As the night fell, the raindrops became denser and denser.
Perhaps because the smoke of the war that had just been born a few days ago was still lingering in the sky, the raindrops were corroded into the blackness that was as thick as ink. They splashed on the ground and covered the surroundings even more blurred and chaotic.
The city was like a rotten corpse.
The swaying skyscrapers were the bones of its canine teeth.
In the middle of the broken walls, the children were running crazily among the raindrops and lightning like hungry hyenas.
Everybody was rather anxious. They wished that they could catch the two defectors in person instead of somebody else.
But they were also somewhat panicked, not knowing whether or not the defection would affect them and leave a bad impression on all the Children of Holy Light.
The raindrops were like a waterfall, gradually blocking the vision ten meters away.
The splashing rain blocked most of the sounds, too, including the alarms of the portable crystal processors.
The torrential rain brought an illusionary sense of security to the children, making them think that they could stretch out their will without being discovered by anybody.
Their route, on the other hand, had long deviated from the "safe area" that the mentors had set up and entered the unknown area in the deepest part of the city.
Some of the children lost their sense of direction and fell into the depths of the dilapidated walls, separating themselves from the rest of the group.
Some of the children discovered each other in the black raindrops and confronted each other in silence. It was not until the lightning illuminated their pale faces that they realized that they were not the targets of the hunt and left in disappointment.
There were even some suspicious rumors that spread like a virus during the brief contact between the children.
Some said that the two students who escaped were a boy and a girl. They had violated the most serious rules during their mission and had to be expelled from the examination hall to be purged in the holy temple, just like the child who stole the model of the Colossus yesterday. That was why they took the risk and fled brazenly.
Some said that Black Castle had been occupied by the Imperium and the Holy League twice in only decades. Most of the areas had been burnt to the ground, and the Holy League was seriously short of soldiers. Right now, they had only controlled the colonized towns, spaceports, and mining bases that took up only one percent of the surface of the planet. The remaining ninety-nine percent of the planet was a boundless, unpopulated area.
As long as they could escape to the no man's land, they would have won. The Holy League would never send a large amount of manpower and resources into the no man's land just to catch two nobodies.
Some said that there were still countless secret tunnels, armories, and underground cities under Planet Black Castle, and hundreds of guerrilla troops of the Imperium were still resisting. These people were very welcoming of the Holy League's' surrender '. On the one hand, it could bring them the latest intelligence, and on the other hand, it could show the' effect 'of the corruption of the extraterrestrial devils. Therefore, they would give the people of the Holy League very good treatment. It was estimated that the two fugitives wanted to escape the city and go deep underground to find the guerrilla troops of the Imperium.
As long as they stayed below the ground with the Imperium's guerrillas for a year and a half, if the Imperium's army could come back and occupy Black Castle again, they would have achieved their goal of 'going from the Holy League to the Imperium'. Chances were that they would even be promoted by the Imperium as heroes who had 'defected to freedom'.
Such rumors were burning gloomily in the dark night like ghostly fire. No matter how fierce the storm was, they could not be extinguished.
As for who exactly "someone said", the children were confused and disoriented, but none of them could say for sure.
After searching for a whole night, Thangka did not find the two defectors at all. She was even separated from her classmates after she stumbled and fell into a mud pit.
Raindrops were flying at her from all directions. The mud splashed by the heavy rain stuck to her gas mask. After she took off the mask, the mud flew into her eyes and mouth, making it impossible for her to open her eyes.
Even her portable crystal processor was squeaking, and the 3D image it displayed was messy and twisted. The Spiritual Nexus was seriously jammed by the storm and the thunder. She could not reach out to her classmates or receive the instructions of her mentors or the director, either.
"Monitor!"
"Where are you?"
Thangka staggered and felt that she was a tiny ant. The tall, magnificent silhouettes around her were all black tombstones. After walking for more than ten minutes, she found it more and more difficult to tell where she was going. She did not see any of her classmates, either.
A weird idea suddenly popped up in Thangka's head.
She seemed to be the only person left in the entire town.
All her classmates, mentors, and soldiers of the purge troop were searching for the two fugitives. Perhaps, they were running in the opposite direction.
If she took the opportunity to run away, wouldn't it be possible for her to escape from the forsaken city, enter the unpopulated area, and even find an underground stronghold of the Imperium's guerrillas?
Wasn't it said that the Imperium welcomed the people of the Holy League who volunteered to join them and that they would become the 'heroes' in the propaganda of the Imperium?
If so, she would be able to get rid of her current life completely.
The idea flashed in her head like a sharp lightning. Thangka shuddered hard and found it hard to believe that it was her own idea.
"Grandpa Yao —"
Thangka asked, her voice shivering, "Did you lead me to think that way?"
"No, I'm not that shameless. That's your own idea."
After a brief silence, Li Yao continued, "Maybe somebody led you to think that way, but it was not me."
"What — What do you mean?"
Thangka was more and more confused.
The world around her was like the bloody mouth of a black ferocious beast that was swallowing her skin and bones.
Although the space on a planet was billions of times more spacious than on a starship, she still felt suffocated.
Calming herself down, Thangka soon shattered the absurd idea.
More importantly, his monitor was not with him. Even if he were to escape, he would have to go with her, right?
No! Of course not! How could he escape? He had infinite faith in the gods and was loyal to the Ultimate Benevolence Masters. How could he have such an absurd and evil idea? It was blasphemy, humiliation, and the heaviest sin!
Huala!
Right then, a lightning that looked like a dragon flashed across the sky and illuminated the street nearby.
Tang Ka saw that one of his classmates was staggering forward with his back bent.
"Hey!"
Thangka shouted and chased after him. "I'm here. Which class are you from? Wait for me!"
Perhaps the sound of the rain was too loud, but the student did not hear his voice. He continued to limp forward, and even sped up a little.
However, his leg was seriously wounded, and Thangka soon caught up with him.
"Shao Jie?"
Tang Ka turned on the illumination mode of his portable crystal processor and scanned the stranger's face, only to discover that it was his classmate. He asked in excitement, "Why are you here? Where are the other classmates? Where's your monitor? Have you seen your monitor, or have you been separated from the rest of us?"
"I …"
The boy named Shao Jie stammered, "I got lost too. I'm looking for them. Why don't we split up?"
His face was bruised and swollen after being beaten up by Liao Meng. His facial organs were twisted, making him look both hideous and pitiful.
Thangka blinked, and the light moved from Shao Jie's face to his body, only to discover that Shao Jie was carrying an enormous backpack and two smaller ones in his hands, which were full of food. It was not the synthesized food that the academy distributed for them but the food from the Imperium that they picked up from the city. They were also high-energy nutrition drugs made of compressed biscuits and energy bars.
Looking at Shao Jie's glittering eyes, Thangka understood everything.
"You want to escape, too?"
Thangka stepped back and mumbled, "How can you betray the Ultimate Benevolence Masters and the gods?"
"I'm not!"
Shao Jie's face seemed to have been punched by an invisible fist again. He shrieked, "I'm not escaping! I'm not!"
His scream was immediately torn apart by the storm, and he seemed to be drowning in it.
"Then why did you pick up such an enormous backpack? It's full of high-energy food that we are not allowed to eat!"
Thangka demanded solemnly, forgetting that she had been stuffing herself in the supermarket during the day. "We have emergency nutrition drugs with us that are enough for a night's temporary mission. Why did you steal those things if we didn't have a long journey ahead of us?"
Like Thangka, Shao Jie was only a teenager. Now that his lie was exposed, he immediately deflated like a balloon.
"Let me go, Thangka. I can't go back!"
Shao Jie said miserably, "You know that I just fought Liao Meng. He is the deputy monitor and has the right to discipline his classmates, but I have absolutely no right to fight him. I … I've degenerated. I've violated the Path of Ultimate Benevolence. I'll definitely be purged in the holy temple. I don't want that. I don't want to become an ignorant miner or a soldier.
"Can … Can you just pretend that you never saw me? Thangka, please!"
Thangka was silent. Her head in a mess, she murmured, "You … You really shouldn't have hummed the decadent music of the Imperium."
"I didn't do it on purpose. I swear that I didn't do it on purpose. It's just that the sounds just ran out of my nose for no reason!"
Shao Jie shouted. "Nothing was going on, but Liao Meng just wouldn't let go of me. He couldn't control himself, and he was blaming me? I … I have nowhere to go. Thangka, let me go. Nobody will know! "
Thangka had never seen such weakness and pity in Shao Jie's eyes before. Or rather, she had never seen such a look in the eyes of any of his classmates.
His psychological defense was collapsing, and his legs were shaking.
"You can't let go of him."
Li Yao sighed. "Go and stop him."
"What?"
Thangka was dazed. She did not understand why Li Yao, as an 'extraterrestrial devil', would say such a thing. "You don't want him to 'seek freedom'?"
"He can't run away, and neither can you."
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