Chapter 201: Illusion

Chapter 201: Chapter 201: Illusion

Seraphina Sinclair closed the journal, her tone resolute. "The journal is an old record. The current situation is unclear. We have to see what’s on the second floor. A space that large must hold some key clues."

As she spoke, she had already backed up a few steps. She took a running start, tapped her toes against the wall for leverage, and nimbly leaped upward. She securely grabbed the beam at the edge of the broken second-floor staircase with one hand—her other still gripping the Sunflower—and with a slight heave, she vaulted herself up.

Victor Warner stared, dumbfounded. "Damn, those skills..."

Selene Lawson also looked up and asked, "What’s up there?"

Seraphina Sinclair’s voice came from above. "You’d better find a way up here and see for yourselves."

Selene Lawson and Victor Warner exchanged a look, both realizing the situation on the second floor was likely not simple.

Selene Lawson took a deep breath and mimicked Seraphina Sinclair’s running jump, but she was clearly in worse physical shape, with lower attribute points, and failed to grab the beam on her first try.

"I’ll do it," Victor Warner grumbled. He backed up, charged forward, and used his brute strength to leap high into the air. His thick arms shot out and grabbed the beam, and he hoisted himself up as if doing a pull-up.

Once he was up, he looked around, grabbed some old strips of cloth and broken pieces of wood from nearby, and in a flash, tied them into a crude rope and lowered it down.

"Grab on, I’ll pull you up!" Victor Warner shouted to Selene Lawson below.

Once Selene Lawson had also successfully made it to the second floor, the three of them finally got a clear view of the entire area.

The second floor was even more dilapidated than the first. Most of the windows were broken, and a cold wind carrying a damp, chilly fog continuously poured in.

But the most eye-catching feature was three identical, hexagonal grooves.

They looked like the bases of some kind of altar, or perhaps the missing core components of a massive machine. They were silently embedded in the decaying wooden floor, emanating an ominous aura.

"What... what the hell is this?" Victor Warner kicked the edge of one of the grooves, but aside from scuffing off a bit of dust, there was no reaction.

Seraphina Sinclair ignored him. Besides the three grooves, the place was almost empty, save for a pile of junk in the corner, so dilapidated its original form was unrecognizable.

"Three grooves, three of us..." Selene Lawson adjusted her glasses. "I doubt that’s a coincidence. Does it require us to place something inside, or... are we the keys ourselves?"

"Ourselves?" Seraphina Sinclair lifted the Sunflower and glanced at it. The base of the flowerpot and those three grooves on the floor...

Seraphina Sinclair stated her conclusion: "We’re meant to place the Sunflowers in them, right?"

Hearing this, Selene Lawson immediately crouched down, carefully comparing the shape and size of the groove. Then she looked at the base of the Sunflower’s pot in Seraphina Sinclair’s hands.

"The shape is a perfect match, and the size is identical. It seems these three grooves were made for the three Sunflowers," she analyzed calmly, then her brow furrowed slightly. "But, no one knows who should go first."

Selene Lawson’s question made the air freeze instantly.

Who goes first?

What would happen if one was placed inside?

Would it activate a defense mechanism, or attract something even more terrifying?

The last, hastily scrawled words and bloodstains in that journal coiled around everyone’s heart like a cold snake.

Victor Warner stared at the pitch-black grooves, his Adam’s apple bobbing. He subconsciously took half a step back, all his earlier bravado from kicking the groove gone without a trace.

He said in a gruff voice, "This thing looks cursed. What if we put one in and some monster crawls out..."

Seraphina Sinclair didn’t answer immediately.

The cold wind on the second floor blew through the broken windows, causing the leaves of the Sunflower in her hand to tremble slightly. The bright yellow hue seemed particularly fragile and eerie at this moment.

The other two had left their Sunflowers downstairs. It had taken all their strength just to get up here; it was impossible for them to climb one-handed like Seraphina Sinclair. So, while it seemed like they had a choice, both of them had already, by tacit agreement, fixed their gazes on the Sunflower in Seraphina’s arms.

The Sunflower had always been very sensitive to being watched, and its inner thoughts immediately began to grumble, ’What are you looking at... villains... villains...’

’Those last two "villain" insults... It must have been calling me that, right?’

Seraphina Sinclair raised a hand to cover the Sunflower’s "face" and returned their gazes with an indifferent look, her tone calm and steady. "Why are you looking at me? Your Sunflowers are still downstairs. If you want to test it, you’ll have to bring them up first."

Victor Warner glanced at Selene Lawson. After receiving an affirmative look, he tentatively asked Seraphina Sinclair, "Your Sunflower is right here... so, how about we test with yours first?"

As soon as he said this, even Selene Lawson held her breath slightly, looking nervously at Seraphina Sinclair.

Seraphina Sinclair’s fingers gently rubbed the rim of the flowerpot. Her face remained expressionless, but her eyes grew a little colder.

"My Sunflower is mine." Her tone was flat, carrying the certainty of someone with power. "If you want to test it, use your own. Forcing me to scout the way for you? You don’t have what it takes."

Victor Warner immediately backed down. The way she’d climbed up was still fresh in his mind.

When it came to a head-on confrontation, forget about Victor Warner alone; even with Selene Lawson, the two of them together wouldn’t stand a chance against her.

"Heh heh," Victor Warner forced a laugh, trying to ease the tension. His rugged face twisted into a placating smile. "Serafelle, don’t get me wrong. I was just... I was worried it was dangerous downstairs, you know? Didn’t dare go down. It was just a random thought, just a random thought."

Selene Lawson, on the other hand, said nothing. Her movements were swift; she had already grabbed the crude cloth rope and was deftly sliding down.

Seeing this, Victor Warner hurriedly shouted after her, "Wait for me!" and quickly followed, afraid of being left alone up there with Seraphina Sinclair and those three eerie grooves.

In the blink of an eye, Seraphina Sinclair was the only one left on the second floor.

She walked to the edge and looked down at the scene outside the window. The Sunflower in her arms gently nuzzled her arm. Seraphina Sinclair flicked its petals with a finger but said nothing.

Soon, rustling sounds came from downstairs, along with Victor Warner’s nervous voice: "Found it, mine’s over here... Selene Lawson, what about yours?"

"Over here," Selene Lawson’s reply was equally brief.

After a short silence, Victor Warner muttered in a panicked tone, "...What’s with this fog? It feels like it’s getting thicker. A monster’s not gonna pop out, is it?"

"Hurry up," Selene Lawson urged.

Seraphina Sinclair frowned slightly. The fog downstairs seemed much thicker than when they had come up. And... her gaze swept over the broken windows. The fog pouring in seemed to have a viscous quality, spreading silently across the second-floor floorboards.

"Faster," she said in a low voice to those below.

Her voice seemed to act as some kind of trigger. A short, startled cry from Victor Warner suddenly came from downstairs, accompanied by the chaotic sound of something being knocked over.

"What’s wrong?!" Selene Lawson asked urgently.

"N-nothing..." Victor Warner’s voice was still shaken. "I think... I think something touched my foot... It was cold... Probably my imagination. Yeah, it must have been my imagination..."