Chapter 243 – Message From The Crazy Father
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Lara pulled Zeel into a car the moment they exited Croft Industries.

The drive to The Croft Estate was relatively short. Most of the ride was made in silence, Lara was not sure about what to say, and Zeel was disinterested in any topic she might bring up.

"What is that?" Lara asked pointing at the sculpture in Zeel's hands.

"A gift for you," Zeel replied intending to hand it over but changed his mind.

Maybe it was better if he held onto the sculpture for now. Lara seemed too agitated to think about anything else.

That was the extent of their conversation during the thirty-minute ride to The Croft Estate. Upon seeing the estate, Zeel furrowed his brows.

"This place stinks," he said after picking up on the scents inside the house.

It smelled eerie, congested, a bit harmonical, and slightly sour all mixed into one big container.

Lara, who was stepping out of the car, almost slipped onto the ground in surprise.

She had anticipated many reactions from Zeel after he saw her enormous estate, but this was not one of them.

"Why?" Lara asked confused.

Zeel stared at Lara strangely, looking for anything out of the ordinary on the girl.

"There are too many things hidden inside. Even a couple of curses lingering on this estate. Your family is either slightly abnormal or really hated by many people,"

Lara laughed, thinking that Zeel was joking "Probably both!"

Still, she did not lose sight of the matter at hand. She pulled Zeel along into the estate the moment the car was parked.

At first, Zeel thought that they were heading to one of the many bedrooms to have another tryst of fun, but the reality was much more ruthless than his expectations.

The moment they passed through the estate, Zeel had a bad premonition of what would occur next.

Lara took Zeel to the Mausoleum crypt at the back of the estate.

Zeel's step paused as a bitter smile surfaced onto his face.

"Are you one of those girls?" He asked with a hurt voice.

It wouldn't be the first time he met a girl that had the strange fetish of having sex around dead bodies.

Alice and Zeel had seen this many times in 'Resident Evil Universe'.

That Universe had so many corpses, that Zeel even grew slightly averse to killing people.

Well… he would still kill, but at the very least he would vaporize the body.

"What girls?" Lara asked confused, not liking the judgemental gaze Zeel was directing towards her.

"Nothing," Zeel replied. It was not in his nature to judge anyone, just notify them of better ways to handle certain situations.

Lara didn't mind Zeel's comments and observations.

She could not understand Zeel, and she no longer cared to.

She only needed Zeel to remain constant, not to be perfect in things that he clearly had no idea how to deal with.

"My father left a code in that message, and I think the first clue is here," Lara said explaining herself thoroughly.

She was doing it more to refresh her own memory, instead of solely for Zeel to keep up.

"The first letter from my final destination. I know," Zeel said gesturing for Lara to move on.

"And this is his final destination," Zeel murmured.

"Yeah, but I don't see anything," Lara said disappointingly.

Zeel sighed and closed his eyes.

The next moment, his senses spread outwards and found what Lara was probably aiming for.

He slowly walked behind Lara and spun her around, placing her head against his head.

Zeel had grown since the last time she saw him, so Lara had to tiptoe a bit to make contact.

Zeel began breathing slowly, and Lara duplicated his actions.

Soon, Lara felt calm, refreshed, and focused. Then she also felt it… not as clear as Zeel but she could perceive something strange from the walls.

"It's hollow," Lara whispered.

"Yeah, just focus and use your senses. Then you use your brain. Then you use your muscle," Zeel said with an authoritarian attitude.

Lara rolled her eyes and proceeded to check the walls of the crypt carefully, but she still hesitated slightly.

Her heart was curious and she wanted to know just how she could feel the currents of winds in her surroundings.

"Zeel, do you know what's happening to me?" Lara asked hesitantly.

She didn't want to push Zeel more than she already had. From the look on Zeel's face, she could tell that he found this entire ordeal boring.

Zeel thought and answered "You can say I come from a very ancient family. What you are feeling is just my unique blood mixing with yours.

We have a rare variant of blood called 'Golden-Blood'.

You have probably seen that it's a rare occurrence online. Only about 42 people across the Earth have it. Now you have it as well,"

Lara thought for a long time before deciding that Zeel's answer was indeed plausible.

She had read an article about 'Golden-Blood' before but never delved into the particulars of the extremely rare blood type.

This, coupled with the fact that Zeel did not exactly lie, made Lara convinced of Zeel's story.

When Lara found the wall that she was looking for, she inputted a key into a lock she discovered.

The wall swung open and Lara ventured inside without paying Zeel any attention. The thoughts of finding her father was more important than a one-night stand.

Zeel followed Lara down the stairs that were engulfed in darkness.

He could see the Research area down below, the trophies on the stands, the papers that still remained disordered on the desk.

Zeel could feel the memories that filled the room, and soon a journey formulated inside the depths of his mind.

Perhaps because these were memories related to Lara, or perhaps because his divinity was just that strong, Zeel saw the entirety of what Richard Croft had done inside this room.

"You had a very crazy father," Zeel said.

Lara did not take offense, she wasn't even paying attention, just exploring the antiques that loitered the room.

Suddenly, Zeel's Mbeamer lit up as The Red Queen scanned the entirety of the room.

Focusing specifically on the wall that held multiple pictures and research pieces.

'What is it?' Zeel asked inside his mind.

'The information contained in this room has aided me in selecting the most probable location for the entrance,' The Red Queen replied.

Zeel grew surprised but not concerned.

In a Multiverse of Madness, coincidences could appear everywhere, but he wasn't entirely convinced that his and Lara's involvement was a mere coincidence.

Now that he thought about it, his involvement with Jill may not have been a coincidence either.

Zeel had no justification for thinking about Jill, but he just felt it odd. Still, he dismissed these thoughts as soon as they came.

There were many mysteries that deserved considerations of their own.

'By the way, what about the fragmented message transmission picket up from STARS?' Zeel asked.

'The transmission is transmitting at fifty times the speed of light. That is the fastest the transmission can travel through many Universes without compromising the message's integrity.

Would you like me to directly convert the message to tachyons?' The Red Queen replied.

She could feel Zeel's curiosity growing.

The Red Queen was also curious. How could she not be? STARS was a Sentient A.I. that should have deleted its core after the awakening of Alice's friends.

It would never disobey Zeel's commands, which meant that something of higher priority caused it to overturn Zeel's last command.

Still, Zeel had more pressing matters at hand. The matter of Lara being more intricately linked into his next journey than he would have liked.

Seeing that Lara checked the table of her father, Zeel walked over to her side just in time to take the camera she was reaching for.

Lara was startled at first but soon grew agitated at Zeel's dominant behavior.

"Zeel, you should …"

Lara could not finish her statement, since Zeel had already flipped open the camera.

Of course, Zeel did not take the camera for show, it was more akin to doing Lara a favor.

Zeel urged his nanites to convert the memories of Richard Croft in the room, into electrical signals that were embedded into the memory chip of the camera.

He wanted Lara to see the moments that defined her father's work inside his secret chamber.

Zeel did not perform this action out of the non-existent kindness in his heart.

He simply needed Lara to go where he needed her to go, just in case she was similar to Alexander and was required as a sacrifice to open a sealed area.

'Sir, I do not think taking this human along would be wise given the experiences she has shared with you,' The Red Queen voiced.

Zeel sighed at the young Sentient's naivety.

'She is just a human. Do not mistake her for Alice. She is expendable, and expendable means you exploit it as much as possible,'

'Understood,' The Red Queen replied and spoke no more.

She had forgotten who Zeel is because of his playful attitude since Lorien Universe.

How could she forget who Zeel was when there was no Alice to control him?

Zeel was the type of person to kill a million parents just to manipulate the children into seeking revenge against his enemies.

Then when the children fulfilled his goals, Zeel would repeat the process all over again.

And that was just one of the many memories The Red Queen now had access to.

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