1804 Searching For Survivors.
Commander Bia knew that the tower had stood for eons and would not collapse on its own. But still, it was too hard to believe that someone was capable of bringing the tower down.
"I am freed...I am freed!"
Suddenly, Commander Bia was hit by the reality that she was freed from the grasp of the void she was trapped in.
The despair engulfing her eyes was washed up immediately with relief and exhilaration, feeling like she was given a new chance in life.
Her reaction was understandable; she was thrown into a different piece of void within the tower after getting pulled by the portal.
Unlike Felix, she was all alone and had absolutely no way of escaping the void on her own. In a place where twas meaningless and seconds felt like years, the only thing keeping her sanity intact was the knowledge of unigins residing within the tower too.
She knew that it was a farfetched fantasy to get saved by Felix or the others, but without that delusion, she would have ended it all.
Getting trapped in a void within the tower was a literal death sentence; Felix was the first one to escape it!
Whoosh!
"Commander Bia! You are alive!!"
Abruptly, Commander Bia woke up from her daze after hearing a familiar voice rushing at her from a distance. When she lifted her head, she spotted Dankin with a thrilled expression.
Thud!
He landed in front of her and fell on his knees, seemingly incapable of supporting himself anymore.
He looked terrible, indicating he likely experienced a worse fate than Commander Bia.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"What happened to you? Were you sent to a void?" Commander Bia asked with a solemn tone.
"Void? Hell no!"
Dankin felt chills course through his spine just by the thought of it. He continued, "I was trapped in the Chambers of Horror Floor. I couldn't clear the chamber and ended up stuck in my own worst horror over and over again."
While he was retelling his story, his expression kept turning for the worst like the memories alone were enough to scare him all over again.
"The Chambers of Horror, 49th floor. You had it tough indeed." Commander Bia knitted her eyebrows, "It's a miracle you managed to survive this long on your own."
She knew that the moment a person got trapped in a chamber, the only way to clear it was to defeat their worst horror. The map had no tips to achieve this, which meant, if someone could not defeat their fear, they would be stuck in a loop forever and ever.
"How about you?" Dankin asked as he gazed at the colorful nebula, "Also, do you have any idea what happened to the tower?"
"I was sent to a void..."
Before she could finish her sentence, color was drained out of Dankin's face in dread. He realized that his situation was still far better than his commander. After all, he could still win over his horror and leave the floor. With the map at hand, he could arrive at the nearest exit and save himself.
"You..."
"I know." Commander Bia smiled bitterly, "Fortunately, a miracle occurred."
"A miracle, a miracle indeed." Dankin sighed in relief.
"As for your other question?" Commander Bia frowned, "I have absolutely no clue, and if we want to survive our return, we have to find out."
"Quantix Prime." Dankin nodded with a serious expression.
He understood that Quantix Prwasn't going to let them be at peace if they cback with no results, no treasures, and more than 90% of the squad wiped out.
The fact that they had a map of the entire tower and still failed to bring anything good didn't put them in a good light.
"What about Gonn? You heard anything from him?" Dankin narrowed his eyes coldly, "He is the entire reason we are in this f*cking mess."
In a sense, he was correct. If Felix hadn't entered the tower with Apollo, they would have traveled the tower at their standard pace, fighting amongst each other.
When Eris, Uranus, and Demeter were involved, everything changed for the worse, causing most squads to barely cross past the 90th floor even with a map in hand.
"Dankin, keep such thoughts for yourself next time." Commander Bia warned him with an indifferent gaze, "I won't be able to save you if he cfor you."
"Save me? What can he do to me?" Dankin sneered as he stared at the newly created cosmos around the colorful nebula, "I doubt he managed to survive."'If he is responsible for this, he can't fall.' Commander Bia said to herself before taking off toward the nebula, "Let's split up and search for survivors; we have to get to the bottom of this."
"As you command." Dankin made a formal salute and took off on his own.
After sending him off, Commander Bia tapped into her frequency control and marked Felix's unique frequency in her mind. Then, she released her senses as she flew toward the sea of unique and bizarre realities.
Unfortunately, even after she got close, her senses failed to pick up on anything.
'Is he really dead? It can't be, he is a unigin with multiple cores.' Commander Bia narrowed her eyes, 'He is the last to die.'
Refusing to accept his death, Commander Bia erected protective barriers and flew inside the new emerging cosmos and environments.
She traveled forests, and mountain ranges, reversed rivers, and thunderstorms with fire as electricity, and even bypassed monstrous entities.
She kept going deeper and deeper, her hopes fading away bit by bit.
'Where are you...'
'Just giveone signal, that's all...'
'Where are you...'
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmShe kept murmuring in her mind as she scanned everything and everywhere with her frequency detection.
Suddenly, Commander Bia's senses picked up a recurring frequency that was trapped in a small area, unable to leave it.
When she tapped into the repeating frequency and tuned to its noise, a short voice memo resounded in her ears.
-SOS, SOS, SOS, SOS...-
'Our code! He is alive!'
The moment she heard it, Commander Bia's eyes lit up in joy and rushed swiftly toward the source.
Way earlier into her journey with Felix and Apollo, they designed a code between them in case they got separated and needed to find each other.
After all, this was the Echoing Tower, anything could happen.
The code was SOS, which meant, 'Save Our Souls', a popular phrase on Earth. Felix had chosen to make sure they separated each other from Uranus since he also could send signals.
The moment she arrived at the origin of the signal, she spotted that it originated from within a giant white brilliant cacoon.
'What the hell is this?'
Commander Bia got cautious, having no idea if this was dangerous. However, the signal was coming from within it, which put her at ease a bit.
Feeling somewhat bewildered, Commander Bia kept her distance and sent her signals inside the cacoon, desiring to establish a connection.
Alas, there was no reply from the other side.
'Can I peer through it.' Commander Bia narrowed her eyes in focus at the cacoon and used her vibrations to pierce through the cacoon and see what was inside.
This time, she succeeded!
When her eyes adjusted to the interior of the cacoon, her irises widened to the limit while her heart skipped a beat in utter shock and bafflement.
Her reaction was understandable when her eyes captured the sight of a humanoid featureless transparent white entity in a fetus position.
The most mysterious and shocking part was the appearence of seven hearts/cores within him, each more unique than the other.
"What...in...tarnation...is...that..." She mouthed a word by word, having completely no idea what her eyes were feeding her...