[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies":3,"chapter-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-267":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Notes on Kraft Anomalous Studies",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2283745,4467,"Chapter 267","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-267",267,"\u003Cp>Those chaotic substances seemed to churn within the mind, their voices chasing footsteps and thoughts like a spell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Physical strength drained rapidly through irregular movement; soreness and side effects of intense exertion began to surface—many had already tasted a faint metallic sweetness in their breath, along with things that should not be there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A sour, slightly spicy odd taste, like a wound burning as it healed, seared the tongue, attempting to sever the lingual frenulum so the organ could twist without restraint and express what it tasted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That thing made the eyes recall staring directly at the noon sun, the skin remember splinters from wooden objects, the throat recall swallowing boiling water by accident.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A pain, overflowing from the thing pursuing them, seeped into every autonomous thought through unblockable channels.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This infiltration could no longer be traced to its origin; perhaps it had never ceased since the chaotic substances arrived, growing more pronounced with proximity and time, resonating with the pain in body and spirit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A ship adrift in a storm does not notice when it begins to take on water; human consciousness, unsteady and drifting, does not notice when it begins to comprehend the thing chasing it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No one cared anymore where Kraft had drawn his guidance—the reappearance of a viable path filled them with ecstatic joy; they sprinted toward the pattern’s direction without even wondering what lay at the end.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Kraft’s perception, it was the suffocating agony of falling from extreme heights, scattering, each conscious fragment sealed in boxes too small to stretch limbs, ground further into dust by endless time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under spiritual perception, the resonance was even clearer—each surge of the wave carried surging “highlighted” geometric shards, like joints or neurons of the formless matter, linking into a centerless, chaotic consciousness of pain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This consciousness was vast, boundless, yet unclear; beyond pain, only an unmasked desire for expansion could be felt, as if that were the sole path to escape suffering.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was forced to withdraw prematurely from spiritual perception, halting his resonance with them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The constrained, compressed pain surged with unprecedented intensity, disturbing bodily function as it had not in a long time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The steps nearly tripped him; a priest who had noticed Kraft’s change gripped his shoulders, dragging him in a half-run until he regained his running rhythm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Keep going, faster—I can’t tell how big this thing is, it’s everywhere.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Couldn’t see? Kraft’s actions and words were full of problems, but Green had no spare mental capacity to investigate—compared to the thing chasing them, too few things could be called strange.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if a demon were walking among them now, temporary cooperation would suffice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Relying on his vast experience and the time Green had bought him, Kraft barely recovered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His vision seized as much information as possible, helping his consciousness adapt to the claustrophobic sensation of falling from a higher vantage point; details others overlooked stood out sharply in his hungry eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unlike the chaotic lower crypt chamber, the integrity of the stone chambers along their path gradually improved—as if walking along the axis of history, the evil legend drew closer from ancient ruin toward their own time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>More coffins appeared, most smaller in size, approximating human proportions; surface carvings improved, decorations aligning with familiar imagery, converging toward aesthetically recognizable forms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Decorative borders of ivy, laurel, and other floral motifs symbolizing blessings for the dead divided the coffin bodies into sections, filled with relief carvings or painted scenes; the latter, due to humidity, had faded to corroded smears of color, while the former depicted, beyond daily life, mostly war and duels.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The figures wore no armor except helmets, draped only in what looked like thick coarse-fiber cloth—that was chainmail, long since replaced by plate armor since the kingdom’s early days.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a glance at the adjacent stone chamber, Kraft saw lead coffins adorned with angelic figures at both ends, their gilded foil oxidized and mottled, as if undergoing some loathsome transformation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this turning point, familiar religious elements were added: angelic figures resembling children, saints in prayerful poses, and most directly, the double-winged circle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All common funerary symbols, yet their appearance here was scarcely believable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rich ecclesiastical elements appeared densely, brazenly displayed on coffins pried open or burst outward from within.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even the monks noticed these obvious features, spotting carved figures clad in ecclesiastical robes, wearing tall, pointed mitres, depicted in ritual scenes bestowing something upon kneeling central figures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Due to carving techniques and angles, it was hard to discern what was being given, but the identities of the figures could not be mistaken, nor explained as individual acts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One monk’s lips had already formed a definite word, choked in his throat, turning into a fit of coughing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Disbelief, stamped like a print, appeared on their faces—including Green’s—unable to suppress the urge to turn back and stare again at each sacred relic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But no matter how many times they turned, these lead-cast stone carvings would not vanish into illusion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bursting from the final stone chamber, a long, endless corridor stretched ahead; judging by Kraft’s spatial sense, it pointed toward the labyrinth’s center.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This chase had finally reached its moment to end—but he still had not found anything capable of stopping the thing behind them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the builders understood well enough what would form here, they must have had corresponding control mechanisms; otherwise, they could never have repeatedly entered and transported hundreds of coffins spanning vast eras into the crypt chambers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The group still sprinted desperately toward the only correct path; torchlight illuminated the walls with intricate, radiating line patterns—like roots intertwined and grown, dug up from deep darkness and hung as tapestries, overlapping with terrain-like motifs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The living current surged into this corridor; the straight space offered no obstruction, and as the clash of weapons and armor echoed, the murmuring drew alarmingly closer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unexplained pain hammered the eardrums, taste buds, skin—all exposed senses resonated, evoking the most unbearable negative memories.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The resonance of pain transformed into an instinctive urge—to summon tormented souls to join its infinite expansion and growth, until it gained the power to achieve some form of return, ending all suffering utterly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When pain reached its peak, the return urge forced forth its innate gift, naturally shaping itself into a concentrated, sharp form.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was an invisible, intangible fissure, slicing through the barrier between this world and another, and any matter in its path.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The changing footsteps around him made Kraft feel deeply wrong; the monks at the rear slowed from running to walking, as if summoned, halting as if returning from a lost path to gaze at the spreading chaos.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet the formless substance filling the space inexplicably slowed—its surging tide became thick, sluggish mud, then rapidly solidified into rubbery consistency, halting ten feet away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The monk turned stiffly, his torch splitting in two, the top end falling and extinguishing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Water?】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft did not recall when they had stepped again into water capable of instantly extinguishing torches; though the crypt floor was damp, drainage was efficient, with virtually no large pools of standing water.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He looked down—the ground had melted into liquid, submerging his soles; the undulating black surface reflected almost no light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don’t look at your feet!”\u003C\u002Fp>",1197,"2026-06-20T02:15:56.940Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","0a83c4ce0274c4a0292c629532d3a8d9d514bb68dede2f57ce966f937a6b3d5c","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-268","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-266",406,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fnotes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-cover.jpg"]