Nero went absolutely still as his eyes darted around, every muscle locking into place.

Something had passed through the edge of his vision. Not fast enough to be dismissed outright, but not slow enough to be clearly tracked either. It was the kind of movement that existed in the margin between certainty and instinct, the sort that demanded attention without offering proof.

His breathing slowed, controlled and shallow.

The silence inside the ruin pressed in on him, heavy and unbroken. The sound of shifting stones had vanished.

No scuttling, no distant wind. Even the faint sounds from the forest beyond the walls felt muted here. Dstorted, as though the dark edifice itself drank in all the noise and refused to let it escape.

The eyes of the Heretic opened fully as he swept his gaze across the hall again. The world sharpened, edges clarifying as lines of residual Ein Sof revealed themselves faintly against stone and webbing alike. He saw no active flow, nor any surge of intent or bloodlust directed at him, not even the slightest telltale distortions that suggested imminent violence.

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

He waited several seconds longer, then another few after that. His muscles remained tense, coiled beneath his pale skin.

Perhaps it had been nothing. Or perhaps whatever was watching him knew how to remain very still in the darkness.

Perhaps its patience was a weapon working its effects on his mind. An uncertain poison.

Nero pushed the thought aside for now. He could not afford to freeze every time the ruins played tricks on his perception.

He could only move on.

The deeper sections of the castle revealed just how thoroughly it had been stripped. Stone floors were bare, their surfaces worn smooth by centuries of exposure and passage. Wall sconces had been torn out entirely, leaving only broken holes where metal fixtures had once been anchored. Even decorative carvings had been chipped away in places, either by looters or by the slow, patient violence of time.

There were no furnishings left, no remnants of banners. No metal, no glass, no worked wood. Even nails were absent, pried free to leave hollow fissures in the walls.

This was all as a result of human greed. An artificial decay that stripped a vestige of old beauty of its grace.

The Church's hand was evident in all this. Nero had read enough reports to recognize the pattern. Anything that could be repurposed, studied, or sanctified would have been taken centuries ago. What hunters had not claimed afterward had been devoured by the Garden itself, reclaimed piece by piece.

The webs were the most unsettling part.

They stretched across corridors, ceilings, and doorways, layered thick enough that light struggled to penetrate them fully. In some places they formed sagging curtains. In others they were pulled taut, anchored to walls and stone pillars like structural supports rather than traps, keeping the ruins in place and preventing them from caving in.

Earlier, when Nero had tested one with the tip of his knife, he had felt the resistance immediately. The silk did not tear easily. Instead, It flexed, resilient and alive beneath the blade.

As he passed through another hall, he counted the shapes embedded within the strands. There were dark silhouettes, wrapped tightly and suspended from ceilings or walls. Some were humanoid. Others were not, their proportions warped and unfamiliar.

These were corpses, long dead with their structural integrity preserved by the silk.

The air here smelled faintly metallic beneath the rot, a stale scent that reminded him of old blood left too long in the open. It clung to the back of his throat and lingered with every breath.

He kept his knife ready as he moved deeper, avoiding contact with the silk wherever possible.

The architecture suggested this area had once been administrative or residential. Smaller rooms branched off from a central corridor, their layouts repetitive. Nero checked each one briefly.

They were all empty.

In one room, he found the remains of a collapsed bookshelf embedded in the wall, its stone supports fractured inward. The shelves themselves were long gone, but faint rectangular impressions remained where books had once been stored.

Knowledge had been here once.

Now, there was nothing. A strange sense of loss hit him.

Nero reached a stairwell that spiraled upward. The steps were uneven, partially collapsed near the top, but still passable. He climbed slowly, testing each stone before committing his weight, listening for any change in the ruin's silence.

The second level was worse.

The ceiling had partially caved in, allowing vines and roots to snake through openings in the stone. Sunlight filtered in weakly, illuminating drifting motes of dust and silk. Here, the webs were thicker, layered so densely that they obscured entire sections of wall and ceiling alike.

Movement tugged at his attention again.

This time, he caught more of it.

Something shifted above him, near the ceiling.

Nero stopped and tilted his head upward.

The Heretic Eyes caught it then. A faint distortion in the webbing.

There still was no bloodlust.

Nero continued moving, though he adjusted his path to keep sightlines open. He needed space to react and room to fight if necessary.

At the far end of the level, he found what appeared to have once been a chapel or ceremonial chamber. The layout was symmetrical, with a raised stone platform at the far end and broken columns lining the sides. The webs here formed complex patterns, deliberate in their placement, as though mapped with care.

The bodies were more numerous.

He counted at least seventeen, suspended at varying heights. Some were wrapped so tightly that only vague outlines remained. Others had partially decayed, bones visible through gaps in the silk.

Two wore the remnants of armor.

Templars.

The insignia was faded, but unmistakable. The sight tightened something in Nero's chest, sharp and unwelcome.

These were not recent deaths. The armor styles suggested at least several decades had passed. Possibly more.

He turned away from the bodies and scanned the chamber.

That was when he felt it.

A subtle shift in pressure. A tightening sensation at the base of his skull.

Bloodlust.

Nero pivoted just as something dropped from the ceiling.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.