2025-11-28 12:06:00
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14
The stairway the shadow had taken plunged far deeper than the previous tunnel, and the air grew heavier with each descending step, thick like damp velvet pressing against their lungs with oppressive weight.Cassian gripped the stone rail as he followed the twisting descent, and with every passing meter the sounds from the club above faded entirely, swallowed by an unnatural hush that felt ancient, deliberate, and aware of their presence.Celene’s footsteps echoed behind him with unsettling clarity, each tap too loud in the silence, as though the stairwell wished to amplify her fear and feed on it like a starving creature tasting blood.When they finally reached the bottom, a vast chamber opened before them, carved into a perfect circular shape with pillars resembling humanoid figures holding up the ceiling, their stone hands stretched overhead as if forever praying for forgiveness.An altar stood at the center of the room, but unlike the basement beneath the basilica, this one pulsed
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The derelict chapel at the edge of the eastern district felt wrong from the moment Cassian and Celene stepped beneath its shattered archway, as though the remaining structure mourned a history it could no longer carry.Rain-soaked wind swept through the broken stained glass, scattering colored fragments across the floor that glittered faintly like dried tears beneath the muted daylight.Cassian surveyed the interior with cautious breath, noticing how the shadows clung unnaturally to the corners even though the sun should have dispelled them, and he sensed a presence lingering like a memory refusing to fade.Celene moved closer to him, clutching the hilt of her concealed ritual dagger beneath her cloak, and her tense expression revealed she felt the same invisible eyes watching from the dark.“We should not stay long,” she whispered, her voice barely a breath, “because something in this place has been waiting far too patiently.”Cassian nodded, scanning the cracked tiles for any sign o
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The morning after the bell tolled three times, Valenfort awoke beneath a sky the color of diluted ash, and the citizens moved through the streets with the quiet dread of people convinced something terrible had already chosen them.Cassian walked beside Celene toward the eastern district where the church guards had supposedly discovered a body, and every step felt heavier than the last because he already sensed the corpse would not resemble anything natural.The eastern district was usually filled with bakers opening shutters, children running barefoot, and merchants preparing their stalls, but today the entire street stood eerily empty as though the whole neighborhood had collectively agreed to hide.A cluster of armored guards stood around a boarded door, their hesitant posture revealing fear they could not mask despite the rigid discipline of the Church’s enforcement order.When Cassian approached, several guards stiffened while others subtly reached for their weapons as if expectin
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Celene did not speak for the first several minutes after they fled the underground chamber, and Cassian could tell she was choosing her silence carefully rather than losing her voice to panic.They stepped into the cloister hallway where moonlight washed through the tall arched windows, painting pale stripes along the floor that looked disturbingly like bars of a cage they had both unwillingly stepped into.Cassian leaned against the stone column, trying to calm the frantic tremor in his hands, though the shaking worsened when he thought about the reflection speaking with a voice shaped perfectly like his own.Celene kept her distance at first, watching him as though he were a cracked vessel leaking something dangerous into the air, yet her breathing gradually steadied enough for her to approach him.“You were not supposed to see that room,” she said with a quiet intensity that felt more like a verdict than an explanation, her eyes fixed on him with a mixture of fear and reluctant res
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Cassian waited until the last of the choir boys extinguished their lanterns and followed Ardent up the winding stairwell toward the clergy’s quarters, leaving the basilica echoing with hollow breaths of cold evening air.The silence felt wrong, as if the walls themselves inhaled in anticipation of something he was not meant to hear, yet absolutely meant to discover.He moved through the nave with deliberate steps, each footstep softened by the worn crimson runner that stretched to the altar like a vein carved into the marble.When he reached the small wooden gate behind the pulpit, he felt an unexplainable pressure hugging his ribs, an invisible warning urging him to stop, but stopping had long ceased being an option for him.The gate creaked open with the slightest push, revealing a cramped stairwell descending into the basilica’s lower foundation where the choir stored their props and where the priests claimed old relics slept.Cassian had visited the storage room once before and fo
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Seven years ago.The night outside the window glowed with a cold silver light. The wind shook the old trees in the yard of their grandmother’s long-abandoned house. The air was thick with dust and damp earth, yet that night, two brothers stood in the middle of the living room, watching a shadow on the wall that moved without light.Cassian held a small lantern, while Elias gripped a short sword etched with the sign of the cross.“He’s here,” Elias whispered. “I heard him when we opened the back door.”Cassian took a deep breath. “Don’t act rashly.”“Too late for that, brother.” Elias’s gaze lifted toward the ceiling. “Look.”The ceiling trembled softly. From between the rotten boards, black liquid began to drip—falling to the floor like blood flowing backward.Cassian pulled a small book from his coat pocket—Manual Obscura, a copy of an old scripture known only to the Church’s highest-ranking demon hunters.He read quickly in Latin:“Fiat lux in tenebris, et umbra cadat in nomen Domin
