After stepping on another screaming stone stair.
Charles suddenly realized something was wrong and looked at the stone wall beside him.
The etched runes on it writhed and rearranged themselves like maggots.
Before long, a string of unknown runes had formed on the wall.
Charles didn't recognize them, and they were different from the runes on the palace he had encountered in the city.
Yet for no apparent reason, Charles could still understand what they meant:
"...You still feel guilty that your mother died during the Third Blood Moon..."
The runes offered no context, only that one sentence.
Charles and Jody exchanged bewildered looks.
After looking at each other, they continued forward.
At some point, glowing spores had begun floating in the air around them.
But Charles and Jody paid them no attention, as if they hadn't noticed them.
As they walked, a sentence suddenly appeared in Charles's mind:
"Cut out your heart and embed a Pain Crystal. The blood it pumps will carry corrosive energy that can strengthen the body, but this does not come without a price. From then on, all pleasure will be transformed into an equal amount of agony."
"What?" Charles stopped and murmured.
Jody immediately asked, "What is it!?"
By now, both Charles and Jody were extremely tense, so his sudden movement immediately drew her attention.
Charles pondered for a moment, then told her what he had just heard.
Jody's expression changed drastically. Sweat appeared along her spine, and her teeth chattered as she said, "I... I also just saw a scene flash through my mind, but I thought it was a hallucination because I was too nervous."
Charles took a deep breath and asked, "What was it?"
Jody's body trembled slightly as she whispered, "I saw you kill me in the passageway. You said