"Yes, we must keep moving."
Ollanius Persson seemed to have rediscovered his conviction.
"Litu, could you carry Aktea, please? Or I could have the Men of Iron guards carry her."
Litu answered Ollanius Persson with action, extending his armored arms and scooping Aktea up again.
Her weak voice held a trace of laughter.
"How lovely. Now I don't have to walk. Perhaps that's the only consolation I'll get."
Zabis looked at Carter's and Krank's bodies and wiped the moisture from his face.
"There are fewer and fewer of us, Ollanius. What will become of us?"
"I don't know."
Ollanius Persson shook his head.
"But it's not time to give up yet."
John suddenly added this, then tried to find a way down from the wall.
The direction the Witch had indicated lay deep within the fog.
They had to risk moving forward.
Ollanius Persson was about to follow, but a massive mechanical hand stopped him.
"Based on data analysis, manual control mode is recommended."
The Men of Iron guard's voice was cold and monotonous.
Ollanius Persson hesitated, then nodded.
The towering machine body stepped in front of Ollanius Persson with its back to him, then collapsed into a sphere of liquid metal.
The sight seemed to defy common sense.
Ollanius Persson stepped forward, walking straight into the metal sphere, his figure sinking into it little by little.
"That looks really strange."
John, who had failed to find a way down, could not help muttering at the sight.
"I've heard soldiers who fail to teleport aboard ships using psychic power end up embedded in the metal hull like that."
Zabis, standing beside him, pointed at John's face.
"You're not much better off yourself, actually, are you?"
The metal jaw and lips did indeed make John look like a Servitor.
In fact,