BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

[FOUR DAYS EARLIER]

"No, Erik!"

Mira shouted. He just gave the order to the Chimaeric Demons to bring her and the others away from the three-headed void ravagers.

In her opinion, Erik's plan was simply the fastest way to reach the afterlife, a stupid way to get himself and the others killed.

Mira didn't know if staying would have been enough to repel the monsters or if it would have made any kind of difference, but separating would just make things worse because it would weaken the Chimaeric Demons' army.

Yet Erik gave the order, and as their commander, and even more than their creator, his word was absolute—the Chimaeric Demons had no choice but to follow his command, even if they disagreed. Their military discipline and the chain of command left no room for discussion or debate.

Of course, the clones didn't disagree at all. Sure, they weren't taking the fact that Erik was going to stay behind well, but his wish came first to everything else, and besides, they had faith that their master would survive this ordeal, because that was what he had always done.

Besides, they wanted to bring Mira, Amber, Emily, and June to safety, exactly like Erik.

Mira shapeshifted. She wanted to take flight and reach Erik. She wanted to defy the stupid orders that would prevent her from helping the man she loved.

Yet someone stopped her. For a second, Mira cursed the Chimaeric Demons for always blindingly trusting their creator, but when Mira turned to look at who was pinning her down, she saw Amber, and she didn't expect that.

"What are you doing?!"

Amber said nothing. She only looked at Mira. Tears were streaming down Amber's face as she shook her head. Amber understood Mira's desperation—Erik's decision felt wrong to her, too. She wanted to help; she wanted to fight. Everyone did. Yet she understood why Erik made that choice, even though it hurt.

Fighting those monsters would only put them in danger—they weren't strong enough to help. None of them could survive in these waters if something went wrong, but Erik could.

At least by leaving, they had a chance to find a better way to help and would actually get out of the way, leaving Erik without worry and able to focus on fighting rather than protecting them.

She held Mira back, feeling terrible about having to stop her friend. As painful as it was, Amber knew Erik was making the right choice by sending them away.

Looking around, Mira could see the same helpless expression on everyone else's faces. They all wanted to stay and fight alongside Erik, but they were bound by his command.

Like that, the ten thousand Chimaeric Demons spread their wings and took to the skies in formation, their massive numbers darkening the clouds above as they reluctantly flew away from the battle. The clones maintained tight defensive formations as they retreated, while keeping an eye on the three girls to avoid them doing some stupid thing.

…

…

…

The flight across the ocean became a desperate affair. The Chimaeric Demons had to claw every meter they flew through.

The first attack came within hours after they escaped from the three-headed void ravagers. A massive eel-like creature, nearly fifty meters long with pale gray scales and rows of razor-sharp teeth, burst through the water's surface.

Its jaws snapped shut with devastating force, claiming thirty-seven Chimaeric Demons in a single bite. The attack happened so quickly that the formation had no time to scatter or mount any defense.

It wasn't a leviathan serpent, but it was pretty similar, not in size but at least in strength. The main difference between the two was that this one didn't make a heat so strong as to turn the ocean into scorching vapor clouds, but it didn't matter because it still was a deadly monster.

The survivors scattered into groups of twenty to thirty, maintaining their wyvern forms with their leathery wings spread wide.

Each smaller formation flew in tight patterns—some higher, some lower, but all constantly shifting positions to become more hard targets for the predators below.

The scattered groups maintained visual contact with each other through designated lookouts, ensuring they wouldn't lose track of their allies during the flight.

"Keep moving!" June said, leading one of the formations. "We can't stop!"

Not much later, the group was attacked by some other flying thaids, and without Erik, they had no way to identify or learn about their weaknesses.

They came from above, despite the clones' formations flying as high as they could, and were as relentless as the three-headed void ravagers were.

The group repelled the monsters, not without losses, and not without just a few of them. The clones even turned some of them into undead. The problem was that when these went scouting; they found more and more of such thaids in the vicinity, and that forced the Chimaeric Demons to fly lower.

But the sea held its own terrors—and each one of them had a ravenous hunger that they unleashed on the clones.

Amber, Emily, and Mira flew in the middle of the large formation, protected by rings of shapeshifted clones, but the more they remained amidst the group, the more they saw it shrink and decrease. One by one, the clones were dying, and that was happening in the span of hours.

Their wyvern forms provided speed and strength, but against the horrors of these waters and of their surrounding skies, they were inadequate. The problem was that they didn't even know if there was a better solution to their problem. Maybe shapeshifting into something small would have helped them, but that would have meant leaving Amber and Emily exposed.

June and Mira could shapeshift, but the other two couldn't. Amber could warp, but she couldn't warp that far. She couldn't reach Mur, while Emily could slow time down, but she couldn't do it long enough for her to reach Mur. She couldn't even fly, so she would have to slow time down for at least a Chimaeric Demon, and that demanded mana she didn't have.

By nightfall, their numbers had been cut in half. A single day had been enough to kill 5000 Chimaeric Demons, the most powerful troops the Mannard continent had ever seen.

When darkness fell, it brought new terrors—creatures that hunted using sound and heat were just some of the predators that attacked.

The Chimaeric Demons started feeling the weight of tiredness and lack of mana. Their formation suffered from that, and they started flying in a messy pattern, especially as their fear increased.

That quickly led to the Chimaeric Demons making dangerous choices they would have never done if they had been lucid enough—flying either too low near the water or too high in the sky during battles. This made them easy prey for the monsters waiting above and below.

June tried to keep everyone together by shouting orders. Despite being the weakest member of the group, he was the eldest of the clones there, so his orders were only second to Erik's.

The problem was that even his voice started getting weaker, and he was struggling with the loss of so many of his brothers.

Emily kept looking over her shoulder, terrified that more monsters would attack them. She silently hoped nothing was following them.

Next to her, Amber and Mira were barely holding themselves together. The situation was bad as it was, but it turned worse every few minutes, since the screams of the dying clones signaled their death, making the journey harder by the second.

The clones sacrificed themselves willingly, drawing attackers away from the main group, buying precious minutes with their lives.

When they finally spotted Mur's coastline, barely five hundred Chimaeric Demons remained of the original ten thousand.

It was a sorry sight for those who knew how many left Hin, but it was also a number greater than they could have ever assumed.

They landed in a small cove, the remaining clones forming a protective perimeter despite their exhaustion. Many bore injuries, evidence of near misses with death. But it was their eyes that told the true story—the shared trauma of watching thousands of their brothers die.

There was the weight of having and wanting to protect Erik's lovers and the knowledge that, even when they reached the land, their job wouldn't end.

"We made it," June said, but there was no triumph in his voice. Only a hollow acknowledgment of their survival and the terrible cost it required.

The surviving clones gathered close to each other, sharing their sadness. Though they had survived, they would never forget what happened during their escape—watching helplessly as monsters killed their brothers, fighting for their lives, and running from endless attacks.

"What now?"

"We need to make a shelter," Mira said. "God knows what the hell we will find on this damned continent, and while a shelter won't ensure us protection, at least it would hide us from this place's predators and will give us the chance to rest."

She then turned to the Chimaeric Demons. "Do whatever you can, but pay attention, and do not lure thaids to our position."

Every clone was cursing at their inability to control plants like Erik did, but despite that, they started working.