Feast of the Forsaken

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(MC's POV)

The deeper we walked, the more the city breathed. Not like a living thing—but like a corpse, bloated and infested, exhaling the stench of decay with every gust of wind through its streets.

Iron Haven wasn't just dying.

It was being kept alive.

Artificial. Rotten. Prolonged past its natural end by something that should have let go long ago.

And I was going to find out why.

Rotten Deals in the Market District

The market district was a labyrinth of filth and desperate men. The air was thick with the stink of unwashed bodies, overripe fruit, and something deeper—something coppery.

Blood.

It wasn't fresh. It had been here for a long time.

Chen Rui's fingers twitched near his belt, where he'd stashed the stolen knives. "This place makes my skin crawl."

Mei flinched as we passed a stall where a merchant displayed teeth on a velvet cloth. Not animal teeth. Human.

I didn't stop walking. "Keep your head down."

Zhao Yue's voice was hushed. "This place feels wrong."

She wasn't wrong.

The markings were everywhere. Hidden in the designs of carpets hanging over stalls. Scratched into the wood of doors, the stone of walls. Whispers of something watching.

And no one acknowledged them.

The people here didn't speak of the marks. Didn't look at them. It was as if they had been trained to ignore them—like livestock ignoring the brand burned into their flesh.

A child sat on the street corner, drawing one of the symbols in the dirt with her finger.

I slowed.

The girl noticed me, her expression blank. Her eyes were empty. Black. Not like a mutation, but like a pit. A hollow space where something human had once been.

She spoke without blinking.

"You don't belong here."

I met her gaze. "And what do you belong to?"

Her lips stretched into something not a smile.

"They feed us."

I took a step forward. "Who?"

The girl's head twitched violently. Like a puppet with broken strings. A shudder racked her small frame, and then—

She clawed out her own throat.

A sharp gasp tore from Mei's lips.

Blood sprayed onto the dirt. The girl fell forward, spasming—but she didn't scream. Didn't struggle. Didn't fight it.

She had done it herself.

My jaw tightened.

The crowd around us didn't react. No horror. No screams. No pity. They just kept walking.

As if it was normal.

As if this was just what happened.

Zhao Yue cursed under her breath. "This city is broken."

No.

This city wasn't broken.

It had been remade.

The First Whisper of the Shrine

"We need to move." My voice was steady.

Lin Hua looked at the child's corpse. "She knew something."

"Dead people don't talk."

Chen Rui scoffed. "Then we find someone who does."

I stepped over the girl's body. Her blood soaked into the dirt like it had always belonged there.

We had our lead.

And the deeper we went, the more the city pushed back.

The Meat Pit

By the time night fell, we had found it.

A warehouse near the edge of the district. A massive structure made of rusted metal and reinforced wood. No windows. No signs. No markings.

But the smell.

Meat.

Not just animal.

The stench of burning flesh curled through the cracks in the doors.

I had smelled it before. On battlefields littered with corpses. In villages that had been razed to the ground.

Lin Hua's grip tightened around her weapon. "What the hell is this place?"

There was one way to find out.

Yusheng and I went first, slipping through the side entrance. The others followed.

Inside—

The floor was red.

Not a deep red like blood left to dry. A wet red. Fresh. Alive.

Corpses hung from hooks, stripped of their skin. Not animals. Humans. Their torsos were missing organs. Their limbs cut with surgical precision.

Mei turned away, gagging. Zhao Yue muttered a curse.

But it wasn't the bodies that made me pause.

It was the altar in the center of the room.

A stone slab, stained black with layers of old blood. The Outer Gods' mark was carved into it.

And on the wall behind it, written in something darker than blood:

"THE SHRINE WAITS."

The Sickness Runs Deep

I exhaled slowly. The city leaders were feeding them.

They weren't just ruling Iron Haven. They were offering it. Keeping the place alive by giving the Outer Gods exactly what they wanted.

Meat. Blood. Sacrifice.

The Divine Crystal was somewhere in this city.

And now I knew what stood between me and it.

Zhao Yue's voice was soft. "Do we burn this place down?"

"No."

Her brows furrowed. "Then what?"

I turned toward the door. "We find the shrine."

Yusheng cracked his knuckles. "And?"

I smiled.

"We tear it out."

Iron Haven had been feeding something.

Now?

It was time for me to start feeding.