Still Alive

Pietro ran through the Monastery.

He could feel himself getting closer to his destination. Proof of that was the voice in his ears, ever-present like a demon's whisper, growing increasingly shrill.

The nauseating sensation was becoming harder and harder to suppress, forcing Pietro to slow down. In the end, he stopped, braced himself against the wall beside him, and gasped for breath.

"Ha—huff, ha—huff."

Like a drowning man who had just been pulled from the water, Quicksilver greedily gulped down air. He never wanted to go through that again. Just now, he had felt that if he did not stop, he would have thrown up.

Forcing down the churning in his stomach, Pietro knew he was not in a safe place.

"So this is it." He raised his head, and a well sealed with iron chains came into view. Based on the Orphanage map in his memories, this should have been the backyard, located in the southwest of the entire complex. The Monastery lay to the west, while mountains and forests stretched to the south. Normally, no one came here.

Feeling his way toward the well, Pietro could not help feeling uneasy. He looked around. Fallen leaves carpeted the area, making it look utterly desolate. Several damaged stone statues stood on the ground, and a breeze swept past, making Pietro shudder.

"Damn it, I'm actually starting to regret this. Zhang Ye never told me it would be this creepy."

Muttering to himself, Pietro spat onto the ground. Then, as if making up his mind, he used his rapidly vibrating left hand to slice through the chains around the well before jumping straight in.

The mouth of the well and its inner walls were quite wide, enough to fit four people. Pietro continued falling in a state of weightlessness. At this speed, an ordinary person would have been turned into a puddle of flesh upon hitting the bottom, but that was no problem for Pietro. While moving at high speed, he could freely control his rate of descent.

Soon, Pietro tapped the inner wall with his foot and landed perfectly at the bottom of the well.

"Looks like Zhang Ye was right. How could a normal Orphanage spend so much money? Most of the funds must have gone into building these underground facilities."

Touching the tunnel wall, Pietro frowned. It was hard to imagine what Emma's goal was, or what had happened to those missing children. This Orphanage was clearly not as wonderful as the newspapers claimed. It might be hiding horrors no one knew about.

But that had little to do with him. Pietro only wanted to get the helmet Zhang Ye had mentioned and leave this place that made his whole body feel uncomfortable.

With one hand on the ground, Pietro bent low and assumed a runner's starting stance. The next moment, his figure vanished.

Honestly, Pietro was already fast enough that the naked eye could barely track him, but this was not his full speed. On the contrary, he was not even moving at half the speed he could reach while running.

For a speedster, swinging both arms was crucial to maintaining balance while running. Humans had shed their tails through evolution precisely because their arms allowed them to control their balance better. For a speedster, arms were even more vital.

But after losing his right arm, Pietro could no longer run as fast as before. First, it was difficult to maintain balance. Falling while moving at high speed was a terrifying prospect. Second, without the boost from arm swings, it was hard for his speed to rise any further.

Still, when he had run too fast before, the strain on Pietro's heart had been enormous. He had once suspected that if he kept running at that speed, one day his heart would explode under the pressure.

Now, Pietro could never run that fast again. He did not know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Although the underground tunnels beneath the Orphanage were deep, Quicksilver still passed through them quickly and reached a more open area.

Suddenly, a stabbing pain flashed through Pietro's mind, as though someone had jabbed his brain with a needle. He immediately clutched his head and slammed on the brakes, nearly crashing into the wall.

Slowly opening his eyes, Pietro saw stars. He violently shook his head, suppressing the nausea in his stomach and the dizziness in his mind as he tried to clear his head.

He had clearly forgotten that he had reached the source of the Psychic Energy. Running at high speed here would turn his brain into a target for that Psychic Energy's assault.

After Pietro recovered, he began observing his surroundings. The smell of blood in the air made every hair on his body stand on end, and he was ready to flee at top speed at any moment.

"What kind of place is this?" Pietro did not dare speak loudly. Looking around, he saw that he was standing in the corridor of an incredibly dim building, like a prison. There was a room every two meters along both sides of the corridor, reminding Pietro of the Mutant Prison where he had once been held.

He crept to the door of one room. It was a heavy steel door, with several iron bars set across its window. Pietro stood on tiptoe and peered through the gaps between the bars.

Inside the iron door was a rectangular room less than seven square meters in size. There was only a small bed within it, and on the bed sat a child who looked no older than four or five. However, she had her back to Pietro, so he could not see her face.

After hesitating for a while, Pietro ultimately gave up on the idea of talking to the child inside. In such a terrifying environment, he did not want to draw anyone's attention. Besides, that child sitting with her back to him was far too creepy. What if she suddenly turned around and scared him half to death?

He had only one goal: the helmet Zhang Ye had mentioned. As for what Emma had done here, and whether these children lived or died, what did that have to do with him?

With that thought, Pietro turned to leave.

But the instant Pietro turned around, he suddenly froze. He looked as though he had received an enormous shock, his eyes wide as he stared ahead in disbelief.

A woman had appeared at the entrance of the corridor at some unknown point, silently watching Pietro.

No one knew when the woman had appeared. Pietro did not know how long she had been watching him either. Honestly, the moment he noticed her, his heart nearly leaped out of his chest.

She was a woman with beautiful white hair and an exquisitely beautiful face. She watched Pietro with an unreadable expression, and Pietro instantly recognized her—Emma Frost, the founder of this Orphanage.

"I never expected a little mouse to sneak in. It seems I really have grown lax over the years." Emma licked her lips. Her voice was as pleasant as a lark's song, but to Pietro, it sounded more like Death's whisper.

"Weren't you supposed to be giving an interview? Aaaah!" Pietro prepared to flee at once, but just as he tried to accelerate, the needle-like pain made him cry out.

Clutching his head, Pietro felt as though his skull were splitting apart. In this state, let alone using his super speed, he probably could not even put up the most basic resistance.

"Heh heh. You didn't think I had failed to notice you, did you? The moment you entered my territory, my children sensed your presence. A speedster... truly a rare sight." Emma spoke slowly. As she did, two girls of about four or five emerged from behind her.

"They... are Telepaths too?" Pietro asked through the pain.

The little girls beside Emma were expressionless, their pupils rolled all the way upward, leaving only horrifying whites visible. No one would have believed that at an age meant to be filled with joy, they now resembled two dolls that had been played with until broken.

"What exactly did you do?!" Pietro roared through gritted teeth.

"I accomplished something not even the Creator could accomplish!" Emma's eyes widened, and she bared her teeth in a smile. The savage expression tore apart her beautiful face. She stroked the two girls' heads before continuing.

"This world is about to face a catastrophe. Only mutants will survive. I am merely helping those lowly species complete their evolution, just like the church I created—the New Generation Church! Everything is for the sake of our next generation."

As she spoke, Emma bent down and rubbed her cheek against one of the little girls'. "Look. What a beautiful work, what a flawless creation."