90 Seconds of Redemption

25. 90 Seconds of Redemption

One day in the future, Luo Zhen would certainly have this to say about his present self.

"This was the first and last time in my life I ever pushed myself past my physical limits just to get somewhere."

Because no matter how exhausted and feeble his body was, the anxiety in his heart still drove Luo Zhen to sprint recklessly toward the Central Control Room. He was so anxious that he did not even have the energy to summon a Familiar to carry him, and could only keep charging forward.

In 240 seconds, the isolation wall around the central area would be completely sealed.

If he did not reach the central area before then, Luo Zhen would never be able to enter it again, much less make it to that lovely junior's side.

So at that moment, all that remained in Luo Zhen's heart was regret.

Why had he left the Control Room?

Why had he gone looking for Leff?

He had clearly made up his mind to stay by that girl's side.

If... if he were still there...

"Damn it...!"

Realizing that his thoughts were turning negative under the influence of unease and anxiety, Luo Zhen hurriedly shook his head, flinging away his negative emotions along with the sweat covering his face.

This was no time for self-reproach.

Finding Mashu was what mattered most right now.

Driven by those feelings, Luo Zhen seemed determined to squeeze every last bit of strength from his body. At last, he charged to the front of the Control Room.

"Hiss!"

The automatic doors opened at once with a steam-whistle-like sound effect, telling Luo Zhen that he had made it in time.

But the scene that entered his eyes in the next instant made Luo Zhen stop in his tracks.

"----"

Red.

Scorching red.

The Control Room, once cold and brimming with a mechanical atmosphere, was now engulfed in blazing flames.

"Crack... crackle..."

Small stones, heated red-hot by the fire, rolled endlessly through every corner.

"Thud..."

Chunks of concrete that fell from the ceiling hit the ground with dull thumps.

The entire Control Room was engulfed in flames. It had become a ruin, as though it had been completely blown apart.

Even so, the alarms were still ringing.

"Power section shutdown confirmed. Insufficient power generation."

"Switching to backup power. Abnormality detected. Staff must switch manually."

"Ninety seconds until the isolation wall is fully sealed. Staff remaining in the central area, please proceed to the second gate immediately. Please proceed immediately—"

Only then did Luo Zhen react.

"Mashu!"

Luo Zhen shouted toward his surroundings and charged into the inferno without caring about the rising temperature.

"Mashu! Mashu! Where are you?! Mashu! Answer me if you can hear me!"

Luo Zhen kept charging inward while shouting at the top of his lungs.

Along the way, Luo Zhen saw one Coffin after another lying crookedly in various corners, like pillars that had been knocked down.

He searched through them one by one, only to find Master candidates lying inside.

Every one of them had passed out.

Seeing this, Luo Zhen began to understand.

"When the fire broke out, had the Master candidates already entered their Coffins?"

That had probably been Olga Marie's order, right?

Although Luo Zhen had run out of the Control Room before the operation, given that woman's style, she would never delay the important first operation over one person, even if that person was Luo Zhen. She had probably continued issuing orders furiously while beginning preparations for the Spiritron Transfer.

Thanks to that, the Master candidates who had entered their Coffins had seemingly not died in the sudden fire. Protected by the Coffins, their vital functions had been maintained.

"Then..."

Mashu was very likely among them and had not died in the fire.

At that thought, Luo Zhen thanked Olga Marie for the first time and turned to search for Mashu's Coffin.

Unfortunately, he had guessed wrong this time.

"Fou!"

Just as Luo Zhen was desperately searching for Mashu's Coffin, a familiar cry reached his ears.

Luo Zhen hurriedly turned his head and saw a white creature standing atop a chunk of concrete rubble.

"Fou? What are you doing here?"

Luo Zhen could not help staring in astonishment.

Normally, Fou absolutely never appeared in front of people, so he should never have appeared in the Control Room, which was packed with Chaldea's Adaptable Ones and technical staff.

"Fou!"

Ignoring Luo Zhen's astonishment, Fou continued crying and turned around before running in a certain direction.

Seeing this, Luo Zhen's heart stirred.

"Could it be...?"

Luo Zhen charged in the direction Fou had run.

Before long, Luo Zhen stopped once again.

His mind went completely blank.

"Fou!"

Fou was crying out from beneath a huge chunk of concrete.

But he was not calling to Luo Zhen. He was calling to the girl whose lower body had been pinned beneath the massive concrete slab, the ground beneath her already soaked in a pool of blood.

"Sen...pai...?"

The girl's voice sounded like a bubble on the verge of bursting, so faint and unreal.

The person Luo Zhen had desperately been searching for seemed to sense his arrival. With immense difficulty, she raised her head and slowly looked in his direction.

The glasses she had always worn on her face were shattered.

The earnest light that had always filled her eyes could no longer gather.

Under the gaze of those eyes, whose pupils had already scattered and which seemed unable to see the world before them clearly, Luo Zhen's blank mind could not form a single thought.

Only half a second later did Luo Zhen finally cry out.

"Why didn't you enter a Coffin, Mashu?!"

Shouting, Luo Zhen practically staggered to Mashu's side.

Mashu, however, seemed unable to feel any pain at all. She smiled.

"Because, Senpai, you said you would be back soon..."

That must have been why, right?

To wait for Luo Zhen to return, Mashu had not entered a Coffin to prepare for the Spiritron Transfer. In the end, she had become a victim of this sudden fire.

"----!"

Luo Zhen clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, able only to breathe heavily as he suppressed the violent emotions surging in his heart.

"I'll get you out first!"

After speaking through his suppressed emotions, Luo Zhen activated the Magic Circuits within his body, causing his magical energy to surge.

"Ant Summoning!"

This was one of the three spells Luo Zhen had learned that could summon Mid-Level Familiars.

The surging magical energy immediately formed a magic circle, and enormous ants, each as large as a dog, were summoned.

"Click..."

"Click-click..."

The magic ants rubbed their fang-like mandibles together, producing shrill cries like fingernails scraping across glass.

Luo Zhen controlled the ants, spreading them around the massive concrete slab and ordering them to start moving it.

"Boom!"

More than ten magic ants displayed astonishing Monstrous Strength. They pushed away the massive concrete slab, which was larger than a room, sending it rolling into the flames nearby and raising a thunderous roar.

"Senpai...?"

"Don't talk! I'm taking you out now!"

Luo Zhen exhausted the physical strength that had already reached its limit. Deliberately avoiding looking at Mashu's miserable lower body, he prepared to carry her on his back.

As long as he could get Mashu outside, Luo Zhen believed that his older brother, who did nothing but slack off but was probably panicking terribly by now, would surely have a way to save her.

Clinging to this final shred of hope, Luo Zhen carried Mashu to the Control Room's automatic doors and was just about to leave when...

"Isolation wall activation."

"Central area, sealed."

Amid the cold, merciless announcement, doors rose from above, below, and both sides of the automatic doorway, locking together with a heavy clang and sealing the Control Room.

Luo Zhen stopped for the third time.

He stared at the sealed automatic doors before him, unable to say another word.

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