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The singing dissipated in the cold air, as if it had never sounded.
Alexia quietly held her dead brother, her pure, amber-gold eyes reflecting the frozen, satisfied smile on Alfred's face.
Slowly, she laid her brother's body flat on the cold ground.
She stood up, barefoot, and walked step by step toward the darkness outside the laboratory that belonged to her... "Chris, how much further?" Claire's voice came from behind.
"According to the map, it should be soon. The distance between these two places isn't far." Chris pointed at the target while looking at the map.
A low tremor, as if coming from deep within the earth's core, rose without warning from beneath the treads of the snowmobile!
"Vroom—"
The entire earth was vibrating in resonance!
The snowmobile jolted violently. Chris, sitting in the driver's seat, had a change of expression and immediately steadied the steering wheel.
"What's going on? An earthquake?" Jill grabbed the nearby handrail tightly.
Noah's nerves, which had just relaxed, tightened in an instant!
"Chris, stop! Everyone, jump!"
Noah's roar held not a shred of hesitation!
Chris had an almost instinctive trust in Noah's judgment; he slammed on the brakes almost subconsciously!
The ear-piercing sound of metal friction rang out as the snowmobile's treads carved two deep furrows into the ice.
"Jump!"
Chris roared, being the first to kick open the car door and leap out to the side like a leopard!
Leon, Ada, Jill, Claire, Noah, and Steve followed immediately after!
The six of them stretched their bodies in mid-air before slamming heavily into the thick snow, rolling to dissipate the massive force of the impact.
Almost at the same instant they abandoned the vehicle and jumped!
"Boom—!!!"
The ice field beneath their feet suddenly exploded!
Countless chunks of ice and snow were hurled into the air by a terrifying force!
Several suffocatingly massive, sickly dark-green vines covered in twisted, vein-like patterns erupted violently from the abyss below like awakened ancient giant pythons!
The two thickest vines, with a terrifying speed completely at odds with their massive size, coiled around the just-stopped snowmobile like lightning!
"Creeeak— Creeeak—!!!"
The tooth-aching sound of twisting metal rang out.
The vehicle body, forged from high-strength alloy, was as fragile as a paper toy before the unreasonable, terrifying power of the vines!
The window glass shattered instantly, and the entire vehicle was crushed into a heap of twisted scrap metal by sheer force!
"Roar!"
In what sounded like a roar from deep within the vines, they suddenly exerted force and hurled the scrap metal high into the sky!
"Boom!"
An earth-shattering explosion!
The snowmobile's fuel tank was detonated in mid-air, and a massive fireball erupted amidst the pale white snowstorm, painting half the sky a bright orange-red!
Burning parts and fragments rained down like fire, creating deep pits emitting black smoke in the snow.
Having just scrambled up from the snow, everyone's minds went blank from the shock of this terrifying scene.
"My God..." Steve stared at the raging flames, his face pale as he muttered to himself.
However, the danger was not over!
The moment everyone recovered from the shock of the snowmobile's explosion, those terrifying vines turned their target toward these tiny, bug-like humans!
"Scatter!!" Chris roared, performing a roll on the spot to dodge a vine that slammed down like a warhammer!
"Boom!"
The vine slammed heavily into his previous position, making the entire ground shake violently. Snow was thrown into the sky, revealing the hard ice layer below, which was cracked like a spiderweb!
The snowstorm was getting heavier.
The dancing blizzard was like a white curtain, blurring everyone's vision.
Visibility was less than three meters!
They could only hear the terrifying "Whoosh! Whoosh!" of the massive vines slicing through the air, relying on sound and intuition to perform desperate dodges on this stage of death.
"Puff!"
A bullet grazed the surface of a vine, leaving only a shallow white mark.
"It's useless! Bullets can't pierce its skin!" Leon's voice came through the storm, sounding somewhat distorted.
Ada's figure was like a ghost, finding a fleeting gap between two crisscrossing vines and nimbly dodging through.
Jill lost her footing and slipped on the slick ice.
A massive vine, whistling as it tore through the air, swept toward her!
"Jill!" Chris lunged forward, pressing Jill firmly beneath him!
"Bang—!"
The massive vine swept past, nearly grazing Chris's back. The resulting wind hit his back like a steel whip, making his entire body jolt!
"Ugh..." Jill let out a muffled groan from the pressure.
"Are you okay?" Chris quickly scrambled up and pulled her to her feet.
"I'm fine!" Jill shook her head, though her face was full of lingering fear.
Just then, everyone suddenly noticed that the vines' attacks seemed to have slowed down considerably.
A thin layer of white frost began to condense on their originally resilient, dark-green skin.
In the extreme low temperatures of Antarctica, which were enough to make steel brittle, even a monster with such terrifyingly tenacious vitality could not remain exposed to the air for long.
Their movements became increasingly stiff, and the frequency of their attacks slowed down.
Finally.
With a low, unwilling hum, all the vines retreated like a ebbing tide, slowly shrinking back into the deep pits in the ground.
The surroundings returned to a dead silence once more.
Nothing remained but the howling of the gale and the pile of still-burning snowmobile wreckage.
The battle was over, but everyone's hearts sank to the bottom.
They had lost their only means of transportation.
On this vast ice field, they could only rely on their legs to face the unknown and even more terrifying dangers ahead.
"Everyone! Sound off! Confirm positions!" Chris's voice was filled with exhaustion and vigilance.
"Jill! Safe!"
"Noah, Claire, safe!"
"Ada, safe!"
"Leon! Safe!"
Silence.
Chris's heart sank abruptly.
"Steve?! Steve! Answer me!"
No one answered.
In the snowstorm, there was only a heart-palpitating silence.
Braving the wind and snow, everyone began to slowly move toward each other, following the sounds.
"Over here!" Leon's voice came from not far away, carrying a hint of irrepressible anger.
When everyone arrived, stumbling through the snow, they saw Leon half-kneeling in the snow, punching the ice beside him with fury.
Before him was a long furrow dragged through the snow.
At the end of the furrow lay an Ingram Submachine Gun that Steve had dropped.
"Just now... just a moment ago..." Leon's voice trembled slightly from the cold, "The snow was too heavy. I only saw a shadow, a tentacle... it was too fast! I didn't have time to react!"
He looked up, his eyes full of regret.
"I heard Steve scream right next to me! By the time I reacted, he had already been snatched by the ankle and dragged directly into the ground!"
Everyone's expressions turned grim.
Noah walked to the furrow, knelt down, and pinched a bit of snow.
He looked in the direction the furrow extended; it was precisely toward the Research Institute.
He stood up and brushed the snow from his hands.
"It didn't kill him; it just took him away."
He sighed.
"He was most likely taken into the Research Institute."
The group fell silent.
This outcome was even worse than seeing Steve's corpse directly.
"Now is not the time for sorrow," Chris stood up, pulled Leon to his feet, and patted his shoulder. "We must continue to that damned place."
He glanced into the distance at the silhouette of the building, looming like an iceberg behemoth in the snowstorm.
"Let's go."
The group organized their equipment, redistributing all ammunition and supplies.
Then they tied themselves together with high-strength rope.
Braving the gale that was cold enough to freeze one's Soul, they trudged step by step toward that Research Institute of death... Inside the Monitoring Room of the Ashford Family Main Research Institute.
Albert Wesker stood before a row of massive monitoring screens like an artist admiring his own masterpiece.
A playful smile played on his lips.
One screen clearly showed Noah's group struggling through the blizzard in a pathetic state.
Another main screen displayed rows of rapidly flickering data streams.
That was real-time data on various vital signs transmitted from the underground laboratory regarding Alexia Ashford after her awakening.
Heart rate, blood pressure, brain waves... all the data far exceeded the limits achievable by humans and continued to climb at a terrifying rate.
"A perfect lifeform... truly fascinating." Wesker's fingertips lightly brushed the cold screen, his crimson pupils flickering with greed and desire.
He glanced at the screen showing the youth who had long since fainted—Steve—being dragged through an underground passage by a vine.
"An insignificant bonus, but perhaps he can add an interesting variable to this drama."
His gaze finally fell on Chris's face, which was filled with determination and anger.
"You've finally arrived, Chris... my old friend."
Wesker's voice was low and raspy, full of mockery.
"The game is only just beginning."
He slowly turned and left the Monitoring Room filled with cold electronic instruments.
He straightened his spotless black trench coat and put on his signature sunglasses, hiding those non-human, crimson vertical pupils.
He intended to go to the main entrance of the Research Institute to personally welcome these "guests" from afar.
To prepare a sufficiently "surprising" opening for them.
He set off, walking through the empty and silent corridor, his leather shoes making a crisp "tap, tap, tap" echo on the marble floor.
He pushed open the double wooden doors carved with intricate patterns that led to the main hall.
A grand and classical hall presented itself before his eyes.
A wide staircase covered in dark red carpet spiraled upward.
On the wall, the familiar deer head specimen stared at him silently with its hollow glass eyes.
Everything here filled him with a sense of both familiarity and disgust.
This place was a replica of that old man Spencer's morbid aesthetic.
It was also the tomb that buried the Ashford Family.
And today, it would become the magnificent stage to bury the last remnants of S.T.A.R.S.
Wesker was preparing to walk toward the massive main door leading outside.
Just then.
"Hehehe..."
A crisp laugh, like silver bells yet carrying an indescribable coldness and eeriness, suddenly drifted from behind him, from above the wide spiral staircase.
The laughter wasn't loud, but it was like a cold steel needle, instantly piercing the dead silence of the hall!
Wesker's footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
His pupils, hidden behind the sunglasses, suddenly contracted!
He slowly turned around and looked up toward the direction of the sound.
On the circular corridor of the second floor.
A figure stood there quietly, looking down at him from above.
Long golden hair cascaded down like a waterfall.
She wore a pure white, simply styled long dress and was barefoot, her feet so pale they were nearly transparent.
Her beauty was enough to make even angels jealous.
But her gaze was colder and more hollow than the millennium-old glaciers of Antarctica.
Alexia Ashford.
She stood there silently, her face devoid of any expression, but Wesker could feel an invisible, suffocatingly terrifying pressure sweeping toward him from her body like a tide!
For the first time, a hint of... apprehension, which even he hadn't anticipated, welled up in Wesker's heart.
The corners of Alexia's mouth slowly curled into a cold smile, carrying a hint of mockery.
Her voice, like the most melodious cello, slowly rang out in the empty hall.
"Do you really think I was unaware of your little schemes here?"
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