"Turing?" As a soft and delicate body crashed into the woman's arms, a brown-black rock wall quickly opened up, and the thunderous impact echoed on the other side of the wall, throwing the woman far away with immense force.
The cold coolant flowed through the gaps in her limbs, holding death and intoxication.
A rush of water slipped past her feet, completely lifting the woman's body off the ground.
The frost seemed to dig into the woman's skin pores, like flowers and plants rooting in the soil.
Memories of past suffering and a pale fierceness almost filled her entire brain, making her lose her sanity.
But the warmth in her embrace and the faint whisper in her ear instantly cleared her mind a little.
"I won't let go..." Turing almost growled, low and determined.
The raging flood was divided into many parts by the standing coffins, countless surges crashing against the laboratory walls, producing a deafening sound.
Chaotic and disorderly waves tore at the two tightly embraced individuals, the water level constantly rising, making it impossible to distinguish up from down for a moment.
"The box...!"
In the chaos, the iron box in the woman's arms slipped away and submerged in the dark current.
"I'll go get it."
"Take a deep breath and hold on to me!"
[I can't leave her alone, it's too dangerous here.]
Turing looked at the woman's heaving chest and took a deep dive into the water with her, swimming towards the direction where the box had slipped away.
[Is it still deeper?]
Diving several meters, Turing attempted to spread her wings and dive even deeper, but she found that the turbulent eddies directly dispersed the magic seeping from her back.
Turing reached out her hands as a mage, barely pulling against the water flow and swimming downwards.
[I see it!]
Turing, guided by the light reflecting on the water's surface, saw the iron box at the bottom of the water, lonely and wedged onto the glass crack of the tight coffin.
Turing swam desperately, but the more force she exerted, the stronger the suffocating sensation in her chest and the resistance of the current became. After a while, Turing felt like she was not progressing, but rather regressing.
[Damn it!]
Turing clenched her teeth, using the rock wall she had previously used to block the current as a shield, trying to contain the magic by releasing a flame.
The flickering flame burst like a flash, forcing the evaporating steam into the narrow space, instantly pushing Turing far away.
But she had underestimated the power of the explosion. Turing rapidly shot towards the direction of the iron box, seemingly out of control.
Turing protected the woman in her arms, backing towards the rapidly approaching coffin. In her haste, Turing couldn't react in any other way.
With a dull thud, Turing crashed firmly into the coffin.
"I got it..." Turing and the woman finally resurfaced. In their intense gasping for breath, a sense of exhaustion lingered. Turing held the woman's hand tightly with one hand, while the other hand held the iron box, and whispered softly,
"Turing! You're bleeding!" The woman anxiously exclaimed.
A leaf-sized wound hung on Turing's forehead, crimson blood mixed with coolant flowed down Turing's eye sockets and nose bridge. Turing wearily looked into the woman's eyes, her wet shoulder-length hair sticking to Turing's face and neck due to the water.
The messy iron wire on the coffin hooked Turing's armpit, and the broken glass pierced through Turing's cheekbone, with a faint light red color drifting in the damp current.
Turing's head began to spin.
"This is what you deserve..."
"You should have a broad blue sky like a swift..."
"And wings that can never be taken away by anyone..."
Upon hearing Turing's words, the woman seemed to be anxiously saying something. But Turing, feeling dizzy, couldn't hear clearly at this moment.
Turing absently instructed. Her mind seemed to return to the quiet and peaceful Lake of Peace, where the pure white snow blocked the view of this beautiful figure surrounded by rustling reeds.
Turing looked through the snow, her hand hanging in the swaying reeds. The woman's shocking severed arm was held in Turing's palm, faintly visible in the surging torrent.
"What...?" Turing suddenly woke up, wide-eyed, looking around. The woman had completely disappeared, leaving Turing only with a severed arm in her hand.
"It's happening again?"
"Again... like this?"
The smooth cut of the severed arm seemed to mock Turing's helplessness, as if it was cut by the sharpest blade, the gloomy white bone sneering at Turing.
"Look."
"What did I say?"
The shadow crouched on top of the coffin behind Turing, its arms covered in dripping blood.
"So arrogant, yet so foolish."
"Just like that woman, thinking she's superior to others."
"In reality,"
"It's nothing special."
The shadow raised its massive clamp-like hand, resembling a gigantic steel pincer.
"Let me free you from this helplessness..."
Turing lifted her hand, wanting to gather her magic again, simply destroying everything in front of her. She was tired of the cunning schemes and calculations.
But she didn't do it. She suddenly felt that these things seemed to no longer matter.
None of it concerned her.
"Turing, let's dance."
"I've been in this research institute for four years, and I learned to dance here."
"Latin dance, you know?"
"I was taught by Prometheus, a foreign dance."
"To dance well in Latin dance, there's one thing you have to learn first..."
"Let go."
Turing suddenly woke up, tightly holding the woman, the iron box in her other hand, as if everything had returned to ten seconds ago.
The woman smiled sweetly. Turing realized for the first time the allure that women have on the opposite sex.
"Take care of my box for now."
"Trust me, I will succeed."
The woman's whisper was like a teacher's instructive guidance. This warm and gentle language seemed to have the power to relax muscles, causing Turing to unconsciously let go.
What kind of success?
What is she going to do?
She's an angel too! In the liquid that restricts angels, let alone such turbulent water, how could she...
The woman let go, like a kite with a broken string, disappearing in the blink of an eye. Although the swift and late shadow was fierce, it missed its target entirely.
"Hmph."
"You're quite ruthless." The shadow, just like before, confidently perched on the coffin behind Turing. It was unbothered by the crashing waves, treating them as if they were nothing.
"Your judgment was correct, she won't be able to hide her true nature for long."
"If you don't let go, we'll witness a farmer and snake story right here."
"But even if you let go, it will only be a temporary measure. As an angel, she cannot truly be drowned in cryogenic fluid."
"But when that time comes, you will have to face me, her, and even her angel."
"What will you do then?"
Endless rage surged up from Turing's heart. Suddenly, it felt like something had shattered in the center of Turing's chest, leaving a clear and bright sensation that covered Turing's once fierce and rebellious heart.
"I will defeat you."
Turing didn't say kill or destroy. The old Turing would have definitely said that in this situation.
The coolant around Turing violently boiled, and the water around Turing gradually retreated, forming a sphere with Turing at its center.
Turing forcefully pulled her blood-smeared body from the spikes of the coffin, turned around, and faced the towering shadow.
After a burst of brilliance, Turing's body returned to its original state.
"Incandescent spiral."
Turing quickly created and threw a spear, but like before, the shadow's body shifted and it dodged in advance.
Seemingly afraid of Turing, the shadow quickly dove into the water and disappeared without a trace.
[Sister, you made me believe in you...]
[You must survive.]
Turing ascended over the laboratory like a bright star, and a divine radiance gradually spread from her, forming hundreds of shining golden crossbows.
"The Wrath of Athena."
As Turing softly spoke, all of the crossbows automatically loaded arrows, as if they were bullets being loaded into a chamber.
[Since you can predict my movements, do you think you can dodge this many?]
A hailstorm of arrows, no, a meteor shower, irresistibly rushed towards the turbulent water. Terrifying explosions echoed continuously, and the water area of the laboratory, which was as large as three or four football fields, was covered by the bombardment, leaving a pockmarked and unbearable sight.
At this moment, the violently rising water and crashing waves in the sky seemed to freeze, as if captured by a camera, frozen in time.
The flowing water became static ice sculptures.
A sudden frost descended, and the room temperature drastically dropped. Massive ice flowers burst open one by one on the frozen surface of the water, blossoming.
The shadow was forced to escape from the frozen water.
"Did she activate the emergency freeze device?"
"That's impossible! For safety, there's not just one button, how could she, with only human strength, accomplish such a complex task in the turbulent water?"
The dark shadow seemed to be a little panicked.
"Sister did it..."
"Not only did she seal her almost angelic self, she also forced you to escape from the water."
Turing thought she would be very sad, but she wasn't.
Her heart was filled with endless fighting spirit at this moment.
"I won, Ghost Shadow."
Turing stepped on the protruding ice block in the ice river, and the water tank behind her had turned into a huge ice hedgehog, shimmering in the light.
"Endo branches call."
The emerging light snake shot out from Turing, towards the dark shadow.
Countless light snakes were like the thousands of fingers in the hands of gods, surrounding the dark shadow and firmly gripping it.
"I might have killed you in anger before, but I won't now."
"Tell me what you really are, and everything you know."
Turing's transparent eyes were as beautiful as a sparkling lake.
That gentle lake water, who knows how many flowers, birds, fish, and insects it nourished, how many drunken people it quenched the thirst of.
But people would never realize that at the bottom of this abyss-like lake,
lies a secret of pain and heartache.
