Looking at everything, Ethan was confused, because from everything he knew about this world—especially how things worked around Nevermore—this didn't fit at all.
There were outcasts, monsters, Hyde, visions, but nothing like this, nothing that pointed toward actual demons or ritual sites like this one.
Which made this place feel wrong.
Because if this existed, then either what he knew was incomplete, or sothing new had entered the world without warning, and both options were bad.
He pressed his fingers lightly against his temple, the headache already forming, because he had already dealt with one thing that shouldn't have existed, sothing from another dinsion trying to invade this world, and now there was this sitting right under Nevermore like it had always been here.
So what next?
Hell invasion.
At this point, it honestly wouldn't even be surprising.
He exhaled slowly, staring at the circle again, because the pattern was getting obvious now. One problem ends and another shows up imdiately after, like sothing was lining them up on purpose.
Was he in so kind of novel?
Because it felt like that, like the mont one issue was resolved, another one made its entrance just to keep things going.
This year was supposed to be simple, sothing close to normal, sothing he could actually enjoy instead of dealing with another ss.
Instead—
He was standing in an underground ritual chamber, thinking about demons, headaches building, and already expecting this to turn into sothing bigger.
And sohow, this was supposed to be his "romantic youth" year with his three lovers.
Unlike before, when he chased every threat just to push his strength higher, there was no excitent in it now.
He was already a vampire progenitor, brushing against country-level destructive power, and increasing it further required at least 200,000 points to unlock the Blood Archmage abilities. With around 70,000 points earned from what he had killed during the portal incident, he had decided to take things slow.
Pugsley moved around the chamber, touching whatever caught his interest, and in the process knocked over a glass bottle resting near the wall, sending it to the ground where it shattered on impact.
The sound echoed.
A dark liquid spread across the floor.
Blood.
"Pugsley, be careful," Ethan said, already crouching down, his attention fixed on it, because sothing about it didn't make sense.
This place looked ancient, untouched for centuries, and yet the blood wasn't dried, wasn't decayed, it was fresh, too fresh for sothing that should have been long dead.
That was the problem.
He reached out, touching it with his finger, watching the way it reacted, then brought his finger to his mouth.
The mont it made contact, mories hit—not one, but many.
They flooded in fast, overlapping, dragging him through fragnts that didn't belong to him. Stone halls, torches burning, voices chanting in a language carved into the very walls around him now, bodies arranged in circles, blood drawn with purpose.
The Twelfth century.
He saw figures in dark robes, cultists moving with intent, their focus fixed on sothing beyond the physical, sothing they were trying to reach. Rituals repeated, failures, sacrifices, attempts to open sothing they shouldn't have been touching.
An agreent.
With sothing from below.
A deal.
Humans hunting other humans, offering them, using them, trying to gain power from sothing they barely understood, convinced they could handle it if they succeeded.
"Yeah… this is bullshit,"
The blood on the floor didn't stay still.
It began to move.
Slow at first, then deliberate, spreading along the carved lines of the pentagram, filling the grooves as if it knew exactly where to go, tracing the entire pattern until the symbol was complete.
The pentagram reacted.
A dull glow spread through it, then intensified, the markings lighting up one after another, the entire structure activating without anyone touching it.
Pugsley stopped moving, his attention snapping back to the center.
The chamber began to shake.
Dust fell from above, cracks forming along the edges of the walls as the ground vibrated under their feet.
"Fuck," Ethan said, already reading what was happening, because whatever this was, it had just been triggered.
He didn't wait.
A sphere of red condensed energy ford in his hand, and he stepped forward and slamd it directly into the center of the circle, aiming to break the structure instead of letting it complete whatever process it had started.
The impact disrupted the pattern.
The glowing lines flickered violently, then collapsed, the circle cracking apart as the energy holding it together destabilized, sending a shock through the chamber.
The shaking got worse.
The ceiling started to give way.
Stone broke loose, sections collapsing as the structure lost integrity, forcing both of them to move imdiately instead of staying.
After five seconds, they burst out of the ground together, both of them hitting the surface as if the earth itself had spat them out.
Pugsley rolled slightly, then pushed himself up.
"That was exciting," he said, like this had gone exactly how he wanted.
Ethan stood up, brushing dirt off slightly, his focus already shifting.
"Yeah," he said, though his tone didn't match.
The ground beneath them shook again.
Not collapsing this ti.
Reacting.
Dark shapes shot upward from the ground, thin at first, then twisting together mid-air like strands being pulled into one point, forming sothing for a brief mont before compressing and vanishing into nothing.
They had let sothing out.
***
A/N: It's decided—the next world will be .
And on Patreon, the Wednesday arc is about to end, with The Boys arc starting next.
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