Chapter 57

As soon as Eren stepped into the cold storage, his eyes were drawn to a mangled corpse lying in a pool of blood. The body was barely recognizable, its arm marked with a spider tattoo.

The flickering overhead light cast eerie shadows, intensifying the already grim atmosphere.

Eren frowned slightly, carefully avoiding the corpse and the sticky blood on the floor. Skirting the narrow entrance near the side door, he stepped further into the cold storage.

Standing at the entrance, Eren swept his gaze across the room, taking in the full extent of the scene.

Aside from the towering stacks of frozen goods deliberately placed at the front to conceal the interior, the rear half of the cold storage had been completely cleared out and transformed into a horrifying sight.

At the center of the vast space was a six-meter-wide pit. In the middle of the pit stood a cement altar, carved with strange and unsettling patterns.

On the altar, a web of steel chains bound two figures whose lower bodies were mangled and bloody. The chains coiled tightly around them, securing them to the dark red surface of the altar.

The paramedics who had rushed into the cold storage earlier were crouched beside the altar, frantically attempting emergency treatment on the two victims.

Eren's gaze moved from the altar to its surroundings, and an uncontrollable chill ran down his spine. Goosebumps rose on his arms as an overwhelming sense of dread gripped him.

Around the altar were four steel cages, scattered among piles of spider carcasses and torn clothing. Amidst the shredded garments, he could make out blackened, shriveled human-like figures, drained of life as if nothing but remnants remained.

"Creepy, isn't it?"

Detective Vinnie, who had accompanied Eren, patted him on the shoulder, snapping him out of his daze. Vinnie continued, "At first, we thought that humanoid spider monster was the result of illegal human experiments carried out by some underground lab defying federal regulations."

"But who would've guessed that the monster came from such a crude setup?"

Looking at the exposed human remains at the bottom of the pit, Vinnie muttered under his breath, "This is insane…"

Judging by the piles of bones near the cages and the blood-stained altar, Vinnie could only imagine how many lives had been lost here. Though this wasn't his precinct, Vinnie could already picture the headlines in tomorrow's papers, accusing the NYPD of incompetence.

"This isn't just insanity…"

Eren turned his gaze to the altar's edge, focusing on the blood-soaked carvings and the cages around it. His voice turned cold. "This is a ritual—a sacrifice to please an evil god."

A ritual forged with symbols, guided by blood, and fueled by life itself...

Even without knowing which god the ritual aimed to please, Eren had no doubt of its reality.

The cold storage still held a lingering aura, faint but enough to make his soul tremble with fear.

"What do you mean?" Vinnie frowned. "A sacrifice to please an evil god? Are you saying these people were cultists?"

As Eren explained, Vinnie glanced at the eerie, corpse-filled cold storage and found the idea unsettlingly plausible. Only cultists—those unhinged lunatics—could commit such horrifying acts within the city.

At that moment, the paramedics working on the altar let out simultaneous sighs, stopping their efforts.

"What's wrong?" Vinnie quickly stepped forward.

One of the older doctors shook his head and replied, "The wounds were too infected, combined with excessive blood loss and organ failure… We did everything we could."

He then turned to the altar, looking at one of the poor girls whose upper body was human, but whose lower half had been grotesquely fused with massive spider legs.

"Monsters…" he muttered. Removing his bloodied coat, he draped it over the exposed bodies of the two lifeless women, offering them a semblance of dignity.

Eren, standing behind Vinnie, glanced at the altar and silently mused to himself.

This crude transformation ritual must have worked because it gained the attention of some evil god.

Seeing the altar and the two women who had died with their eyes wide open, Eren finally understood the origin of the humanoid spider he had encountered earlier.

"This complicates things…"

Initially, Eren had planned to look for personal items in the cold storage that belonged to Abbott, intending to use divination to track him down. However, upon seeing that the ritual had succeeded and earned the favor of an evil god, Eren hesitated.

If Abbott was still under the god's gaze, any attempt at divination might inadvertently connect Eren to the god. Such a misstep could have catastrophic consequences, including instant death from backlash.

Wait.

If Junior Abbott truly had the favor of an evil god, Gwen could be in serious danger.

Could the officers George assigned really protect her?

Eren turned to Vinnie and said urgently, "Detective Vinnie, if that man is a cultist, Gwen might be in grave danger."

Vinnie's expression darkened. Eren was right. Cultists were unpredictable and dangerous, capable of unimaginable horrors.

As Vinnie pulled out his phone to warn the officers guarding Gwen, a chilling sense of dread surged through Eren's chest.

Danger...

Danger...

Danger...

The overwhelming, suffocating sense of crisis made it hard for Eren to breathe.

What had been an oppressive cold storage moments ago now felt like a monstrous, devouring beast intent on swallowing them whole.

Eren's extraordinary intuition as a diviner screamed at him to flee immediately.

"Danger! Run! Get out of here now!"

(End of Chapter)

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