Chapter 612 I’ll Rip You Apart Into A Thousand Pieces
Without waiting for permission, she gently brushed the loose dust from his dark hair with careful fingers. Every now and then she would pause to pick out a tiny pebble before continuing, her expression soft and completely focused.
"There."
She dusted off his shoulder as well.
"Much better."
Liam chuckled quietly.
"Thanks."
Not far away, Mary had already reached Agatha and Leonid.
Her brows remained knitted together.
"I don’t understand."
She looked between both of them.
"How?"
"I was certain it was Gregor."
Agatha slowly closed her eyes.
For several seconds she remained completely silent.
Then she sighed.
"...We’ve been played."
Mary lowered her head.
Agatha opened her eyes again before looking around the tunnel.
"The two paths."
"They were never different."
"They simply looped around."
Leonid folded his arms.
"So we walked in separate directions..."
"...only to arrive at the same place."
Agatha nodded.
"Exactly."
She let out another quiet sigh.
"This entire cave..."
"...is one enormous deception."
"The illusions aren’t limited to what we see."
"They manipulate direction."
"Distance."
"Even our perception of space."
Mary slowly turned around, looking back toward the tunnel they had just emerged from.
"So..."
"There never were two routes."
"There was only one."
"We simply believed otherwise."
The realization settled heavily over everyone.
For a brief moment...
Nobody knew what to say.
Tatiana finally let out a defeated sigh.
"So we’ve accomplished nothing."
She slowly lowered herself onto a nearby rock.
Both elbows rested against her knees while she stared quietly at the ground.
The guilt she’d been carrying ever since Gregor disappeared hadn’t lessened.
If anything...
It had only become heavier.
Every wrong turn.
Every illusion.
Every delay.
To her, they all traced back to the same decision.
If only...
She quietly lowered her head.
Liam noticed.
But instead of saying anything...
He gently removed her hand from his shoulder.
His smile disappeared.
Something felt...
Wrong.
Very wrong.
His instincts hadn’t calmed down.
If anything...
They had become louder.
He slowly turned his head, scanning every inch of the dead end before them.
A smooth stone wall.
Nothing more.
No tunnels.
No hidden passages.
No visible mechanisms.
And yet...
His instincts kept bugging him.
There was something here.
He could feel it.
He slowly walked toward the end of the tunnel.
Every step echoed softly through the cave.
The others watched him curiously.
He eventually stopped directly before the seemingly solid wall.
Without saying a word...
He placed one hand against the cold stone.
His fingers slowly slid across its rough surface.
Left.
Right.
Up.
Down.
He wasn’t pressing.
He wasn’t searching for a hidden button.
He was feeling it.
The subtle vibrations.
The mana.
The texture.
Everything.
Behind him, Leonid raised an eyebrow.
"...What’s he doing?"
Agatha quietly shook her head.
"I don’t know."
Tatiana looked up from the rock.
Despite everything...
She trusted Liam.
If he believed something was there...
Then something probably was.
Liam continued rubbing the stone in complete silence.
Several more seconds passed.
Then...
He stopped.
His hand slowly dropped back to his side.
He took one step backward.
Then another.
The others instinctively watched him.
He lowered his centre of gravity slightly.
His muscles tensed.
"...Found you."
Boom!
The ground exploded beneath his feet.
Liam shot forward like a cannonball.
His shoulder slammed directly into the cave wall.
The impact thundered throughout the tunnel.
Cracks instantly spread across the stone like spiderwebs.
Then...
The entire wall collapsed inward.
Dust erupted everywhere.
Chunks of rock tumbled across the floor as centuries of silence were violently broken.
When the cloud finally began settling...
Everyone stared.
"...A hidden chamber."
Leonid muttered.
No...
Calling it a chamber barely did it justice.
It was an enormous underground lair.
The ceiling rose several stories above their heads, supported by thick natural stone pillars intertwined with enormous crystal formations that glowed faintly beneath layers of black resin. The floor wasn’t rough like the surrounding cave. It had been deliberately flattened, almost as though someone had spent years shaping the stone into a livable space.
Bones covered much of the chamber.
Not scattered randomly.
Organized.
Large beast skeletons had been stacked neatly against one side of the cavern.
Smaller skulls rested atop crude stone shelves.
Some bones had been carved into tools.
Others into strange ornaments whose purpose none of them could immediately understand.
Bundles of dried herbs hung upside down from crystal outcrops.
Clay bowls filled with crushed minerals sat beside carefully arranged piles of polished beast crystals.
Several nests made from thick fur, woven vines and dried moss occupied one corner of the lair, suggesting its owner didn’t merely visit this place.
It lived here.
And it had for a very long time.
Nothing about the chamber resembled the home of a mindless monster.
Everything had purpose.
Everything had been arranged with unsettling precision.
Then...
Mary gasped.
"There!"
Everyone’s eyes immediately followed where she pointed.
Near the centre of the cavern stood a thick pillar formed entirely from intertwined black crystal.
Bound securely against it...
Hung Gregor.
His wrists had been restrained above his head by thick vine-like bindings woven so tightly they had bitten into his skin. His ankles were tied separately, keeping him suspended just high enough that his feet barely touched the ground.
He was unconscious.
His breathing was shallow but steady.
His clothes were nowhere to be seen.
For one terrifying heartbeat...
The entire group simply stared.
Then Tatiana shot to her feet.
"Gregor!"
Mary reacted first.
The moment Gregor came into full view, every rational thought disappeared from her mind. "Gregor!"
She dashed toward the hidden chamber without a second thought, completely forgetting that they had spent the last several hours walking through one illusion after another. Every step they had taken inside this cave had been manipulated. Every choice had been anticipated. Charging into an unknown room now was exactly the kind of mistake their enemy wanted them to make.
Before she could cross the entrance, a firm hand wrapped around hers.
She was abruptly pulled backward. "Huh?"
Mary stumbled a step as Liam dragged her back beside him.
She turned around in confusion. "Liam?"
He didn’t answer immediately.
His gaze remained fixed on the chamber beyond the broken wall.
Then he bent down, picked up a fist-sized stone from the cave floor and weighed it once in his hand.
The others watched quietly.
Without another word, Liam flicked his wrist.
Whoosh.
The stone flew through the air before landing several metres inside the lair.
Clack.
It bounced once.
Twice.
Then rolled across the smooth stone floor before finally coming to a stop.
Silence.
Nothing happened.
No hidden runes activated.
No arrows shot from the walls.
No poisonous gas filled the chamber.
No hidden beasts emerged from the darkness.
Several more seconds passed.
Still nothing.
Only then did Liam slowly loosen his grip on Mary’s hand. "Go."
Mary gave a small nod.
This time everyone entered carefully instead of rushing blindly.
Leonid remained alert as he walked beside Agatha while Irina quietly scanned every corner of the enormous chamber. Tatiana stayed close to Liam for another second before finally stepping inside as well, her crimson eyes constantly sweeping across the lair for even the slightest movement.
Now that they were standing inside, the place felt even stranger than it had from the entrance.
The chamber wasn’t simply a hiding place.
It looked lived in.
Several stone tables had been carved directly from the cave floor. Dried herbs hung neatly from ropes woven between crystal formations. Shelves fashioned from polished rock held dozens of clay jars, bundles of strange roots, crushed powders and small animal bones sorted with unsettling precision. Primitive furniture occupied different corners of the room, yet everything had been arranged carefully, almost obsessively.
Someone intelligent lived here.
Someone patient.
Someone organized.
Agatha wasted no time.
She immediately raised both hands.
Ancient symbols formed beneath Gregor’s suspended body as streams of soft green mana circled around him.
The thick bindings around his wrists loosened by themselves.
The vines unwound like living snakes before falling harmlessly onto the floor.
At the same time another spell formed.
Pieces of enchanted cloth appeared from shimmering magic circles before wrapping themselves around Gregor’s exposed body, covering him with remarkable gentleness as though invisible hands were dressing him.
The final vine slipped away.
Gregor’s unconscious body immediately dropped.
Leonid moved before anyone else.
He caught him securely before he could hit the ground.
"Easy."
Lowering himself to one knee, Leonid carefully laid Gregor onto the cave floor while Irina crouched beside him.
Mary hurried over as well.
"Is he breathing?"
Leonid placed two fingers against Gregor’s neck.
A few quiet seconds passed.
Then he nodded.
"His pulse is steady."
Mary released the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
"Thank goodness..."
Agatha slowly inspected the unconscious man.
"No visible wounds."
"No broken bones."
She frowned.
"He’s simply unconscious."
Irina glanced around again.
"Where is whoever brought him here?"
Nobody answered.
Because...
Someone was missing.
Tatiana blinked.
"...Liam?"
She looked toward the entrance.
He hadn’t followed them.
He was still standing exactly where he’d been moments earlier.
One foot outside the hidden chamber.
One foot just inside the opening.
Completely motionless.
Tatiana frowned before walking a few steps closer.
"Liam?"
He didn’t respond.
His eyes were closed.
His breathing remained perfectly steady.
It almost looked as though he had forgotten everyone else existed.
Tatiana’s expression gradually changed.
"...What’s wrong?"
Her voice wasn’t loud.
Yet it drew everyone’s attention.
Leonid looked up from Gregor.
Irina turned around.
Agatha and Mary followed their gazes.
One after another, they all looked toward the entrance.
Liam still hadn’t moved.
His head remained slightly lowered.
His eyes remained shut.
The cave became eerily quiet.
Then...
He spoke.
"If you touch..."
His voice was calm.
Far too calm.
"...a single hair on her head..."
A cold pressure suddenly spread throughout the chamber.
Even Leonid instinctively looked toward the darkness beyond the room.
Liam slowly opened his eyes.
The warmth they usually carried was gone.
In its place...
Was an icy killing intent that sent chills down everyone’s spine.
"...I’ll rip you apart into a thousand pieces."
Silence.
Complete silence.
Tatiana stared at him.
"...Huh?"
She instinctively looked around the chamber.
Irina did the same.
Leonid slowly stood up.
Agatha’s brows knitted together.
None of them understood.
Who was Liam talking to?
There was no one else inside the lair.
At least...
No one they could see.
Only Mary remained focused on Gregor, checking his breathing and pulse again, completely unaware that every other member of the group had gone deathly still.
And somewhere...
Beyond the reach of the floating orb’s light...
Something watched them in absolute silence.