Chapter 243: Fracture XLVIII
The nauseating stench of sewer dissolved into sulphur, then nothing. When sensation returned, it came wrong—a sticky wetness beneath my fingertips, dense and pliant, with a slickness that turned my stomach. The air hung heavy, carrying neither sound nor warmth, as if the very atmosphere had been bled dry.
Red stained earth stretched endlessly, boot prints telling the story of thousands—yet not a single body remained. Only parts: a severed arm here, an emaciated eye there, each fragment a grotesque reminder of what was missing. The eye, gray and lifeless, stared up from its nest of churned mud as I passed, my boots struggling to find purchase in the treacherous ground. Each step threatened to pull me under, the earth itself seeming to hunger for more casualties.
I pressed forward through the desolation, my thoughts swimming against a current of confusion. The lithid's veil had weakened, but its magic still wrapped around my mind like a thorned crown, each attempt at focus bringing fresh waves of doubt. Above, the sun hung suspended between existence and oblivion—either dawn or dusk, offering just enough light to illuminate the horror without providing any comfort of day.
I was here— Why was I here?
Sevran and Zinn's stricken faces surfaced through the mire of my thoughts, sharpening my purpose. Find them. Find them before the lithid could finish its feast. If this hallucination matched the depth and breadth of my previous entrapment, I faced wingspans of distance with precious little time. The monster had recreated an entire section of the capital with masterful detail—this wasteland could be equally vast.
The terrain rolled out in every direction, each hill identical to the last, each valley promising only more desolation. Nothing broke the monotony of mud and blood and boot prints. No landmarks. No guidance. Nothing.
This made no sense. The lithid had shown me a fantasy before—a cruel reimagining of my life as it might have been. I'd expected similar torments for the others, but this? This was something else entirely.
"Help... someone... help..."
The voice barely existed, a ghost of sound carried on the barest whisper of wind. I stood motionless, waiting. It came again, and I followed, pausing between each repetition to confirm my course. The mud grew deeper as I trudged through an embankment, threatening to swallow my boots entirely.