CHAPTER 63: THE HIDDEN TRUTH

Rhys felt the world shrink around him.

The air burned in his lungs. He couldn’t see it, but he knew the dark creature had caught them all. He felt the warmth of Eun-woo trembling beside him, and the fragile weight of Rong Ye in his arms. Jess’s body had collapsed a few feet away, and Caelan... he wasn’t sure. Maybe he’d fallen farther. Maybe he wasn’t breathing anymore.

He couldn’t hear anything. Only that constant, wet hum, as if they were underwater, and the wild pounding of his own heart.

Maybe Jae managed to get out...

And then, a white light enveloped everything. It wasn’t a bright light, but in the midst of so much darkness, it was like looking at the sun for the first time.

Then, time seemed to stop.

The weight on his chest disappeared. The pressure that had been suffocating him evaporated. The sounds ceased. He no longer felt the ground, Eun-woo, or Rong Ye.

He was alone.

A thick mist surrounded him, floating in soft, directionless hues. Rhys blinked. He brought his hands to his chest to make sure his body was still there. It was. But he wasn’t sure it felt real.

In front of him, an image began to form. It wasn’t a vision like the one Nebu had shown him on the riverbank. It wasn’t vivid or sharp. It was as if someone were projecting a film in front of him.

"What if it doesn’t work? What if we end up releasing something worse?" It was a man’s voice.

"We have no choice," a woman replied. Her tone was firm.

Rhys blinked, not recognizing those voices.

The vision expanded, revealing a narrow stone room with shelves piled high with jars and papers. A lamp hung from the ceiling, casting a dim light that flickered with every slight movement.

In the center, two figures were talking. The woman kept her arms crossed, and the man leaned toward her, his fists clenched at his sides.

Both were wearing work clothes, speckled with dust and reagent stains. They were scientists, or something close to it.

The man’s hair was disheveled, longer than one would expect, as if he hadn’t thought about himself in days. The woman, on the other hand, wore her hair perfectly styled in a high ponytail, not a single strand out of place, as if she needed to cling to order amidst the chaos.

Rhys couldn’t see their faces, but he could tell they weren’t cruel people. They were just... tired.

"We can’t keep feeding the Rift," the man insisted. "Especially not if it puts our son at risk."

"We’re doing this for him," the woman whispered, as if she no longer had the strength to speak. "So he won’t have to grow up in fear. So he won’t have to fight like we did"

Rhys gulped, something inside him tightening at that.

Feeding the Rift? What exactly did that mean? What were they delivering?

"If anything goes wrong," the man said, "promise me that our sacrifice will not be in vain."

The woman didn’t respond immediately. Then she nodded. Her eyes were shining with tears.

The image changed.

Rhys squinted as a stark artificial light enveloped him, forcing him to blink several times until his vision stopped burning.

Everything in that new room was blinding white, from the walls, the floor, even the ceiling.

When his eyes finally adjusted, he noticed that in the center of the room were only two metal gurneys, side by side. Two figures sat upright on them.

Rhys frowned, confused. It took him a few seconds to recognize them, but they were the same man and woman from his earlier memory. They were no longer in work clothes; they were now dressed in thin, shapeless white gowns, as if they were patients or prisoners.

And this time he could see their faces.

Or at least, what was left of them.

The man had multiple deformed lumps growing from his scalp and down his cheeks, like swollen roots stretching his skin in impossible directions. One of his eyes was covered by a mass that seemed to pulsate slightly.

The woman was in no better condition. Her cheekbones had disappeared beneath uneven layers of flesh, and her mouth could barely open, trapped between fibrous tissue that deformed her jaw.

Rhys felt a pang of nausea and guilt. Not just because of what he was seeing, but because he knew immediately that what was before him wasn’t a simple illness. It was a consequence. A wound left by something on the other side of the Rift.

Then the man spoke.

"He said we don’t have much time left," he murmured. "Soon... the entire body will deform."

Rhys felt a chill run down his spine.

The woman sitting next to him nodded calmly. Not a hint of surprise crossed her malformed face.

"Then we just have to wait," she whispered.

There was a brief silence between them. One Rhys didn’t dare interrupt, even though he knew he couldn’t.

The man looked down, his deformed fingers clenching together with effort.

"He also said one more thing... that we could still be useful, just one last time."

Rhys leaned forward slightly. Helpful? How so?

The woman didn’t respond. She kept her gaze fixed on the white floor, her hands still on her knees.

The man sighed.

"We could save a child’s life."

Rhys felt his chest tighten. His mind was already beginning to anticipate what was coming, but he didn’t want to accept it.

"I don’t understand," the woman said, her voice fragile, her face tilting slightly toward him.

The man looked up, and although his face was almost unrecognizable, Rhys could feel the immense tenderness in his expression.

"Our organs are compatible with his," he explained. "Not all of them, but enough. If we act now... that child could live."

The woman looked at him, and for the first time in all his memory, Rhys saw something inside her break. A sob escaped the woman’s throat. She wept silently at first, but soon her shoulders were shaking, and tears streamed down her distorted face without stopping.

"Okay," she finally whispered, without looking up. "Let’s do this."

And in that instant, Rhys understood. He knew exactly who the boy was. He knew exactly why Nolan believed his parents had died as victims of someone else’s ambition.

The memory faded.

Rhys gasped as he regained control of his body. The pressure had returned, though not with the same intensity. His lungs burned. The gelatinous darkness still enveloped them, though now, through his connection to Nebu, Rhys could sense that the others had seen the memory as well.

Then the gelatinous darkness expelled them.

Rhys fell to his side, gulping in desperate breath. In front of him, the small sphere Nebu had transformed into floated silently. Its light, though dim, was enough to illuminate the cave once more.

Jess was on her knees, vomiting uncontrollably, while Caelan had both hands on the floor, panting with his back hunched over. Beside him, Eun-woo was still clutching the unconscious Rong Ye.

Up ahead, Nolan was on his knees, trembling, the gelatinous darkness behind him, throbbing as if waiting for further command.

"I... thought I could bring them back," Nolan murmured. "That if I found a way... if I offered enough..."

"Your parents didn’t want that. They wanted you to live free," Eun-woo whispered.

"They wanted you to live without hate," Jess added.

Nolan lowered his head. Tears streamed down his cheeks. He dropped the gun. His shoulders slumped. The darkness seemed to shrink, as if responding to his will.

But then, unexpectedly, the gelatinous darkness, which until now seemed to be receding, stirred once more and then began to expand.

"What the...?" Nolan whispered, looking up. His eyes wide. "No, no, no..."

The creature did not obey.

As if Nolan’s will no longer had power over it, darkness began to rise from the ceiling and slide down the walls, pulsing with a rhythm of its own.

Nolan recoiled in horror.

"Stop!" he shouted. "I order you to stop!"

But the creature continued to expand.

A few feet away, Jess and Caelan forced themselves to their feet. They were panting, still reeling from lack of air and exhaustion, but their hands reached for their weapons almost instinctively.

Jess reloaded her rifle with trembling fingers, while Caelan raised his pistol, his gaze locked on the creature that now threatened to consume them entirely.

Rhys, still on his knees, turned to Eun-woo.

"Come on, you have to get up."

With effort, he helped him to his feet. Then he leaned toward Rong Ye and, without hesitation, looked at the small glowing orb that was now Nebu.

"Get them to safety... please."

To his surprise, the creature reacted immediately. Nebu expanded slightly and enveloped Rong Ye again, protecting him with its translucent mist. Then, one of its vaporous tentacles extended and caught Eun-woo by the waist.

"No!" Eun-woo protested, struggling. "I don’t want to leave! Let me help!"

"Nebu, take them!" Rhys shouted, ignoring the pleas. "Now!"

Nebu floated with some difficulty toward the hole in the ceiling, dragging Eun-woo with him. Rhys watched them sail away with a knot in his chest, but also a spark of relief.

They slipped through the hole just in time. Seconds later, a thick wave of darkness sealed the only exit.