2025-08-21 22:58:01
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Chapter 244
The chamber shook again. Dust fell from the ceiling, drifting through the torchlight like falling ash. The roots along the walls pulsed brighter, black veins crawling faster across the stone.The vessel at the center of the room was no longer still. Its faceless head tilted with a creaking sound, slow and deliberate. The crystal in its chest beat like a heart, light throbbing in a steady rhythm. Elias stumbled back, clutching his torch. His face was pale, his lips trembling. “It’s alive.”Mara’s knives slid free, twin blades gleaming in the sickly glow. Her voice was sharp and low. “It’s waking. We need to move. Now.”Oliver didn’t move. His eyes were locked on the crystal. His Echo Sense flared, threads exploding in his vision, hundreds of them, tangled, snarling, all connected to that single glowing heart.The whispers poured into his mind. “Strike it. Cut it. The power is yours. One blow, and the camp above will bow to you. They will see you as a savior. As king.”His breath came
Chapter 243
The thread shimmered faintly at the edge of Oliver’s sight, thin as a hair, glowing with a sickly light only he and Elias seemed to notice. It tugged eastward, toward the narrow tunnels that broke away from the camp.The rest of the rebels still slept, their snores echoing softly in the cavern. Only a few guards paced near the fires, their torches swinging back and forth.Oliver’s pulse quickened. The whispers coiled in his skull like smoke. “Follow it. Take them. It leads where you need to be. To me.”He swallowed hard. His mouth was dry. He wanted to refuse, to stay here where the campfire was warm and safe, but deep down he already knew the truth: if they ignored this threat, it would strangle them later.Mara tightened her grip on her knives. “We move now,” she said in a low voice. “Before someone notices.”Elias shifted nervously, torch shaking in his hand. His young face was pale, but his jaw was clenched. “I can lead. I can feel it pulling.”Oliver looked between them, the boy
Chapter 242
The camp was awake long before the torches were lit. People whispered in small groups, some sharpening blades, some gathering fungus sacks, others whispering prayers that echoed against the stone walls. A heavy tension filled the air, the kind that made even laughter sound wrong. Everyone knew they were going deeper soon, into the Hollow, the place where shadows never slept.Oliver walked slowly through the camp, the coin heavy in his pocket. His footsteps were steady, but inside his chest, his heart felt like a hammer that refused to stop. He could feel the whispers again. They were quiet this time, like a snake resting, waiting. They curled around his thoughts, offering answers he didn’t ask for. “Move the scouts to the western tunnel. They will be safer there. Garrick will not think of it, but you can.”He clenched his fists. He hated that the voice was right near the fires. Elias was crouched low, trying to light a torch with trembling hands. The boy’s face was pale, his eyes s
Chapter 241
The camp should have felt alive. Torches burned brighter than usual, fungus stew boiled in great clay pots, and laughter, rare, brittle laughter, echoed off the cavern walls.For the first time since Oliver had arrived, the rebels allowed themselves to celebrate. They had faced the Seeker and come back breathing, but Oliver couldn’t share their joy.He sat at the edge of the firelight, coin warm in his palm, watching shadows twist against stone. To everyone else, they looked harmless, shaped by firelight. To him, they were threads, faint strands pulsing with intent. Some belonged to people nearby: the nervous flicker of the boy, the steady flame of Garrick, the sharp, bladed tension of Mara.Others pulsed from deeper in the tunnels, cold and hungry. Waiting. The Seeker wasn’t gone. It was watching.Garrick called him into the leader’s chamber later that night. The scarred man leaned over a crude stone map, his single eye sharp as ever. “The anchors are destroyed,” Garrick said, tappi
Chapter 240
The return to camp was not triumphant. Their boots dragged through the tunnels, wet with blood and shadow-ichor, carrying the silence of the dead. Mara walked ahead, shoulders squared, her knives sheathed but her back rigid with tension. Oliver followed, the boy trailing close, torch clutched so tight his knuckles were white. They had no bodies to bring back. Only memory.The rebels waiting at the barricade rose when they saw them. Faces lit with hope, relief. Voices whispered: “They’re alive.” “They made it.” “The Seeker’s gone?”Oliver couldn’t meet their eyes. He saw only the gaps. The missing. The two veterans whose names he hadn’t even learned.Mara lifted her chin. “The anchors are cut. The Seeker is weakened.”The camp erupted in cheers. Oliver flinched at the sound. That night, a fire burned high in the cavern, brighter than usual, fed by carefully hoarded wood. Garrick stood before it, sword in hand, his scarred face lit by flame.“The Seeker bled. Its roots are ash. And th
Chapter 239
The tunnels grew wrong. The air thickened, no longer just damp but heavy, like breathing through wet cloth. The walls wept with black condensation, streaking down in rivulets that pulsed faintly, glowing in rhythm with a heartbeat that wasn’t his.Oliver’s Echo Sense throbbed in his skull, pulling him forward. Every step dragged at him, not just with weight but with certainty. He knew where the last anchor was. He also knew something else. They weren’t walking toward it. They were walking into it. The Seeker was waiting.The boy stumbled behind them, torch shaking in his hand. His eyes were wide, white with terror. “It’s here. I can feel it.”Mara grabbed him by the collar, forcing him forward. “So can we all. Keep moving.”The two veterans said nothing, but their knuckles were white around their weapons.Oliver’s throat was dry. He wanted to say something, comfort, reassurance, anything, but the words wouldn’t come. The System’s cold hum filled his ears instead.System Notification
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