The Beta Dominates Alphas

Chapter 87: He Found Her

Kestrel navigated her way through the bustling crowd. There were many waitstaff carrying trays of drinks, and every so often, one or two would approach her, eagerly offering her a drink or suggesting pimping her to someone.

Kestrel replied casually, her full attention was on the large bullheads watching her.

A girl of Kestrel’s age trailed after her, continuously trying to strike up a conversation.

Kestrel dashed up the wooden staircase to the second-floor hallway, filled with more people coming and going. A big, powerful female alpha came out of a room, swearing and bumped into Kestrel in the hallway. Below their feet, a bullhead lifted its head, looking through the gaps in the floor.

In a hurry, Kestrel squeezed into the room the woman had just left. The girl who had been following her came in too, thinking Kestrel had picked this room. She opened her mouth, showing an uneasy expression.

"Did you pick this room? A guest just left and it hasn’t been cleaned yet. It’s pretty messy," the girl, her hands nervously touching her cheeks, looked at Kestrel with her bright and beautiful almond-shaped eyes. "Maybe we should go to a different room. Can I introduce you to the best singer here?"

"No, no, no. This is fine."

Kestrel gently pushed the girl out and closed the somewhat weak door. She peeked through the gaps, watching the bullhead monster downstairs checking the area before moving off to a further location.

With a sigh of relief, Kestrel saw a young man in the small room. He was lying motionless on the floor, back towards her, wearing little clothing. Without thinking, she picked up a thin blanket off the floor to cover his body.

The night had suddenly turned chilly. Even in her thick suit, Kestrel felt the cold, let alone for a man lying shirtless on the cold floor.

Kestrel wrapped the man in the blanket and stayed crouched by the door, watching the situation outside. Those persistent bullheads were weaving their way through the crowd on the streets, looking for her.

Heavy footsteps trudged up the stairs; a group of the bullheads walked past the hallway.

Kestrel’s tendrils appeared, sliding against the wooden door, joining Kestrel in listening to the echoing footsteps as they got closer, passed by, faded, and went down the other staircase.

Kestrel realized the creatures, despite relentlessly tracking her, only searched for her outside and never came into any rooms. She figured that staying inside would keep her safe.

Kestrel decided to stay in the room until the creatures outside left, determined to survive this dangerous night.

She began to examine her surroundings and the man in the room.

The wooden room had a bed and a separate bathroom, it was drafty and bitterly cold. Frost covered the window that looked out on the large, shrinking moon.

On the floor, the man wrapped in the blanket stayed still. His short, silver hair and vacant eyes were visible, lying expressionless; even the tendrils had trouble reading any clear emotions. His skinny ankle peeked out from beneath the blanket, his pale skin tight over the bones, crossed by a few bloody whip marks.

Kestrel found a broken whip on the floor, likely left behind by the angry alpha who had stormed out of the room. The whip was a cruel tool, suggesting the torment it had been used for.

However, Kestrel hadn’t heard any cries of pain from this room before entering. Upon arrival, her tendrils didn’t sense any emotions tied to suffering. This could mean only one thing: the person in the room had become completely numb to the torture and harm he’d endured. He’s a shell of a human - alive on the outside, but empty and damaged on the inside.

Kestrel knew that this place, the Polluted Zone, had been around for a long time. Each dark night here was just a repeat of the same events. While the person in this room still showed human emotions, they were far from the normal human experience.

Kestrel found a spot near the door to sit down, careful not to disturb the man on the bed who slowly closed his eyes and wrapped himself in his blanket as if it was a protective shell. His skin was as pale as a dead person’s and he wrapped himself in a dirty, thin blanket.

As the night got deeper, the place got busier. Rough songs, music, and all sorts of loud laughter filled every corner. It was a place of excess, where countless people sought pleasure and indulgence, excitedly heading towards their own end.

The darker the night, the stronger the sense of danger. Kestrel stayed in the room as huge shadows were cast on the window by the door, blending with the rowdy customers outside.

Her tendrils moved silently under the ground, reaching out as far as they could. However, within their furthest reach, they didn’t find any creature like the Erdtree - the golden tree that had appeared clearly on Kestrel’s wooden box.

Slowly, amid the outside partying, occasional piercing screams could be heard. But just like the screams were ignored, the loud sounds didn’t disrupt this ocean of revelry.

Through the door’s crack, Kestrel saw other alphas. One by one, powerful alphas from the outside found this place, the Rosarium, and went inside. They were spotted by the monsters and ended up in a tough fight.

Suddenly, one of Kestrel’s cut-off tendrils appeared from the void where it rested. It stayed still, showing its sadly cut end.

"What are you doing out here?" Kestrel asked it, "Go back to rest, nothing’s happening."

"It’s weird... I think I felt something," the tendril grumbled before sulking back into invisibility.

In places unseen by Kestrel, some powerful people fell. Their blood flowed through the cobblestone cracks, like red flowers blooming on the busy streets. The people passing by, laughing and joking, stepped over the bodies as if they weren’t there.

Only one powerful person made it deep into the camp where the laughter and partying stopped and the ground opened into a large crevice. The crevice glowed with a creepy, red light as if it was a path to hell. From this red gap, a golden plant grew from the depths, its trunk, branches, and leaves shining gold, pure and beautiful.

The slowly awakening golden tree spread its grand golden branches in the night. Its metallic, glittering leaves swayed gently in the evening wind, their clinking sounds were musical, and they echoed in the night.

Ren stood there, looking at the oddly beautiful giant tree in front of him.

This was the Erdtree, for many years, it had consumed countless lives and never let anyone leave this place sane. It was a strong, mutated creature.

Almost the moment Ren saw the tree, he felt a sharp, needle-like pain in his head.

Ren touched his forehead, his sight blurring as the red abyss and the lovely Erdtree leaves combined into a weird mix. Creepy sounds bounced around in his head as if one more second, one more glance, would push him into unavoidable madness.

Without wasting a moment, Ren closed his eyes, pulled out his sidearm, and fired at the tree in front of him. The shot, marked by a bright path, lodged itself accurately in the tree. It was a special kind of bullet. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

A dazzling flash followed and, within seconds, the phosphorus flame spread over the golden tree. A huge, relentless fire, it set the golden trunk on fire, lighting up the night with its powerful glow.

Before coming to this place, Ren had looked at countless images left in the minds of those crazies in the Royal Guard’s records. Through these jumbled, chaotic memories, he had found the weapon able to fight this tree.

As the phosphorus fire roared, the sharp pain and noise in his mind quieted down a lot.

Ren took off his black gloves, and with the side of his hand, cut a line across his palm. His mystical sword, now fed with fresh blood, grew longer and wider, turning a scary red color.

Ren crouched, ran, jumped, and in mid-air, his sword cut through the burning Erdtree. Large pieces of golden branches were cut off. The chopped branches, on fire, fell from high up, turning into debris, into bits of floating sparks that spread far into the night sky.

However, none of the cut branches turned into a key.

Ren had come in and out of the Polluted Zone many times. He knew that parts taken from the Backbones often turned into keys for getting in and out of the Polluted Zone. Whether a Polluted Zone focused on mental attacks or physical attacks, the hardest part was always finding the Backbone and getting close to it. But once they could get close enough to the strongest mutant in the Polluted Zone and take a part from it, it meant getting a key, giving everyone a bit of hope to leave.

Here in this place, despite the difficulties, Ren had found the Erdtree, cut many golden branches, but the key he was looking for was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, soft laughter echoed from an unknown source—a cold, mocking laughter that seemed to come from nowhere. freeweɓnovel.cøm

The confusing and sharp noise in Ren’s head got louder. It felt like a red-hot knife being stabbed into his brain, like a lot of people yelling at the same time inside his head. Many faces appeared in front of Ren—dead or alive, those he hated and those he loved, each twisting and yelling, blocking his sight.

A layer of red covered Ren’s sight, and red lines of blood flowed from his ears. He knelt on one knee, holding himself up with his sword, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. Amid his mixed-up sight, a face stayed the same and never turned ugly; it was just smiling softly at him.

Slowly, Ren stood up, wiped the blood from his face, and faced the huge tree in the flames again.

Kestrel found that the man who had been sleeping on the floor now had a high fever. His usually pale face was bright with a strange rosy color. When she touched his forehead, it was very hot.

Kestrel had many medical supplies, but no fever medicine. She carefully opened the room’s door, peeking out to call for help.

The young girl who had led them before quickly came over, "Miss, my name is Vanessa. Can I help you with anything?"

Kestrel pulled her into the room, pointing at the man on the floor, "He seems to have a fever. Is there any medicine or a doctor here?"

"We have medicines, all kinds of them," Vanessa answered quickly, then hesitated, playing with her skirt nervously before adding, "But the medicines are not free. They need to be bought."

"Can I pay with ashcredit?" Kestrel showed Vanessa the ashcredit she had brought with her.

She wasn’t sure if this money would still be good in the Polluted Zone, where time seemed to have stopped for many years.

"Of course! What else would we take if not ashcredit?" Vanessa brightened up, "Are you buying medicine for Kaworu?"

Clearly, Kaworu was the man on the floor who had the fever.

Inside the Polluted Zone, opticomputer signals were gone, making digital payments impossible. Luckily, Kestrel always carried a physical wallet. They still used ashcredit in the Polluted Zone, which was a relief.

Vanessa quickly came back with different medications and warm water.

Together, the two women managed to move Kaworu onto the only wooden bed in the room.

As the thin blanket slid down, it showed Kaworu’s bony and scar-covered body.

Kestrel bought a full set of medicines for inside and outside the body. With Vanessa, they spent quite a while taking care of Kaworu—cleaning wounds, bandaging them, and giving him medicine. Finally, they managed to make the sick man stable.

"Did all this time help your work?" Kestrel asked.

Vanessa shook her head without looking at Kestrel. "Thank you so much, you’re a very nice guest," she said quietly, her voice sounding a bit nasal as she bent down to clean up the blood-soaked bandages and cotton on the floor, "Kaworu is a very sad person, please be nice to him."

Not long after Vanessa left, the man on the bed woke up. The burning heat that was once in him was gone, and he went back to his cold and lifeless state. He opened his eyes, in which the coldness looked like a block of ice sitting in freezing water for thousands of years, never melting.

He looked at Kestrel with his icy stare for a moment, propped himself up on his elbow, and sat up on the bed. The thin blanket fell off his shoulder, showing a shoulder wrapped in white.

"What do you want from me?" he asked Kestrel in a cold voice.

Kestrel, for the first time, met someone who seemed even colder than she was, his voice cold enough to give her goosebumps.

"No-nothing, I want nothing. Please lie down," Kestrel quickly gestured with her hand.

She was busy crouching near the doorway, sneaking looks outside, waiting for the monsters to go away.

Just before, there seemed to be a big noise far away followed by the soft sounds of explosions. The creatures outside started running, getting more wild and crowded. But the noise seemed to have calmed down now. The sounds had quieted, almost too quiet to hear.

Through the window, the cold, clear light of the shrinking moon came in, lighting up the sickly and bony figure sitting at the head of the bed.

Kaworu quietly looked at Kestrel for a moment before lowering his eyes. In his memory, everyone who had come into this room had enjoyed hurting him; he had never met someone who didn’t want anything from him.

He didn’t say anything, but Kestrel seemed to understand the question in his heart.

Since he was a sick and hurt, Kestrel spoke to him kindly and said, "Really, lay down. Get a good night’s sleep. I don’t want anything from you."

The room got quiet when the sick man stopped talking and went back to lying down.

A gentle knock came at the door, it was Vanessa. She happily gave Kestrel a menu, "Miss, it’s late. Would you like to order some late-night snacks?"

Vanessa’s smile was warm, her eyes hopeful as they looked at Kestrel.

Having been in the Polluted Zone for a while, Kestrel was excited to see the options on the menu — she was ready to eat. As long as they took ashcredit, money wasn’t a problem for her.

"I’ll have this... wow, you have a lot of old snacks."

"Oh, okay, okay," Vanessa seemed surprised for a moment before answering Kestrel, "I’ll bring it right away for you."

Kestrel laughed. She had noticed earlier that this girl found reasons to come in, her attention and gaze often going to the wooden bed against the wall. Her feelings were pure, full of gentle pity, and she really cared about the person on the bed.

Vanessa didn’t shy away from Kestrel’s laughter. She comfortably sat down next to Kestrel. Sitting lower, next to Kestrel’s knee, she looked up at Kestrel.

"Kaworu’s health has gotten really bad. We’re all a bit worried about him." Her beautiful eyes begged, "You are a kind guest. Can I stay and keep you company? I can sing some songs and I’m not a bad dancer."

"Sure," Kestrel said, "I like listening to songs and having someone to eat with."

Vanessa happily sat at Kestrel’s feet. She brought Kestrel a lot of hot food and ate with her, singing songs for her to listen to.

Kestrel knew Vanessa wasn’t really happy singing, she just wanted to stay there, trying to help a soul that was fading away.

"Do you know about the Erdtree?" Kestrel, after eating, tried to get information from Vanessa.

"What?" Vanessa looked confused, "What tree? I’ve never heard of such a thing."

Kestrel scratched her head, "It’s like a tree made of gold, very big, very noticeable, and when the wind blows, the golden leaves sing."

"There’s nothing like that," Vanessa laughed, "How can there be such a tree in this world? It would be a treasure, something we could only dream about."

It seemed like Vanessa lived in a different time than Kestrel.

Kestrel looked at her happy face and didn’t ask any more. She listened as Vanessa sat next to her and started to sing a lovely song.

Midnight, a rude knock came at the door. Someone outside said, "Open up. Send Kaworu out to keep me company."

The knocking was loud and the shadow of a man smelling of alcohol appeared at the window, clearly a gross person.

Vanessa bit her lip and held onto Kestrel’s sleeve.

"Go away, he’s mine tonight. I’ve already paid," Kestrel said. She had planned to hide in this room for a bit before leaving, but now she decided to stay a bit longer.

The shadow outside started to curse loudly. It was a person with the worst kind of anger. The disgusting feelings were strong, making Kestrel nearly throw up her late-night snacks.

Kestrel’s tendrils slowly swam outside, and soon, the man shouted miserably, followed quickly by the sound of him falling down the stairs.

Vanessa laughed, going back to her singing—this time, she truly wanted to sing.

With her gentle tunes in the background, the chaos outside seemed to fade. Even the distant sounds of fighting seemed to lessen, like the fighters had lost their energy.

The moving shadows of monsters slowly disappeared at some unknown point. Kestrel, soothed by the calming songs, fell asleep.

Kaworu, the sick man on the small bed by the window, was curled up under a thin blanket, bathed in moonlight. It felt like many nights since he last had a peaceful, uninterrupted sleep. It was so long he could hardly remember.

When Kestrel opened her eyes, the "night" was over and "day" was here again. The Rosarium was empty, the outside world was bright, and a gentle wind lifted several old papers into the air, making them float above the streets.

Blinking in the empty room, she found neither the ill Kaworu nor the singing Vanessa. The Rosarium, brightly lit the night before, was now quiet.

Rubbing her sleep-heavy arm, Kestrel opened the door and stepped outside. Her tendrils woke up with excitement, popping out of the ground one after another.

Following their direction, she saw a familiar figure at the end of the road. The man was hurt and bloody, dressed in black fighting gear, tall, with a bright red blade in his hand.

When the man saw her, he took steps, and ran toward her.