Chapter 172 A New Space
Chapter 172 A New Space
The moment the insects engulfed Charles's head, the sudden visual darkness and instant suffocating sensation made his nerves spike with tension.
Before Charles could fully experience this long-lost nervousness, a powerful suction from within the door seized him. In an instant, it yanked him through the doorway!
Poor Charles, his head wrapped in insects, couldn't even cry out.
Charles could distinctly feel his body being violently dragged. After nearly half a minute of ultra-high-speed pulling, with his devoured right arm as the pivot point, his body was suddenly flung outward!
Charles crashed hard onto the ground. The solid surface made him scream in agony.
He curled into himself, left hand clutching his right elbow—which had hit the ground first—the pain nearly robbing him of voice.
The bone was definitely broken.
Charles thought, gritting his teeth as he looked up to survey his surroundings.
That single glance left him frozen. Everything around was a gloomy blue. Several towering stone seats sat heavily in the distance. In this enormous space, he was utterly alone.
Looking up, the cathedral dome vanished into the distant murk. Only through the fine dust of light filtering through stained glass on both sides could he barely make out the dome's intersecting arcs.
Columns on all sides stood upright like saints. The dark stone pillars, aged by time, seemed carved with something, but the distance was too great to make it out.
A crisp sound suddenly echoed through the previously silent space, like a water droplet hitting solid ground.
Charles immediately looked over, eyes wary, even his heart stirring with long-forgotten fear!
Realizing he was afraid made Charles even more alert.
He kept his mouth shut tight, breathing slowly and deeply, ears constantly monitoring changes in the ambient sound.
Pain still radiated from his elbow. Charles's lips had paled somewhat from it. He lowered his gaze to look at the bandages wrapped around his left arm.
The bandages that had emitted a faint glow in the examination hall now showed no light whatsoever—dull and lifeless, as if just ordinary cloth.
In previous trials, though Isis had sometimes hidden, she'd never been this devoid of vitality.
Moreover...
Charles's eyes darkened. He couldn't sense Isis's presence at all.
Something seemed to have severed his connection with Isis. Of course, not just Isis—none of his other souvenirs responded either.
Same with the Entropy Insects.
Charles exhaled. This not only lessened the fear in his heart but also reduced the pain in his elbow considerably.
He struggled to prop himself up. His waist also throbbed with pain, making even sitting up straight difficult.
Left with no choice, Charles could only brace his uninjured left hand on the ground and once again survey his surroundings.
The stone seats in the distance must be very tall. From Charles's current position, he had to look up to see the edges of the seat platforms.
Based on Charles's estimate, he was at least thirty feet from those seats.
That meant these stone seats likely exceeded two hundred fifty feet in height!
What kind of giant could possibly sit on them?
This thought flashed through Charles's mind. Then he heard a sound from the side.
It sounded like wind lifting laundry hung out to dry—fabric fluttering, yet without any sound of wind.
He licked his lips and looked in that direction.
At the end of his sight line was an archway. Above it, a stone slab bore a painted deity—still indistinct, though he could make out a pair of red eyes.
Soft, ethereal singing suddenly drifted from beyond the arch.
Exactly like a church choir.
Charles froze, then surveyed his surroundings again. Though in some ways this building resembled a church, in other ways it exuded a strange eeriness.
Things that shouldn't exist in churches existed here, seemingly held in high reverence.
Like the mural not far ahead, depicting an explicit scene of sexual congress between a man and woman. The woman had goat horns on her head. Though her expression wasn't seductive, it radiated a bizarre compulsion.
Charles only stared at the mural for a moment before heat stirred in his lower abdomen. Alarmed, he immediately looked away.
When he looked back at the archway, a long procession had appeared beneath it.
At its head was a woman with her head covered by a white veil. Her figure was slender, her white dress clinging tightly to outline her graceful form.
Her hands were raised slightly forward, palms holding a tray bearing a plate of fruit. She held it reverently at brow level, head slightly bowed—approaching in a posture of extreme submission and devotion.
Behind her followed white-robed figures whose faces were formed of black mist.
The black mist scattered and drifted, making their features unclear. Some mist hadn't formed facial features at all, just smeared together in a mass on their faces.
Their movements were equally bizarre. The white robes showed almost no fabric displacement from walking, yet they moved smoothly and swiftly, as if gliding on hoverboards.
But Charles knew this mental world had no hoverboards at all.
The singing came from them.
Charles's heart filled with wariness. Afraid they were coming for him, he carefully shuffled backward a few steps.
But soon, the pain from his elbow prevented him from moving further. He could only stay put, watching helplessly as they approached.
Fortunately, this eerie procession wasn't coming for him.
They turned in front of Charles, heading toward the stone seats ahead.
Realizing something might appear at the stone seats, Charles immediately looked in that direction.
The procession didn't head for the center seat, but toward the one at the far edge.
As they approached, a figure gradually materialized there.
Charles couldn't see his face—the figure was simply too enormous.
But the man wore robes of brilliant color, feet in sandals woven from vines—classic ancient Greek attire.
His elbow rested on the seat's armrest, the back of his hand supporting his cheek.
Though Charles couldn't make out his features, he still sensed the gaze looking his way.
Cold as a serpent crawling across skin, raising goosebumps all over his body.
Charles's heart tightened. Fear and terror instantly flooded his mind, yet he still didn't give up the chance to observe. He looked up, trying to see clearly who sat upon that stone throne.