Chapter 235

Chapter 235: Regeneration and Fusion

The Angel fell from the earth, and fell toward the sky.

Li Lin and his colleagues in the Special Affairs Bureau stood under the night, their heads tilting back as if pulled by an unseen hand. They stared up at the light climbing slowly higher, watched it rise and begin to split apart from within. As they watched, more than one mind flashed with Illusion Arts.

Some felt the light become a huge, silver-white metal thing, like a swollen “seed” with several glowing rings at its tail. It rose from the Orphanage yard and, in the next instant, grew so vast it seemed to cover the whole sky.

Some felt the light grow flesh, turning into a twisted, uncanny creature made from countless mixed limbs. It stretched a thousand arms toward the heavens, then melted into the glow.

Li Lin felt he was seeing a giant stone, irregular and huge, its surface covered in moss and tender shoots. It flew higher and higher while singing a broken song from far away. It said it came from the stars to sow the earth. Now it was over. The seed was going home.

So it fell toward the stars.

The light split, becoming innumerable streams of fire that blazed like meteors flying upward across the Borderland sky. In the latter half of their flight, they split again. Some continued to “fall” into the sky. Others drifted off the main path and began to descend toward the distance.

Bai Li Qing folded her arms and quietly watched. Her eyes tracked each piece in the sky and calculated likely impacts. Then she lifted her phone: “Little Song, dispatch several recovery squads, and you lead one yourself. Some fragments may land inside the Borderland, in the ‘suburbs.’ I’ll send the rough area in a moment. Use top-level protection. We still don’t know if the Angel’s remains are harmful.”

Foxy and Irene stood a short way off, looking up with her. After a while, Foxy whispered: “It’s spectacular.”

Irene curled her lip, glanced toward the Orphanage, and said: “And just like that, it’s gone. That place is basically flattened.”

Foxy thought a moment and said: “Little Red Riding Hood and the others might have to stay in the Valley a long time. I wonder how the benefactor is doing.”

Irene waved a hand and said: “Who knows. He’s busy for sure. After linking two Otherworlds, he’ll probably head to the Valley too.” She hugged Foxy’s tail and started climbing. “Quit worrying. He’ll come home when he’s done. Let’s go home and wait for him.”

Foxy flipped her tail, wrapped Irene up, and said: “Okay! We’ll make breakfast for the benefactor!”

Irene blinked and said: “Hold on, aren’t we calling a car?”

Foxy shook her head and said: “The benefactor said there won’t be any at this hour. It’s fine. I know the way!”

Irene pointed at the gathered agents and said: “The Special Affairs Bureau is right here. We can hitch a ride. They’d be eager to help us right n-”

Foxy puffed her chest and said: “I know the way! My nose is great!”

Irene sputtered and said: “At least tuck your tail! And don’t suddenly ru- what the heck, aaaaaah-”

The roar faded into the night. Under the stunned stares of a whole team from the Special Affairs Bureau, a street-racing Fox on two legs tore off at seventy miles an hour, hugging a squealing Doll as she vanished down the road.

…

Now, everything was quiet.

Little Red Riding Hood’s wolf pack had faded. The King’s Knight Order and the Adventurers had withdrawn. Dorothy’s Resistance Army and Snow White’s Thunder Titan were gone as well. When the invisible curtain fell, the story’s main players left the wrecked stage. Like every ending says, next, they would live good lives.

Only the stage itself needed time to cool after the smoke.

The giant Rift was crumbling from top to bottom, fading.

Yu Sheng climbed a dirt slope and sat quietly by a huge tree burned to charcoal, looking out over the scorched land. The Black Forest had been burned to ash. The Titan’s power had torn the ground. Bombing had left uncountable scars on the broken surface. Overhead, the sky looked like a tattered mirror tilted over the forest, with broad black cracks that made it a little frightening. In the parts still lit, a patch of the dome held a pale dusk. Elsewhere, reflections showed castles, fields, and villages.

A fragment fell from the clouds. Yu Sheng reached out and caught it. It was a shard of blue sky. Firelight from a hearth danced along its edge with a soft crackle.

He planted the crossed, broken blue sky into the ground beside the “queen’s” head. That head had become a cracked stone, with a Short Sword With Cat Emblem stuck through its forehead.

The Hunter stood nearby, an empty, hollow figure still wearing the familiar Hunter’s Garb. Looking at the Black Forest turned to ash, the Hunter said nothing, only stood in long silence.

Squirrel sprang out of the ashes, shook off the dust, hopped onto Yu Sheng’s knee, and pushed something tiny into his hand: “Here! I found it in that dirt mound!”

Yu Sheng opened his palm. It was an acorn.

He rubbed the little acorn, eyes on the Rift that had almost dissolved down to its base, and on the faint shadow above it.

“It’s about time,” he said softly.

As if to answer him, the tilted, mirror-broken sky over the Black Forest crackled in a quick chain of snaps. Then the Black Forest began to collapse, from far to near.

Squirrel clutched Yu Sheng’s finger, tense.

She realized his finger was turning cold very fast.

She looked up, startled, and saw Yu Sheng’s body beginning to fade.

“Don’t be afraid. It’s just a little ‘state switch,’” Yu Sheng smiled at the little one on his lap, remembering what he had sensed and understood when the Angel’s Fetus dissolved in his hands, the deeper secrets of death: “Wait for me. I’ll be right back.”

This was his first attempt to switch himself, without any injury, from “alive” to “dead.”

It was easier than he had imagined, like flipping a nimble switch. [Flip it.]

Click.

Yu Sheng became drifting ash, spreading like cloud and mist, seeping bit by bit into this collapsing Fairy Tale wasteland.

Then the story began.

Long, long ago, there was a Valley without a name. People said it was the backyard of Wutong Road 66.

This backyard had many wonders. The most wondrous of all was that it led to many unbelievable places.

To the south lay a Great Forest. Little Red Riding Hood and her wolf pack were the masters of that forest. There also lived a cute Squirrel and a quiet Hunter.

To the north rose a very tall tower. Rapunzel had a lovely little room at its top, with a balcony where she could see very far. From that balcony you could see a sleeping Dragon and a giant Giant Beanstalk.

There was a lively Banquet Hall, a town that held celebrations all the time, and a harbor that smelled of the sea.

There was a peculiar Kingdom whose King was a cat. People said that cat was the greatest King in history. Under the King’s rule, the Knights were brave, wise ministers were loyal, and the Adventurers set out at dawn to subdue a Demonic Creature. By evening, they returned as victors and told faraway tales in the Tavern.

There were many more places, and many more stories.

All of them led to the Valley in different ways, because the Valley held many Doors, odd, clever, hidden, or astonishing Doors. A Door could be a room high in the northern tower, a cave at the foot of the mountain, a tree hole in the Black Forest, or even a mottled shadow.

The Cursed Children could wander these hidden paths as they pleased, climbing from Cinderella’s fireplace into a castle banquet, or pushing open some wardrobe Door in the castle to arrive in a mysterious flower field in the Deep Forest.

Countless surprises waited to fill their entire childhoods.

A good ending.

…

Little Red Riding Hood heard a rumble from deep within the Valley, as if the mountains had suddenly come to life and were striding like Giants, shifting their heavy bodies to make room for something.

She stepped out of her room. Even though the long battle in the “dream” had left her exhausted, she still wanted to see what was changing far away.

After all, Irene had rushed in earlier, yanked everyone into the Sanctuary Wasteland, and tossed off a few lines like, “When you wake up, there’ll be big movement in the Valley,” “Don’t run around, stay in camp,” “If the sky falls, it’s a technical adjustment,” and “Yu Sheng switched on creative mode,” then vanished. Everyone was still clueless, unsure what was happening.

Many brothers and sisters came out of the nearby houses.

Fatigue from the long fight still weighed on their faces. Some still looked uneasy. Others, like Snow White and Rapunzel, had eyes bright with expectation.

Little Red Riding Hood spotted the change first, the most obvious one from here.

She stood in the middle of camp, pointed to the distance, and gaped: “Rapunzel! Your tower just grew out from over there!”

Rapunzel sputtered, cheeks flushing, and said: “What do you mean my tower… oh my gosh!”