Chapter 280: Sealed Object
The eerie silence of the underground chamber was broken only by the soft drip of water from the ceiling.
With the cultists eliminated, there was no immediate danger, but that didn't make the room any less unsettling.
If anything, the absence of life only made the remnants of past horrors feel more pronounced.
Adrian stepped forward, his boots making a faint squelching noise as they pressed against the grimy stone floor.
The stale air carried the metallic tang of old blood, mixing with the damp rot of decay. His gaze swept across the chamber, taking in the rusted chains, the broken torture devices, and the skeletal remains locked in their final, agonized positions.
Seraphina moved toward the nearest cell, her fingers trailing lightly over the corroded iron bars. "They weren't just imprisoning people here," she murmured. "This was a slaughterhouse."
She nudged open a cell door with the tip of her boot. Inside, a single skeleton was slumped against the wall, bound in rusted shackles.
Its wrists and ankles were worn down to the bone, deep grooves carved into them from years—perhaps decades—of struggling against the restraints. A thick metal collar encircled its neck, arcane runes still faintly pulsing along its surface.
"A containment collar," Seraphina observed. "They were holding people with magical abilities."
Adrian frowned, kneeling beside the remains. "And they didn't just imprison them." He reached out, brushing his fingers over the faded etchings on the collar. "These symbols… they're designed to siphon mana."
Seraphina exhaled sharply. "So they weren't just torturing their prisoners. They were draining them."
Adrian rose to his feet, scanning the room with fresh understanding. It wasn't just a prison—it was a harvesting site. The cultists had been extracting mana from their victims, likely fueling their rituals with stolen life force.
He moved deeper into the chamber, stepping past a series of long-dried bloodstains. A table near the center of the room caught his attention.
It was covered in dark grooves, carved deep into the wood, and littered with rusted surgical instruments—saws, clamps, scalpels, and bone chisels. A set of pliers sat at the edge, still clutching rotten teeth in its grip.
Seraphina grimaced. "They were dissecting people here."
Adrian's jaw clenched. "Or worse."
As Adrian pushed open the reinforced iron door, an unbearable stench wafted out, thick and cloying, the unmistakable scent of rot mingling with something fouler—something that carried the essence of suffering itself.
The room beyond was dimly lit, the flickering light from the outer chamber barely reaching past the threshold.
The first thing he saw was her.
The corpse of a woman lay slumped against the far wall, her body mangled beyond recognition.
Her limbs were twisted at unnatural angles, flesh torn away in strips, exposing muscle and bone beneath.
Deep, jagged lacerations ran across her torso, carved with brutal precision. Her fingers had been snapped back, each one broken as if her captors had taken their time with her suffering.
Blood—long dried to a dark, rust-colored stain—coated the floor beneath her, forming a grotesque pool that had seeped into the cracks of the stone.
Her face, though barely intact, still bore the remnants of torment. Her eyes—clouded and sunken—were frozen in an expression of sheer agony.
Dried trails of blood ran from her mouth, where some of her teeth had been violently removed.
A thick, rusted metal collar wrapped around her neck, much like the ones outside, but this one bore far more intricate and sinister engravings.
The runes carved into its surface pulsed ever so faintly, as though the magic within it had not fully faded.
Seraphina’s breath hitched. "Gods…" she whispered, her voice barely audible.
Adrian felt a cold chill creep up his spine as he stepped further into the room. Something about this place was wrong—not just in the sense of the horrors that had occurred here, but in the air itself.
It was heavy, oppressive, like unseen eyes were watching him from just beyond his perception.
As he scanned the room, he couldn't shake the nagging feeling at the back of his mind, a sensation like something brushing against his consciousness. It was subtle but persistent, making his skin prickle.
"Seraphina," he murmured, not taking his eyes off the corpse. "Do you feel that?"
She turned to him, brow furrowed. "Feel what?"
He hesitated. "Like… something is here."
Seraphina closed her eyes briefly, expanding her mana senses outward, but after a moment, she shook her head. "No. I don’t sense anything. It’s probably just this place getting to you."
Adrian exhaled, forcing himself to relax. "Maybe."
Still, the unease didn't fade. Pushing aside his discomfort, he activated his Remote Collection ability, gathering any objects of interest in the room other than the corpse.
A faint shimmer pulsed across the chamber as the system registered his command. Moments later, the results appeared before him.
[Items Collected:]
Scalpel (Dull, Rusted)
Torture Device: Flesh Hook (Heavily Used, Bloodstained)
Torture Device: Bone Saw (Worn, Bloodstained)
Adrian frowned. That couldn’t be right. For a chamber this significant, for a place drenched in so much malice, there had to be something more. All he got from his collection were trash.
The nagging sensation in his chest only grew stronger. It wasn’t just unease anymore—it was like a whispering presence pressing against the edges of his mind.
No. He wasn’t imagining it.
He turned to his system. "Appraisal. Everything in this room."
A moment passed before the system's response flickered before his eyes.
[Appraising…]
Lines of text scrolled past, identifying the corpse, the remnants of magic in the collar, and the old torture devices. But then—
[Sealed Object Detected.]
Adrian’s breath caught.
His gaze snapped toward the notification. The system had detected something—something hidden.
And it was behind the corpse.
Adrian's heartbeat quickened as he reread the notification. Sealed Object Detected.
His grip on his sword instinctively tightened as his gaze flickered back to the mutilated corpse. If something was sealed here, hidden behind the woman's remains, then it was no ordinary object.
A part of him wanted to dismiss it, to simply turn away and leave this accursed place behind. But the weight of the unseen presence pressing against his mind made that impossible.
Something—or someone—was waiting.
"Aunt." Adrian's voice was low, controlled, but tinged with urgency. "My appraisal ability has detected a sealed object behind the corpse."
Seraphina stiffened, her sharp eyes locking onto the dead woman once more. The dim light flickered across her face, highlighting the tension in her features.
"A seal?" She muttered. "Here?"