Odyssey || ArknightsXPunishing: Gray Raven (OLD BOOK)

Chapter 24: Pandemonium

"Well, tell me why? How can you be so sure that this isn't the same thing as Kamui's condition from before?"

A beeping sound was heard as Vera ordered one of her subordinates to send a file. A notification popped out on the side of the screen.

"I would advise you to watch the contents of that file. Hit me up when you've recovered from the trauma." Vera said and cut the connection off.

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The sun still heated up the barren landscape, making the sand look like a vast stretch of gold land. A sandstorm can be seen forming in the distance.

There was silence among the group, like the calm before the storm.

Lucia and the others just stared blankly at the screen in front of them, all of them confused at Vera's sentence just now.

'Recovered from the trauma? What in the world...'

"Liv, open the file." Lucia's thoughts was cut off when Anastasia broke the silence. Liv nodded at her with wide eyes and began extracting the contents of the file.

After a minute or so of total silence, Liv managed to extract all of it. In their screen, one video file was present.

"Uhm, Commandant? Should I play it?" Liv asked while fidgeting with her thumb. If she was a normal girl who showed emotions, Anastasia would certainly have pinched Liv's cheeks because of her cuteness.

"Yes." Brushing off her thoughts, Anastasia and the others watched in anticipation as Liv opened the file. The screen began playing something. It seemed to be recorded from one of the constructs assigned to Vera's squad. The nickname 'Scout' was plastered on the side of the file name.

In the video, muffled gunfire can be heard from the distance. Hearing this, the construct began running to the direction it came from, resulting in the camera shaking profusely. It was like a badly made indie movie.

The Cerberus member crouched down and used a broken concrete barrier as cover as the fighting intensified on his end. Sounds of dying corrupted echoed through the speakers, and their deathly screeches sounding like a broken radio on repeat.

As if recovering from the situation, Scout took a deep breath and peeked out of the safety of his cover. However, he soon ducked back into cover as a stray plasma bullet hit the barrier, chipping off a few chunks of concrete.

"Whoever our target is, we better be...." Lucia's sentence drifted off to eternity when Scout peeked for a second time.

Liv audibly gasped behind Anastasia. She also felt Bianca and Sofia shift from the comfort of their seats. Lucia covered her mouth in disbelief.

Anastasia could only watch, silently forming a plan as the situation escalated from bad, to worse.

In the screen in front of them, the sight of a messy battlefield greeted them. Limbs of hundreds of corrupted droids littered the sandy dunes of the ruins, painting it with oil and liquid. Dozens and dozens fell like flies within seconds after being hit by plasma. Smoke and sparks spewed out of the decommissioned mechanical bodies, swirling in thin, wavy lines as it made way to the sky.

There, in the middle of the chaos, stood one man with his coat fluttering against the wind. He was gunning down corrupted droids with ease, accurately putting them to their demise.

Even with his back against the monitor, specifically Scout, they could clearly make out who he was based on his features alone. Even a kid would recognize him.