Free Web NovelThe guns confirmed everything.
Both answered calmly, without interrupting each other, alternating sentences as if they'd been talking together for years. The redhead explained and the blue-haired one added to it. Sometimes the other way around, but never at the same time.
What they said matched exactly what the blonde girl had told him.
The material Matt used to repair and modify them had created a barrier around their consciousnesses.
Layer upon layer upon layer, until what was inside couldn't get out. Both had tried to awaken several times during the trial, but every attempt crashed against that wall of hardened material and bounced back inward.
Matt listened to everything without interrupting.
When they finished, he asked if they had any problem obeying his orders.
Both shook their heads and promised to be more obedient than the bow-lance.
Matt nodded with relief at those words, and behind the two guns, sitting with her legs crossed and her arms pressed tight against her chest, the blonde girl exploded.
"You're both so ungrateful!"
The redhead turned her head toward her.
The blue-haired one did the same.
"I woke you up! I gave you my energy! I broke through those layers! And now you sit there and tell Master you're going to be more obedient than me! What kind of gratitude is that?!"
The redhead looked at her with a calm expression.
"You didn't want to help us."
"I helped you!"
"Because Master made you."
The blonde girl opened her mouth to protest, but the blue-haired one spoke first.
"You only followed Master's order to awaken us. If he hadn't threatened to leave you alone, you were planning to abandon us here."
"That's not—!"
"Yes it is."
The blue-haired one's voice was soft, but firm.
"We heard every time you called us junk."
The blonde girl closed her mouth.
"That… that was because…"
"Because you're selfish," said the redhead in the same calm tone as before.
"I'm not selfish! Who told you to be so useless?! If you'd awakened on your own I wouldn't have had to do anything! But no! That's not my fault! It's your fault for being so—!"
"Quiet," said Matt, cutting the girl off.
The blonde girl turned her head toward him.
Matt was pointing at her with his index finger.
"If you don't learn to keep silent, I'm going to leave you here."
The girl opened her mouth. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
Matt raised his hand.
He said nothing.
Just raised it, palm open toward her, in a clear gesture.
Silence.
The girl closed her mouth. Her lips trembled slightly and her eyes narrowed and her entire body went tense.
The redhead, who had kept a calm expression throughout the whole argument, let out a short laugh, almost inaudible, that came out through her nose. A quick exhale with the corner of her lip barely lifted.
The blonde girl saw it.
And the blue-haired one, without saying a word, turned her head toward the blonde and stuck her tongue out at her.
It was quick.
One second.
Two at most.
Then the blue-haired one looked back at Matt with a serene expression, as if nothing had happened.
The blonde girl squeezed her fists so hard her knuckles cracked.
But she said nothing.
Matt, who had seen all of it, decided not to comment since he wasn't in the mood, and sat down on the floor in front of all three with his legs crossed.
"For now you won't have a soul contract with me."
The redhead and the blue-haired one looked at him without changing expression.
"That will come when I defuse from Noxx. When that happens, she'll make the contract with the two of you."
The redhead nodded.
"We have no problem with that, Master."
The blue-haired one nodded as well.
"We understand."
Matt observed them for a moment, internally wondering if they were going to stay this obedient all the time, even briefly entertaining the thought of telling Noxx that the bow-lance would be her new weapon instead.
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But no — he had to stick with the plan.
Matt spoke again.
"Do you know if there's any way out of this place?"
The redhead looked at the blue-haired one.
The blue-haired one looked at the redhead.
Both looked back at Matt.
"No, Master," said the redhead. "We're sorry."
"We're sorry we can't help with that," said the blue-haired one, lowering her head slightly.
Behind them, the blonde girl let out a laugh — small, almost soundless. Just air leaving through her nose with a little more force than necessary.
But Matt heard it, and he looked at her, and the blonde covered her mouth with her hand and looked away to one side, pretending she hadn't done anything.
Matt decided to ignore her.
"Matt."
Noxx's voice sounded inside his head.
Matt didn't move. His expression didn't change. But his attention shifted inward.
"What is it?"
"There's something I forgot to mention."
Matt waited.
"There's a crack in the ceiling."
Matt looked up.
"A crack?"
"Yes. I saw it when we were separated, right before we fused back together after the fight with the boss. I didn't pay it much attention at the time because I was focused on the fight, but now that I think about it… it could be a way out. Or at least a path to somewhere."
Matt processed the information.
"How big is it?"
"I'm not sure. From below it looked like a dark line, but it could be wider than it appears. Someone would have to go up and check."
Matt nodded inwardly.
"Thanks, Noxx."
"You're welcome."
A pause.
"Matt."
"Yeah?"
"Rest a little before going up. You've been almost a day without real sleep."
"I'm fine."
"You're not fine. I can feel your exhaustion from here."
Matt didn't respond to that.
"Rest," Noxx repeated. "I'll be here."
"Alright."
Matt shifted his attention back outward.
The three girls were watching him closely — the blonde with the expression of someone who was dying to speak but didn't dare.
Matt looked at her.
The blonde girl straightened up.
Her two eyes opened a little wider. Her mouth parted slightly. Her whole body leaned forward, waiting.
Waiting for Matt to ask her something.
To say something.
To look at her and give her an order, a question, an insult, anything.
Anything at all.
Matt ignored her.
He turned to the other two.
"I need you to stay in your weapon forms."
The redhead nodded.
"Understood, Master."
"When we get out to the exterior, you'll enter with Noxx. She'll make the contract with you at that point."
The blue-haired one nodded.
"We'll be ready."
Matt looked at them a moment longer.
"Do it."
Both closed their eyes at the same time.
The redhead's body began to glow with a soft red tone. Her skin became translucent, then transparent, then dissolved into red particles that compressed in on themselves until they formed a solid mass.
The heavy gun dropped to the floor with a dull impact.
Clank!
Red, crystalline, and large.
The blue-haired one's body did the same. A blue glow, the skin dissolving, the particles compressing.
The light gun fell beside the other one.
Clank!
Blue, crystalline, smaller.
Matt crouched to pick them up, and as he lowered himself, he came face to face with the blonde girl.
She was sitting right behind where the other two had been. And now that they were gone, there was nothing between Matt and the blonde.
Her two eyes — the red and the blue — looked at him from below.
She was waiting.
Waiting for him to say something to her.
Anything.
Matt picked up the heavy gun with his left hand. Then he reached his right toward the light gun.
The girl didn't move.
She just watched him.
Matt grabbed the light gun and lifted himself slightly, but was still crouching, at her level.
He sighed.
"As you can see, I now have two ego weapons besides you."
The girl didn't respond.
She was making a visible effort not to speak. Her lips trembled. Her fingers opened and closed on her knees. Both eyes blinked faster than normal.
Matt continued.
"If you keep that attitude up, I really am going to leave you here alone."
The girl almost responded, but stopped herself. She pressed her lips together hard and swallowed whatever she'd been about to say.
Matt watched her.
'She's actually trying to stay quiet…'
It was the first time he'd seen her do that.
Since she'd awakened, the girl hadn't stopped talking for a single second. Every thought that crossed her head came out of her mouth without a filter. Every emotion became words before she could even process it.
And now she was sitting there, quiet, jaw clenched and eyes fixed on him, holding back everything she wanted to say with a willpower Matt hadn't expected her to have.
Matt kept talking.
"Our souls are currently fused by the contract."
The girl nodded.
"That means you need to learn to merge with me."
The girl's eyes opened slightly wider.
"If you don't merge with me, the queen is going to see you."
The girl listened without moving.
"I need you to hide inside me. I don't want the queen to know you exist."
The girl smiled.
She couldn't help it.
The smile came out on its own, pushing the corners of her lips upward even though she was trying to hold a serious expression.
Matt saw it.
"Control yourself."
The girl pressed her lips together.
The smile didn't fully disappear, but it got smaller.
"I genuinely need you to obey me."
The girl nodded several times. Her head moved up and down as if she wanted to make up in physical enthusiasm for everything she couldn't say with words.
Matt looked at her a moment longer.
"Return to your bow-lance form."
The girl closed her eyes.
A golden glow began to come from her body. More intense than the guns' glow and warmer. The blonde hair rose again, floating around her head. The skin became luminous.
The red cracks reappeared all over her body — on her arms, her legs, her neck, her face — glowing with an intense red before everything compressed.
FWASH!
The glow was strong.
Matt narrowed his eyes.
When the light faded, the girl was no longer there.
In her place, dropping through the air, was the bow-lance. Silver. With red cracks pulsing with energy. The golden tips glowing with a soft light.
Matt caught it with his right hand before it hit the floor.
Clank!
The light gun slipped from between his fingers as he grabbed the bow-lance and fell to the ground with a crystalline clink.
Matt looked down and sighed.
"Damn it…"
He had the heavy gun in his left hand and the bow-lance in his right. The light gun was on the floor. And he only had two hands.
Matt closed his eyes and concentrated.
The bow-lance in his right hand began to vibrate and its silver surface started to dissolve. Not into particles — into something more like a liquid.
The metal became fluid, spread across Matt's palm, climbed over his fingers, covered the back of his hand, and began creeping up his wrist. Then his forearm. Then his elbow.
The bow-lance was fusing with his skin.
The silver liquid settled over Matt's right arm, solidifying in a pattern that covered from his knuckles to his shoulder. The weapon's red cracks remained, drawing thin lines over the skin.
Matt opened his eyes and looked at his arm.
A tattoo.
That was what it looked like.
A silver tattoo with red veins covering his entire right arm.
Matt spoke quietly.
"Make yourself smaller."
The tattoo didn't move.
"The queen can't see you. If she sees you, she's going to ask questions."
The tattoo contracted slightly. The silver lines pulled back from the shoulder to the elbow. Then from the elbow to the wrist. But there it stopped.
Matt frowned.
"Obey."
The tattoo trembled. The lines contracted further. From the wrist to the palm. From the palm to the fingers. Smaller and smaller, more and more compressed, until the entire pattern concentrated into a single point at the center of Matt's palm.
A tiny ball — small, silver, with a red dot at the center — barely visible.
Matt opened his hand and looked at it.
"Good."
The little ball pulsed once.
Matt could almost feel the satisfaction radiating from that tiny point.
'At least she obeys when she wants to…' free𝑤ebnovel.com
Matt crouched and picked up the light gun from the floor with his right hand. Now he had the heavy one in his left and the light one in his right. He stood for a moment, looking upward.
The ceiling was far away. Darkness covered almost everything. But somewhere up there, according to Noxx, was a crack.
Matt spoke.
Not upward.
To his hand.
"How do we get out of here?"
The silver ball in his palm didn't move.
Matt waited.
Nothing.
The ball stayed there, motionless, pulsing softly.
Matt understood.
"You can speak now."
The response was immediate.
The ball vibrated hard and the girl's voice shot out from the palm of his hand — loud, clear, and in a tone that was trying to sound military but not quite pulling it off.
"Yes, sir! The way out of this place is to use me to blow a hole in the ceiling and fly out of here, sir!"
