Free Web NovelChapter 426: Sweating And Burning
Keres stood alone in the basement, pausing to gather his thoughts. He could unconsciously hear the people’s footsteps running quickly down to the basement.
It seemed that they had already noticed Helena missing.
He quickly hid the powder that Ethan gave him somewhere in Helena’s body.
The hidden emergency control system in the basement also indicated that the barrier was already chipping away rapidly due to the increasing number of Insectoids outside.
But that wasn’t Keres’s problem.
Because all he could think about was—
Impossible. There’s no way.
Keres shook her head, amused in spite of herself, and turned back to the weapons.
Then he paused again and frowned.
Was Ethan—
Keres replayed the few times that he talked with Ethan. How indifferent he was to human life. The way he seemingly wanted to end the human race for an unknown reason.
No. No way, right?
That Ethan.
The light went out behind his eyes in certain triggers.
Oh.
Oh.
Keres began to laugh.
At first, it was just a small, quiet laugh. Then it got louder and uncontrollably began unhinged with a laugh.
Keres pressed a knuckle to her mouth to keep it from getting even louder. He leaned back against the weapons rack, Helena’s strong shoulders shaking.
No way, did their master—
Their master— surely not? Keres’ mind began to race. But if he did—
Of course, of course, anything is possible with their master.
If he even managed to do that to a human, their master is definitely unstoppable right now.
Keres’s eyes glinted in pride and delight.
This war will finally be ours to win!
Then Keres recalled Ethan’s eyes that didn’t even have a hint of confusion with the disappearance of his few minutes or seconds of memories.
Poor guy, he still thinks that he is in control, doesn’t he?
Keres laughed until Helena’s ribs ached.
Oh, their master was so good, really good.
Keres wiped the corner of Helena’s eye with the pad of his thumb and adjusted the strap of his weapon. She rolled Helena’s neck until it popped.
Okay, let’s calm down.
Keres took a deep breath and practiced smiling in the nearby mirror. Adjusting and clearing his throat to match the tone of his voice to sound more Helena-ish.
Perfect.
The door hissed.
Keres or ’Helena’ stood with her back half-turned to Grayson and Chronos. She was wearing a complete exoskeleton suit, ready for combat.
A crate of sealed plasma cartridges balanced on her right hip. Another five crates were stacked haphazardly against the wall.
The left side of her outfit was darkened with sweat. Her hair hung loose against her neck in damp ropes.
Helena didn’t turn quickly when she heard the door open.
Grayson managed to cross the room in four strides, grabbed her upper arm, and said, low and even, "Helena."
The contact should have been nothing for someone like Helena, a seasoned active Military Officer.
However, Keres desperately wanted to scream right there and then.
He did not expect that a single contact of Grayson’s hand against Helena’s palm would make him experience this excruciating pain.
He knew that this wasn’t a normal pain because he could feel a separate, negligible pain in his arm. It was unlike the electrifying pain that he was feeling all over his ’body’.
What is this? he thought frantically. What is this, what is this—
Grayson wasn’t even holding Helena’s arm that hard anymore. Probably because he saw Helena’s complexion going pale.
Even so, even if Grayson saw Helena’s discomfort, he didn’t let go.
Therefore, the grip continued to burn.
However, in a place no one in this room noticed.
On Grayson’s other wrist, under the edge of the cuffs of his sleeves, where a slim bracelet of ocean pearls had been hiding, one pearl went black.
It completely turned the white pearl into a black, almost dull, obsidian black pearl.
"Helena," Grayson called again, with a faint concern laced into his tone now. "You look like you’re about to fall over. Are you sick?"
Keres opened Helena’s mouth and almost, almost, spoke.
But he managed to stop himself at the last second. His voice and Helena’s would not have been identical in the normal way.
If Keres tried to speak through Helena’s vocal cords now, he was not sure that he could control it properly to sound like Helena. All because he could feel that he couldn’t control this body properly. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
Instead, he nodded.
Good, he told himself. Calm. Breathe. They still don’t know anything. I’m still safe.
Grayson guided him—her—toward a supply crate and sat him down on it carefully.
This Grayson, the one currently pressing the back of his hand to Helena’s forehead, was a Grayson Keres didn’t have any information on.
"It seems to be at a normal temperature, but she was sweating a lot," Grayson said over his shoulder.
Chronos was already moving. He grabbed a fresh towel from the emergency supply kit mounted on the wall.
He dampened it under the sterile-water dispenser and crossed back with the folded cloth in one hand.
"Here." He handed it to Grayson, then crouched down in front of Helena so that their eye levels matched. "Helena. Did you come down here because you were feeling sick?"
Keres could only nod again. He couldn’t think properly. He could feel Helena’s sweat pooling under her arms, her hair, at the small of her back.
The temperature regulation of this body was failing, as if it were fighting him, the foreign existence.
Keres did not know—could not possibly know—that the pearls on Grayson’s wrist were the culprit of his suffering.
He only knew that he was being pulled.
Pulled down, pulled out, pulled loose. freēwebnovel.com
Then, a second pearl on Grayson’s bracelet quietly dulled in color and then completely went black.
Ack!
"Helena!" Grayson called out.
He was still crouching beside her, still holding her arm as if he didn’t quite trust her not to topple.
"What’s wrong? Is it your throat? Say something."
Keres could only nod. By some miracle, he managed to lift Helena’s right hand and tapped two fingers against her throat.
Then made a vague gesture that could be read as sore, scratchy, I just don’t feel like talking.
