BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM-Chapter 1222: Barely alive
Erik’s consciousness returned slowly. The first thing he saw was the crystal-clear blue sky above him, unmarred by the chaos and death that had filled it earlier. His mind felt fuzzy, struggling to piece together what had happened. Pain ravaged him, but it was in truth just a ghost.
As his awareness grew, pain flooded back into his consciousness like a tidal wave—every cut, every torn muscle, every broken bone screamed for attention at once. The agony was so intense it nearly made him black out again.
Then he turned to study his surroundings, and he saw a concerned face intently studying him. It was one of the Chimaeric Demons, its features tight with worry.
The clone had kept its human form rather than the wyvern shape. Then Erik glanced around, noting the absence of the massive provision boxes each clone had to bring to Mur.
Those containers were so large they required the Wyvern form to transport—each Chimaeric Demon in that shape being the size of a small house.
The missing boxes showed the clone must have left them behind. This made sense—without the large containers, they would be harder for enemies to spot from the sky.
But of course, it might have also been that he lost during the battle against the three-headed void ravagers.
"Master! Thank the gods you’re awake!"
The clone spoke with a mix of joy and worry while tears formed and fell from his face.
"Are you alright? Can you move?"
This chapter is updated by freēwēbnovel.com.
Erik tried to sit up, wincing at the stiffness in his muscles. His body ached, but it was a familiar pain—similar to what he’d felt after other brutal battles.
He still felt pain where the three-headed void ravager that sneak attacked him hit, yet he was alive.
<Absolute castle must have saved my life.>
"I’m alright," Erik assured the clone, giving him a wan smile. "There’s some pain, but nothing I haven’t dealt with before."
He paused.
"Where are we?"
"A small island between Hin and Mur, Master. It was the only safe place I could find to tend to your wounds." The clone’s eyes darted nervously to the horizon.
Erik’s mind raced. "What happened to the army? Why is it just you and me here?"
The clone’s face fell. Deep grief etched its features, but beneath that simmered a burning rage—the kind born from an overwhelming desire for vengeance.
"They’re gone, Master. All of them. The void ravagers... they didn’t leave anyone alive, and whatever was there didn’t even leave the corpses."
Thanks to Instability, Erik felt the clone’s anguish. Seeing his brothers dying had left deep scars. The clone’s voice cracked as it described how the void ravagers had torn through their ranks, leaving nothing but destruction in their wake.
"When they struck you down, when they tore into you... it changed something in all of us. Nothing else mattered but getting you to safety."
Erik watched the clone’s hands tremble. "Your injuries were severe, Master. They... they ripped off your right arm and left leg. Your chest was torn open, and they shredded the wings you’d created through your shapeshifting powers. The void breath had eaten through your armor, or what remained of it."
The clone’s voice grew quieter. "Some of us formed defensive lines to shield you while providing first aid. Others... others sacrificed themselves to keep the ravagers at bay long enough for us to escape. I carried you to safety through their sacrifice. That first day here, I could only focus on keeping you alive—stopping the bleeding and stabilizing your critical wounds. But with injuries as severe as yours, basic healing wasn’t enough. I hadn’t developed my healing powers. My neural links are few, and my mana pool is low."
Erik’s connection with the clone showed him exactly what he was thinking, which was essentially what happened. He saw the desperate rush to stop the bleeding, the continuous channeling of healing energy that left the clone drained and shaking, and the long hours spent monitoring Erik’s fading life force.
The clone worked tirelessly through the night of the first day, using all its strength to keep Erik alive. It focused on keeping his heart beating and making sure his body kept working properly.
"The second day," the clone said, "I regrew your limbs, but it wasn’t easy, and I had to rest many times because of my poor mana pool. Yet I wasn’t sure you’d wake up even with my treatment. You were almost dead, master."
The clone stopped talking and stared intently at where Erik’s new arm connected to his body. The skin there was still pink and tender, showing where the fresh limb had grown from the stump. Erik could sense how vividly the clone remembered the ragged, bloody wound that had been there before—muscle and bone torn apart and bones visible.
"So, we have been here for two days?" Continue reading at novelbuddy
"Yes, Master." The clone’s voice was apologetic.
Two days unconscious meant anything could have happened to the others.
"Are you sure?"
The clone nodded. "Yes, Master. The sun has risen and set two times since we escaped."
"What about Amber? Emily? Mira and June? The ten thousand clones that left with them?"
The clone shook its head and shrugged. "I don’t know, Master. We lost contact with them during the battle. I... I have no way of knowing if they reached Mur, and those who might have known died."
Erik’s mind raced through countless dark scenarios. He imagined the three-headed void ravagers swooping down upon Amber’s group.
He imagined their razor-sharp claws and fangs tearing through the clone army, just as they had destroyed his own forces.
The thought of his friends being attacked by these terrible monsters filled him with fear. He could almost hear their cries of pain echoing through the empty sky.
Other creatures from Mur might have done the same with equal ease, and even if they had been lucky and avoided all monsters, Mur was still home to all kinds of terrifying thaids, on par with the three-headed void ravagers.
If even 50 thousand Chimaeric Demons stood no chance against a small flock of flying thaids, what could a group of ten thousand do?
Erik fought back his growing anxiety.
"Did you try to contact them?"
"Yes, master, but… Until now, no one replied. I don’t know what to do anymore."
This didn’t necessarily mean they had died. They might have reached Mur safely, but their communication systems could simply be out of range. Without Erik present, the clones could only communicate through technology—meaning they were either dead, their devices were destroyed, or they had lost their way.
Besides, they were also out of Erik’s range. While Instability allowed him to establish a mind link with everything Erik wanted, this ability had clear limits.
His power to connect mentally with others had limits—he couldn’t reach minds that were tens of thousands of kilometers away. The distance was just too great.
Erik then noticed how much the clone’s hands trembled, how its shoulders sagged with exhaustion. Through Instability, Erik felt the clone’s bone-deep weariness—he had spent every ounce of energy keeping him alive these past three days, and since there were no provisions, it was likely the clone hadn’t eaten at all.
Turning to look at the island, Erik’s heart sank. He didn’t turn behind and thought they were just on the edges of whatever this place was. However, as he turned, he saw the sea again.
That explained why the clone had left him exposed to the sky, rather than hiding within a jungle.
The island was barely more than a sandy outcrop, perhaps twenty meters across at its widest point. Nothing but bare rocks and sand stretched from one edge to the other, with not a blade of grass breaking through the barren ground.
"You have eaten nothing, have you?" Erik asked, though he already knew the answer. He reached for the pouch at his side, fingers closing around the seeds he’d brought with him.
Kneeling, Erik pressed several seeds into the sandy soil. He poured his mana into them, and within moments, green shoots burst from the ground. The plants grew at an impossible rate—vegetables swelling to ripeness, fruit trees sprouting and bearing fruit in minutes rather than seasons.
The clone’s expression transformed from desperate hunger to excitement. It lunged at the nearest fruit tree, devouring ripe peaches ravenously.
Juice trickled down its chin as it consumed one piece after another, its famished body finally receiving nourishment after days without food.
"Thank you," Erik said, watching his clone eat. "For saving my life. For everything. Now rest and eat. Once you’ve recovered your strength, we’ll leave this place."
The clone kept eating hungrily, nodding as it grabbed more grapes. Erik felt its feelings through their mental link—deep thankfulness and relief that needed no words to express. As the clone finally got the food it desperately needed, its tense shoulders relaxed.
Erik looked at the sea.
<We had been lucky.>
[Indeed, we were…]
