The surge of accusation from Joshua, magnified by the crowd's paranoia, was enough. Despite Norman's stated belief in their innocence, the fragile command structure of the group could not withstand the fear.
After a brief, tense investigation, the verdict was simple: Kane and Linia were held as hostages and confined to a room until the situation—and their names—could be cleared.
Norman himself delivered the final order, his expression strained and apologetic. "Just stay here for a while," he said, locking the door behind them. "I believe that you are not part of this issue. You need to stay here... until the commotion settles."
"You better clear it fast," Kane warned, his voice low and devoid of compromise. Norman nodded grimly and left them in the cold, dusty confines of the small, temporary room.
As the key turned in the lock, Kane turned immediately to Philanias. "Is there anything suspicious you felt?"
Philanias nodded, her expression intensely focused. "Yeah. The timing of Emma's corpse."
"Isn't it a coincidence?" Kane countered, rubbing the back of his neck, the phantom tickle of danger still lingering. "Shouldn't we worry more about how the corpse reached here in the first place?"
"That too," she agreed, her ancient wisdom surfacing. "But why in front of us? It is way too coincidental. If anything I learned from my experience, too many coincidences is not good." She paused, letting the silence magnify the cold logic. "And what about you? Any suspicious thing you felt?"
Kane spent a long moment thinking, piecing together the last terrifying minutes with Emma. "Before Emma... vanished, we discussed a specific thing. The whole thing seemed off. But when I asked the last question, 'So, how long are you stuck here?', and then she vanished, without answering. She staggered all of a sudden, just before she disappeared."
Philanias's eyes narrowed. The sudden stagger—a momentary loss of focus, a psychic or physical seizure—was the key. "We need to search Emma's room after we get released," she concluded, her plan immediately formulated. If Emma was concealing a profound secret, her room would hold the physical evidence.
[Missy's POV]
Missy remained in their original room, where they had initially left her. After Linia and Kane left the room, she had heard the distant shouts, the sudden running, and the terrifying silence that followed. Both of them had ordered her to stay put, but the silence had been a long time, stretching into an unnatural dread.
Missy, the girl who was more doll than human, decided to venture out of the room.
She opened the door—slowly, silently—and stepped into the hallway. She walked around to find no one. The cathedral was eerily, vast and empty, like a tomb with the inhabitants still struggling to die.
As she came to the main hall, she spotted Clarice. Clarice was walking with a strange, aimless pace, seemingly in some sort of trance or deep, distracted worry. Missy observed her for a moment, her stitched mouth hidden beneath the heavy shadow of the hall. 'What exactly happened to her?' she thought, the question a rare flicker of curiosity in her blank soul.
Then, she acted. Missy took a miniature cloth and meticulously wrapped her mouth, covering the disturbing, stitched seam that made her look so unnatural. She then approached Clarice.
Clarice immediately noticed the figure approaching her. "So, who are you? I have never seen you before," she said, her voice laced with suspicion.
Missy, forced to speak with the cloth muffling her already faint voice, offered a quick, rehearsed lie. "I am one of Kane's friends. I got lost in the forest. I reached the cathedral in search of him. So, do you know where he is?"
Clarice looked at her, her suspicion slowly replaced by the weary fear of the desperate. "Follow me," she said, turning on her heel.
As they walked, Missy pressed for more information, trying to gauge the true extent of the horror. "So... Is there any other people in this cathedral?"
Clarice sighed, a sound of utter defeat. "Actually, there was. But everyone vanished all of a sudden."
Missy was shocked. 'When I was in Kane's Soul Sea, I saw people—a whole camp. Now they are vanished. What is happening here?' The scale of the disappearance was terrifyingly vast.
"Where are they?" Missy whispered, her voice barely audible.
Clarice sighed again, a sound of profound helplessness, and explained the events that had occurred—the husks, the locked door, the paranoia—ultimately leading to Kane and Linia's pseudo-imprisonment.
Missy was genuinely appalled. "Those two will never do it. I am sure of it."
They finally reached the room where Kane and Linia were being held. Clarice silently unlocked the door only to find... the room quiet. Kane and Linia were lying down, exhausted by the trauma and stress, having succumbed to sleep.
[Kane's POV]
Kane woke up to the sound of the door opening, seeing Clarice and Missy—the latter with her stitched mouth now wrapped with a cloth. 'Yeah, we left her in the room. Crap, I have some explaining to do to her,' he thought, the mundane concern fleetingly juxtaposed with the cosmic terror.
He sat up, addressing Clarice. "Is the issue resolved? Are we free to leave?"
Clarice looked between Linia and Kane, her face grim. "Actually, things got complicated." She then explained the shocking revelation that had occurred in the time they were gone: the majority of the surviving people were now missing, vanished without a trace, leaving only a handful behind.
Kane was shocked even more, a profound, cold fear finally gripping him. This wasn't a contained incident; it was an epidemic of disappearance. Linia's eyes widened, even she, the exiled god, was unsettled by the speed of the horror.
Released now, not because they were cleared, but because there was almost no one left to guard them, Kane and Linia walked out of the room.
Linia looked at Clarice, her voice urgent. "Did you search everywhere?"
Clarice pointed to one side of the vast, confusing building. "I looked at that side. I am yet to cover this side."
The need for action was paramount. They immediately split into two teams: Linia and Kane went on one side, and Missy and Clarice went on the other.
As Linia and Kane hurried down a deserted corridor, Linia's expression became deadly serious. "Do you feel the shivers—that tickle like sensation—in your spine right now?"
Kane was stunned. "How did you know about it?" It was his most private, spectral warning, an early symptom of his Aspect's danger.
"First, summon your storage Memory and get that figurine," Linia commanded, ignoring his question.
Kane quickly manifested the [Shrink Chest] and retrieved the grotesque white lady figurine—a souvenir from the cursed 'Dream Traveler.' He looked at the object in his hand. "What is it?"
Linia's eyes were fixed on the porcelain statue. "Remember the Pathways which I mentioned?"
"Yeah, there are 22 Pathways to reach the divine in your world, right?"
"In that 22 Pathways, there is a particular one named the Demoness Pathway. It revolves around feminity and catastrophe. This figurine contains a teeny, tiny spark of the Primordial Demoness's Power."
Kane was shocked to the core. The trinket he carried was a relic of an ancient, terrifying god. He looked at the fragile object in his hand. "So this is a god-blessed object. What is its use?"
"It has two abilities, I guess," Linia explained grimly. "One is to provide anti-divination and a warning to dangers, and the second protects from disease."
Kane thought for a moment, the facts colliding with a sickening clarity. He suddenly realized something essential. 'Wait. The shivers which felt in my spine when I entered the cathedral... It started from there! That means whatever it was, it had been stalking us from the moment we entered!'
His face went grim, the realization a cold wave of dread. Linia immediately noticed the profound shift in his demeanor. "What is it?"
Kane spoke, his voice tight with controlled fear. "The spine shivers started from when we entered the cathedral."
Linia's face went pale. The implication was horrifying: they had been lured, tracked, and trapped by a force that predated their arrival, a force capable of stripping the flesh from bone. They immediately hurried to meet the others.
Kane and Linia met Missy and Clarice back at the entrance area. The tension was palpable.
"Did you find anyone?" Kane asked, barely daring to hope.
Missy shook her head, her eyes wide. "Nope. None of them can be found."
Kane paused, thinking. "Let's go to Emma's room. I want to check something."
Clarice looked at him, the logic dawning on her. "You think that it might have stalked her?"
"Something like that," Kane confirmed, and immediately ran toward Emma's room.
Apparently, Emma's room was on the same floor as their own. They quickly entered the room. It was a simple, depressing space with a cot bed and a table that collected dust, clearly having never been cleaned—a sign of a person who had long given up on the mundane aspects of life.
Kane and the others started to search. As Kane checked the table, he found a collection of disparate items: clothing, makeshift knives, and several empty bags—all the portable signs of a long-term fugitive.
Among the clutter, there was an old, faded photograph of some people. Beneath it, scrawled in faded ink, were the words: 'First Batch.' The photo contained images of the dreamers
Kane spotted Emma in the picture, looking far younger and hopeful. 'Just how old was she?' he wondered.
As he was screening the photograph, his eyes suddenly landed on two shocking people. His breath hitched, the cosmic horror giving way to a devastating, personal blow.
He touched the two figures in the photo, his hand trembling.
**Kane spoke, his voice cracking with the ultimate, terrifying realization: "Mom. Dad."
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Here are the few Webnovel stories I might start (not Immediately,But surely I will)
1.Shadow Slave: Lumian Lee
Spoilers for the Domain war:
Lumian Lee and Aurora Lee,who was awakened who was in Valor Clan,When lord of shadows and Song of the fallen Siezed the domain from the Soveriegn,Unfortunate things befalled on them,What happened?Lumian must forge his own path from his own blood and conflicts
2.Shadow Slave:Black Emperor
A transmigrator who named himself,Roselle Gustav,is made reicarnated and must traverse this New World,Story starts after the year of Sunny's Batch.
3.Shadow Slave: I am Azik Eggers
A transmigrator who landed on Shadow slave named himself Azik Eggers,unknowingly followed a fixed fate.