Chapter 38 - The Corrupted Veil
The three Deviants stood still, staring at the area before them.
Luke had never gone this far. Drinking a bit of water, he was thankful for his canteen. Luke's canteen had proven incredibly useful, allowing them to filter water and pour the clean water into Alice's canteen. Luckily, the canteen would return to card form, retaining the water it had stored, making it easier for Luke not to carry more weight in his leather bag.
Even though the canteen had the ability to filter dirty water, the exterior where he placed his mouth would still be dirty. To solve this small problem, Luke could simply transform the canteen into a card and then summon it again, making it clean on the outside.
The girls carried their respective bags that Alice had hastily grabbed when she returned to the invaded camp.
Luke was grateful once more for having a canteen like that, though knowing the Veil rained constantly, he didn't want to think about where he'd get water inside a sewer.
With the water issue resolved after filling the canteen to its limit, they only needed to worry about food. Not knowing if they would have the chance to eat for a while once inside the sewers and suspecting they wouldn't want to eat the monsters they found there, he was thankful for the bit of meat in those bags.
Over time in the cave, the trio had collected meat and divided it into strips, letting it dry in the sun through a process called drying. When they saw this was taking too long, they opted for the smoking method, which involved turning raw meat into smoked dried meat. Placing the meat strips over the campfire, they let them sit until the meat was smoked. When the meat was well-dried and smoked, it could be stored and last for weeks without spoiling.
They always stored meat in their bags in case of unexpected events, and in their current situation, this would stave off hunger for a while.
Before Luke lay the boundary of where they could go without worrying about significant threats. Behind him were the ruined houses near the wall. In front of him, he saw a completely destroyed street. Though narrow, he could see its end, where a giant floating castle stood on an island of stone. He also saw some solitary monsters in the distance. On the horizon, the sun shone, and the nightmarish vision of an apocalyptic city inhabited by creatures from hell or some other dimension didn't scare him as much.
"It's right here," Alice said, standing beside them.
"Yes…" Anna lowered her head, worried.
"Here?" Luke looked around, trying to see if he noticed anything different.
"Take a step forward, just one or two, and then stop," Alice instructed.
Hmm…
Luke hesitated. A part of him still didn't trust anyone. Even though he had decided to follow the path with them, as it was his chance to find someone capable of getting him out of there. He knew that if he found a soldier or captain, he would hardly gain their trust or care to want to take him on a journey where they'd be defenseless at night or other times, as a stranger accompanying them. But if he was with these two academy girls, the situation would be different. That was his original plan, but for some reason... he couldn't pinpoint when things began to change; now he genuinely wanted to reach their destination together.
Alice sighed and walked forward, then simply vanished, disappearing completely as if she had never been there.
What the hell was that? She disappeared.
Taking another step, Luke stopped. In front of him, he saw something almost invisible a translucent wall that moved slightly, carrying a bad vibration and almost an audible... whisper.
Anna took a deep breath and walked through. Luke was no longer easily surprised after everything he had experienced, but sometimes this place still managed to surprise him in bizarre ways.
Right in front of him was the view of the street, and as he took two steps forward, he felt his entire body being enveloped by something, similar to the sensation of intangibility when passing through a wall. With that step, the clear yet apocalyptic scene transformed into pure hell and terror.
What? What is this? How is this possible?
Luke had crossed the Veil. The scenery from just a step back had disappeared, replaced by an even darker world.
A torrential rain poured down. It was night, or perhaps it had never been day. The darkness of that eternal night obscured the sky, which was completely covered by black clouds. Amidst the black clouds, a green glow emanated as if they were cracked. Green lightning bolts flashed constantly along with thunder dancing in the rain. In the light of the lightning, Luke saw that the clouds had the shape of skulls or demonic faces.
Above, he saw several chains rising toward the sky. Attached to these chains were people or corpses of whatever they were. The chains emerged from the ground and went straight up into the sky, where the people were held at the ends. In the depths of that sky, beings made of what seemed to be tattered gray cloaks and eyes resembling red lanterns floated in the air. These beings looked like death itself or the concept depicted in reference to death. Hooded figures flew through the sky, except they didn't carry scythes—instead, only clawed hands extended from the living mantle.
The castle, once a ruin on a stone island, now appeared even more distant. Its state was worse than it seemed but larger and more imposing. Lights could be seen in the castle windows, and a multitude of skeletons roamed it as if they were residents or guards. The castle now had a waterfall cascading from it and an abyss where it should be connected to the ground.
The city was filled with knights from another time, now monstrous. Some had plants growing out of their bodies, and others were undead. Creatures roamed the buildings, and large black birds occasionally descended to snatch one of the zombies. A huge creature resembling a human but with arms and legs replaced by giant spider limbs lurked about.
Screams of tortured souls came from all directions, crying for help and begging for the pain to stop. In the distance, Luke heard a loud noise and saw a giant crushing a creature with its hammer. One of the giant's eyes was empty, with plants growing out of it. What shocked Luke the most was a distant creature resembling a black humanoid scorpion, impaling people on its stinger tail—humans, soldiers, or students.
Taking an involuntary step back, he bumped into something and realized there was a massive black curtain behind him, stretching from the ground to the sky, encircling the entire city like a gigantic wall. The curtain was so tall that Luke lost sight of it in the sky.
As he tried to say something, Alice placed her hand over his mouth and raised a finger to her lips, signaling for silence. Then she leaned into his ear and whispered:
"Welcome to the Veil."
While the trio was approaching their destination, a figure stood on top of a distant house, watching them enter the Veil.
'CAW' the crow landed on the Scarecrow's shoulder.
"You shouldn't have done that..." a voice said.
The Scarecrow looked back, and a woman with a porcelain face stood behind him. She wore a black dress and a peculiar hat, carrying an open umbrella despite the lack of rain. In her hand was a brown suitcase, and her hat partially obscured her face.
"Hello, Doll Apparition… so you've also arrived at this place," he said, removing his hat and greeting her.
The woman with the doll face took a few steps forward, standing next to him, observing the spot where the three deviants had entered the Veil.
"You interacted too much, Scarecrow…" she said.
"Hehe," he chuckled, "I just wanted to talk to them."
The Doll Apparition stared at him.
"It's not time yet…" she said.
'Caw,' went the crow.
The Scarecrow sighed.
"Will they make it to the sewers?" she asked.
"The signs I placed should help," he replied, turning to leave.
"You're playing a dangerous game, Scarecrow… be wary of the consequences…" she warned.
The crow flew away.
"A little faith never hurt anyone. A story needs to be told… and the trio of deviants must go through this. Sooner or later, I will see them again, and so will you."
The Scarecrow transformed into a swarm of crows and flew away.
"Lucan, Anna, and Alice… it seems I'll have new customers in my shop," murmured the Doll Apparition.