Chapter 240: He Really Thought It Would Work

Words : 1045 Updated : Sep 27th, 2025

Chapter 240: He Really Thought It Would Work The silence inside wasn’t just quiet—it was heavy. Different from the stillness outside. The kind that felt like the whole place was holding its breath. The snow was gone now, but the cold hadn’t left. It had settled into the walls, changing shape. Not freezing and not biting. Just waiting. The stone no longer looked like normal stone. The walls were covered in symbols—layers of them, drawn over each other without care. Some were old. Others looked broken or unfinished. If you stared too long, a few seemed to shift, like they were made from something more than just stone. Lilith stepped forward. The normal floor started showing cracks that would have broken the tiles. However, some kind of force was preventing them from breaking, as the structure remained the same as before. Nevertheless, the air pulled back slightly, as if it didn’t want her there. Her coat brushed the ground as she moved, and her heels made no sound at all. Seraphina walked to her left. She wasn’t searching for traps—she was looking for falsehoods, for anything pretending to be what it wasn’t. Liliana drifted right, one hand near her lance. Her body looked relaxed, but her movements were careful, ready to act at a moment’s notice. Isabella stayed near the entrance. She didn’t step inside yet. Her eyes scanned the room, reading it like a map. Her shadows stayed behind her, still for now. In the center, a small raised platform sat like it had been forgotten halfway through construction. It didn’t look like an altar or a throne—just a broken step that had no purpose. At its base was a crude symbol, drawn in uneven strokes and circles that didn’t line up. It pulsed softly. Faint and slow. Behind it, leaning against a slab of cracked stone, was the cult leader. He was still alive, though barely. His breathing was shallow. One eye was open, swollen and red. The other was sealed shut with dried blood. His arm was twisted. His legs bent the wrong way. One hand reached out, clutching at nothing. He looked like he should’ve been dead already. A weak sound escaped his mouth—not a word. Just something tired and broken. Lilith stopped near the altar. No one asked what to do. They already knew. She raised her hand and held it over the glowing mark. She didn’t touch it. She didn’t need to. The sigil broke apart on its own. It didn’t explode or disappear. It cracked, slowly, like it had given up. A low hiss rose from beneath the altar—heat, not smoke—and vanished just as quickly. The room dimmed slightly. Not because light was lost, but because the shadows had nowhere left to hide. The cult leader suddenly spoke, fast and broken. Not in a language anyone understood, but the desperation in his voice was clear. The words came too quickly, stacked over each other like he was using more mouths than he had. He wasn’t calling for help. He was begging for a purpose, for meaning. His eye met Lilith’s. His body shook, and even without words, it was obvious. He was pleading. Lilith raised a finger to her lips. "Shhh." The moment she said it, his body jerked. His mouth closed. His eye widened. She hadn’t touched him. She hadn’t needed to. The moment the seal broke, everything he had relied on fell with it. Whatever force he thought would protect him had either abandoned him or had never been real at all. The room trembled once. Not enough to damage anything, but just enough for everyone to feel. The altar split in half. A clean line ran through it from top to bottom. Lilith’s ring pulsed once. The silver looked colder than before. Outside, the light changed. A dull red filled the air. Not bright. Not violent. Just there. And the snow came back—but it wasn’t falling. It was rising, as if the sky had flipped upside down. Isabella finally stepped inside. "There’s more beneath us," she said. "Old tunnels. Ritual rooms. They didn’t finish." "Unfinished?" Seraphina asked. Isabella shook her head. "No. Interrupted." Liliana stepped closer to the cult leader. She looked at his face, then down at the cracked stone. "He really thought it would work." Lilith still didn’t say anything. She walked past the altar and into a smaller room near the back. The walls closed in, then opened again into a cramped second chamber. The stone was rough. The air felt worse here. On the floor were markings scratched by hand. Not ink. Not paint. Just lines carved in hard, like someone had used their fingers or bone. The shapes were barely circles. Most didn’t connect. A mess that tried to become a door but never did. At the center of it all was nothing. Just a blank spot. Lilith knelt in front of it, resting her hands on her legs. She stared at that empty space. It wasn’t a trap. It wasn’t a portal. It was a placeholder. Someone had been trying to summon something. But they didn’t know what. That was the missing piece. The cult leader hadn’t been trying to bring something here. He had been offering. His body. His followers. This whole temple. He had thrown them into the dark and hoped something would answer. Nothing had. Not until now. The others didn’t say anything, but they felt it too. The room that had once been empty now had weight. Something was watching. Not close. Not loud. But aware. Lilith reached into her coat and pulled out a small, black stone. It wasn’t glowing or carved. Just smooth and polished. Old. She placed it in the center of the floor. Then she stood. And turned around. "We’re done," she said. Liliana nodded and walked out first. Seraphina paused, scanned the room again, then followed. Isabella walked backward out of the chamber, eyes still on the center of the circle. Outside, the red light faded. The snow settled. Everything looked normal again. But nothing inside the temple would respond anymore. They reached the transport. No one spoke. Lilith didn’t look back. There was nothing left to report. This had been the last node. But not the last warning.

Chapter 240: He Really Thought It Would Work

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