Chapter 196: A Monster

Ishiki flew backward from the impact. His body ragdolled through the air, tumbling end over end. He crashed through the fallen archway, his momentum carrying him into the Cathedral ruins proper.

He struck the ground hard, rolling through debris and rubble. His back collided with one of the two standing pillars in the great hall, and he collapsed in a heap at its base.

He groaned but didn’t register the pain. He laid there for almost three seconds before the timer of Soul Chain hit 0 and a soul crushing pain tore through his entire body.

He convulsed and vomited huge amounts of blood. Tears dropped down his cheeks and mixed with the blood. He cried out in agony and grief.

’Am I a monster? A goddamn Monster? ’

He slammed his fist into the pillar… it sent fresh streak of pain and he slumped on the ground with a splash.

Blood also poured from multiple wounds. His split lip, broken nose. Internal injuries from the final blow and the aftereffects of using soul chain.

The pool of blood spread across the ancient stone floor, mixing with rainwater that poured through gaps in the destroyed ceiling.

Ishiki lay there, unable to move. Barely able to breathe. His vision swam, consciousness threatening to fade.

But then something strange happened.

The blood pooling around Ishiki—so much blood, began to move with purpose.

It didn’t flow naturally and instead spread outward in every direction, forming deliberate patterns. Following ancient cracks in the floor and seeking specific destinations.

Ishiki’s eyes widened… he had checked this when he first came here three days ago… but at that time he couldn’t find a single trace of such patterns on this ancient floor.

And why was this happening now? This place had seen much more blood than there was currently… when it fell all those years ago it was filled with blood. But why was this happening only now?

Was his blood special? Did he trigger something that he shouldn’t have.

It reached the first pillar. The one Ishiki had struck.

Beneath the pillar, hidden under centuries of dust and debris, a symbol began to glow. Intricate and geometric, burning with pale luminescence that had nothing to do with rain or moonlight.

The blood continued spreading. Reaching the second pillar. Another symbol lit up, different in design but matching in intensity.

Ishiki heart palpitated. He had seen something exactly like this before too… this was the same as that time when the demon broke the seal of the Cathedral in the Secondary ring by sacrificing that girl.

’But she had also said some weird prayer… I didn’t do anything like that.’

Intense fear gripped his heart as he remembered what had happened in the secondary ring. That cathedral had the dragon sealed beneath it and that thing is capable of killing them all.

Thinking with that logic… there must be something ancient and truly horrific existence under this place which even the angel’s foot was unable to destroy.

If that thing is unsealed its a game over.

Outside, Filch had started to approach the fallen archway, his rage finally giving way to something more complicated. But he stopped when he saw the light.

“What the hell…?”

Inside the ruins… blinding light illuminated everything growing brighter by the second.

His hair stood to their ends and he gritted his teeth before retreating. He picked up Nina’s corpse and descended down the stairs. The rain continued to fall without stop,

Inside… Ishiki watched hopelessly as the blood reached the central pillar—the one that had been broken even in ancient times.

Nothing glowed there. The symbol, if it had ever existed, had been shattered too thoroughly to respond.

But the disturbance was enough.

The Cathedral, already damaged beyond repair, already standing through nothing but fortunate angles and ancient resilience, began to groan.

Deep within the structure, something fundamental shifted. Stone against stone. Weight redistributing as supports that had held for thousand years finally surrendered.

A grinding sound emerged from the depths. The remaining pillars began to crack, hairline fractures spreading like spiderwebs across their surfaces.

The ceiling groaned. The Angel’s massive stone foot, which had been crushing part of the Cathedral for centuries, finally completed its work.

Then—with a sound like the world ending… the cathedral began to collapse.

Not gradually or piece by piece. But all at once, as if the structure had been waiting for this exact moment to give up its ghost.

The two standing pillars shattered simultaneously. The ceiling that had somehow survived everything finally decided that up was no longer a sustainable direction. Walls that had witnessed centuries of withering crumbled inward.

“Ishiki.” Filch stopped in his tracks and turned to look at the scene with a heavy heart.

As he watched… tons of stone tumbled down the stairs. He took a few more steps away and saw as the deadly rubble had started burying everything and everyone still inside.

The walls folded inward like a house of cards. Everything disappeared into a massive cloud of dust and destruction.

From the relative safety of the street, Filch watched in horror.

The cathedral, however ruined was one of two great structures that had defined Aethelburg for ages. And now it fell with terrible majesty.

Dust exploded outward in massive clouds. Stone struck stone with sounds like thunder. Even the Angel statue shuddered from the impact, cracks spreading across its petrified feet.

It took perhaps thirty seconds for the entire structure to come down. Thirty seconds to erase thousands of years of history.

Then it was over.

Where the Cathedral had stood, only rubble remained. A mountain of broken stone covered in dust that rain slowly washed away.

Somewhere beneath it all, buried under tons of debris, was Ishiki.

Filch stood in the rain, staring at the ruins. His hands grabbing Nina’s cold body tightly.

’How could he do this? ’The thought burned in his mind. ’How could he kill such an Innocent child.’

But beneath the rage, another thought emerged. Quieter and more painful.

’I didn’t even let him answer as to why.’

In his arms, Nina’s body had gone completely pale and limp. Rain washed the blood from her face, giving her an almost peaceful appearance. As if she were simply sleeping.

But she would never wake up.

Filch bit his lower lip trying not to cry. He was feeling as if his heart was being stabbed with a knife.

He had lost two of his best friends in an instant.

The rain continued falling. Cold and relentless, washing blood from stone and tears from faces.

Above, thunder rolled across the dark sky, as if even the heavens mourned what had been lost here tonight.

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