Rumble, rumble...
Amidst the violent shaking, Li Pu followed Katerina to a stone staircase not far outside the library, and headed towards the underground area of the shelter.
The moment he stepped into the stairs, Li Pu looked back and saw that the hall behind him had begun to collapse.
The survivors who were tidying up the carpet were still working numbly, and the falling gravel soon crushed their bodies.
The rubble covered the corpses, but pieces of mycelium wriggled out from the gaps in the stone piles, and re-condensed into the bodies of the survivors.
Only then did Li Pu notice that the faces of the survivors looked exactly like Katerina.
These survivors are not human at all.
In other words, they are no longer human.
Their spirits and bodies have been gradually assimilated by the radiation of the old god's power.
Like a small animal that dies in decay, the corpse will eventually become a source of nutrients for spores and become part of the decay.
More and more gravel is falling, and the 'survivors' are constantly being crushed by large stones, and then they continue to get out and regroup their bodies...
Li Pu withdrew his gaze and walked down the stairs.
"Is there anyone alive here?"
The passage above was gradually buried by rocks and soil, and Li Pu knew that the above-ground area of the shelter had completely collapsed.
"Yes." Katerina said.
The two of them walked down the rotating stone staircase, passing through some floors without stopping.
It wasn't until they came to a deep cave that Katerina stopped.
"Going through here is the 'last fortress'."
This cave is unusually wide and looks like an underground botanical garden with many plants growing there.
Fungi and plants coexist peacefully here. Among the tall fungi and trees, you can also see some laboratories that look like bookstores.
Because there are many "sun stones" entangled with thorns embedded in the cave, various fungi and plants have grown vigorously under the power of the sun stones.
But now, these fungi and plants have withered.
Plaque is just growing here.
[Li Pu discovered from the narration that plaque grows naturally here. 】
[The laws of corruption here are in order. 】
"There is no living space for plants outside, so everyone collected the plants here, hoping that future generations can see the flowers." Katerina said looking at the withered plants.
There are indeed many plants here, and there are also some rotten petals on the ground. But the plants seemed to bear no fruit.
It seems that the things in the botanical garden are all species created by artificial intervention.
Li Pu found some medicine bottles on an experimental table. Judging from the narration, this is a potion extracted from the 'Wings of Holy Angels'.
It seems that some people have been experimenting with these potions.
Looking up at the thorns everywhere in the cave, Li Pu suddenly guessed a possibility.
——Katerina's power maintains the stability of the space and laws of 'Broken Tadar', but her power also makes corruption and growth chaotic, leading to the growth of mold.
But when Katerina turned herself into the Valkyrie, the molds that grew everywhere turned into thorns and flowers.
The environment at the end of the world is so bad that no plants can grow.
But Katerina's Thorns can survive the apocalypse.
So, people used Katerina's power to transform plants.
This botanical garden in the cave is the result of their experiment!
[These experiments are to fight against the doomsday. But now it has no meaning. 】
[But you found another option - plant a seed in Katerina's Garden of Eden. 】
[As long as there is one thing in this world that has not completely disappeared, the world will not completely collapse, and Katerina will not disappear into thin air. 】
[Therefore, as long as you find a seed here that can grow, bloom, and multiply under the laws of chaos, the seed is in her Garden of Eden. She can live forever. 】
【Forever, be alone...】
"In the last moments, did you find a plant that allows plants to grow in a doomsday environment?" Li Pu asked.
"I just found a way to make the plant grow normally. But I couldn't produce fruit."
Katerina shook her head and said, "Mary and her daughter Amy have been taking care of this place."
During the conversation, Li Pu and Katerina passed by a huge bookstore laboratory.
Li Pu heard a voice coming from inside.
It seemed that the last two researchers were discussing the growth of a certain plant.
[Amy: "Mom, the last batch of plants have withered, but the mustard has produced a few seeds."]
[Mary: "(Exclaimed) We have finally cultivated a plant that can grow naturally in an environment of chaotic laws! (Exclaimed) Amy, you can't eat it! This is the only successful experiment in the entire laboratory! In the apocalypse , providing people with precious food!”]
[Girl: "But Amy can't wait for these fruits to grow up...Mom, there is no land left to grow plants. Does everything we do really make sense..."]
[The mother finally told her child the cruel fact. 】
["Amy, our world is over." Mother said: "Everything is meaningless."]
["But in the future, there may be people from another world discovering this place."]
[Amy: "Is it like the Tadar people discovered the old world many years ago?"]
[Mother: "Yes, maybe..."]
[Amy: "Will there also be a mother and father?"]
[Mother: "There will be no more Amy. There will be no more mother."]
[Amy: "It turns out that there is a world where Amy no longer exists..."]
[Mother: "Yes, a world that belongs to others...cough cough cough, cough cough cough."]
[The severe illness finally took away my mother’s life on this day. 】
[Before she died, she told her daughter a final story. A story about another world. 】
["Many, many years later, a group of desperate survivors in the new apocalypse accidentally opened a sealed ancient ruins."]
["In the ruins, they accidentally discovered some seeds and precious knowledge..."]
["In that world, there will be plants. People will be able to see beautiful flowers blooming in the fields."]
["People in that world will have enough to eat because of our research."]
["They have a glimmer of possibility to survive the end of the world, and hope is in the seeds..."]
[Amy has always been an obedient child. She carefully preserved the seeds. 】
Li Pu opened the door, and there was no one in the research room.
All the plants in the room had withered and rotted. There were only two plants, thriving amid the decay.
The flowers are one big and one small, and the little flowers hold a bag of seeds tightly on their vines.
"Mary and Amy succeeded." Katerina looked at the bag of seeds, her eyes filled with disappointment: "But we can't keep anything."
"Because, after a while, the archangels... no, it should be said that the executors will come over, and they will clean everything up."
Katerina's voice was full of helplessness: "Even if we defeat Him and leave things behind, it will be meaningless. Because there will be no more descendants, and there will not be another new world."
【This is the real Badend. 】
Li Pu didn't know why the archangels wanted to clean up this place, and he didn't know why the new world would no longer be born from the old world.
But he vaguely felt that all this might be related to some things he had changed back then.
[In other words, you failed to completely change everything...]
'Why should I change everything completely? The good or bad of this world has nothing to do with me! '
'I was forced here! '
'It has tortured me all my life... Now, the world that should have been destroyed has come to an end, and I should leave too. '
Taking Katerina away in the end was the last thing Li Pu wanted to do.
He felt that the reason why he wanted to take her away was because she helped him when he needed help the most. Give yourself a chance to come back here and bring back a potion that can save yourself.
Therefore, because I wanted to repay her, I wanted to give Katerina a good ending.
But in fact, this is not the real reason.
He didn't know that he wanted to take Katerina away not entirely out of repayment.
It's because Katerina represents the stories of those who once fought so hard to protect this place, and those who struggled desperately in the darkness to give others hope and a future.
He didn't realize that after seeing so many things, he had been touched by the story of this world.
Deep down in his heart, he didn't want to see these people meet such a bad ending.
——Just like the person who was paralyzed on the hospital bed and shouted, "I can't be saved, who can save me!" ' the same desperate cry of man. People in this world are also struggling desperately.
When Li Pu shouted, a hand stretched out from the world and pulled him up, allowing him to see his hope.
This world also needs a hand!
They will save each other.
"Let's go to the last fortress."
Li Pu took away the bag of seeds: "Amy, hope exists."
.........
