Read Novel Full Chapter 1847: Magnificent Friendship
Chapter 1847: Magnificent Friendship
“This is for NOAH!!”
THUK!!
The Eclipse punched through the circular sphere with brutal force.
The Mother System jolted violently.
Its robotic tentacles flinched and fluctuated erratically.
White liquid began dripping from the ruptured system.
Smoke curled from the hole where the Eclipse had entered.
Tang!
I yanked the useless sphere away from the blade and turned toward the two Governors.
“Bring me… Allen!”
I asked again.
This time, my voice was even colder.
There was no anger in it anymore.
Only intent.
For a second, both the Iron Marshal and Epsilon stepped back slightly.
Epsilon’s suit began glowing with golden light.
Something flickered in front of me.
A transparent boundary appeared.
Then another layer formed over it.
And another.
Within seconds, multiple layers of invisible force condensed into a massive barrier directly before me.
Shatter!
I punched through it with the Eclipse.
The blade tore into the barrier.
BOP!
The Iron Marshal’s wave blasted me into the wall again.
“ARhh!”
My back slammed against the metal.
Before I could even take another step, both of them attacked me at the same time.
The Iron Marshal activated the strange pulsing rings around its wrist.
Then the pulse erupted.
BOP!!
It wasn’t exactly a blast.
The wave struck my entire body simultaneously, crushing through my muscles and throwing me backwards as though an invisible hammer had smashed into my chest.
My body spun through the air.
I slammed against another invisible wall before falling toward the ground.
I barely caught myself with one hand.
At the same time, Epsilon kept creating invisible walls around me.
Every time I tried to move toward him, another barrier appeared.
I struck one.
CRACK!
Then another.
SHATTER!
Another appeared before I could even recover.
The Iron Marshal kept firing those devastating pulses while Epsilon was constantly placing invisible walls between us.
They weren’t trying to kill me.
They were trying to contain me.
But I didn’t give a damn.
Both of them kept pushing me back.
But I didn’t give up.
Until I saw that fucking asshole myself, I wouldn’t give up!
I tightened my grip around the Eclipse.
Then I moved.
I charged.
The Iron Marshal fired.
BOP!
The pulse struck my shoulder and sent my body spinning sideways.
I caught myself before I fell.
Another invisible wall appeared.
I smashed the Eclipse against it.
CRACK!
I kept fighting them.
I kept pushing forward.
The Iron Marshal suddenly raised its arm again.
The metallic rings around its wrist began spinning faster.
The moment it was about to fire, I leapt directly toward it.
The pulse erupted.
BOP!
The wave hit my body.
I was blasted backwards.
But this time, I didn’t resist the force.
I used it.
I twisted my body in midair and redirected the momentum toward Epsilon’s invisible barriers.
“ARHH!!”
With a furious scream, I drove the Eclipse forward with everything I had.
The blade struck the invisible barrier.
SHATTER!
I gritted my teeth and pushed harder.
SHATTER!
SHATTER!
Each barrier shattered beneath the Eclipse as I forced myself forward.
Epsilon’s eyes widened.
“Iron Marshal, help me!”
The Iron Marshal immediately nodded.
I immediately pulled the Eclipse from the shattered barrier and hurled it directly at the Iron Marshal.
The Eclipse rotated end over end.
The Iron Marshal raised its arm.
Right at that moment, the strange ring around its wrist expanded.
The Eclipse struck.
THUK!
The Iron Marshal froze.
Its entire arm jerked violently.
For one brief second, everything went silent.
The energy flowing through the ring flickered.
Then the circuitry overloaded.
BOP!!
One of the rings exploded.
I kept moving without turning back, continuing to punch the barrier with my only right hand.
BAM!
BAM!
SHATTER!
BAM!
BAM!
SHATTER!
Each impact sent a violent shock through my arm and into my shoulder. My knuckles were already split open, blood smearing across the invisible surface, but I didn’t stop.
The barrier in front of me began to crack.
Thin fractures spread through the invisible surface with every punch.
I will show this motherfuckers who I am!
These assholes think they are above me!!
Just as the barrier was about to disappear—
“Here, take this dead body.”
I instinctively turned around.
My breath caught.
Alpha stood several meters away, her tail wrapped around the bloodied body of Jonathan.
His body hung limply from her grasp.
Before I could even process what I was seeing, Alpha released him.
Jonathan was thrown toward me.
My eyes widened.
“Jonny!”
I lunged forward and barely managed to catch Jonathan before his body hit the floor.
My knees scraped violently across the metallic floor as I slid several inches.
I looked down at his face.
My fingers trembled.
“Jonny…”
I whispered his name as though saying it softly enough might somehow keep him alive.
Jonathan’s barely conscious eyes slowly moved toward me.
For a moment, he seemed unable to recognise me.
Then his eyes focused.
He saw me.
And somehow, despite everything that had happened to him, the corners of his mouth moved into a faint smile.
That smile hurt more than the sight of his wounds.
I had doubted him.
I had questioned his intentions.
I had believed Allen’s words over his.
And yet…
Jonathan had stayed beside me.
From the beginning.
Through every disaster.
Through every moment when I had pushed him away.
He still trusted me.
He still protected me.
And now he was lying in my arms, covered in blood because of everything that had happened.
“Jonny… it’ll be alright, okay?”
I forced a smile onto my face.
“There’s no need to worry… everything will be alright.”
Jonathan looked at me.
A warm smile slowly appeared on his bloodied face.
“A-Aether…”
His voice was so weak that I had to lean closer to hear him.
“I… I am sorry…”
My chest tightened.
“I am sorry… that I hurt Lily…”
His eyes trembled.
“I am sorry that I couldn’t protect you… I am sorry… that I… I brought you here…”
His fingers twitched weakly against my clothing.
“I am sorry for Allen…”
A tear slipped from the corner of his eye and travelled through the blood on his cheek.
“I am sorry, Aether…”
More tears followed.
I immediately shook my head.
“No. No… buddy.”
My voice broke.
“It’s all my fault.”
I pulled him closer, carefully supporting his head against my arm.
“You don’t need to be sorry, okay? You don’t need to be…”
I couldn’t finish the sentence.
My throat tightened.
“I am… sorry.”
Those two words were all I could give him.
Thinking about how easily Allen had manipulated me made something twist inside my chest.
It had been so easy.
A few words.
A few doubts.
And I had turned against the person who had remained beside me.
Jonathan had stood there for me from the beginning until now.
He had trusted me when I didn’t trust him.
He had protected me when I questioned him.
And I had repaid that trust with suspicion.
I had even hurt him.
Was this karma?
Was this what I deserved?
My lips trembled as I gently held him.
“It’s alright…”
My voice was barely audible.
“Everything will be alright…”
I swallowed the lump in my throat.
Just then, that child appeared before me and stared at me coldly.
I ignored that child.
Nothing around me mattered anymore.
Jonathan gently smiled at my words.
“I couldn’t protect them… I couldn’t protect my wives…”
His eyes slowly lost their focus.
“I failed…”
His breathing became shallower.
“I am a failure…”
I immediately placed my finger against his lips and shook my head.
“No, you are not…”
I pointed at myself, my face twisting with pain.
“It’s me.”
Jonathan’s barely conscious eyes looked at me.
He stared at me for several seconds.
Then his lips moved.
“Do you… trust me?”
The question struck deeper than any weapon could have.
Those words weren’t angry.
That somehow made them hurt even more.
The person I had doubted was lying in my arms, barely alive, and even now he was asking whether I trusted him.
I should have trusted him.
I should have listened to him.
I should have believed him.
My eyes burned.
My lips trembled as I nodded.
“Y-Yes, Jonny…”
I held him tighter.
“I trust you more than my life.”
Jonathan’s eyes widened slightly.
For a moment, he simply stared at me.
Then a warm smile appeared on his face.
It was the same smile I had seen before.
The smile of the friend I had finally chosen to trust.
His eyelids slowly began to close.
“T-Thank you…”
His voice faded into a whisper.
“Thank you… for trusting me… A-Aether…”
I could feel his body becoming heavier against me.
“I… I am happy to be friends with… you.”
A faint smile remained on his lips.
“You gave me… hope…”
“Aether…”
“You gave m…e…”
I couldn’t watch him die.
My vision blurred.
Tears gathered in my eyes as I looked upward, desperately trying to hold the—
Chuckkk…
My entire body suddenly jerked violently.
A sharp, burning pain erupted from the centre of my chest.
I slowly looked down.
A strange circular, weird object was embedded deep into my chest.
The device pulsed. I could feel something inside it vibrating against my flesh.
Then I followed the mechanism with my eyes.
The other end was being held by… Jonathan.
My mind refused to understand what I was seeing.
I looked at his face.
The tears were still there.
The blood was still there.
But something had changed.
His lips slowly curled upward.
A pure, wicked smile.
“Tsk, Tsk… Still naive as ever. Hahahah!”
The voice that came from his mouth was completely different.
I had never heard that tone from him before.
I stared at Jonathan without being able to form a single word.
Clap~
Step.
Clap~
Step.
Clap~
A slow rhythm echoed through the corridor… mixed with claps and steps.
A dark figure slowly stepped into view.
At first, there was only a silhouette.
A towering shape wrapped in absolute blackness, walking through the corridor with an unnerving calm.
Then, a cold, familiar voice echoed through the corridor.
“Magnificent friendship.”
The words carried an almost amused elegance, yet there was something beneath them that made my skin crawl.
I didn’t know why, but that voice, for some reason, tore my gaze away from the wickedly laughing Jonathan and looked up.
The dark figure continued walking along the pathway with grand, deliberate movements. Every step was measured, graceful, almost aristocratic. He did not walk like someone entering a battlefield.
He walked like someone entering his own palace.
As he came closer, the darkness came clear… it was not just darkness; it was a mech-suit, but… different?
The faint light along the corridor refused to settle upon him properly, slipping across his form as though even light itself was reluctant to touch whatever stood before me.
Alpha went to her knees, bowing her head, “Welcome, President”
That black figure came closer and closer
Closer…
And closer…
Until finally, it stopped.
Right above me.
His presence alone seemed to press down upon the air.
“Look at you… Still wearing that expression. How unfortunate. I had hoped suffering would have taught you something.”
The words struck deeper than they should have.
When he said them, I tore my gaze away from the wickedly laughing Jonathan and looked up.
My eyes slowly traced his body.
The black substance clung to him like a second skin, seamless and impossibly smooth. It wasn’t merely covering him.
It was moving.
Alive?
It shifted faintly across his body, crawling over his shoulders and chest like liquid darkness responding to some unseen command.
And then, as I stared…
The substance began to retreat.
Slowly.
Almost elegantly.
The liquid-like darkness flowed backwards from his shoulders and along his back, peeling away from his face.
!!!
My breath stopped.
My pupils shrank in shock.
For a moment, the corridor disappeared.
The walls.
Jonathan’s laughter.
Everything faded into silence.
There was only that face.
That… familiar face.
A face I had never wanted to see again.
A face that belonged to someone who should have remained buried beneath the weight of the past.
Someone who had no right to stand before me now.
Yet there he was.
Standing above me.
Looking down as though all those years meant nothing.
As though he had merely stepped away for a moment and returned to claim what had always belonged to him.
My lips parted.
“…You?”
A faint smile appeared upon his face.
Not a warm smile… Not even a cruel one.
It was the smile of someone who already knew the answer to every question I could possibly ask.
“I am…”
He paused.
His smirk deepened as he slowly nodded his head.
There was almost a regal composure in his expression, an unbearable confidence that made my stomach tighten.
“How have you been…”
His eyes remained fixed upon mine.
“…my dear stepson?”