The Record of Unusual Creatures

In the world created by the monster, it was doomsday. The earth and sky were coming apart.     

There was a piece of land soaked in blood beneath Hao Ren's feet. Fissures started to form under the violent quakes as poisonous steam broke through the surface. An endless storm blew as lightning and brimstone scorched the earth. A series of horrifying howls rang throughout the place and the sheer force alone could drive a man insane. After that subsided, the rain of brimstone became a full fledged storm as massive blocks of flaming rocks smashed against the ground, causing it to rupture in a burst of lava. The spewing lava then suddenly formed into a giant molten wolf. Hao Ren found himself in a desolate planet that was being torn part as countless of comets smashed into the land around him.     

Various doomsday scenes played around him, and it changed wildly without any rhythm, almost as if the scenes were drawn from human impressions of what an apocalypse would look like. Each and every scene was bone chilling in its own right. Countless bizzare and horrifying scenes played out in these visions of doom like giant flaming corpses ravaging the land. This was almost like the depiction of hell in some religious stories, but the difference was those depictions of hell were too scare people away from sinning, while this was clearly a defensive mechanism against an intruder.     

Hao Ren stood before a volcano that was about to erupt and there was a wave of scorching toxic steam and brimstone. Truth be told, it was rather scary but his mental resistance had been bolstered by the psychic screen and his experience so far had prepared him to at least not fall apart under such an onslaught. He looked up to the sky and roared at the invisible person pulling the stunt. "Aren't you bored by now? If you really want me to stay away, in the future, answer my questions!"     

A mocking roar came in reply from the skies as the volcano burst into life. The burning volcanic ashes then turned into a rain of piercing blades.     

"You should be well aware now that your powers have been weakened by the crystals. Your illusions won't hurt me, and my resistance is even higher than yours," Hao Ren said as he sat cross-legged on the ground, allowing the blades to sink into him. "It's the reverse now. Its now my psyche invading yours. Your attempts at a stand off will just bore the both of us. I can't peer into your conciousness, but can you at least talk to me? I believe you're able to understand the human language and psyche."     

Another thunderous roar came from the depths of the earth as rainfall replaced the volcanic smog and completely blocked out Hao Ren's vision.     

It was the same as Hao Ren's last few attempts to forcibly connect with the brain. All his attempts were thwarted by the falling rain as the monster would not respond to him any further. All the visions of catastrophe and the howls of terror had now ceased. In their place was an endless rain that kept pouring and pouring until Hao Ren felt like giving up.     

But Hao Ren still wanted to give it a try. He knew that the monster would never relinquish its hostility towards him. He never carried hope that the monster would actually "sit down and talk". He only wanted the monster to show its true face; even if it was just a word, or a curse, he could use it to track the monster's mental activity. Yet, the monster seemed to be wary of this and had not caught the bait.     

Hao Ren sat in the middle of the rain, and looked like he was talking to himself. "You know, I've seen many races and species, some even more curious than you. I've seen a living, breathing, thinking Mimosa plant; you're nothing special. Simply throwing visions of death isn't enough to make you special. You're no different than a slug in my eyes, just a slug with some secrets...."     

The rain kept on pouring.     

"Why are you so hostile to other races? Let me rephrase that, why bring death and destruction wherever you go? Your kin messed with the peole of Holletta, you brought chaos to the sirens, you even sought to sow discord amongst the otheworldlings on Earth... What are you trying to achieve?"     

The rain still poured, but it gradually turned red, almost like it was raining blood.     

"What are you to a First Born? Oh, you may not call them that, but you know what I mean. I'm pretty sure that you and the First Borns aren't the same type of creatures. But, there's a niggling thought in me that you two are interrelated. Both of you work the same way.... and harbor the same hatred of all living things. Are you distant relatives?"     

The rain had now turned into a full fledged bloodstorm, and the vicious roars thundered again.     

Hao Ren was surprised, and elated that he somehow managed to elicit a reaction from the monster.     

"Ah, seems like you're pretty sensitive about this topic. Maybe we can go further." Hao Ren raised his hand to collect some of the rain water. It was as red as blood, with a suspiciously similar stickiness to it. "This reminds me of the lifeblood. The Disciples of Glory believe that the lifeblood is the goddess' own blood, and with it, they are made whole. Despite not having seen the goddess before, they speak her words with conviction. So, shall we talk about the goddess of Creation? The one who gave life—"     

Before he could finish however, another thunderous crack shattered the skies. Hao Ren felt an uncontrollable rage and hostility coming towards him from all directions. The ravenous energies had perhaps collided with the defensive crystal's suppression effects as Hao Ren felt his mental state being shaken. Amid the violent explosions, he could make out a vicious roar, "...Treacherous child... you dare speak of Mother?"     

The land then came apart.     

Great chasms formed in the hundreds as the entire land buckled like the plains were built with a layer of thin rocks above the abyss. Now the entire surface was collapsing inwards as everything was being swallowed by the swirling void.     

An overwhelming sense of falling descended upon Hao Ren as he felt his conciousness about to leave the place. Just before he fully woke up, he looked down and saw a faint glow in the abyss.     

There was nothing in the light, but it was warm.     

Hao Ren opened his eyes abruptly as he stood in the laboratory. Before him was the floating brain within the sealed container. The latter was floating there without any movement, but there was still an undiguised, unbridled hatred coming from the monster.     

"It kicked me out again." Hao Ren took a deep breath. "This is the fourth time."     

"Seems like you managed to stay connected for a few seconds longer." Wuyue gave Hao Ren a curious look. "Any luck?"     

Hao Ren scratched his head. "Just a sentence, and an unknown light. The moment I spoke about the goddess, the monster was instantly enraged and it destroyed the virtual world it created. It called the goddess 'Mother', and it called me a treacherous child... I think it may have mistaken me for the Second Born in the Plane of Dreams."     

"Treacherous child? So, was this about the Second Born's betrayal of the goddess?" Wuyue's tailed swung about. "Didn't we clear that up? Holletta's apocalypse was caused by the First Born, and had nothing to do with the experiments of the mage-emperors, no?"     

Hao Ren frowned as he ran through his thoughts before something struck him. "Maybe, the Second Born aren't just limited to Holletta!"     

"Uh... aside from that?" Wuyue scratched her head. "What about the light?"     

"Beats me. Looks like it's in the monster's consciousness, but the monster wasn't making it easy for me to discern what it was. I only felt a very warm and peaceful aura from it... Maybe it's some ancient memory, before the goddess' fall... Ugh... I have no idea."     

Hao Ren and Wuyue continued to talk about the scenes that appeared in the monster's mind before setting a transcriber to record all of the images. Hao Ren hoped that he could catch something he had missed by going through the images again. But all of the images were merely visions of doom, and nothing particular stood out.     

It seemed like the monster's outer consciousness did not contain too many secrets.     

Hao Ren could only sigh as he reviewed the pictures again. "The real body is truly much stronger than its clones, and its defenses against memory reading is extremly strong. It appears that we still have a long way to go before—"     

As Hao Ren was just about to finish, the MDT spoke, "The last warp jump is in two minutes. We'll arrive in Io soon."     

"Lets get back to the bridge." Hao Ren shook his head. "We'll leave the brain monster for later."