Chapter 309 Escape

I know you don't understand my behavior.

"But that doesn't matter."

"As long as we can get out of here alive, the journey is just a bridge."

"Perhaps I..."

Bell stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence, crouched down, and listened intently to something.

Sheen followed her example and crawled down, but she could only hear the sticky sounds of the mutated creatures devouring each other. However, the other person sensed something more profound—the person's face darkened, and then he handed over the box containing the No. 7 stabilizing agent.

She took it, and the next second, Bell reached into her pocket.

"You're addicted to it, aren't you?"

Sheen immediately took a big step back, glaring at her fiercely—but Bell persisted, stubbornly moving closer and grabbing at her clothes with a mixture of helplessness and urgency in her eyes—then very seriously pulling the coat out of her hand and continuing to fiddle with it, just like Hera had done before.

"Hey... are you possessed by your sister?"

Belle didn't bother to answer. She simply took out a bunch of medicine bottles she had just stuffed into the pocket, looked at the labels, carefully picked out three, and put the rest back.

Hello?

"Hello?"

She still ignored Sheen's questions, and with precise and quick movements, opened one of the bottles, put in the golden capsule from before, and then opened the second bottle of potion.

He looked like a very skilled employee when it came to dispensing medicine.

Sheen hadn't even seen what the label said yet, but she could tell that Bell had done this many times before, so she couldn't be mistaken.

Meanwhile, in that short time, something even stranger emerged from that chaotic dome.

Like a difficult birth whose ending was predetermined, all that is revealed is bloodshed and despair, and the creation that falls out of the placenta symbolizes death.

First, all the aliens stopped howling and writhing. They began to melt and then solidify. Their scarlet skin and limbs all stuck together, piling up to form three-dimensional arcs and right angles.

Then, a huge disc made of their flesh and blood appeared, like some kind of unique floor, with supporting pillars and corridors in the center. She could see the outlines of tables and chairs emerging inside, but the rest was too blurry to describe... Sheen looked at it carefully for a while and realized that it was something like an altar.

Regardless of what was inside, that space had already begun to grow towards them. Sheen tried to pull Bell away, but the building was forming so quickly that there was nowhere to hide.

The corpses of the mutated creatures rolled in like a tide from afar, continuing their cycle of death and rebirth.

Bell released the hand that was holding her from behind, standing there indifferently as the eerie temple swallowed them up.

Nothing shocking or alarming happened.

She raised her head, her unfocused eyes staring ahead as if listening to something, and then spoke in an extremely faint voice.

Sheen didn't think for long. Two seconds later, she leaned closer and heard Bell say, "Yes... I know you're very unwilling. Of course you're unwilling. My dear sister, this is an era of taboos. It's so powerful and promising. I know what you've sacrificed, but no one will understand you because everyone is in pain."

“Yes, I have abandoned all the nodes. You can call me a coward. But so what? A long time ago, Eoubs did go deep into the inner workings of the Code. Otherwise, how do you think they accomplished those grand schemes? But things didn’t go as planned. One day, the powerful realized they could no longer control everything, so I made my choice, and I have no regrets.”

The tone carried the sorrow of an old man who had experienced the vicissitudes of life, as if the speaker had been swallowed up by too much torment and was unable to wake up.

Sheen instinctively put his arm around her shoulder, unsure whether he wanted to control her or comfort her.

“No, you can no longer replace me. Yes… even you, there is something that absolutely cannot be offended. Sunset Hill was once rooted in our souls, it has been alive for tens of millions of years, because it came from the second wave layer, and everyone knows that place is hell.”

Bel paused, then laughed. She continued, "It's not as simple as you think, but I got the key beforehand... I'll kill you if necessary."

It was as if she were conversing with Hera across time and space.

"Of course I can do it, and you will indeed gain something... but you absolutely cannot bear the consequences."

Yes, only I can.

"Because I'm stronger than you."

After saying that, Bell threw the mixed medicine bottle on the ground.

What happened next was too supernatural, even in such a place.

At this moment, further away from them, the temple-like structure had stopped spreading outwards. First, the edges began to distort, resembling festering wounds, and the growth of the entire structure was halted—its extension could no longer continue. At the same time, numerous bloodstains appeared on the floor and walls of the experimental area behind them, and the searchlights on the dome began to deform, growing red, vein-like structures at an extremely rapid pace.

A girl who looked like Bell appeared out of nowhere, amidst the churning flesh and blood, her hand raised high, her hair disheveled, her eyes filled with sorrow as she looked at them.

Sheen glared back, thinking that this was probably Hera's projection. At this moment, Bell said, "It's just that I, from another node, spent a bit of money to summon her."

“As the key to starting the ‘door’, someone needs to act as the carrier.”

The girl felt a loneliness akin to that of a toy being discarded once its usefulness had ended, except that toys have no spirit, while she was a living person.

Sheen was speechless. Goodness, you've really made a huge sacrifice.

Then the thing vanished, silently, disappearing into the myriad threads of blood, and no one will ever know what became of it.

Beneath their feet, the originally soft ground began to harden, revealing the texture of hardened cement.

The passage began to collapse, but soon a new part grew, no longer aging—the deeper world was being led out and finally revealed.

Sheen vaguely saw a color on the wall, like faded red paint, with a number written on it, but it was completely illegible, too blurry, and seemed to be only three digits.

Bell watched all this with that same calm expression, as if he were constantly calculating something.

She watched for a short while, seemingly waiting to see if the situation would develop in any other way, then took two more steps forward and tentatively stepped on the ground a few times—Sheen suddenly noticed that a narrow door had grown out of the spot where this person had thrown out the potion.

"It's a success."

"We can leave now."