Chapter 91: [Bonus Chapter] Wait Until Dusk
Kestrel and Ren were looking for something along the barren streets. They walked by two-story buildings, their long hallways stretching out with each room seeming empty, but not perfectly clean.
Each room showed signs of quick exits - messy bed sheets, toppled perfume bottles, half-eaten take-out food, clothes tossed everywhere, and traces of dirt and grime. These vacant rooms still held the faint traces of their former occupants.
Even though it had been empty for centuries, the Polluted Zone felt eerily like people had been living there just the previous night, as if the residents had only just left.
Opening a worn wooden door, Kestrel caused a bunch of empty buckets to tumble out, one of them rolling across the room and out the door.
Inside, the room was poorly lit and messy, with a lingering smell of fish. Ren signaled for her to be quiet.
They both quickly hid. Soon, the sound of footsteps echoed from the other end of the wooden hallway.
"Thought I heard something. Must’ve been the wind knocking over the bucket."
"This place reeks. Probably where the servants stayed. Doubt we’ll find anything valuable here."
They were two alphas, dressed in durable combat clothes, their strong bodies covered with a variety of advanced weapons. As beings with sharp senses, the alphas could easily detect any hidden presence – unless one of the hidden ones was Ren.
Ren, hiding in the shadows, had managed to erase all signs of his existence and emotional energy, making him seem like he wasn’t there, just like an inanimate rock.
Kestrel, also hidden, was crouched behind Ren, her eyes focused on the two alphas.
Invisible tendrils under the ground whispered comforting words:
"You can’t see us."
"No one’s here."
"No one."
The alphas, despite their proximity, failed to detect them and even paused their search to chat.
"Where on earth is that thing the Queen wants? We’ve searched everywhere."
"Do you think we can only find it at night?"
"Did you hear the commotion last night? That Ren’s a real wild card. Wonder where that guy, Brandon, found him."
"He’s dangerous. If he gets his hands on the object, we can say goodbye to that huge reward."
Meanwhile, under the ground, a still-growing tendril realized it could no longer sense the presence of the orca—no, he was still there, next to Kestrel, but it was as if he had become a rock, a wooden post, an object without life.
This reminded the tendril of some happy memories. Once, in a narrow, pitch-black duct, Ren had become a stone and hid there. This tendril was the first to find him.
The tendrils called the orca "Big Fish" and Ren "Little Fish," while some confused tenedrils would mix those names up.
To them, "Big Fish" was very friendly, and touching it could heal injuries. And the tendrils thought "Little Fish" was friendly too, and they enjoyed being near "Little Fish", or even getting on him.
The tendril wrapped around Ren’s wrist, which was flat on the ground, and tried to push its newly-formed soft tip into his black glove, hoping to remove it. "It’s just a glove, it’s not rude," it thought.
Ren looked at it, then silently looked away. His hand, pressed against the ground, stayed still.
The tendril realized that since it was injured, Ren had become more patient to him. Usually, he would have shifted or gently brushed it away. But now, he allowed it.
Being hurt seemed to have its benefits, which just encouraged the tendril.
The two alphas continued chatting and drinking water, discussing Ren and the Queen.
Kestrel listened carefully, unaware that one of her many tendrils was causing a little trouble. After all, she had hundreds of them.
The tendril was young, weak, but after some struggle, it managed to lift the glove slightly, revealing a palm with healing cuts. It touched the wound, making the veins in Ren’s hand tighten—an honest and sweet reaction.
"Saw some servants here. Ugh, a bunch of law-breakers sent to keep the soldiers entertained, and they have people to serve them?" one of the alphas grumbled, kicking a toilet brush away.
"I can’t understand how people in this situation can carry on. They committed a crime, ended up here. They should have taken their own lives. There’s no dignity."
"I’ve been searching this place for days, and every night that tree screams. The sound is terrifying; you can’t get near it. But the rest of the place seems safe."
"It’s weird; the nights in the Polluted Zone are supposed to be deadly. So many have died outside, but once inside the Rosarium, it’s fine. It seems you just have to avoid the tree." One alpha lowered his voice, asking his buddy, "You’ve been here for days. Have you discovered anything at night?"
The questioned alpha seemed hesitant, as if he didn’t want to answer. However, under Kestrel’s influence, a tendril silently moved underground and influenced his subconscious.
"Speak up, let’s hear it."
The alpha, suddenly feeling chatty, cleared his throat, "Nothing. But each room...heh, is enough to make a man hot."
"The nights here are safe; you can do whatever you want. There’s food and drink, and those guys react like real people." His voice got softer, filled with a creepy laugh, "They don’t resist, no matter what you do to them."
His friend laughed, "You’re not telling me you’re in the mood for that here."
"Doesn’t matter where we are. We live day by day. The stranger it is, the more thrilling."
Their conversation got more lively as they discussed something they found funny.
"They’re law-breakers who served the military, living beings controlled by people."
"I saw this woman... If I can’t find the key tonight, I’ll take you to her."
As their crude conversation moved away from useful information to unsettling subjects, Kestrel was relieved when the alphas finally moved on and left.
Ren got up even faster than Kestrel. He stepped back and stood up straight, fixing his glove. His left glove was loose, barely hanging on his fingers. He quickly pulled the stretchy black glove back on, covering his bare hand perfectly.
"Always with the gloves?" Kestrel, unaware of the minor incident that had just taken place, asked while observing Ren’s movements.
Ren paused for a moment before pulling out the knife he always carried, showing it to Kestrel. The weapon, lacking any trace of blood, was now just a short white dagger.
"I found this knife a long time ago in one of the Polluted Zones," he said.
The blade, as white as bone china and lacking any shine, seemed quite ordinary in Ren’s gloved hand.
"It wants my blood at all times. I can easily get cut if I handle it without gloves. So, I’ve gotten used to wearing gloves over the years."
A thin, creepy voice came from the hilt of the knife, "Hehe, we meet again, Kraken. This kid, he took off his glove once, and since then... Uh uh." The knife fell silent as Ren firmly gripped the handle, pulling the blade back into it.
Kestrel showed Ren her own weapon, a gift from him after her return to the Imperial Nexus.
Her wrist was delicate and clear as a piece of jade. A bracelet of intertwined black and white looped around it. The flowing black lines were striking against her fair skin.
"I like this one. It’s very useful," said Kestrel, expressing her thankfulness and satisfaction in a few words.
Ren’s fingers, covered in black, tightened slightly. He had been wearing gloves for so long that it had become a habit. Taking his gloves off when he was not in battle made him a bit uncomfortable.
He had planned to explain this properly to Kestrel. He knew that Kestrel was a pure and respectful person. If he told her, she would definitely take notice of the tendrils’ tricks and stop them. But for some reason, he held his tongue. He didn’t even want to delve into why he decided to keep quiet.
The two of them walked down a hallway made of wooden boards. As the two alphas had suggested, this row of rooms might have been servant quarters, even more moist and dark than the two-story wooden buildings.
Kestrel opened each door to look inside, thinking of the girl she had met the night before. That girl, Vanessa, she had a beautiful singing voice and was very kind. She probably lived in one of these rooms, but Kestrel didn’t know which one.
A terrified scream echoed from an alley around the corner. The voice belonged to one of the alphas that had just left. An alpha, rolling and crawling, fell out of the alley. He had lost the power and composure typical of an alpha. Shaking, he backed away while tightly gripping his long knife, pointing towards the dark, damp alley.
After a bit, his friend, the alpha who claimed to have been here for three days, slowly came out of the alley. He asked his buddy in confusion, "What happened to you? Why are you so scared?"
From one side, the alpha’s face looked quite normal. He was still the same muscular, big man.
But from a different angle, it was clear that he had been cut in half from between his legs.
Half a face, half a body, one arm, one leg.
The alpha, now just half a person, moved forward in an odd way. He seemed unaware of the horrifying change that had taken over his body. He walked towards his friend, asking him about what had happened.
Inside the cleanly sliced body, empty of any blood or organs, countless spooky golden eyes had parasitically opened, replacing what should have been flesh and bone. The golden eyes blinked together, all focused on the other alpha on the ground. The sight was enough to send the alpha into a frenzy. He swung his long knife wildly, continuously retreating until he eventually ran away in sheer terror.
The remaining alpha stood frozen at the entrance of the alley for a moment, his lone eye turning to look at Ren and Kestrel.
"Ren?" He recognized Ren and began to speak. His mouth had been sliced in half, leaving only a sliver of lip. Talking was a creepy sight. "I know you, you’re Ren Sloan." The strange half-human stared blankly at Ren, "What’s happened to me? Why are you looking at me like that?"
Inside his body, loads of golden eyes blinked and wriggled in unison.
"You’ve mutated," Ren said, pulling out his gun and pointing it at the man’s head.
"Mutated?" The man’s eye rolled unnaturally on his face, "No, no, no, how can that be? I’m fine."
"I will do the queen’s task. Make money, loads and loads of money. Then live a relaxed life when I return." He babbled on, tears and snot running down his half-face as he shakily reached out to touch the side of his body that no longer existed.
Inside the slice of his body, the golden eyes that grew there began to giggle as he touched them.
"Kill... kill me," the half-alpha pleaded, tears pouring down his face as he spoke to Ren. His features warped and his body started to melt like wax.
"Kill me fast. While I’m still human." This was a request almost every alpha made to their friends before they turned into monsters.
Ren lifted his weapon and fired a shot at his head. But the powerful exploding bullet didn’t blow up his skull; instead, it was stopped by a thin wing. The bullet spun, creating a harsh sound, but couldn’t pierce the bug-like wing.
The bullet fell to the ground and the wing dropped back down. Behind the wing, the man’s head grew a pair of complex eyes and antennas. His half-mouth twisted and stretched forward, extending into a long sucking tube. His stomach ballooned and dragged behind him, his back sprouting a pair of thin, elongated wings that opened up in the breeze.
The man now looked like a massive, swollen mosquito.
Ren pulled out his sword and went after the transformed man, but the big mutant flapped its golden wings and lifted off.
Ren moved so swiftly that the naked eye could hardly track him. In an instant, his blade was in front of the mutant.
The mutated alpha accurately blocked Ren’s sword with its new sucking tube.
"Actually, mutating isn’t as bad as you think," the man’s voice came from the mosquito’s stomach, "I feel good, like I’ve been set free."
Ren silently backed away, and the mosquito’s sucking tube left a trail in the air. In a single breath, they had exchanged dozens of strikes mid-flight.
"I thought you were scary last night. But now, you’re nothing," the strange mutant buzzed as it hovered, flapping its wings.
Pointing its sharp sucking tube at Ren, it said, "You don’t understand how little you know. After mutating, I finally understood everything in this world."
"Hehehe, actually you’re the ones who are really enslaved. Poor alphas, as naive as I once was."
"Your blood smells good. I’m very curious."
"Why don’t you join us? Put up with a little pain, and you can be like me, experiencing endless joy."
