Kael did not venture deeper inside. Instead, he waited at the entrance, if that place could even be called an entrance.
He knew this dinsion.
It was a separate mirror pathway, suspended between the mirror world and the abyssal dinsion. A distorted passage that constantly shifted the point of occurrence, making direction, distance, and even logic unreliable.
Anyone who walked carelessly inside could be lost forever.
Monts passed.
The space rippled, as if a curtain of air had been pulled aside, and a figure slowly walked out of the shifting darkness.
"Lord… is that you?" the man asked, his voice cautious but familiar.
"Yes," Kael replied calmly upon hearing the tone.
The man pulled back his hood.
It was Brawn.
His eyes moved quickly from Kael to Ariana, then back again.
"How is the situation outside?" Brawn asked.
"Not optimistic," Kael said, shaking his head slightly. "You rats are hidden quite deeply. It's very difficult to pinpoint each of you and take you out."
"The current battle outside felt like modern-day guerrilla warfare, except it was happening inside a concrete forest instead of jungles. Enemies struck from unseen angles, vanished into buildings."
Brawn nodded grimly. "I expected that."
He then gestured for them to co closer, but raised a hand before moving.
"Okay, co with . But before that," Brawn said, his tone turning serious, "rember a few things."
Kael crossed his arms. "Go on."
"First, don't react no matter what you see."
"That's easy," Kael replied without hesitation.
Ariana shot him a sharp side glance but stayed quiet.
"Second," Brawn continued, "don't talk much. If anyone asks sothing, just stay quiet. They won't doubt you because you keep quiet."
"Third," Brawn paused for a mont, then spoke carefully, "if you get caught, use this badge to run."
He handed two dark badges to Kael and Ariana.
The badge was cold to the touch. It was made of black tal, rough and uneven, as if it had been carved rather than forged. At its center was the symbol of the Abyssal Lord. A half-hanged man, arms spread wide, crucified on a twisted cross-shaped mark. The face was stretched in silent agony, eyes hollow, mouth frozen mid-scream.
The symbol alone made Ariana's stomach churn.
"Once inside, you'll need this to open the passage," Brawn said. "And make sure my cover isn't blown, unlike yours."
Ariana frowned. "Why do you speak as if our cover will be blown away easily?"
Brawn stared at her for a few seconds. Then he swallowed hard.
"You won't understand even if I say it," he replied. "No, even I don't fully understand. Also, in the end, you are going to disrupt the ritual anyway. Your cover will be blown regardless, so let's not waste ti."
With that, he turned and walked forward.
Kael and Ariana exchanged a glance, then followed.
"The door you ca through was just an entrance," Brawn explained as they moved. "You can enter it with codes, but there is a barrier here. Unless you have the token, you can't pass."
He raised his own badge.
The space in front of them warped again, and the barrier dissolved like mist being torn apart.
They stepped through.
The inner land of the Abyssal Sect revealed itself.
It was ancient.
The structures were made of black stone and bone, carved with symbols that hurt to look at for too long. The air felt thick and sticky, filled with whispers that crawled into the ears even when no one was speaking. Dim crimson lights pulsed from the walls, like a heartbeat.
Ariana's eyes widened.Her face turned pale, and she felt nausea rise from her stomach.
The place was filled with maniacs.
So were kneeling, mumbling prayers in broken voices. Others laughed softly while rocking back and forth. And many of them were crucified.
Bodies were nailed to twisted crosses, so still alive, others long dead. Flesh rotted and lted down their bones, dripping slowly onto the ground. The sll of decay mixed with incense, creating a suffocating stench.
Ariana clenched her jaw and forced herself not to retch.
Kael looked around calmly and clicked his tongue.
"I still don't understand this strange fetish of Abyssal Sect people," he muttered.
Brawn did not respond.
Kael continued, his voice low. "People use photos to commorate a person's achievents after death. But these people bring the remains of the person and crucify them instead."
He shook his head slightly.
"Disgusting," he added quietly.
Ariana hugged her cloak tighter around herself as they walked deeper into the madness, every step pulling them closer to the heart of the ritual and the nightmare waiting at its center.
It felt as if they had walked into an asylum by mistake.
The air was heavy, thick with madness. Whispers crawled along the walls, sotis laughing, sotis crying, sotis screaming without sound. Shadows moved where there were no bodies, and the floor felt warm, as if sothing beneath it was breathing.
Seeing this, Kael glanced at Brawn and asked calmly, "Are you sure you are alright?"
He looked at the man from head to toe and added, "I think you might need ntal therapy after getting out of this place."
"Hahh… such things aren't enough to faze !" Brawn shouted with strange delight, spreading his arms as if he felt at ho.
Ariana, who had been scanning the surroundings with unease, suddenly grabbed Kael's arm tightly. Her fingers trembled.
"Aren't we going quite deep?" she whispered, her voice low but strained.
"I can hear you," Brawn replied without turning back. "I am taking you to the core region. I am already one of the top heads here. Above , there are only two S ranks and one SSS rank, and they have already gone out to deal with Duke Serpentine."
Kael and Ariana exchanged a brief look but said nothing.
They continued walking.
The deeper they went, the more warped the place beca. The walls bent inward at strange angles. Symbols carved into stone pulsed faintly, as if alive. So floors were slick with dried blood, while others were covered in ash and bone fragnts. Chains hung from the ceiling, rattling softly even though there was no wind.
Then they reached the core region.
Ariana's breath caught.
The core was a massive circular chamber, far larger than the structure outside should allow. The ceiling stretched upward into darkness, and the ground was carved with an enormous ritual array. Countless lines intersected, glowing with crimson and black light, all converging at a central altar.
The altar itself was made of black stone and fused flesh.
Around it stood towering pillars shaped like crucified figures, so still twitching, others long dead. Their mouths were open as if frozen mid-scream, and dark liquid dripped steadily from their bodies, flowing along the ritual lines like veins feeding a heart.
The air vibrated with chanting.
Not spoken by one voice, but by many, overlapping, distorted, and echoing from every direction. It was impossible to tell where it ca from.
Ariana felt her stomach twist violently.
"This is…" she whispered, unable to finish the sentence.
Kael's expression darkened, his eyes cold as he scanned the chamber. Even he felt a faint pressure pressing against his chest.
Before either of them could take another step, a deep voice echoed across the chamber.
"Are they here?"
The voice was loud, yet it did not co from any single direction. It seed to vibrate directly inside their heads.
"Here?" Kael tilted his head slightly, confused.
Ariana did the sa, her heart pounding. "Who is talking?"
Before either could react further, the scene shifted again.
Brawn stepped forward.
Then, to their complete shock, he dropped to one knee.
"Yes, sir," Brawn said respectfully, lowering his head. "I have brought them."
The chanting slowed.
The ritual array pulsed brighter.
"Two pure souls," Brawn continued calmly.
For a brief mont, silence fell over the chamber.Then the sudden realization hit them.
Kael's eyes widened.
Ariana's face went pale as blood drained from it.
The two of them scread at the sa ti.
'What the fuckkkkkkk?'
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