The first sensation within the room was heat—scorching heat.
Alessa lay on a hospital bed on the inner side of the room. Large areas of her body were burned, and she was wrapped completely in layers of gauze, revealing only two eyes devoid of emotion, devoid of life. The unending waves of high heat filling the room radiated from her body.
At this moment, Rose stood at the foot of Alessa's bed. To the left of the bed, near the nightstand, sat a nurse with her back to the trio. This figure remained motionless in the corner, neither speaking nor moving. Her breathing was so faint it was nonexistent; it was impossible to tell if she was alive or dead.
Sharon pointed at the nurse curiously, but Bella gently shook her head, signaling her not to cause trouble.
"Alessa, I am Rose. If you deem it necessary, I am willing to swear that I will protect Sharon with my life."
Rose's tone was incredibly solemn. Sharon hid behind Bella, glancing occasionally at Alessa on the bed and then at her mother.
Alessa's body had lost all sensation. The gauze wrapped her tightly, revealing only two eyes devoid of emotion, devoid of life.
"Come, my child, let me look at you..." Alessa's voice echoed within the ward, a sound projected directly from her soul.
"Sharon?" Only then did Rose realize her daughter had appeared behind her.
Bella nodded at her and handed the somewhat nervous Sharon over to her mother. Seeming worried that Rose might not understand, she offered a brief explanation: "Sharon is also Alessa's daughter."
Rose filled in the blanks regarding Alessa "giving birth" to Sharon using normal human logic. In her understanding, Alessa had given birth to Sharon after being burned, the child had ended up in an orphanage, and had finally been adopted by her and her husband.
Seeing her nod, Bella didn't bother explaining the complex process of separating out her remaining goodness to give birth to a child from her soul. As long as the conclusion—that it was Alessa's child—was correct, that was enough.
Rose and Sharon, mother and daughter, approached the bed with trepidation. Ten meters, five meters, one meter. When the intense heat was within reach, they finally saw Alessa up close.
The Alessa of the past had been a very beautiful little girl, but the immolation had thoroughly destroyed her appearance and health.
The entire town of Silent Hill could be stripped away from the material world, but she herself could not; she remained bound by the laws of the physical plane.
She was nearly forty years old now, but looking at her body alone, she resembled a small, charred mummy.
The bandages no longer served a therapeutic purpose; instead, they acted like clothes, tightly binding her broken body together.
Watching the mother and daughter walk to her side, a ripple finally appeared in Alessa's emotionless eyes. She seemed to want to reach out and touch the little girl's face, but her arms were so stiff she couldn't move her fingers even a centimeter.
"Can you help me break free from the shackles of this body?" Alessa asked Bella via telepathy.
Bella thought for a moment and spoke with some difficulty. "The two previous separations have left your soul severely fragmented, and your body is severely damaged. Once the soul leaves, your body on the bed will collapse instantly."
Alessa's voice carried no hesitation. "Do you think there is any difference between my current state and being dead? My enemies are dead... I have nothing left to cling to. Help me. I want to have a good talk with Sharon."
Bella lowered her head in thought, reviewing the various methods she had mastered. Finally, she decided to use an old method.
"Alright... I will draw a magic circle to banish you from Silent Hill. You can use that opportunity to break free from the body's constraints. However, there is a high probability that your soul will be noticed by high-level entities from Heaven or Hell. As for who they are, or where you will go, I cannot predict."
Alessa's tone was light. "Then please begin. I can't wait."
Seeing her firm attitude, Bella moved quickly. In no time at all, she drew a Solomon's Great Heptagram around the hospital bed.
The magic circle suppressed the energy inside Alessa. A small part of it was magic from her own bloodline, while the rest was extremely chaotic—energy of an unknown nature.
Alessa was powerful. After the array began to operate, she was able to calmly resist it a couple of times before finally relying on the array's suppression of her body to tear her soul free from its shackles.
Forcing her soul out of her body came at a price: she lost more than half of her previously tyrannical magical power. The body on the bed, already like a dry, cracked mummy, instantly lost all vitality. Knuckles, toes, and other parts crumbled into drifting ash; the body collapsed several times faster than predicted.
At the cost of her own complete death, Alessa gained the opportunity for a face-to-face conversation.
May you wander for half a lifetime, yet return as a youth.
Having endured countless tortures, insults, and abuses, with a spirit ravaged and a body covered in scars, Alessa cast aside her past. The appearance her soul assumed was still that of the nine-year-old girl from back then, as if yesterday had never passed, as if time had left no mark on this soul.
Alessa looked extremely similar to Sharon, and they were about the same height. The only difference was that one had gentle eyes, while the other was expressionless.
"Please take good care of Sharon," she said to Rose.
"Please take them out of Silent Hill." This sentence was directed at Bella.
"Take good care of Mom. Be obedient at home, but at school, if anyone tries to bully you, you must strike back hard!" Alessa shared her life's wisdom with Sharon.
Wearing such a tender, youthful face while speaking such world-weary words—ironically, these were words she had only imagined saying.
She chattered on endlessly, seemingly wanting to experience the role of a mother just this once.
When she was done, she was done. As for how Sharon would protect herself, that would depend on Sharon herself. "Direct transmission of cultivation"—instantly gaining seventy years of internal energy—did not exist here. Unless she signed a contract with a high-level Demon God, magic power could not be channeled or transferred in any form. No matter how strong Alessa was, Sharon would not inherit that power.
"I don't mean to interrupt you, but we really don't have much time!" Bella looked nervously at the outside world. This pocket dimension of Silent Hill was built upon Alessa's magic. Now that she was dying, it was uncertain whether this world could continue to exist.
The Inner World and the Fog World were merging rapidly. The "flying ash" that had covered the town like snow was diminishing. In the distance, a small building collapsed due to the tremors shaking the entire pocket dimension, but Bella couldn't see any further changes.
"Then I leave Sharon in your hands. Leave quickly. I don't know how long I can hold on."
Alessa looked at Bella again. "Thank you for your selfless help. Please accept a small gift from me."
Their gazes collided. After a silent exchange, a complex symbol appeared in Bella's mind.