Kiana and the Captain's Bizarre Adventure

Chapter 346 The Sacrifice and the Truth

A heads-up before you read: Grace is slightly out of character in this chapter. Be prepared to be scolded.

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"Simply put, the idea behind the Praise Society is to enable humanity to survive in the void."

"Isn't this great?" Ling asked.

"What if I said it was in the form of a skeleton?"

"what?"

"For the Praise Society, the Void is a blessing, the key to humanity's evolution. The Corpse is the ultimate form of human evolution, but the current Corpse is not the form they recognize; the Demon is. Moreover, they believe that one day the Corpse will emerge from the Void and attack humanity, purifying the world."

“But the demons they’ve created now probably aren’t what they want, are they?” Zhe asked.

Kiana readily agreed with Zhe's conjecture and informed him that the demons sealed inside Pioneer Square were one of the important samples of the Praise Society, suggesting that Horus must have actually investigated something back then, which is why he disappeared with that money.

"However, based on the information we have now, at least Hors should have sealed that monster in Pioneer Square in the prototype at the end," Kiana speculated. "In short, that's roughly the situation. Because this matter spans a long period of time, this is all I can tell you, and I can't guarantee that it's true."

“One last question.” Zhe lowered his right hand, which he had been holding up while thinking. “Kiana, how did you know all this? After all, if it's as you speculated, and you have the relevant intelligence, it means that the higher-ups at the time should have known about it too. But why were the reports at the time still about the former president of Shirai Heavy Industries absconding with the money?”

"As I said, we only discovered in recent years that the Praise Society was not completely wiped out. This intelligence was also something we stumbled upon by chance while following clues about the Praise Society. To be honest, I didn't expect that the loss of the equipment from Baizhi Heavy Industry would be related to a case from so long ago."

Zhe Buyu just stared intently at Kiana's face as if trying to see something in her features, but in the end he sighed and agreed to Kiana's request for cooperation.

The main reason is that Tetsuya and Rin alone, even with the help of the people from the Rabbit House, could never possibly be worthy of Kiana and her family. Most importantly, Kiana said that the mayor knows their teacher and promised that the mayor would meet with them someday.

If Zhe were to fall out with Kiana now, he couldn't guarantee that Kiana's promise would still be valid. Moreover, Kiana had said that as long as he agreed to cooperate, he would receive help from the Kaslana family.

That alone is enough to attract people. You see, everyone in New Elidu wants a promise from Kaslana, and some people are even willing to pay any price for it. But often, these people never get the promise they dream of in their entire lives.

Kiana left after Zhe agreed to her request. The next day, the two of them returned to the old construction site where Shiroi Heavy Industries was located.

With the data provided by the three pieces of construction machinery, Zhe quickly calculated the specific coordinates of the signal source.

Due to the urgency of the situation, Kiana decided to take matters into her own hands this time. Soon, under Kiana's protection, the group arrived at the site where Pioneer Square was built.

Perhaps because this place was swallowed by the Void, everything here is still the same as before it was swallowed by the Void. When Grace arrived here, she immediately pointed out that the big white thing not far away was the prototype of all the Void-specific engineering machinery, and that place was the center of Pioneer Square.

Its shovel and mechanical claws were pressing against the collapsing building in the center of the square. That building was the most important structure in the entire Pioneer Square—the Pioneer Monument. Since there were no other living creatures in the cavity except for the skeletons, the prototype was not covered by weeds or anything like that.

"Prototype..."

As Kreta gazed at the prototype so close to her, her thoughts drifted back to her childhood. Back then, she had always admired her father, and he often brought her to see this prototype.

Even now, Kreta still remembers that her father, Hols, told her that he hoped to give Kreta the name of the prototype, and she slowly gave the prototype a nice name in the cockpit.

“Groy…”

"Hmm? Little one, what did you just say?" Grace asked.

"No, it's nothing." Kreta shook her head and subtly wiped away the tears from the corner of her eyes. "Let's take a look at the prototype first."

“Hmm. I also feel that its condition is not quite right,” Grace said anxiously.

"Ben, Anton, you two investigate around the monument. Ropesmith, Miss Kiana, Grace, and I will go check out the cockpit."

After saying that, ignoring Zhe's complaints, she grabbed Ies and led the other two people to the foot of the prototype. Grace began to inspect the prototype from the outside, while Kiana, led by Koleda, went into the cockpit.

Entering the familiar space through the entrance above, Koreta was momentarily disoriented, as the cockpit had been specially adjusted to accommodate her when she was still a child. Even now, Koreta didn't know how her father had come up with the idea of ​​letting a child operate heavy machinery, but thanks to this layout, although it felt a bit cramped for two people, the interior was also completely exposed.

"This is…!"

Kreida gasped as she touched the holes in the seat. Kiana and Tetsuya immediately recognized them as bullet holes, and the entire cockpit was riddled with them. Even the floor was littered with spent shell casings, a clear indication of a fierce struggle that had taken place inside.

“But so much time has passed, it’s impossible to tell whether anyone has been shot.” ​​Zhe said, using Ies’s physical advantage to survey the area. “Huh? There’s a stack of receipts on the control panel…”

Zhe handed the stack of receipts to Koleda through Ies, and then Koleda anxiously jumped off the prototype and called everyone over.

Ben took the receipts from Kreta and began to examine them. Ben, who was in charge of finance at Shiroi Heavy Industries, immediately discovered the information that Kreta wanted them to see.

"This is the delivery order for the prototype, along with the payment amount?!"

“That’s right, the amount is the same as the amount that disappeared from the company’s accounts. The time is exactly the same day Uncle Holmes disappeared,” Grace recalled. “In other words, Uncle Holmes took that money to pay for the prototype!”

"Aha! I knew an upright man like Mr. Holmes would never do something like absconding with the money!" Anton exclaimed excitedly. "With this bill of lading as evidence, his reputation can be cleared!"

"Hmm...wait a minute! Could it be that the former president was the one who brought the prototype here back then? But why would he do that? And how did he disappear afterwards?"

"Combined with the bullet holes found in the cockpit earlier, I probably know what happened." Kiana's words immediately drew the attention of the people from White Heavy Industries.

Finally, the current president, Kleida, broke the silence: "Could you explain this to us? This is very important to us."

“Yes, but before that, Miss Corida, could you tell me if your father did anything strange before he left?” Kiana asked.

"Strange behavior?"

Kiana's reminder instantly brought back a strange phone call from Horus the night before he disappeared. With a bang, Kiana punched the prototype machine and told Kiana about it.

"I see, that makes everything connected." Kiana's face showed understanding after listening to Koleda's explanation. "Miss Koleda, please listen to me calmly to finish."

After seeing Kleda nod, Kiana began to tell everyone present the whole truth...

"This is the truth I have deduced from the clues I have. If you have any questions, please ask them now."

“Miss Kiana, I’d like to confirm something,” Grace stepped forward and asked. “You said that all of this was orchestrated by the legendary Praise Society, in order to release that monstrous creature called the Sacrifice Demon on the day the Pioneer Square was built.”

Uncle Halls, after learning the truth, chose to settle the manufacturing costs early and arrive overnight in the prototype to prevent the tragedy. Then, members of the Praise Society, hidden in the shadows, fought with Uncle Halls in the cockpit, and ultimately, Uncle Halls sacrificed his life to prevent the tragedy, right?

"That's one way to understand it," Kiana said slowly, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes.

"Then, since Miss Kiana knew about this, why didn't the police even verify the information before directly labeling Uncle Holmes as an absconderer with the money?" Grace growled.

Years of suppressed anger erupted at this moment, fueled by Kiana's silence. Grace, her emotions somewhat out of control, raised her hand but hesitated to bring it down, and finally her right hand, which had been raised in mid-air, fell limply to the ground.

"I'm sorry, it was only a few years ago when we learned that the Praise Society still existed. Since this case was an old case from many years ago, and there was insufficient evidence, even if we brought it up again back then, we wouldn't be able to overturn Hols's case."

Grace understood Kiana's words perfectly well, but the thought of her beloved uncle suffering so many years of slander made her lose control of her emotions.

After calming herself down, Grace apologized to Kiana first, and then began to direct the three machines to carefully prepare to tow the prototype back.

Because just now, she discovered that the core of the prototype was not damaged. As long as it is dragged back and the records inside are analyzed, the events of that year can be found, and then Hols can be exonerated.

Shortly after the three construction machines slowly towed the prototype away, some noise came from the spot where the prototype had been propped up by a corner of the monument.

Then a pale hand reached out from the ruins, and the next second an unknown monster wearing a helmet emerged from the ruins.

"Could that be the Beast?" Grace asked, pointing her nail gun at the Beast while checking its ether reading. "This ether reading is frighteningly high!"

Upon discovering the group below, the demon high above immediately began crawling on all fours, quickly reaching the ground and then rushing towards Kleida, who was standing next to Grace.

Unfortunately, Kiana had anticipated this situation. As soon as she saw the opponent make an attack move, she teleported in front of the demon and kicked it back down to the base of the monument.

With a bang, the demon's entire body was embedded in the wall of the monument.

The demon struggled to pry itself off the wall, but unfortunately, it was hit by Kiana's kick again the moment it pulled out its right hand.

This time, the demon embedded in the wall fell completely silent, but it was clear that Kiana's two attacks had not completely killed it.

As Grace's tablet showed the ether readings rising higher and higher, a large number of ether crystals rose from the ground in front of the monument, and then the entire ground began to shake.

Then the monument seemed to come alive and began to move. To be precise, the demon eroded and devoured the entire monument, and thus an unknown eroded complex was born.

The massive, sky-covering structure cast a huge shadow, completely enveloping everyone. Meanwhile, the earthquake did not subside. As the monument slowly rose, the entire body of the skeleton was finally revealed to everyone.

The overall appearance of the skeleton is still based on the shape of the monument. The cone-shaped decoration near the base is disconnected at the joint, and the tentacles made of ethereal matter are connected to the main body.

These cone-shaped decorations were then inserted one by one into the ground to form the legs of this giant skeleton, while the two side walls of the monument were separated into shoulder armor-like shapes, and below were hands made of ethereal matter.

The most important core element, along with its upper body, is placed at the very center of the monument.

Faced with an enemy of this size, the rest of the group had no intention of resisting. What a joke! They couldn't possibly withstand a single blow from someone of that size. It would be better to think about how to retreat and let Kiana call for backup before dealing with the situation.

Unfortunately, in Kiana's eyes, this form of the demon lost the agility that was most important when it was in human form, making it useless despite its appearance. Under everyone's worried gaze, Kiana stretched out her right hand and made a gun gesture, and then...

"boom!"

As Kiana made a sound imitating a gunshot, the monster in front of her instantly turned into fragments, leaving only the part of the demon falling from the sky.

Amidst everyone's shocked gazes, Kiana withdrew her hand, turned to them, and smiled, "I told you, I'm here when necessary."

At this moment, Kiana was facing away from the sun, and the sunlight shining on her back gave her an inexplicable sense of holiness. Everyone stared at Kiana in a daze for a long time without saying a word.