DING!

~----~

[WARNING!!!]

[ERROR!] [ERROR!] [ERROR!]

[ChronoSystem Recalibrating...!]

[ERROR!] [ERROR...!]

[Attempting Recalibration...!]

[ERROR!]

[ChronoSystem Recalibrating...!]

[Recalibration complete!]

[You have gained a temporary new trait: Stalwart!]

>Stalwart: You are immune to all forms of mind and mental damage and mental manipulation.

...

[WARNING!]

[Due to exceeding limits of operation, the ChronoSystem has been pushed to force-stop and shutdown!]

[#@!*&%...!]

~----~

After what felt like a lifetime of swimming in an endless ocean where he was drowning slowly despite all his struggle, Leon suddenly felt like a mighty hand grabbed him and forcefully dragged him out of the ocean.

And instantly, his brain cleared.

All the fear, all the horror, all the muddle-headedness, it all disappeared like all of it was a dream, like an insidious influence in his mind was not just about to turn him into a slave a moment ago.

Leon shivered.

Then he felt a buzzing sound in his head and suddenly, his eyes regained focus but at the same time he felt a strange sense of loss.

The ChronoSystem... was gone!

"...!" Leon’s eyes widened.

Finally, the last thread of ChronoSystem notifications started making sense to him as the muddle-headedness finally disappeared.

’The system is capable of that?’

’Stalwart?’

Leon couldn’t think much about all of this, all that overwhelmed his mind for a few seconds was the crippling sense of loss that he felt.

Over the months since awakening in this world, he didn’t realize how much he’d grown close to the ChronoSystem but somewhere along the line, the system ended up becoming his best companion already.

When everyone was gone, the ChronoSystem was the one that remained. Even while sleeping, while eating, even while in Trials, it was there.

Without knowing it, the ChronoSystem already became an indispensable part of his life.

And to lose it so suddenly even if temporarily... it was too cruel.

This was not just a simple disappearance, it was a disappearance deep from the depths of his soul. Leon could feel an emptiness within his soul that felt like a deep hole was carved in the depths of his being.

But the even more cruel reality of the situation was that he couldn’t even focus on mourning his loss, because with his muddle-headedness gone, he finally realized the true magnitude of his current situation.

’I’m cornered’.

The thought should have filled Leon with dread, it should have filled him with the mortal fear of facing death in the face in the form of a C Rank Ascended.

But perhaps due to losing the ChronoSystem or due to all the pain that he already suffered in his dream, or even due to the damage to his soul, Leon didn’t feel fear, all he felt was cold rationality to approach the situation.

At this moment, he felt less like a human and more like a robot as his brain instinctively geared into overdrive.

From the moment when the ChronoSystem shattered the shackles of the General’s Neural Tyrant ability, it was not up to 2 seconds yet and in the sky, General Sylvari’s eyes widened in shock.

’How...???’

Again, this Mechanist have broken every single reality that he knew about the conventional world of Ascended.

What just happened should not have been possible, it was impossible.

In the centuries since becoming a C Rank NetRunner, General Sylvari Charr was yet to meet an opponent that could shrug off his Neural Tyrant ability completely, not even Epsilon could.

And yet, yet... this brat just did it!

He could feel it, he could feel the tendrils of his vast soul scraping uselessly against a sudden mental barrier that now protected the brat’s mind soul.

’How?!’

Leon didn’t know what the General was thinking but while he was reeling in shock, Leon himself settled into a state of cold clarity.

His brain moved with the speed of a supercomputer.

And before the General could react, he suddenly dipped his hand into the inner pocket of his jacket where he retrieved a wooden rod- the token that General Ren Nora gave to him some time ago before leaving for Neo Solace.

Within that single second, countless possibilities already clashed and collided in Leon’s head and in all of them, Leon did not see a single reality where he would be able to survive a head-on battle against a C Rank Ascended.

Not even with his allies around. Heck, Daren and Brick were already decommissioned out of the battle before it even started.

This was why his first reaction was to retrieve the wooden rod, it was the solitary key to his survival today.

CRACK!

Leon shattered the wooden rod with an obliterating grip of his fist, sending its shards falling to the ground as General Sylvari Charr immediately regained his focus at the sound of the wooden rod shattering.

Leon saw a wisp of neon green ADE instantly snake out of the tendrils of the wooden rod, flying into the sky with mach speed but then it was intercepted!

A tight net of ghostly blue suddenly materialized in the sky, preventing the single data stream from escaping the wasteland.

Seeing that data stream, General Sylvari Charr forgot about the crazy thing that the Mechanist just did as he revealed a crazy grin on his mechanical face. "Just like I expected".

He looked down at the Mechanist and snarled. "Unfortunately for you, I was prepared".

"Not today," he grinned. "No one is coming to save you".

Just as the General was speaking, the wisp of neon green ADE after trying to no avail to pass through the tight net of ghostly blue energy hesitated slightly and then suddenly detonated into tiny particles of bioluminescent light that quickly disappeared.

Seeing this, everyone froze.

Leon froze, General Sylvari Charr also froze in the sky as the General’s eyes constricted into slits.

Leon and the General thought the same thing at the same time, and instantly, they looked at each other again.

Staring into the gray eyes of the General, Leon felt the weight of murderous bloodlust that had been contained and cultivated for over a century!

He felt crushed under the weight of such thick killing intent, but Leon did not let his legs buckle despite the pain of his injuries still aching.

At this moment, adrenaline was the only thing keeping him going.

And it was why he turned in that moment, and ran.

’Plan B!’

Leon charged towards Lt. Colonel Umar Farouq as he turned into a blur of grayish white.

Plan A was that the moment he shattered the wooden rod, General Ren Nora will sense it immediately and teleport here to help him but clearly, having anticipated this, the Federation General had done something in advance to interfere with this process.

But judging by what happened to the wisp of neon green ADE in the end, Leon guessed that the General’s countermeasure was not perfect either.

Even if General Ren Nora could not teleport here immediately again due to Sylvari’s plan, he had a hunch that the General was already rushing here.

Which meant that the only thing he needed to do was not fight General Sylvari Charr to win, but to fight the General to survive and stall for time.

Alone, Leon had 0 confidence in doing this, but he was not alone.

He had allies, he had Lt. Colonel Umar Farouq by his side and judging by how smart the Lt. Colonel usually was, he was sure that he already realized his intentions the moment he started running towards him.

But in that moment, Lt. Colonel Umar Farouq did something that Leon didn’t expect.

Even as he was charging towards him, the Lt. Colonel didn’t show any indications of preparing for battle to join him and resist the Federation General.

Lt. Colonel Umar Farouq did not enter a battle stance.

Instead, he simply stood and looked at him with an expression on his face that was unreadable at first, but which Leon quickly grasped.

’Is that... an apology?’

His heart skipped a beat. ’Apology? Why?’

And then he realized.

Leon’s eyes widened. ’I’ve been betrayed...’

Neural Projection!

BZZZZ!

Leon felt a conflagration of extremely dense ADE behind him and before he could react, General Sylvari Charr was already behind him.

He couldn’t turn, he couldn’t resist. He could do nothing.

All he could do was stare at Lt. Colonel Umar Farouq with a look of disbelief on his face as the General’s mechanical fist tore into his back, pulverizing the R9 energy shield and through his skin like paper before grabbing his heart and tearing it out of his chest!

"Ahhh...!" Leon gasped and staggered.