Chapter 35 – The Dead Cathedral
The road to the Dead Cathedral wasn't on any map.
The Ferryman warned me: "This place doesn't exist in coordinates. It exists in guilt."
He handed me a cracked compass.
It spun wildly at first… until I remembered.
Her face.
Maria.
The girl from my first mission.
Burned alive. Screaming my name.
The needle snapped into place.
And the sky split.
Literally. Like a wound across the horizon.
One step forward—and I wasn't in Outpost Echo anymore.
---
The ground was made of bones.
Real ones.
Paved into the earth, ground to dust, pressed into marble tiles that gleamed with a faint, sickly light. A cathedral rose in the distance—twisted, towering, built from black stone and old church bells that tolled without wind.
It looked like something the world forgot how to build.
Stained glass windows showed horrific images.
System missions from another time.
People with numbers branded into their foreheads.
Sinners screaming in electric confession booths.
Priests feeding their hearts to broken terminals.
> [Location Discovered: Dead Cathedral – Signal Node Alpha-0X]
Type: Ritual Zone / Memory Prison / Tier Lock Chamber
Threat Level: High
Sanity Drain: Passive (5% / minute)
> Objective: Perform the Pulse Ritual
Key Required: Gateway Card – Tier 0 → PRESENT
Task: Attune your signal to unlock Tier One Gate
I stepped forward, and the doors opened with a long, painful groan.
Inside—was silence.
But not peace.
The kind of silence that watches you.
---
Rows of wooden pews, some cracked, some soaked in blood.
At the center stood an altar—part stone, part circuitry. Floating above it:
The Pulse Stone.
A crystal heart, flickering with unreadable code, beating like it was alive.
I approached slowly.
But then the candles lit by themselves.
And the choir began to sing.
No one was there. But I heard them.
Dozens of voices in unison.
> "Confess. Before you attune. Confess, and be judged."
Suddenly, a system screen flashed before my eyes—not projected. Burned directly into my vision.
> [UNFILTERED SIN LOG – KAI RAVENHALL]
Total Active Sins: 13
Category: Survivor / Collateral / Abandonment / Sacrifice
Voice Lock Engaged – Speak your confession aloud.
My knees buckled.
"I didn't kill Maria," I said.
Silence.
"But I didn't save her either."
The choir hummed louder.
"I watched the house burn. I listened as she screamed. I told myself I couldn't go back… because I was afraid."
A bell rang somewhere above.
> [Sin Confirmed: Cowardice – Emotional Weight: 8.2]
System Response: Acknowledged. Progression Authorized.
Then—pain.
My chest seared as a new mark burned itself into my skin.
I pulled open my shirt and saw it:
A brand over my heart. A number. 8.2.
The altar shifted. The Pulse Stone dropped into place.
> [Initiate Pulse Ritual?]
WARNING: You will attract Echo Spirits who failed their attunement.
Proceed? Y/N
I whispered, "Yes."
---
The cathedral shook.
The Pulse Stone flared to life—casting spectral light across the walls.
The stained-glass windows began to bleed.
Black ichor poured down the faces of saints and sinners alike.
Then the pews moved.
Figures rose from them.
Cloaked in robes stitched from static.
Eyes hollow. Mouths sewn shut.
> [Enemy Class: Echo Spirits – Tier 0 – Soulbound Failures]
Objective: Survive until Attunement Completes (3:00)
The system counted down.
And I fought.
---
The first one lunged at me—hands cold, boneless.
I dodged and drove my blade into its throat.
It didn't die.
It screamed through the wound, static pouring from its mouth.
I slammed it into the altar. Sparks flew. My vision blurred.
> [Sanity: 25% → 20%]
[Passive Triggered: Trauma Residue – Hallucinations Incoming]
Suddenly, the cathedral changed.
I wasn't in a church anymore.
I was back in my childhood home.
My mother's corpse at the table.
My father staring blankly at the TV, mouthing the words to my funeral.
The system whispered:
> "What if this is the real world… and everything else was the dream?"
I screamed and slashed at the vision. The illusion shattered.
Back in the cathedral.
Blood everywhere.
Time left: 00:58.
---
Another Echo Spirit grabbed me from behind. Its fingers dug into my spine—pulling memories out of me.
I saw myself as a child, hiding in a closet while something killed my dog. I saw the night I left a friend to die in the sewer because I was too slow.
These weren't just monsters.
They were me.
Everything I left behind.
I roared and activated my skill—
> [Sorrowbound Pulse – ACTIVATED]
Emotional Detonation Released
Disrupting Spirits…
The Pulse pushed them back. The stone glowed brighter.
00:12.
00:06.
00:01—
---
BOOM.
The light engulfed everything.
The spirits vanished in a wail.
And the system chimed—
> [Pulse Ritual Complete]
Signal Attunement: SUCCESS
Gateway Card – Tier 0 → Tier 1
Sin Threshold Updated: Moderate Access Unlocked
Class Pathway Unlocked: "Spectral Bound / Sinwalker"
> New Skill Acquired:
Sin Echo (Active) – You can summon one memory-construct of a past victim for 30 seconds.
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Warning: Echoes may act independently if Sanity is below 20%.
---
I dropped to my knees.
Smoke rose from the altar.
And in the center of it—
A door.
No handle. No hinges.
Just a crack in reality, pulsing with red light.
Above it, words etched in flame:
"BEHOLD WHAT YOU TRIED TO BURY."
And behind it?
The first Gateway.