894 Twilight Of Life & Death
“Where the hell did this come from?” Varian poked the truck-sized egg. His Plantae sense tried to push through the eggshell and failed. Enigma and Sarah couldn’t sense what was inside the egg either.
“Are we discovered?” Enigma gave the egg a sidelong glance and was about to step out of the cave to check.
“Let me try something,” Sarah said and waved her hand.
Dozens of small light orbs shot out of the cave and spread in all directions.
Enigma raised a brow and sensed the light orbs using her dark sense. They were ten miles away, hundred miles away, two hundred miles away, and five hundred miles away.
The farther they went, the harder it turned for Enigma to keep track of them. She had already lost 50% of the light orbs. Soon, the light robs went beyond her sensing range.
Enigma looked at Sarah and her eyes shone with a strong surprise.
Sarah felt a little uncomfortable under the strong stare. If it had been anyone else, she’d have given them a cold glare and told them to get lost, but this was Enigma and she didn’t really mean any harm.
So, she patiently explained. “We teleported after checking the location, yet there are usually beasts hiding there. I’m trying to develop a stronger detection method.”
As her words finished, dozens of screens lit up in front of Sarah and showed the visuals of the surroundings.
The giant ‘living’ beasts, the fierce battles between the monsters in the nearby river and the Undead that were slowly towards this direction, as if they could smell their ‘life’.
Varian paused inspecting the egg and gave Sarah a thumbs up. This method was similar to sending stealth drones but far more effective since the light orbs were much stealthier than the drones.
After cross-checking this new surveillance, Sarah concluded that while the Undead were slowly inching towards them, there wasn’t a danger anytime soon.
So the trio that initially wanted to leave this place got more time to sort and plan things out.
The first thing was naturally the egg.
“The eggshell can block level 8 attacks. If we destroy it and the mother comes after us, we’ll have extra trouble.” Varian shrugged. “We already got the Undead after us, so let’s not provoke the Living beasts too.”
“But what if it’s dangerous? And how did it even silently appear?” Sarah shook her head. “We have no knowledge of this strange place. So, we need to acquire as much information as we can. Let’s break the eggshell delicately so the beast inside won’t be harmed.”
“…I got a gut feeling it’ll be something unpleasant,” Varian said with a wry smile. “You know, my luck is not ordinarily bad. It’s dogshit.”
As Varian and Sarah had differing stances, they turned to Enigma. If Varian really insisted, Enigma would’ve backed off. But he didn’t.
So, Enigma shared her opinion. “Let’s take it to a desolate place, cover ourselves and do range attacks. Even if the mother finds out, it won’t know it’s us.”
Sarah and Varian looked at Enigma with a strange expressions. How to say, the whole thing felt like a criminal plan to murder an innocent egg. And Enigma looked pretty casual with such details. Her criminal record must be pretty good.
Enigma noticed the weird gazes and her expressionless face crumbled slightly and she muttered in a complaining tone. “W-What?”
*** *** ***
The trio found a desolate valley with no living or undead. The ground was covered in a layer of inch-deep ash. It was likely that this place was attacked by a Sovereign fire beast and suffered as a result.
They placed the egg on a mountain and retreated several hundred miles. A few seconds later, a lightning bolt struck the eggshell and cracked it.
In the bright yellow screen that Sarah summoned, the eggshell fell off and a sleeping creature came into view. It was a curled-up blue-striped ape.
“No way.” Varian’s eyes nearly popped up as he glared at the living version of the Undead Ape he slayed a few hours ago.
It’d sound ridiculous to any normal person, but any creature had its own unique features. Only awakeners with a strong psychic power could accurately differentiate these features and tell the beasts apart from one another.
Varian was more than capable of doing such an analysis. He compared both the facial features and stripe patterns of the ape and it turned out they both matched with the Undead ape!
Even though this one was only a peak level 8 and seemed to be in its ‘teens’ than ‘adulthood’, the unique features gave away its identity.
As Varian grappled with the consequences of a literal ‘resurrection’, Sarah’s shocked voice sounded in his ear. “There’s more.”
Seven more light screens lit up and showed seven different eggs.
Four of them were under siege by Undead and were desperately protected by the living beasts that were hastily taking them back to their residence.
Three of them were in remote locations.
Varian recalled everything from the moment they landed here and an ominous premonition filled his heart. “Could it be…”
Enigma’s body also stiffened and she, along with Varian stood silently as Sarah continued to keep watch of the six eggs.
Three eggs were transferred by living beasts and the last one was destroyed by the Undead.
The infant beast’s corpse remained still for a while before an Undead beast slowly got on its feet and roared.
The living beasts watched this unfold with bitterness. But they were content that they saved three eggs.
The first one was already cracked when it was transported, the second one cracked an hour into the journey and the third one cracked two hours in.
The three remote eggs remained untouched so far.
The beasts in the cracked eggs slowly came out.
The egg that cracked the earliest gave a child beast that was just a level 7. The one that cracked an hour later gave a teen beast that was level 8. The one that cracked two hours later gave a peak level 8 beast and was a young adult.
The new beasts were welcomed by the existing ones and celebrated.
And two hours later, three low level 9 auras shot into the air as the untouched eggs hatched perfectly.
And the silent Varian finally sighed in a mix of wonder and horror. “A-All of them…”
Except for two, five of the beasts that were born were the Undead they fought and killed. There’s no doubt.
Varian couldn’t understand how or why this was happening. But he did understand one thing.
He hissed. “This place is miraculously horrifying.”
Every living being would turn into an Undead after death. Every dead Undead would be reborn as a living being. This cycle was going on endlessly.
Whoever made this place might as well be a god.
— — —
A mature woman in royal green clothes looked down at the fog covering the Mad Zone with a smile.
Behind her stood her personal entourage as well as the powerful ministers of the kingdom. They all looked at her with respect and fear.
A few miles away from them stood a large crowd, numbering millions. They were staring at the huge screens made up of special silk that projected the Matriarch while special stones transmitted her sound.
The Matriarch’s lips parted and her gentle voice uttered the cruelest of words. “Mad Zone is called Twilight Zone in our scriptures. The place where life and death intersect. Once you die and be reborn, you lose your memory except for your basic instincts.
Giving a simple death to these invaders would be doing our ancestors a disservice. Now, they’ll be in an eternal cycle of death and rebirth. Forgetting who they were and living as a non-living beast.
This is my punishment against the invaders. Glory to Hortus!”
The millions of natives stayed silent for a moment before they shouted in fear and joy. “Glory to Hortus!”