This surge of uncontrolled emotion and the call to respond poured down through the already thinning Curtain.
It was this very force that had sent the Answering Head from behind the Curtain into the Unyielding Pit.
And it was this same force that was now adding fuel to the fire for the thing at the bottom of the Pit.
"The riots above, and the attack down here..."
"It’s no coincidence," Mr. Hutton finished his sentence. The old gentleman had clearly reached the same conclusion.
"They’re two halves of the same ritual."
"The Branch Office won’t publicly intervene in a labor dispute." Winterworth tightened his grip on his dual blades. "The police and the military can handle things on the surface."
"Since things have come to this, our job is to handle our half—the Ether."
Major Aud looked toward the core of the Pit.
The Answering Head had already walked to a spot not far from the center of the Pit’s core.
"We still have to stop him. Don’t let him reach that spot."
Everyone in the cavern moved at once.
White streams of air swirled up from Major Aud’s steel prosthetic, the power of the Gale Tradition condensing at his fingertips.
Winterworth’s Enchanted Dual Blades were already drawn.
Mrs. MacNeil took out the Spirit Lodging Artifacts from her leather case.
Mr. Hutton stood before the Inscription Platform, preparing to analyze the Curse Spell coming from the Answering Head’s mouth.
Just as everyone lunged for the Answering Head, he stopped in his tracks.
He turned his head, looked at them all, and asked a question.
"Will you answer, or will you not?"
The moment the question was asked, it resounded from the depths of everyone’s chest, then chased itself, arriving from outside their eardrums.
Inside and out had been reversed.
The silver plate beneath Richard’s feet, the one Mr. Hutton had personally finished replicating, began to rumble.
The Seal, which had just been closed, was knocked upon from the other side as if by a knuckle.
After the "knock," a question from the other side formed in their minds: ’Did you hear that?’
And in that instant, every person present with Inspiration did the exact same thing.
Their nerves, acting faster than their will, pushed the words ’I heard’ halfway up their throats.
That half-inch was the distance saved by Mrs. MacNeil’s grain of coarse salt.
The Unyielding Pit wasn’t broken, but it had been "questioned."
But that one question was enough.
A Seal is a two-way street. Asking if the person on the other side is willing to respond is, in itself, a Curse read in reverse.
Immediately after, the entire core area turned inside out.
The one-hundred-and-fifty-foot-thick layer of rock above them vanished, replaced by a Star Sea.
But no matter how deep the night sky, there is always a sense of distance between the stars.
In this Star Sea, there was no distance. Every star seemed pasted to your retinas, yet simultaneously hung suspended in infinite space.
They were motionless, so cold it made one want to shut their eyes instantly.
It was a starry sky reflected upward from the bottom of some immeasurably deep well.
This is what a person would see, standing at the bottom of a well and looking up.
"Everyone, don’t move."
The old gentleman’s voice came from somewhere in the cavern.
Richard heard it.
But the words changed after they reached his eardrums.
’Will I... ever be able to cross that threshold in my life?’
This sentence was transmitted directly along the Ether Layer. It was the one thought in the old gentleman’s heart that he least wanted anyone to hear.
In this inverted core area, every thought suppressed in the depths of one’s heart became the words that were truly being spoken.
Richard abruptly shifted his gaze to the side.
Old Big’s face was turned toward him.
His lips didn’t move.
Yet the words seeped from his chest, made starkly clear by the cold light of the Star Sea.
’Senior Sister, have I gone my whole life without making Teacher happy even once?’
Richard couldn’t help but hear it.
He wanted to cover his ears, but he knew it would be useless. This wasn’t sound at all.
On the outer ring, Winterworth stood frozen in place, gripping his dual blades.
Richard had dealt with the Inspector a few times.
Richard knew he was cold, knew he was fast, and could even see when his dual blades left and returned to their sheaths.
But Richard never knew that Winterworth was also suppressing a thought like this.
’Old Kai, if only I could have blocked that blow for you...’
Winterworth himself didn’t even break his rhythm of breathing.
But that sentence had already passed through the mind of every person with Inspiration.
Next came Lady Mod, Mr. Spence, the first team leader, the second team leader...
As for Xiaoma, the recent military academy graduate, his thought was the simplest:
’...I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die!’
Richard began to hypnotize himself.
He didn’t know which thought was his.
He didn’t dare to think about it.
The fresh grain of coarse salt under his tongue was crushed between his teeth.
The instant the sharp grains scraped against his tongue, he pulled himself free from the thought.
He had almost sent the thought from his chest to his throat, and from his throat to his lips.
Cold sweat broke out on Richard’s back, one wave after another.
This was the true "response."
To admit the most vulnerable thought in your heart, under the eyes behind the Curtain.
This was what the Answering Head wanted.
With every person who confessed, the name at the bottom of the Pit was carved one stroke deeper.
But the crisis wasn’t over.
The Shadow at his feet came to life, striking the same pose as it had back in Nail Lane.
Its arms rose from its sides and slowly closed in on his neck.
Richard’s windpipe constricted inch by inch. The feeling of suffocation was real; his lungs started to ache for oxygen, and his vision began to blacken.
Richard bit down on the grain of salt under his tongue.
The sharp, salty sting pulled him back from the brink of suffocation.
He remembered that night with Whitcomb, how he had innovatively reversed the direction of his Breath Healing, pushing the Ether’s restorative medium into the Shadow at his feet.

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