Destroying six thermal conversion units was only the first step.
By Blin’s calculations, it would take about fifteen minutes for trapped heat to overpressure the tank and blow. In that time, he had to climb out from more than ten thousand meters underground, then break through tens of thousands of machine soldiers and defenses on the surface, and finally get thirty to forty kilometers away to be safe.
He retraced his route to the top room, dove into the elevator shaft, and flew upward.
Just as he accelerated, something fell from above and nearly smashed into him. He flattened against the shaft wall and let it tumble past. A robot carcass.
“Bit, are you alright? What’s happening up there?” Blin sent at once.
“How could I not be? But… there are a lot of enemies. They’re insane. They keep throwing themselves at me,” Bit replied.
“Hold. I’m coming up.”
“Good. I blasted the shaft mouth open for you. Just watch out, some trash might drop down.”
Blin kept climbing. Wreckage kept falling, and the debris slowed his ascent.
Nearly five minutes later, he burst out of the shaft into a tall, cavernous factory. Above, the elevator lobby had been blown flat, leaving only a round opening.
The area around the opening was littered with robot remains and impact craters. The machines had probably been trying to collapse the shaft, but Bit had held them off.
Bit was now in a tight ring of enemies. The situation was not as easy as he had claimed. Blin rushed in, carved a circle of bodies, and bought Bit a breath of space.
“Thank God. You’re out,” Bit said, exhaling hard.
“Get out. Stop fighting,” Blin barked as he slashed.
“If we don’t fight, how do we get out?” Bit demanded, watching enemies pour in from both sides like a tide.
“Up,” Blin snapped. He pointed at the ceiling. “I’ll hold them. You cut the floor.”
“Understood.”
Bit flew to the ceiling under gunfire, used the 2D Blade to cut a small notch, then shoved a grenade into it and dodged away.
Boom.
The steel floor blew open. Both of them shot up through the hole.
Below, the machines immediately brought heavy weapons to bear on the ceiling. The structure cracked and warped. More robots jumped up after them.
“Again!” Blin pointed up as he fought. “Keep going!”
Bit repeated the process and blasted through a second floor.
After four such climbs, they reached the roof.
From there, the view was worse. This was the heart of Maple Valley, packed with anti-air turrets and heavy batteries. Between dense buildings, countless small and medium units surged toward them, and turret after turret rotated to track.
“How long until your volcano?” Bit asked, suddenly tight with fear.
“Less than five minutes.”
“Then what now?”
“We punch through,” Blin said. “Stay on me. Cha-cha-cha-cha-cha!”
He deployed his silicon-nanoparticle wings and rocketed into the air with a shrill, manic rattle. Bit followed.
The anti-air guns opened in less than three seconds. Missile-lock warnings screamed in their ears.
Tracers lashed at them like fiery whips. Missiles howled in behind. Blin and Bit could only rely on their small, agile frames, skimming low between buildings and the valley walls.
Explosions kept blooming as missiles failed to turn in time and smashed into structures, detonating dangerously close. The shockwaves nearly stalled them more than once.
They pushed their speed to the limit and fled toward the outer edge of the valley, dragging a storm of bullets and missiles behind them. The density of buildings blocked a portion of the fire, but not enough.
When they finally reached the valley’s edge, fighters joined the interception.
“Lord Blin,” Bit said suddenly over the public channel, lagging a few body-lengths behind. “I got hit. I feel… I’m not going to make it.”
“Hold on. Another moment and we’re clear.”
“I can’t dodge…”
Boom.
A violent blast erupted behind Blin. The shockwave shoved him more than ten meters forward. He stabilized and snapped back to look for Bit.
Bit was gone from the waist down. Half a body, trailing sparks and smoke, falling in free descent.
They hit the ground in a flatter stretch of valley. Blin dashed to Bit. The lower half was missing, and the chest armor was riddled with holes.
“Go,” Bit said, optics dimming. “Don’t waste time on me.”
“Shut up.”
Blin hoisted him onto his shoulder. He spread his wings – and at that exact moment, several Demonblade fighters skimmed overhead and dumped a string of bombs.
He threw himself down and covered Bit with his own body.
Explosions stitched the ground around them until they merged into one continuous roar.
When the blasts finally eased, Blin clawed his way out of the dirt.
Despair hit him like a weight. His wings were shredded. One leg was badly damaged. Flying was impossible. Running might be, too.
He cursed anyway, adjusted Bit on his shoulder, and limped forward.
The fighters turned in the distance and came around for another pass.
Then the ground began to tremble.
Thick smoke surged up from the base, and the valley floor split with several massive cracks. After a brief, unnatural hush –
Boom!
A gigantic flower of red magma erupted skyward, turning into a blinding pillar of light. Firestone and molten rock were hurled high, blotting out the already gray sky. The eruption swallowed mountains, buildings, towers, everything, and became a black, scorching river of lava.
The roar rose and rose, like a huge demon bellowing without end. Lava surged from below in wave after wave. In front of it, everything became meaningless. The waves climbed into crests, then peaks, then a rolling tsunami. Heat and flame tore through anything they could touch.
The pursuing fighters vanished into it like dust. They didn’t even raise a splash.
The lava was still short of Blin, but the heat hit him anyway, along with the stench of rock melting into liquid.
Staring at the oncoming wall of magma, he lost the will to run.
He stopped, lowered Bit to the ground, and let out a long breath.
“I’m sorry, Lord Blin,” Bit said, optics faint. “I dragged you down. You could have escaped.”
Blin stared at the oncoming wall of magma. “…Didn’t think we’d go out like this. Damn. What a joke. Cha-cha-cha.”
***