AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thanks for saying that only now!” groaned Circé.
“Circé! How are you doing?” asked Eden.
“I’m still alive, thanks... but unplugging now, if nobody minds. I have no intention to stay around if we’re not going to use these stupid archives, and you’re already too far ahead. There are more and more monsters coming my way, and we don’t have all day to play with them.”
“I can keep going on my own,” Eden nodded. “...Greed, I want the Edge to make copies of these archives. We need to take control of everything here.”
“Wait, what?”
“They have surveillance camera records here. If we get all of them, it could help us.”
“We’re not trying to make a point,” said Nebty. “The plan was always to destroy them!”
“Yes, but no one says we will succeed, and regardless of if we do or not, they could be useful.”
“Could be? Come on, Ghost, we don’t have the time or the resources for that!”
“Why not?” asked Lecky. “All of the Edge should be focusing on the System’s hacking right now. As soon as Eden opens it up for them, just let them dig out all they want in there. Ghost, just find a way to give us access to that place. We will do the rest.”
“Excuse me, are you in charge or am I?”
Ignoring Nebty’s angry tone, Eden nodded and turned around, running to the balcony from earlier. She wondered how recent the garden version was... Greed guided her twice more into different versions, and Eden forgot about fighting any of the nightmarish creatures that appeared; Nekhbet appeared to support her, but now, it was a race against the clock. Eden didn’t want to lose one more second. She ran, grabbing box after box, visiting two more versions of this world, following Greed’s instructions to the letter. Their communication wasn’t as fluid and intuitive as with Loir, but it was starting to get easier.
“I found it!” he exclaimed a minute later. “A forgotten back door, 2072 version. Next box, second aisle to the right, top shelf with a blue... no, indigo blue. Come on, come on... Yeah, it’s going to be the one, Ghost. Just get there, and we can open a fucking highway in there!”
Eden nodded and ran as fast as she could. She felt like she hadn’t Dived in so long, she was having trouble picking up her legendary speed in there. Luckily, she soon got out of the elevator on the said version and began running again to get that final box.
Suddenly, she heard a bang on the side.
“...Greed, what was that?”
“Your signal to run!”
She didn’t wait, and kept running, headed right to the box. She could hear him furiously typing on his keyboard, so fast and loud it sounded like music. Greed’s typing was angrier and louder than Loir, and she could hear him swear and groan.
“What’s going on?” she asked as soon as she got enough breath for it.
“Nothing good. We’ve been discovered, they are trying to wipe those servers clean! Oh, damn it, damn it... Shit, they are going crazy fast and deleting every fucking thing. Looks like you were right, they got a few dirty secrets they want to keep...”
Eden didn’t need to ask any further; it was clear now, the Core was trying to wipe it all out because of her. Or was it because they had found Pan wandering in there? Either way, she was running out of time. She jumped in front of the shelf she needed and began searching for that box, but this one was scarily full. She had to throw a few of them out of the way before she finally spotted it.
“Found it!”
“Thank God. We just lost all of the fifties...”
She opened the box and suddenly, the floor shook violently under her. Eden got down on her knees, holding on to the shelf, when she realized nothing around her was moving. Instead, she was the one off balance. She felt a strange sensation in her arm.
“What’s going on?”
“Eden, come back,” suddenly said Dante’s voice. “We have to move.”
“Go,” said Greed. “I got what I need here, girl, Nekhbet and I will finish. Good job, and stay alive! See you for the next and last one, I hope...”
Eden left the Dark Reality and blinked twice.
Immediately, the sounds of gunshots made her jump to her feet, but a hand grabbed her shoulder to make her lay low again.
“Welcome back,” grunted Dante.
