Dark Universe & Forbidden Love

by Hao Yang

  When the vessel reached the location, Jason jumped out and ran to Lisania, followed by Gloria. Lisania was holding Lilen in her arms.

  “How is she?” Jason asked hastily.

  “Jason, she is dying. It’s too late.” Lisania said sadly.

  Gloria noticed the cloth covering Lisania’s eyes and ears, wondering how a girl rescued an old lady with her eyes closed.

  “Let’s get out of here first.” Gloria said calmly.

  Jason carried his grandma on the back and they all got into the vessel. It blasted off into the outer space.

  Lilen was in deep coma, murmuring something Jason couldn’t understand, her leg swollen three time the size of a normal leg.

  Gloria walked to Jason and asked, “How is she?”

  “I don’t know.” Jason said sadly.

  “This works for Glycan. I am not sure how it will work for Human.” Gloria said as she showed Jason an instrument in her hand.

  “What is it used for?”

  “It is like a robot doctor.”

  “Go ahead.”

  Gloria switched on the instrument. Beams of blue light scanned Lilen’s body. After a minute, Gloria looked at Jason and sighed.

  “What is it?” Jason asked nervously.

  “Jason, it’s too late.” Gloria said sadly.

  “What do you mean it’s too late? You are Glycan and you can’t save her! She is still alive. She is breathing.” Jason barked at Gloria like an animal.

  Gloria didn’t say a word. She understood Jason’s feeling.

  Jason was trembling in anger. He left Lilen and headed to the weapon bay.

  “What are you going to do?” Gloria asked as she was following behind Jason.

  “You want to take a guess?” Jason said angrily.

  “You want to use the combat suit? Jason. There is no time for that. You are in danger. That’s why I am here.” Gloria said as she grabbed Jason’s shoulder.

  “I don’t care. I am going to kill all of them.” Jason said firmly.

  “You might die before that.” Gloria said calmly.

  “What do you mean?” Jason turned around, staring at Gloria.

  “There are some bacteria draining your bone marrow and leeching your life. You will die if we don’t get the cure.” Gloria said emotionally.

  “Then I need to hurry.” Jason said decisively.

  “You think they are still there after they saw us and the vessel.” Gloria said calmly.

  “I will kill what I find.” Jason shouted and turned away.

  Gloria knew wouldn’t listen to her at this moment. She took out a stun gun from her pocket and aimed it at Jason.

  Just at this moment, Jason heard a voice in his brain. It was Lisania and she was warning him. He turned around and Gloria fired. He fell on the deck like a stone.

  Gloria ran to Jason and held him in her arms. She cried and said, “Sorry. Sorry.”

  Lisania walked to Gloria and said, “I still can’ believe you did this.”

  Gloria was scared and quickly turned around. She saw Lisania and now Lisania wasn’t covering her eyes and ears with cloth. She immediately realized that Lisania was a Hylocan.

  “I was wondering how a blind girl could rescue his grandma.” Gloria said in surprise.

  “He didn’t tell you? I guess you two have some problem in your relationship.” Lisania said in a provocative tone.

  “That is funny.” Gloria said angrily as she pointed the gun at Lisania.

  “Really?” Lisania’s voice was echoing in Gloria’s brain.

  “I guess we can save the trouble of speaking it out.” Gloria thought in her mind.

  “You are damn right. I always want to meet you to see what you look like. Unfortunately, you are not as beautiful as I imagined. Pull the trigger. What are you waiting for?” Lisania flashed a brittle smile.

  “Shut up.”

  “You think when you think about firing the gun, I will know and dodge. It takes you this long to figure that out?”

  Gloria fired the gun, but Lisania had seen it coming and dodged the shot. She darted to Gloria, dodged another shot, and then kicked the gun away.

  Gloria took a swipe at Lisania, her uniform transforming into an armor suit in a blink. Lisania blocked the punch easily.

  “You know I see your every move. Why waste your time? I don’t want to fight with you. I know why you are here. I care about Jason as much as you do”

  “Shut up.” Gloria shouted angrily. She attacked Lisania like crazy, but couldn’t even made a scratch on her. But she didn’t stop until she couldn’t catch her breath.

  “Do you want to take a break? You see, it is very easy for me to kill you. Do you know why I didn’t do that?”

  “Oh, yea?” Gloria shouted as she threw a punch at Lisania’s face. Lisania avoided it as if she was dancing around Gloria.

  “If I kill you, Jason will kill me without any hesitation. That is the last thing I want.”

  “You don’t need to worry about that. I will kill you first.” Gloria said and darted to Lisania.

  “I could save him from the bacteria.”

  Gloria suddenly stopped and asked, “How do you do that?”

  “As we all know, it is bloody difficult to catch Tiegotteen. But if you know their next move, even if they move like lightning, it will be much easier.” Lisania pointed at her eyes.

  “I don’t need your help!” Gloria snarled.

  “I am not helping you. You idiot!” Lisania sneezed at Gloria.

  Gloria paused for several seconds and asked, “You can read Tiegotteen’s minds?”

  “We don’t have time for 100 questions.”

  “They really should kill you all.” Gloria said as her armor suit transformed back to an uniform.

  “Fuck you!” Lisania shouted.

  Gloria walked to Jason and lifted him from the floor. After carrying Jason several steps, she stopped and set him on the ground. He was too heavy for her.

  Lisania rolled her eyes at Gloria and said, “You tired?”

  “Listen, this is the last thing I want. If you want to save Jason, we need to work together. Do you understand?” Gloria said coldly.

  “I don’t need your help.” Lisania said easily.

  “Oh, yea? Can you carry him on your own?” Gloria asked ironically.

  “This is for him. You remember that!” Lisania said as she walked to Jason.

  They carried Jason into a compartment and put him on a bed.

  Chapter 81

  Gloria, Lisania and Jason were on the way to planet Roito where Tiegotteen resided. Its surface was covered by a thick crust of ice. Beneath the ice, there were deep oceans hosting all kinds of weird creatures and Tiegoteen was one of them. The legend had it that they lived in the deepest part of the oceans where it was completely dark and extremely cold.

  It would take six hours to reach Roito and right now they were half way through.

  Gloria was staying with Jason the whole time. She was worried that Lisania would take her place when she left Jason. Even though she didn’t have the ability to read minds, she knew Lisania loved Jason.

  Just at this moment, Lisania opened the door and said, “Listen, I don’t want to talk to you. But we need to wake him up.”

  “I guess you guys had a good start while I was asleep.” Jason said. He slowly got up and sat on the bed.

  “I was hoping you could do a proper introduction.” Gloria said ironically.

  “I would like to, if I was conscious at that moment.” Jason said unhappily.

  “After you two finish fighting, we have work to do.” Lisania said and left.

  “How is my grandma?”

  “She is dead.” Gloria said sadly.

  Jason let out a long sigh, but he didn’t cry. He was sad but mostly angry.

  Gloria didn’t know what to say, so they just stay in the silence for a long while.

  “I am sorry I didn’t tell you anything about this Hylocan girl. I was worried that you wou
ldn’t understand and hate me.” Jason said gently.

  “And you are right about that.” Gloria said coldly. She quickly stood up from Jason’s bed side and walked out.

  Later Jason learned from Lisania that Lilen passed away when he was still in coma. Jason wanted to go back to Earth immediately, but Lisania managed to talk some sense into him. She pointed out that there was no way he could find Tioto in the slum and killing others would only make him regret later.

  After two hours, the combat vessel touched down on the surface of planet Roito in a hail storm. The hailstone was as big as a basketball. The planet had a ice cape that was 2000 meter thick and the ocean beneath it was 500000 meters deep.

  Jason, Gloria and Lisania were checking the two robots in the weapon bay.

  “Do you have any plan?” Gloria asked as she fixed a lance like blood collector on the robot arm.

  “Not really, we will see as we go. I will take Lisania with me. Just in case you two fight.” Jason said decisively.

  “Thank you. That is very thoughtful.” Lisania said ironically as she rolled her eyes at Gloria.

  They climbed into two robots. A door on the deck slowly opened upwards. Jason and Gloria flew the robots over the ice ground and fired their thermo rifles at the ice cape. They soon tunneled through the ice cape and ditched into the ocean.

  Jason first felt the liquid was very thick and sticky. Then he noticed the armors were rattled with small shallow dents.

  “This is not water. It is like some kind of strong acid. They are eating the armor.” Jason said uneasily.

  “It could be sulfuric acid. We are crossing 100000 meters now. It will take about 10 minutes to reach 500000 meters. We should be all right.” Gloria said calmly.

  As they were plunging deeper, the liquid became more and more murky.

  When they were getting close to the bottom, they saw millions of cylinders clustering together. Each cylinder was interlocking nearby ones with tentacles. It looked like an endless undersea forest.

  They saw flash of light in the forest as if stars blinked in the night sky.

  “Those are Tiegotteens.” Lisania said calmly.

  “I guess that is why legend says it moves like lightning.” Jason said uneasily.

  “There is one right below us, closing fast.”

  “It wants to attack us?” Gloria asked.

  “To see us.”

  Just at this moment, a beam of light shot from the bottom, passing right in front of Jason. It disappeared in a blink.

  “That is what we are looking for.” Lisania said in a heavy tone.

  “That is quick.” Jason sighed.

  “The light we saw was actually its tail and they are smart.” Lisania said.

  “What do you mean they are smart?” Gloria asked impatiently.

  “Others sent it to scare us.”

  “Others?” Jason asked.

  “Yea, there are more than 1000 some one kilometer away.”

  “You are the Oracle!” Gloria said in surprise. She knew only the Oracle could see this far.

  “Really? You are the Oracle?” Jason asked.

  “Guys, please, let’s focus on why we are here. Right now they are thinking sending another one to check on us.”

  “Can you get its route?” Jason asked.

  “It will pass in front of Gloria from her right side. Wait my word.” Lisania said calmly.

  Gloria closed her eyes, a dagger popping out of her forearm armor.

  “Get ready! Five, four, three, two, Now!”

  Gloria thrusted the dagger forwards and it stuck right in the middle of the Tiegotteen.

  ‘I got it! I got it!” Gloria shouted excitedly as she stabbed the blood collector into its body.

  Right at this moment, hundreds of Tiegotteens lunged at Gloria and Jason from all directions, ramming their armor suits, knocking them around and throwing them everywhere.

  Jason was firing everything he had on the robot at those Tiegotteens, but he suddenly felt pain in every bone. He screamed in pain, blood spewing from his mouth, his body trembling.

  “Jason!” Lisania yelled.

  “What happened?” Gloria asked nervously.

  “He is dying. It is the bacteria.”

  “Get him out of here now! Now!” Gloria shouted.

  Lisania took over the control and tried to get away from those Tiegotteens. But layers of Tiegotteens tackled the robot and pulled it to the bottom.

  “I am stuck.” Lisania panicked.

  “Use the emergency pod!” Gloria yelled.

  Lisania pulled the emergency ejection handle. The back of the robot opened and the emergency pod blasted off like a rocket, jostling through the crowd of Tiegotteens and heading to the surface.

  As Gloria watched they leave, a big Tiegotteens attacked her robot from behind, winding its body around it like a snake. Gloria pulled the emergency ejection handle, but it was too late. The back of her armor suit couldn’t open.

  More and more Tigeotteens attached to the big Tigeotteen and dragged the robot deep into the undersea forest.

  Chapter 82

  When Klaycon found out that the combat vessel he gave Gloira went to Earth, he was not surprised at all. However, when he checked it again later, he was astonished that the vessel was on planet Roito. Klaycon couldn’t help wonder why Gloria went there. He called Gloria, but there was no answer. This time he didn’t hesitate. He called up his friends and headed to Roito.

  Now the cruiser entered Rioto atmosphere and Klaycon quickly located Gloria’s vessel. They checked its surroundings and found an empty emergency pod. Then they went aboard the vessel and searched every compartment, but only found a blood-smeared deck and a family G badge in the medical bay.

  Klaycon picked up the badge with a shaking hand, his eyes filled with tears.

  “I am too late. I am too late.” He said listlessly.

  Zier looked closely at the blood and said, “Klaycon, this is not Glycan’s blood. I will take a sample.”

  “I know. But this is a family G badge.” Klaycon said sadly.

  “She might just drop the badge.” Zier said as he was taking a sample of the blood.

  “Klaycon, there is no armor suits in the weapon bay.” Nissen called in.

  “What about nearby compartments?” Klaycon asked nervously.

  “I checked them as well.”

  Klaycon thought for several seconds and shouted, “Damn it.”

  “What is it?” Zier asked.

  “Scan the planet for family G badge.” Klaycon said hastily.

  Klaycon and others ran back to the bridge and ran the scan. It located one badge at the bottom of the ocean.

  “We are going in!” Klaycon said without hesitation.

  “It is concentrated sulfuric acid down there.” Zier said in a worried tone.

  “I don’t have the fucking time to think about it. If anyone of you doesn’t want to go, get off this cruiser right now.” Klaycon said hastily.

  “We are friends and we won’t leave you, but we need to think it in a logic way.” Zier said.

  “Take us down.” Klaycon said decisively.

  The cruiser fired its big guns and tunnelled through the ice crust, diving into the ocean at full blast.

  In a huge cave under the ocean floor, dozens of Tiegotteens were surrounding Gloria’s robot and dismantling it with their sharp forward-swept fins. Gloria couldn’t do anything but saw pieces of armor being peeled away one after another. Soon the robot’s head, arms and legs were all gone. One Tiegotteen pulled away the inner layer chest armor and exposed the cockpit. Gloria curled up in the seat. She was scared, but she was more worried about Jason. She could see the blood collector was just five meters away, but she couldn’t get it for Jason.

  “Bang! Bang! Bang!” Tiegotteens were poking the pilot cockpit with their fins.

  Gloria covered her ears and cried helplessly.

  “Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!” A series of explosions alerted Gloria.

&
nbsp; At first, she thought Jason came back to save her, but then she heard Klaycon’s voice through her badge.

  “Gloria, Gloria.”

  “Yes.”

  “You are alive! I am getting you out of here right now.” Klaycon said excitedly.

  The cruiser kept firing its big guns and scared Tiegotteens away. At the same time, Klaycon jumped out of the cruiser in a robot and ran to Gloria. He picked up the pilot cockpit and brought it into the cruiser.

  Gloria came out of the cockpit and saw Klaycon waiting on the deck. Klaycon ran to Gloria and said, “So happy to see you again.”

  “Thank you.” Gloria said gently, casting her eyes down.

  “That is new.” Klaycon chuckled.

  “There is a blood collector somewhere in this cave. Please get it for me. Did you see Jason on the surface?” Gloria said hastily.

  “I will go to get the blood collector.” Klaycon said coldly.

  “Did you see Jason?” Gloria asked nervously.

  “Nobody was there. We only saw an empty emergency pod.” Klaycon said calmly.

  “What do you mean? I saw them escape in the emergency pod.”

  “We found some blood in the medical bay and your family badge.”

  “Find the blood collect and get us to the surface.” Gloria said quickly and left Klaycon.

  Klaycon let out a long sign and went to get the blood collector.

  Ten minutes later, they resurfaced. Gloria rushed to the other vessel, followed by Klaycon and Zier. When she reached medical bay, she was shocked at the scene. Bloody footprints were everywhere and Jason’s uniform was soaked in a pool of flesh blood. There was a trail of footprints leading to the outside.

  “We just got the analysis result of the blood sample I took from here. It is Human. Judging from the footprints, apparently he was not the only one.” Zier said in disgust.

  Gloria paused for several seconds and said, “Just me and Jason.”

  “Looks like someone came and picked up Jason.” Klaycon said.

  “Thank you. I am not an idiot.” Gloria said unhappily. She was thinking who would pick up Jason from here. Then she remembered Lucis and Erikon.