"Back him up– no!"
A loud screech fills up the whole area as a strong monster begins to eliminate their members one by one.
"Holy–this is not an ordinary dungeon we can just walk by! Retreat! Retreat!"
As Horan ordered the retreat, the monster that's been wiping his whole group out jumped in front of them, blocking their way out.
"I thought this was just a rain rank like the other cave!?" Horan angrily shouted at their member who pointed this dungeon out.
"I'm - I didn't know it's gonna be this hard! I know you're in a hurry to finish your research, that's why I didn't hesitate to offer you this dungeon, boss!!!"
It is only a single monster. But the monster is capable of holding off the entire dungeon on its own. Always on the ready with its four quick feet, fiercely glaring at the hunters like it's staring at rabbits to hunt, and with its predatory instincts, no man could hope to escape its hunting ground. A chimera, though incomplete, the danger it poses already matches multiple blood ranked hunters. Strong grip and fangs, nimble reflexes, hard iron body and poisonous tail - with all those features, the unprepared hunters are all but destined to fall.
"A-At least, save yourself, my dear Horan!"
Alice steps in front of him, acting as his shield. Her love for him is already high enough for her to sacrifice herself, despite the unfinished research she had. Though, Horan does not appreciate the thought, the thing is-
"NO! Why would you sacrifice yourself if we still have so much unfinished business to tend to!?"
"My dear! It's not the time to worry–"
"This is definitely the time!! What would I do without your brain!? There are so many things I still want to accomplish a lot more, but I need your mind! At least finish the monster study before you die!"
They say that in the face of inevitable death, ones true character would take over, displaying what they truly are on the inside.
"Dear…y-you make it sound like…you only see me as a tool to further your study. Y-you don't mean that right…?"
As soon as Alice asked the question, the chimera lunged towards Horan, marking him as its next target.
"Watch out boss!!"
BITE!
The chimera bit off Horan's right arm using its sharp fangs, chewing it in front of him. As a result, he screamed as loud as he could to let out the pain he is currently feeling.
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!"
"BOSS!!"
The remaining members started to gather around him, though surprisingly, Alice did not join them. Rather, she stays in place, unmoving, unsure what to do and feel anymore. She clasped her hands, hoping that what she's currently thinking about Horan's true motive isn't what it's supposed to be.
GROWL!
As the chimera lets out a terrifying growl, its snake tail begins to produce a poisonous mist that envelopes everyone gathered around Horan. They all coughed, choking as if there was someone strangling their necks.
"G-GHHHKKK!! NGGGG!!"
"AAAAHHH, IT HURTS!!!"
Alice holds out her hand towards them, feeling all kinds of negative emotions at once. Despair, anxiousness, doubt…fear. But her fear does not originate through the monster they're facing, but the fear that she's been used only as a tool right from the start, by the one whom she dedicated her life to. As tears begin to fall down her eyes, a single sound resonates throughout the cave- a calm voice of a cat.
"Meow."
It appeared beside Alice, looking at the chimera directly in the eye. As the chimera looked back, it froze, as if it saw a being that is superior to it. After a while the cat's eyes glow which made the chimera growl uncontrollably.
"....."
As Alice was too speechless to comment about anything, the skin of the chimera would then slowly turn dark, shrinking like it's going back to being an infant. But then it stopped when it reached the same height as the cat.
"...!!?"
As the others drew their final breath due to the poison, they were all shocked at what happened right before their eyes closed forever. The chimera that wiped them, turns into the cat that Alice has been caring for. As she turned towards where her cat was supposed to be, it was gone.
"That…is that possible…"
Alice mutters to herself as she somehow had an idea about what happened. The cat seems to be a monster capable of devouring and taking over another monster with the same type. She falls to her knees, weakened by all the emotions that flooded her in the past couple of seconds. Dead silence filled the whole area, as all of the members of [The Unforeseen] were wiped out with only Alice as the sole survivor.
"Meow~"
The cat, with its hushed steps, saunters towards its master and sits beside her.
"You're the only one who really cared for me…aren't you…?" Alice talks to the cat as she weakly lifts herself up, her eyes as dead as a pale fish. She then trudges towards the corpse of her dear Horan who died displaying an unsightly expression.
"Ah…my dear Horan…I know you mean nothing what I thought you had…I want to know what you really think of me…"
With all her might, she grabs Horan's corpse and dragged him out of the dungeon and back to the hut. Despite having drunk potions and herbs, she seems to be not recovering some of her weakness, which then leads her into thinking that it might be a repercussion of the cat's power with her being its master. She got her answer after seeing her reflection on a river.
"....."
She became old, her hair turned white, her skin wrinkled and her body grew thinner. However, she did not feel remorse nor grief. Instead, she accepted it as if she has no more concern about the setbacks of what she did and what she will do. There is only one thing she wanted: to know what Horan thinks of her.
Day and night, she experimented. It's not the grand scale of literally trying to bring the dead back to life since it's impossible, instead, it was an experiment to know the final thoughts of a deceased individual. It took her only a week to produce the final product due to the sheer intelligence and effort she's put after the incident. The product was taken from their previous research, injecting monster cells into the potion, resulting in a change in structure, however, the human brain would still be intact and function.
But as what was witnessed by the GEO's survey team, it did not end well, as Horan was turned into a horrible piece of living corpse with anatomy of a cave troll as well as the other members. Although they all took shelter into the |Cave of Echoes| which is supposed to be cleared already. There was a hint of magical traces left by the transference spell by Alice, and so she made use of it to teleport them all inside it.
As day goes by after Alice's failure, she begins demonstrating a series of inhuman thinking. Her emotion as a human being faded, her love for Horan and her studies slowly disappeared and was replaced by the sole purpose of caring for her pet. In order to get sustenance despite being gravely old, the cat would need sacrifices, something to get energy from. Hunters are a perfect subject, since they have a surmountable amount of energy, the higher ranked, the better. As Alice was confident about the strength of her pet, she doesn't care if she leads even one blood ranked hunter into its den. Moreover, she saw the potential of the |Cave of Echoes| to be a source of energy as well, which is why the trolls placed there along with the golems she conjured would be the ones to take care of the hunters who would not be careful enough to tip toe inside a cleared dungeon. But then this time – all of it, shall fall. Into the hands of the unknowing man-
"It's not responding to the cat call…"