Plunging into the River

Chapter Fifteen: Plunging into the River

Naturally, no ordinary police car could match the speed of a sports car. Especially with Mu Siyu's racing skills and an esper's reaction speed, she far surpassed ordinary people. Driving skills that seemed godlike to normal people came effortlessly to Mu Siyu.

The pursuing sirens had faded into the distance, and their destination—the double-deck bridge—was already in sight. Both Hong Mo and Mu Siyu breathed a sigh of relief.

"This should do it, right?" Mu Siyu said softly.

"Yeah. Once we jump into the river, I'll be counting on you." Hong Mo's ability was electricity; unlike Mu Siyu, he had no ability to move through water as if walking on land.

"I won't let you die." Mu Siyu was feeling much more relaxed now. As long as she entered the Yangtze River, there was no way they could surround her.

"Haha, listen to you."

Though they were laughing, neither of them felt like laughing at all. They had failed to save Mu Siyue, Hong Mo had lost an arm, and his injuries needed immediate treatment.

A tremendous sense of guilt suddenly rose in Mu Siyu's heart toward Hong Mo.

"Look, a helicopter." Hong Mo pointed at the helicopter flying toward them from the other side of the bridge.

"Pretty rare. You hardly ever see those domestically," Mu Siyu replied.

Suddenly, both of them jolted.

"Watch out!"

"I know!" Mu Siyu answered, her eyes fixed on the helicopter ahead.

At the same moment Mu Siyu spoke, a guided rocket streaked through the air trailing thick smoke, flying toward the sports car driven by Mu Siyu and Hong Mo. Mu Siyu stared unblinkingly at the rapidly approaching missile, then sharply swerved when it was less than a hundred meters away.

A thunderous explosion erupted beside the sports car, and a violent shockwave rocked it.

So even the country could be this decisive, using heavy weapons directly in the city. It looked like the higher-ups absolutely would not let this go. Hong Mo thought to himself as he kept watch for Mu Siyu. Since she had to drive, she could not focus her attention so completely.

"Another one," Hong Mo warned.

At the bridgehead, countless drivers who had witnessed the incident immediately stopped their cars, terrified of getting caught up in it. Mu Siyu suddenly shifted gears, and the sports car accelerated through gaps in the traffic, reaching the bridge.

If they had been any later, this jammed traffic alone would have been enough to kill them.

"A little farther. It would be best to drive straight into the Yangtze from the middle of the river." Hong Mo looked out the window. They were on the bridge, but below them was still the riverbank, not the water itself.

Missiles exploded continuously around the sports car as Mu Siyu struggled to keep it balanced. Almost there, almost there! Suddenly, as though he had remembered something, Hong Mo glanced behind them.

"Jump out!" Hong Mo roared.

How had they missed something so obvious? Since there was a helicopter, it obviously could not all be positioned in front of the sports car. When Hong Mo turned around, he saw a missile already streaking toward the car through a trail of smoke, about to hit in an instant.

Hong Mo kicked the door open and threw himself out. His body rolled uncontrollably across the bridge deck.

The moment Hong Mo leaped out of the sports car, a huge burst of fire bloomed, and the car was blown to pieces.

"The sports car has been destroyed. Search for surviving targets," the helicopter reported to headquarters.

Had Mu Siyu gotten out?

Hong Mo struggled to his feet. The right side of his face burned with pain. After scraping continuously against the ground, twisted white bone was already visible. A layer of flesh had been ground off his cheek, exposing even the teeth in his mouth to the air.

As expected, the nation was formidable.

Hong Mo gave a bitter laugh inwardly. Then he marveled again at how powerful an esper's vitality truly was. He had suffered injuries this severe and still had not died. An ordinary person would probably have breathed their last long ago.

Looking around, Hong Mo finally spotted Mu Siyu.

Mu Siyu lay on the ground without moving. Only the occasional twitch let Hong Mo know that she was not dead yet.

Not dead yet!

Hong Mo staggered to his feet and walked toward Mu Siyu.

"You dead?" It took Hong Mo a long time to reach her. Air leaked through his mangled mouth, making his words sound distorted.

At that moment, police sirens wailed from both sides of the bridge. Moments later, countless police officers had surrounded Hong Mo and Mu Siyu from a hundred meters away.

After a long while, Mu Siyu's eyes finally regained focus at the sound of Hong Mo's voice.

"Take me... into the Yangtze. I don't want to become a lab rat." Mu Siyu spoke one word at a time as icy blue blood continuously poured from her mouth. That was Mu Siyu's blood. Hong Mo knew that her blood had long since become completely different from that of ordinary people.

Hong Mo covered his eyes with his remaining right hand, but in the end, he still could not stop the tears from falling.

A wound the size of a basketball had been blasted into Mu Siyu's back. The entire side of her heart was gone, with less than a small portion still clinging inside her chest and abdomen. Icy blue blood slowly flowed from the massive wound.

"Enemies inside, lay down your weapons and surrender with your hands raised." The police's call for surrender was as outdated as ever.

Hong Mo looked into the distance. It was about a hundred meters to the water. No matter what, he had to fulfill Mu Siyu's final request and take her into the Yangtze River.

Hong Mo slowly lifted Mu Siyu into his arms. It was the princess carry he had dreamed of. If Mu Siyu had still been conscious, she definitely would not have let Hong Mo hold her like this.

Carrying Mu Siyu, Hong Mo slowly walked toward the encircling police officers ahead.

Though he made no dangerous movement at all, the police facing Hong Mo felt as though a mountain were pressing down on their hearts. It was as if they were the executioners.

"Stop! Do you hear me?" the leading officer screamed at Hong Mo through a loudspeaker.

Each step left behind a bloody footprint.

Looking at the shield wall formed by riot police ahead, Hong Mo swept his gaze around. Though he was weak to the point of death, his mind was incomparably clear.

Twenty meters ahead lay a football-sized component, left behind after the sports car exploded. Hong Mo did not know which part it had come from, and it no longer mattered. What mattered was that the component was metal.

Though he was already terribly weak, though he had no strength left, Hong Mo felt another surge of electricity rise from within his exhausted body.

Mu Siyu, I'll grant your final request. I'll send you into the Yangtze River.

His pace grew faster and faster. After a few steps, Hong Mo broke into a run. A tense police officer across from him fired the first bullet. Then that gunshot seemed to ignite everyone else's emotions.

Gunfire rang out without pause, bloody blossoms bursting continuously across Hong Mo's body.

I have to... break through!

Hong Mo shouted inwardly and kicked the component on the ground. Even when the bones in his foot snapped, Hong Mo felt no pain.

A brilliant, dazzling white light, like hope about to pierce the heavens, crashed into the human wall ahead.

Hong Mo paid no heed to his injuries, nor to the tearing pain that seemed to rip through his entire body. He used Instant Activation once more. In that hazy instant, the pair of wings behind him—once merely abstract—looked startlingly real.

Get up... fly!

Hong Mo burst out of the encirclement. With a violent exertion of his right arm, he hurled Mu Siyu away.

Mu Siyu's body traced a graceful arc before the eyes of countless pedestrians and police officers on the bridge, falling into the distant Yangtze River.

Upon the muddy, surging river, Mu Siyu's corpse vanished at last after several waves rolled over it.

As though he had fulfilled his final wish and attained enlightenment on the spot, Hong Mo felt incomparably peaceful. He slowly closed his eyes.