"First, the general store."
Macao put away the list and led everyone out of the chapel.
The tenth name belonged to a nine-year-old boy named Noi. When they arrived, he was sitting by an attic window with his eyes tightly shut and one foot already on the window frame.
There was no movement on the distant mountainside.
But Lin Yuan heard a bell toll.
The sound did not travel through the air, but appeared directly in his mind. At that same moment, Noi stepped toward the open window.
Wakaba's smoke slipped through a gap in the window and wrapped around the boy's waist. Mira burst through the door and pulled him back.
Noi still hadn't woken up. He kept repeating the same sentence.
"The god is waiting for me."
Mira raised her hand to slap him, but Macao caught her wrist just in time.
"What are you doing?"
"Waking him up."
"That slap would make him sleep until tomorrow."
Lin Yuan reached out and placed a hand on Noi's shoulder. The boy had no magic power, but an extremely thin black thread was hidden in his shadow, stretching all the way toward the northern mountainside.
He tried to grasp that distance.
The black thread immediately went taut, then withdrew into the darkness and vanished, like a living creature that had sensed someone watching it.
Noi opened his eyes.
"How did I get here?"
"Reckless as that method was, at least it worked," Wakaba said.
Mira pointed at Lin Yuan. "Then why did you only stop me just now?"
Macao ignored the argument. He told the mayor to gather all the children in the stone council hall, where their families and the town guards would watch over them together. He also left a flame signal behind. If anyone was summoned again, the signal would go up.
Once the arrangements were made, only an hour remained until midnight.
"We're going to the church," Macao said. "Stay in formation. Wakaba will scout ahead, I'll take the lead, Mira will stay in the middle, and Lin Yuan will bring up the rear."
Mira protested immediately. "Why is he behind me?"
"Because all you do is charge ahead. At least he remembers to watch our backs."
"Who says?"
Before she had even finished speaking, she had already walked more than ten steps ahead.
The mountain path to the Sleeping Church was overgrown with weeds. The closer they got to the summit, the quieter it became, until even the clattering of copper pieces disappeared.
The dilapidated church stood among a grove of dead trees, its bell tower leaning to one side. Two rusty iron chains were wrapped around the front doors, and nine pairs of shoes sat on the steps.
Purple flames sprang to life on Macao's fingertips.
As soon as the flames approached the chains, the thorn patterns on the doors began to glow gray. The chains did not melt. Instead, more rusty spikes emerged from the doors.
"There's a defensive spell array." Macao pulled his hand back. "We can't force our way in."
Mira silently lowered the demon fist she had already raised.
Wakaba's smoke circled the church and formed an arrow in front of a drain in the rear wall. Air flowed behind the stone grate, indicating that it was connected to an underground space.
Mira grabbed the grate and yanked hard.
Half the wall came down.
Macao stared at the opening in silence for a moment. "When we get back, this goes in the compensation report."
"Why do I have to pay for the church too?"
"Because the job request didn't say anything about tearing down walls."
The drainage tunnel was only wide enough for one person to move through while bent over. Wakaba's smoke crept along the ground ahead, with Macao following close behind. Mira's demon arms got stuck in cracks between the stones several times, and in the end she reluctantly shrank her scales.
Lin Yuan walked last and raised a hand to shorten the distance ahead.
The tunnel, whose end had been out of sight, was now only a dozen or so steps long.
"That's a handy trick," Mira said.
"Don't praise me yet." Lin Yuan looked up. "I'm still not sure whether I shortened the tunnel or pulled the exit over here."
Everyone stopped at once.
A pinch of dust fell from above.
Macao turned and glared at him. "Make sure first next time."
"That's why the guild master put you in charge."
"So now you know how to listen."
The four climbed through the exit into the space beneath the church. Wakaba's smoke divided into six streams ahead of them, each probing a separate passage. Two were quickly swallowed by darkness.
"There's something on the left and in the middle," he warned.
As soon as he spoke, the walls on both sides cracked open. Six statues in priestly robes stepped out of alcoves, carrying rusty spears.
Macao's purple flames spread across the floor. They did not burn the statues, but illuminated the black threads wrapped around their ankles.
"Don't hit the stone! Cut those threads!"
Mira charged in first. Her demon claws swept low across the floor, snapping three black threads at once. Before the statues that had lost control could fall, Lin Yuan folded the distance between them and the corner, neatly stuffing all three back into their alcoves.
On the other side, Wakaba's smoke turned into ropes that caught the spears, and Macao swept his hand out, severing the remaining black threads.
The fight was over in less than half a minute.
Mira looked at the statues stuffed into a row. "You arranged them pretty neatly."
"I got the practice repairing the Guild."
"That's what you were supposed to do!"
Macao did not stop the two from bickering. He simply raised a hand for silence.
The sound of turning gears came from the end of the passage.
They followed the sound and pushed open a stone door, arriving directly beneath the bell tower. The nine missing people lay against the wall, breathing steadily, with identical black threads wrapped around their chests.
A nameless idol stood in the center of the room.
It had no facial features, but held an ancient bronze bell in both hands. Untouched by anyone, the clapper slowly rose on its own.
Dong-
The first bell of midnight rang through all of Sunken Bell Town.
Two slits opened in the nameless idol's face.
A pair of dark red eyes slowly opened behind the stone.