?
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After finding out that we couldn''t easily get past this obstacle, we moved ording to the Dream Dungeon''s Rules. I could feel the presence of the Dungeon Core drawing closer as well, and whatever had taken over it.
We moved to the stairs to the left, which I froze using some basic Frost Magic, allowing us to step over the burning and toxic red crystals with ease.
Once we reached therge open area, we found many shattered sses, leading down to the abandoned, futuristic city. The atmosphere of destion and the eerie tranquility that came from it was both soothing and unnerving at the same time.
"This ce feels so deste and lifeless…" Bedann sighed. "It reminds me of theboratory I came from."
"Geez, we don''t have to remember those times, don''t we?" Miranda wondered.
"But it reminds me of that…" My wife sighed, looking across the ss. "I wonder… If this world is the same as the one our souls came from?"
"I''ve been honestly wondering the same things as you, honey." I said, looking into the deste city. "But we can''t really get a proper answer until we get the full story."
"The full story…" Bedra said. "I wonder if this ce was once a ce filled with life and people…"
"…" Kate remained in silence as she watched the ruins.
"This ce… it evokes some sort of uneasiness to me." Said Tyrannus. "I wonder if our world might one day end the same way…"
"We have to work hard so that will never be a possible future." I said, gripping my fists.
Thisrge area was arc-shaped surrounding the broken stairs and the tform leading to Level 3 of the building, and the moment we started moving and exploring, we found aputer screenying right in the middle of the road.
"Another screen? This one seems smaller and- Huh?" Emerald muttered, suddenly realizing something emerged from within.
Once we put our eyes into it, our surroundings distorted, as our minds were taken away somewhere else, visions beginning to materialize.
"Another vision?!" Miranda panicked.
"Here ites…!" I said.
The bright light engulfed uspletely, transporting us to another fragment of the memories of someone else.
FLAAASH!
.
.
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[WARNING!]
[WARNING!]
[WARNING!]
The sound of the rms filling the often calm and silentboratory with an atmosphere of panic and disaster woke up the professor Jonathan, his old eyes opening slowly as he realized he was over the floor.
The entireboratory was covered on ever-growing crystals, the foul smell of their toxic energies filling the ambiance, he could barely breathe.
"Cough, cough… W-What…?!"
He slowly started to remember what had happened seconds before he fell unconscious. The incubators were already reaching their adult stages, after many failures, a few sessful ones were found.
They were getting ready to release them into the world, to heal what the Quantum Gate had destroyed and taken away from them.
Yet, in the veryst moment…
"Do you think you can control my children?"
A strange voice echoed into the minds of every scientist. Several of the test subjects growth speed elerated out of nowhere as their colorful crystals turnedpletely deep red.
CRASH! CRASH!
Their crystals pierced the sses where they were encased and started a rapid spreading across the entire area, the foul smell of the red toxins and the blinding red light emerging from them quickly put the professor into a state of dizziness before he fell unconscious.
"No…" Jonathan muttered, seeing the "children" which they had been growing for many years begin to rebel against their masters. "After so many years… We almost… we almost had it…!"
The old man started crying tears of regret and sorrow as he saw the trees they had been carefully incubating trying to devour everything, their red crystals expanding like a cancerous growth across the entire building.
Dozens of corpses from scientists wereying over the floor, their bodies being consumed by the crystals growing all over their bodies…
"No… Why…? Why?!" He muttered, suddenly remembering the voice. "And that voice… W-What was that?! It felt… does the Crimson Queen… has a voice?! It is a sentient being?! All this time… This entire time!"
The old professor fell to his knees, beginning tough over their own foolishness. Incapable of having been able to realize this…
"Hahaha… We were fools… We yed with fire, and we were burned by it." He muttered. "She would had never allowed us to use her children against her… We were fools… utter fools…"
"Jonathan!"
"Huh?!"
Suddenly, Jessica appeared behind him, her body already covered in many crimson crystals growths, yet she carried on her arms a small tree, the smallest of them all, shining with golden and green color, encased on its crystal incubator.
"Jessica?!" Jonathan cried, running towards her. "What are you…?!"
"Cough…" Jessica vomited blood, stopping the professor from getting closer to her. "Please take this… it is Test Subject-008…! We thought that it was defective because its growth speed was the slowest of them all but… it is the only one that hasn''t been affected by the Crimson Queen''s control!"
"That''s… your body…!" Jonathan cried, trying to grab her.
However, Jessica pulled Test Subject-008 towards his hands, while giving him a silver-colored card, as she fell into the floor, half her body beginning to crumble apart into crystals.
"This world is doomed… Please… bring this child… to where ourst hope remains…" Jessica cried, her eyes filled with a slight amount of hope. "All… test subjects have been loaded with the DNA of most of Earth''s living species… if… our world is doomed… maybe… a new world… can be created… elsewhere… among… the… stars…"
Jonathan stood in silence as he heard herst words, before she stopped breathing, dying with a mild smile in her face, half her face having already turned into crimson crystals.
"J-Jessica…! JESSICA!!!"
Although they never made it official, the two loved each other since they began working on this project, dedicating their whole lives to it.
Losing his beloved partner in such a tragic way… it broke his heart beyond belief.
FLASH!
Yet amidst his tears, the little tree gave a faint white glow, as if trying to tell him to move…
"Little one…"
His eyes were set into the distance, atop the building, there was a rocket leading to space.N?v(el)B\\jnn
This was their veryst resort…
To send the seeds of life to outer space, alongside Earth''s legacy.
RUMBLE!
And at the same time as he set his eyes into that direction, the red crystals noticed his presence, their growth elerating rapidly into appendage-like shapes, trying to catch him.
"Hahhh…!"
Jonathan gasped for air, tightly grabbing the veryst hope with his old arms, and sprinting across the destroyedboratory.
He evaded the crystals, jumping from one ce to another, however, he quickly realized the stairs were already taken over by the red crystals, their toxicity spreading.
"No…!" Jonathan cried, but then, he nced the little tree shine once more.
FLAAASH!
A small bright light opened the way, breaking through the red crystals, and giving him the chance to step forwards.
"You…?"
Jonathan realized that thest hope was a very special child…
"Give… it to me…"
However, the presence of the Crimson Queen drew closer.
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