The closer they drew...
The more violently the residual energy currents raged in the air. Cold pain intertwined with an aura of chaos and distortion, forming a profoundly unsettling zone of supernatural contamination.
Traces began to appear on the ground.
Not bloodstains—the Cenobites seemed to have no conventional blood—but scattered scraps of torn leather, snapped metal chains, and twisted fragments of tools.
There were also indescribable remnants that looked as though some immense force had instantly "erased" or "reassembled" them.
At last, they passed through one final towering, ruined archway, resembling some kind of ceremonial gateway, and reached the "scene of the incident."
It looked like a vast hall ravaged by violence.
The torture apparatuses, once perhaps more orderly and rich in symbolism, now lay in utter disarray.
The floor was fractured, and the walls were covered in cracks and strange traces of corrosion or crystallization. Most striking of all were the Cenobite bodies sprawled across the floor.
Not all of them had been torn apart. Many looked intact, yet lay motionless as though all their power had drained away. Beneath their restraints, their bodies seemed to have lost that distinctive sense of cold strength, becoming shriveled and withered.
Moreover, these "corpses" were visibly turning transparent and insubstantial, as though the realm's underlying rules were reclaiming and decomposing them into pure energy or basic matter. They would probably disappear completely before long.
Pinhead looked toward Li Dan, while anger appeared in Blade Head's eyes.
"It was you!"
It seemed Pinhead had won. Li Dan could more or less have guessed that; this was Pinhead's home base, and he had so many underlings here.
If Pinhead had been taken out even here, Li Dan would have needed to make a run for it this time, too.
Though it would not have