2025-07-31 22:10:35
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Chapter 142. The Blood Beneath.
It was hard to tell how many days had passed since The Culling. Time didn’t exist properly down here. There were no clocks, no sunrise, no voices anymore. Just the whispers of pipes, the clang of metal chains from cells far away, and sometimes, screams that didn’t last long enough.Kirin sat on the cold stone floor, back against the wall, fingers curled tightly around the hilt of the blade hidden beneath his prison-worn shirt. His hands were still stained faintly red. No matter how much he wiped them off on the stone, that blood had soaked into him.But the demons hadn’t returned. Not yet. And no one spoke about the dead.Nobody ever did.Kirin's eyes wandered to the corner of his cell. The same spot where, days ago, he had carved “I AM STILL HERE.” The words stared back at him like an accusation. As if the stone was asking him to prove it.And so, he moved.He pressed his palm flat against the walls, trying to feel for any weakness, any inconsistency. Any sign that this tomb of a cel
Chapter 141. The Culling.
It started without warning.No announcements, no sounds, no shadows crawling under the door to whisper of what was coming. Just death. Raw, bloody, unannounced death.At first, Kirin thought the screaming was part of someone’s nightmare. Until the sound didn’t stop. Until it grew louder and closer. Until he heard the crack of bone. The splatter of something wet against metal. The sound of someone choking on their own blood.Then he knew.Something was wrong.He pressed his back against the wall and held his breath. Just silence now, heavy silence. Then...Boom!A door somewhere far off slammed open, followed by running footsteps and that same horrible gurgle again. Kirin closed his eyes, listening, counting the steps. They were working cell by cell. Efficient and mechanical.He looked at the floor where he’d hidden the blade.Just a sliver of obsidian, no markings. Nothing special looking. Just sharp. Sharper than anything he’d ever touched.He hadn’t expected to use it so soon. Maybe
Chapter 140. The Signal.
Time was an illusion in the prison. There were no windows, no clocks, no sunrises or sunsets, only the occasional shuffle of demon footsteps and the scraping sound of metal trays against stone when food was dropped off. Days bled into nights, and nights into nothing. For Kirin, existence had become a loop of boredom and silent madness.But lately, something had shifted.The heat that had flooded his cell days ago had left a strange warmth in the air, like a memory that refused to leave. The message he carved. I AM STILL HERE remained etched in the stone, blackened at the edges as if something had scorched the words after he finished them. The blade the demon gave him now sat wrapped in cloth under the slab that passed for a bed.And the old man was gone, dead. His voice silenced.That silence was beginning to eat at Kirin.He laid on the floor, staring at the ceiling. The rock under his bed, the one that didn’t belong to this world pulsed faintly every now and then. He didn’t know wha
Chapter 139. Ashes Speak.
The heat had come and gone, as if the cell itself had taken a breath and exhaled fire. Now, the stone floor was cold again. Lifeless again and still.Kirin’s body was too weak to pace, but his thoughts refused to rest. He had carved those words.I AM STILL HERE Into the stone as if it were a spell. A rebellion. A refusal to vanish. And something… something had heard him.The pulsing rock, the heat, the air that tasted like coal and lightning, none of it made sense. Not yet.And maybe because of all that strangeness, or maybe just from sheer exhaustion, he collapsed onto the cold slab of rock he called a bed. The blade clutched to his chest. The words burning behind his eyelids.Then, sleep took him.But this time… it wasn’t empty.***Flames danced in every direction, not the suffocating kind, but flames that flickered like old memories. The air shimmered with smoke and ash, but Kirin could breathe in this place, a dream, a vision, or something in between.The world before him was on
Chapter 138. Burn the Silence.
Kirin sat with the small blade resting across his palms like it was a dead bird, quiet and stiff, but somehow too warm for steel. The old man’s voice still echoed in the corners of his mind, faint like a ghost stuck on repeat.“The fire isn’t what takes you... it’s what leaves behind the silence that kills.”The silence had never been louder.The blind man was dead. Kirin hadn’t cried. He didn’t know how, maybe he forgot. Or maybe this place had burned out that part of him. Still, grief curled up beside him in the cold like a loyal dog, refusing to leave.He clenched the blade tighter.It was simple, ugly black metal with no markings. It didn’t hum with magic, didn’t glisten with runes. But it felt old. The kind of old that had seen wars. The kind of old that was tired of staying silent. Just like him.So, when he pressed it to the floor, there was no hesitation.Scrrrrch!The blade scraped into the stone with a shriek like nails across bone.I AM STILL HERE.Letter by letter, he carv
Chapter 137. The Demon’s Gift.
Kirin didn’t sleep much anymore. Not out of fear, or because of nightmares. He just didn’t see the point.The dark didn’t bother him. The silence didn’t either. What bothered him, what really got under his skin were the stories. The blind old man on the other side of the cracked wall had been feeding him tales like fire feeds on dry wood. Rebellions. Gods. Betrayals. He spoke as though the world had ended long before Kirin was ever born. And the worst part?Kirin believed him.Tonight, the silence had returned. The old man hadn’t spoken since dusk. Not a whisper. Not even one of his nonsense chants. Kirin pressed his ear to the cracked wall, feeling the rough edges of the broken stone dig into his cheek.Nothing.That’s when he heard it. Not a whisper, not a story, but a sharp clink. Like metal against rock. He turned fast, his back against the far side of the cell. He expected a rat. Maybe one of the smaller demons coming to drop off that sludge they called food.But no. It wasn’t foo
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