Chapter 198: The Depths (2/2)

They were not memories he buried They were e His purpose

Was this his Boundary core? If so, he could handle it

Aldrich heard the clatter of th of the roo coranted by his racial status as an undead did not work

Nevertheless, Aldrich stepped towards the darkness He felt strangely coreater, outer force that he could not quite resist He had never sleepwalked before, but he gured this hat it felt like

As Aldrich walked down the ever darkening roo tables and barrels started to fade away, as if consu He saw no light now Just pure darkness The only thing that reached his senses was the sensation of coldof metal ahead

The more he pressed forward into the darkness, the louder the clinking got

Eventually, after a minute or so, he could start to hear a voice It was faint at rst, its words indecipherable, but soon, he could " "I'ry anymore" "Make it stop"

Aldrich knew that voice It was from the Butcher As soon as heinto an enormous cell It just suddenlyin a videogae, barred cell door stood in front of Aldrich, though at the end, it was slightly open, allowing hiht shone froht ca in the bloodiedIt was unlike any kind of eye Aldrich had ever seen before Large, bulbous, yellow, and grotesquely lled with veins that h theht cast from the eye was the Butcher His dise down the ceiling

They dug into his esh, dried blood caked all around where they sunk their hooks in

Tears welled up around the corners of the Butcher's eyes as he breathed heavily in agony The stumps of his li with a rough, serrated edge

So that would not havethat would have been painful

And from the various saw marks on his skin, some less healed than others,

Aldrich could tell the Butcher's lienerated back in many, many cycles

Below the Butcher, Aldrich saw a little girl No older than ten, perhaps She had on a ily clean contrast to her blood spattered, lth strewn surroundings She looked up at the Butcher with curious, yet strangely cold eyes of green

When Aldrich took another step forward, past the barred cell door, the girl turned to take notice of hiirl When Aldrich looked down at her, at her e sense of fa at a reection of himself in a puddle "Youyou're the Chrysalis, aren't you?" said Aldrich, taking note of a tail that hung low by her feet The very same, crystalline structured tail of the Chrysalis "I don't knohat I airl "But I think that's what I used to be" "This place, is it irl nodded "I think so" "Did you irl shook her head "Not this place I don't like this place" She shi+vered, wrapping her arms around herself "It's too cold"

She went to Aldrich and tugged at his pant leg in the sa "Can we go up? Iupstairs It's better there and warmer"