Erin Xavier: "There was an accident."

Yes, an accident that had exceeded his predictions. Erin Xavier continued, "We’re trapped under some rocks. Something’s wrong with Zoe. She’s unconscious."

Erin Xavier still wasn’t sure how to explain the situation.

The unfinished mark... he didn’t even know what effect it would have on Zoe Pierce’s gland.

’Dammit,’ he thought. ’As soon as we’re off this blasted planet, I have to get Zoe checked out immediately. What if her uncontrollable gland goes haywire again?’

’It was me this time. Who will it be next time?’

As his thoughts drifted to this, his fingers tightened.

Miles Sherman’s voice came through the wireless channel, tinged with a robotic quality. "Unconscious? What happened?"

Erin Xavier looked up at the space around them, still pitch black. "It seems like she remembered being trapped in the mining accident."

"It’s a stress reaction."

Miles’s voice was quicker on the other end. "Can you break out?"

Erin wasn’t sure. He ran a scan with his mecha, finally saying, "There’s a sixty percent chance."

Miles Sherman was speeding through the air. The group of Betas was no longer behind him; he was flying his mecha alone.

"Send me your coordinates. Don’t try to break out just yet. We need to avoid causing a secondary collapse," Miles Sherman told Erin Xavier.

Erin wasn’t in a hurry. In fact, he’d never wished for Miles to take his time more than he did right now.

His fingers brushed against Zoe Pierce’s hair. Her long, seaweed-like tresses were now wrapped around his fingertips, entwining them not like hair, but like a chain—a chain that bound him to her.

"Mm," he responded softly, sending the coordinates and waiting quietly for Miles’s arrival.

"What about you? Are you hurt?" After asking, Miles seemed to jolt as if waking from a dream, realizing he had only asked about Zoe Pierce and forgotten all about Erin Xavier.

It was a belated question, an attempt to cover his oversight.

Only then did he notice the unnatural hoarseness in Erin’s voice.

Even when Erin was being serious and formal, his voice never sounded like this.

Erin replied, "I’m fine."

"My mecha’s partially damaged, so I’ve taken a bit of a hit."

It seemed neither of them was in good shape. Miles confirmed the distance between his position and the coordinates, then suddenly accelerated toward their location.

The battle between thermal weapons and the Xenobeasts was gradually escalating to a fever pitch. Even Nathan Lockwood and Chase Shaw, who were secretly gathering intel inside the mountain cave, could feel the entire mountain shaking and crumbling.

They hadn’t seen the Xenobeasts yet, but the tremors alone were enough to tell them the Xenobeast Tide was growing more intense.

The sounds coming from the mountain itself were proof that parts of it were already beginning to collapse.

Nathan Lockwood made a snap decision. "Head for the exit."

Even though there were still many areas they hadn’t explored, they couldn’t hesitate any longer. It was time to leave.

The closer they were to the entrance, the easier it would be to break out.

The group ran quickly toward the exit. Nathan Lockwood tried to contact Miles. "Send us coordinates. We’re on our way out."

Miles first sent Nathan the coordinates Erin had shared with him. "Erin and Zoe are there. They ran into some trouble. I’m heading that way now, too."

Nathan Lockwood was a little surprised. "What happened?"

He hadn’t expected Miles to have separated from Erin.

"The people from Planet B36 found us."

Chase Shaw’s face tensed. He sent a few private messages to Zoe Pierce, but there was no response.

’Did something happen to Zoe?’

The color drained from his face.

Zoe Pierce was already the equivalent of an Alpha, and Erin Xavier was even stronger. For both of them to run into trouble under these circumstances...

"I don’t know the specifics yet. I’m almost there. Keep the comms open." Knowing the general situation Zoe and Erin were in, Miles, apart from his usual serious frown, wasn’t as worried as Chase and the others.

After that brief exchange, he continued flying toward Zoe and Erin’s location.

Before long, he saw the cliff, a large section of which had abruptly collapsed.

The marks left by laser bombs were exceptionally clear, leaving a series of smooth, circular cuts on the hard rock.

He spotted the location from which the coordinates were being transmitted. The pile of rocks below was almost half as high as the mountain itself.

He estimated the depth of the coordinates to be several dozen meters. Erin’s probability calculation hadn’t been wrong.

They were lucky their mechas weren’t completely wrecked in there.

Miles immediately chose a spot closest to Zoe and Erin. With a swing of his mecha’s arm, he began tossing boulders aside.

Meanwhile, Nathan Lockwood and Chase Shaw, having heard the news, were also picking up speed. When they reached the exit, Chase directly unleashed his spiritual power, savagely twisting the alloy gate into a block of metal.

The gate let out a sharp, explosive shriek. Julian Chambers watched, dumbfounded.

’Seriously? He’s that much of a beast?’

’They don’t seem worried at all about being discovered. They just want to get out.’

Soon, the once-sealed gate was sliced open as if it were tofu. Chase Shaw was the first one out, summoning his mecha and taking off.

Nathan Lockwood didn’t say much, simply following right after him.

Julian Chambers was left behind, practically freaking out. Hearing the blaring alarms, he steeled himself, summoned his own mecha, and followed.

Their primary objective had been achieved, so naturally, Chase couldn’t care less about the commotion.

The unusual noise from the exit, however, did attract the attention of the command center.

[ALARM. ALARM. GATE A-D COMPROMISED.] 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

They had initially thought the Xenobeasts had breached the facility, but after dispatching nearby mechanical eyes to investigate, they discovered it was clearly man-made damage.

A Beta couldn’t crush high-density alloy like that with their bare hands. Only spiritual power could do it.

It had to be an Alpha.

The staff immediately made the connection to the group that had just escaped.

Just as they suspected. It was a premeditated, organized plot.

He immediately mobilized all mechanical eyes, trying to find any visual recordings of the group.

But the figures of these Alphas seemed to have appeared out of thin air; their point of entry could not be found.

"Stop searching," the middle-aged man ordered after a few wasted minutes, halting the others’ actions. "There must be an Alpha with special spiritual power among them."

"Otherwise, it would be impossible to find nothing."

They no longer had time to waste on these people. Obviously, the intruders had calculated this, which was why they dared to reveal themselves.

But the two men he’d assessed as premeditated plotters currently had their minds elsewhere, not on this group of Betas.

They had come to Planet B36 for Zoe Pierce in the first place.

Now that she was in trouble, any clues they might have found were useless.

The two of them arrived at the coordinates a few minutes after Miles, and they immediately spotted his mecha clearing away the boulders.

Seeing this, Chase Shaw moved forward to help. At a time like this, no one’s spiritual power was more effective than his.

Boulders that would have required the combined strength of two mechas to lift were effortlessly moved aside by Chase’s spiritual power.

When Julian Chambers caught up and saw the scene, he didn’t know what was going on, but he followed the others’ lead and helped clear a large open space.

Zoe Pierce’s mecha appeared before their eyes.