Jisoo, hidden behind a pile of wooden crates near an old building, watched intently. Her phone was attached to a handheld stabilizer, activated in infrared mode to capture images in the darkness. His hands were shaking, not from cold but from growing apprehension. His imagination screamed at him that something was wrong.
A group of residents walked silently by, their faces hidden beneath black hoods. They were carrying red lanterns. Jisoo activated the zoom on her camera and suppressed a shudder as she discovered their bare feet, smeared with mud... and what appeared to be dried blood.
They stopped in front of a large circular building with a pointed roof, like an ancient abandoned temple. Yet it had recent symbols engraved on it, spirals intertwined with inverted crosses and eyes with slitted pupils. A strange effigy sat above the cross, a faceless humanoid figure, its disproportionately long arms crossed over its chest, holding blades.
Intrigued, Jisoo approached quietly, her heart pounding. The muffled voices inside the temple gradually grew louder. She managed to catch a few words through a crack in the wall.
— "By the will of the nameless, we offer flesh and blood to feed his hungry gaze..."
A shiver ran down Jisoo's spine. The Nameless One? she thought, her mind trying to comprehend. This wasn't just some corrupt sect. This was a cult.
She took a small directional microphone from her pocket and pointed it inward. The sound became clearer. Monotonous chanting, interspersed with muffled screams... screams of pain.
She felt a knot form in her stomach. They make human sacrifices.
Too curious to back out, Jisoo circled the building, looking for another opening. A small, partially shattered window high up offered a perfect angle. She climbed through it, the camera fixed to his shoulder.
What she saw froze his blood.
In the center of the room, a circular pit was dug into the ground. Symbols like inverted crosses, drawn in blood, surrounded it. Suspended above the void by rusty chains, an old man was half conscious, The body was covered in ritual cuts. Around him, members of the sect chanted in a circle, their faces covered with masks fashioned from animal skulls.
A priest, recognizable by her dark red tunic and bone mask with twisted horns, raised a sacrificial knife adorned with gold.
— "The nameless awaits his tribute! May his hunger be appeased by the pain of the wicked !"
With a guttural cry, he plunged the blade into the hanging man's chest. Blood spurted out, running down the chains to feed the symbols on the floor. The room seemed to react, causing a slight earthquake.
Jisoo had to suppress her nausea, but she kept filming, every detail now sealed in her memory. They aren't just corrupted. They feed something that responds to blood.
She stepped back, her heart pounding, but a hand appeared out of nowhere, gripping her arm with inhuman strength.
A face looked down at her, bloodshot eyes, broken teeth bared in a sickly smile.
— "Are you new to worship ?"
Before she could scream, a chlorophyll-soaked cloth pressed against her face. The world went blurry, then black.