Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1248: Finding his Loved ones: Part-3

Clang... Clang...

A huge line of handcuffed captives trudged along the rough terrain, their bare feet scraping against stone and dirt, while being surrounded on every side by metallic figures.

Each of those armoured beings held a white staff, resembling a police baton, clutched firmly in their cold, mechanical grip.

They walked in perfect unison, a rhythm that felt unnatural—too precise, too perfect.

Among them, one of the metallic figures turned his head ever so slightly as it only rhythm that did not match with the others... Beneath the metallic helmet, a faint frown tugged, ’Lia and Snowflake aren’t here... where could they be?’ Aether wondered, his thoughts twisting with unease, his chest tightening with a confused expression he barely managed to conceal.

Last night, he had scanned through the long rows of captives... Yet among them, not once did he find... Lia or Snowflake.

Not only that, the numbers didn’t add up. This group was smaller—almost as if it were only a fragment of those originally kidnapped.

’That means... There might be another group?’

Aether’s frown deepened, his eyes glancing around beneath the helmet, where two minute holes there... honestly, this metallic outfit was broken when he twisted the neck of that pervious one....

Anyway,

From the way they were marching.... They weren’t aimlessly moving bodies.

They might probably be joining with another group.

He really hoped nothing had happened to them. Lia... she could be unpredictable—both deceptive and aggressive. He knew her temper, her defiance. If she made even the smallest wrong move, she might already have been blasted apart, just like that captive had whispered about in fear.

And Snowflake...

Aether’s heart tightened.

He really started to panic now, though he forced his metallic frame to stay steady.

His connection with his puppet was weakening by the moment. He could feel it thinning, the invisible thread fraying with each step. Even something as simple as walking was becoming harder and harder.

Even more troubling, the metallic outfit he wore.... was barely holding together. The only reason he had managed to disguise himself in the first place was because he could alter his puppet’s features within certain limits, moulding them enough to plaster those heavy metallic pieces over its form.

But now... The disguise was slowly loosening.

Thud!

A small piece of metal slipped free and clattered to the ground. Aether’s chest tightened as heads nearby shifted slightly. He bent down, snatching the piece quickly before anybody noticed, and straightened again, forcing his body to move as if nothing at all had happened.

Also... he noticed something stranger.

He couldn’t hear anything.

He had thought at first these metallic things communicated with each other through some kind of built-in system within their helmets, like radios or coded signals. But no... There was nothing.

Something else was going on. Something else was communicating here... or maybe they weren’t communicating at all?

Or... he might have broken that too.

He wasn’t sure. For now, he only knew one thing—if he didn’t draw attention to himself, if he just followed their silent motions, he might get the truth.

Meanwhile, behind Aether, two other metallic figures exchanged a glance beneath their helmets. Their eyes narrowed as they frowned at the one walking ahead of them—the one whose steps weren’t quite right.

The armour on that figure was different. The plates looked uneven, some twisted, especially near the neck, where a strip of metal was visibly warped.

... Something was wrong with this one.

****

Far away from them, across a wide stretch of land, a sprawling camp spread out like a colony of ants.

Numerous tents layered the ground in crooked rows. Metallic figures moved about like clockwork, carrying cages on their shoulders, dragging them across the dirt, or stacking them like delivery workers.

They treated living bodies as if they were nothing more than packages, handled with hurried motions as if they didn’t have much time.

And inside one of those tents...

A blonde-haired girl stirred at last. She had been sleeping for the whole freaking day. Her lashes fluttered before her eyes slowly opened, revealing the dazed glaze of someone dragging themselves back into consciousness.

”Hmmm...” she moaned slightly, her expression groggy and muddled. After a pause, she stretched weakly and muttered under her breath, ”Best sleep I ever had.”

Her hand rubbed at her eyes lazily, but the drowsiness fled in an instant when her vision cleared.

Around her was a blood-coloured net.

”What is this?” she muttered, waving her hand instinctively. At once, the blood-red net that had been clinging to the air shimmered like fragile glass, breaking apart into thousands of tiny particles before dissolving into nothing.

Lia’s body hit the cold iron surface beneath her with a painful thud. She flinched, sucking in a breath through her teeth. ”What the...” she muttered.

She wasn’t supposed to be here. She was supposed to be in her bed.

Where was she?

She glanced around in hurried confusion, and then, as her gaze traced the bars around her—

She was... in a cage?

In a freaking cage?!

”What’s going on here?” she whispered sharply. Her hand shot forward, brushing against the bars with a frown.

She tried to summon her blade, but nothing came. No spark or shimmer.

Her frown deepened as dread gripped her chest. The connection to Arcane had vanished.

”Mom? Anyone—” She was about to scream for help when her body jolted back, her words choking off.

From the shadows, a metallic figure stepped forward. Its body gleamed with a faint, cold light, and from behind it swayed a tail... mechanical, segmented, and sharp at the tip.

It slithered across the ground with a faint scrape of steel.

Lia’s frown hardened, ”Who are you?” she barked, her hands curling into fists. ”Are you the one who put me in this?” She gritted her teeth.

The figure stopped and simply stared at her. Its face was hidden completely beneath the plated mask, no expression, no voice. Yet from the tilt of its head, from the way its metallic gaze lingered, it almost looked... curious.

Curious about her.

It scanned her up and down as if studying a specimen.

Lia’s stomach turned. She felt a sudden, sharp wave of disgust crawl over her skin. Covering her chest with her arms, she stepped back. ”What the hell?” she muttered under her breath. Her voice rose into a snarl. ”My mother will kill you for this!” she snapped.

The figure didn’t flinch. It didn’t seem taken aback or even remotely threatened by her words. It simply lingered a moment longer, then turned its back and walked away.

Lia bit down on her lip hard. Her eyes darted around the tent. She didn’t see anyone else—only that figure and tables, cluttered and messy, piled with strange documents and papers she couldn’t make sense of.

She wasn’t sure where she had been taken or how she had even been caught.

Her memory blurred... the last thing she remembered talking to her mother and... had her mother fought someone? Was that why she had been wrapped in a protective barrier before she blacked out?

She didn’t know... She was completely lost.

Then the metallic figure returned. In its hand, it carried a small plate of food. Its cold fingers brushed the cage, and with a hiss of shifting metal, a slit opened in the bars—just wide enough for the plate to slide inside.

Lia glared at it. Her eyes flicked from the plate to the figure’s faceless helmet.

It raised its hand, a simple gesture: eat.

Lia scoffed, turning her head away with a sharp exhale. ”No way I’m eating your shitty food,” she spat, ”Who knows what you’ve put in it?”

The figure stood there for a moment, then shrugged—an eerily human gesture—and stepped away.

Her gaze tracked its movements. She watched closely as it turned to another table, lifting a huge bundle of glass tubes.

Each one sloshed with liquid, filled with blood. Carefully, the tubes were placed into a strange box that hummed faintly, curling out wisps of white mist like frozen smoke.

The figure stored them inside, then lifted the box again. Before leaving the tent, it turned its head slightly, glancing back at Lia one last time.

Lia pressed herself against the bars, watching the last of its tail vanish.

She immediately moved closer to the cage door, testing it again. Her hand slipped through the bar gaps... yet, no matter how she tried, she still couldn’t draw on her energy.

”I guess... getting out of this is the only option,” she muttered, just as she was thinking way to get out when—

Thud!

She flinched, snapping her head toward the sound.

A small cage had fallen from one of the cluttered tables nearby. It rolled slightly, metal clinking as it landed.

Inside, pressed against the tiny bars, something shifted.

A snake... A pure white snake, its scales glimmering faintly under the tent’s dim light.

Lia blinked. The snake lifted its head and stared at her.

”Snowflake?” she whispered.

The snake nodded its small white head.

Lia blinked again, ”Why did you get caught?” she asked, her voice carrying both relief and confusion.

Snowflake, if she could, would have rolled her eyes. Inside her mind, ’This bitch has some nerve to ask me that, when she literally got kidnapped too?’ But her mouth was sealed, the metal mask binding her jaw, so no words came out.

She only stared back blankly.

All night, Snowflake had been straining, inch by inch, shoving her little cage with nothing but the strength of her small body. She had pushed against the bars again and again until her scales ached, until her body screamed from exhaustion.

Did Lia even know how much she had worked just to move an inch closer to freedom?!!

Lia sighed in relief. At least she wasn’t completely alone. At least she had someone she knew, someone familiar.

”Don’t worry. We will escape,” she whispered.

Snowflake blinked back, her head tilting as though to question her. ’How?’

And then—Snowflake’s gaze widened as she saw it. Lia’s body shimmered and warped, her form slowly twisting until her figure shrank down into the shape of a bat.

Her small wings flapped once, twice, before she slipped between the cage bars.

The bat hovered for a moment before the form shifted again. With a faint glow and ripple of red light, Lia returned to her human form, landing lightly on her feet outside the cage.

She spread her arms dramatically, ”Tada~”

Snowflake stared... Blinked... Blinked again.

’What the heck was this partiality!! Why didn’t they lock her hands?!’

Even though part of her was supposed to feel happy... Instead, she got annoyed. She had been struggling the whole fucking night... while Lia had just slipped out.

Just like that.

Fuck You!!

Lia’s hand shimmered suddenly, red particles igniting across her palm and weaving into form. A long blade of crimson blood appeared in her grip.

With a few quick slashes, clean and precise, she carved into Snowflake’s cage. The metal shrieked and tore before falling apart like nothing more than paper.

Snowflake slithered out immediately. As her body left the cage, her eyes gleamed with a furious glow, white scales shining almost too bright as she grew her body.

Though not massive, enough to shatter the mask.

Crack...

The metallic mask covering her mouth split. Hairline fractures spread like lightning across its surface before bursting apart into shards.

”Hisss~”

Snowflake hissed with fury!

She turned toward Lia, ”Let’s go and fuck up some bitches,” she muttered with murderous intent.