Xia Jienan flipped his body in one swift motion, using the chair as cover as he rolled out of the room. The moment he pulled the door shut, he clearly heard the thump of someone hitting the floor inside.
Something was wrong with that person. His footsteps landed unevenly on the carpet as if he were staggering about in drunken confusion.
Pressed against the door, Xia Jienan tried to hear the voices from inside. The soundproofing was too good though, and he could not make out a single word. He took a quick moment to calculate, then whispered silently in his heart.
I want to use listening.
[Listening, 46/50, average success.]
The muddled sounds beyond the wooden door suddenly sharpened.
“… it will work, it will definitely work. He has returned, so it must work.”
Then came a crazed giggle. “Hahaha. It is close now. So very close…”
After that was nothing but meaningless muttering on repeat.
Xia Jienan felt the bad premonition in his heart harden into certainty, but he also relaxed a little. At least it seemed Anthony’s estate had not managed to capture Sean. It made sense.
Last night that young boy had stood by the window with a gun in hand, completely fearless. Anyone could see he would not be easy to catch.
Using the shadows as cover, Xia Jienan withdrew from the third floor. Losing a bit of sanity was not the main issue. What mattered now was finding Sean, or at the very least ensuring that Anthony could not find him.
Xia Jienan rushed to the study, yanked Jiang Xing away from wasting time daydreaming in the library corner, and returned to the bedroom.
Du Yun was still curled under the blankets, in the exact same position as when they had left.
Xia Jienan kicked the bed frame gently and lowered his voice. “Get up. We need an excuse to go out.”
Du Yun lifted her head with messy hair and an annoyed expression. “For what?”
“To find Sean. Since you know which one he is this time, then you must also understand what happens during the summoning ritual, don’t you not?” Xia Jienan asked.
Du Yun froze. After recalling something, her expression changed dramatically. “How do you know? Are you sure?”
“In the small reception room on the third floor,” Xia Jienan replied. “There is a photograph in Anthony’s drawer. Sean as a child.”
The little Sean in that photograph looked terribly unwell. He wore a long ceremonial robe, his eyes dim and his body frail. Even though the picture was black and white, based on the mask he held, that robe must have been yellow.
Du Yun leapt off the bed barefoot and paced anxiously across the room. She clearly understood the implications. “What is wrong with him? Why would he come back like this? He escaped, he was already free.”
She grabbed her hair, brushed it aside impatiently, and asked, “We are leaving now? Can you guess where he might be?”
Xia Jienan shook his head. “That is why we need to go out and look. All three of us leaving together will look suspicious. I will go with you…”
“I will go with Jiang Xing. You will stay here.” Du Yun cut him off directly. She met his gaze squarely.
“Jiang Xing is terrible at talking to people, and he and I have the identity background of a couple. Going out together is completely justified. Any other pairing would draw attention.”
She paused. Her voice softened in a way it rarely did. “And Xia Jienan… do not do something foolish.”
Finished speaking, she grabbed the still bewildered Jiang Xing by the wrist and pulled him out the door.
Left alone in the room, Xia Jienan watched their figures disappear down the corridor. He stood in silence for a long moment before letting out a sigh. With both hands shoved deep into his pockets, he murmured, “What counts as foolish…”
He understood perfectly well what Du Yun meant, but he did not believe he would repeat her mistakes. No matter how real this place felt, it was still false. Their only goal here was survival. He had understood that from the very beginning.
Helping Sean was only a means of opposing the will behind all this and seizing a chance at victory. Nothing more.
He wanted to believe it was nothing more.
Turning away, Xia Jienan closed the door and went to look for the butler. There was still a difficult battle ahead, and no one knew how much time they could win.
Meanwhile, Ye Yuzhi in the church knew nothing of the chaos unfolding within Anthony’s estate. His thoughts were still tangled around the revelations concerning Anthony.
The elderly nun, now recovered from her earlier exhaustion, found him a black robe and gestured for him to put it on. “Stay with me for the time being. Anthony owes me a favor. He will not dare try to seize you by force.”
Ye Yuzhi accepted the robe with a soft thank you. “Anthony… has been the same person all this time?”
“Yes.” The nun lit the candles one after another. “I do not know what he did, but the one who rose from that charred corpse is the man you saw today.”
Ye Yuzhi could not make sense of it. The logic defied every natural law he knew, but then again, his arrival in this world was not scientific either. For now, he decided not to think too deeply.
“If I had not come back,” he asked, putting on the robe, “would that mean he could not summon that… that thing?”
The nun’s hand paused mid movement. She turned her head and looked at him quietly.
“No. This is not your fault. If not you, he would have chosen another. His time has already been set.”
Ye Yuzhi tugged anxiously at the robe sleeve. “Since you know all of this, why not leave? Why stay here?”
The nun’s eyes filled with sorrow. “It is different, little Sean. I must stay. Anthony is committing a grave sin. I will stop him.”
“He may not care about the lives of the people of Guerrero, but I do. These young ones grew up under my baptism. I am their mother in the church. I cannot abandon them.”
She reached out and tapped Ye Yuzhi lightly on the forehead. “You as well. By tradition, you should call me Mother Alide.”
Ye Yuzhi covered the spot she touched, his mind dazed as he watched Mother Alide move across the church, lighting every candle with quiet devotion.
These people were real people. The innkeeper, the librarian, the gentle woman before him. Every one of them was vividly alive in front of him.
He suddenly realized that even without a mission demanding him to interfere in a summoning ritual, if someone simply told him these stories, he would still return.
He would at least try to take them with him.
Night gradually blanketed the town. Mother Alide opened the church doors, welcoming the arriving townsfolk. One by one, people entered, sitting beside their chosen candles.
When nearly everyone had gathered, Mother Alide recited prayers, guiding them to cast away the calamities and misfortunes of the past year and embrace the coming year with hope and abundance.
After several rounds of prayer, she distributed the wine and bread offered before the statue.
Ye Yuzhi also received a piece of bread and a small cup of wine.
“Bless me” The townspeople whispered quietly before eating the bread and drinking the wine.
When everything was over, they began to leave one after another. Watching their retreating figures, Ye Yuzhi hesitated. “There seem to be fewer people than there should be.”
Guerrero town should have had far more residents.
Mother Alide extinguished several candles and replied, “Some have followed evil. Some have lost their faith.”
Understanding dawned on Ye Yuzhi, and he helped her clean the church floor. Time blurred as they worked, until eventually she climbed the bell tower to strike the bell, then came back down.
“Come with me,” she said.
Carrying his candle, Ye Yuzhi followed her through a side door into the church’s resting quarters. She led him into a modest room, wished him a good night, and closed the door behind him.
He placed the candle on the small table and sank into thought.
Why had Sean returned? If he knew what was happening here, would he have made the same reckless choices that Ye Yuzhi himself was beginning to make?
The background story he had heard did not include the details of what happened inside the hospital. But he had seen the crazed fanaticism of Anthony, the sickening fervor burning in his eyes.
If this was what faith looked like, then surely Mother Alide was proof that not all believers were so deranged.
No, it must be the influence of the so called god.
Ye Yuzhi lay back on the bed, staring at the flickering candlelight on the ceiling. Perhaps there was still something he had not pieced together.
He raised his hand and rested it under his head, his fingers brushing the scar on his own skull. Think carefully. Was there something he missed?
[Inspiration 21/70, overcoming difficulties.]
The moment he had yet to figure out why that sound had rung out again, Ye Yuzhi’s consciousness was abruptly dragged somewhere else.
He did not know where he was. Shadows of people surrounded him on all sides, towering silhouettes that seemed impossibly tall, like giants leaning down to stare at him. They encircled him in a silent ring, each of them holding something in their hands as they chanted in low, indistinguishable tones.
The ground beneath his feet felt wrong. Strange patterns had been drawn there, painted with a vivid red substance that pulsed faintly before his eyes, striking directly at his mind like a blow.
The characters spilling from the towering figures mouths were impossible to understand. Each syllable slithered toward him, stabbing into his eardrums and boring into his skull as though they were alive.
Everything around him shifted out of place. His field of vision fractured and twisted violently, the world tilting in jagged angles. His stomach lurched as though someone had poured a vast tide of seawater straight into it, a thick briny stench mixed with bitter rot rising sharply into his nose and mouth.
He wanted to retch. He desperately wanted to, yet not a single thing came up.
Who were these people? What were they chanting? And who or what were they trying to summon?
The darkness warped and collapsed inward. No, not just the world. His own body was twisting as well.
He lowered his gaze. Beneath the hem of the yellow robe he wore, there were no legs that could be called human. Instead there were warped, curling, indescribable masses, shapes twisting in ways that made his vision reel.
What were those things?
What had grown out of his body?
Ye Yuzhi lay flat on his bed. His consciousness struggled helplessly, unable to return.
Right on time, just like a malicious joke delivered every night without fail, the sharp note of a single drip sliced through his ears again.
[San check 1/10]
This time, Ye Yuzhi could not muster any reaction. He had no strength to pull himself away from the lingering horror. The nausea was overwhelming, far too overwhelming.
The pain still clinging to his body felt as if something had tried to cram itself into every organ and limb, forcing his flesh apart. The memory of that sensation made it impossible for him to fully wake.
Yet the sound showed no mercy. It never paused, never hesitated, never spared him even the smallest kindness simply because he was suffering.
[98/80, a major failure, sanity = 38.]
[A temporary madness.]
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Nycreth
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Guerrero’s Lair (1)Chapter 2 · Guerrero’s Lair (2)Chapter 3 · Guerrero’s Lair (3)Chapter 4 · Guerrero’s Lair (4)Chapter 5 · Guerrero’s Lair (5)Chapter 6 · Guerrero’s Lair (6)Chapter 7 · Guerrero’s Lair (7)Chapter 8 · Guerrero’s Lair (8)Chapter 9 · Guerrero’s Lair (9)Chapter 10 · Guerrero’s Lair (10)Chapter 11 · Guerrero’s Lair (11)Chapter 12 · Guerrero’s Lair (12)Chapter 13 · Guerrero’s Lair (13)Chapter 14 · Guerrero’s Lair (14)Chapter 15 · Guerrero’s Lair (15)Chapter 16 · Guerrero’s Lair (16)Chapter 17 · Guerrero’s Lair (17)Chapter 18 · Guerrero’s Lair (18)Chapter 19 · Guerrero’s Lair (19)Chapter 20 · Guerrero’s Lair (20)Chapter 21 · Guerrero’s Lair (21)Chapter 22 · Guerrero’s Lair (22)Chapter 23 · Interlude (1)Chapter 24 · The interlude (2)Chapter 25 · The interlude (3)Chapter 26 Part 1 · Calling in the Wind (1)Chapter 26 Part 2 · Calling in the Wind (1)Chapter 27 · Calling in the Wind (2)Chapter 28 · Calling in the Wind (3)Chapter 29 · Calling in the Wind (4)Chapter 30 · Calling in the Wind (5)Chapter 31 · Calling in the Wind (6)Chapter 32 · Calling in the Wind (7)Chapter 33 · Calling in the Wind (8)Chapter 34 · Calling in the Wind (9)Chapter 35 · Calling in the Wind (10)Chapter 36 · Interlude (4)Chapter 37 · Interlude (5)Chapter 38 · Interlude (6)Chapter 39 · Interlude (7)Chapter 40 · Interlude (8)Chapter 41 · Interlude (9)Chapter 42 · Welcome to Doville (1)Chapter 43 · Welcome to Doville (2)Chapter 44 · Welcome to Doville (3)Chapter 45 · Welcome to Doville (4)Chapter 46 · Welcome to Doville (5)Chapter 47 · Welcome to Doville (6)Chapter 48 · Welcome to Doville (7)Chapter 49 · Welcome to Doville (8)Chapter 50 · Welcome to Doville (9)Chapter 51 · Welcome to Doville (10)Chapter 52 · Welcome to Doville (11)Chapter 53 · Welcome to Doville (12)Chapter 54 · Interlude (10)Chapter 55 · Interlude (11)Chapter 56 · Interlude (12)Chapter 57 · Interlude (13)Chapter 58 · Interlude (14)Chapter 59 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (1)Chapter 60 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (2)Chapter 61 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (3)Chapter 62 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (4)Chapter 63 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (5)Chapter 64 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (6)Chapter 65 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (7)Chapter 66 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (8)Chapter 67 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (9)Chapter 68 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (10)Chapter 69 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (11)Chapter 70 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (12)Chapter 71 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (13)Chapter 72 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (14)Chapter 73 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (15)Chapter 74 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (16)Chapter 75 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (17)Chapter 76 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (18)Chapter 77 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (19)Chapter 78 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (20)Chapter 79 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (21)Chapter 80 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (22)Chapter 81 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (23)Chapter 82 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (24)Chapter 83 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (25)Chapter 84 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (26)Chapter 85 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (27)Chapter 86 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (28)Chapter 87 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (29)Chapter 88 · Tunnel in the Dark Night (30)Chapter 89 · Interlude (15)Chapter 90 · Interlude (16)Chapter 91 · Interlude (17)Chapter 92 · The Promise of Hamelin (1)Chapter 93 · The Promise of Hamelin (2)Chapter 94 · The Promise of Hamelin (3)Chapter 95 · The Promise of Hamelin (4)Chapter 96 · The Promise of Hamelin (5)Chapter 97 · The Promise of Hamelin (6)Chapter 98 · The Promise of Hamelin (7)Chapter 99 · The Promise of Hamelin (8)Chapter 100 · The Promise of Hamelin (9)Chapter 101 · The Promise of Hamelin (10)Chapter 102 · The Promise of Hamelin (11)Chapter 103 · The Promise of Hamelin (12)Chapter 104 · The Promise of Hamelin (13)Chapter 105 · The Promise of Hamelin (14)Chapter 106 · The Promise of Hamelin (15)Chapter 107 · The Promise of Hamelin (16)Chapter 109 · The Promise of Hamelin (18)Chapter 110 · The Promise of Hamelin (19)