A bolt of lightning suddenly tore across the sky, illuminating the boy's and girl's faces.
The girl's face was pale, its color draining away with her fading life. Her hollow eyes held terror and despair, as well as worry for the boy.
Heavy rain washed over the boy's and girl's faces. Mud mixed with blood flowed freely, and in the lightning, a tall figure holding a weapon approached and bent down to pull out the blade that had pierced the girl.
He was a middle-aged man wearing an exoskeleton, strong and sturdy. Augmented by the exoskeleton's power, he should have been able to easily pull out the silver blade he had thrown.
But in the next moment, the little boy kneeling before the girl moved. He raised his tender hand and grabbed the clasp in front of the man's mechanical arm.
"What..."
The man in the exoskeleton was greatly surprised. He suddenly found that his hand could not move, neither down nor up.
He saw a small hand gripping his mechanical arm at a point where it was difficult to exert force, yet it felt as though his arm had been caught in a massive hydraulic press.
He remained calm, still harboring the hope that it was a mechanical malfunction. After all, his exoskeleton was not high-end equipment. With rain pouring this hard and after traveling along muddy mountain roads, the possibility of a malfunction was not zero.
But when he shifted his gaze toward the boy, lightning flashed across the sky, allowing him to see the boy's face clearly.
Ah... what kind of expression was that, and what kind of eyes?
At that moment, the boy seemed to have gone mad. The expression on his face seemed like laughter, yet also like crying. To the man, it was utterly