Xiaomu’s rigid head swiveled.
Its two “eyes,” flashing a rapid red, locked onto Dottore, collapsed on the floor.
It had no emotions and could not comprehend the meaning of “death” or “coma,” but it carried out its directive faithfully.
With a gait that was slightly clumsy yet resolute, it walked to an inconspicuous corner of the laboratory wall.
It extended a wooden finger and pressed several hidden runes in a specific sequence.
A faint light flickered, and the wall slid open soundlessly, revealing a hidden passage that led into the area of Zapolyarny Palace.
Xiaomu strode into it without hesitation, and the passage closed behind it.
Its objective was clear: find Pierro.
Xiaomu navigated through complex pipes and abandoned sectors, relying on its built-in map of Snezhnaya and Pierro’s energy signature identification system, moving precisely toward the Director’s office.
This was the route closest to Pierro’s office and one of the shortcut passages Xiaomu routinely used to transport materials.
Along the way, it even “bumped into” Sandrone, who was adjusting a new mechanical arm in a corridor.
“Huh?
Xiaomu?” Sandrone’s eyes lit up.
She immediately set down her tools and tried to follow.
“Today isn’t a report delivery day, is it?
Where are you going?
Has that bastard Dottore finally decided to come out?” However, Xiaomu paid her shouts no heed.
When she even tried to draw closer, the pre-set defense mechanism within it activated.
A faint but unmistakable “velocity” force field spread out, making Sandrone’s movements slow by half a beat.
Seizing the opportunity, Xiaomu accelerated, turned a corner, and vanished.
“Hey!
You wait!
Damn it!” Sandrone stomped her feet in frustration.
That peculiar slowing sensation only made her more curious.
“It even has a function like that?!” Xiaomu ignored the clamor behind it.
It had only one directive to fulfill, and that was to seek Pierro’s help.
Finally, it arrived before the heavy doors of Pierro’s office.
It did not knock.
Instead, it rammed its body directly against the door panel, producing a muffled “thud, thud.” Inside the office, Pierro, who had been discussing military matters with Capitano, frowned.
Columbina happened to be there as well, quietly leafing through an ancient tome.
“What’s going on?” Capitano said, his voice deep as bedrock.
Pierro gestured for him to remain calm.
He walked to the door himself and opened it.
Outside stood Xiaomu, the red light in its eyes flashing urgently.
When it saw Pierro, it immediately ceased its ramming and raised an arm, pointing back the way it had come.
The synthetic voice in its chest cavity crackled with static due to core overload, yet it was unmistakably clear: “Final…
safety…
directive…
triggered…
Doctor…
in danger…
please…
follow…” Pierro’s pupils sharply contracted.
He had no time even to explain to Capitano and Columbina.
“Lead the way!” he said, his voice deep.
Xiaomu immediately turned and broke into a run, heading toward one of the entrances to the surface laboratory.
Pierro followed without a moment’s hesitation, his face bearing an unprecedented gravity.
Capitano and Columbina exchanged a glance, seeing the shock and doubt mirrored in each other’s eyes.
Without any hesitation, they too followed at once.
Xiaomu guided the three of them swiftly through the palace’s complex structure, finally arriving at the entrance to the hidden passage.
It activated the concealed mechanism once more, and the wall slid open.
“In here?” Pierro asked.
Xiaomu nodded its head vigorously up and down, then charged in first.
Pierro, Capitano, and Columbina followed close behind.
At the end of the passage was one of the entrances to the surface laboratory, a door that shut out everything.
Xiaomu pressed its palm against the identification panel beside the door, and the great door slid open silently.
The scene inside the laboratory instantly met the three’s eyes: instruments flashing red alarm lights; the lingering, strange, and violent energy aftershocks still not fully dispersed in the air; scattered experimental materials lying across the floor; and at the center of the cold floor lay a motionless figure, hair completely silver-white, a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth, his frame looking terribly frail.
“Dottore!!!” Pierro rushed forward first, his usually steady steps now nearly stumbling.
He dropped to one knee and carefully lifted Dottore, pressing his fingers against the side of his neck.
A faint but unmistakable pulse met his fingertips, slightly loosening the tightly wound string in his heart.
But when he took in Dottore’s hair, now utterly turned silver-white, and his face, as pale as paper and utterly bloodless, an icy chill shot through his entire body.
This was no longer the sharp-edged young scholar with the keen eyes.
This was plainly a man whose mental strength had been overdrawn to the absolute limit.
“He…” Columbina also crouched down, her ethereal voice trembling slightly.
She reached out, sensing the extremely unstable energy field around Dottore’s body and his nearly depleted life force.
Her own face went pale.
Capitano stood to the side, his heavy helmet obscuring his expression, but his tightly clenched fists betrayed the turmoil within him.
He looked at that glaring shock of silver hair on Dottore, then at Xiaomu standing by, the red light still flashing in its eyes after faithfully completing its directive and now standing motionless.
“What…
happened here?” he asked in a heavy voice.
Pierro did not answer.
He only held Dottore’s frighteningly light body tightly.
Shock, anger, and a bottomless sense of helplessness and self-reproach churned in his eyes.
He should have discovered this sooner.
He should have forcibly intervened earlier.
What in the world could drive a man to such a state, so much so that he had to set up a puppet to come and call for help when he fell unconscious?
“Columbina, notify the best physicians at once.
No, go directly to Her Majesty’s personal healer and summon Her Majesty the Tsaritsa!” Pierro’s voice was low and hoarse, carrying an urgency that brooked no argument.
“Capitano, seal off this area.
On my order, no one is to approach, including the other Harbingers!” “Understood!” The two departed immediately to carry out their orders.
The empty laboratory was left with only Pierro, the unconscious Dottore in his arms, and the puppet Xiaomu standing quietly to the side.
Pierro looked down at Dottore’s tightly shut eyes and the heavy shadows beneath his lashes, and his voice dropped so low that almost only he himself could hear it.
“Dottore…
what in the world…
have you done?” The only answer was the intermittent alarms of the instruments and the boundless silence.
Deep within Zapolyarny Palace, in a quiet chamber hastily converted into a medical ward, the atmosphere was as heavy as a frozen lake.
The Tsaritsa had come in person.
A faint chill radiated from her, as though she were the very embodiment of ice and snow, noble and commanding.
Her slender fingers brushed gently over Dottore’s silver-white strands, feeling the faint but stubborn pulse of life beneath them.
A rare ripple passed through her ice-blue eyes.
“Severe mental overdraft.
Fissures have also appeared in his core essence,” the Tsaritsa’s cool voice echoed in the room, like the chime of ice crystals.
“Were it not for an extraordinarily special power within him slowly repairing the damage, I am afraid by now…” She did not finish the sentence, but the implication made Pierro’s expression darken further beside her.
“It is my failure of oversight, Your Majesty.” Pierro knelt on one knee, his voice heavy.
The Tsaritsa raised her hand slightly.
“Do not blame yourself, Pierro.
Dottore’s will is not something you or I could forcibly turn aside.
This restorative power…
it contains mysteries far beyond ordinary laws.
It may well be his own fortuitous chance.” She paused, then continued.
“The priority now is to ensure he safely weathers this period of weakness.
Before his mental strength recovers, he absolutely must not touch any draining research again.” “Yes, Your Majesty.
I have already assigned additional personnel to guard this place around the clock.
Furthermore, should we focus precautions on Sandrone?
She has always held a strong interest in Dottore’s laboratory.” Pierro responded in a deep voice, deliberately emphasizing that name.
He knew very well that Dottore now had two adversaries seared into his memory.