Chapter 60: Survival
Ren was running at an incredible pace, but Kestrel could still sense something catching up to them. These things were rising from beneath the earth, hidden in the shadows and depths, steadily pursuing them. All they could see were black smoke billowing up in the distance along the streets and alleys.
Kestrel knew what they were. Although she had only encountered them once, their grotesque style was etched in her memory - those twisted, abominable black arms always trying to seize her in that white building.
Ren ran all the way to the seaside, and at the coast, he abruptly set Kestrel down.
"Don’t turn around yet," he told her.
Kestrel was confused until she heard the sound of water splashing. Turning around, she discovered Ren was gone, leaving only his torn black combat suit on the sandy beach.
An orca broke the water’s surface, revealing its head.
This was a fully-grown male orca, characterized by its colossal size, broad back, and a tall, upright dorsal fin.
"No one can catch me in the sea," came Ren’s voice from underwater.
Kestrel kicked off her shoes and lay down on the orca’s jet-black back. With a flick of its tail, the whale tore through the waves and surged forward.
"Can you hold on?" Ren’s voice echoed from below.
Kestrel remained silent as the sea waves splashed against her face, a sensation she found pleasant. She reached out to touch the very slick skin of the orca.
Ren realized his question was stupid.
Just then, something familiar to Ren slid out from Kestrel’s feet, which had undergone some sort of transformation. It was a slippery and cool feeling, with tiny suction cups clinging tightly to him.
Kestrel held on securely with her tendrils.
The giant orca in the sea moved swiftly. Kestrel felt the wind, the waves, and the sound of the water flow.
For the first time, Kestrel semi-transformed her body into a beast, her tendrils wrapping tightly around the whale as they swam freely in the sea.
Kestrel found that her psychic incarnation worked really well with this alpha, in any situation. She also realized that she genuinely loved the sea, even in these moments of flight.
In the vast sea, her consciousness seemed to expand even further. Her tendrils sent warning signals, sensing something deep in the sea floor stirring restlessly, ready to emerge. Perhaps it came from the shipwreck of the Mary, or from an even deeper, darker place–a violent, black, malicious entity was pursuing them.
This time, Kestrel was certain that those black arms that had been chasing them, the malicious entities rising from the sea floor, were all after her–likely after the inconspicuous small box in her backpack.
She stood up on the back of the orca, leaning on its towering dorsal fin as she looked back. Huge waves were stirring in the distance. Those black arms beneath the sea twisted and fused, incorporating countless seabed corpses, gradually assembling into an immense, bizarre creature that raised its grotesque head from the sea.
The monstrous entity issued a cacophony of strange, chaotic noises, as if countless creatures were screaming and shouting all at once.
They roared and surged, coming on with an overwhelming force, intent on engulfing Ren and Kestrel, dragging them into the abyss. But even these bizarre leviathans couldn’t easily catch Ren in his transformed state in the sea.
The orca, displaying remarkable speed, cleaved through the water like an arrow shooting forward, seemingly unconcerned about the threat trailing behind them. Kestrel knew, however, that Ren was pushing his life force to its limits to attain such speed.
"I won’t let them capture him again. I won’t give them a chance to torture him again," she vowed silently.
Kestrel stood on the back of the orca, her feet bracing against the rolling waves, her eyes gleaming like a bright moon. Initially, her eyes glowed with a cold, clear light, but gradually they turned red.
Suddenly, the stars in the sky disappeared, replaced by a massive blood moon. Under this blood moon, a young girl stood on the back of an orca. Her graceful, slender hand and eerie red eyes stared down the monstrous sea creature in pursuit.
An even larger beast appeared beneath the blood moon’s light, deep in the sea. Its enormous tendrils, barely visible, stirred up massive waves as it approached the monster in pursuit.
The pursuing dark arms hesitated. They slowed, their motions unsure, an air of reluctance about them. They were furious and resentful but dared not move forward rashly.
In the Polluted Zone, this was the first time the black arms had encountered a psychic incarnation so powerful that it made them hesitate and not dare to advance.
Soon, the blood moon in the sky faded, and the phantom of the sea monster blocking the pursuing entities also dispersed. However, this brief delay was enough. On the surface of the sea, there was no sign of Ren and the orca any longer.
They swam near the portal, broke the surface, and leaped into the half-open portal.
...
Kestrel and the orca leaped out of the portal suspended in the sky.
The dreamlike starry sky had vanished. The outside world was in the throes of dawn, the cool morning breeze brushing against their skin, the morning light whitening the sky, and a few ordinary stars adorning the horizon.
They were back in the normal world.
At last, they had managed to escape alive from the bizarre and strange Polluted Zone Five.
Surprisingly, the portal in the real world was also located above a vast blue sea.
Kestrel had just emerged from the sea, only to plunge back into the cold water. The orca swam up from below, lifted her, and headed towards the shore.
"Can you keep going? Can I lift the restrictions on your psychic world now?" Kestrel asked, stroking the sleek back of the orca.
"Wait a bit longer," Ren’s deep voice emanated from beneath the water. It was calm, devoid of any unnecessary words.
This was the deep sea, far from the coastline; it wasn’t a suitable place to abruptly lift restrictions.
The orca, carrying Kestrel, swam swiftly towards the shore.
Just when they were halfway there...
"Kestrel, I think I..." Kestrel heard Ren’s voice, unusually faint, a sure sign that something was terribly wrong.
In the next instant, the force supporting her vanished.
Kestrel reached out, clutching a smooth and icy arm. The owner of the arm had reverted to his human form and was unconscious, sinking into the sea.
Kestrel, having spent her entire life in the Tower, had never swum in the real world’s sea before.
She held Ren’s hand, sinking with him as the unconscious Ren dragged her under. As she descended, the sea enveloping her face, Kestrel was struck by an eerily familiar sensation. It was as if she had swum in the ocean countless times before, as if she was born a natural swimmer.
She moved her arms and legs, rapidly surfacing. Holding Ren’s chin above water, she began a determined swim toward the distant shore with the unconscious Ren in tow.
Kestrel didn’t know how long they had been in the sea. She exhausted all her strength, and it felt like the waves themselves eventually carried them to shore.
When she woke up on the sandy beach, the sky was already bright.
Kestrel opened her eyes to see a few seagulls circling overhead.
She quickly sat up, realizing she had fainted on the beach. She scanned her surroundings, eventually finding Ren beside a large rock.
Ren, who had transformed back to his human form midway, was naked and curled up under the rock, waves crashing around him. The seawater, carrying white foam, washed over his exposed back and draped face and hair before receding again.
Wave after wave crashed, but the body half-submerged in the water remained motionless. His back was scarred and crossed with old wounds. His long legs were curled up, covered in sand and blood, bleached by the seawater. At first glance, he resembled a corpse washed ashore.
Kestrel slowly rose and walked over to him. She knelt by his side in the water, placing her hand on Ren’s cold shoulder which was void of any warmth.
She turned Ren over, lifting his chin to face her, and saw that half of his face was covered in sand and seawater. His eyes were tightly shut, and his lips were pale.
"So... he eventually died, too?"
Kestrel thought she shouldn’t feel anything–"It’s normal. I’ve been through this as a child, so experiencing it one more time is nothing."
Yet, inside her, for some reason, it felt as though a heavy lump of iron had been jammed into her chest. The lump sank, tugging at her heart and lungs, making her feel irritated and compelling her to bite her own fingers.
Kestrel didn’t know if time had frozen or if a lot of time had passed until she finally detected a slight emotional fluctuation. The face she held in her hands twitched as his eyelashes, coated in seawater, trembled.
Ren’s eyes slowly opened. He was weak and barely able to speak, yet he smiled at her, as if to say, "See? We made it."
