Transcendent Gene
Chapter 110: Premonition [6]

Chapter 110: Premonition [6]

The Hammer was mostly soundless. Compared to its size, the amount of sound made by its impact was almost nothing.

However, it did have a sound. As it seared into the world and incinerated a chunk of it like nothing, it whirred with a high-pitched hum that could be heard for miles on end if it was quiet enough.

And it was hard to avoid the obvious visual shock one would experience when seeing that massive beam of light strike the earth.

It started with the sound.

As the ground team ran for that area near Amaya and Gio’s camp where the rendezvous point was located, their ears picked up the high-pitched whirring.

Gio felt the hairs on the back of his head stand up as Amaya turned around to face the direction of the sound.

He fell off his back in the next second. She’d been surprised enough to drop him, and he was surprised enough to almost not catch himself before he fell on his butt.

VOOOOOOM!

The jungle covered a lot of it. The canopy of trees made it almost impossible to see what was above, and the densely packed jungle made it hard to see anything several kilometers away like that impact.

However, the senses of a Sequencer were different. Their entire body had a perceptive sense that could be spread into the world around them. This sense would improve as they grew, giving them the ability to perceive more and more.

The senses of people at the Master and General Grades like them could cover a few kilometers with ease. Even if they couldn’t sense its weight in full, they could sense enough to fill in the gaps left by the crimson hue raining down in rays from beyond the canopy.

Gio immediately felt his heart drop when Amaya let him go. His eyes went up in an instant, and he also saw that crimson hue.

However, he didn’t doubt it for a second.

There was only one weapon he could think of that fit all the requirements he listed in his head while they were fleeing.

He gritted his teeth and rushed to the nearest tree, climbing it like a monkey. His dexterity had improved greatly over the past few months, making it quite an easy task.

He moved through its branches and rushed up to its highest point, pushing his head through the leaves to see exactly what was happening.

There was nothing unexpected about it.

Perhaps that was the worst part.

The beam of light fell for over a minute before disappearing. The ground was turned into a mess. The facility below was completely destroyed.

However, as the target of the beam was so far out, only the facilities near the villages were destroyed. The core of the machine was unharmed.

They were still in the area. If they returned now, they could cause great damage while those underground were unprepared. It took too much to fire the Hammer and every beam had to be charged. The weapon wouldn’t be able to attack for at least another day.

Only, none of their thoughts were on the mission anymore.

’Raymond is...’

Gio wasn’t the only one who thought of the Captain of their squad first.

The same Captain who was not with them and couldn’t be sensed when they extended their senses.

"Gio, get down here!"

Before Amaya could even finish, Gio was already there.

"Drop me off when we’re closer to the rough area. I’ll help with the search."

She didn’t even acknowledge his words. She only took him on her back before extending a pair of wings and shooting into the air. The other team members did the same, rushing through the jungle as fast as possible.

It took several minutes to reach where they’d been, but in only one or two, they were back in the vicinity.

Amaya dropped down to the ground, allowing Gio off her back. She also realized she’d have an easier time searching if she didn’t have to carry him around.

"Be careful."

Two words of warning were the only signs of hesitation in her body before she disappeared into the sky again. With narrowed eyes, Gio looked into the surrounding jungle.

’He can’t die like this.’

Even if it was an event where all of them were supposed to die, Raymond couldn’t die here.

’The people I care about cannot die. That’s the future I came back to create.’

He bit his lip until it bled, clenching his fists in frustration.

’My mind is almost at its limits.’

He couldn’t keep straining himself.

However, he also couldn’t rest until he knew what happened to Raymond.

He pushed through the jungle, sending energy into his eyes. He could hear Hekat’s complaints in his head, but he ignored them.

’You know I know what I’m doing. Let it be.’

As he quelled its worried voice, he allowed his vision to darken.

’He didn’t know where the rendezvous was exactly. He should have been taking a rough path to our location before the beam hit...no, that’s if he even had time to do that.’

Gio frowned. He activated and deactivated his ability over and over again, using it in short bursts to maximize efficiency. He was able to see a bird’s eye view of the jungle when he was flying with Amaya. The crater left by the explosion was hard to miss.

’The others should be there too.’

But if that was Raymond’s most probable location, Gio had to go there as well.

Luckily, Amaya dropped him off relatively close. He moved to the north, scanning the brush as he ran. He was looking for signs of human activity amidst the signals entering his eyes.

A blood trail, excited beasts, anything...

Gio’s eyes widened.

Rather than his eyes, his nose was the one to tell him he was close. The stench of blood filled his nostrils. Soon after, the trail of blood seeping into the ground highlighted itself in the black-and-white world as if feeding on Gio’s misery.

He rushed forward, thinking nothing else. He had to find it. Whether it was a healthy Raymond or a corpse, he had to find it.

He pushed through the massive plants around him, cutting them down if he had to. He threw himself forward, stumbling into a clearing and falling to his knees.

His hands went to the ground as he stood up, however, the motion cut off halfway.

Gio barely raised his eyes to see what was in front of him.

His eyes met with the eyes of another.

"That’s good..."

Just as the words fell, several other members arrived in the clearing to witness the same sight.

"I knew...you guys...would find me..."

Strained words came out of a mouth decorated only with a wry smile.

Raymond’s body collapsed as consciousness left him. His eyes glassed over even as the team members rushed to him.

Jason slowly raised him off the ground with shaky hands, putting his arms around his neck carefully.

"We...need to get to the zephyr," he said in a hushed tone.

They needed to get to the medical bay as soon as possible.

They had no other choice.

Because the man on Jason’s back...

The legs he once had no longer existed below his waist.