don't think her father wants to kill her, but he's just a figure head and shares power of ruling the base amongst 3 other people and they're all trying not find ways to usurp his seat. They're using his daughter to get to him, he sent me to find you, as apparently you make miracles. He's hoping you can pull of another and save his daughter."

Cole was stumped, I mean he was good at what he does,... whatever the fuck that was if you had to put a name to it. But he was no miracle worker, now he was being expected to make one? Against super powered people that he was not even sure he would be able to match in combat. But in the end it seems he was tied to this issue in one way or the other, so at least it would be best to hear Irma's father out and see if at all there was anything he could do for the woman… her annoying personality aside, she has been quite helpful to him.

*Clang!*

The elevator came to a stop with a loud clang as the doors slid open into what used to be a pristine hallways at some point in time. But now the walls were painted with graffiti and other forms of art. From what Cole could see, some were spray painted and Luther hand painted. And many of the arts were made over each other as it stretched across the hallways, however what Cole was able to notice was that the art themselves were made from the combinations of names, and there were thousands of them, stretching across the hallway that frankly speaking Cole could see went farther down than he had thought.

There was a rail going through the sides of the hallways, and small rail cars carry four to five people were going and coming, never stopping, but moving slowly enough that people could jump off and fast enough that it was definitely above a brisk jogging pace. There was a bit of a decline to the hallway, which meant that they were would still be going further down underground than where the elevator brought them. Cole had been absent minded so he had not counted the amount of floors they passed…. Assuming of course the elevator was even functional enough to show that.

"Come on let's catch the next one." The Grand General said as he bounded forward and leapt onto an empty Rail car that had just dropped off it's passengers. Cole shrugged and followed, taking a seat in the front besides the canine as the car began it's journey down.

"Any time somebody dies people gather around to hold a funeral for them above ground. Then a group of them called the keepers of records would come down here, and go deeper this tunnel or any other of the sixteen other tunnels that led to the central command hub and paint the life story of the person who had died and leave their names here so that they would never be forgotten.

If you ask me I think it's a waste of space and good paint, but humans have always been weird, even when they started evolving into other weird sub-human races after the apocalypse sent everything to shit. The arcologies or rather the Babel towers as they were called was our civilizations greatest achievement now all that's left is death and it stands as a reminder of their failures. So much so that they're incapable of burying their dead anymore, they just paint stupid stories that no one cares about…. Soon it would be Irma's story on these walls…. She too would be reduced to nothing more than a memory and a name painted on a fucking wall!"

Cole sniffed, as he said nothing. It was obvious the canine had a lot of love for Irma. He had no idea how long he has been gone, but it seems they have forged a bond that was so strong that it made the dead heart of Super powered dog twitch with pain. Cole didn't care though, or rather he was trying his best not to care. It wasn't his problem, he had enough of his own darkness to deal with, but Irma in some ways is supposed to be one of his people. Maybe not fully as a business deal had been all that joined them together, but they have survived death on multiple occasions together…. He could at least pay respects to the bond and try his best to help her…. Come what may.

"we're here!" The dog said as the car came to a stop in front of a set massive double doors. Guess it was time for a show.

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