Chapter 568: A Widespread Anomaly

Chapter 568: A Widespread Anomaly

A palpable, unsettling silence hung in the living room on the ground floor of the house. This strange quiet seemed to be a reflection of the eeriness that had enveloped the entire street outside as if the world had collectively held its breath. Inside, the room maintained its nighttime ambiance: mechanical dolls and automated tin men, which were usually set in motion by an intricate blend of springs and magical mechanisms, now stood perfectly still. They looked as though they had been in the middle of performing their programmed cleaning tasks until they were suddenly interrupted by some mysterious event.

Guiding Alice cautiously down the staircase, Duncan was both anxious and on high alert. As they reached the bottom step, their eyes scanned the dimly lit room. Each step they took seemed to echo unnaturally in the silent 34, amplifying the rooms already eerie atmosphere.

Alices fingers tightly gripped Duncans clothing as she cast a sidelong glance. Near them stood a wooden puppet designed to look like a maid. One of its hands clung to the stair railing as if it had been in the process of wiping it clean just moments before. The puppet was now frozen in a slightly hunched position with a cleaning bucket at its feet. Like all the other mechanical servants in the room, it had abruptly stopped moving. The usual ticking sounds and the noise of gears grinding, which would normally emanate from these automatons, had also gone silent.

The stillness seemed so unnatural that Alice couldnt shake the fear that the puppets eyes might suddenly turn to look directly at her, just like in the many horror stories she had read. The very thought sent a cold shiver racing down her spine.

This is so unnerving, she whispered to Duncan, who was a few steps ahead of her. These puppets seemed so benign during the daytime, but seeing them all frozen like this is just terrifying. Strangely, I think it would be even scarier if they suddenly sprang back to life right now.

Duncan slightly turned his head and gave the motionless maid puppet a quizzical glance. Alice remained unaware that her comments might be seen as odd in this situation.

Shifting his focus, Duncan began to mentally track the magical marks he had placed on people like Morris and Vanna for the purpose of keeping tabs on them. Although these marks were still flickering within his senses, they were behaving unpredictably erratic. One moment, it felt like these marks were right inside the house or close. The next, they would seem to have teleported to a distant location as if they had instantly been transported to the opposite side of the city. Duncan found this erratic behavior deeply unsettling; it was unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

Despite his best efforts to mentally reach out to these distant marks in an attempt to communicate with Nina and the others, he was met with failure. Because he couldnt accurately pinpoint the exact locations or statuses of these magical markers, his calls either went unanswered or elicited only a weak and meaningless response for a brief instanta situation that was entirely new to him.

However, Duncan took some solace in the fact that he was beginning to understand the unpredictable behavior of these magical marks. Although he was still unable to determine their exact locations, he felt that with some adjustments and learning, hed eventually be able to establish precise contact. Moreover, the continued activity of these marks suggested that those who bore them were not in immediate danger, offering him a sliver of comfort amid all the uncertainty.

As Duncan moved further into the room, his senses keenly alert to the fluctuating nature of the magical marks hed placed on his friends, he was abruptly jolted out of his focus by a subtle yet distinct clicking sound. Both he and Alice stopped dead in their tracks as if they had simultaneously sensed the break in the rooms previously eerie stillness.

Quickly turning around, Duncan zeroed in on the source of the noise with laser-like focus. To his astonishment, the wooden puppet maid, which had been completely motionless next to the staircase railing just moments before, was now showing signs of life. Its head turned in a jerky, mechanical manner, similar to how a rusted machine might move. Its glassy, vacant eyes seemed to scan the room as though looking for somethingor someone.Upstodatee from n(0)/ve/lbIn/.(co/m

Alice, already on edge, nearly lost all semblance of self-control. Oh my God, its actually moving!

Exasperated, Duncan shot back, Why are you scared? Youre a living doll yourself, arent you?

A lightbulb seemed to go off in Alices head. Ah, right. Why should I be afraid?

Disregarding Alices momentary lapse in reasoning, Duncan refocused his complete attention on the gradually animating wooden puppet. A wave of realization washed over him as he sensed a familiar magical aura emanating from the puppet.

Lucy? Is that you? Duncan cautiously inquired.

Abruptly, she stopped in her tracks.

Footsteps crunched suddenly through the underbrushso abruptly, in fact, that it felt as though one moment there was utter solitude and the next, a figure had appeared, breaking the silence by stepping on dry twigs and rustling leaves as they approached her.

Lucretias senses sharpened in an instant, her magical instincts automatically triggering a series of defensive spells around her before she even pivoted to face the source of the noise. Her grip on her wand tightened as she turned her gaze toward the direction of the footsteps.

To her surprise, what confronted her was neither a malevolent cultist infiltrating this dreamscape nor a nightmarish creature born of the dreams own fabric.

Instead, a mysterious elven woman stood at a short distance from her under the dappled shade of a sprawling tree. She looked both startled and defensive.

Lucretias initial thought was that this newcomer might be the dreamer, the conscious entity serving as the gateway between this dreamscape and reality. However, she quickly noticed something unsettlingly incongruent about this stranger. She was dressed in a suit of lightweight armor that didnt correspond to any specific city-state or historical period that Lucretia was familiar with. Her pale golden hair was woven with strands that emitted a soft, bluish glow, and the weapon she clutcheda hybrid between a spear and a long axewas unlike anything Lucretia had seen, either in the multicultural port city of Wind Harbor or anywhere else.

As Lucretia hesitated, taking in these details, the mysterious elven woman finally broke the silence, her voice laced with caution and seriousness: Didnt you receive the order to evacuate? Why are you still outside the Silent Wall?

Lucretias eyes narrowed. The situation had just grown exponentially more complicated.

..

Back in the real world, under the interplay of daylight and the distinct, eerie glow unique to Wind Harbor, Duncan and Alice navigated the citys streets at a brisk pace.

In Alices arms, a puppet head chattered incessantly.

The voice of Lucretia emanated from this talking puppet head, providing live updates from her perplexing journey on the other side.

Currently, Im in the company of a mysterious elf who just appeared out of nowhere. She seems unaware that I am not of her kind and has let down her guard quite easily. We are en route to a location she refers to as the Silent Wall.'

The sight was downright surreala living puppet dashing through the semi-darkened streets, cradling another puppets head that wouldnt stop talking. Its voice was oddly distorted, a result of the limitations of the material from which it was crafted. Any sane observer stumbling upon this bizarre tableau would likely question their own grip on reality.

Alice, however, seemed unfazed.

Keeping pace with Duncan, she even wore an expression that could be described as slightly cheerful. Perhaps, after all, she had grown accustomed to the peculiarity of carrying headsbe they her own or those of others.