Chapter 448: Hollow Vein XII
Asher drew in a slow breath, steadying himself. The vision had pressed down on him with crushing weight—so vivid he could almost feel the Maw’s breath, hear bones shattering in its jaws. For a moment, even his scythe had seemed too small against something that could devour worlds.
But he cut the vision away. His will surged, his blood flared bright, and the image broke apart like shattered glass. The cavern returned—the cracked stone, the dripping ichor, the faintly glowing seed at its center.
The impression, however, stayed. That hadn’t been a simple echo. The Maw had looked back at him. It had noticed him.
"Vessel," Asher said quietly, voice level, without anger or fear. The word carried weight. Not prey. Not bait. Vessel—something meant to hold its hunger.
He adjusted his grip on the scythe.
The seed pulsed steadily, almost taunting him. He considered destroying it, but instinct told him that would risk tearing the breach wide open. The Overseer’s transformation had already stretched the boundary thin. A wrong move could give the Maw the opening it wanted.
Not here. Not now.
He drew the chain-sickle into his palm and turned. The cavern stank of finality, yet the steady beat of the seed said otherwise. This wasn’t death. It was a wound. And wounds spread when ignored.
Above, the tunnels were chaos. Cultists scrambled in panic, clutching relics or scrolls, their chants broken and desperate.
Asher moved through them like a storm with no wasted motion.
The first group fell before they realized he was there—the chain-sickle snapped out, caught one man’s throat, and dragged him into a clean arc of the scythe that cut down three at once. Another cluster raised a wall of bone-shields. Asher advanced without pause. His swing split the barrier and the men holding it in one strike.
Screams followed him, but he never slowed.
Room by room, he cleared the base. Shrines toppled. Idols smashed. Flesh-bound scrolls burned under his bloodflame. Every zealot he met, he cut down swiftly. Some begged, some cursed, some prayed for the Maw to answer—but none were spared.
When he stepped into the upper sanctum, silence finally settled.
The ceiling was open here. Cool night air drifted in, carrying away the smoke and stench. Asher stood at the threshold, his scythe resting against his shoulder. His gaze turned once more to the dark below, where the seed still beat like a hidden heart.
The Maw was pushed back. But not gone.
He lifted his eyes to the stars. Somewhere, others were still feeding it, still building more doorways.
The Overseer had only been the first sign.
And Asher intended to erase the rest before the Maw found another way through.
Asher left the sanctum behind without looking back. The ruins still smoldered, the last traces of bloodflame chewing through parchment and bone. The seed would remain buried for now, sealed by the weight of rock and ash—but he knew it wasn’t over. It would call again.
The night above was quiet. No birds. No wind strong enough to stir the trees. The stillness felt wrong, as if the world itself were holding its breath after the cult’s slaughter. Asher stood in the open field for a long moment, scanning the stars. His expression stayed calm, unreadable, but his eyes were sharp. Somewhere out there, threads connected this place to others—supply routes, hidden sanctuaries, whispers that reached deeper into the Maw’s grasp.
He turned and began to walk. His cloak trailed behind him, brushing grass wet with dew and blood. Each step was steady, unhurried. There was no need to rush. Panic was for those without power; Asher carried certainty in his stride.
Ahead, a broken cart lay by the path—its wheels shattered, its contents spilled. Among the wreckage were half-burned scrolls, sealed jars of black ichor, and a ledger bound in flayed hide. He picked the book up, brushing dirt from its cover, and opened it.
The script was jagged, scrawled in a mix of blood and ink. Yet the meaning was clear enough: lists of shipments, coded routes, and offerings sent to other cells. Names of Overseers repeated across the pages. A network stretched wider than this single ruin.
Asher closed the book with a quiet snap.
The Overseer he killed had not been acting alone. This was a chain, each link feeding the Maw in preparation. Cut one link, and the rest still pulled taut. But now he had a direction—paths to follow, names to erase, places to burn.
He slid the ledger into his cloak and started down the road, calm as ever. The stars overhead gave no answers, but he did not need them. The work was already set before him.
There would be more Overseers. More wounds left festering across the land. And Asher would treat each the same way—silence them, break their shrines, and leave nothing standing but ash.
The Maw had called him vessel. It had chosen the wrong man.
Asher walked until the ruins were just another shadow behind him. The night stretched wide, empty, the road carrying him through fields silvered by moonlight. His pace never changed—steady, unbroken, as though each step was already measured before he took it.
The ledger weighed little in his cloak, but its contents carried more than weight. Every name, every marked route, was a thread pulling him toward the next nest. A map of rot. A trail of infection.
Hours passed without sound but his boots on the dirt and the low whisper of grass in the wind. When he finally stopped, it was beneath a lone tree. Its branches leaned heavy, split by age and weather. He leaned his scythe against the trunk, opened the ledger again, and let his eyes follow the crooked script.
A mark caught his attention—a symbol repeated on several pages. Three hooked lines, curling inward like talons. Always tied to shipments headed east. Always tied to one name: The Maw-Touched Herald.
He let the page fall shut. The Overseer had been a priest at the threshold, a doorkeeper. But a Herald... that meant voice. Spread. Influence. If the Overseer had built the doorway, the Herald would carry the call across lands, gathering more hands to dig.
Asher sat still beneath the tree, his expression calm. He was not shaken by the thought, nor pressed by urgency. The Maw’s chain had many links, but chains broke the same way—one cut at a time.