This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Chapter 555 - 555: Exit

Kain's face twisted briefly before he tapped one of the System's snide options randomly—after all, they all had the same effect and he didn't particularly want to acknowledge which insulting option was ultimately selected.

So he didn't even register which one he picked. He just jabbed aggressively at the screen like someone swatting an annoying fly—'a fitting analogy…' Kain thought about his often irritating partner.

But after making his selection. The screen simply vanished.

He waited.

And waited.

But nothing happened.

The chamber remained eerily still, no great unlocking, no dramatic swirl of energy, no bright pulse of light. The creatures trapped in the massive crystals didn't stir. Their poses remained frozen, their expressions untouched. Kain frowned.

Then came a quiet ding.

[Alert: Objective completed. Genetic archive successfully acquired. Please enter the Cradle for more information.]

"…What?" he muttered aloud.

His eyes darted around, but everything looked exactly the same. He extended his senses,

"We can't just leave them," Lina whispered. "What if that thing breaks in?"

Serena frowned, her brow furrowed in worry. "They can't defend themselves. They've been preserved for who knows how long. If it destroys them—"

"They'll be fine," Zareth interrupted gently, his voice conveying a reassuring certainty and authority. "Now that I've controlled the core, I understand the relic a bit better. Although its ultimate goal is not fully clear to me, I know that its issue is with us. This Sanctuary was made to remain sealed unless permitted otherwise. It allowed us in, yes—like Serena said wards preventing our approach may have weakened, or humans were always allowed in as one of the creators of this place…Why we could enter doesn't matter since when we, the invaders, leave…" He exhaled slowly. "It will stop trying."

Kain's eyes narrowed. "How can you be so sure?" Unlike the others who were immediately relieved he was still reluctant to leave all these frozen people here. After all, the other had no way of taking them all—if given enough time, he realistically could.

"I don't know," Zareth admitted. "I just feel it. And the relic does too. It's not designed to destroy everything in its path—it's designed to wait. To guard these ruins. And once we're gone, it can do that again."

The others exchanged glances, uncertain but trusting. One by one, they nodded.

Pete looked back toward the feathered foxes. "Guess this is goodbye, weird fluffy fellas."

Malzahir whispered something in his native language no one, not even Kain, understood, brushing his fingertips once more against the crystal holding the mermaid.

Kain lingered the longest. His eyes roved across the field of preserved beings. Something about it still gnawed at him. But he knew he wouldn't get any answers right now.

They gathered around Zareth at the base of the dead tree, where the relic orb now floated steadily. The runes across the chamber began to shimmer faintly once more.

A hum filled the space.

Then a light—bright, clean, and colourless—rose from the orb and engulfed them.

As it spread, the world around them blurred. Crystal. Stone. Dust. Creatures. Faces. All melted away into nothing but a pure, white glow.

A final tremor rolled through the chamber just as the light consumed them, and far in the distance behind layers of rock, something massive roared.

And then—

The world around Kain faded to white.