Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

Larisa kept her eyes closed for a while as if she was reaccessing her memories that she had just recovered… Rain assumed that the corruption of the dragon's blood would vanish after a while and didn't affect her, or she truly just absorbed their vital energy and got rid of the waste.

This unexpected turn of events added another layer of complexity to Rain's goal. It forced him to reconsider his approaches and seek alternative methods or resources to aid Larisa in regaining her lost memories and strength. Maybe she wasn't corrupted, but she might become more calculating…

"I am starting to think that the current dragons are just a conglomerate of energy than anything else. How else could you explain them becoming dust like that?" Nigel asked. "The other one that I saw looked like a true menace and the current ones might have evolved and look more like actual living beings, but they didn't have the same edge."

"I see… this is quite worrisome," Larisa said when she opened her eyes. "I also agree with you… I regained a bit of my knowledge. I did some research regarding those living beings."

Larisa, utilizing the unique connection to Rain's mental landscape, accessed her fragmented memories. Rain observed as the scenes unfolded within his mental realm, revealing glimpses of Larisa's past. It became obvious that she had a background in some sort of research.

In this particular memory, a clear white laboratory filled the landscape. Suspicious-looking machinery adorned the room, and numerous people clad in white uniforms—resembling protective clothing capable of shielding against radiation—moved with purpose while writing down things.

The focus of their attention rested upon a colossal finger—a specimen that seemed entirely different from the giant lizard Nigel had encountered. This finger belonged to a creature more akin to a mammal, resembling the structure of a human finger but vastly larger in scale, approximately fifty times the size.

Larisa's memory showed the group of researchers conducting meticulous studies on this massive finger. Analyzing it using several machines, doing x-ray analyses, and checking the issue and its celular activities. However, the startling aspect emerged when the finger began to decompose at an alarming pace.

The swift decay progressed until the colossal finger disintegrated entirely, reduced to dust within a glass capsule that rested upon a table.

This startling and rapid decomposition of the massive finger left a trail of questions and perplexity. It hinted at an unprecedented form of disintegration or decay, one that bore the potential for immense consequences. The memory provided Rain with a glimpse into an enigmatic and troubling aspect of Larisa's past research endeavors.

"After this happened, we found that the environment was infected by a form of energy that we couldn't understand, and eventually we named it magic," Larisa said. "We isolated the place, but we didn't find anything happening there and all of us felt more alive in that environment. It affected our bodies, but not in a negative way."

"That looked like the finger of a human…" Rain said with his arms crossed.

"It belonged to a human… or what remained from it," Larisa said. "There is more to the memory."

In the continuation of Larisa's memory within Rain's mental landscape, the scene went back in time, retracing back to the moment just before the researchers discovered the colossal finger. However, it didn't stop there; it proceeded further, revealing a sequence of events that unfolded before the discovery.

The memory stopped a profoundly disturbing sight—a colossal humanoid figure resembling a giant human, unleashing chaos and destruction upon an unknown city. The monstrous being's sheer size dwarfed the buildings, and its footsteps alone caused structures to crack and collapse.

Despite its humanoid semblance, calling it human was a stretch. The creature appeared to be infected or mutated from a human, transforming into an unrecognizable and grotesque form. Its eyes, ears, and nose bled deeply, a telltale sign of severe distress and affliction. Covered in large amounts of hair, the creature seemed like a semblance to a hybrid between an orangutan and a human…

As the creature moved, its screamed resonated, echoing pain and suffering. Its rampage involved indiscriminate destruction, kicking, and smashing buildings while people desperately attempted to flee. The debris wreaked havoc, causing casualties among those attempting to escape the devastation after smashing them.

Witnessing this horror unfold, the memory showed soon after some fighters in the sky. These flying weapons launched a barrage of missiles at the creature in an attempt to subdue it. However, the beast's resilience proved astounding; despite the dense smoke and explosions caused by the bombardment, the attacks barely scratched its skin.

Even more astonishing was the creature's ability to rapidly heal any damage inflicted, rendering the attacks futile against its seemingly invincible form.

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When the attacks were focused on its face, the monster used its hands to block them and thanks to it, it eventually lost a finger, but another regrew from that one. The beast knew it couldn't reach the fighters… they were too fast in the first place, and they were too high, so the beast kept chasing the survivors and killing as many of them as possible…

When the beast was far away, Larisa and some other people secured the finger of the beast and took it to an underground research facility and that was the end of the memory.

"The others are basically the same thing happening in my homeland, my friends and coworkers dying and the number of people working on a solution decreasing," Larisa said. "Nothing else important happened. The memories of me making progress while studying the parts of the beast that we secured aren't here. We can check all of those, but it will take a while."

"Is that so…" Rain rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You didn't see any other type of monster?"

"No, I am pretty sure that thing alone destroyed everything," Larisa replied. "It was more than enough as if it knew that it didn't help and knew the limits of our strength."