The First Promise part 1

 

「Yunlan……」

Kou’s face was grim, his teeth clenched.

Blue was behind him—visible on his monitor—but it was not a face he could show the people on the Astraea.

With the resolve not to waste the will of those two, Kou drove Unit 5.

「Almost there.」

Unit 5 accessed the door to the sector where Asia’s sealed core was and opened it.

The two units plunged into the deepest chamber—and before a colossal monument, an Asia the size of a Silhouette hung bound in chains.

「Asia!」

There was something wrong with Asia’s vision. From the waist down she was gradually turning to stone—as if her functions were being shut down.

Both feet had already finished petrifying and gone black with carbonization. Her arms were carbonized up to the elbows. Quantum chains, rendered visible, coiled over her entire body.

Most likely, her self-sealing had halted the conversion into Europa.

Her face had become a statue as well, and the tracks of tears