Chapter 354: Fountain of Youth (11)
Everly was currently standing at the entrance to the cave in Pudding Mountain.
She wasn’t alone. Several people were sprawled across the ground in various positions. They were none other than Grant’s team, who had entered the cave five minutes before Everly.
Everly remembered very clearly that when she had first entered the cave, the ground had been completely empty. There hadn’t been anyone there.
Clearly, the illusion had begun much earlier than she had expected.
Everly didn’t know whether the illusions these people experienced had been the same as hers. The only thing she could be certain of was that they had encountered danger in their illusions as well. There wasn’t a trace of external injury on any of them, yet they were all sprawled across the ground, their faces deathly pale, their lips blue, and their chests completely still. In the span of just five minutes, they had gone from living people to corpses.
Everly carefully counted them.
When they entered the cave, Grant’s team had consisted of thirteen people. Now, only eleven were lying on the ground. Grant and the witch Savannie were nowhere to be seen. Presumably, like Everly, they had completed the test of willpower the instant they entered the cave and had gone ahead first.
As for the bodies on the ground, they were all people who had failed the trial.
There was only one exception: the shaman lying near the edge of the cave.
The other ten had no obvious external injuries. The shaman, however, had a sharp thorn branch embedded in her chest, and a large pool of blood had soaked into the ground beneath her.
Anyone could tell at a glance who had done it.
The killer was the witch Savannie.
The two psychics had been at odds from the very beginning and had even fought once, with the shaman ending up on the losing side. Later, while crossing the lake, the shaman had been forced by the witch to use a secret technique. As a result, she had gone from a young woman to a wrinkled old crone overnight.
There was no way the shaman could have harbored no resentment over that.
If the shaman drank from the Fountain of Youth and gained eternal life, she would become a major threat to Savannie. Most likely, that was why the witch had taken advantage of the shaman’s weakened state after exhausting her strength and launched a surprise attack, killing her.
After examining the shaman’s corpse, Everly stood up and was just about to leave when a withered, emaciated hand suddenly shot out from the side and clamped around her ankle like a chicken’s claw.
Everly jumped in fright.
Looking down, she discovered that the shaman, who had been lying motionless on the ground, had suddenly opened her eyes as though she had risen from the dead. Her gaze was filled with unwillingness and venom as she stared fixedly at Everly.
“Ghk… ghk-ghk… Sav… annie… witchcraft…”
The shaman seemed to be trying to say something, but the moment she opened her mouth, a large amount of bloody froth bubbled up from her throat, making her words broken and incoherent.
Even so, Everly managed to catch a few key words amid the mumbling.
Her heart stirred. She crouched down and, steeling herself, leaned her ear close to the shaman’s mouth.
“What witchcraft…? What are you trying to tell me?”
…
Three minutes later, Everly left the shaman, who had finally breathed her last, and entered the depths of the cave where the sunlight could no longer reach, flashlight in hand.
The passage near the entrance had been carved directly into the rock, its surface rough and uneven.
After walking roughly four or five meters, once the surroundings had become completely dark, the rocky walls of the cave abruptly transitioned into silvery-white metal.
It was difficult to say exactly what kind of metal it was. It felt cold to the touch, and if she pressed and kneaded it firmly, it would cave inward. Once she removed her hand, however, it would automatically return to its original shape.
In that respect, the material of the cave walls resembled a non-Newtonian fluid. Yet when Everly brought two fingers together and knocked on the wall, it produced a crisp metallic ring rather than a dull, muffled sound.
Could it be some kind of titanium alloy?
Everly wasn’t sure. There were many different types of titanium alloys, and she wasn’t a materials science student. She had no particular expertise in identifying metals.
Another remarkable thing was that such a long passage appeared to have been cast as a single piece. Throughout her journey, Everly hadn’t seen a single rivet or seam on the walls. Everywhere her eyes could reach, the silvery-white metal flowed together in smooth, seamless transitions.
Everly walked through the straight metal passage for more than ten minutes.
As time passed, the initial shock and novelty gradually wore off beneath the unchanging scenery.
Having just experienced the seemingly endless yellow corridor with no exit in her illusion, Everly was now somewhat apprehensive about another endlessly repetitive passage.
Fortunately, after forcing herself to continue walking for a while longer, she gradually spotted a small light source emerging from the darkness ahead, growing larger as she approached.
After walking a little farther, the light ahead grew increasingly bright, and an arched doorway appeared at the end of the passage. Beyond it was a dazzling radiance that made her eyes swim.
The exit was almost here.
Grant and Savannie had set out before Everly, and she had been worried that she might encounter them in the passage.
Fortunately, from the entrance all the way to the exit, Everly never saw a trace of either of them. She suspected they had already gone outside.
Without confidence that she could defeat them, Everly had no desire to run into the two of them. So she switched off her flashlight in advance, slowed her pace, and took out the chameleon skull and held it between her teeth. If anything seemed amiss, she could immediately stop and use the artifact to conceal herself.
Proceeding cautiously like this took much longer than she had expected. At last, Everly reached the doorway.
Pressing her body against the wall, the chameleon skull clenched between her teeth, she slowly poked her head out at a snail’s pace and quietly surveyed the area outside.
The moment she saw what lay beyond, her eyes widened—
Everly saw the “world.”
Until now, she had been puzzled by the line in the poem: “At the foot of the mountains surrounded by the world.”
In the book Alexandri Magni Iter ad Paradisum (Alexander the Great’s Journey to Paradise), it was written:
[At the end of the passage, Alexander saw a mountain surrounded by the world. Although he had no idea beforehand what a mountain surrounded by the world was supposed to look like, the moment he saw that mountain, he understood.]
Now Everly experienced the same realization as Alexander the Great.
Indeed, it was something that could be understood the moment you saw it.
This was what the “world” was supposed to look like.
There was no flat ground beyond the passage.
Instead, there was a gigantic spherical space more than a kilometer in diameter. The entrance to the passage was located at the sphere’s equator. Looking either upward or downward, all Everly could see was an enormous, seemingly boundless void.
The “world” floated in the center of the void, filling it almost completely.
It was a blue planet rotating continuously.
It wasn’t a physical object. It was more like a holographic projection from some science-fiction work. No matter which angle Everly viewed it from, the outline of the planet remained perfectly consistent, with its shapes and shadows matching exactly.
Even more astonishingly, the blue sphere seemed capable of sensing the viewer’s gaze and responding to it.
When Everly’s eyes fell upon a certain location in the northeastern United States on the projection, she merely thought briefly about Misha, who was busy with her studies at university.
Yet suddenly, a flower bud sprouted from the surface of the planet’s projection.
The bud grew from tiny to large before blooming right before Everly’s eyes, forming an enlarged image that spread across the surface of the planet.
The new image showed a familiar university. With final exams approaching, students streamed back and forth across the campus. Every so often, someone could be seen walking along the paths with books and laptops in their arms.
The pair of young people at the center of the image stood out the most.
The girl had blond hair and brown eyes and looked bright and cheerful. The boy beside her was much more introverted, often becoming awkward and turning bright red whenever the girl teased him.
It was none other than Misha and Orff—the two people Everly had been thinking about day and night!
Everly immediately jerked her gaze away in fright.
She wasn’t sure whether the “flower buds” blooming on the planet displayed private images visible only to the observer, or whether they were public images that everyone could see.
If it was the latter, the moment Grant and Savannie saw this, they would immediately realize that there was someone else here besides the two of them!
Clear your mind. Clear your mind. Don’t think about anything…
Everly spent a while mentally preparing herself. She first carefully surveyed the surrounding void and, after confirming that Grant and Savannie were nowhere to be seen, turned her gaze toward the planet once more.
This time, she didn’t dare think about anything or anyone from the real world while looking at the planet.
And so, in Everly’s field of vision, the image of Earth continued rotating steadily and regularly, without producing any more “flower buds.”
Through the sphere’s translucent, illusory surface, Everly finally saw what she had been dreaming of.
At the very center of the planetary image, level with the passageway, floated a mountain shaped like a tower.
The mountain was lush with trees, filled with birdsong and fragrant flowers. Sunlight from an unknown source streamed down from above, illuminating the mountain and making the central peak look as beautiful as a dream.
A staircase cut through the dense forest on both sides, stretching all the way from the foot of the mountain to its summit.
That was where Everly was headed next: the “Stairway to Heaven.”
A silver-white humanoid figure stood at the entrance to the staircase. Whether because the planetary projection obscured it or for some other reason, the figure was surrounded by something resembling white noise, making it extremely blurry.
That figure should be the “flame angel guarding the gate” mentioned in the poem.
As long as Everly successfully reached the foot of the mountain and handed the meteorite to the angel, she would earn the right to ascend the staircase.
The only problem was that the mountain floated in midair, hundreds of meters away from the exit of the passage. There was nothing in between that could serve as a foothold. Take even a few steps forward, and she would plunge into the deep void below.
Everly didn’t have wings. She had no idea how she was supposed to reach the mountain.
“Yes, we’ve been wondering how exactly we’re supposed to get to that mountain too.”
Just as Everly was thinking about this, a crisp yet saccharine voice suddenly rang out from above.
“!!!”
A chill ran down Everly’s spine, and every hair on the back of her neck stood on end. She raised her hand, instinctively pointing the gun at the ceiling above her.
But the intruder was even faster.
The moment Everly fired, thorny vines surrounding the attacker blocked the bullet.
At the same time, several thorny vines dropped down from above and rapidly coiled around Everly’s wrists, ankles, and neck like ropes.
The sharp thorns pressed tightly against Everly’s skin. Some of them even pierced into her flesh.
Within moments, a powerful numbness spread from the wounds, robbing Everly of her ability to move.
“It’s such a relief that there’s still someone alive. Grant and I were just wondering how we were supposed to find our way…”
A few strands of black curly hair brushed against the back of Everly’s neck, and the sweet, saccharine voice drew closer.
Unable to move, Everly could only roll her eyes and struggle to look up.
The witch Savannie was hanging upside down above her, her legs wrapped around a thick, sturdy thorn vine like a spider hanging from its web, staring coldly down at her.
The thorn vine was something Savannie had created using her special ability to mutate the metal walls. With the aid of the silvery-white vine, Grant and Savannie had successfully concealed themselves in the hollow space directly above the exit. They had waited until Everly became distracted by the mountain and let down her guard before launching their attack.
But Everly had carefully surveyed the surroundings earlier, including the area above her head. She clearly remembered that there had been nothing there before.
The witch must have used some other means of concealment.
What should I do now? I’ve been captured. Is there still a chance to escape…?
Everly frantically searched for a way to turn the situation around. Unfortunately, the thorns possessed a numbing effect of their own. After being pierced, Everly’s entire body was limp and powerless, leaving her completely unable to move.
The thorns tightened further and further, wrapping Everly in the center until they formed a ball of vines around her.
Then the witch lightly dropped to the ground and gave a soft, coquettish laugh before casually snapping her fingers.
The thorny sphere began to roll.
With Everly trapped inside, it rolled straight toward the abyss before them and plunged into the depths.