Chapter 295: Posthumous Work (End)
Everly swore she had absolutely no intention of responding to Shelly—but what he was saying was simply too outrageous.
What did he mean by “defeating cruel fate and twisting the very fabric of space-time “? Had he polished his memories so much that he’d forgotten how he had fled the Mayflower Apartments in utter panic, stumbling and scrambling for his life?
And that line about “your lives exist only because of my grace”—the nerve of him!
Thomas aside, from the day Everly was born until now, Shelly’s entire contribution amounted to one brief moment of conception, a few months of clumsy childcare when she was an infant, and a pitiful few tens of thousands of dollars tossed her way like alms to a beggar.
The one who had carried and given birth to Everly was her biological mother, Rachel. The one who had raised her was her grandfather, Old John. The one who had bestowed upon her extraordinary abilities and a powerful body—allowing her to survive countless brushes with death—was Mother Lamia. And throughout her journey, those who had reached out to help her, offering support and companionship, were friends like Rebecca, Misha, Orff, and the others.
Aside from occasionally throwing money at her, Shelly had been absent from Everly’s life as a father from beginning to end. Now that he was dead, he still wanted to drag his two children down with him.
Everly wanted nothing more than to point at his nose and curse him out.
What grace?
Look in a mirror, would you? What grace have you ever given anyone?
Yet Shelly seemed utterly oblivious to his own failures. His lips continued to move as he tried to persuade Everly.
“The stars are about to return to their proper places. The walls of the prison will inevitably collapse. The time of the Old Ones’ awakening is at hand. No one can escape the fate of destruction and madness!
“I once drifted through life in ignorance, consumed by worldly pursuits, my eyes blinded by the glitter of mortal prosperity. It was only after my master called to me in a dream that I finally discovered life’s true meaning.
“Do not be afraid, Everly. You are fortunate enough to become, as Thomas and I have, a part of the Door, offering yourself for the resurrection of the Great Master. It is the highest honor. Your insignificant life will attain eternity because of it…”
“Come. Stop struggling… Join us…”
Everly’s response was to dodge another wave of stabbing tent*cles. As she slipped away, she thrust out both hands and raised her middle fingers at the giant eyeball below that was Shelly.
“AAAGH! AAAAAGH! Foolish! Ignorant! Utterly beyond redemption!”
The moment he saw Everly’s gesture, Shelly froze for an instant before erupting into a furious roar.
Whoosh… Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…
More and more tent*cles burst from the ground.
Having learned from his repeated failures to skewer her, Shelly had even figured out how to anticipate her movements.
Everly had to fly in a straight line, just as the siren had instructed. Once her direction was fixed, predicting where she would appear next and setting an ambush in advance was almost effortless.
At first, Everly could still evade his attacks by weaving left and right. But as time wore on, her stamina dwindled. She found herself growing slower, increasingly overwhelmed, and unable to keep up.
Where on earth is this so-called guide? Why can’t I see anyone…?
Whoosh!
Her momentary lapse in concentration was all it took.
A tent*cle suddenly shot out from some hidden corner. Its serrated, tooth-lined tip was like a vicious saw, cutting deep into Everly’s shoulder.
It felt as though she had been struck by a giant sledgehammer. She instantly lost her balance, her flight path veering sharply off course. Instead of continuing along her original trajectory, she plunged diagonally downward toward one of the enormous fruits.
Pop!
The instant her body touched its smooth surface, the fruit yielded like a soap bubble. It first dented softly inward, then expanded outward with a gentle, adhesive pull, wrapping itself around Everly’s entire body.
Seeing this, Shelly immediately changed direction as well, driving more than a dozen of his tent*cles into the same fruit.
Pop!
The fruit’s surface rippled like disturbed water. After a few moments, it gradually became still once more.
Everly had fallen into yet another painting.
The good news was that she had seen this one before, so it wasn’t completely unfamiliar.
The bad news was that it was one of Shelly’s posthumous works. Like the rest of the paintings in the exhibition, it was thoroughly nightmarish.
The painting was titled Life.
Its setting appeared to be some kind of laboratory, making it one of the few works in which Shelly had depicted a modern-day scene.
The central subject was the egg of an unknown creature.
The egg was long and pointed, shaped like an elongated oval, standing just over a meter tall—far larger than the eggs of any known creature on Earth. Its shell was rough and uneven, covered with an intricate network of green and dark cyan veins. Had the shell not been split open down the middle, revealing its interior, it could easily have been mistaken for a moss-covered boulder.
Inside the cracked shell was a pool of murky red-and-yellow fluid that looked disturbingly like a pot of meat porridge.
Curled up in the middle of the liquid lay a bluish-gray embryo. Numerous tubes and cables were connected to its body, while several medical monitors beside it tracked its vital signs. A closer look at the displays revealed nothing but flat lines stretching across every screen.
The embryo was clearly dead.
The enormous egg had been carefully placed inside a massive laboratory glove box made of glass. Outside the enclosure, researchers in white lab coats leaned over the glove ports, delicately extracting samples from the dead embryo and the egg fluid with specialized instruments. Other researchers hurried back and forth among towering pieces of scientific equipment, busily carrying out every manner of experiment and analysis.
Behind them stood rows upon rows of cultivation chambers that stretched all the way to the laboratory ceiling.
The transparent cultivation chambers resembled towering glass columns that stretched from floor to ceiling.
Each one was filled with a pale yellow, translucent liquid and threaded with a tangled web of tubes. Those tubes converged on a translucent yellow membrane suspended in the center of each chamber, continuously delivering some unknown substance into what appeared to be an artificial womb.
Curled within the membrane was an embryo.
Some were no larger than a finger, while others were as big as a large dog. Their forms were grotesquely varied: some were covered in strange, tumor-like growths; some had more than one head; some possessed countless limbs like centipedes; others had several tails.
Yet despite all their differences, they shared one unmistakable feature—their faces looked as though they had been copied and pasted from the dead embryo inside the mysterious giant egg.
The truly unsettling part of Shelly’s painting was how completely those embryos defied human imagination. A single glance was enough for certain of them to lodge in your mind like nails, only to resurface unexpectedly at unguarded moments, sending goosebumps racing across your skin.
After entering the fruit, the first thing Everly experienced was another fall.
As she plummeted, she forced herself to recall every detail of the painting, trying to determine what the source of the anomaly in this artwork might be.
In the worst-case scenario, she would have to escape Life through her own efforts, just as she had with the first two paintings. If that happened, she needed to identify the source as quickly as possible—and destroy it.
Thud!
After what felt like an indeterminate amount of time, pain shot through Everly as she slammed onto a hard floor.
The instant she landed, she sprinted toward the giant egg inside the glove box.
She hadn’t watched all those horror movies for nothing. Everly was willing to bet that if this painting had a source of corruption, there was a ninety-percent chance it was that egg.
In Shelly’s Life, the laboratory was originally bustling with researchers coming and going, everyone absorbed in their work.
But for some unknown reason, when Everly entered this world, the enormous laboratory was completely deserted. Only the various machines remained in operation, their steady hum echoing through the empty space.
That at least made moving around much easier.
Everly’s first priority was to destroy the giant egg.
After several attempts, however, she discovered that the glove box enclosing it had been specially reinforced. It was incredibly sturdy. The only vulnerable point was the pair of built-in rubber gloves mounted on the front of the enclosure.
If she could slice those gloves open with something sharp, she’d be able to reach the egg.
Of course, she had no intention of actually touching it.
Horror Movie Survival Rule #8: Never come into contact with strange lifeforms of unknown origin—or their secretions.
Touching contaminated substances was a great way to catch who-knew-what kind of horrifying disease.
Her plan was simple: find something sharp, cut through the gloves, pour in a large amount of flammable liquid, and burn the egg to ashes.
With that in mind, Everly hurried to a nearby workbench, searching for anything that might be useful.
She failed to find the alcohol or other accelerants she wanted. Instead, she unexpectedly uncovered several photographs that had been pinned beneath a few reagent bottles.
At first she only glanced at them casually.
But the moment she recognized certain patterns in the photographs, her pupils contracted sharply.
Wait… these are…
Splaaash!
Just as she was reeling from the discovery, the faint sound of flowing liquid suddenly came from behind her.
A sense of foreboding swept over her.
Everly spun around.
Sure enough, a tear had appeared out of thin air behind her. From the opening, torrents of multicolored paint gushed out like a fountain. The instant the paint hit the floor, it transformed into seven or eight sinister crimson-and-black tent*cles that seemed to have minds of their own, lashing straight toward her.
Shelly had caught up.
Dropping the reagent bottle in her hand, Everly ducked low, narrowly avoiding the incoming strike.
The first blow missed.
The next one came immediately after.
Perhaps because he wanted to vent his frustration over being toyed with by Everly on the Giant Tree Plain, Shelly did not use his terrifying ability to reduce the painting back into a blank canvas this time.
Instead, he wielded his thick, powerful tent*cles like a predator toying with its prey, relentlessly attacking Everly.
The laboratory was packed with medical equipment and cultivation chambers. The cramped environment drastically limited Everly’s room to maneuver.
Shelly, on the other hand, had dozens of tent*cles at his disposal. He could spread them throughout every corner of the laboratory, lying in wait and predicting where Everly would flee next.
The balance of power had completely reversed.
Everly was now the trapped lamb.
She fled desperately between rows of medical equipment. At one point, risking serious injury, she deliberately used herself as bait, hoping to redirect Shelly’s attack. Her plan was to lure one of the tent*cles into smashing the glove box containing the giant egg.
It worked.
The enclosure shattered just as she’d hoped.
The giant egg—and the dead embryo inside—were smashed into pulp by Shelly’s own attack.
Yet the painting showed no sign whatsoever of dissolving.
She had guessed wrong.
The egg wasn’t the source.
With the glove box destroyed, Everly lost the cover it had provided behind its housing and was completely exposed.
The tent*cles seized the opportunity.
They rose high into the air like enormous whips before crashing down with shrieking gusts of wind.
Perhaps Shelly had finally grown tired of the game and wanted to end it once and for all.
This strike was far more powerful than any before it.
Boom!
Everly couldn’t dodge in time.
Her body was hurled high through the air and slammed into one of the cultivation chambers behind her.
The reinforced glass column burst open with a massive hole.
Blood spilled from Everly’s lips as she tumbled through the breach, plunging headfirst into the liquid-filled chamber.
Splash!
The chamber’s fluid poured out in torrents through the opening.
As the water level rapidly dropped, the suffocating sensation quickly faded.
At the same time, Everly felt something soft collapse into her arms.
A large, jellyfish-like mass—soft, limp, and soaking wet—sank straight downward, landing heavily against her chest.
Bracing herself, Everly forced her eyes open.
She realized the weight in her arms was the embryo from the cultivation chamber. Without the surrounding fluid to keep it suspended, it had simply fallen into her embrace.
It was enormous.
Curled inside its soft membrane, its body had yet to develop distinct facial features, but it was already as large as a full-grown dog.
Strangely, despite everything that had happened, the embryo was still alive.
The membrane cradling it felt warm to the touch. Through its thin, translucent surface, Everly could even feel the tiny heartbeat within, along with faint, restless movements.
Compared to the grotesque specimens filling the rest of the laboratory, this embryo showed only minor signs of mutation. At most, its tail was unusually thick and oversized. It looked less human than like a stranded fish. Having been cut off from its life-support system, the long tail thrashed helplessly inside the membrane, as if it were in considerable distress.
What an unlucky little monster…
Dragged into this because of me. It’s probably going to die any second now…
Everly couldn’t stop herself from coughing up another mouthful of blood.
Crimson threads seeped through the membrane and were absorbed by the embryo.
Inside, the tiny creature suddenly began struggling much more violently.
Unfortunately, Everly had no time to pay it any further attention.
Something blackish-red whipped across the corner of her vision.
Shelly’s tent*cle was attacking again.
The cultivation chamber was far too cramped to dodge.
Left with no other choice, Everly lifted the embryo in front of herself, hoping the little creature could block the blow.
Smack!
The tent*cle slammed into the embryo.
Its razor-sharp tip effortlessly ripped open the soft membrane.
The embryo seized the opportunity.
With a powerful flick of its tail, it squeezed through the opening.
“Ahh…”
The instant it was fully born, the little monster opened its mouth and let out a soft, infant-like cry.
The next second, its mucus-covered body began to swell like an inflating balloon.
It expanded at an astonishing speed.
