[The King of Worms (Grade—SSS / Mutated Worms Has Been Detected!]
deia frowned and looked around the church, trying to see if anything felt off.
But there was nothing.
Based on the na alone, The King of Worms was supposed to be huge, right? So she should’ve been able to spot it easily.
However, deia couldn’t find anything strange around her. There were no monsters or strange creatures inside. Not even the slightest sign or weird sound, aside from the storm raging outside.
deia stood up from the chair, deciding to explore the church. She glanced at Lucian and saw that he was still struggling to fulfill every demand from the old n.
It looked like she would have to do this alone.
"deia, where are you going?" Sora asked, carrying a stack of blankets as she walked toward her.
deia replied, "Ah, I just want to look around. It’s okay, right?"
Sora smiled. "That’s fine, but don’t go too far. I’m worried because so parts of the building are starting to fall apart, and I’m afraid they might collapse on you."
deia waved her hand. "I’ll keep that in mind."
Sora placed the blankets on the pews. They weren’t in great condition—patchy, stained, and dusty—but at least they were thick enough to keep them warm.
"Here, use this while you walk."
Sora wrapped a dark brown scarf around deia’s neck. The scarf slled like old wood, probably stored in a box for too long, which made deia frown slightly, but she didn’t refuse her kindness.
"Thank you." deia gave her a soft smile before walking away from the nave.
To her surprise, she heard footsteps behind her. "What are you doing?" she asked, turning around and walking backward as she spotted Tian following her.
"I’m bored," Tian shrugged, clearly not caring about her reaction.
"You could help Naomi and Finn clean the blankets Sora brought," deia said, glancing over at them. Naomi even seed to be enjoying herself so much that she couldn’t stop smiling or maybe her smile muscles were just broken.
"That sounds even more boring," Tian replied. "It’s not like you can stop from walking around the church, right?"
Well, he had a point. And honestly, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to have soone with her. At least she wouldn’t be bored.
"Whatever," deia said, turning back around and heading into the hallway. "Not like I care."
Unlike modern churches that had simple layouts, this place looked like it had been built a few hundred years ago. The old walls and wooden details gave it an authentic, almost creepy vibe.
deia raised her flashlight, pointing it down the long, dark hallway in front of them. It was so quiet that they could hear the wind from the storm even more clearly here.
"Not scared of this hallway?" deia asked, trying to ss with him. "If I asked Finn to walk through here alone, I bet he’d turn into the Lost in five seconds."
Tian mocked her, "You’re scarier than any ghost."
A vein popped on deia’s forehead, but she decided to hold herself back from punching the man in front of her.
"What are you even looking for?" Tian asked before deia could vent her anger. "I know you’d rather lie down on a bench than walk around aimlessly."
deia narrowed her eyes, surprised that Tian knew her habits and what she was about to do, even though they rarely interacted daily.
Was her laziness really that obvious? Like, as clear as the sky?
"I’m not sure," deia murmured as she ran her fingertips along the stone wall, feeling the cold, rough surface. "I just want to check sothing."
Tian raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"
deia tilted her head thoughtfully. "Like ... where that door might lead."
She pointed her flashlight toward an old wooden door tucked into the corner of the room. Unlike the other doors, this one was thick with dust, like no one had touched it in years.
The elders had ntioned they only used the important rooms, like the kitchen and the ones for priests and nuns, so it made sense that there were still plenty of places they hadn’t explored.
"Looks like a cellar door," Tian said.
deia stepped closer and tried to peek through the small gap, but it was too narrow to see anything.
"Maybe," she said with a playful smile. "What if we find a secret treasure room down there?"
Tian rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue. "And what good is treasure if we can’t even use gold to buy food anymore?"
He grabbed the handle and gave it a pull, but it didn’t budge. "I’m guessing it’s just so storage space. Or maybe a quiet place the nuns used to pray."
deia leaned against the wall, watching as he tried to pick the lock with a knife. "You sure know a lot about churches."
"Anyone who goes to church often would know that," Tian replied, still focused on the lock.
Yeah, maybe. But not everyone would look at an old cellar door and imdiately think, ’Oh, that’s probably where the nuns used to pray.’
"You seem pretty familiar with this place too," deia said, watching as Tian paused, his knife still pressed against the door. "I saw you earlier, walking into that room behind the altar."
Tian glanced at her. "Is exploring a new place suddenly against the rules?"
"Not at all," deia replied. "But the way you move around this church ... it’s like you already know where everything is."
She’d been noticing it for a while. Tian didn’t act like soone seeing things for the first ti. He never stopped to look around, never seed surprised by anything.
And earlier, when Sora asked him to grab food from the kitchen, he knew exactly where to find the plates, without even looking.
It was almost like ... he’d been here before.
"You’ve been here, haven’t you?" she asked softly, keeping her eyes on him.
Tian didn’t respond right away. Instead, he focused on the lock again, jiggling his knife like he hadn’t heard her. The silence hung in the air, broken only by the distant sound of wind howling outside.
deia leaned her head against the wall, staring up at the dusty, cobweb-covered ceiling.
Just as she heard the click of the lock opening, she spoke again. "This church ... it wasn’t used to worship God, was it?"
She looked at Tian from the corner of her eye and noticed his hand was shaking. He couldn’t even slide the dagger back into his pocket properly.
"What do you think they were worshiping here?" asked him.
"Demons," deia answered, raising her flashlight to the ceiling of the hallway.
Even under all the dust, she could still find sothing strange and striking carved into the stone. "I’ve gotta admit ... whoever drew these symbols really knew what they were doing."
As deia walked through the hallway, she spotted sothing that felt strangely familiar, sothing that made her feel like she was ho.
The demon symbols.
The symbols were carved into the ceiling, shaped like a circle of snakes, each one biting the tail of the next. They twisted together like a never-ending loop.
In the center of the circle, there were large eyes, and even though it was just a carving, it looked like it could suddenly open. Around the eye were strange letters that glowed a little red, like they were still alive.
The symbols weren’t just there. They were everywhere, etched along the hallway, hidden on the pews. deia even spotted a few pentagrams drawn so subtly they almost disappeared into the wood.
Most people probably wouldn’t have noticed. The carvings were ant to blend in, drawn faintly enough to hide in plain sight, but deia wasn’t most people.
She knew these markings. She was familiar with it.
She couldn’t not see them.
"Are you one of them, Tian?" she asked quietly. "Do you worship whatever these symbols were made for?"
Tian gritted his teeth so hard, deia could actually hear it.
If he really was from the city, then how did he suddenly show up here in Willow Village?
It didn’t make sense.
"You’re being ridiculous," Tian finally said. "I’ve never been here before."
As he reached for the cellar door, deia grabbed his hand. "Do you know about this?" she asked. "Once you bind your soul to a demon ... nothing good ever cos of it."
Tian finally turned his head and looked straight into her eyes. "Who cares?" he snapped. "It’s not like I ever bound my soul to one."
"I know," deia said softly.
Then, without warning, she grabbed his collar and tugged it down just enough to reveal a faint, thin line across his neck.
"Because you were never ant to bind your soul to a demon," she said. "You were ant to be their sacrificial lamb."
Tian slapped her hand away roughly and took a few steps back. "Are you insane?!"
He grabbed his collar, trying to cover the thin line that looked like a knife cut. "And anyway, why do you care so much about this?!"
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