More than two hundred years ago, frigid winds tore across the land. Even the Lowell Camp near the equator found little respite.
Two figures limped through the biting wind.
One wore power armor, while the other wore a full protective suit marked with the Institute's insignia. From the mist condensed inside their helmet visors, it was clear that both had suffered serious injuries.
And indeed, fierce resistance had never come without a price.
The insulation systems had been damaged.
At minus thirty degrees Celsius, even slime mold could do nothing, much less them, who were about to lose their last means of keeping warm.
Once that vapor froze into ice, their time would be up.
Even so, they were better off than the corpse they carried—
Blood flowing from its wounds had frozen into red ice, sealing the bullet holes, freezing that twisted face, and freezing that nearly frenzied wish.
And that mouth sealed by frozen blood still seemed to be silently screaming—
'Why didn't you listen to me?'
Why...
The soldier curled his lips and exhaled the foul breath in his chest against his translucent visor.
That had been their general.
As for why they had executed him, that was a long story.
In any case, he no longer wanted to remember the fungus-infected people who had died in the laboratory, or those executed for opposing that noble man... After all, his own hands were stained with blood as well.
Yes.
He had been an accomplice.
But who among them had not been?
Let the past remain in the past.
Their children did not need to carry that heavy memory forward.
Everyone had compassion. As an ordinary soldier, he was no exception.
They had squandered vast resources, killed countless innocent people, missed the best window to save themselves, and