After finding out that we couldn't easily get past this obstacle, we moved according to the Dream Dungeon's Rules. I could feel the presence of the Dungeon Core drawing closer as well, and whatever had taken over it.
We moved to the stairs to the left, which I froze using some basic Frost Magic, allowing us to step over the burning and toxic red crystals with ease.
Once we reached the large open area, we found many shattered glasses, leading down to the abandoned, futuristic city. The atmosphere of desolation and the eerie tranquility that came from it was both soothing and unnerving at the same time.
"This place feels so desolate and lifeless…" Benladann sighed. "It reminds me of the laboratory I came from."
"Geez, we don't have to remember those times, don't we?" Miranda wondered.
"But it reminds me of that…" My wife sighed, looking across the glass. "I wonder… If this world is the same as the one our souls came from?"
"I've been honestly wondering the same things as you, honey." I said, looking into the desolate city. "But we can't really get a proper answer until we get the full story."
"The full story…" Benladra said. "I wonder if this place was once a place filled with life and people…"
"…" Kate remained in silence as she watched the ruins.
"This place… it evokes some sort of uneasiness to me." Said Tyrannus. "I wonder if our world might one day end the same way…"
"We have to work hard so that will never be a possible future." I said, gripping my fists.
This large area was arc-shaped surrounding the broken stairs and the platform leading to Level 3 of the building, and the moment we started moving and exploring, we found a computer screen laying right in the middle of the road.
"Another screen? This one seems smaller and- Huh?" Emerald muttered, suddenly realizing something emerged from within.
Once we put our eyes into it, our surroundings distorted, as our minds were taken away somewhere else, visions beginning to materialize.
"Another vision?!" Miranda panicked.
"Here it comes…!" I said.
The bright light engulfed us completely, transporting us to another fragment of the memories of someone else.
FLAAASH!
.
.
.
[WARNING!]
[WARNING!]
[WARNING!]
The sound of the alarms filling the often calm and silent laboratory with an atmosphere of panic and disaster woke up the professor Jonathan, his old eyes opening slowly as he realized he was over the floor.
The entire laboratory was covered on ever-growing crystals, the foul smell of their toxic energies filling the ambiance, he could barely breathe.
"Cough, cough… W-What…?!"
He slowly started to remember what had happened seconds before he fell unconscious. The incubators were already reaching their adult stages, after many failures, a few successful ones were found.
They were getting ready to release them into the world, to heal what the Quantum Gate had destroyed and taken away from them.
Yet, in the very last moment…
"Do you think you can control my children?"
A strange voice echoed into the minds of every scientist. Several of the test subjects growth speed accelerated out of nowhere as their colorful crystals turned completely deep red.
CRASH! CRASH!
Their crystals pierced the glasses where they were encased and started a rapid spreading across the entire area, the foul smell of the red toxins and the blinding red light emerging from them quickly put the professor into a state of dizziness before he fell unconscious.
"No…" Jonathan muttered, seeing the "children" which they had been growing for many years begin to rebel against their masters. "After so many years… We almost… we almost had it…!"
The old man started crying tears of regret and sorrow as he saw the trees they had been carefully incubating trying to devour everything, their red crystals expanding like a cancerous growth across the entire building.
Dozens of corpses from scientists were laying over the floor, their bodies being consumed by the crystals growing all over their bodies…
"No… Why…? Why?!" He muttered, suddenly remembering the voice. "And that voice… W-What was that?! It felt… does the Crimson Queen… has a voice?! It is a sentient being?! All this time… This entire time!"
The old professor fell to his knees, beginning to laugh over their own foolishness. Incapable of having been able to realize this…
"Hahaha… We were fools… We played with fire, and we were burned by it." He muttered. "She would had never allowed us to use her children against her… We were fools… utter fools…"
"Jonathan!"
"Huh?!"
Suddenly, Jessica appeared behind him, her body already covered in many crimson crystals growths, yet she carried on her arms a small tree, the smallest of them all, shining with golden and green color, encased on its crystal incubator.
"Jessica?!" Jonathan cried, running towards her. "What are you…?!"
"Cough…" Jessica vomited blood, stopping the professor from getting closer to her. "Please take this… it is Test Subject-008…! We thought that it was defective because its growth speed was the slowest of them all but… it is the only one that hasn't been affected by the Crimson Queen's control!"
"That's… your body…!" Jonathan cried, trying to grab her.
However, Jessica pulled Test Subject-008 towards his hands, while giving him a silver-colored card, as she fell into the floor, half her body beginning to crumble apart into crystals.
"This world is doomed… Please… bring this child… to where our last hope remains…" Jessica cried, her eyes filled with a slight amount of hope. "All… test subjects have been loaded with the DNA of most of Earth's living species… if… our world is doomed… maybe… a new world… can be created… elsewhere… among… the… stars…"
Jonathan stood in silence as he heard her last words, before she stopped breathing, dying with a mild smile in her face, half her face having already turned into crimson crystals.
"J-Jessica…! JESSICA!!!"
Although they never made it official, the two loved each other since they began working on this project, dedicating their whole lives to it.
Losing his beloved partner in such a tragic way… it broke his heart beyond belief.
FLASH!
Yet amidst his tears, the little tree gave a faint white glow, as if trying to tell him to move…
"Little one…"
His eyes were set into the distance, atop the building, there was a rocket leading to space.
This was their very last resort…
To send the seeds of life to outer space, alongside Earth's legacy.
RUMBLE!
And at the same time as he set his eyes into that direction, the red crystals noticed his presence, their growth accelerating rapidly into appendage-like shapes, trying to catch him.
"Hahhh…!"
Jonathan gasped for air, tightly grabbing the very last hope with his old arms, and sprinting across the destroyed laboratory.
He evaded the crystals, jumping from one place to another, however, he quickly realized the stairs were already taken over by the red crystals, their toxicity spreading.
"No…!" Jonathan cried, but then, he glanced the little tree shine once more.
FLAAASH!
A small bright light opened the way, breaking through the red crystals, and giving him the chance to step forwards.
"You…?"
Jonathan realized that the last hope was a very special child…
"Give… it to me…"
However, the presence of the Crimson Queen drew closer.
