Dreams... were a luxury for Durandal. In her short life so far, it was mostly a conscious darkness.
Like drowning in the dark depths of the sea, the heavy water pressure prevented her from controlling her limbs. The scale of time seemed to be stretched very, very long, so long that she couldn't see the end.
But her ignorant consciousness didn't know how to protect itself, and it recorded all that long darkness in her memory, making the young Durandal curious about it.
Then she lost her curiosity, and finally became disgusted, resistant...
["Welcome to this... world worthy of being loved. And I hope we never have to say—goodbye forever."]
That was the sentence that broke through this darkness. For the first time, Durandal opened her eyes. She saw light, saw things different from the darkness.
So the world could be so beautiful... Even though everything in front of her was a mess from the nutrient solution, Durandal's heart was still so bright.
Just as that voice, that person had said, she loved this colorful world.
But now, the world seemed to have returned to darkness, as if everything before had just been a sudden dream.
A dream... was not a luxury. Durandal was not reconciled to such a dream.
---||---
On the twelfth basement level, Durandal, in the cultivation tank, suddenly opened her eyes. She subconsciously opened her mouth to take a deep breath, but an extremely bitter liquid suddenly poured in from her nasal cavity and mouth, choking her and causing her to cough violently.
A piercing red light flashed outside, and the urgent alarm sounded like a small knife, quickly cutting open her heart again and again.
A sense of fear rising from the bottom of her heart made Durandal begin to struggle subconsciously, but the dense tubes attached to her body entangled her.
Like an insect falling into a spider's trap, the merciless alarm in her ears, the bitter nutrient solution pouring into her lungs, everything was binding her, as if to kill her here, to drag her back into that empty darkness.
No... I don't want to go back... I don't want to go back...
CRACK—!!
Durandal's violent struggle shattered the glass outer wall of the cultivation tank. The emerald green nutrient solution gushed out from the breach, spreading on the metal floor.
"Cough, cough—" Without the support of the nutrient solution, Durandal's feet finally touched the ground. She clutched her throat and coughed violently, finally managing to spit out the nutrient solution that had choked her.
It's not a dream... that's great...
This was Durandal's first thought after surviving. Then, she suddenly remembered her previous situation.
She seemed to have encountered an Emperor-class Honkai Beast... and then...
The piercing alarm made her upset, but strangely, even though the alarm had been ringing and the red light had been flashing for a long time, it seemed that she was still the only person on the entire twelfth basement level.
Durandal looked around at her surroundings in a daze, her gaze finally landing on a robe that had been casually thrown on a table.
It looked like a semi-finished product, like a cluster of burning flames.
Glancing at her own bare body, Durandal reached out and picked up the outer robe, draping it over herself. Fortunately, the robe was long and large enough to cover her ankles.
She shook her head, shaking off the remaining nutrient solution from her hair. For some reason, the alarm had also stopped. Durandal could finally calm down and recall her current situation.
During the battle with the Honkai Beast, she seemed to have been seriously injured... but now she was here...
What about those survivors? Had her mission been completed? What about Rita and Sushang? And that Honkai Beast...
A series of lingering questions prompted Durandal to move. She pushed open the laboratory door and walked out of the messy little room.
Tens of thousands of cultivation tanks were neatly arranged here, and Durandal's view was unobstructed.
Almost every cultivation tank had a person in it... they were of different ages, both male and female, but everyone looked so similar, as if they had been printed from the same mold.
Every face made Durandal feel a frightening sense of familiarity.
She hastily lowered her head, forcing herself not to look at the scenes in these cultivation tanks, and quickened her pace, wanting to leave this place quickly.
She knew... what those were... and she knew what she was...
But even with her head down, Durandal's peripheral vision could still catch some of the scenery in those cultivation tanks.
Either a fair-skinned long leg, or a tender baby's foot, as if these people were all standing on both sides of her, watching her pass quickly between them.
Durandal's hand, which was clutching the outer robe, involuntarily tightened. The fear in her heart deepened again. Those invisible gazes seemed to be questioning her, interrogating her, tormenting her soul.
[You failed to fulfill your promise. You betrayed everyone's expectations of you.]
"I didn't!" Durandal suddenly let out a cry full of grievance. She simply closed her eyes, stuck her neck out, and was about to start jogging forward.
But before she had taken two steps, Durandal ran headlong into a cultivation tank that was not placed according to the rules.
Durandal subconsciously opened her eyes, only to suddenly see a familiar face staring at her with wide, blank eyes.
[She] opened her mouth to Durandal: "You ran away. You left that place... but [Durandal] would not flee in the face of battle. She could easily defeat that Honkai Beast, but you can't."
"I didn't run away!" Durandal cried out in her heart with some grief, but that voice seemed to continue.
"Everyone had high hopes for you, but you couldn't do it. You have failed their expectations, failed everything they invested in you."
"You are useless... you are just a waste of everyone's expectations. You don't deserve the name [Durandal]."
Durandal, whose mind was unstable, fell to the ground. Her first subconscious reaction was to pull the outer robe tightly around herself.
She curled up on the ground like this, burying her face in the crook of her arm.
"You are fragile, weak, and poor... you are just a guy who is complacent under everyone's praise. You grew up under everyone's protection, but you were defeated by a small setback." The voice in her ear became more and more familiar. Durandal suddenly felt that it was her who was lying.
The outer robe on her body didn't give her much sense of security. She could only curl up even tighter.
She hated this naked feeling... really...
I hate it...