Free Web NovelChapter 151: A Tradition (2)
Kestrel and Ren chose to say their goodbyes and hurry toward the temple.
"Hold on, just a second." The mutant’s smooth, bald head appeared from his hideaway, strangely shaped and devoid of any hair.
Having encountered many mutants recently, Kestrel had grown used to their looks, even finding their hairless heads kind of funny.
"I may not be able to escape this place," the young mutant said with urgency. "If I don’t make it, would you eat a piece of me?"
Kestrel declined immediately, "I can’t."
She felt a deep sense of disappointment and sadness emanating from the mutant. To them, being eaten after death by a respected creature was a way to carry on their existence. The idea of no one using their body in such a way was deeply distressing.
In this world, consumption was a way beings gained strength and continued life. The dominant consumed the vulnerable, and the dead would offer themselves to the living. This was their norm, but the values and teachings from Kestrel’s own world made her unable to fulfill such a request.
Amidst the shaking, a memory surged in Kestrel’s mind: a time when Ren was incapacitated and she was dragged deep below by Taja. An ancient, withering mutant appeared, wanting to eat her. ƒгeewebnovёl.com
"Finally, they’ve brought me one, a young beta with blood similar to mine," the giant creature had declared.
Kestrel had resisted, and their psychic incarnations clashed in a fierce struggle of wills.
Once the shaking stopped, Kestrel and Ren said their final goodbyes to the young mutant. Using his guidance, they soon stood before a grand gate.
The gate, crafted from a unique material, was a gleaming white and very heavy. A simple touch would bring out stunning golden patterns.
Ren set both hands against the gate, pushing with strength. With a groaning noise, the hefty white doors moved aside.
They knew they’d found the temple they were searching for. Though named a "temple", it resembled a huge scientific center. It wasn’t shadowed inside; soft lights brightened specific areas. The walls and ground were all white, giving an impression of an infinite, almost unsettlingly pure expanse.
Within the pristine structure, an assortment of cutting-edge devices could be seen. Cords and metal cables dangled from above, while to the sides, expansive glass pods stood in rows. The pods now lay empty, their inner surfaces marred by dried stains of a yellow-green fluid.
Kestrel and Ren, hands intertwined, ventured into the vast, unnervingly quiet white expanse.
Numerous metal beds met their eyes. From each side of these beds hung hefty iron chains, darkened by old, dried blood. It was evident that countless humans had once been harshly bound to these unfeeling beds, writhing in pain.
Rows of these chilling, silent metal beds filled the white realm, with the vibe seemingly reverberating with the ancient wails of torment. freewebnoveℓ.com
Bypassing the bloody beds, the two continued onward. They weaved their way through a maze of colossal machinery that evoked the density of a jungle. After navigating several segmented doorways, they reached a massive opening in the facility’s floor.
At the core of this research center was a profound chasm, encircled by an electrified barrier. Gazing down, directly underneath, was a jade-hued altar bathed in a soft glow. Beyond the altar, darkness prevailed, save for the altar’s smooth top which caught the light — an altar Kestrel had often glimpsed in her dreams.
"I’ve encountered it in wall paintings. People from that era likely offered humans to an entity from this place, nurturing and using it for their experiments," Ren commented, reaching out for Kestrel’s hand beside him.
But what he grabbed was cold and unusual.
Swiveling around swiftly, Ren faced a figure in a white gown, her eyes luminous. The visage he held wasn’t Kestrel’s but that of another.
...
Below, Kestrel observed the altar within the subterranean hollow, illuminated and saturated with an abundance of blood.
She retreated, inadvertently nudging open a dividing door at her back. The slight white door eased open with a groan. Peering inside, Kestrel found a space akin to a workspace, with a white scientist’s coat hung on the wall and strewn papers littering the ground.
Beneath those flimsy sheets, a colossal eye stared from the floor. Upon spotting Kestrel, its blood-tinted iris adjusted, blinked, then journeyed from the floor to the ceiling.
Almost reflexively, Kestrel aimed to seize Ren, believing he was right behind her. In the well-lit room, clarity prevailed. However, the hand she captured felt different: soft, dainty, and chillingly cold. It wasn’t Ren’s hand.
Kestrel felt a weird shiver and quickly spun around to see who had grabbed her hand. The person wore a white dress and looked a lot like Taja, but something wasn’t right.
Even though she was right there, close enough to hold Kestrel’s hand, it felt like she was far, far away at the same time. It was super strange: her pale arm seemed super long, like it went on forever and ever, stretching way out into the distance.
Everything looked all messed up. On the other side of the mysterious person, Kestrel could spot Ren. Even though he was just on the other side of her, he looked so tiny, like he was way off in the distance.
He was sprinting towards Kestrel. He should’ve reached her super quickly with how fast he was going, but it was like he was running in place, never getting any closer.
"Don’t freak out. I’m not Taja. Well, not the whole Taja you know," the person in the white dress, who felt both close and far away at the same time, told Kestrel. "She didn’t want to be a regular human anymore. She chose to give me her body so I could have this chat with you."
"But... who are you?" Kestrel wondered out loud.
"Who am I?" The mysterious hand holding Kestrel’s seemed to chuckle a bit. "That’s a tough one. I can’t really give a straight answer. But maybe you can think deep and figure out your own idea."
The two of them held hands, palm to palm, and suddenly it was like their thoughts and feelings were smashing together in a huge space inside their minds that was as big as the stars and the sky.
This amazing mind-space was endless, full of bright thoughts that looked like shining lights. These glowing thoughts bumped into each other, and their psychic power invaded each other’s psychic landscapes.
