Chapter 140 — Beneath the Stone
The knock came again.
Once.
Slow.
Heavy.
From beneath the stone.
Nobody moved.
Henry looked down.
Then at Crowley.
"Please tell me that was your imagination."
Crowley stared at the floor.
The knock came again.
Henry nodded slowly.
"Right. Bad question."
Brook drew his weapon.
Rick stepped forward.
Sera moved closer to Shoyo.
The ruined structure around them suddenly felt smaller.
The walls were old.
Broken.
Roots pushed through cracks in the stone.
Crowley had said he remembered this place.
Not clearly.
Not enough.
But enough to know that something beneath it had been waiting.
Brook looked at him.
"What is under there?"
Crowley didn't answer.
Another knock.
This time, Crowley flinched.
Sera noticed.
"You remember."
Crowley slowly looked at her.
"No."
Brook frowned.
Crowley looked back at the floor.
"But something in me does."
Nobody liked that answer.
Henry folded his arms.
"That's somehow worse."
Crowley crouched.
Brook immediately stepped forward.
"Don't."
Crowley looked up.
Brook pointed at the floor.
"We don't know what's down there."
Crowley's expression tightened.
"I think I do."
Brook waited.
Crowley swallowed.
"A road."
Henry stared.
"A road?"
Crowley nodded slowly.
"An old path."
Shoyo became still.
Brook noticed.
"Shoyo."
She looked at him.
"What?"
"You know what he's talking about."
Shoyo didn't answer.
Brook sighed.
"Of course."
Crowley slowly stood.
"The world wasn't always divided the way it is now."
Rick looked toward him.
"The old world."
Crowley nodded.
Brook looked at the floor.
"And these paths existed before the sections."
Crowley looked at Shoyo.
She answered instead.
"They connected places."
Brook frowned.
"Across the world?"
Shoyo shook her head.
"Not always."
Henry stared.
"That doesn't make sense."
Shoyo looked toward the floor.
"They were never meant to make sense to people like us."
Brook raised an eyebrow.
"People like us?"
"People who came after."
The knock stopped.
The silence that followed was worse.
Crowley stepped forward again.
This time, Brook didn't stop him.
Crowley placed his hand against the stone.
Nothing happened.
For several seconds.
Then the symbol on the nearest wall began glowing.
Sera stepped backward.
Rick drew his sword.
Henry stared.
"Did he do that?"
Brook looked at Crowley.
"I don't think he knows."
Crowley's eyes remained fixed on the floor.
A crack appeared beneath his hand.
Brook moved immediately.
"Crowley!"
The stone split.
A cold wind rose from beneath it.
The floor collapsed.
Everyone jumped back.
A dark opening appeared.
Stone steps descended into darkness.
Henry stared.
"No."
Brook looked at him.
"What?"
Henry pointed.
"Absolutely not."
Rick stepped toward the stairs.
Brook grabbed his arm.
"We don't know what's down there."
Rick looked at him.
"Then we find out."
Brook sighed.
That was the exact kind of answer he expected.
Crowley stared into the opening.
His face had gone pale.
Sera noticed.
"What?"
Crowley didn't look at her.
"I remember someone opening this."
Everyone became still.
Brook stepped closer.
"Who?"
Crowley closed his eyes.
Nothing came.
He opened them again.
"I don't know."
Henry rubbed his face.
"I hate your memory."
Crowley looked at him.
Henry lowered his hand.
"Sorry."
Crowley looked back into the darkness.
"But whoever it was…"
His voice changed.
"They told me not to follow."
Brook stared.
"And you did anyway?"
Crowley looked at him.
"Apparently."
Brook shook his head.
"Of course you did."
They descended.
Brook went first.
Rick followed close behind.
Sera and Shoyo came next.
Henry remained between them.
Crowley stayed at the back.
The stairs went deeper than Brook expected.
The air became colder.
Their footsteps echoed through the stone.
Henry looked around.
"I've decided I don't like old things."
Crowley answered from behind him.
"You're going to hate me."
Henry looked back.
"I already do sometimes."
Brook almost smiled.
They reached the bottom.
The passage opened into a long corridor.
Symbols covered the walls.
Brook stopped.
Some were carved.
Some appeared burned into the stone.
Sera stepped toward one.
Shoyo immediately caught her wrist.
"Don't."
Sera looked at her.
"Why?"
Shoyo stared at the marking.
"Because it isn't finished."
Brook frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Shoyo didn't answer.
Crowley walked closer.
His eyes moved across the symbols.
Then he stopped.
Brook noticed.
"What?"
Crowley pointed at the wall.
A symbol had been carved over the ancient markings.
Fresh.
New.
Brook stepped closer.
A vertical line.
Two smaller cuts crossed it.
Henry looked at it.
"Someone was here."
Crowley nodded.
"Recently."
Sera looked toward the darkness ahead.
"How recently?"
Crowley touched the edge of the carving.
The stone was still rough.
The dust hadn't settled into the cuts.
He pulled his hand away.
"Not long."
Brook's expression hardened.
"So we're not the first people to find this place."
"No."
Crowley said.
"Someone found it before us."
Shoyo stared at the symbol.
Brook noticed.
"What?"
She didn't answer.
Brook's eyes narrowed.
"Shoyo."
She finally spoke.
"I've seen that mark."
Everyone turned toward her.
Henry asked:
"Where?"
Shoyo looked toward the tunnel.
"Long ago."
Brook sighed.
"That's all we're getting?"
"For now."
Brook shook his head.
Henry whispered:
"She's doing it again."
Shoyo looked directly at him.
Henry immediately raised his hands.
"Sorry."
The corridor opened into a massive chamber.
Ancient pillars reached toward the ceiling.
Several had collapsed.
Roots had broken through the floor.
At the far end stood a stone door.
Brook stared.
The door was enormous.
There was no handle.
Only symbols.
And in the centre—
the same fresh marking.
Henry looked at it.
"That's not good."
Crowley approached.
Brook immediately followed.
Crowley reached toward the door.
Brook grabbed his arm.
"Crowley."
Crowley looked at him.
"What?"
"Think."
Crowley raised an eyebrow.
"I've been alive a very long time."
"Exactly."
Henry laughed.
Crowley looked at him.
Henry stopped.
Crowley placed his hand against the door.
Nothing.
Then the symbols began glowing.
Brook stepped backward.
Sera froze.
Shoyo's eyes widened.
Crowley looked toward her.
"You knew."
Shoyo shook her head.
"No."
The door cracked.
Cold air entered the chamber.
Brook moved toward Sera.
"Behind me."
Sera looked at him.
"Don't start."
Brook glanced at her.
"Not now."
The door opened.
Darkness waited beyond it.
Nobody moved.
Then—
a shadow stumbled through.
Rick raised his sword.
Brook stepped forward.
The figure collapsed.
A man.
Old.
Thin.
Covered in dirt and blood.
Sera moved.
Brook followed her.
The man opened his eyes.
He saw Crowley.
And screamed.
Crowley froze.
The man crawled backward.
"No."
Crowley stepped forward.
"Who are you?"
The man pointed at him.
"You came back."
Crowley stopped.
Brook looked between them.
"You know him?"
Crowley shook his head.
The man's breathing became frantic.
Brook crouched beside him.
"What happened?"
The man looked past him.
Toward the open door.
His face went pale.
"It found the road."
Brook's stomach tightened.
"What found it?"
The man began shaking.
Henry stepped closer.
"Answer him."
The man screamed:
"THE HUNTER!"
Silence.
Then—
Mórkr roared.
The sound came from somewhere beyond the open path.
Everyone froze.
Brook turned toward the darkness.
Henry whispered:
"It's here."
Crowley stared at the door.
Brook looked at him.
"We need to close it."
Crowley didn't answer.
The man started laughing.
Brook turned.
"What?"
The man pointed toward the fresh symbol.
The same one.
Crowley looked at it.
Then his entire body went still.
Brook noticed.
"Crowley?"
Crowley took a step backward.
His hand went to his head.
A memory.
Not clear.
Not complete.
A stone passage.
The same symbol.
A person standing before it.
Not a face.
Crowley couldn't see the face.
Only the figure.
A calm voice.
And four words.
"The path remains open."
Crowley snapped back.
Brook grabbed him.
"What happened?"
Crowley looked at the symbol.
His face had lost its color.
"I remembered."
Brook waited.
Crowley swallowed.
"Someone has been doing this."
Henry looked at the mark.
"Opening the paths?"
Crowley nodded.
Sera looked toward Shoyo.
Shoyo was staring at the same symbol.
Brook noticed something in her expression.
Recognition.
But also concern.
"Shoyo."
She looked at him.
Brook pointed at the mark.
"Who uses that symbol?"
Shoyo was silent.
Then she answered:
"I don't know."
Brook stared.
This time—
he believed she was lying.
But he didn't press her.
Not here.
Not yet.
The chamber shook.
Mórkr roared again.
Closer.
The man near the door began screaming.
Rick grabbed him and pulled him away from the entrance.
Brook looked toward Crowley.
"We move."
Crowley nodded.
"Yes."
Brook looked at Sera.
"Stay close."
She rolled her eyes.
"I was planning to."
Henry looked toward the darkness.
"Are we leaving the way we came?"
Brook nodded.
Henry looked relieved.
Then another sound came from beyond the open door.
A second roar.
Everyone stopped.
Brook's face hardened.
He knew that sound.
Sera froze beside him.
Henry looked between them.
Brook whispered:
"Azael."
Mórkr answered.
The ancient path shook.
Two beasts were moving closer to the open road.
Brook turned.
"RUN."
Xcution ran back toward the corridor.
Behind them, the old path remained open.
The fresh symbol watched from the stone.
And somewhere far beyond the chamber, unseen by Xcution—
a door opened.
A quiet figure passed through.
There was no dramatic arrival.
No announcement.
Only the sound of footsteps.
The figure stopped.
Looked toward the distant darkness.
And continued walking.
Far away, Mórkr roared.
The figure never turned back.
End of Chapter 140