novelraw Chapter 605: The Gaze
Chapter 605: The Gaze
The anomalies on the street froze, halting in unnatural poses with their heads tilted upward, as if the source of the vibrations was high in the sky.
Lu Li lifted a corner of the curtain. Seeing their strange behavior, he looked up. In the inverted reflection of the city above, the buildings were fracturing, cracks spreading across them like frost on a windowpane, while the real structures below remained untouched.
The two worlds began to separate.
“Are you sure about the time?” Lu Li asked.
“O-of course! I checked it against the cathedral bells,” York answered, his voice trembling.
Maybe the clocks were slow. Maybe events had accelerated. Either way—they were late.
Anna grasped the severity of the situation. "Faster!" she commanded. "We need to get out of here now."
The monstrous centipede responded with a hiss and surged forward, bowling over everything in its path. Anna had forgotten it wasn't a horse—the violent lurch tossed the carriage about like a splinter in a storm. Its passengers were thrown into a heap against the walls. The wooden frame screamed in protest, a wheel shattered into splinters, and the body of the cart began to screech across the cobblestones.
The survivors huddled together in a twisted corner of the carriage, their groans lost in the grinding shriek. Shielding Lu Li, Anna leaped from the ruined cart, landing lightly on the centipede's back.
A screech, and the second wheel ripped away. A faint snap, and the carriage broke free from its hitch.But before the carriage was flung away, Anna’s unseen hands snatched the passengers out and pinned them to the centipede's chitinous back. They were all bruised; York had a deep cut on his forehead, and the old man's arm was broken.
The one advantage they had was speed. The Five O’Clock Quarter was now only three or four minutes away.
Anna no longer concealed her true nature. A dark aura enveloped them, a clear warning to any would-be predators.
Lu Li never took his eyes off the sky. The inverted city was shattering like a glass sphere. The fissures widened from thin, snaking lines to gaping maws the size of pythons, revealing a frightening void where something stirred.
"The time is right!" York shouted, squinting one bloodied eye. He pointed toward the tower of the Cathedral of Saint Charles, one of the great symbols of the Kingdom of Ellen.
The massive clock face showed 5:45.
No one answered him. The other survivors prayed in silent terror. Lu Li, however, was transfixed by the spectacle unfolding above.
From the depths of the fissures emerged the things that had been stirring within: desiccated claws. A myriad of them, spreading outward like a growth of coral.
A massive, house-sized anomaly became entangled in the claws. It struggled futilely, as if being torn to pieces by a pack of starving dogs. Down on the street, Yulissis froze. His tiny eyes, buried in folds of fat, widened in horror as an invisible force began ripping chunks of flesh from his body.
The same scene played out all across the city. The fissures in the sky above were snaring the anomalies on the ground, spreading chaos. Even creatures that had given Anna pause were as helpless as kittens before the onslaught of claws.
"Anna, direct it," Lu Li commanded, his eyes tracking the centipede's path toward a cluster of fissures. "One meter to the left."
Anna jerked on her invisible reins. The creature veered, speeding past a writhing mass of claws.
"Half a meter to the right. Hug the left side. Weave between them. Past the two shadows."
His sharp commands guided the centipede through the hellscape. Then, suddenly, Lu Li went quiet.
“What is it?” Anna asked, alarmed.
“It’s a dead end.”
Lu Li finally tore his gaze from the sky. An invisible chasm yawned open before them. Anna pressed her lips into a thin line. Eight of her unseen hands lifted the centipede onto a nearby roof, then vaulted it over into the next district.
They had barely landed when a building behind them collapsed. Lu Li glanced back. The sky itself was falling.
The claws cascaded down from the center of the inverted city. Spreading like ripples from a stone dropped in water, billions of claws surged outward from the royal palace, erasing everything in their path.
The negative space between the claws formed the outline of a colossal torso. The wave advanced, devouring a city block every second.
The centipede tore through the Five O’Clock Quarter. They were less than two hundred meters from the open gates when the cataclysmic roar washed over them.
...
A colossal silhouette woven from claws towered over the royal city. Its monstrous torso unleashed a silent roar at the heavens.
“The gods were never beautiful,” a priest whispered mournfully from a distant hill.
“Only those who desire to enslave us adopt guises that entice and deceive...”
This was not his god, yet he could feel Its pain. Its powerlessness.
“Master, at what is Its rage directed?” a young man asked.
At that moment, the veil of clouds over the city parted, revealing a star-strewn canvas. It was alien, oppressive, shimmering like a swarm of fireflies that coalesced into a single pattern.
“Don't look!” the priest cried in terror, trying to shield his disciple. But it was too late. Reflected in the young man’s pupils was a gigantic eye woven from the starlight. His own gaze clouded over...
The young man's body began to decompose. His eyes glazed over, melting like wax. His scream twisted into a ragged, gurgling sound.
The priest turned away, shuddering, unable to bear the sight. The monster in the city fell silent. A light breeze swept over the plain, and the towering figure crumbled to dust, taking the city's screams with it.
The priest fell to his knees, burying his face in his hands.
“That... is our true enemy...”