Hotel Between Worlds

All the sounds blended together, chaotic thoughts clashing with the fox spirit's last threads of reason. Darian heard Lyra's pained whimper beside his ear, but his mind was roaring with even more frenzied and disordered voices—her hunger, on the verge of spiraling out of control; a gut-wrenching starvation; a darkness whispering temptation; and… a cry urging him to run.

Darian took a deep breath, crouched low, and dashed toward a narrow gap between Lyra and the monster. But instead of running away as she urged, he grabbed a broken slab of bluestone from the ground and charged toward the creature's flank with it in his arms.

Of course, he knew he most likely couldn't defeat the monster. But he also knew that human legs alone wouldn't get him out of here alive. The area was littered with collapsed ruins and broken walls, and the only open exit out of the temple was completely blocked by the creature's massive body. In this situation, making a reckless dash for it would only lead to a quicker death.

Better to grit his teeth and charge in. He wouldn't win, but since he wasn't afraid of dying, he might as well try to land a blow before going down if he could distract the monster even slightly, maybe Lyra would get a chance to break free from its terrifying restraint. She was still barely holding onto her sanity; if she got loose, there might still be a chance to turn the tide…

All these thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant. Darian knew his reasoning wasn't perfect, but there was no time to think it through. With no other options, he steeled himself. His body once again unleashed an immense strength that even he couldn't comprehend, and he hurled the heavy bluestone slab like a cannonball at the fleshy beast.

In the next second, he didn't even stop to check whether his attack had any effect. A powerful sense of danger surged from within, and he "saw" the monster's counterattack a second in advance. Instinctively, he leapt to the side.

A black shadow, like a steel whip, slammed down onto the spot he had just occupied. It was a serpentine tail that had split suddenly from the monster's surface. Instantly, soil and stone exploded, sturdy stone and shattered bricks turning to dust. While airborne, Darian was struck by a tremendous shockwave. Pebbles, sharp as bullets, battered his body, ringing out with the clash of metal.

But Darian ignored the pain. As soon as he landed, he rolled and dodged the follow-up strike from the tail. His eyes caught a glimpse of Lyra out of the corner of his eye.

The silver-white fox spirit was thrashing violently amidst a forest of black spikes and shattered bones. The bluish spiritual flames burning near her tail flickered wildly, as if they might erupt in an uncontrollable explosion at any moment.

But she was still tightly bound, whatever was holding her seemed custom-made to trap her. Darian's interference hadn't helped at all.

In fact, it was obvious at a glance that this fox girl was far stronger than he was, by who knows how many times over. Yet she couldn't even put up a fight in front of the monster. Between them, there was a clearly overwhelming... "counter" dynamic.

But even so, back at the start on that clearing outside the ruined temple. she had charged in without hesitation to try and "save" him. She hadn't succeeded, but at that time, she had truly meant to help.

The memory flickered through his mind. Darian gritted his teeth and prepared to charge in again, wanting to see if he could use the same old desperate method—trading injury for opportunity to rip something off that monster again.

He didn't know where the strength and rapid healing coursing through his body had come from, but he remembered: before those changes first happened, he had bitten a chunk of flesh off that monster.

He wasn't sure if the two things were connected, but with no other options and no fear of death, he might as well test all the wild theories in his head.

"Forget about me!" Lyra's voice rang out again. "It can't… kill me. You... run!"

"It's fine. It can't kill me either," Darian spat out a mouthful of blood his chin had taken a hit from flying debris earlier. He turned to glance at the silver-white fox spirit and gave a cheerful smile. "I might die in a bit, but don't worry. I'll come back for you."

Lyra's struggling paused for a moment, as if confused.

Darian didn't explain. He simply walked toward the monster, his steps light, the smile on his face growing brighter.

There was a joy in his expression as if he were heading to a banquet.

"Aren't you the one who likes persuading people to eat?" he murmured, staring at the fleshy behemoth ahead. "Fine then. I'll eat!"

He leapt through the air like a starving wolf diving for the feast laid out before him.

The dozens of eyes covering the monster's body trembled violently. For the first time, a flicker of hesitation and… fear seemed to flash in those chaotic, maddened eyes.

The many giant mouths let out guttural roars, and then several tentacle-like "serpent tails," covered in pitch-black scales, split from the mound of flesh and shot toward Darian in midair.

He felt them pierce through his body—fatal wounds, though he didn't know how many. He could feel his life slipping away, warm blood carrying the last of his vitality out of him.

But that indescribable hunger had surged up from the depths of his being. He ignored the pain, ignored the instinctive terror of death. Gripping the tail that had impaled his abdomen, he bared his teeth and bit down.

The monster let out a strange, piercing howl, violently whipping that tail as if trying to fling off a deadly parasite clinging to it.

But Darian clung to it with all his strength, refusing to let go no matter how violently it thrashed. It slammed him into the ground, then into a crumbling wall nearby. His resilient body withstood the deadly impacts, and the pain only made his mind clearer.

At that moment, the serpent tail lifted high again, this time swinging toward a collapsed opening in the temple wall.

A strange golden flash streaked across the edge of his vision.

Amid the howling wind, Darian struggled to raise his head and saw that golden light rapidly closing in on him. Before he could even make out what it was, his instincts took over—he raised his arm to block.

His hand grasped something, it was a handle.

Darian: "...?"

A faint creak blended with the howling wind, and the image of a door suddenly flashed through Darian's mind—a plain, unremarkable door leading somewhere, leading to...

Just as a destination instinctively came to mind, the door was pulled open by his hand.

In the next second, Darian, along with the black-scaled serpent tail, fell through the doorway. With a sharp creak, the door slammed shut.

The blood-and-flesh monster's serpent tail was severed by the sudden appearance and disappearance of the door. A maddening, chaotic shriek echoed through the valley. As though driven insane by the wound, the creature rampaged through the ruins of the temple, roaring, crashing wildly, biting at everything within its view including its own body. After who knows how long, it finally calmed down, and its body once again dissolved into a shadowy darkness, slowly fading into the night.

The black spikes and shattered bones vanished without a sound. The battered silver-white fox spirit fell to the ground, motionless, as if dead.

Several minutes passed before Lyra slowly opened her eyes. She looked around in a daze, the golden-red glow in her eyes seemingly devoid of any human awareness.

More time passed before her gaze finally settled on a spot in the ruins.

It was the step where she had once sat with her "benefactor."

She dragged her massive fox body toward it. When she saw the scattered plastic bag and leftover food scraps on the steps, she lowered her head and, whimpering, began to swallow everything into her stomach.

But she was still very hungry.

The tempting voice, like a persistent devil, whispered from the depths of her hunger.

"Eat. You know where there's more to fill your belly...

You buried them in the woods...

Bones, meat, and blood...

Go. Eat. Eat, and you won't be hungry anymore..."

The fox lowered her head and whimpered like she was crying. Then she curled up beneath the steps, slowly stretched her neck out, and gnawed on the broken bricks and rubble nearby. She dug up the soil and rotted wood beneath the ruins and stuffed it into her mouth, chewing again and again.

"I'm not hungry... I'm not hungry... Someone gave me food... He's coming back soon with more... I'm not hungry..."

She kept gnawing like that until, just like in all the years past, she gradually passed out.

The sensation of falling yanked Darian from his dazed state. He could still feel the residual sense of gripping the door handle, but in the next second, he realized he had already crossed a threshold.

He opened his eyes in astonishment and saw that he was lying on the side of a road. His field of vision filled with familiar streetlights, power poles, and the old, low buildings lining Wutong Road.

Just ahead stood the weathered wall and gate of No. 66 Wutong Road, standing quietly in the faint morning light.

He turned his head with great effort and caught a glimpse of a door's ghostly silhouette slowly fading away. In its depths, he could just barely make out the valley cloaked in night, the ruined temple, and...

The white fox still struggling to move in the wreckage.

Darian reached out toward the fox.

But the last remnants of the shadow vanished before his fingers could touch it.

(End of Chapter)

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