Shade's Sins

Crossing the gate meant officially entering the relic.

The concentration of Whisper Element differed enormously between inside and outside the gate. This place was naturally nowhere near as unbearable as the Fishbone Pirate Ship, but the area-of-effect influence unique to location-type relics still made Shade feel extremely uncomfortable.

It was not a severe headache or nausea, nor were fragmented whispers constantly harassing him. He felt desire—his own chaotic thoughts were especially likely to surface here. Shade had even thought of backing out just then, and the idea of fleeing should never have occurred to him.

"Oh, I need to focus."

With his back to the gate behind him, Shade closed his eyes and patted his head a few times. Pleasant memories and thoughts could drive away distracting thoughts, but the problem was that pleasant memories could also stir up even more improper ideas. Thinking of Mia the Cat made him want to cautiously turn around and leave, while thinking of Luvia brought not only the sweetness of affection, but also...

As Shade realized how unusual these chaotic thoughts were, he suddenly felt the daylight around him dim. Dark clouds closed in from around the forest clearing, and after a black bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, a rumble followed several seconds later.

The building, which had looked clean and orderly beneath the autumn sunlight, became sinister as the light faded. Vast shadows wrapped around its outer walls like crawling monsters, while strange figures appeared in the glass windows. Within the fenced courtyard, golden fallen leaves rotted into mud. The tree with the swing lost all its leaves within two seconds, and its trunk and branches seemed to lose all life in an instant. Withered and decayed, it resembled a giant gray hand reaching up from the depths underground.

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