Black nails unfolded around the doorway, each bearing a clear turning eye above a short hook.
Vaela kept everyone outside the frame. "The eyes turn toward whoever enters, and hooks wait beneath them. Keep Kael in the bowl’s reflection before anyone follows him."
The first clear eye flashed.
SNAP!
Renn looked toward Kael’s last footprint. Kael appeared three paces behind his body.
Renn touched the count cloth, but the fourth knot felt cold and empty. "I can only find three people near me. I know the others are here, but I cannot see them in the right places."
The wall repeated the unfinished number in his voice.
"Four."
Renn bit the inside of his cheek until blood touched his tongue. "The count did not come from me. Keep answering when I use your names."
Another nail flashed at Orrek.
SNAP!
He saw the boy standing alone beside the doorway. Orrek shoved one shoulder between the child and an attack that did not exist, reopening the puncture Vaela had just bound.
The third flash caught Vaela. A pale seam appeared in the wrong wall, and her blade moved toward it before she stopped her wrist.
Kael caught the weapon above the false line. "The real seam is behind your left shoulder."
Vaela closed her eyes long enough to reset her stance. "Keep my blade pointed down until the image clears. I will use touch instead of sight."
Jaro covered one eye with his wrapped hand. "I have reduced the number of ways this room can deceive me."
A nail flashed at the open eye.
SNAP!
Jaro saw himself running back through the chamber. His knees bent to follow the false escape before the boy struck his ribs with the cracked bowl.
THUNK!
Jaro gasped and found the child beside him. "I deserved the reminder, although I would have preferred a gentler method."
"Stay here," the boy said. "You said you would."
Jaro placed his uninjured hand on the child’s shoulder. "I am staying. Hit me again only if my feet disagree."
Two nails flashed. The ash-lipped woman saw the floor split and jumped toward a solid wall. Sova caught her before the injured ankle struck stone.
A limping man saw his missing family inside the doorway. Renn pulled him back by the sleeve.
"I cannot see what you see," Renn said, keeping both hands on the man. "Your family is not answering from the doorway. Stay with the voices that answer now."
The man shut his eyes and found Sova’s shoulder. Vaela moved them behind a broken rib.
"Each nail flashes the image most likely to make us move without checking," she said. "Trust only what another person can touch."
Kael watched the doorway. Each nail emitted a small white pulse before somebody’s sight shifted. Threat Perception Instinct could read the pulse, while Mind Soul Anchor could keep the false images from changing what he knew about his own body.
The Sovereign Root opened.
Mind Soul Anchor. Threat Perception Instinct.
ALLOCATE!
====================================================================
[ SOVEREIGN ROOT INTERFACE OVERLAY ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
≫ HOSTILE PRESSURE DETECTED: Witness Nail Arrival-Dispute Array
≫ EXISTENTIAL SHARDS EXTRACTED: +2
≫ UNALLOCATED EXISTENTIAL SHARDS: 2
--------------------------------------------------------------------
▶ MANUAL ALLOCATION COMMAND RECEIVED
▶ SHARD ALLOCATION REGISTERED: +2 TOTAL
▶ ALLOCATION DISTRIBUTION:
- Mind Soul Anchor -> 36
- Threat Perception Instinct -> 33
--------------------------------------------------------------------
≫ POINT IMMENSITY RESPONSE: Witness Dispute Resistance Confirmed
≫ UNALLOCATED EXISTENTIAL SHARDS: 0
====================================================================
The next flashes left a pale stain across Kael’s vision, but he saw the pulse beneath every clear head before the false position formed.
He crossed the doorway and struck the stone feeding the nearest row.
BANG!
Black stems shattered around his fist. Clear heads burst, and red nerves snapped behind the wall. Six false images vanished from the survivors’ sight at once.
Renn used the opening. He called four names instead of numbers and passed the count cloth from wrist to palm. Every person answered through touch before the next name left his damaged throat.
The remaining nails stopped flashing.
They fired at the contact chain.
CLACK! CLACK! CLACK!
Kael moved between the threshold and the survivors. Seven nails entered his chest, forearm, thigh, and shoulder. Their short hooks opened beneath the skin and pulled his body toward different places in every watching eye.
Orrek swept his chain from waist height and caught three nails before they reached Renn.
CLANG!
The impact pulled his wounded shoulder. Sova braced him while he trapped the nails beneath his boot.
Jaro pushed the boy behind the rib. A black point struck the bowl and spun away.
PING!
The boy held the bowl steady. "It did not break."
"Keep it low and let the wall protect your hands," Jaro said. "We only need the reflection when Kael reaches the frame."
Renn hid the count cloth and guided the survivors with squeezes and sleeve pulls while Kael blocked the center.
Vaela kept her gaze on the blood rather than Kael’s outline. "His blood is falling straight down. Follow it and ignore every image that moves without leaving a mark."
Kael tore the nails from his body.
RIP! RIP! RIP!
Clear fluid and blood crossed his chest. The nails wriggled inside his fist until he crushed their glass heads.
CRUNCH!
Vaela turned by touch and cut the lower row from the frame.
SNAP!
Jaro lifted the cracked bowl with both hands. Old clear residue along its rim caught the light from the broken nails.
The curved surface reflected Kael standing in one place, wounded and real. Every survivor who looked into the bowl saw the same image because the nails had not prepared a separate lie inside the clay.
"Use the bowl," Jaro said. "Look at the reflection until Renn finishes the count."
Six nails turned toward it. The boy pulled the bowl against his chest, and Jaro covered the crack with his wrapped hand.
Kael reached the threshold before the nails fired.
BOOM!
His fist broke through the upper frame. A dense cluster of black stems and red nerves filled the cavity behind it, wrapped around a pale organ shaped like an open eyelid.
The organ blinked against his knuckles.
Kael closed his hand around it and pulled.
RIP!
The pale tissue split. Clear fluid splashed over his wrist, and every nail around the doorway went blind.
Several fired without targets. Orrek caught one in his already wounded shoulder while Vaela kicked another away from Renn’s ankle.
CLACK! CLACK!
Kael crushed the remaining nerve cluster against the frame.
CRACK!
The false positions disappeared. Renn counted through the last flicker, touching every knot and waiting for a human answer.
"Nineteen, twenty, twenty-one. Everyone is here."
Vaela checked the wounds before anyone approached the doorway. Two hooks had opened deeper beneath Kael’s shoulder and thigh, while Orrek bled through his binding again.
"The shallow cuts can wait," she said. "Keep pressure on the deeper hooks and do not let black fluid dry inside."
Renn passed clean cloth. Sova pressed one strip against Kael’s thigh while Vaela removed the shoulder hook.
Kael remained still until she finished. The open frame could wait for the people carrying its wounds.
The doorway opened. Cracked nail heads remained lodged around the frame, leaking thin lines that reflected images the dead organ had made before it split.
One reflection showed Orrek failing to reach the boy. Another showed Vaela cutting the wrong seam. A third showed Renn with blood running from his mouth while the count ended at three.
Renn stopped in front of the third image. His breathing shortened, but he did not look away.
"I can still see myself failing," he said. "The nail is broken, so why has the image stayed?"
Vaela stood beside him without covering the reflection. "The fluid kept the last thing it showed you. Use what you know happened instead of waiting for the glass to become kind."
Renn pressed the count cloth against the false image and began again. He said each name slowly, allowing the survivor behind it to answer.
The reflected mouth continued failing through the first three. Its shape blurred at the fourth name and disappeared before Renn reached the final knot.
Jaro stayed near the boy. "The copy borrowed your face and voice, but it missed the pain in your count. I should have noticed sooner."
Renn wiped his lip and folded the cloth over the faded image. "We caught it before it took anyone. Everyone still answers."
Orrek pulled the nail from his shoulder and held the cracked eye between two fingers. "I watched the bodies while this little thing chose where we ran. In the next room, someone needs to watch the walls with me."
The boy looked from the nail to his bowl. "The bowl showed us where Kael was, so I want to keep carrying it."
Orrek moved the nail beyond his reach. "Keep the bowl wrapped during a fight, and give it to Jaro when your hands shake."
Kael crushed the nail without touching Orrek’s fingers. Black grit fell across the open frame.
Vaela bound the new puncture beside Orrek’s older wounds. "Your shoulder has taken another hook. Keep the chain below your ribs until the bleeding slows."
Orrek gathered the chain at his waist. "I can manage the rear without lifting it."
Kael tested the open frame with one arm before stepping through. No false image formed, but a black pin rose beneath his boot and withdrew when he pulled back.
"The eyelid organ is dead," Vaela said. "A pin rose under Kael’s boot. Cross in pairs and stop at the gray stone."
The survivors crossed using touch and Renn’s names instead of the leaking reflections. Jaro kept the bowl angled so each pair could confirm the same view before moving, while Orrek guarded the rear with his chain below the ribs.
Beyond the frame stood a gate grown around a gray organ. Closed mouths covered its surface, and black pins waited beneath the floor in front of it.
The gray organ pulsed once.
No sound followed. The mouths drew tight around their teeth, and the pin beneath Kael’s boot rose a finger’s width.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter