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The boy below him stopped moving. No more life in the eyes. Blood splattered all over Gale's hands as he took them away, looking at the deep red.

Different from the black gooey blood of the beasts. This was real blood, smelling like iron. A gag reached up to his throat, forcing him to cover his mouth, but the smell pushed up the bile from his stomach further upwards.

Gale swallowed, forcing it down. Tears ran down from his cheeks. He looked around. There had to be something to wash it all off. The bucket lay under the table, under the torture devices hung on the wall.

He dipped his hands into the water, desperately scrubbing off the blood. Next was his face, washing it off with the bloody bucket of water. Mom did say fresh blood came off easily. Calm down, Gale. You can do this.

He could, yet he couldn't even stop the stupid tears from falling. The man, Marcus. He was human. Not a beast. For all the corruption that he may have done, whatever it was, his blood was red. Who was he to give judgment to someone that could've been rehabilitated or put in prison after they're all out of this whole world?

Gale finished cleaning himself off. No more blood. No one will know. Probably.

He stood up, staggering. Such feelings were a luxury he couldn't afford. In this world, it was eat or be eaten. Just like his first kill of a beast. Marcus was one too. A beast. Let's think that way.

Right now, he just needed to focus. Gale turned his eyes down, looking at the dead beast below him. He knelt down in front of it, patting down the body. Hands trembled, shaking uncontrollably.

His hand felt a metallic something. Inside the pocket was a set of keys and a strange amulet adorned with an eye symbol, the same one on the altar. Dead beasts don't need this.

He pocketed both, turning his attention to the room once again. Breath of the Void didn't need to be used to know that something smelled like piss and shit below this whole building.

Crouching down, feeling the floorboards with his bare hands, he felt for any opening or anything to pull at the floorboard. He avoided the blood, carefully screening through the whole floor, and then he found it.

A small unnoticeable handle on the floorboard. It blended in altogether yet provided enough gap for fingers to go through. Gale pulled at it, and it opened like a trap door, revealing a set of stairs.

Gale tried climbing down, but his legs staggered, weak. He took a deep breath. This isn't the stone tower, he repeated in his head. That's right, there's nothing down there, so legs, please stop fucking shaking.

Again, he took another deep breath until finally stabilizing his legs. Gale continued down the stairs. The putrid smell became stronger with each step he took down.

Upon reaching the bottom, he found himself in a dimly lit cellar. Cages lined the walls. Each cage contained a woman. Some contained even more than 3 in the cramped space that could barely fit two of them. Most were young. Though their cheeks were hollowed from the starvation, most would be considered to be at least above average in beauty, only marred by the blood and dirt on their faces.

One of the women turned to him. She was blonde, hair running down to below her elbows, caucasian. Her cheeks weren't as sunken as the others. Her reddened eyes were wide, and tears clearly had ran dry from her cheeks.

"Please," she whispered. "Help us."

Her voice sounded like it had ran through gravel.

"Name?" Gale asked softly, crouching down to meet her eye to eye.

"Lily," she replied, tears welling in her eyes.

"What's happening here?" Gale asked.

"They take us one by one," she said, shuddering. "Up to that room above. We hear... screams… and then silence."

'Soon, your majesty.' Marcus had said that. This whole thing confirms his suspicion from during when Elliot and his cronies talked. This whole thing was a sacrificial ritual scene.

"Do you know why they're doing this?" Gale asked. "Marcus mentioned a princess."

"I don't know much. But sometimes, when they think we're asleep, they talk. Something about the god wanting to eat… to stay young. And they always watch the sky, waiting for the moon." Lily said.

Sacrifice to the blue moon. If Blue Haven somehow had a connection to the celestial body or, worst case, they could control it, then this whole village was a death sentence.

"Listen carefully. You need to stay here and keep quiet. Don't tell anyone I was here."

Lily's eyes widened, hands reaching for him through the cage's grill. "But... you can't leave us here. Take us with you!"

Gale shook his head, then caught sight of his own bloody hands. What would Rachel do? What would he do if he kept treading the same path as he was treading now?

He sighed, "It's not safe yet. I promise I'll come back for you all."

The other women in the cages stirred, pressing themselves against the bars of the cage.

"Please, save us. Don't leave," one of the women whispered. Sobs formed all around.

"Sorry…" he said, glancing down at his hands again. "This is the best way to ensure everyone's safety. Trust me."

Gale turned back to the staircase and made his way back upstairs. He could hear the muffled sobs from the stairwell coming from below.

Back in the torture chamber, Gale surveyed the dead beast. Blood pooled on the floorboards where it had fallen. He needed to clean up, to erase any evidence of his presence.

He found rags near the bucket, dipping them into the bloody water and started scrubbing the places where blood had sprayed. But as he worked through, he noticed the room was originally already coloured with blood anyway. Cleaning this whole thing up would just make it more obvious that a foreigner was here.

Gale paused, looking at the body. He needed to dispose of it, but where? Those mindless walking people out there would rat him out the moment any of them found him.

Before he could think of anything more, the door suddenly creaked open. A man in white robes and blue trimmings entered.

In a split second decision, Gale activated Distort, bending the light around himself and Marcus's corpse.

Elliot stepped into the room, eyes skimming over the entire room. Gale remained perfectly still as he held his breath, not daring to move a muscle.

"Marcus?" Elliot called out. "Where are you, you useless fool?"

Gale watched as Elliot moved around the room, checking behind the altar and then under a shelf of knives. Then he moved towards where Gale was with the dead body but stopped just before he stepped onto the body.

"If he's drunk again, I swear I'll feed him to Her myself," Elliot muttered.

As Elliot turned to leave, his foot slipped slightly in the pool of blood that Gale didn't bother cleaning up. He looked down, frowning.

"What the...?" Elliot knelt, touching the liquid with his fingers. He brought them to his nose, sniffing. "Fresh blood?"

Elliot's eyes narrowed. A smirk formed on his lips, letting out a small chuckle.

"Foolish," he shook his head.

Elliot wiped his hands on the wooden walls. His gaze went to where the trapdoor was, "wasting precious resources on your urges. Those girls are meant for Her Majesty, not your disgusting lust."

This man is clearly insane. First, the smile. Now, talking to himself.

"I should have dealt with you long ago," Elliot said. "Perhaps it's time I feed you to Her myself. Your sacrifice might make up for your incompetence."

Elliot's eyes fell on the altar at the centre of the room. Approaching it, his demeanour shifted, kneeling down just in front of it where the blue moon's light was the brightest. He bent his head down, and the same blank smile appeared on his lips as he just… knelt there.

For several minutes, Elliot remained motionless while saying a silent chant as his lips moved rhythmically.

"Princess, I thank you for your guidance and strength you've bestowed unto this undeserving one." Elliot rose immediately after those words, straightened his robes, and then left the room without another word.

Ok. So he's not talking to himself. Probably talking to the blue moon. But that made it all even more insane.

Gale waited a couple of minutes before releasing Distort. His figure and the body beside him shifted into colour.

This was everything he needed. This was the damning evidence he needed to convince Rachel. She'll be happy, and then she'll finally see this whole place for its real face.

But first, take care of the body. He hoisted the body up his shoulder. He had to bury the body somewhere no one would find it. The best spot was outside the walls.

One more deep breath, and Gale activated Distort again, turning him and the body nigh invisible. He moved through the open field into the alleyways. He neared a main street.

He stopped. Breath of the Void told him that there was about to be a passerby. A female child eating a muffin with a blank smile walked by.

The female child turned the corner and disappeared. Time to move again. He moved through the street, cutting across the road. It was the straightest way to the walls.

He soon reached the walls. 30 feet high. No way he was able to jump that high even if he was stronger now.

Gale repositioned the body to have its legs on the left shoulder and the other shoulder had its arms. He began climbing the wall. The walls easily gave him hand and footholds due to the jutting out rocks. A beast could definitely climb this easier than one of the massive trees in the forest.

He soon reached the top with one last heave, pulling himself and the body over onto the edge. Pausing for a moment, he scanned the outer perimeter beyond the wall.

No moving things spotted.

Gale lowered himself down quickly, using the rocks on the wall to skip vertically alongside it. His feet touched the earth, and with no time to waste, started digging with the spear behind his back.

The soil here was harder, drier than the forest's. However, he couldn't afford to activate Phase Touch.

[Essence: 44/100]

He'd already used up a lot on just using Distort. Time seemed to stretch as he dug.

His spear accidentally struck a moderately sized rock, causing it to ricochet into the wall. He flinched, but no reaction came from inside the walls.

After a while, he measured the ditch. Around 3 feet. It wasn't deep, but it'll have to do. He threw in the body and used his hands to shovel the dirt onto the body.

His hands trembled as he buried the body. Bile dared to come up to his throat again. Just remember, Gale. Think of what this boy or man may have done to the women in that cellar.

Gale patted down the soil after finishing covering the whole body, making it as natural as possible. He stepped backwards a few steps, looking at the slight mound.

It wasn't perfect. But under the eternal night of this place, they'd have to be almost licking the ground to notice the difference.

That was it. Gale brushed off the dirt on his clothes and hands. Turning to the wall, he scaled it once more, easily going up. He activated Distort just before he reached the top, then jumped down to the other side.

As he landed, he walked through the streets, tracking back to where Elliot had given them lodging. Again, the cheerful faces plastered on every civilian came into view. Same blank smile every time.

Gale walked through the front door and into the room the group was given. Her slumped shoulders told him everything he needed to know about her earlier endeavour. Probably not finding anything that actually listened to her. The mindless thralls they all were.

"Rachel," he said, closing the door behind him, deactivating his Distort. "We need to talk."

She turned away from him. "No, we don't. You've made your position clear."

"Wait, you don't understand, let me ex-"

"You listen to me, you're the one that don't understand," Rachel snapped. "Your selfishness is putting us all at risk. We have a chance to go home, and y-you want to stay in this he-hellhole of a world? Cut the crap and leave me alone. I just want to go home."

Listen to me for one second. Everything about this whole place is a trap. The rituals and sacrifices. The women in the basement locked in cages. And you have to listen to the thing about her Majesty bullshit that Elliot was talking about.

He wanted to scream it all at her... But all that came out was a pathetic stammer.

"It's not what you think. It's...," he said.

Rachel shook her head. "I don't want to hear it. Just... leave me alone."

She turned back to the window. Wavy patterns formed in the air as it heated up.

Gale stood there, not knowing what to say to make her listen. Maybe this was why dad always lost fights against mom, but why if it was so logical?

He sighed, leaving the room, finding Annett in a chair in the common area. Her eyes stared into the distance through the window. She glanced up as Gale approached.

"Annett," Gale said. "Can we talk?"

Annett didn't look up. "I think Rachel made our feelings clear, Gale."

Gale ran a hand through his hair. He turned, spotting Alex in the corner.

"Alex," he said. "What if I told you that there's something weird in all of this place, and that I wanted to stay to investigate it all. You believe me, right?"

Before Alex could say anything, Rachel shouted from the room, "Don't you dare, Alex. He's made his choice. He can deal with the consequences on his own."

Alex's mouth snapped shut, her eyes dropping to the floor.

Gale looked at the last person in the room, Anna, but all she did was turn away, looking into the corner of the room.

These were the people he fought with. Bled with. Yet now, here he was, cut off from the rest of them even though they were right there. No words could and would break that divide.

But so what?

He never did care to speak to them. He just did, and they would follow. Actions always spoke larger than words. Action was unignorable.

Without another word, Gale turned and walked out of the lodging. He took a deep breath as he looked up at the blue moon.

And that was when it was obvious. He needed to go high up in the most literal sense.

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