Chapter 227: Leaving Mantidale (1)
Kestrel didn’t ask who that person was, because during their mental conversation, the Queen of Mantidale had already shared the answer openly.
Inside the Tower, there was someone who seemed human but had completely lost any human feelings. To Kestrel, there was only one being like this — the Queen who governed the human Empire. Kestrel often hung out with her, vividly feeling that strange and strong non-human sensation.
It turned out that four hundred years ago, she had arrived here just like Kestrel, teaming up with the mighty mutants, humanity’s known enemies, to create a plan to control humans.
Right now, Kestrel felt as if she could see that, at the top of the faraway Tower, the Queen wearing a white skirt turned around, glancing at her across that huge space.
She was someone who came into existence four hundred years ago. As of today, she had gone beyond the normal human lifespan.
In the Empire’s history books, there has always been a mention of the changing of rulers. Those old history books routinely noted the passing of each queen over the years, followed by a new princess taking over.
But the truth was, the crown had never switched. For four hundred years, at that tiny window at the very top of the Tower, the same person had always been there. The ruler in the white skirt stood at the Tower’s peak, watching over the entire human Empire.
What was even scarier was that no one inside the Tower realized how odd this was. People didn’t know that their leader had slowly turned into a being who had existed for centuries, or that they were basically farm animals raised by their predators.
The alphas kept going to the Polluted Zone one after another; the betas were stuck in the backyard, happily giving up their potent powers. They didn’t realize that the Empire was using them as bargaining chips, trading them for a tiny zone of safety for humans.
In her mind, Kestrel gazed at the hazy figure on the distant Tower. She couldn’t figure out what the young queen was thinking hundreds of years ago when she ventured deep into the Polluted Zone, risking the entire human race.
But she was certain that she strongly disliked her current world. During her journey, she had witnessed so many heartbreaking moments of alphas and betas being used by their own kind; alphas transformed into new mutants, and the mental powers of betas were maintaining the Polluted Zone that terrorized the globe.
Rakan’s mentor, Olivia’s sweetheart, the brave alphas guarding outposts, Ren’s buddies... endless sorrow imprinted by the dark forces remained in Kestrel’s mind.
The world was like a nightmare, and that magnificent Tower was actually constructed from a massive amount of human pains and sufferings.
Just then, the Queen of Mantidale, who was seated in the Pavilion messing around with a butterfly, turned her head.
She noticed a cold, full moon. The huge silver moon ascended, its bright light mingling with the waves to illuminate the vast sea of flowers, quietly taking up a big portion of the sky. Kestrel’s psychic incarnation, the young Kraken, stood outlined against the silver moon, its eyes shining with a golden hue, subtly facing her.
"You? A mere human beta, managing to break into my psychic landscape? Are you trying to challenge me?" The Queen thought it was quite surprising.
She really admired this human beta, because the betas from before had lively and dreamy psychic landscapes, grand and beautiful, and with enough powerful energy, they could support a small self-contained universe. Like the one she was currently using as a host, her psychic landscape was a lovely sea of flowers and an always-open amusement park. A land that died at sunset and came alive at sunrise.
It was truly a beautiful place, the deep-seated dream within that beta’s mind.
Sadly, as time went on, all human betas’ mental strength had slowly weakened, making it hard to find such a large and wonderful psychic landscape like Kestrel’s anymore.
The Kestrel in front of her was intriguing, causing the Queen to somewhat hesitate to let go. She sensed that it hadn’t been easy for this young human beta to make it to this day, because every one of her mantis associates would be keen to consume her upon meeting her.
Their expression of affection was different than humans — they were used to capturing, eating, and assimilating, to preserve what they valued forever, making it a part of their physical and mental self.
"You appear to have gotten somewhat irrational," the mantis Queen remarked.
The wind sweeping in from the flower sea lifted her dark veil, unveiling pretty red lips, above which were five eyes of varying sizes. The irises in those eyes were utterly black, deep and pristine, entrancing and soul-stealing, as if they could swallow everything in existence.
At that moment, the flower sea brightened even more, numerous twinkling petals swirling in the air, their bright hues slowly overpowering the moon’s glow and the ocean that had crept into this part of the world.
"You must realize, you are nowhere near a match for me," the mantis’s voice echoed, bearing a touch of annoyance,
"You’re still so young. Just from wandering down a hallway, experiencing the tragedies of several human lifespans, you’ve already been beaten up pretty bad, haven’t you?"
Traversing that vibrant hallway, immersed in numerous painful human mental realms, Kestrel was now covered in wounds. Her tendrils were wilting one by one, her smooth skin marked with many scars. Quite a few were even chopped off at the wrist, sadly twitching in a heap of tendril bundles, the severed ends bleeding — those were the harms she endured to escape the grip of the mental forces, to prevent being pulled further into the psychic world.
Kestrel looked incredibly upset, but she chose this moment to break into the Backbone’s mental space.
When a person’s psychic incarnation showed signs of injury, fragmentation, or weakness, it meant their psychic strength was being hurt and wasn’t holding up well.
The Queen shook her head, thinking Kestrel was truly a headstrong and illogical human. "You should have done what she did back then, kneel before me and ask for our mercy. Maybe then I’d think about letting you go."
The Queen’s tone got softer, but deep in those jet-black eyes, a dark flame started to burn. Across a small pavilion, the five eyes, ablaze with the black fire, entranced Kestrel.
