Caesar and Zero ran along the passageway, while those aboard the Morania watched the monitors anxiously. They no longer had the presence of mind to wonder why there was only one passage here, or whether a trap lay at its end.
At last, light appeared ahead.
Perhaps being taller let him see farther, or perhaps it was because Caesar had longer legs. In any case, he spotted Lu Mingfei and Nono a second before Zero did.
He had only just instinctively shouted, "Found them! They're here!" when he suddenly froze. The scene before him contained too much information for him to process at once.
Bronze weapons strewn across the floor, a pit melted by extreme heat, blood and metal armor plates everywhere, and large chunks of flesh and bone in one spot-all of it suggested to those present and those aboard the Morania just how brutal a battle had taken place here!
Yet a little farther away, in the center of the entire enclosed space, a beautiful red-haired girl stood at the entrance to a rustic Han-dynasty Bronze Cabin.
Her face was weary and her hair disheveled. She reached up to brush her hair aside, exposing the back of her neck and a zipper that had not been fully pulled up. Behind her stood Lu Mingfei, one hand resting on that zipper.
Caught red-handed by Caesar's shout, Lu Mingfei's head buzzed. His fingers froze in place; he could neither pull the zipper up nor withdraw his hand.
Why were they pulling up a zipper? Why were they standing in the doorway? Such a mystery...
Caesar suddenly felt a little awkward. One great battle followed by another was actually quite common, and he and Nono had parted on good terms. By rights, he had no reason to feel embarrassed.
The problem