Chapter 1239: Pain, Punishment

“Die and give me the Core of Time!” Akatziris mumbled and selectively trapped Neptulon in a light bubble.

Knowing that his fate was sealed, Neptulon quietly knelt down without any signs of struggling. The light bubble flashed a while, and Neptulon started to decay. The process of decay accelerated with every second he was within the bubble, and he began to experience muscle atrophy, followed closely by dehydration. Everyone knew what Akatziris was doing to him, yet there was nothing they could do. They were too powerless.

A minute after, Neptulon perished, leaving a dried-up corpse inside the barrier. There lay the end of a man who once could even put Isabella in her place. A man who had the power of time had succumbed to death.

When Neptulon’s bones crumbled into dust, a silvery-white stone materialized in the air and floated up away from the dead body.

Before the Core of Time could fly away, a tractor beam locked on to the Core and dragged it toward the roof.

Sylphy took the opportunity to try and grab the Core, but alas, her now powerless body was too weak to jump even two meters from the ground. Even if she could jump that high, the tractor beam’s pull would only prove too much for her.

A small opening opened up at the top of the ceiling, and the Core was sucked into it. In a few moments time, Akatziris was already holding the Core in her cold, lifeless hands.

“O crew members, I would like to know how you managed to revive yourselves,” Akatziris inquired. There was a hint of curiosity, as well as mild contempt mixed with envy, in her voice.

“Captain, you promised…”

“Please, let us go already…”

They both started to protest when Akatziris continued to hold them in the prison.

“Maybe if you do not waste my time, I will let you go.” Akatziris hummed. Her tone was cold and emotionless again.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes! I’ll talk! I’ll talk, alright?!” Ragnaros squealed like a scared little rat when Akatziris presented herself as the captain she used to be.

Everything about how they were able to take control of the game servers, hypnotize Jiang Fei, and obtain the Bio-Lab as well as Bio-Pod was revealed.

“So it seems.” Akatziris hummed. Both Therazane and Ragnaros waited for her next order, and after what seemed like an eternity, there was only silence.

“Captain?!”

“Captain?!”

“I’ve told you everything I know! If there’s anything you wanted to know, I’ve already told you!”

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“Please, let us go!”

When there was no reply from Akatziris, both Ragnaros and Therazene broke down. They were already scared sh*tless when Akatziris spoke without any hint of emotion, and when she gave no reply, it created a different kind of fear—the kind of fear Jiang Fei had never experienced in his life, yet.

“Are we going to sit here and do nothing?” Isabella whispered to Jiang Fei when the room was filled with the cries and howls of both Therazane and Ragnaros.

“It’s fine. Let’s just wait a bit,” said Jiang Fei, pretending to be confident in the face of adversity. To be honest, he was putting a lot of hope in 0541, but if he were to show any signs of weakness, the girls would start to panic. Worse came to worst, they may break down too. Right then, both Ragnaros and Therazane were doing a splendid job of spreading fear.

“Are we still on the moon?” Nina asked out of the blue.

“I… Why do you ask?” Jiang Fei asked in return. Even though the ship was moving at a snail’s pace, the ship should have made further progress as it picked up speed. Furthermore, 0543 had already been integrated into the ship’s control system. Its efficiency should not have increased greatly. Perhaps they were still in the moon’s orbit, but they were not out of the Earth’s orbit, the Solar System, and much less the Milky Way.

“Ariel, can you determine our position?” Isabella turned to Ariel and nudged her slightly.

“I can’t. The room has blocked my powers and my perception of spacetime. In this room, I’m only as good as any other regular Joe or Jane,” said Ariel dejectedly.

“Tsk… What can we do now…” Sylphy grunted, feeling annoyed.

“Darling, I think I should just try and talk to my sister,” said Isabella. The entire thing had exploded beyond anyone’s control. It was an unprecedented situation whereby they did not know what move to make.

“No need for that. I’m not saying this before it’s useless, but… she’s no longer the sister you used to know, or rather… she was never your sister, to begin with,” said Jiang Fei as he held her tiny hands in his. He was trying his best to maintain his composure. However, even Isabella could tell that Jiang Fei was extremely anxious and nervous based on his heartbeat, which she could feel just by holding his hands. Right then, she knew what not to do; try to take matters into her own hands.

…

Akatziris frowned and sighed every now and then. There she had the Core of Time, one of the strongest Energy Cores in her hands. Yet, she could never fuse with it. The Bio-Laboratory and the Bio-Pods were in front of her, silent and majestic, awaiting orders from their captain. She got there after she inquired how Therazane, as well as Ragnaros, managed to be reincarnated into the world in living bodies of flesh and blood.

She was now the Captain of Braveheart. Everything it had to offer was subject to her will. She possessed the ultimate perception of everything the universe had to offer, an achievement she had already reached when she was still a Namekian.

How could she, the master of Braveheart still live in the body of a machine when Therazane, Ragnaros, and even Neptulon were able to be reincarnated as humans! There was no way she would want to stay inside that cold metal body forever! Even though that was considered the next level of evolution for human beings, for Namekians, it was the complete opposite. Machines, highly intelligent or not, could never ascend and have powers the likes of any other living being.

Using Namekian technology, a normal human, heck, even a frail, disfigured human could become a Level 5 Metahuman! If she fused with the Core of Time, Akatziris would obtain a body the likes no one had ever seen.

However, it was impossible for her. Machines were… machines in the end. They could enhance the strength of their frame, integrate with powerful weapons, or increase their battery pack, but there would always be a limit. One of the limitations was the inability to fuse with a Core. Akatziris was like a man standing on a mountain of gold with nothing to spend it on.

“Dammit!” Akatziris roared in pain. She had inherited everything Braveheart had to offer and understood the laws of the universe well enough to know that it would be impossible for her to return to a body of flesh and blood. Call it punishment, call it karma… The pain was too much for her to bear.

“Leader, what is our next move?” Bennette Straz came in shortly after. He was oblivious to her past and everything about the Namekians. Even if he did, he could no nothing but obey Akatziris as his leader. That was his fate: to be a slave even though he was conscious. It was the same fate as any other machine.