Read Novel Full Chapter 209: Closure
Chapter 209: Closure
"You are a sad and miserable woman. I will never forgive you for what you have done," Dylan murmured. "I don’t know how to let go. I don’t think I will ever escape this place."
Was this really how it would end? Dying inside the jaws of a giant spider wearing his mother’s face, trapped forever in a nightmare shaped by memory and guilt.
The spider laughed, the sound sharp and broken. "That’s how it should be. You will stay here with me forever. Just the two of us."
That voice, twisted and insane yet painfully familiar, began to blur as Dylan’s vision faded. His eyelids grew heavy, his body slackening as exhaustion finally won.
He gave up.
Strangely, the regrets that surfaced were not about his mother, nor even about Seamus.
What haunted him most was the unanswered messages from Connor’s parents, the grief-stricken cries they made when they lost their son, sounds that still echoed in his dreams.
Just like always, he had chosen to run. He had followed Andrew into this place, believing distance would bury the past.
"I deserve this," he thought. "My past killed them. All of this happened because I couldn’t let go."
More than hatred toward his mother or resentment toward Seamus, Dylan realized he despised himself most of all.
"Everything is not your fault."
"Stay alive, Dylan."
His eyes snapped open.
He heard their voices, clear and steady, cutting through the darkness. Standing behind the spider were his friends, watching him with familiar expressions that felt painfully real.
"What?" he gasped. "How?"
He looked down and realized he was already in front of the spider’s open maw, moments from being devoured.
His mother’s face was gone now, leaving only a massive, ordinary spider looming above him.
"No. I can’t die yet."
With trembling hands, Dylan reached behind him and pulled out his gun, aiming straight into the creature’s mouth.
He fired without hesitation. The impact was devastating, the force ripping through the spider’s body as its insides burst apart in a violent spray.
The spider collapsed, lifeless, as Dylan fell heavily to the ground.
His friends were still there, watching him with proud smiles that made his chest ache.
"This isn’t real, is it?" Dylan whispered as he struggled to his feet. "Is this just Latros messing with my head again?"
Connor laughed, just like he always did. "Man, what happened to you? You look like hell."
Marcus crossed his arms with a grin. "Yeah, did something seriously messed up happen to you?"
They looked exactly the same as he remembered. Confusion melted into warmth, and something fragile bloomed in his chest.
Dylan stepped forward and hugged them tightly. He knew this could be a trap. He knew Latros might use their faces to tear him apart all over again.
But he did not care.
"I’m sorry," he whispered, his body shaking. "This is all my fault."
There were lots of things Dylan wanted to tell them. But nothing came out but sobs, a loud and embarrassing one.
"What are you even talking about?"
"Why are you crying now?"
They mocked him like they always had, but their arms wrapped around him anyway. Their warmth cut through the cold of the domain, warmer than any fire he had ever known, warmer than the nights at Velstarth’s orphanage when the snowstorm came.
"It’s okay," Connor said softly. "We’re fine now. What happened wasn’t your fault. We’re just glad we knew you as our friend, as our brother."
Dylan pulled back and smiled through his tears. "Can we meet again someday?"
They nodded.
"Of course."
"But we have to go now."
"Goodbye, Dylan. We’ll see you again."
Both of them then turned around and left, leaving Dylan alone, but this time the weight in his chest finally loosened.
His shoulders sagged as the tension drained out of him, and he slumped to the floor, allowing himself a moment of rest before everything went dark again.
"Oi, let’s move. What are you doing sitting here like you already died?"
Dylan lifted his head and groaned when he saw Seamus standing right behind him.
"Ah, fuck you. Are you another illusion again?"
Seamus rolled his eyes. "Of course not. Stand up already. We still need to find Diane and Maria."
Just like that, Dylan’s fragile calm shattered. Still, he pushed himself up, irritation replacing despair, though the hatred he once carried toward Seamus had faded only a bit, at least for now.
Seamus watched him quietly. He had seen everything. Dylan’s struggle, his breakdown, the way the creature fed on his fear and guilt.
That monster worked on the same principle as Roanna’s Bloodstyle, feeding on negative emotions and turning it into something real and deadly.
So Seamus had interfered.
He absorbed the lingering hatred and despair from the monster, weakening the creature, then reshaped those emotions into a form Dylan could face without breaking. Yes, it was all an illusion he made.
Dylan’s friends might not have deserved that fate, but Dylan deserved closure, and Seamus knew this was the least thing he could do.
"Where do you think they are?" Dylan asked as he popped a pill from his jacket while they ran through the corridor.
The hallway returned to a sterile white the moment they left the room, silent and unnervingly clean.
Seamus lifted an eyebrow. "What did you just take?"
"Temporary stimulant. It boosts stamina and adrenaline so pain won’t slow me down."
"You don’t need to push yourself," Seamus replied. "I can handle this."
"Nah." Dylan stopped suddenly. "I probably know more than you, so listen carefully."
Dylan explained everything he had seen. The experiments, the Progenitor torso, the reason Latros needed Seamus, and why this place was far worse than Corvane.
Seamus listened in silence. It finally made sense why Latros and Bjorne had avoided him before. Searching for the Progenitor alone was never enough. Seamus himself was part of the key.
"So we split up," Dylan said. "I get the torso and bring it to you. You find Diane and kill Mark Latros."
"You’ll die," Seamus said flatly. "We stay together."
Dylan raised an eyebrow. "Didn’t you want me dead before?"
"No," Seamus answered. "I don’t."
"If Latros dies first, this domain collapses," Dylan argued. "They might have a failsafe to take the torso away. This is our only chance."
Seamus stayed silent, time slipping away around them, until he finally sighed.
"Don’t die on me."
"I won’t," Dylan said, turning away. "There’s still something I need to do."
And just like that, they separated once more, each running toward a different kind of hell.