Chapter 100: Meeting Elara’s Father (2)
It looked like this matter was much deeper than what Riku had expected it to be. Someone was planning something big, and this basement was an important piece of the puzzle.
However, before Riku could process the full extent of this hidden hoard, a figure emerged from the deeper shadows at the far end of the storage chamber.
The man was gaunt, his clothes tattered, his skin almost entirely covered in the dark, pulsating crimson marks of the Creep. Yet, he moved with an unnerving steadiness, his eyes, though bloodshot, holding a spark of sharp awareness.
Elara stared at the silhouette stepping out from the deeper shadows with her breath hitched.
The way he moved, the set of his shoulders even beneath the tattered clothes... it was so familiar.
"Is that...?" she whispered, her voice trembling, half in fear, half in a wild, burgeoning hope.
As the figure stepped further into the dim torchlight filtering from the tunnel, his features became clearer. Gaunt, yes. Ravaged by the crimson marks, undeniably. But beneath the horror of the Creep, the lines of his face, the shape of his jaw...
Elara’s hand flew to her mouth, a choked sob escaping. Her eyes, wide with disbelief, began to fill with tears. The suspicion, the desperate hope, solidified into a heart-wrenching certainty.
"Papa...?" she breathed, the word a fragile thing, heavy with weeks of fear and sorrow. Then, louder, as tears of overwhelming joy began to stream freely down her cheeks, "Father! It is you!"