Chapter 57: Going Back for Him (2)
She spent a lot of time, but finally made it back to the front of the palace.
Kestrel sat on the steps where she had rested last time, starting to nibble on the leftover food she had taken from Muros’ bag.
It had probably been less than a day since she last sat here, but for some reason, Kestrel felt that she had grown stronger.
She had a will that insisted on going in - not to die here, not to turn into a monster, but to finish a task and to rescue that person.
Even the tendrils were rubbing themselves, cleaning their suction cups, and flexing their muscles. All of them looked enthusiastic, no longer complaining about being tired or hungry.
Just a short distance away, the palace doors were in a frenzy as an enormous boy, taller than the door itself, was carelessly charging in.
Laser weapons, resembling blood-red eyes, were ablaze on the red pillars. The red beams danced in the air, cutting the giant boy’s body into segments. His flesh and organs splattered on the white walls of the palace and the stunning marble steps. Yet shortly after, the limp pieces of meat started to move again. They reshaped into numerous boys of varying sizes, all with the same features. Big and small, the boys picked themselves up from the gory ground, yelling as they continued their onslaught.
This cycle happened repeatedly, with the exterior of the pristine white palace now resembling a bloody river. Scattered pieces of red flesh piled up like mountains, and countless boys rose from the carnage, fury etched on their faces as they scratched at the doors and gnawed on the pillars and laser weapons.
With a groan, the door that barely ever opened finally did, revealing metal-head guards inside.
They drew their weapons and started to subdue and apprehend the charging boys.
The guards were formidable, quickly containing the children running amok. However, some especially small ones managed to slip through. Those the size of thumbs, bug-sized, or even those so tiny they were nearly invisible, shouted the name of the kitten and swarmed through the opened door.
Kestrel stood up, dusting off food remnants from her hands. Amid the chaos, she stepped on the slippery red flesh on the ground and made her way through the gate.
None of the dense, busy guards spotted her. It was as if she was walking into everyone’s blind spot, confidently striding forward.
In truth, manipulating so many minds simultaneously was challenging. A single mistake, even if just one person woke up and spotted her, it would mean failure. But Kestrel did not fail. Her focus was sharper than ever, and her limbs were more cooperative than before.
The palace was expansive, and the minor disturbance at the entrance did not upset the serenity of the garden.
In the garden, the emerald green plants and sapphire machines were as captivating as the last time she visited.
Kestrel found a tiny boy, barely the size of a fist, in the bushes. His flesh was a mess, squirming back and forth in the crystal clear leaves, not yet completely reformed into a human shape.
Kestrel casually picked him up and allowed him to perch on her shoulder.
They arrived at the palace where the black cat was housed previously. They heard the soft meow of a cat, and a black and white furred cat slipped out from the gap in the door.
"Go ahead," Kestrel instructed the boy on her shoulder.
The distorted little figure hopped off Kestrel’s shoulder, struggled up the steps, and burrowed into the soft neck of the black cat. The considerably larger kitten stuck out its tongue and licked the boy’s small head that was slowly taking shape.
The door opened, and Mr. Pyramid, donned in a suit and leather shoes, stepped out with a white towel on his arm.
He "saw" Kestrel, pausing momentarily, an expression of uncertainty crossing his face. He coughed softly, straightened his tie, and strolled past Kestrel with a towel over his arm, his eye wide open, feigning ignorance of her presence just like the rest of the metal-head beings under Kestrel’s control.
Of course, Kestrel knew he had noticed her.
"Hey," Kestrel called out to him, "you see me."
Mr. Pyramid stopped, not turning around, his lone eye twitching uneasily.
"Where’s my alpha?" Kestrel queried, "What did you do to him?"
Without turning, Mr. Pyramid slowly removed one of his gloves and tossed it into the roadside bushes.
"Oh dear, where did my glove go? I seem to have lost it?" The tall, slender Mr. pyramid exclaimed, "Could it have fallen on the path I just took? I better go back and find it."
Then he walked away with grace.
Kestrel followed him from a distance.
She found Ren. He was shackled by the neck and tethered in the center of the garden, suspended over a heap of frigid gems.
Kestrel didn’t know what he had been through during this time. To prevent him from escaping, those monsters had contorted his legs. His black uniform pants were torn, those beautiful long legs hung limply from a large chunk of azurite.
He was covered in blood.
That gorgeous orca, it couldn’t return to the psychic landscape. It was trapped by a peculiar spiritual, white thread that had pierced its tail, and it was cruelly mounted on a sharp piece of moonstone.
Perhaps sensing the approach of the tendrils, the orca opened its mouth and let out a few pitiful cries of pain.
The tendrils fell silent instantly.
Kestrel felt a severe pain in her head, as if something was tearing apart. Somewhere in her body, the place where the psychic incarnations usually came and went was cracking, expanding, as they murmured lowly.
The massive creature that resided in the extradimensional deep sea—Kestrel’s psychic incarnation that had never fully revealed itself—was stirring its vast body, emitting a deep hum. It was impatient to squeeze out of the narrow passage, attempting to fully emerge into this world.
Kestrel looked up, a cold moonlight reflected in her eyes.
For a moment, the vibrant starlight above her seemed dimmed by this icy moonlight.
A strange mutant resembling a leech crawled onto the cold, hard gemstone mound where Ren lay.
The newly born mutant, with its translucent body and the head of a young man, crawled towards Ren’s limp hand at his side, a twisted expression of excitement on its face.
Kestrel had seen that face not long ago. On the beach, this man snatched her energy stone with a victorious look, and his name was Jax.
In such a short time, the man who believed he could trample others, had become such a pathetic and grotesque monster.
Ren lay motionless on the facet of the gem. When his slender fingers, now unprotected by gloves, were touched by the leech’s slimy body, they only trembled slightly.
"What did I say? You’ll end up like me sooner or later," Jax smirked as he slithered up Ren’s arm, towards his bloodied shoulder. "It’s futile, give up, no one can withstand this."
"Haha, hurry up, I can’t wait to see what you’ll look like once you’ve surrendered." He swallowed, speaking in a breathless, almost delirious tone, "Let me see how our glorious Ren ends up weeping in despair."
Ren slightly opened his eyes. He was pale, devoid of any color, and even opening his eyes seemed to require tremendous effort. But he looked at the face close to his, at the deformed monster, and a smile pulled at the corner of his mouth,
"I pity you," Ren lay there, weakly laughing in mockery.
The only part of Jax’s face that still resembled a human’s instantly became even more distorted and repulsive than that of a monster.
"You’re the same!" He almost screamed, "Do you think you still have a chance to escape? No one will come to save you, no matter how much you persist here, there’s no redemption for you. You will soon become just like me, ugly, pitiful, at the mercy of others, without even the right to plead."
Just then, his repugnant body, which was clinging tightly to Ren, was suddenly kicked away.
Jax tumbled down the smooth gemstone hill, sticking to a protruding rock, and lifted his soft neck.
He saw, in disbelief, a human female, a beta, suddenly appearing in a place where no human should be.
"He’s nothing like you." The woman who climbed up to the top of the gemstone hill bent down to unlock the shackles around Ren’s neck, saying, "I’m taking him away now."
The leech-like mutant shrieked in disbelief.
