Chapter 66: The Church of Shadows
The group ascended the steps—each forged from rippling shadow—with slow, cautious movements.
Every step closer to the church, an invisible weight settled heavier on their shoulders. Nausea twisted in Lucy’s gut, and judging by the expressions around him, he wasn’t alone. The air grew colder, the atmosphere more suffocating, and the whispers, still inaudible in sound, grew deafening in sensation. They didn’t hear them; they felt them. Like claws scraping against their minds.
’This has to be where they’re coming from,’ Lucy thought grimly as he and Bruma reached the final step.
The front of the church loomed above them.
Like the rest of the structure, the door was cloaked in a thick veil of shadow, impossibly dark. It towered over even Bruma’s massive frame, ending in a jagged oval arch just above her head. The surface was smooth but pulsed faintly, as if alive, breathing in slow, dreadful rhythm.
Lucy turned. The rest of the cohort had made it up the steps.
Llarm looked like he had aged five years. His usual confident posture had crumbled, replaced by hunched shoulders and trembling fingers.
No one had prepared for the cold. Their standard armor and thin cloaks were never meant for this unnatural frost that seemed to radiate from the very stone.
Carlos shivered violently in Fenric’s arms, little whimpers echoing in Lucy’s chest even though no sound reached his ears. The pup had been tense for days now, ever since the statue. And this church? It was worse.
Fenric, meanwhile, looked thrilled. The idiot. He grinned like a child on a battlefield, barely resisting the urge to scratch at his cursed neck. Lucy could tell his hands itched for action, but they stayed wrapped protectively around Carlos.
Behind them, Gindu stood tall, arms folded tightly across his chest. He exuded quiet confidence, but his eyes kept flicking toward Eri.