Chapter 51 The Trolley Problem
"What are you doing?" Alina mouthed as she watched what Alex did with disbelief.
Ricardo seems to be thinking of the same thing too, as his glare seemed to bore holes upon Alex’s body.
"I am waking your sister up." Alex replied as he stopped kicking Lord Ergo. "Frankly speaking, there is no way that we can kill the afro guy with our current power. Only your sister can do it."
"What do you mean by tha- oh." Alina’s eyes narrowed as she realized what Alex was hinting about. "You mean the virus, right?"
"Yes, the virus." Alex replied confidently as he resumed on kicking Lord Ergo. "As long as your sister wakes up within 3 minutes, it might be possible for her to throw the remaining of the virus towards the afro guy. Once that happens, the afro guy will be sure as dead."
"Are you sure that’s your only plan?" Alina asked as she stabilized her hold of the space ball. "I could not help but feel like there is something missing here..."
"I have thought of that too." Ricardo said as he did not stop his glare at Alex. "Are you sure that what you said earlier was your only plan?"
"I am sure." Alex replied to the both of them, who were still looking at him suspiciously.
"Eh, whatever, wait for me until 3 minutes. Elizabeth is our only hope to survive, so you all should wish that she will wake up."
To Alina and Ricardo’s irritation, they saw Alex setting a field around him which prevented noise from coming out.
Because of that, they were unable to hear the words that Alex said to Lord Ergo inside the silence field.
*****************
"Yo, I know that you are awake already." Alex said as he apathetically watched the writhing Lord Ergo. "Don’t worry, I have already prevented the noise from coming out, so you can speak freely to me already."
At first, Alex heard nothing from Lord Ergo but the same strangled gasps and grunts.
This somewhat made Alex disappointed, as he started to suspect whether his analyses earlier were all right.
That thinking of his changed however when he heard something new.
"Ok, I am speaking to you now." Alex jolted as he heard a voice inside ringing inside his head. The voice inside his head sounded feminine and somewhat sultry.
As Alex tried to analyze this voice, he realized that this voice sounded similar to Alina’s voice, albeit a little mature.
Alex’s imagination wandered at this point, as he imagined a mature version of Alina talking to him with that sexy, sultry voice...
"Ow." A pinch from an infuriated Asteria was enough to snap Alex out of his daydream.
He once more looked back at Lord Ergo, who was still rolling on the floor in pain.
Alex smiled as little as he knew that the person speaking through Alex’s mind was Alina’s sister, Elizabeth.
"Are you talking through telepathy?" Alex muttered as he touched his forehead. "Miss Elizabeth, I thought your power is a powerful type of space manipulation. How come telepathy is included? Oh, nice acting by the way."
"I can talk to you this way as I allowed my brainwaves to propagate through space easily." Alex ’heard’ Elizabeth’s reply as Lord Ergo still looked like in great pain. "What you hear right now are my thoughts reaching your mind."
"As for why I am still rolling on the floor in pain, I have to act that way so that I can fool that Aleksei." Elizabeth suddenly said as her gaze towards the afro guy showed that this Aleksei and the afro guy were the same person.
But Alex did not care about this tidbit of information for now, as he had something more important to deal with.
"You mean your brainwaves are entering my feeble brain, right?" Alex said with a deadpan expression on his face. "That’s... reassuring, I guess?"
Of course there is no way that Alex is feeling reassured by that.
Alex did not like the idea of someone’s brainwaves just casually entering his brain. It just felt... wrong and unnatural for him.
Alex felt exposed and vulnerable as he imagined these brainwaves looking and probing for the thoughts that he stored in his mind.
Of course this is just an irrational fear, but Alex has no way to stop himself from feeling creeped out.
Given the nature of their situation, Alex decided to hide his complaints and discomforts as he sought to obtain what he wanted.
Right now, Alex only had two minutes left to convince Elizabeth on his plan.
With the contents of his plan being extremely sensitive, Alex realized that no one nearby must hear his words to Elizabeth.
"Can you just let me get straight to the point here?" Alex said with a trace of irritation in his voice, as he was vaguely aware of the ticking time. "We only have two minutes left to live, and we need your help to survive."
"Oh, so you think that I can do something to help within that two minutes?" Elizabeth’s voice sounded somewhat amused and also carefree, as if she was not worried about their situation. "So what is your plan then?"
"I want you to die along with the afro guy." Alex said, thanking himself that Alina was unable to hear what he was saying. "That’s what I want you to do."
Even Elizabeth was placed into stunned silence as she heard what Alex said. It took her 5 seconds to recover, and her voice naturally turned hostile.
"Are you listening to yourself?" Elizabeth replied angrily as Lord Ergo started to convulse faster. "Are you in your right mind? Did you just tell me to commit suicide so that you and my sister can save themselves? You are just delusional!"
"I am of sane mind." Alex said as he gripped his fists tightly. "But you know that you will also die later because of the virus, so there is no difference if you take the afro guy along with you..."
"...."
This is the information that Alex withheld from Alina.
Alex knew that even if the fused part of Elizabeth gets destroyed, Elizabeth will still die as she was already a part of the World Diagram.
If the World Diagram gets destroyed, then Elizabeth will get destroyed too.
Because of this outcome, Alex decided that maybe Elizabeth will be amicable to help him and Alina out.
Alex knew that what he was saying to Elizabeth was wrong, but with their current situation, this is the best thing that he can do to let him and Alina survive.
It hurt him greatly that he has to use Alina’s sister so that Alina can survive, but what can Alex do about it?
Given the choice between the woman that he has feelings for, and the woman who will also die anyway, and Alex will lean more towards Alina.
"Cut your c**p!" Elizabeth cursed as she continued to throw more bad words at Alex. "Even if I will also die later, why should I hasten the process then? I can still do more things later, and I definitely would not want to include ’dying with my enemy’ as part of these activities."
Alex, who was still feeling guilty of what he was doing, let out a sigh as realized that what he was saying was not enough.
If he wanted to convince Elizabeth more, then he has to say more words to her.
But Alex knew that his next words must be sharp and convincing enough to make her follow his bidding.
"Sorry Alina..." Alex thought to himself with sorrow as he tried not to look at Alina’s direction. "This is the only way that we can survive, so I have no choice but to do this..."
*****************
"So you will not help your sister then?" Alex replied to Elizabeth as the look in his eyes changed. "That is what you are saying, right?"
"Oh, and now you are telling me that I will become a useless prick if I do not sacrifice myself?" Elizabeth sounded extremely offended, and she somehow had a point. "I am not a selfless person who can just sacrifice herself whenever she wanted to."
[90 seconds left]
"Yes, you are not a selfless person." Alex said as he realized that even with his guilt, he was starting to get angry and irritated with Elizabeth. "You are just a very selfish person!"
"!!!" Alex ignored Elizabeth’s stunned silence as he started to pour out his rant towards her actions.
"You decisively abandoned your sister and your devoted husband, just to fuse with the World Diagram! Do you even know that what you just did is sheer abandonment? "
Alex did not like what he was saying, since these words were just too personal, but if he need to convince Elizabeth, he had to hit her where it hurts.
"And when you failed the fusion, Alina and Ricardo has to take care of you, even though their life was placed in grave danger after that. You made them suffer, you made them miserable, you... effectively destroyed their futures!"
Alex tried to make himself look as smug as possible, but deep inside, he was so angry with himself as he just wanted to knock himself unconscious.
He knew that even if his words were right, the way he used it against Elizabeth was wrong and unjust.
But what can Alex do? It’s either this, or all of them dies together.
If Alex has to bear the sin of letting Elizabeth die, then he will solemnly bear it on his shoulders, if it meant that Alina will survive.
"If you really want to do what is right, then you should know what to do next." Alex said as blood dripped from his lips as he bit it too tightly.
[1 minute left]
"Elizabeth, you are about to die anyway, so can you just at least try to make your last moments useful?" Alex spat these lines calmly as he tried to not show the distress in his features.
"......"
"Ugh, I really hate doing this!" Alex thought to himself as he knew that this moment will haunt him for the rest of his life.
But if that will be the consequence of his sin, then Alex will gladly accept it.
Elizabeth went silent for another 20 seconds, which just increased Alex’s tension and panic. But he kept up his confident façade as he waited for her answer.
"You might be good at pretending to be a villain, but deep down, you do not want to this, right?" Elizabeth replied, but this time her voice sounded exhausted... and resigned.
Alex averted his gaze away as he tried not to show the tears starting to pour from his face. "Why are we talking about me? It’s all about you!"
"Yes, it’s all about me..." Elizabeth said as she seemed to be amused by what Alex said. "The person who abandoned her family, all for the pursuit of her strength. I am really a bad person, right?"
"No, I am the bad person here!" Alex said as he could not stop himself from saying these words. "I forced you to be guilty so that you will have the motivation to sacrifice yourself... What I just did was plain wrong..."
"Yes, you are a bad person, just like me." Elizabeth replied, with a tone that Alex could not really identify. "However, you are a bad person that can stay alive and take care of my sister. As for me, I am a bad person that is about to die."
[30 seconds left]
After hearing these words, Alex let out a sigh of relief as he knew what Elizabeth’s decision was.
"It was nice... meeting you. I hope that you can forgive me from the words that I just said."
"Sorry, but I will not forgive you." Elizabeth quickly replied with an angry snort "After all, you just forced me to die along with your enemy. No amount of your goodwill can change that."
"....."
"But I know that you are sincere about my sister, so I guess maybe my impression of you is a little good." Elizabeth suddenly said as Lord Ergo stopped convulsing. "Take care of my sister, ok? And as for Ricardo, tell him that I am sorry for all that I did to him."
Alex only nodded his head numbly as he tried not to look at Lord Ergo, who was slowly standing up right now.
"Oh, and you can also tell Ricardo that I know that he is gay, and that he is already free to find a boyfriend after this." Elizabeth slyly said as her voice started to fade away. "Just tell him to keep it down a notch, ok?"
"Ok." Alex said, not bothering to be shocked by what Alina just said. He was more focused on stabilizing his emotions, as he tried to not show the distress on his face.
"Wow, I thought that you are a goody two-shoes." Asteria as she managed to overhear the mental conversation between Alex and Elizabeth. "I never realized that you can actually do something like this..."
Alex had no reply to that, as he knew that Asteria was right.
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