Book 10: Chapter 48: The Plan

“Any thoughts I have right now, Sawa, are just guesses. They might not be right at all. There might not even be a traitor in the team,” Qin Lun said calmly. “As for why I suspect Balin and the others, I have my reasons. But time is short. Let me explain while we work.”

“Alright, what do we do next?” Loben looked up at Robin and Qin Lun.

“When I saw the projection of the Ruins the moment I woke up, I knew we couldn’t hide here forever from the enemy alliance. This place is huge, but compared to the endless universe, it’s nothing. Once we entered the Ruins, we became like fish in a barrel – they could easily catch us. A fight was unavoidable under normal conditions.”

Qin Lun smiled. “The best I could do was improve our odds. I had Robin secretly disguise some Bingren Mecha so it looked like we split into three groups, but actually, most of us stayed together.”

“Will that really work?” Dean asked, puzzled. “I mean, even if one group is all Gith Flight Officers, and Alex’s group pretends to be us, fighting the enemy guerrillas inside the Ruins… wouldn’t the enemy figure out there’s a hidden ‘fourth group’ the moment we take any action?”

“You’re right,” Qin Lun admitted with a mysterious smile, turning to look at the mecha Bobby was fused with. “Which is why we need to vanish completely. Make sure the enemy doesn’t sense another team at all.”

“Bobby’s bio-particleization ability?!” Dean raised an eyebrow. “There are seven Bingren Mecha. Even if he could particleize them all, it wouldn’t hide us for long.”

Dean had a point. Bobby could only maintain his bio-particle state for short periods each time. It was even harder since Qin Lun’s and others’ Bingren Mecha weren’t covered with Bobby’s unique clone tissue.

“Bobby can’t shield seven Bingren,” Qin Lun agreed. “But once his own mecha particleizes, it can easily shield the seven of us. At least long enough to get us through this silver door and into the Ruins’ core.” His eyes twinkled cunningly.

“You mean… everyone except Bobby abandons their mecha…?” This was clearly a plan Dean hadn’t considered; he gaped in surprise.

“Bingren are our main weapon to survive in the Gospel World,” Robin said with a smile, “but we’re not helpless without them.”

“Hah, Dean, this might be the first time I’ve seen that expression on your face,” Loben said, patting his brother’s shoulder fondly. “Now you understand what I always say: out in the Star Void, you’re not the only clever one. You gotta remember to stay…”

“Humble! Humble! I know!” Dean cut off his brother’s lecture with a wry smile.

“But, sir… If we abandon the mecha, what if the Angel Race left defenses inside the core…?” Sawa frowned worriedly.

“Based on my analysis,” Qin Lun said calmly, shaking his head, “it’s unlikely the Angel Race filled the Ruins with defenses. They wanted their civilization inherited by those who came after, not buried with them. The defensive net at the wormhole entrance was just a test – to check the inheritor’s level of civilization. Otherwise, they could have just sealed the wormhole completely. The dangers we’ve faced so far inside the Ruins – the anti-matter beams, the tadpole robots – confirm this. They were just meant to clear away wild beasts that might wander in by accident, not block potential inheritors of civilization.”

“But then,” Sawa persisted, still concerned, “what if… after we complete the mission… we come back and find our Bingren Mecha in enemy hands? We wouldn’t stand a chance!”

Qin Lun didn’t answer this time; he just smiled at her. Robin answered instead: “That’s a risk we have to take. We never had enough strength to beat them head-on anyway. Besides, the Ruins are vast. Stationary Bingren Mecha are like rocks. With Alex and Balin’s group misleading the enemy, the odds of them finding this place are very small.”

“Alright, enough talking!” Bobby cut in as the discussion wound down. “Everyone get out of your mechs! Come stand next to me.”

Qin Lun jumped out of the Seventeenth Fallen Angel and walked over to Bobby’s mecha. They all held hands, forming a circle around it. Bobby’s Bingren began to glow on its surface, bathing the group in soft light. Then, abruptly, it seemed to dissolve. It scattered into countless tiny particles, swirling into a whirlwind that blew straight through the silver door.

Qin Lun and the others vanished. Only six tall, motionless Bingren Mecha remained at the end of the dark passageway. Their internal Particle Furnaces went dormant. The light faded from their eyes, and the darkness closed in once more.

…

“Woah, this is the core?” The silver door they passed through, which appeared incredibly thick, turned out to be surprisingly thin – only about a meter. Compared to its height and width of hundreds of meters, it felt as thin as cardboard.

After guiding the group through the door using his Wind Element form, Bobby found he couldn’t end the ability. Behind the silver door wasn’t solid ground; it was a vast, pitch-black space. They were hovering in nothingness. Peering around, they realized they were inside a gigantic, circular tunnel descending deep below. The tunnel was enormous, several kilometers wide. The bottom was nowhere to be seen. Besides the silver door behind them, dozens of identical silver doors lined the dark rock walls – likely entrances from other passages within the Ruins.

“Look above!” Sawa, ever observant, whispered the tip.

Tilting their heads back, they saw the rock ceiling wasn’t very far above them. Suspended upside-down from it was a stone platform, identical in style to the one they’d seen beneath the Ruins when orbiting the world earlier.

“Seems we wasted a lot of effort,” Robin said with a bitter smile. “If we’d known the mechanism, that platform outside probably could have opened. We got inside the wrong way and lost a lot of time.”

“However we got in, we’re here,” Qin Lun said reassuringly. “And at least we’re one step ahead of the other teams. Bobby, while you still have some energy left, fly us further down. The deeper we go, the smaller the chance the enemy spots us.”

Not wasting his breath on a reply, Bobby gathered them up again. The whirlwind carried them downward. But the tunnel was truly immense, and moving as Wind Element wasn’t fast. After several minutes, Bobby finally seemed to reach his limit. His Bingren Mecha and the others began shimmering back into their normal forms.

Qin Lun, anticipating this, threw his arms wide. Countless thick, dark-green vines sprouted from his forearms, winding securely around everyone’s waists and anchoring them firmly to the back of Bobby’s mecha.

Bobby switched on his mecha’s APB force field to guard against any possible traps in the tunnel. Carrying the others, he didn’t dare fly too fast, lowering them steadily downward.

“Sir,” Sawa asked, remembering her earlier question now that they had a moment, “can you tell us which one of Balin’s group you suspect?”

Qin Lun paused, thinking. “In the big fight between Shattered Starry Sky and Superstring Space,” he began, “all three major alliances in Devil’s Horn suffered losses. Big teams needed new blood. But Apostles on the Order Front come from all walks of life. They couldn’t recruit just anyone; they were targeting the most promising low-to-mid ranking Apostles. After taking the job from Lost Kelly, I thought hard about the mission. Knowing how Chaos and Apostle Monument usually operate, it seemed very likely they’d plant a mole beforehand.”

“Of course, that’s something they’d do, not brag about. They couldn’t cover every angle. Blindly hoping Lost’s newly formed team would have their mole was too uncertain. The mole they picked had to have a very high chance of being selected for this Patroller Team. That ruled out most of the standout low-rank Apostles. There are just so many more low-rankers with potential compared to Second Order Apostles; Chaos couldn’t know which ones Lost would bring along to ‘avoid trouble’ first. That reasoning is incomplete, though. Even among low-rankers, some Apostles are so good the big alliances would desperately want them.” He gestured toward Bobby and Dean. “Like the two youngsters with us.”

Bobby, fused with his mech, showed no expression. Dean, however, looked pretty pleased with himself.

“However,” Qin Lun continued, “what Bobby did before – sacrificing himself – cleared him of any suspicion. No genuine mole would act like that. As for Dean, I believe his pride and skill mean he wouldn’t stoop to being a mole just to join Chaos or Apostle Monument. And if Loben was secretly working for them—” he shook his head “—being a traitor would ruin Dean’s future prospects. Loving his brother as he does, Loben wouldn’t let Dean join this fight if Loben himself were the traitor.”

Recalling his earlier thoughts, Qin Lun went on. “Following that logic, Balin, Huobiao, and Bowei ended up as unavoidable suspects in our team. Plus, the plan itself needed Apostle decoys. So it made sense to let them take a calculated risk. Chances were low the enemy would actually kill them outright on sight.”

Low chance didn’t mean no chance. If the enemy felt tricked, Balin and the others weren’t completely safe…

As Qin Lun spoke so smoothly, a strange unease crept into the minds of the group. Logically, his analysis was sound; it was the best choice given the situation. But the emotionless, robot-like coldness in his thinking gave them an uncomfortable chill.

Robin glanced at the others, then back at Qin Lun, who seemed utterly unperturbed, and sighed inwardly. Apostles, regardless of their form, were essentially sentient beings. Most had principles and lines they wouldn’t cross. The man before her seemed to have none, or perhaps simply didn’t care.

Ahem, I get it,” Loben cleared his throat loudly, trying to break the uncomfortable silence that followed. “So the mole must be Bowei! I heard teams he was in before all fell apart. And he volunteered for this Patroller team himself…”

“Perhaps,” Qin Lun replied noncommittally, a faint smile on his lips.

“Hey!” Bobby suddenly shouted, his voice filled with surprise and excitement. “I’m picking up something on the sensors! Looks like we’re almost at the bottom of the Ruins!”