Melissa asked softly. Although she knew there was a rock in front of her, she was not entirely sure.
"The partition wall at the end of the tunnel."
The judge told her so.
"The excavators have removed all the collapsed stones, but these things are blocking us, and their styles are too uniform. They cannot be natural. They may be part of a special-shaped building. The purpose is not clear, and we cannot get around them."
"Maybe one of the other tunnels..."
After looking around, the one-eyed mercenary said this.
"No."
Melissa shook her head and traced her fingers across the rock.
Its presence filled her consciousness.
"...The surface has a curvature, it's a sphere, it's very big."
"Sphere?"
The tech-priests voiced doubts.
"If it's true, there's no way my machine can't detect it——"
But the inquisitor interrupted him.
"Our interpretation makes no sense, she may not be sure, but it's very possible, and yes, we should believe Ms. Melissa."
Then, Lennart Meyers looked at Melissa and whispered in an unprecedented and respectful tone:
"Can you tell what's on the other side? What will we find if we break through?"
Melissa endured the pain. She forced herself to examine the terrain more fully. In this place that was more distorted than reality, she prepared herself for the worst attack. She was sure that she was about to encounter the core of subversive power.
However, she found nothing.
This sphere is hollow.
Inside is a vast emptiness, a void full of unknowns, but without enemies.
"There's nothing there."
Melissa's tone also became full of uncertainty.
"This sphere... is an empty shell?"
"Empty shell?"
"No, it might be some kind of center."
As she spoke, she took her hand away.
"It could be the source of the entire underground structure."
Lennart Meyers nodded thoughtfully and whispered:
"As I said before, this is a machine."
The judge's words were more like talking to himself, but the choice vaguely appeared in front of Melissa.
This is something she shouldn't believe, and this is something she cannot avoid.
However, she also wanted to know whether she agreed with the inquisitor's disgusting and crazy conclusion.
She wasn't quite sure.
The judge was silent for a long time, and finally sighed and said to the people around him:
"Let's do this for today. Seal this place and no one can enter or leave without my order. We will find a way tomorrow."
So, the day ended like this, and everyone returned to the camp to repair or rest.
The servants started to make fires to cook, while the soldiers and mercenaries maintained their weapons as always. Although they had not fired a single shot in the past few days, the Pavilion Star itself was a huge battlefield, and no one knew what would happen next moment.
What happens, what will happen.
Being prepared never goes out of style for those who lick blood with their swords.
Melissa's choice is different from others.
She chose to sleep.
At first, her sleep was smooth, until night——
The shadow struck Melissa, and the attack happened suddenly, beyond her expectation.
All defenses remain to protect herself, a shield against her insanity, but they are powerless against the power behind the shadows.
Its influence was breaking through the barrier between the subspace and the physical universe, disrupting her dreams.
As a strictly trained legal psyker, Melissa tried in vain to search for echoes of herself the first time her dreams began to fluctuate.
But her soul vision failed, the waves of the warp swallowed up the light, and as she stared into the darkness, the attack came suddenly.
It came to her room, and as soon as it appeared, Melissa felt like she didn't exist.
But she was very strong and agile, and she worked hard to control herself in the dream, decisively closing the connection between her spiritual consciousness and the subspace, getting rid of its clutches, and establishing her own defense.
Speed, strength and training, these seemingly useless daily trainings all helped her.
But the shadows still shattered Melissa's shield, they laughed ferociously, and their laughter turned into a razor grazing her skin.
Then she roared again, and the voice turned into a curse, drowning her consciousness.
When she woke up again, she was blind for the first time in her life.
"How could-"
Melissa panted, fighting against the suffocating panic in the winter of senses.
She could feel the expansion of her chest, and gradually regained consciousness in her limbs. Then she bent her fingers and felt them scraping against the metal floor, indicating that she fell from the bed.
She also felt a stabbing pain in her neck and back of her neck. It was obvious that her posture was not very good when she fell.
Slowly, she gradually understood her location and the situation around her, and her consciousness gradually awakened from paralysis.
A terrifying concept enveloped her——
She became fragile, she didn't know how long she had been in a coma, and lost her due responsibilities.
What's worse comes from her knowledge of what happened.
She was attacked, and there was an attacker.
Then, as she stood up and off the floor, her awareness of her surroundings returned to her, but not as perfectly as before, as if they had degraded.
She reached for her cane, which should be leaning against the seat.
Melissa took hold of it, steadying herself, then braced herself, and cautiously reached out her hand.
"hiss--"
She grunted in pain, and warm tears flowed from the corners of her eyes.
Sharp, jagged spots appeared on her retinas, interfering with her perception.
They are like claws and broken glass, the embodiment of some invisible pain, twisted madness superimposed on madness.
She was wondering if this was the aftereffect of touching the mysterious sphere during the day?
Melissa felt very thirsty, but there was no water in her house. She wanted to find some water outside the tent, so she walked to the entrance of the tent and gently opened the curtain.
I saw calm as water outside, with a few bonfires burning in the distance, and those were the night watchmen.
Seeing the light, Melissa felt a little calmer. She was about to walk over when she suddenly caught a glimpse of a shadow flashing in the dark.
"Um?"
In doubt, she concentrated her concentration and even used some of her remaining mental power to observe a vague figure walking cautiously towards the deep pit, but no one of the guards who were supposed to be on guard around the area was there.
"he is--"
Melissa hesitated for a moment, and the word "traitor" popped into her mind.
There may be a spy in the team!
This was a big deal. Knowing that it was not simple, she intensified her vision again and finally saw the identity of the man clearly, but she was so frightened that her hands trembled——