Free Web NovelChapter 95: Saving Vanessa
Ren caught the handkerchief, and as he held it, he felt a cold sensation. Inside was a golden bone, and he knew at once that it was the key.
For hundreds of years, nobody had ever safely gotten the key of Polluted Zone 77. But now, Kestrel had given it to Ren, telling him to go first.
Kestrel ran away very fast and didn’t even look back at Ren. Her usual mischievous tendrils didn’t touch his hand as they used to.
Ren looked at Kestrel as she ran away, holding the cold key in his hand. He wanted to follow her, but he knew what he had to do.
He had done this before, helping his team move on by distracting enemies. He didn’t care how others felt about it.
But now he was the one being helped, and he knew how hard it was to be the one who left first.
Ren held the key tightly. A giant orca appeared under his feet.
Some powerful alphas had invaded the Rosarium. They had gathered lots of gunpowder and set the Erdtree on fire. The giant golden tree fell down, but they didn’t get what they wanted.
Where the tree had been, there was now a huge empty crack in the ground. It looked like a big mouth laughing at everyone.
With the golden tree gone, everything started to go wrong. The camp broke apart, and there were crazy screams everywhere. Golden roots grabbed the alphas who couldn’t get away.
Everything became more twisted and scary. Monsters and golden roots jumped from the ground, looking like they were laughing.
People ran away in a night filled with sparks, and many of them saw Ren.
The orca moved very fast. Ren stood on its back, his hair flying in the wind. He went to the highest place in Polluted Zone and threw something into the air. A flash of gold lit up the quiet night, making a hole that grew bigger.
A door opened in the sky — a way to get out.
In a messy room at a farm, an injured alpha with a missing arm got up from behind some hay. He held his cut-off arm, staring at the door in the sky, looking lost.
On a dark street, Cockroach, who was partly covered in fungus, opened his eyes. He saw an escape portal opening in the sky. He used his knife to help himself off the ground and cut off the mushrooms growing on him. He was covered in blood, and the mushrooms started to grow back. With great effort, Cockroach dragged his injured body towards the door. freeweɓnøvel.com
The moon in the night sky was missing a small piece because a golden-edged portal was opening there.
For the first time, the Polluted Zone of the Erdtree, which had never let anyone escape without harm, opened a portal.
The door would stay open for a whole day and night. It offered hope to those still alive in this dangerous place, those who kept fighting and didn’t want to die.
One by one, the alphas came from different places, rushing to the escape door. Various psychic incarnations, glowing faintly like fireflies, all headed in one direction, flying towards the way out.
Everyone was running to escape — except one.
Kestrel ran towards the house she had just left, where a huge whirlpool was pulling everything in. Streets, buildings, lights, and many people were all being sucked into a bottomless cave.
Kestrel was caught in this colorful swirl, running towards the deep hole. She heard all kinds of upsetting sounds. Sadness, pain, madness, screams, and moans filled her mind. Chaotic pictures flashed before her, like lanterns and rooms and terrible scenes of suffering and humiliation. She felt like she was falling and going crazy.
If she hadn’t been a beta, a person without emotions, Kestrel thought she might have gone mad.
It didn’t feel like the real world, but like being in a sea of thoughts, controlled by something unimaginably powerful. "It" messed with Kestrel’s mind, making everything feel unreal and making her feel like she was always falling and hearing crazy sounds.
"Yes," Kestrel thought, taking a deep breath. It was like something she had experienced many times before. Something had invaded her mind and everyone’s consciousness. It was quiet but strong and scary.
With this realization, Kestrel’s feet touched solid ground, and her body stopped falling.
Her tendrils came out, protecting her. For the first time, they felt defeated, and it was embarrassing.
She still saw the chaotic whirlpool, filled with the fear and sadness of many people, all flowing towards its center. Only Kestrel stood apart, walking alone in the surging tide. Her feet were firm, and she was in control of herself, walking step by step in a world where golden lines crossed.
Kestrel saw many faces in a mass of golden threads that looked like tree roots. The faces were caught in the golden flow, moving without control. Most of them had gone crazy, their expressions either blank, screaming, or mumbling things that made no sense.
Suddenly, Kestrel heard a clear voice say, "Oh, a beta has actually come." It sounded like it came from deep underground, and it carried a hint of surprise and a touch of happiness. The voice rang out and then vanished.
Kestrel felt a chill because she sensed joy and longing in that voice. For the first time, she felt scared because she sensed a big, ancient creature in the dark depths. "It" had found her and was watching her quietly from the center of the whirlpool, from deep underground.
Kestrel hesitated for just a second before taking another step. She heard the sound of her boot hitting the stone.
Then the colorful torrent and the noisy voices went away, and her vision cleared. She found herself standing in a dirty, narrow alley with a few swinging lanterns, tall walls, and a shaky iron sign.
This was the Rosarium, a place that was old and real but not very large and not too crowded. Kestrel felt like she was back in the real world, in a place that was genuinely filthy, not the weird Polluted Zone. She walked on the muddy bricks and saw a room with a door she recognized and a familiar light.
Kestrel went up the creaking stairs and opened the door where the light was coming from. The room looked the same, with its bad smell, rotting bed, and a whip on the floor. But the person lying on the bed was not Kaworu.
The person had slim arms and legs tied tightly, hands fixed above their head, black hair, and was wearing a pair of black gloves.
