After learning that Clara was in Rivet Town, Seele frowned. "She went back again? I really didn't expect it. It hasn't been that long, and we have to go back there to find someone again."
Stelle, on the other hand, thought of the terrifying scenes she had seen in Rivet Town, as well as the Ice of the Flamespawn that Nero had picked up. "That town is full of danger..."
"Indeed." Bronya nodded. "Just thinking about that child entering the Fragmentum alone makes me a little worried. Even though she's not as fragile as she looks, it's still..."
Bronya didn't finish her sentence. More often than not, inner strength alone cannot bring about a miraculous turnaround. If physical ability can't keep up, then it simply can't keep up.
When Clara left the Fragmentum, Perkins was with her, and that girl should also be constantly careful to avoid those Fragmentum monsters.
But in that town, there still existed monsters like the Ice of the Flamespawn, which even well-trained Silvermane Guards found difficult to deal with.
Relying only on a little girl and a traffic light... if they ran into something like that, they probably wouldn't be able to escape.
Being able to leave behind a complete corpse would already count as being lucky.
Seele glanced at Bronya and blurted out, "You look pretty fragile too. Anyway, let's hurry up and find her. Svarog is still waiting for us behind the gate."
Immediately after, everyone left the mechanical settlement and once again entered Rivet Town, which had been eroded by the Fragmentum.
"This town is so big. Where are we supposed to find such a small girl?" March hoped there would be some clues. Even if there were many of them, searching street by street would still be far too slow.
"Didn't Clara say she came to look for some mechanical components?" Seele said. "Let's go check Natasha's storeroom first."
With Seele leading the way, the group made good progress. Then, in a corner piled with miscellaneous items, they discovered Perkins, smoking and scrapped.
Poor Perkins was not the Aeon of Preservation after all. Even though he could deploy a defensive field, he still couldn't withstand the attacks of Fragmentum monsters...
And the worse news was that Clara wasn't here.
"Isn't this the robot that was with Clara?" Nero said the moment he saw Perkins.
Seele turned her head and looked at Nero in surprise. "...Don't all these tin cans look the same? How did you recognize it?"
"I... I recognized it with just one look!" Nero blinked, staring at Seele in confusion.
"Ahem, you'll get used to it... Nero's eyesight is just like that." March said from the side.
Dan Heng rarely agreed with March's opinion and nodded.
Nero's eyesight really was absurdly strong. Every morning, he could take one glance around the observation car and know exactly how much fur Pom-Pom had shed, according to Nero himself, he counted them one by one...
Because of this, the conductor had already listed discussions about shedding fur as prohibited content on the train... though it didn't really help.
Seeing that Nero's companions were already used to this, Seele was deeply shocked.
Bronya spoke up at this moment. "Shh, it seems like he wants to say something. Listen..."
"Self-repair module initializing... initialization failed... Clara... under threat... must... protect..."
Perkins spoke in fragments, and everyone could only try to extract as much useful information as possible from his words.
Fortunately, as a robot, Perkins wouldn't babble nonsense in this kind of situation. Even though his speech was broken, it was basically all useful information.
"Looks like the child is in danger. Do you know where?" Nero asked.
"Workshop... enemies... must be eliminated..."
"Workshop..." Nero looked at Seele. "Where is it?"
"Over here." Seele pointed Nero in a direction. "Go out this way and turn right. After a short distance, you'll reach it. Let's hurry, "
Seele had wanted to call everyone to move together, but before she could finish speaking, Nero had already dashed out ahead.
The Wind Sword Array activated. With a light jump, Nero stepped onto a wind-condensed long sword and disappeared from everyone's sight in the blink of an eye.
Rescuing someone was not something that could be delayed. Thinking that he was fast, Nero set off directly after asking for directions.
After all, he still had quite a bit of confidence in his own strength.
Advancing in the direction Seele indicated, Nero indeed found a workshop. It was lit by warm-colored lights and filled with tables, blueprints, all kinds of tools, and a large number of mechanical creations, including huge televisions, speakers, and the like.
At first glance, Nero saw an Flamespawn floating inside the workshop. At second glance, his gaze passed through a gap, and he saw Clara trapped in a corner, blocked in by the Flamespawn.
The little girl stared nervously at the monster before her, her expression anxious and flustered. However, she hadn't given up hope of survival, nor had she collapsed to the ground and started crying.
Nero would not wait until the Flamespawn made a move before rescuing her. The instant he spotted the target, he activated Two Sleeves of Clear Wind and jumped off the Wind Sword.
With a light step in midair, his entire body drifted over like a gust of wind.
At this moment, Clara was thinking about how to escape. All paths had already been blocked, and there was no way back. At this point, it seemed the only choice was to seek life through death.
The Fragmentum monster before her was scorching hot, but it was enormous and floated in midair.
If she slipped through beneath its legs and then fled deeper inside, perhaps there would still be a slim chance of survival.
Clara did not hesitate when it came to such matters. While the Fragmentum monster had yet to act, she clenched her teeth and was just about to flee according to her plan.
Suddenly, a gust of wind swept through. The flames on the Fragmentum monster's body trembled violently, and the girl only felt her vision blur.
When her sight cleared again, Clara discovered that she was already outside the workshop, and the white-haired youth she had encountered not long ago was standing right beside her.
Nero pinched his fingers into a sword sign with one hand, let out a cold snort, then brought the sword sign down in a vertical slash, uttering a single word, "Sever!"
The Wind Sword swung through the air, dropping a streak of cold light amid the warm glow, as if boundless storms were infused within it.
This single strike directly severed the body of the Flamespawn, and the storm was not satisfied with that alone. It continued until the Flamespawn's body was completely eroded away, and only then did the workshop return to calm once more.
After dealing with the enemy, Nero finally turned his head, lowered his gaze to look at Clara, and said, "How about you bring Svarog with you whenever you go out in the future?"
Clara looked at Nero. With the crisis resolved, her tense body relaxed quite a bit, but that also made her feel somewhat weak.
She remembered Nero, though she didn't know his name.
"Y-you are... from before..."
"Nero. That's my name."
"N-Nero."
At this time, the others also rushed over. Seeing that there were no monsters and that Nero was standing together with Clara, they all let out a sigh of relief.
Nero, meanwhile, raised his hand and waved at everyone, then made a "V" sign.