America: The Cremator

Chapter 97 Is it going to turn around and kill us?

After confirming the order of descent, Dania went to the edge of the well wall, looked at the hemp rope hanging there with rusty nails, shook her head with disdain, and took out a professional mountaineering rope descent system from her backpack.

She tightly wrapped one end of the main rope around the trunk of a thick birch tree in the backyard and tied a knot.

Next, she distributed slow-descent devices with metal buckles to everyone.

"Put on your safety harness, attach the buckle to the main rope, and use friction to control your descent speed. Tightening the ratchet will slow you down, and releasing it will speed you up. Do you understand?"

Elena is a professional special operations fighter, so this kind of daily training goes without saying.

Surong and Lucas were no fools either, and they quickly mastered how to use the rappelling system.

Su Long skillfully put on his seatbelt, fastened the gas mask to his face, adjusted the breathing valve, and his muffled breathing echoed inside the mask.

He walked to the edge of the well, stepped onto the slippery inside of the well platform, gripped the main rope with both hands, leaned back, and was suspended in mid-air above the edge of the well wall.

"I'm going down," Su Long said in a deep voice, then released the ratchet, and his body began to slide down to the bottom of the well under the pull of gravity.

The bluestone bricks on the well wall are soaked in water all year round, and a thick layer of sticky moss adheres to their surface.

Sulong's shoes couldn't find any foothold on the ground, so he could only rely on the descent device around his waist to control his descent speed.

Even though the gas mask blocked out the smells from the outside world, he could still "smell" the cold and damp atmosphere through his skin.

After descending about ten meters, Su Long felt the surrounding temperature begin to drop sharply. The air, which was originally just a little damp and cold, became extremely cold, as if he were exposed to an ice field in winter.

The biting cold even penetrated the waterproof jacket and the inner thermal lining, directly affecting the skin.

Su Long felt a chill run down his spine, a sense of dread washing over him as he felt himself being stared at by countless eyes.

He immediately stopped what he was doing, braced his legs against the well walls on both sides to steady himself, and activated his spiritual vision to look down.

The moment his eyes lit up with a faint light, Su Long gasped.

The black mist that had been clinging to the well wall was now dozens of times thicker, completely filling the well shaft.

They tumbled, darted, and roared violently in the air.

Sulong could even feel the black mist trying to penetrate his gas mask.

"Elena".

Su Long raised his head and shouted upwards.

A slight scraping sound came from above the wellhead as Elena slowly descended along the rope.

Looking up from Su Long's angle, the tight tactical pants outlined the full curves of her thighs and buttocks, and her slender waist appeared exceptionally supple under the tight seat belt.

The sacred lantern hanging at her waist was constantly emitting warm light, creating a spherical light shield with a radius of less than one meter in the darkness.

The menacing black mist dissipated and vanished the moment it touched the light shield, but the lantern's light could only disperse this small area.

Further away, the black mist continued to surge wildly, constantly filling the empty areas that had been dispelled by the light.

Su Long hovered in mid-air, his gaze fixed on the churning, thick black mist below.

Elena's brass lantern was running normally above his head, and he knew its capabilities all too well.

Whether facing a B-level anomaly like the Shoggoth or in the unpredictable underworld, the lantern's light always reliably creates a safe zone.

As a powerful sacred object that should not be underestimated, Su Long had never seen it perform so poorly before.

Su Long looked up and shouted, "Everyone be careful, something's not right."

After saying that, he released the ratchet of the descent mechanism and continued to descend.

The landing lasted only a dozen seconds before Sulong felt a solid sensation on the soles of his shoes.

He stepped onto the ground.

The moment he landed, a glimmer of light flashed deep within Su Long's eyes.

In the spiritual vision, the thick black fog that filled the field of vision and blocked the view disappeared without warning in an instant.

Everything before my eyes suddenly became clear.

Su Long quickly unbuckled the safety buckle on his waist, raised the powerful searchlight hanging on his helmet, and the beam of light tore through the darkness, sweeping in all directions.

This is an extremely dark and spacious basement.

From an architectural perspective, this place is essentially a modified ancient water dungeon.

The ground beneath our feet was paved with huge blue stone bricks.

The gaps between the stone bricks were filled with murky black water.

Large patches of dark green moss spread upwards along the base of the wall, emitting a strong, fishy stench.

At regular intervals, a large, rusted iron ring is embedded in the surrounding walls.

Some of the iron rings were also connected to a heavy chain.

The other end of the chain was submerged in the water, making it impossible to see what was tied to it.

Sulong's self-light continued to extend forward along the beam of light.

A figure appeared about thirty meters away from him.

It was a young girl, wearing a slightly oversized black nun's habit.

At this moment, she was facing away from Su Long, holding a flashlight and carefully observing the books displayed on the wall.

Su Long gripped the "Sirius" at his waist, slowed his pace, and walked forward gently.

The water was up to his ankles, making a very faint sound.

"Hannah?"

Su Long called out tentatively.

All those classic "turn-back kill" scenes he'd seen in his mind surged wildly in that instant, and he even conjured up several horrific images of Hannah's tragic death.

For example, the body stands still, but the head rotates 180 degrees to look at you in a way that goes against the structure of the human skeleton.

For example, when she turned her head, her originally delicate face had been completely hollowed out by some kind of monster, leaving only a bloody, mangled black hole.

The next moment, the girl dressed as a nun suddenly turned around.

Su Long's breath caught in his throat for half a second.

Fortunately.

Turning around, it was still Hannah's pretty face, which also looked somewhat bewildered.

Hannah's eyes lit up instantly when she saw who it was.

"Su! What brings you here?"

She walked quickly toward Su Long, her tone revealing obvious surprise.

Then, her gaze went past Su Long's shoulder and looked behind her.

"Wow, why are there so many people?"

Upon hearing this, Su Long quickly turned around.

With a few dull thuds, Elena, Dania, and Lucas landed in the underground space.

Elena's lantern was still lit, but after the black mist dissipated, its light seemed insignificant, almost completely obscured by the searchlights above their heads.

After landing, Dania immediately scanned her surroundings warily.

Lucas stared intently at the iron rings on the walls and the puddles on the ground; he recognized this place.

This was the abyss-like cage that trapped him and nearly cost him his life.

Suron turned back around, his gaze fixed on Hannah.

"How long have you been here?"

Hannah tilted her head and thought for a moment: "I can't remember, maybe ten or twenty minutes?"

"After I slid down from there, I looked around here."

She pointed to the wall behind her: "It seems like someone used to live here. Look, there are a lot of magazines on this wall."

Suron walked in the direction Hannah pointed, the beam of the searchlight overhead shining on the wall.

The structure of this wall is very peculiar.

Many rough wooden shelves were nailed to the wall, displaying all kinds of magazines.

Because those books were so thin, it was difficult to stand them up like ordinary books.

Therefore, they are not positioned with their spines facing the observer, but rather with their faces facing outwards, leaning flat against the wall and wooden shelves.

Su Long moved closer. Most of the magazine covers were damp and yellowed, and they were printed with some retro girl pictures from the last century, as well as some old-fashioned cars.

In the very center of the entire wall, there is a single, extremely thick book.

The book's cover was made of some kind of dark leather, and its surface was covered with a thick layer of dark black mold, with dense hyphae trembling slightly in the humid air.

Su Long only glanced at it before feeling a wave of nausea wash over him.

The eerie energy emanating from that book was a hundred times stronger than the black mist in the well just now.

Surong slowly took a step back, withdrew his gaze, turned to look at Hannah, and said in a stern tone, "Hannah, you shouldn't have come down so hastily."

Hannah sensed something in Sulong's tone and shrank back somewhat, looking a little aggrieved. "What's wrong? Is it dangerous here?"

Surong frowned, suppressing his anger: "So, what exactly did those bastards at the church tell you?"