Author Note.
Hello, well, I think I should first apologize, as I'm a week late.
I've had some issues with my work, so I had to pay more attention to it.
But the release continues.
I have some news for my loyal readers: unfortunately, I'll have to reduce my release rate. I know this can hurt engagement, as I've already felt after reducing the number of weekly releases. But I want to write better, paying more attention and being more careful. I want to write a wonderful work, even if it's my first.
I will continue releasing regularly, but I regret to inform you that it won't be every two weeks, but monthly.
I know this could end the project, but I don't want to lose the complexity I strive for in my story; I want to write something good, the best possible.
Well, thank you for your attention, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
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On the top of a skyscraper, near one of the edges of the structure, where a small wall served as a safety limit, Roger observed the surroundings of a destroyed Berlin.
With his arms behind his body, holding one of his hands, he saw a dense forest that increasingly covered the old city that existed there. He had a lost gaze, containing some threads of melancholy, turned to the structures that remained in the city; the survivors of destruction and time.
Alone on the top, in a sepulchral silence, he remembered the glorious past of the city, but which now was nothing more than a ghost.
Feeling a bitter taste, he grimaced.
I wonder if things could have been different, if we had prevented that from happening...
But, before he could dwell on that, surprising him, a cold autumn wind hit him, lasting for a few seconds, but which was the time needed to ease his expression.
"..."
With a lighter gaze, he turned back to the blue sky.
It was dusk; besides the cloudless blue, the skies were painted in orange and red tones, along with a darkness that gained more and more strength due to the approach of night.
Or would we just be delaying the inevitable...
Interrupting the silence that reigned there, he heard someone behind him speak.
"So, you came here?"
Although it had the tone of a question, because it was a somewhat cold voice, it also resembled an affirmation. It was a voice that Roger knew very well, from his vice-commander, something characteristic of her personality.
Turning his head slowly in her direction.
"Have you finished..."
He stopped moving it when he found her with the corner of his eyes, standing a few meters behind him near an exit door of that floor.
"...Fran?"
As soon as he finished speaking, she approached in silence and stopped right next to where he was, leaning on the safety wall.
"Yes."
She, turning to the city, continued to speak.
"We checked the building again, as you requested, but we didn't find any clue about the missing group. However, we found something new: there is a large concrete hatch that leads to the city's sewer system. It was closed, but there were marks around the lid indicating it was moved recently."
Right after Bernd's group left, Roger ordered another search of the building, but this time, a more thorough one, since they had previously confirmed the safety of the building's interior.
Turning to the city, Roger asked her:
"Any suspicious marks around that exit, like boot prints or parts of the ground sunk?"
Shaking her head slightly, Fran answered him:
"No, nothing besides the marks on the lid."
"Did you check the sewer?"
"A little, since we didn't have permission to go very far, but we didn't find anything up to where we went."
Running his hand over his face, frustrated, he murmured:
"...I understand."
He expected a better clue...
After that, the two remained silent, but with an almost imperceptible sound of Roger's clothes rustling as he crossed his arms. Trying to piece together a mental puzzle, his eyes narrowed as if searching for something on the horizon in front of him, but he soon sighed.
Even having found something new, that doesn't help much... It was a detail that had escaped them, but not one that made a difference... Just moving a hatch is not a big deal, it's something the missing group could do easily...
Faced with that silence, without looking at Roger, Fran asked him:
"Do you want to send some soldiers to check the sewer system more thoroughly?"
Taking his gaze from the horizon, Roger glanced at Fran with the corner of his eyes, who was resting her head on one of her hands, observing the buildings around.
"No, that would reduce our numbers too much. Let's wait for Bernd's group to return to check."
While still speaking, turning his back, he headed toward the door.
"Let's return; the night watch posts need to be ready before night falls."
***
In the heart of a large complex of buildings covered by vegetation, in a vast square, Bernd observed the large sentinel positioned in the middle of the place.
Hidden behind some debris, he held his sword firmly while analyzing the old machine.
Still without any movement... it's time to advance.
Knowing that he could not stop from there, as there was no place to hide, he adjusted the sword on his waist to facilitate the draw and confirmed the position of the others before rushing toward the machine.
Running through the open area at a superhuman speed, he kept a fixed gaze on the machine's arms, preparing countermeasures for any movement it might make, no matter how small.
Move away, jump to the right or left, advance quickly and pass under it—various possibilities passed through his mind, as he had to be prepared to dodge when the wall of bullets came in his direction.
But, even when he was a few meters away from it, it remained immobile like a statue, causing a slight unease to rise in Bernd's heart.
Something is strange...
However, ignoring unnecessary thoughts, he maintained a steady pace, as he was already beside it.
Climbing onto one of its tracks, he scaled the machine and jumped to reach the back of the neck. Holding the sword firmly, he drew it from the sheath in a swift movement, making a slightly inclined horizontal cut just below the machine's head.
Like a knife through butter, the sword pierced the metal and passed through it in a clean motion.
As soon as he finished the cut, losing momentum, he began to be pulled back to the ground but landed on the soil with ease.
A few seconds later, the large metallic head, sliding through the cut made, crashed against the ground, producing a loud boom.
"It's over..."
With his shoulders less tense, the danger had ended, but, looking at the machine, Bernd had a serious gaze.
Even in the last moments, it didn't move...
Meanwhile, the rest of the group, who were hidden among the structures and debris around, relatively distant, approached him.
Einhart, arriving first, stopped near the sentinel's head and placed one of his feet on it.
"It was easier than I thought, a shame; I expected at least some salvos of shots before it was taken down," he said with a playful tone.
But, ignoring his brother, Bernd turned to the fallen head with a complicated gaze.
Due to its weight, it had sunk into the soil but remained practically intact, unlike the place where it fell, where the concrete had cracked.
Sighing, Bernd murmured:
"It was deactivated, that's why it was so easy..."
Einhart, surprised, looked at his brother for answers while he still sheathed the sword.
"What? Why?"
"...It didn't notice me at any moment, even when I was beside it, something that shouldn't have happened if it was really still active."
The responses of these machines are in seconds; the moment I touched it, it should have noticed my presence, just like during the war... Although it had been a long time since he had encountered one, the memories of the confrontations he had against the sentinels during the conflict remained fresh in his mind.
Due to their function of guarding human bases, they were equipped with various types of sensors and viewfinders, keeping them always alert.
The most expensive and complex ones may have stopped working, perhaps even some simple visual ones, like the one that is covered, but not everything...
Simple proximity sensors should still be active, especially the shorter-range ones.
Besides, it was very easy to cut.
Looking at his own hand, Bernd closed it.
"But how are the marks on the streets so well preserved? Shouldn't they have disappeared by now?"
Raising his head, Bernd looked at the sentinel.
"They should, if it had been deactivated for a long time, but I believe it stopped functioning recently, that's why the—"
Stopping mid-sentence, Bernd quickly looked toward one of the buildings and gripped the sword at his waist. With a sharp gaze, he held the weapon firmly while observing the interior of one of the buildings, which was covered by plants.
This caught Einhart's attention, who found his brother's behavior strange.
"What is it?"
But, without answering, he raised his hand in a signal for them to stay silent, not taking his eyes off the building.
"..."
Looking in the same direction for a few seconds, restless, they all calmed down when, emerging from a street right next to the building he was observing, the other group approached. In the lead, Félix stopped silently in front of Bernd, glancing quickly at him and then at the sentinel's decapitated head.
"So that's what produced the sound... Was it still active?"
Before Bernd could say anything, smacking his tongue, Einhart approached Félix, stopping a few centimeters from him.
"One moment, why should we answer you? Aren't you the subordinate? Shouldn't you report what you found first?"
With an indifferent expression, after staring at Einhart for a few seconds, Félix turned to Bernd.
"I apologize for my lack of courtesy."
Lowering his head slightly, he apologized but began to report what he found next, without waiting for a response. This made Einhart, with a look of disgust, turn his back and walk away.
"Most of the structure is the same, but we found two areas more destroyed than usual, with bullet marks and explosion holes in the surrounding structures, of course, besides the track marks on the ground."
Bernd, seeing his brother's back, now distant, kicking a stone, turned his gaze back to Félix.
"So it was in combat one last time before stopping functioning... Any clue about the missing group in those areas?"
"No, nothing that pointed directly to them. The only thing worth mentioning is the corpse of an animal already in decomposition, but it seems it was killed by accident during the confrontation."
"..."
These machines don't attack animals... so it was probably against the missing group that the sentinel fought, but.. Even believing that, he had no proof, but then, pausing, he slightly widened his eyes upon realizing something.
Turning to the sentinel, he saw that the plants hid much of the metal.
Turning his back to Félix, he climbed one of the tracks and began to clear space through the vegetation, searching for the metal beneath.
"I found it."
In a few seconds, as soon as he moved one of the plants, which had thin and long leaves resembling green hairs, he found a mark on the metal.
The cut was very well-made. Long and smooth, with a metallic shine still noticeable, it had sunk into the armor but not enough to breach it.
"It's recent and was made by a sword, but it shouldn't be the only one."
Drawing the sword from the sheath, with a quick cut, he removed the crust of vegetation from one of the armor plates.
Upon seeing what was underneath, Bernd froze, startled.
"!"
Besides more recent cuts, noticeable by the shine of the metal, there were more than a dozen others of various types, sizes, and depths. They seemed older, as it was in these spaces that the roots had taken hold, being less smooth than the rest of the armor.
Dents, superficial cuts, bullet holes, and explosions—all were marks from past confrontations of that sentinel. However, one of them caught Bernd's attention, sending chills through his entire body. Not only him, but everyone there, turning to the mark, froze for a moment.
In that part, there was a large claw mark, resembling that of a bear, only much larger and deeper, one that had slid across the plate and breached the armor.
Large and irregular, even covered by roots, it was the most visible among them.
With a surprised tone, shaking his head, Einhart broke the silence while approaching the machine.
"It's really an ancient machine; how impressive how much it fought and survived."
"..."
Averting his gaze, Bernd stepped away from the machine, descending the track.
"Well, I believe with this we know the group passed here, fought against the sentinel, but didn't manage to defeat it."
Since it is an infiltration group, it's to be expected that they wouldn't have the strength to defeat a sentinel... so they must have retreated...
Still looking at the marks on the machine, Félix turned to Bernd.
"Are we still going to check inside the buildings?"
"Well..."
Looking at the structures around, it was noticeable that the shadow of the buildings had grown considerably, making the place increasingly dark, as night was already near.
"It's already late... maybe it's better to return."
Finding his brother's words strange, Einhart asked:
"What's the problem? It's not as if darkness is a problem for us."
"...I know, but it's better this way. We don't know what may have happened to the previous group, whether they were killed by some human machine still active or by something else..."
Glancing out of the corner of his eyes, Bernd observed the claw marks on the sentinel.
"Let's return; I believe we've gathered enough information from here."
"Yes, sir."
Turning their backs, the group began to move toward the exit of the complex.
As they moved away, unnoticed by any of them, in a building next to a street, a black gaze amid the darkness of the interior of one of the buildings, behind several plants, watched them leave.
A slender humanoid with skin white as snow, but without any apparent deficiency, silently turned its back, entering the building.
***
In the midst of the night, in some corner of the city's center, the humanoid, moving through trees and buildings, followed a path along a street while carrying on its back the carcass of an animal already well decomposed.
With its black gaze, cautiously, it maintained constant attention to its surroundings while moving through the forest with a constant sound of water flowing.
Although it was in an area of dense vegetation, some structures still appeared periodically, as it passed near large cylindrical structures with breaches in their framework caused by rust.
During this journey, upon passing through some trees, it arrived at a large open area where there was a kind of artificial lake. Even in a nighttime environment, where crickets composed the ambient sound, the place was well illuminated by the moonlight reflecting on the water.
Square in shape, it seemed to be some kind of pool separated into several compartments with several rusted pipelines running nearby.
Stopping for a moment there, it approached one of the edges, where it saw some fish fleeing and hiding among the plants.
Kneeling there, it lowered its head, bringing its mouth to the water to drink it.
As soon as it finished, standing up, it continued on its path.
It was a short walk, as, after passing through some pipelines and structures, it reached the bank of a small river.
Descending its concrete edges, it walked near the riverbed until it reached the entrance of a large tunnel.
It was an ancient sewer system, where a thin layer of water flowed from its interior. It had two large gates, but they were wide open, with one partially fallen.
Walking slowly, it entered and disappeared into the darkness.