Chapter 13
980words
"Take the book and enter through the 'Garden' entrance!" the electronic voice quickly instructed. "The book will protect you from low-level pollution! Follow the direction where the vines are most dense! The core is a massive, crystal-like 'Purification Core', but it's now covered by black pollution veins! Touch it with the book! The book will guide you to complete the purification process!"
"Remember! The purification process cannot be interrupted! You will endure tremendous pain! But the book will protect your consciousness! Hang in there!"
"BOOM——!"
Another tremendous noise! At the entrance of the basement, several thick, slimy black vines burrowed in like giant pythons! Pink mist surged inward!
"Run quickly!" The electronic voice phantom suddenly flickered, becoming unstable, "The entrance is... above!"
Owen Grant hesitated no more! He clutched the book emitting intense gray light, turned and sprinted toward the stairway!
The light from the book, like a sharp sword, drove back the surging pink mist and vines!
He charged up the stairs, rushing out through the entrance behind the canvas!
The corridor had already transformed into hell!
Walls, floor, ceiling - all were covered by frantically growing black vines! Pink mist thick as blood! The tentacled monster transformed from the Blurred Face administrator, now reduced to less than half its form, was still engaged in a death struggle with the Dancer monster and countless vines! Each collision shook the ground like an earthquake!
The gate to "The Garden" was completely thrown open, forming a massive, rotating pink vortex, inside which was an endless forest of vines and twisted shadows!
Owen Grant gritted his teeth as the booklet's light enveloped his entire body, forming an oval shield. He ignored the brutal battle beside him, his gaze locked firmly on the entrance of the vortex!
Charge!
He shot forward like an arrow toward the vortex entrance!
Vines lashed frantically against his shield, producing sharp "crack" sounds! The shield shook violently, its light flickering unstably!
The Dancer monster discovered his intention and let out a shrill cry, abandoning the Blurred Face as countless vines shot toward Owen like spears!
"Not so fast!" The remaining tentacles of the Blurred Face suddenly wrapped around the Dancer monster's ankles!
"Swoosh!"
The vine spears pierced violently against the shield!
"Crack!"
Fractures appeared on the shield!
Owen Grant groaned in pain, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth! But his speed didn't slow as he used the momentum to plunge headfirst into that spinning pink vortex!
The world spun around him!
It felt like passing through a layer of viscous liquid.
The next second, he crashed heavily onto the ground.
Before him was an indescribable, bizarrely colorful world.
The sky was flowing, viscous pink-purple. The ground was a writhing "forest" composed of countless vines and giant demonic flowers. The air was permeated with an overwhelmingly sweet floral fragrance, carrying strong hallucinogenic and corrosive properties.
Countless distorted, semi-transparent shadows floated and wailed among the vines—they were contaminated souls not yet fully decomposed.
The booklet's shield had become extremely thin, barely able to protect the half-meter area around his body. The gray light fiercely battled against the pink-purple contamination energy, producing a "sizzling" sound.
"Follow the direction where the vines are most dense!" the electronic voice reminded him in his mind, much weaker now, as if traversing "The Garden" consumed enormous energy.
Owen Grant struggled to get up. His head felt like it was splitting open, as if countless fine needles were piercing his brain! This was cognitive contamination! Even the booklet couldn't completely shield him!
He bit through his tongue, using pain to stay alert, arduously moving toward the direction where the vines were thickest and most concentrated.
The vines moved like living creatures, constantly trying to entangle and lash at him. Bizarre flowers spewed pink spores, colliding with his shield and corroding the already thin light.
Each step felt like walking on knife edges. The contamination invaded his mind and body through every possible opening.
He had no idea how long he had been walking, his consciousness already beginning to blur.
Finally, he saw it.
In the very center of the Vine Forest stood a gigantic, diamond-shaped crystal as transparent as water—the Purification Core!
But at this moment, this crystal heart was tightly entangled and covered by countless thick, vein-like black tendrils! Black impurities spread within the crystal, causing it to emit an ominous dark purple glow.
"That's it! Touch the core with the booklet!" the electronic voice shouted with its last strength.
Owen Grant used his final willpower and lunged toward the Purification Core!
The booklet in his hand was forcefully pressed against the crystal surface covered with black veins!
"Woong——!!!!"
An indescribably brilliant gray-white beam of light suddenly erupted from the booklet, shooting straight into the sky!
Where the beam of light passed through, the purplish-pink sky was torn apart! The writhing vines withered and dissolved rapidly like ice and snow encountering sunlight! The eerily beautiful flowers let out shrill screams as they turned to ashes!
The black veins entangled around the Purification Core, like ignited fuses, quickly turned red, glowed, then snapped and dissipated with crackling sounds!
The black impurities spreading inside the Purification Core were rapidly driven away and purified by the grayish-white light!
The crystal heart once again radiated pure, gentle blue light!
"Ah——!!!"
Throughout the entire space of "The Garden," countless sighs and wails of liberated souls echoed! Those twisted transparent shadows, under the illumination of the blue light, gradually became clear and calm, then transformed into specks of starlight, dissipating into the air...
It worked!
Owen Grant felt an indescribable exhaustion and excruciating pain sweeping through his entire body! The light on the booklet completely extinguished, turning to dust and flowing away between his fingers. He could no longer hold on, his vision darkened, and he lost consciousness.
