Chapter 97: So They Can Summon Using That Huh?
The silence didn’t last.
It started with the soft scrape of boots across wet ground—barely audible, almost part of the wind. Then came the creak of old wood shifting. Somewhere beyond the collapsed buildings, something moved. Not fast. Not loud. Just there. Watching. Waiting.
Inside the ruined house, Inigo sat upright with his shotgun resting across his lap. He hadn’t slept. Neither had Arienne, who sat cross-legged near the table, her hand hovering over the tracefinder. Its glow had intensified slightly, pulsing like a heartbeat.
Korrik stood by the door with his axe drawn, peering through a crack in the wood. "They’re not gone."
"No," Inigo said quietly. "Just hiding again."
The others gathered in silence. Lyra was nursing a scrape on her shoulder. Garen had a fresh dent in his pauldron but nothing serious. No one had died, but they all knew how close it was.
"Tracefinder?" Inigo asked.
Arienne nodded. "Still reacting. Stronger than before. The source is definitely below us."
"Then we find the entrance."
They moved out cautiously. Hollowmere’s buildings loomed like skeletons in fog. The sun was just beginning to rise, casting long, sharp shadows across the empty town square. Most of the cultist bodies from the night before had been dragged off or disintegrated. Only a few blood smears remained.
They followed the signal through the town’s center and toward the old chapel. The roof was partially collapsed, and vines had grown across the stained glass. A broken bell lay shattered near the steps.