Chapter 81: His Road to Hell

The carriage moved forward, creaking like the wood was about to give up.

RUMBLE!

Every bump in the road sent a painful jolt to Raziel’s spine but he didn’t complain.

Even if the atmosphere inside that wooden box was suffocating.

In front of him, Sister Elena kept her eyes closed. Her hands rested on her lap, intertwined over a rosary of bone beads. She seemed to be sleeping.

’Or planning how to kill us all,’

His interface floated in the periphery of his vision.

[MENTAL STATUS: STABLE (FOR NOW)]

[SHADOW PARASITE: INACTIVE]

[ESTIMATED REMAINING TIME: 57 DAYS]

He looked to his side.

Lucian had his nose glued to the dirty glass of the window. Lara, next to him, dozed off with her head resting on Elena’s shoulder. The lamb sleeping on the wolf.

“Where are we?” Lucian murmured, his breath fogging the glass.

Raziel looked out his own window.

The landscape of Phaedra stretched to the horizon, but it wasn’t the green and fertile land that the Academy history books painted.

The land was white, covered in a crust of saltpeter that shined under the sun.

Black, twisted trees dotted the bald hills.

There was no grass or cattle, only dust and wind.

“The Salt Plains,” Raziel said with a hoarse voice. “We are halfway to the northern border.”

Lucian pulled away from the window, pale.

“My father… the Duchy reports said this zone was productive,” Lucian said, voice shaking. “They said the tributary farms sent tons of grain every season.”

Raziel let out a laugh without humor. “The reports lie, Lucian.”

He pointed outside.

In the distance, the skeleton of a collapsed barn stood out against the gray sky.

“The ’production’ you see in the reports is looting,” Raziel explained, cruelly honest.

“The Church and Nobility squeeze the land with forced fertility magic, they harvest three times a year until the soil dies and turns to salt, then they move to the next plot and leave this behind.”

Lucian looked at Elena.

The woman didn’t move, but the corner of her lips twitched, she was listening to them.

“Sister Elena,” Lucian said. “This route… isn’t the Royal Road surely there are bandits.”

Elena opened her eyes slowly.

“The Royal Road is watched by Exarch Aldric’s Inquisitors, dear Lucian,” she said with that motherly voice. “And given that young Raziel here has… complications with authority, I thought you would prefer discretion.”

Lucian gritted his teeth but Raziel gave him a discreet look. ’You can’t win an argument with her.’

The carriage kept rolling and hours passed, suddenly, the landscape changed slightly.

Ruins of what was once a village appeared.

Houses without roofs, crumbled walls and in the middle of nowhere, walking by the edge of the road, they saw a figure.

It was a boy.

He couldn’t be more than eight years old. He was barefoot on the salty and sharp soil.

His skin was so stuck to his bones that his knees looked like giant knots, he wore gray rags that barely covered him.

Lucian glued himself to the glass.

“Hey!” Lucian shouted. “Stop! There’s a kid!”

The carriage didn’t stop, It didn’t even slow down.

“I said stop!” Lucian bellowed.

Elena opened one eye. “If we stop for every lost soul in Phaedra, we won’t reach St. Sophia before winter, Lucian. Sit down.”

“He’s going to die!” Lucian shouted, pointing back. “He’s alone! He has no water!”

Elena sighed. “His suffering is a test from the Goddess so perhaps he will find peace in the next life, you would only interfere with the divine plan.”

Lucian let himself fall onto the seat, trembling and looked at Raziel, looking for an explanation, a denial, something. “Was it always like this?”

Raziel looked at the point on the horizon where the boy had disappeared.

“Always,” Raziel said. “It’s just that people like you never looked down from your towers, Lucian.”

Lucian remained silent, staring at the floor of the carriage.

[BOND STRENGTHENED: LUCIAN VALERIUS NYXIAN]

[The subject has lost 10 points of Innocence. His world view aligns more with reality.]

Raziel closed his eyes, trying to rest a bit, but then, he felt it.

[ALERT: SHADOW RESONANCE DETECTED]

[SOURCE: EXTERNAL]

[DISTANCE: APPROACHING RAPIDLY]

Raziel opened his eyes abruptly. “Shit.”

Elena had also tensed up.

“What’s wrong?” Lara asked, waking up due to the sudden tension in the air.

Raziel activated [Shadow Echo] and behind the carriage, he saw the trails. They were stains of void in reality.

Shapes that ran on four legs, but whose limbs bent at incorrect angles.

’Void Hunters,’ Raziel thought, panic rising up his throat. ’They shouldn’t be here.’

Someone had summoned them or attracted them.

“We have company,” Raziel said, taking out a dagger.

Lucian blinked. “Thieves?”

“Worse,” Raziel said.

THUMP!

Something hit the roof of the carriage and Lara screamed.

The carriage jerked to the side, the wheels screeched.

“Keep driving!” Elena shouted to the front. “Don’t stop, you imbecile!”

But the carriage began to brake as if the horses had crashed against an invisible wall.

CRASH!

The occupants were thrown forward. Raziel hit his shoulder against the door, cursing between his teeth. Lucian fell on top of Lara.

The vehicle stopped completely.

“Why did we stop?” Lucian whispered, straightening up.

Raziel grabbed the door handle. “Don’t go out,” Raziel ordered.

But Lucian, impulsive as always and trying to regain some control over the situation, was already opening the door on the other side.

“Hey!” Lucian shouted at the driver. “What the hell is going on?! If you damaged the axle, I swear…!”

Lucian froze while he was half-body out of the carriage, looking toward the driver’s seat.

Raziel peeked over Elena’s shoulder to see.

The driver was sitting in his place.

The reins had fallen from his hands and the horses… the horses weren’t there.

The straps were cut cleanly, as if a giant razor had passed through there.

The driver was perfectly still, back straight, looking toward the empty horizon.

Lucian swallowed saliva. “Hey damn it! Are you deaf?”

The driver turned his head. The vertebrae sounded like dry branches breaking.

He turned his neck almost one hundred and eighty degrees to look inside the carriage.

Lucian recoiled, falling on his ass inside the cabin the driver had no face or at least, not the one he had when they left St. Celeste.

His eyes were two spheres without iris or pupil, his mouth hung open, unhinged, and black mist came out of it.

“You arrived,” he said.

[DETECTED: HIVE PUPPET]

[MENTAL STABILITY: -15%]

The thing wearing the driver’s skin smiled.

“The meat is fresh,” the multiple voice said. “Mother is hungry.”

And then, the carriage roof tore open like it was paper.

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