The corridor was…disqueiting. Not because there was anything in there, but because there wasn’t. I was an Ascendant, which meant I had powerful senses when I chose to use them. I had all my Perception dedicated to watching out for potential traps, just in case they were too fast for my Danger Sense, and I was listening close for literally any sign of local life. There was none.

No insects, no worms, no small creatures burrowing. Even the wind seemed somehow dead, and with a flex of Song of the Soil, I could feel the earth around me, and I was horrified to discover what was in it. Bones.

Big, small, and medium bones, human and animal and some things in between. Old bones, new bones, broken and whole, some chewed upon and some pristine. A sea of silence and death surrounded us, floating in the dirt like the scattered corpses of a sunken ship in an endless earthen ocean.

I could FEEL death. It was all around us, beneath and above us, I was choking on it, like I was buried alive with all the dead interred here in these walls.

Turning to check on the others, I found them on the ground insensate and terrified, and I pushed back the sensation of death, grabbing them and dragging them behind me until we finally emerged from the tunnel. As soon as we did, it was like the air cleared of poison, I gasped in relief, panting as the other two sat bolt upright, finally lucid again out of the influence.

That was…awful. And OLD. Those bones were countless, and some were ancient. This wasn’t a few hundred years of sacrifices. It was thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Not that I was stupid enough to think some million year old monster was in here. No, this place was old, but any creature who had eaten that many high rank Ascendants would be WELL past C or even B-rank by this point.

I looked around the new cavern we had entered. The sensation had gone, at least the ambiance, but if I focused I could feel it gushing from the tunnel. It just wasn’t sitting stagnant. It was being funneled into the room and around a huge formation, shoved into a number of statues surrounding us. More than a number in fact. Thousands. Tens of thousands, we stood in an ampitheater, surrounded by alcoves filled with statues.

The statues were humanoid but indistinct, vague manlike shapes, with only one thing unique about them. Their faces.

Screaming human faces, all perfectly preserved and lifelike, locked in a rictus of agony but not able to make a sound. I searched the faces, and I saw one in particular that I recognized. Sylvie. Ted’s wife. Her face was hard to recognize without the rest of her body, but I’d just seen her picture earlier that day. There was no mistaking it. The statue had somehow mimicked her facial bones.

Animal attack. Ted hadn’t mentioned that her face had been eaten. But why would he. Animals did that kind of thing all the time.

“Oh gods.” Gagged Bella. “That’s…what is this? What kind of person would do this?”

“I don’t know.” I said with a frown. “I don’t understand any of what’s going on here. The monster takes the faces and gives them to the hooded figure. I assumed he kept them, but it seems he…offers them here? To something. The faces don’t seem dead. I think they have SOULS caught in them. They’re using them to gather something.”

I needed help. Some kind of advice. This was out of my depth, lorewise. I didn’t know sacrificial rituals. Or soul harvesting. But I knew who fucking did. I reached through my bond to my wife, asking her to find my uncle. She did, bolting from the room when she felt my distress, when she arrived, I reached for Shadow Manipulation, and used the darkness and our bond to create a simulacrum for Zeke.

My uncle’s shadowy form rose from the dark, just like we’d done back on Callus. He raised a brow at me. “Hey kid. What’s the big idea? I was working on my tan.” He froze. “Shane…why does it look like you’re standing in a Soul Abattoir? Where did you even FIND one of those? They haven’t been in common usage for longer than your GRANDFATHER has been alive.”

I shrugged. “Fuck if I know. Also watch the real name stuff old man. I’m here with new friends.” I had used stealth when I’d seen him forming my name to block out the sound, but it was still sloppy of him to slip. He must be shocked. “What is it?”

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“It’s…complicated. They’re used for soul transplants. The spirits of the unwilling dead are harvested and suspended in a state of agony. The spiritual suffering drains into the center of the room, condensing into a kind of bath. A newly transplanted soul that bathes in the Abattoir for three days and three nights can stave off rejection.”

Frowning, I described what I’d seen to him. Then I described the creature itself, and he grimaced. “Varenkarsel. Nasty. They’re a form of evolved undead. They’re concentrated decay manifested as a spirit. They burn out bodies when they wear them, the Abattoir probably helps, but they need new bodies regularly. The whole face thing must be to feed the Abattoir. The Varenkarsel is strong, but it’s difficult for them to grow. Their nature is corrosive, and it eats away at their own progress.”

“So this one could be as old at the Abattoir?” I asked in worry. If it was millions of years old we were fucked.

He shook his head. “They’re spiritual beings but they’re not eternal. Even with a regular supply of bodies this one probably doesn’t have much longer to live. They don’t accept supplicants until they’re on their death bed. They spend a few centuries testing their faithful by having them acquire bodies, and if they follow through, when the Varenkarsel dies, it bequeathes its essence to the supplicant to use as a catalyst for a racial trait.”

Bella looked sick. “Who would want to be something like that?” I’d dropped the stealth once I knew Zeke was paying attention and the others had been listening.

“Varenkarsel are rare, and they possess a particularly unique ability.” Zeke said grimly. “They have three times the lifespan. A D-rank Varenkarsel lives longer than an A-ranker. Part of their nature shifts the corrosion of age onto their host body. It’s why they burn through them so quickly. They were originally created by undead sorcerers seeking immortality.”

I shuddered. “I don’t think that’s worth it. Living for what? Thirty thousand years as a corrosive body jacking ghost?”

“Most people don’t.” He acknowledged. “But there’s always somebody. Someone with no talent or a weak soul, or a flawed Path who can’t advance and is afraid to die. Based on what you told me about its pattern, this one is probably almost gone. But you need to find the supplicant before he can use the catalyst. It’s almost impossible to KILL a Varekarsel. Even if you kill the body it can escape. You need someone with a soul altering ability, and you don’t have one of those.”

Cursing, I turned to look around. “Thanks for the help.” I told him with a nod. "You should go. Not safe to be talking like this.”

“I’m masking us.” he said with a shake of his head. “Unless someone much stronger is actively watching you, they wouldn’t notice. Hopefully none of the vanished gods are keeping a close eye on you. I don’t think it’s a problem though. I couldn’t do a thing to stop a god from watching me or you, but I could at least FEEL it happening.”

I wanted to ask if that included Delthrys, the god I was doing this trial for, but I was afraid if I said the name it would call his attention. I just thanked my uncle and shut down the bond, letting the shadow fade.

“Well that was…terrifying.” Said Bella nauseously. “I don’t think I wanted to know about that kind of monster.”

“Me neither.” I said with a bitter chuckle. “But we have a chance to stop one from being born. We have to take it. Help me look around for clues in here. Don’t touch the statues. We’ll come back and free them when this is over, but if we wreck this place now and the Varenkarsel comes back it might spook and run off without passing on its essence here. It could pick some random asshole to turn and we’d never know.”

She didn’t look happy, and I didn’t blame her, but Chester came to my defense. “They’ve been here for centuries.” He said gently. “I know it sucks to leave them, but they’ll be free soon. And I think they would want us to destroy the thing that put them here.” He put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly, and my apprentice nodded resolutely.

“You’re right.” She said after a deep breath. “We need to help them, but we can get them justice first. They deserve it.” Her sad eyes floated over the statues, horrified, before she turned and started pacing the hall, searching for anything that might be a clue.

Delthrys had sent me here, presumably to stop the transfer, so I could only assume it was happening soon. Sylvie had been one of the victims, possibly having stumbled on the cavern, and Teddy had been looking for her killer and maybe found this place. Or at least found the sacrificial chamber.

I paced around, Eye or Revelation active as I went over the details. The timeline felt off. Weird and stretched. Two hundred years after the last sacrifice felt off. But then, maybe there needed to be another one. Or maybe there had been and we just hadn’t known about them. I remembered the man from the bar, talking about his niece.

“Hey, I found something!” I stopped, turning to where Chester was standing at a seemingly random corner of the formation. Walking over I stared down at a spot on the ground. There was a scrap of cloth there. I reached down, skeptical it could help. Maybe I could use it to track the owner, or try a blood curse and see who got sick.

I rubbed it between my fingers. “I don’t think it’s anything.” I said regretfully. “Looks like a piece of like…towel or some-” I froze, then slowly, raised the cloth to my nose. I sniffed. It smelled like must, and death, and dirt…and alcohol.

My eyes widened. I remembered the first person I’d talked to. The person who had pointed me at Harley as a suspect, the person who had been sat behind his bar, cleaning a glass. Kirk the bartender. I turned to the others. “I think I know who it is.” I said angrily. “And I know where to find him.”

I passed them the scrap, telling them what I’d figured out, and their expressions flattened.

“We don’t need to stop him.” I admitted. “We completed the task. Find out who and why. We did both of those things. But I’m not leaving this unfinished. I’m going to find that bastard and put him down before he becomes some unkillable evil ghost. You guys in?”

Bella snorted. “I would be doing it myself even if you didn’t master. I’m not leaving something like that loose on my planet. Abominations like that have no place on my world.” Her eyes hardened. “I walk the Path of Escape. And I say there will be none for our enemies.” Her voice echoed slightly, and I didn’t know if it was the chamber or her Path, but I grinned in response.

“Well them, let’s go kick some bartender ass.” I said viciously. I turned and stalked toward the exit of the chamber, rage pushing me forward as I prepared to confront a monster. Even if I was working for the dark gods, I could still help people.