Outside the half-collapsed west hall, the smoke from the gunfire was blown away by a gust of wind. The broken branches and leaves still hung with last night’s raindrops, as if the sky had cried.
Audrey lay sideways on the ground, his beautiful silver hair mixed with dust and sweat.
He gasped deeply in pain, struggled to move, turned over, and lay on his back.
The harsh friction sound of crystals growing from flesh echoed in his ears. He looked at the sky with his scattered eyes, feeling the intense pain and changes in his body.
Just like this…has the crystal chaos begun?
Can she not go back?
In mid-air, a small dot quickly enlarged.
Audrey’s chapped lips moved. His vision was tilted, sometimes dark, sometimes white, but he still barely recognized the shape of Snow Dove.
“Jiang…” His voice was almost inaudible, “Don’t come over…”
The frenzied crystal particles were swirling like a whirlpool, turning this area into a deadly forbidden land.
The wind roared like waves. The mecha Snow Dove flew through the thin clouds in the rumbling sound, quickly descending at extreme speed.
The cockpit was pushed open, and the crown prince flipped and landed on the wing in the wild wind.
“Your Highness!” Jiang Jianming leaned out from inside and shouted, his black hair and collar of his military uniform were blown messy. “I really have no problem, please don’t force yourself.”
“No.” Ryann glanced at the rapidly approaching ground, “But you can’t stay here for too long, at most one minute.”
He estimated the frequency of the crystal particle fluctuations in the air and signaled. “Jump.”
Snow Dove landed roughly, raising a trail of dust. Jiang Jianming jumped out of the mecha.
The moment he landed, the red-gold crystal cluster bloomed around him like a shadow, tightly protecting him in this chaotic and disordered environment.
There was no need for more communication between the two. Ryann was multitasking, controlling the crystal particles around Jiang Jianming on one hand, and releasing crystal bones on the other, grabbing the faint Donna on the ground and dragging her towards the mecha!
Jiang Jianming rushed to the entrance of the west hall in a few steps. He looked exceptionally calm, quickly knelt in front of Audrey, and opened the syringe box in his hand.
The silver-haired youth was struggling in pain, curling up his body. Jiang Jianming pressed him down with his knee and elbow, “Audrey, wake up!”
Audrey was sweaty all over. He gradually frowned, laughed hoarsely and shook his head, “Don’t do this, Jiang…it’s no use.”
Jiang Jianming pulled out a syringe and jabbed it into the other’s upper arm. “Third-generation tranquilizer newly developed by the base, it’s useful.”
Is it useful? Jiang Jianming didn’t actually know, because when the chief took out this thing, she only said that it could be tried.
At that time, the situation was severe and time was urgent. All thinking was completed in an instant: Laurent’s crystal bones were not quite normal, and from time to time, the Crystal Cult came up with some black technology, obviously the chief was more needed there…
And besides the base leader, the person who had a certain tolerance to the high concentration of crystal particles and was most familiar with the injection of tranquilizers, of course, only he was left.
The next thing was a matter of course. Jiang Jianming stepped forward and held the syringe box in the chief’s hand, and said in a deep voice, “Chief, please let me go.”
And His Highness Ryann did not stop him, but when he unfolded Snow Dove, he stepped in without warning and pressed him into the cockpit together.
Ding.
The empty needle tube was thrown on the ground.
The chaotic and frenzied crystal particles were getting thicker and thicker. Jiang Jianming gasped hurriedly, propped up the ground with one hand and slowed down.
The tranquilizer could only be injected three times at most. If the crystal chaos did not stop after three injections, all he could do was to personally shoot Audrey himself and end this pain.
The first injection went down, and there was no sign of stopping the mutation on Audrey’s body. His hands and feet had begun to twist and deform, and the skin, flesh, bones, and randomly growing crystals were mixed together.
“Ah…” The silver-haired youth trembled violently, and the severe pain made him struggle in collapse. His bent fingers were rubbed bloody on the ground, and Jiang Jianming could hardly suppress him.
“But…but at least,” in the pool of blood, Audrey struggled to lift his arm, gasped for breath on the verge of death, and said laboriously, “I saw you standing at the highest point of the White Jade Palace, right…”
He lightly stroked Jiang Jianming’s black hair with his blood-stained fingers, and the crystals on it were reflecting a tear-inducing light in the sun.
The silver-haired youth’s expression suddenly became extremely gentle in pain, “…Your Highness the Crown Princess?”
“One day in the future,” Jiang Jianming pulled out the second syringe, his hand was steady, and his voice was calm, “You will be like this too.”
His gaze quickly observed the trend of crystal proliferation, the second injection was aimed at the side of the neck, and the needle tip deeply pierced the skin—
“No, I already…”
Audrey trembled and closed his eyes, his breath was vague, “I can’t watch…Diana… grow up.”
He choked, “Jiang, you have to help me…take care…”
Before he could finish his words, Audrey’s body once again surged with a large number of transparent crystal thorns, each as sharp as a steel needle.
Jiang Jianming’s pupils shrank sharply, and he watched the sharp crystal thorns enlarge in his eyes, stabbing towards his right wrist holding the syringe!
Thud thud, shh——
Footsteps came from behind, and then a figure suddenly knelt beside him, Ryann grabbed Jiang Jianming’s wrist!
Crack! The crystal thorns broke, but the crystal bones that Ryann hurriedly condensed on the back of his hand were also cracked…A few drops of blood fell.
Jiang Jianming: “Your Highness!”
Ryann shouted coldly, “Don’t look at me, continue!”
Jiang Jianming gritted his teeth and pushed the second injection all the way in. “I’m sorry, I am already too busy to worry about myself. No one will help you raise your sister, you have to live on your own.”
Ryann reached out and hugged Jiang Jianming’s shoulders. The complete red-gold crystal bones separated the platinum curls and stretched out from behind the prince.
The crystal bones, like knife blades, pierced into the hard ground, forcibly suppressing the agitated crystal particles around.
The crystal particles on all sides were already in extreme chaos, as if they had set off a stormy sea.
Jiang Jianming struggled to pull out the last syringe from the box. Ryann almost protected him with his own body, and the two of them jointly jabbed the third needle—
“Dia… Diana…”
Audrey stared blankly with his scattered eyes. His blue-gray eyes were so beautiful, like a proud lone wolf on the snowfield.
Tears soaked his eyes at this moment, “My…Diana…”
With the sound of shattering, the tears froze.
No… that’s not ice.
It’s the crystal particles condensing on that eyeball, freezing all the emotions deep in the eyes.
Crystal flowers grew on Audrey’s eyes, squeezing that tear out of the eye socket and sliding down on the icy white cheek that was also covered with crystals.
In the next moment, Jiang Jianming’s waist suddenly tightened. Ryann pulled him back and shouted harshly. “Retreat!”
A cool breeze brushed past his nose. The syringe in Jiang Jianming’s hand fell to the ground and shattered. He staggered back—
The dazzling white light filled the line of sight. Before he could see clearly, he was pressed into his arms by His Highness’s crystal bones, and then there was a brief dizziness.
In the dizziness, the scene just engraved on the retina was reproduced by the brain after knowing it.
—That was countless transparent crystal prisms centered on Audrey, stabbing in all directions, like an explosion, and like a flower blooming. About half a minute passed, the disordered state of the crystal particles gradually stabilized, and Jiang Jianming was finally released by Ryann.
Jiang Jianming was panting low, his black hair was all soaked in cold sweat. He leaned on His Highness’s shoulder and looked back, a little dazed for a while.
“…Don’t look.”
Ryann lowered his eyelids, his voice was a bit hoarse, “Acute crystal chaos is a terminal illness, there is no way.”
In front of him was a chaotic giant crystal cluster. Audrey was held in the center, about seventy percent of her body surface had turned into a strange crystal shape, like a beautiful crystal doll.
Her clothes were torn, whether it was the gender characteristics of being a woman or the racial characteristics of being a non crystal race, there was no room for hiding at this moment.
And those eyes covered with crystals were looking at the two of them with sorrow and unwillingness.
“……”
Jiang Jianming’s face was pale, and his body swayed when he closed his eyes. A sense of powerlessness swept over him, as if a section of his spine had been smashed.
…Living in this cruel world, how many people are trapped by the invisible shackles, their hearts are higher than the sky, but their lives are thinner than paper.
Audrey Lance, the young head of the Lance family, Diana’s “brother”, the only close friend in the world who had shared the suffering and unwillingness of being a disabled human with him.
She didn’t really wear a long dress in public and take off her gloves until she was swallowed by the crystal.
Only this last glimpse was left.
The cold wind blew over the broken ruins. Ryann was silent, looking deeply at Jiang Jianming, and tentatively grasped the other person’s wrist.
He didn’t know how to comfort Jiang Jianming. The previous Ryann should have known how to do it. His Highness thought to himself in annoyance.
Jiang Jianming gently squeezed back.
Just then, his wrist device automatically popped open.
[Woof woof! The object still has vital signs, Seth Henry requests to activate the mecha S-Snow Dove for deep treatment, woof!]
[Repeat information, the object still has vital signs…]
In an instant, Jiang Jianming and Ryann looked at each other in astonishment!
Hope was like a star fire that reignited from the ashes. The two turned around without agreement and cast their surprised eyes back on Audrey in the ice crystal!
To be honest, this doesn’t look like it can still be alive, but…
Jiang Jianming suddenly turned his head and quickly said, “Your Highness! Madam Donna is still in the mecha, Snow Dove cannot fold, we need to get the medical equipment down separately, and the treatment cabin…”
Ryann nodded, and casually took off his wrist device, “You go dismantle the equipment, and then throw it out directly!”
The two acted quickly. Jiang Jianming climbed back into the mecha, and in a few strokes, he dismantled the medical equipment in the Snow Dove, pushed it out along the door of the cockpit, and then unloaded the treatment cabin.
Ryann was receiving it below. The equipment itself was heavy enough, and the treatment cabin was even more than three meters high when it was erected. Thanks to the crystal bones, it could be carried directly and slammed on the ground full of transparent crystal spikes.
When Jiang Jianming jumped down from Snow Dove and rushed back, the intelligence Seth Henry had already been connected to the equipment by His Highness.
Various dazzling probes pierced into Audrey’s body…or the crystal block on the body surface.
On the instrument, the numbers began to jump up and down.
Ryann stared straight at the screen, and said in a low voice. “I have never seen an automatic boot and autonomous intelligence, several times, has this dog become a spirit?”
Jiang Jianming was sweating profusely, calculating the pile of numbers in his heart, and casually said, “No, this should be the intelligence becoming a dog.”
The nonsensical conversation did not relieve the tension, and every second was tormenting.
Until the data jumping stopped, a series of voices from the intelligence Seth Henry sounded again.
[Internal crystal particle content coefficient: 106.89]
[Crystal particle chaos level: 73%]
[Crystal particle activity: relatively low]
[…..]
[Diagnostic result: Acute crystal chaos attack has stopped, transitioning to late-stage chronic crystal chaos…..Woof!]
Chronic crystal chaos… late stage.
Jiang Jianming was dazed for a long time, his heart was filled with mixed feelings, and he felt exhausted, not wanting to move anymore.
The silver-haired noblewoman in front of him was still quietly looking at the distant sky with sad eyes, as if she would never blink again.
This was the first time he knew that humans had prevented sudden death caused by acute crystal chaos.
But acute crystal chaos had progressed to this extent, almost turning a living person into a monster, and coupled with the fact that late-stage chronic crystal chaos itself was a state of stepping into the gates of hell, so…
“So, what’s next…”
Ryann frowned in obvious confusion, casting an inquiring look at the person in his arms, “What should we do?”
Jiang Jianming shook his head tiredly. “There are two ways, give her comfort.”
He bent down to pick up the beam treatment device, and pulled up Ryann’s right hand that had just been stabbed. “Or quickly freeze the human body, let her enter hibernation, and wait for the possible progress of future medical methods. But…”
But, even if the future can really cure chronic crystal chaos, can Audrey wake up?
Even if she wakes up, can her twisted hands and feet still move, can those eyes still see things?
Waking up to face oneself like a monster, isn’t it another kind of torment that is worse than death?
Jiang Jianming’s eyes were slightly sunken, “Your Highness, if it were me…”
Ryann suddenly interrupted him. “Don’t say it.”
Jiang Jianming shook his head, “After all, I am not her relative, I can’t make a decision, I can only tell Diana the truth.”
He raised his neck, and a shadow fell on his pale face. The mecha group of the Golden Sun Wheel in mid-air came into view, and several of them were landing towards this side.
…The matter was not over yet, every second counts on the battlefield, even the time to grieve for separation was a luxury.
Thump. The used beam treatment device was thrown on the ground.
Jiang Jianming first gently rubbed the palm of His Highness with his fingers, then slid up and pressed the folded mecha Slash Comet.
At some point, his eyes had regained their calm and firmness. “Leave the treatment cabin of Snow Dove to Audrey, we will meet with L-Gyrfalcon and continue to pursue Laurent.”
