Free Web NovelChapter 34: The Big Beautiful Lion (2)
Kestrel opened her eyes and found herself standing in a mostly wrecked room — this was Ray’s psychic landscape.
Looking around, the small room would have been a cozy spot. Striped wallpaper, cute wall lamps, and a small wooden bed. On the bedside table, there was a plant and a few picture frames. Kestrel took a quick look at the photos, which mostly showed the alphas all together, grinning from ear to ear.
Taking a closer look, Kestrel recognized a lot of faces — Parfit, Tegnell, Birdie... those who were waiting outside right now. This was Ray’s safe, warm spot in his mind, filled with pictures of the people he cared about the most.
But now, most of the cozy room was ruined. Most of the walls and ceiling had fallen, leaving only this tiny corner. There was a gap in the broken floor that kept leaking a tar-like black liquid, dripping steadily down.
Kestrel walked over to the edge of the broken floor and looked down. Beneath her were layers and layers of broken rooms and buildings, all of them bottomless. This might have once been a massive, sturdy castle, but now it was just a bunch of broken rooms floating in the air.
Looking up, Kestrel saw a blood-red sky with giant eyes floating in the crimson clouds, eerie and sickening. The eyes were coldly watching the crumbling world.
Looking down, she saw a never-ending mess of broken walls, floors, stairs, and pieces of furniture. Debris kept falling, with black liquid flowing everywhere, like a never-ending river of black blood.
Back in reality, by the bed, a red warning symbol appeared on the virtual screens of the opticomputer in Kestrel’s hand.
"Warning, warning, patient’s psychic landscape is falling apart. Please stop the therapy now."
"Danger, danger, please stop the therapy now." freewebnovel.cσ๓
From outside the window, the alpha Birdie jumped up. "What’s going on? Why is there a red exclamation point?"
Tegnell, trying to keep quiet, frantically waved his hands to calm her down, whispering, "Calm down, Birdie, remember, we need to trust the beta and watch the door."
Everyone was anxiously watching Kestrel.
Next to the hospital bed, Kestrel sat with her eyes shut, not moving, the red warning light on her screen shining on her face.
Inside Ray’s mental world, Kestrel was standing at the edge of the broken room, looking down at the floating mess below. A few levels beneath her, a small boy peeked out from behind a broken wall, watching her. The boy had golden hair and bright blue eyes, just like the Ray lying in the bed.
"Warning, warning, it’s recommended to stop the therapy now," came the alert in Kestrel’s ear.
Without answering, Kestrel took a leap of faith and jumped down.
The boy looked surprised as he saw Kestrel jumping towards him. He quickly hid his face, disappearing from sight.
Kestrel landed where the boy had just been, looking around. The boy was gone, but she saw a small, golden, fluffy thing in the distance.
"What’s his psychic incarnation?"
"Ray’s psychic incarnation is a big, golden lion, really majestic. Sadly, after we rescued him, we never saw his psychic incarnation again."
Kestrel remembered her chat with Parfit before starting.
"A big, golden lion? But this is just a kitten!" As Kestrel thought, she started to chase after the little, golden lion. Each platform she stepped on broke right after, there was no going back.
She ran after the now bigger psychic incarnation without looking back. Big chunks fell around her, black liquid flowed down like a waterfall, leaving a trail.
Tendrils appeared from behind her, floating in the shadows with her.
"Kinda risky."
"Distorted space ahead."
"Too messy, black mud everywhere."
"Smells bad, I don’t like this place."
Suddenly, Kestrel stepped on nothing, falling from mid-air. As she fell, she could just barely see a blond alpha. He was standing on the edge of a platform in the air, leaning on his sword, his face covered in blood, looking sadly at her.
She didn’t know how far she fell, but a tendril caught a piece of rubble, and Kestrel climbed up. She looked at her hand, it was covered in thick, sticky black mud. Her shoes were also super sticky, making it really hard to walk.
Looking up, she couldn’t see the sky anymore.
The tiny lion showed up on a high platform, its sparse fur covered with the black sludge. It attempted to shake the muck off its little legs, but a thin, strange black hand reached out from the thick mud, seizing the lion by its limbs and dragging it into the muck.
Kestrel rushed towards the platform, but when she arrived, the weakened cub had disappeared. Instead, an alpha with golden hair and deep blue eyes lay there - the master of this psychic landscape, Raymond.
Raymond’s limbs were secured by the black hands, his abdomen ripped open, blood pouring out in all directions. Despite this, he was still alive, the red blood dripping down the sides of the platform.
Surrounding the platform stood countless spectators, their necks unusually elongated. Their faces were filled with amusement, as though they were enjoying a delightful show, craning their necks to observe the suffering alpha.
Kestrel straightened up, raised a hand, and ordered, "Leave."
Gigantic tendrils erupted from the mud beneath, lunging forward and instantly dispersing the crowd of grotesque onlookers. Heads detached from their long necks, losing the vibrant expressions of living beings, turning into white puppets, rolling into the sludge and sinking underneath it.
As Kestrel approached the platform, the white puppets and black hands were nowhere in sight. The alpha lying on the platform had his eyes open, his gaze unfocused, appearing as if he had been dead for a while.
This was a mental world, all images constructed from the alpha’s memories.
Looking into the distance, Kestrel saw countless platforms floating in the void. On each one, a golden-haired Raymond was repeatedly hauled up, tied down, and subjected to protracted torment. His most trusted family and friends surrounded him, stretching their necks, grinning at his humiliation and pain.
This was the deepest part of Raymond’s psychic landscape. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
His body had already been rescued from the Polluted Zone, but his psyche was still trapped in severe pain, continuously enduring the brutal abuse in his mind, dying again and again.
