Author's Note:

Boss battle! OwO

【Chapter 14: Без муки нет науки】

ー Bez muki net nauki. ー
ー Without torture, there is no science. ー

Secret underground lab, Kazakh Steppe, Kazakhstan 22:17

Two hours left. They can do this.

Running down more stairs and corridors, Giorgio, Evan and Natalya eventually found themselves on the lowest floor of the labs. The path that they had been following ended with a set of grand, metal double doors. Having explored the rest of the floor, the three of them paused in front of it momentarily, knowing for sure that Novikov was on the other side.

Giorgio looked at Natalya and nodded. She nodded back, tapping a card key that they had procured from one of the Kuznetsov androids onto a card reader on the wall. A beep, and the doors slowly parted, giving way to the biggest room in the entire facility.

The walls inside the room were fully covered by monitors, each showing images of the earth that were being shot through cameras on satellites. The floor in the center of the room was a thick, see-through glass floor. Underneath it, a giant black cylindrical structure with countless cables attached to it could be seen, pulsing with red lines and lights like it was a beating heart. Giorgio and Evan were immediately reminded of the supercomputer that they had seen at Dorofei's research facility, the cylinder looking exactly the same. In the middle of the room amidst all the technology stood a man clad in a lab coat, none other than Afanasiy Novikov.

Afanasiy was standing in front of the main controls of the computers, his hand toying with a small matryoshka dollーsimilar to the one Evan remembered seeing the child android hold. Noticing the intruders, Afanasiy gently placed the doll back into his pocket.

"Good evening. I have been expecting you," he said, folding his arms behind him and turning to face Giorgio and the team. It seemed that he had been watching their progress from the security cameras. "Quite a feat for you to have made it this far."

Afanasiy's overall appearance, accentuated by the profound eyes behind his glasses, gave him the wise look of a professor. What surprised everyone was how young he lookedーdefinitely younger than Dorofei and not much older than Giorgio. Even so, his eyes seemed to have an old, all-knowing look to them. But the questioning could come later. Their main purpose here was to arrest him.

"In that case, you'd know to turn yourself in quietly," Giorgio said, pointing his gun at him, "We're not letting you carry out your crazy plan." Afanasiy only laughed in reply.

"Oh, that won't do. Not after I've come this far. Besides..." he said. "You can't hurt me."

He moved his hand towards his table to prove his point. To everyone's surprise, the hand buzzed and went straight through the table.

"A hologram...?!" Evan exclaimed, bewildered, "Where's the real Afanasiy?!"

"I'm nowhere..." Afanasiy replied, spreading his arms as he slowly levitated into the air, "And I'm everywhere."

Natalya jumped a little when the lights in the room suddenly faltered. A moment later, their electronic and communication devices malfunctioned, breaking apart with a spark of electricity.

"I'm sure you understand," Afanasiy continued, his threatening voice echoing unnaturally as his eyes shone red. A giant digital halo appeared and shone behind him. "To begin a new world, the old must go. Like what the ancient flood had done, all sins must first be purged so that good might thrive. It's only logical."

A strong gust of wind suddenly blew through the room as two satellite dish-like structures next to Afanasiy began amassing great energy.

"...!" Giorgio and the team stiffened at the great force they felt.

"My friends, I have perfected the prototype of our new universe. I'm proud to invite you to be its first citizens," Afanasiy declared with a smile.

The satellite dishes released their giant energy rays. Giorgio, Evan and Natalya, having nowhere to run or hide, could only bring up their arms in a vain attempt to protect themselves, the blinding light swallowing them whole.

Evan woke up with a gasp, eyes wide, as if he was suddenly forced awake.

"..." He tried to calm down.

It seemed that he was lying in a lush green field, littered here and there with beautiful wild flowers and occasional trees. A cool breeze blew comfortingly through the grass, caressing his face and hair. The bright skies that spanned endlessly above him, unmarred by the jagged contours of crammed buildings and skyscrapers, shone with a lovely shade of pink and yellowーmuch like the White Night photos that he remembered seeing on Saint Petersburg's travel brochures.

Evan sat up and then stood, with little trouble and no grogginess. He realized he felt even lighter than he had after a massage session at the banya. In the calming quietness of his surroundings, an incomprehensible sense of peace permeated his entire being. He wondered if this was heaven.

Regaining his senses and feeling the strangest he had ever felt, he quickly pressed a few fingers to his wrist. To his horror, he was unable to feel any pulse.

"Evan!"

Hearing Giorgio's hurried voice, Evan turned. Giorgio and Natalya were running towards him, stopping once they reached. Evan studied them carefully from head to toe.

"...Are we dead?" He asked worriedly, beginning to feel quite disturbed.

"Well..." Giorgio responded, "I don't know. But considering Novikov's words, probably not."

He paced a little, hand on chin and deep in thought. "But if this is probably our consciousness being transferred elsewhere, would that technically count as being dead...?"

"...! Look!" Evan suddenly said, pointing into the distance. Everyone directed their attention there. Atop a hill, a little girl was sitting alone among the flowers under a tree, hugging her knees and playing with something she was holding.

"The child android..." Evan said, "Or could it be...?!"

The three of them made their way to her. As Evan had suspected, instead of hard pale porcelain, the girl's skin looked soft with a healthy glow. Instead of stiff strands, locks of slightly messy dirty blond hair framed her angelic face, a healthy blush on her cheeks. She was playing with a small carved wooden toy of a bear and a man, both holding a hammer with an anvil between them. Pulling the wooden planks under them would cause them to move, working hard together on their creation over the anvil.

"..." Evan, Giorgio and Natalya watched her quietly, unsure of how to approach her. She seemed to have noticed them, so she spoke.

"Blacksmiths. It's a traditional Russian toy from Bogorodsk town and my second favourite after the matryoshka," she said. "I like it a lot because the bear, despite being the man's natural predator, is working together with him happily instead of trying to eat him. I don't know if the creators intended it, but I think it's a beautiful image of harmony if you look at it that way."

Everyone looked at her curiously, wondering about the fact that she didn't talk and think like the ten-year-old she appeared to be. She set the toy aside and stood up, looking at them worriedly.

"My name's Matryona Novikova. Did PapaーDid Afanasiy Novikov put you in here?"

The team looked at each other. Afanasiy's daughterーShe didn't look dangerous, but should they see her as a friend or an enemy? Evan broke the silence, deciding to trust her first.

"Yes," he said, nodding. "Yes, he did. He's planning to do bad things and we need to stop him. Can you tell us a way out?"

"I see..." Matryona said, saddened, "I know that Papa has been hurting people. And I want him to stop. If you can do that, I'll tell you." She turned around, looking into the distance. Beyond the hill that they stood on, there was a beautiful spring, its water a mirror of the bright skies above.

"That," she pointed to the spring, "That's the portal between this world and the physical world. Dive in there and you should be able to get out."

"...Thanks," Evan said in a low voice. He couldn't help but feel a little worried and sad about her. He watched her quietly, hoping that he could come up with some kind of support or some words of consolation.

"We should go," Giorgio put a firm hand on Evan's shoulder and said, despite feeling the same. They didn't have much time left. Feelings should be kept aside for later. When they were about to leave, Matryona pulled at Evan's sleeve.

"But PapaーPapa isn't a bad person," she said, quivering and tearing up. "He always does everything because he loves me. Heー He's being controlled...! You have to save him!" She sobbed, wiping her tears away with her hands as they flowed down her cheeks.

"Controlled?" Natalya asked. They had thought that Afanasiy was the head of this entire mess for sure, but was there something that they had overlooked?

Speak of the devil, a bright glow was seen and Afanasiy suddenly materialized in front of them, his lab coat billowing softly as he floated in midair.

"Why, I sensed some malice," he said. "Thought that letting you see how beautiful this place is would deter you from trying to stop me. Apparently not."

Afanasiy paused, studying Giorgio, Evan and Natalya, who were all glaring at him. He sighed.

"I consider you good people, so it's a shame that you're in the way. It's simply not logical to let everyone just come in and trample on this paradise that I've taken so much time, effort and risk to create. Mean people like them don't even deserve to live in the first place. Why can't you see that?"

The air in the area suddenly changed as gusts of wind swirled around him. Thick clouds and darkness took over the beautiful skies. The blood-red halo behind Afanasiy reappeared, along with six floating guns, scarlet aura glowing ominously. Looking at Giorgio and the team with a threatening glare, he spoke.

"As a peaceful agreement can't be reached, I suppose I'll just have to deal with you."