Chael remained where he stood. His breath was still uneven, and his body still trembled from the near-death gamble he had just pulled. His hands twitched slightly as the last remnants of adrenaline coursed through his veins, his mind catching up to the fact that he was still alive.

  He waited, his blindfolded gaze sweeping over the corridor. He was watching through the faint reflections in the broken stone, the armor behind him, and the blade of his own weapon.

  Nothing moved.

  He sighed. So far, it seemed like there weren’t any more of those things nearby.

  If they were here, they would have already attacked.

  As far as he had observed, the knights patrolled specific areas and were bound to a singular path.

  Had they once been guards of this cathedral when they were humans? The face behind the visor had unmistakably been human, which indicated that it was human at one point.

  The even more disturbing question was what had happened to reduce them to mindless husks, making them wander the same halls they had sworn to protect.

  The thought sent an unpleasant sensation curling in his stomach.

  Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he moved.

  The numbness in his legs had started to fade, though every step still felt like he was stepping on stone with feet that weren’t entirely his own.

  As he walked forward, his steps brought him to the very spot where the Hollowed Choir had stood. The air was still cold, and an unnatural chill lingered where its presence had been, as if the very space had been tainted.

  The Hollowed Choir.

  It appeared that there was more to their ability than just resurrection or some type of necromancy. They possessed some kind of ice magic.

  Though magic wasn’t too common in this world, this had been the first time Chael not only saw magic with his own eyes but became victim to it.

  His fingers absentmindedly mulled over it, but another thought surfaced, one even more unsettling.

  Where had this specific Hollowed Choir even come from?

  One moment, it was simply there.

  But he hadn’t seen it before that.

  There had been no indication of its approach and no flicker in the reflections. There was no sound either.

  His mind worked through the details until finally, his jaw clenched.

  These bastards can teleport. Of course.

  The smaller of the Hollowed Choir had appeared in front of them at the Collonade. If they could, these purple ones surely can.

  Something about that thought made his skin crawl. The fact that these unknown creatures could just appear in front of him at any moment.

  He turned his gaze toward the corridor ahead. Then, his eyes caught something. It was a subtle break in the otherwise seamless stone.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  At first glance, it was nothing, It appeared to just be another worn section of the cathedral’s endless halls. But now that he was paying attention, he understood.

  It wasn’t a hidden passage. It was simply blended into the walls so well that he hadn’t noticed it before.

  His brows furrowed, and he stepped toward it.

  "This isn’t even hidden," he muttered under his breath. "It just… blends in."

  Chael pressed his lips into a thin line as the realisation struck him. The Hollowed Choir must’ve been loitering around through here before appearing in front of him. No wonder he hadn’t seen it coming.

  Chael stepped closer carefully. The last thing he wanted to do right now was fight another eldrich horror.

  The opening led into a small chamber. It was nothing grand like the cathedral’s vast halls - just a simple room. But something about it unsettled him. It wasn’t the usual eerie, rotting emptiness that filled most of this forsaken place. It was too normal.

  His gaze flicked back to the entrance. The way it had blended into the stone walls at the fact that it wasn’t hidden, just… unnoticeable.

  He tried scanning the space ahead for reflections, but there were none. That meant one thing - it was completely dark inside.

  Chael exhaled sharply through his nose. Even so, he wanted to check it out. Most of the rooms he had seen so far in this cathedral seemed to be empty, so this was probably the same.

  Probably.

  He glanced around and spotted an old torch mounted on the corridor wall not too far away from him. Chael walked over there and pick it off it’s holding and carried it back over to the opening.

  The warm glow pushed back the suffocating darkness just enough for him to see.

  With the torch in one hand and his spear in the other, he opened the door.

  The moment the space opened for him, Chael pointed his spear forward, both as a defensive measure and to catch any possible reflections in the polished silver of the spearhead.

  But what he saw wasn’t a lurking monster or another Hollowed Choir.

  It was a library.

  His brows lifted slightly.

  A genuine library here, in this cathedral?

  The torchlight flickered over rows of dark wooden shelves that stretched from the floor to the ceiling, packed neatly with leather-bound tomes and scrolls. The walls were lined with intricate carvings, faintly visible in the dim glow, depicting celestial symbols and strange glyphs.

  At the center of the room stood a reading desk. It was untouched and pristine, as if someone had only just left it moments ago. A chair was tucked neatly into place. Everything here was well-kept and untouched by time. But at this point, Chael wasn’t surprised at all. This was a common theme in this cathedral, after all.

  For a brief second, a spark of accomplishment flickered through Chael’s chest, "Finally... Something useful."

  Maybe, just maybe, he could find something here that would explain what the hell was going on in this place. The history of the cathedral, the truth behind the ghosts, the Hollowed Choir, and the Saintess of Carnage. Any piece of information could be valuable.

  He walked slowly and carefully as he scanned deeper into the library, his footsteps muffled by the thick, dark-stone flooring. The warmth of the torchlight cast flickering shadows against the towering shelves.

  Through his reflections, he saw that some of the books and scrolls were marked with strange patterns of an ancient language.

  Shan’thura again. Of course.

  It seemed he needed to go back and grab Echinda if he wanted to actually understand whatever was written in these books.

  Then, he stopped.

  At the far end of the room, behind the last row of bookshelves, the walls shifted from smooth, plain stone to something far grander.

  Chael’s brows furrowed as he stepped forward, lifting the torch higher.

  What he saw made his breath hitch.

  Murals.

  There were seven large murals that stretched across the entire wall. They were massive, intricate, and impossibly detailed.

  Chael felt something in his chest tighten.

  The carvings were ancient. The craftsmanship was unlike anything he had seen before, and yet, there was something disturbingly familiar about them.

  That’s right.

  Some of them showed the figures of the statues he had encountered so far.

  “What… what the hell…?” As he studied the murals in order, he felt an odd chill crawl down his spine.