ETR: Reunified Fragments

Chapter 42 | Defrost

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There was a solemn air over the 4 nation girls as they walked with Atlas and Nova Mantle. Their feet softly stomped along the celestial floor. Downtrodden were their expressions, glancing at Atlas with both longing looks and weary flashes. The sun above illuminated the silhouettes of the machines that were descending upon Terra, with hostiles moving to slaughter the populations that were resisting with Arts, bows, guns, and whatever they can.

The land around them was dead. The buildings were devoid of all life, have been devoid like that ever since a long time ago. Streets were quiet, no life breathing through them. In fact, as they passed along, there was not a sound to be made other than themselves or from the structures of the buildings finally groaning under pressure or losing their ability to sustain their form.

Already a bad sight, only made worse when the big nation amongst the other 4 was... despondent, to say the very least. It was hard to keep up conversation when what happened back in that house happened, and made only worse when no emotion came from him.

Atlas was walking forwards giving a piggyback ride to the daughter, who tried to make her father happy, but to little to no effect. Did all that she could, poking his cheeks, trying to play around with his armor, the whole 9 yards. To no avail, she barely got a response out of him.

Instead, he just kept a straight face and breathed calmly, but the air was increasingly colder, with frost building up around him and making the women shiver, even through the power armor that they were wearing, overpowering the heating systems built in.

I don't like that, Alfreda voiced within her own mind, The cold... never really did... but at least his cold back then was something comforting and inviting. She couldn't shake her thoughts away. Whatever this is, I don't like it... She concludes.

Sadly her train of thoughts continued along the mental track. There were unfortunate conclusions, stations that she did not wish to arrive at everytime she looked at Atlas.The 4's attempt to pry and speak to him ended rather horribly, at least in the eyes of the American superpower.

As for him...he just kept marching on, onwards as always, always moving forwards, with his head down as he took a deep breath, knowing that he's running out of time, and begin to book it, book it towards the fasciitis, maybe then he would be able to heal, get out of this nightmare, but, he knows that he won't escape, only get comfortable in the darkness, as his boots went clink clank all along the ancient road.

"...the sword?!" Amiya no longer felt the strange, energetic metals that made up her Blade of the Fiends. No, the thing was gone and it was in the clutches of the culprit that just charged her. Gone was the power in her hands, replaced by emptiness that made her panickedly look at her hand, and then at the slowly retreating robot.