"Why didn't you stop it? What is this announcement?!"
Ato grit his teeth as he glared at the man sitting leisurely in a chair. He pointed at the announcement on his communicator—nothing short of a massacre—suppressing his boiling rage.
"Didn't you promise you would stop the leadership's final decision?!"
"Shh, calm down, CM... uh... what was it? Never mind, not important." The man rested his chin on his crossed hands. He curled his lips into a smile and said to Ato, "I did promise, but there are too few people on our side. Equal power means the minority yielding to the majority is an unavoidable choice. Even though I raised objections, I couldn't stop them."
After the Star Gate attack, this man had found Ato and started collaborating. He promised to stop the leadership's plans, and in exchange, Ato was to join his "traitor faction," contact the remnants of the Speaker's group, and recruit others who intended to resist the leadership.
In other words, Ato and this man were the true traitors, but they were betraying the tyranny of the leadership.
"Didn't I provide all sorts of information and intelligence so MSA-079 could sabotage the KY Plan facilities and delay the plan's implementation? I did what I was supposed to do." The man's smile was warm, filled with the same consideration for subordinates found in every high-and-mighty person. "Besides... you haven't actually been doing work for me, have you?"
Ato's heart skipped a beat.
He was right. Ato had a premonition that this man wasn't necessarily betraying Fire Moth for the sake of humanity's greater good. Thus, rather than being a member of his faction, Ato was more like someone caught in the middle, waiting for an opportunity.
This was why Ato hadn't recruited Einstein.
"Don't worry, I will stop them. To this day, they still don't know who the traitor is. They are in the light, and we are in the dark; there's no reason we would lose."
The man smiled gently, but it contained only a cold... sneer.
The Tenth Branch... how much further...
Lin rode his bike through the curtain of rain, his heart burning with anxiety. The mist was growing thicker, obscuring his vision. He twisted the throttle to the limit, rushing forward like a gust of wind.
Those three MANTIS soldiers he met at KY-00 weren't wrong; the Fire Moth leadership truly formulated the KY Plan for the sake of humanity. Back during the Great Purge, the Speaker had already said that the leadership that formed Fire Moth was a group of fanatical human supremacists.
Thus, even if their philosophy didn't have everyone's support, many within Fire Moth would choose to stand with them.
If one-third of all existing humans could become MANTIS soldiers, even a Large-Scale Honkai would only be a minor disaster.
But the price was the death of the remaining two-thirds of humanity or their transformation into monsters to be driven by humans, while the one-third who became MANTIS soldiers would be completely under Fire Moth's control.
The leadership were human fanatics, but who counts as human was defined by them.
The entirety of human society would be completely transformed into the form of Fire Moth, and they... would still be the "leadership."
His speed had reached the limit. Lin sped through the city amidst the roar of the rain. He was so fast that people could only see a shadow weaving between vehicles.
But... a wave of dizziness attacked his brain.
"Guh—"
Crash!
The world flipped upside down.
Momentum threw Lin from the motorcycle, and he slammed heavily onto the concrete. The crisp sound of bones breaking was almost melodic.
"Cough cough..."
An unprecedented, terrifying sound rejoiced in his ears, piercing his brain. His limbs, like the limbs of a broken puppet, pointed in bizarre directions as he lay on the rain-swept highway. His dilated pupils and the bloody bubbles rising from his mouth made it so he couldn't even see the display inside his helmet clearly.
"Look... look..."
Shut up.
Whether it was a sneer or a comfort, it gently touched his ear, probing his heart and brain. Lin snapped neck trembled. He watched the rain in the sky turn from transparent to blood-red, instantly falling into that sea of blood.
Sinking continuously toward the endless abyss, a place where nothing existed.
With powerless limbs, he couldn't even struggle. A thick smell of blood surged into his nose and mouth, occupying his body. In less than three minutes, he would drown.
He had a premonition: he would be trapped here forever, along with those voices that had made a mess of his mind.
In a far... or perhaps very near place, a "person's" back turned silently. He was also in the sea of blood, but unlike the sinking Lin, he was slowly rising, moving toward that world of light.
Lin faced him from afar, as if a whole world lay between them.
He opened his eyes. They were clearer than last time—ominous iridescent pupils pierced through the sea of blood, staring at Lin.
There was no coldness, no mockery, because not even the most basic humanity could be seen in him.
And he looked exactly like Lin.
"Cough!"
Lin snapped his eyes open, spitting out a large mouthful of blood that covered the screen inside his helmet; a mist of blood sprayed onto his face.
His broken limbs and spine had mended, and even his snapped neck was now perfectly intact. Lin pushed himself up and stood from the ground.
All the onlookers stared at Lin in horror, as if seeing a terrifying monster. Lin scanned the crowd indifferently, his gaze so cold it seemed to freeze the air, making everyone instinctively step back.
He said nothing. Someone seemed to have called the police; ambulances and police cars were approaching. He walked toward the crowd, and people scrambled to make a path for him.
Lin found his weapon case not far away, still stained with his blood. The motorcycle was a total wreck.
Lin picked up the weapon case and slung it on his back. Then, in the next second, he appeared in the passenger seat of a sedan, saying coldly to the driver who was frozen with fear: "Get out. I need to requisition your car. It will be returned to you later."
The driver didn't dare breathe, staring stupidly at this blood-covered man in a helmet.
"You..."
Lin gun barrel blocked his mouth. Under the threat of the weapon, the man didn't dare say another word and scrambled out of the car.
"Are you going to break your principles?" the voices in his ear shrieked.
"Yes."
"Are you going to betray the dead?"
"Yes."
"Are you going to betray yourself?"
"...Yes."
The rain was still falling. Lin sat in the driver's seat, started the car, and instantly tore through the rain, heading toward the distance...
Or toward hell.