Horror Movie Survival Rules Chapter 258: Wooden Cabin (9)

“Chi-chi… ge-ge-ge…”

As the roaring flas erupted, the corpse at the center of the ritual array suddenly reacted as though it had co alive. Its previously closed eyes and mouth snapped open, producing a series of bone-chilling, grotesque sounds.

At first, Everly thought the corpse was “screaming,” but she quickly realized she had misunderstood.

Dees’s eyelids and lips had actually been stitched shut. Now, as his body convulsed, the rigid sutures turned into sothing like blades, slicing through the fragile eyelids and lips. They peeled open like torn curtains, soft and sagging.

Beneath the irregular, shredded skin, empty eye sockets and a hollow mouth were revealed. From within his body, countless black vines writhed wildly like living tendrils, scrambling and surging outward as if trying to escape the corpse.

The vines seed to fear the fire intensely.

The mont they erged from Dees’s body and touched the blazing flas, their surfaces began to bubble violently, like wet firewood in a furnace. They hissed and crackled in agony until, unable to withstand the heat, they suddenly exploded and disintegrated into the fire, dissolving into thick plus of black smoke.

Yes—those strange cries had not co from the corpse at all, but from the vines being purified by the flas.

As the vines burst apart, the scene before Everly’s eyes collapsed like a burned stage backdrop.

The wooden cabin vanished.

In its place, an open clearing in the forest appeared before them.

The wooden-floored attic space they had been standing in was actually a stone altar erected in the center of the clearing. As for the other students who had been waiting on the lower floor of the cabin, they were now scattered across the ground beneath the altar.

At the center of the altar, a massive ritual array continued to emit agonized wails as it burned within the encircling flas.

This is a “living” ritual array—anyone who saw it with their own eyes would imdiately think so.

Every line that ford the array bulged upward like the veins on the back of a hand, distorting into grotesque raised contours. They pulsed rhythmically, as if breathing in a steady cadence.

From the edges of the formation, countless black vines as thick as a wrist had grown outward.

These vines were very similar to the black tendrils inside Dees’s body, though their color was slightly lighter, as if they were a “weakened” version. They crowded together densely, resembling the tangled network of cables covering the floor of a server room, or the dense capillaries inside the body of a giant creature. They spread brutally across the entire altar, extended down the steps, and flooded the forest clearing. From there, they continued outward, penetrating deep into the surrounding darkness of the woods.

Everyone in the clearing had, without realizing it, already been surrounded by these black vines.

And they were not harmless.

From the vines extended countless soft, slender tendrils resembling straws. At the tip of each one was a connection to so living creature in the forest—ranging from small birds and squirrels to moose and black bears. Among them, one could even occasionally glimpse silhouettes of humans in hiking gear.

Outside the clearing, even so of the giant trees had been wrapped by these fine vines. Their sharp, cone-like tips had drilled deep into the bark, forming grotesque circular swellings around the wounds.

All animals and humans trapped within this net had already died. So had decayed down to bare bones, others still retained bits of rotting flesh. There was no need to approach closely to sll the thick stench of decay. Only the outermost trees still stood stubbornly upright, showing no obvious signs of withering.

At present, among everyone in the center of the clearing, the only ones still barely alive—despite being bound by the black vines—were the thirteen students and teachers.

The tips of the fine vines were covered in barbed hooks, resembling the mouthparts of a lamprey. Their hardened teeth had sunk deeply into each person’s ankles.

Even though the fire on the altar was already burning, the vines continued their work with ticulous precision.

Following a breathing-like rhythm, countless thin tendrils swelled and contracted. They drew out streams of unknown substances glowing with a dark red light from the bodies of the thirteen people. Through the intricate network of vines, this extracted energy was funneled into thicker black tendrils, layer by layer upward, until it ultimately flowed in reverse into the central ritual array.

It was exactly like roots absorbing nutrients.

Only at this mont did soone belatedly realize that the so-called wooden cabin had never truly existed from the beginning. Everything they had seen was an illusion created by the altar, warping their perception.

And the purpose of such an illusion was the sa as a spider weaving its web: to lure and trap any living beings that passed through, binding them here so they would unknowingly lose their strength and eventually die.

—Fortunately, they had noticed sothing was wrong in ti and destroyed the ritual array first.

With enough fuel feeding the flas, the fire at the center of the altar burned fiercely. The orange-red blaze rcilessly scorched the ritual formation beneath it. The once-terrifying array that had brought them so much suffering now resembled at sizzling on a hot iron plate. It let out continuous crackling noises and visibly withered, shrinking and collapsing as it lost all vitality.

As the array “withered,” the black vines that had grown from it also began to die at a visible rate.

Everly felt a sudden sting at her ankle. Looking down, she saw that the vine that had been biting into her leg had withered and fallen off on its own, tugging painfully at the wound as it detached.

A few beads of blood oozed out—bright red and normal in color, suggesting no sign of poisoning or infection.

“I feel less tired than before… am I imagining it?”

“Yeah, I feel that too…”

Murmurs from the students drifted up from beneath the altar.

Everly knew that what everyone was feeling was not an illusion. She could clearly sense that the abnormal drain of physical strength had stopped along with the withering of the vines.

But why had the cultists built this ritual array in the first place? Where exactly had the power extracted through it gone?

The question flickered briefly in her mind before she pushed it aside.

There was no ti to dwell on it. There were more urgent matters at hand.

Everly raised her head and looked through the gaps in the trees toward the sky. The heavy rain had stopped at so point. The air in the forest was damp, carrying a cold, unpleasant earthy sll.

Scanning her surroundings, she realized it was still night. The forest remained pitch-black, though fortunately the white fog that had obscured vision earlier had disappeared. With flashlights, it was at least possible to move.

“We’ve already destroyed the altar that was distorting perception. If we leave before the enemy arrives, then we shou—”

Before she could finish, a violent tremor suddenly surged up from beneath their feet.

Misha, caught off guard, staggered and nearly fell.

Everly reacted quickly, and together with Teacher Harriet, steadied her on both sides. The three of them lowered their heads and looked down through the flickering firelight.

Only then did they realize that a massive crack had appeared in the stone slabs at the top of the altar.

Inside the crack was pure darkness.

It was not the absence of light, but a blackness deeper than night itself—the body of so colossal creature hidden within the altar. It writhed madly, its entire surface covered in thrashing tentacles. Each tentacle was also black, as thick as an adult’s calf, and when they lashed out, the sharp teeth at their tips could easily shatter solid stone.

The base of the altar was hollow. They had been standing on top of a monster all along.

The stone platform beneath them shook again. The cracks widened further, and fragnts of pale stone rained down, striking the black creature below and revealing its terrifying, jagged outline.

“Not good—jump!”

Everly shouted, grabbing her two companions on either side. With a forceful push of her legs against the altar floor, the three of them leapt upward.

After a brief mont of weightlessness, their figures tumbled down in a rather awkward roll, landing on the thick layer of withered black vines covering the ground.

Crash—rustle!

At almost the sa ti they landed safely, a violent crashing sound of collapsing stone erupted from the direction of the altar.

The students stood frozen in place as flashlight beams swept chaotically across the darkness. Only then did the creature hidden beneath the altar finally reveal its true form.

It was a monster over a story tall.

Its shape was difficult to describe—like a mass of flesh that had grown a mouth, tentacles, and legs.

At the very bottom, supporting its bloated body, were a pair of short, thick legs resembling those of a goat. They were covered in black fur, and where they touched the ground were enormous black hooves. Their size matched exactly the footprints they had seen earlier outside the cabin.

Above the legs, its fleshy torso was deeply wrinkled and uneven. A grotesquely enormous mouth occupied nearly half of its body. Thick green, foul-slling saliva dripped from the corners of its mouth, and wherever it fell—whether onto the withered black vines or the corpses of animals—it hissed violently, corroding everything into sticky sludge.

Beyond that massive mouth, the creature had no eyes, nose, or ears. Instead, countless pitch-black tentacles grew across its entire surface. Each tentacle ended in densely packed sharp teeth. It was these writhing appendages that had monts earlier shattered the solid stone altar with ease.

Its appearance was so overwhelmingly disturbing that even looking directly at it made one’s mind dizzy, producing strange hallucinations.

After landing, Everly and Misha’s first instinct was to run.

Harriet and Ted, however, were far bolder. Following what seed like the “fine tradition” of Aricans facing monsters, the two of them simultaneously drew their pistols and fired wildly at the creature—bang bang bang!

Unfortunately, the guns that had been so effective on battlefields did not work against this monster.

The bullets struck its body and only left a few small holes in its fleshy, spherical mass. They did little to inflict any real damage.

“It… it won’t die…”

Everly internally rolled her eyes. She had never seen a monster movie where the boss was killed by bullets. Even if firearms did work, it would probably take sothing on the level of a nuclear weapon. Ordinary bullets were useless.

“Stop shooting! Run!” she shouted at the top of her lungs.

Harriet was quick to adapt. At the command, she imdiately stopped wasting bullets, shoved her gun away, and ran after Everly.

The others were not as well-trained as the three of them. Even as the monster climbed out of the altar, more than ten people—including Teacher Ted—were still standing there in a daze.

“Run… run, you idiots!” Harriet shouted while running, turning back to yell at them.

Only then did the others finally react. Panic broke out—so scread, others trembled uncontrollably—but they all turned and started running as well.

Bang! Bang bang!

Seeing its prey trying to escape, the monster naturally had no intention of letting them go. It flailed the tentacles covering its body and began stomping forward with heavy, thunderous steps in pursuit.

It had only taken a few steps when its movents suddenly stalled.

Everly sensed sothing was wrong and turned her head. What she saw made her expression shift—the monster had been restrained by a thick vine.

The vine was as thick as Everly’s waist, entirely black, one end embedded in the monster’s back. The other end extended toward the overturned stone slabs of the altar—no, on closer inspection, it wasn’t attached to the altar itself. It pierced through the stone and connected to the black vines that had grown across the surface of the ritual array.

If the thick stone slab floor at the top of the altar was viewed as a layer of cultivated soil, then the massive vine behind the monster was essentially an upside-down “giant tree.”

The black vines that had trapped everyone were like the roots of that tree. They drilled through the “nutrient soil,” sprouting from the ritual array on the top of the altar. Their purpose was to seize any living creature they could find, extract its “nourishnt,” and funnel energy upward toward the creature at the top—or more precisely, the bottom—of this inverted tree.

Yes, that was right. The vitality drained from everyone had never been going into the ritual array at all. It had been going into the belly of this monster.

A single blaze had burned away the black vines on the ritual array, breaking the cognitive distortion that had spread from them. At the sa ti, it had also caused the massive vine supplying energy to the creature to begin visibly withering.

As the monster strained forward, the great vine connecting it to its roots across the ground emitted a teeth-grinding creak, snapping bit by bit under the pressure.

It wouldn’t be long before those restraints completely failed.

“Run! Now’s our chance!” Everly shouted, her strides growing longer and faster.

Just as they were about to successfully escape the clearing and reach the forest ahead, the monster bound at the center suddenly opened its enormous mouth and let out a drawn-out roar:

“Uwaaah—!”

The sound was piercing, like a whistle breaking under pressure.

The mont it entered their ears, it felt like knives were stabbing directly into their eardrums. Everyone froze mid-run.

They stood rigidly in place, staring blankly ahead at a horrifying illusion—

A vast, endless black wasteland. Massive black clouds covering the entire sky. Fanatical cultists in ecstatic worship. A blood-soaked sacrificial ritual. A goat-hooved monstrosity born from the black clouds.

Their heads throbbed with unbearable pain, as if soone had scooped out their brains and thrown them into a at grinder.

Even after the illusion faded, the chanting of the cultists still echoed in their ears. The strange prayers remained disturbingly clear, each word carrying a seductive, mind-corrupting power that tempted those who heard it to repeat them alongside the believers:

“Ya, Shub-Niggurath… The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young…”

“Ya, Shub…”