death of hope

Chapter 972 "Psionic Storm" (48) Lies
Life and death hang in the balance, memories flood back;

Back then, the young and ambitious naval officer, Lieutenant Commander Leon Vilnius, wearing Ikers standard power armor, led a hundred fully armed Ikers sailors...
In the passageways and decks of armed merchant ships, on the conveyor belts of mining barges, and in the barracks of the sentry space station, they fought bloody battles with the boarding Elyos pirates.

These pointed-eared aliens can easily create illusions at first glance.

They were handsome and delicate-looking, with slender arms and legs, giving them a stereotypical image of being weak and vulnerable, easily manipulated.
If you, a tough human, despise these pointed-eared creatures and believe that the Eldar don't know how to fight, you will inevitably pay the price in blood for your arrogance:
Different home planets and different environments have given rise to a wide variety of intelligent species with diverse forms and appearances.

The Eldar, raised in the low-pressure, low-radiation, and low-gravity environment of their homeworld Elf, are destined to have low bone density, poor strength, and be unable to bear the weight of alloy armor or wield heavy weapons.

The Eldar's talent points are clearly allocated elsewhere; they possess extraordinary reaction speed and neural recruitment abilities, and their observation skills are top-notch. Every Eldar has the potential to become a high-speed, agile, and deadly assassin.
Wearing light combat suits and wielding nimble, elegant poisoned weapons, they specifically target the weak points in human armor and joints.

·
A group of agile, pointy-eared assassins wouldn't be able to cause much trouble, given their small population.
However, as the Queen of the Elves said, thanks to the blessings of the Astral Gods, these pointed ears possess the most powerful psychic abilities in the galaxy.

Li Ang deeply understands this; it is one of the many nightmares deep in his heart.

The Eldar wizard, clad in a purple robe, chanted ancient scriptures in the Goelf language.

Hyperdimensional evil magic; human psionicists are like children performing magic tricks in its presence.

Inexplicable and bizarre phenomena, defying the laws of physics, appeared on the battlefield.
Li Ang and his sailors felt a bone-chilling cold. A thick layer of frost formed on the ship's deck, kinetic rifles began to jam, and chainsaws froze and stopped spinning.
The gravity generator was no longer useful; the mountains of cargo in the hold began to float, and the sailors in power armor looked like a group of landlubbers thrown into the water, clumsily kicking their webbed feet.

The battle formation was lost and chaos ensued; some people even had their heads smashed open by containers...

·
At that time,

Just like now,

Fear gripped Li Ang once more.
Everything around me became strange and surreal, as if I were in a ghostly realm.
When facing an unseen opponent, guns and swords are ineffective.

The strongest human psychic talent,
Zero,

Jinguji Yuna,
The blonde girl's abilities were comparable to, or even stronger than, those of the Eldar pirate wizard who had defected to the UFOs years ago.

Leon Vilnius, a former naval officer, is now a laboratory assistant.
It seems to be fate that they cannot escape this calamity; most people would have already given up and closed their eyes, waiting for death.

(Damn it... it's psionic energy again...)
Leon Vilnius never yielded to fate; he faced mountains of knives and seas of fire with unwavering courage.

He lived a life of leisure and comfort, leading a mediocre and uneventful life, and departed in disgrace as the illegitimate son of a nobleman.

Or perhaps they will embark on a path of exile, redemption, and defying fate to become a true knight of the Vilnius family.

Even if someone asks a thousand times, ten thousand times,

He will always choose the latter.

(This isn't the first time I've faced a situation like this...)

I have...never again...

(There's nothing... I can lose...) he thought sadly.

·
As Zero's emotions collapsed, the increasingly violent psionic energy erupted uncontrollably, threatening to tear the entire B14 area apart and bury it.

A series of groans echoed from the office area outside the curtain wall; colleagues were feeling extremely unwell and experiencing difficulty breathing.

Blade-like psionic ripples spread through the air, cutting into people's bodies and causing them to bleed.

With blood pressure fluctuating wildly, the cardiovascular system is on the verge of collapse, and a stroke or arterial rupture could occur at any time.

If the office areas, separated by only tens of meters, were in such a precarious situation, Li Ang, who was practically next to Zero, was in a far more dangerous position. "Little Li... he must be dead..." a female researcher murmured, crying.

"Nonsense, how could anyone survive that? This psionic energy intensity... all the instruments are off the charts. Little Li's body would probably be crushed to dust..."

"We're doomed. Every single one of us is going to get out..."

"Damn it... those guys who got a day off today were incredibly lucky..."

·
At this moment, the curtain wall, with a strength equivalent to thirty layers of bulletproof glass, could no longer withstand the psionic shockwave and collapsed with a deafening roar.
The researchers in white lab coats were astonished to discover that the homeless man, the down-on-his-luck aristocrat, and the new lab assistant that their professor (Dr. Joseph) had picked up from the street were all still alive and well.

The fact that it could withstand such an impact shows that its anti-psychic talent is not to be underestimated. What is even more surprising is its iron will.
The weak human, suppressed by psionic energy, used his strong hands to support the server chassis and stood up shakily, his movements like those of a hundred-year-old woman. At this moment, no one laughed at him, only felt deep awe.

"Holy crap... that kid's still alive..."

"What is he trying to do? Get up..."

"Nonsense, run!"

"Run! Little Li! Escape outside... at least you'll at least have a decent body..."

To everyone's surprise, Leon Vilnius, supporting himself against the server rack, shakily stood up. He didn't run away.

Instead, they faced the core of the psionic storm, the berserk Zero Talent.
Facing the fear in his heart, he moved step by step toward the core of the black hole:

(Stand up straight...)

Don't lie down.
Let those guys in white coats…

Let those psionicists take a look…

Knights of Vilnius…

How did they face death...?
·
Zero was still screaming and struggling.
The once beautiful face now appears mad and terrifying, spreading death;

Her body awoke, but her soul remained trapped in a nightmare from which she could not escape.

She didn't want to hurt anyone, but she couldn't stop the surging energy from bursting out of her body and injuring people. All she could do was cry out in despair and call for her family and loved ones.
"Brother! Tetsuya-kun! Save me!"

His rubber shoe soles felt as if they weighed a ton, as if Li Ang's leg bones and the muscles attached to them were about to be torn off.

I could clearly feel capillaries bursting under my skin. Fortunately, they weren't in critical areas like arteries or veins. If they were in the brain or cardiovascular system, I would have died on the spot.

With every centimeter he got closer, the surge of spiritual power nearly tore him to pieces, like a small boat in a raging storm, about to be capsized and shattered.

Just before being torn apart by the psionic storm,

Li Ang lifted a strand of golden hair, pressed the brain-computer interface on his scalp, and a long, narrow circuit board popped out. The chip on it, used to suppress psionic energy, had short-circuited and burned out.

Then, he opened his arms and kissed her…

The madwoman shuddered suddenly, as if remembering something precious. Part of her consciousness escaped the nightmare, and the released spiritual energy instantly decreased by more than half. Her pupils stopped dilating and gradually focused.

"Tetsuya-kun?"

At this moment, Li Ang was a gambler, betting the life and death of all the employees in the B14 area on the lie he was about to utter:
“It’s me…”