Chapter 66: The Theater (End)

Huff… huff…

After entering the duct, Everly rolled and scrambled along it until she reached a section deeply embedded in the wall. Only then did she allow herself to relax, leaning against the pipe and catching her breath.

Exhausted.

So exhausted.

Her fingers were injured, her muscles drained, and for a moment, she couldn’t even make a gripping motion.

At that moment, Everly would have gladly collapsed anywhere for a long sleep. But she couldn’t—this wasn’t the time to rest. The masked men already knew she was hiding in the ventilation ducts. Once they found the entrance and sent someone in, it wouldn’t be long before she, Old John, and the others became sitting ducks.

She couldn’t afford to stop yet. For safety, she needed to regroup with her grandfather and Misha as quickly as possible… And the lock—there was no time to worry about exposure anymore. Breaking the passcode and letting the police in to handle the masked men was the right move.

Thinking this, Everly shakily pulled out her grandfather’s phone and tried to call, only to see the screen already lit. At the center, the incoming call boldly displayed: “Everly.”

It was her grandfather calling her.

“Hello?” Shaking hands pressed the screen several times before she finally answered.

Old John’s relieved voice came through: “Thank goodness, Everly! You finally answered… There were a lot of gunshots just now, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I destroyed the sacrificial magic circle. But our hiding spot in the ducts has been exposed. Grandpa, try shooting the passcode lock—see if you can get the police inside!”

Everly and Old John were perfectly in sync.

“That’s exactly what I was going to say. While the gunfire distracted them outside, I took a chance and shot the lock—I managed to break it. The police special forces have successfully infiltrated the theater. Everly, leave the rest to them. Hurry back; we’ll exit through the sewers first.”

It was as if John’s words had summoned it—through the thick wall, Everly suddenly heard bursts of gunfire outside, one after another.

Clearly, the SWAT team had engaged the masked men directly. With both sides distracted and locked in battle, this was the perfect chance for her to retreat.

Hope for rescue ignited a surge of energy through Everly’s exhausted body. She put down the phone, refused to rest, checked her bearings, and began crawling rapidly through the ducts once more.

Five minutes later, at the duct opening near the prop room, she successfully reunited with Old John and Misha.

Fifteen minutes later, under police escort, the three of them safely climbed out through the sewers. Covered in injuries, Everly’s face was shielded by the officers as an ambulance waiting nearby took her directly to Micano Central Hospital.

Everly’s hands were badly injured—one fingernail had completely come off—but fortunately, there was no bone damage, and it would heal with time. A stray bullet had also struck her left shoulder, tearing a large gash that required eighteen stitches. Strangely, she hadn’t even noticed the injury until Old John pointed out the bloodstain on her back; until then, she hadn’t felt a thing.

Because she had handled her private parts with bloody hands, Everly also consulted a gynecologist for proper care. The doctor advised thorough cleaning and monitoring for any infection or inflammation. Fortunately, her young body seemed resilient, and she experienced no complications afterward.

Aside from Everly, Old John and Misha were largely unharmed. They stayed with her in the hospital for a few days. During that time, all news outlets in Micano City continued reporting on the Xinkalan Theater incident, giving the three of them a chance to learn what had happened after they left.

That day, the SWAT team had used the sewers to infiltrate backstage. Because the masked men’s attention was drawn to Everly above them, busy firing at the upper ducts, the police were able to quietly slip into the hostage area beneath the stage and eliminate the masked guards without alerting anyone.

While the SWAT team was covering the hostages’ evacuation, the masked men finally noticed them. A fierce gunfight erupted, and unfortunately, some unlucky hostages were caught in the crossfire and severely injured.

In the end, at the cost of eight SWAT officers dead and thirteen injured, the team eliminated all the masked men present. According to later statistics, the theater that day had a total of 424 staff and audience members. Of these, 231 died, 193 survived, and among the survivors, 87 were injured, with 24 seriously wounded and still fighting for their lives in the ICU.

It was the deadliest incident in Micano City in decades. When the news spread, citizens spontaneously gathered on the streets, coming to the devastated Xinkalan Theater to light candles and lay flowers in mourning for the victims.

Information about the masked men was later revealed: they were a group of juvenile labor camp inmates notorious for fighting and committing crimes. Their killings were driven by brainwashing from a heretical cult, which led them to believe that offering sacrifices could grant them power from an evil deity.

The official disclosure ended there. More detailed questions—how the juveniles escaped from prison, which cult they actually worshiped, and why they targeted Xinkalan Theater—remained shrouded in secrecy.

Everly understood. In this world, sometimes knowing too much isn’t beneficial; for ordinary citizens, ignorance can even serve as protection.

But Everly had encountered this evil cult more than once, and she felt it was necessary to learn more about them. When the police came to check on her, she discreetly asked for information.

Because Everly had destroyed the sacrificial magic circle and, during the SWAT team’s infiltration, had involuntarily drawn fire, indirectly saving countless lives, the police—after a careful glance around—quietly confided in her: the cult was called the “True Realm Society.”

The deity worshiped by the True Realm Society was known as the “Demiurge”, a god both ignorant and malevolent. He was believed to be the creator of the material world, the source of all physical existence. The cult’s followers held that the world people currently inhabit is a dark, ignorant, and lowly place, a prison that traps human souls and drags humanity into the abyss of corruption. Only by pleasing the Demiurge and earning His approval could one be freed from this prison, return to their original divine state, and attain true sanctity—hence the cult’s name, “True Realm Society.”

Because everything in this world is false, illusory, and a cage forged by the Demiurge, the cult’s followers believed they were justified in killing, destroying, and wreaking havoc without restraint. In pursuit of their personal spiritual advancement, they would sacrifice countless innocents, offering them as food for the evil god.

There was no doubt: this was a thoroughly heretical cult. Every state in the United States had listed the True Realm Society as a group that must be eradicated. Yet the cult’s members were elusive and internally resourceful, so despite ongoing efforts, the authorities’ effectiveness remained limited.

Although all members of the True Realm Society at Xinkalan Theater had been brought to justice, for safety reasons, Everly was unwilling for the police to disclose the identities of herself, her grandfather, or Misha.

The hostages at the scene had only seen the silhouette of a girl and did not know Everly’s true identity. When the police asked them to keep it confidential, they all agreed.

As a result, even after the events surrounding the case gradually quieted down, very few people knew that in the Xinkalan indiscriminate murder incident, three courageous citizens had stepped forward to open the infiltration path for the SWAT team. Among them, one underage girl had even stormed the sacrificial site, braving a hail of bullets to destroy the magic circle, and successfully prevented a tragedy.

The good news was that the police didn’t hold back in rewarding true heroes. Not long after the incident, the chief of the Micano Police Department personally stepped in to apply for bonuses for the three heroes. John and Misha each received 30,000 US dollars, while Everly got 50,000 US dollars.

Excellent—her little personal fund had just grown quite a bit.

Another piece of good news: Everly and Misha were promised by the police that they would be issued certificates of community service hours. From now on, they wouldn’t have to laboriously complete community service for school; the police would verify any required hours for their academic progress.

After all, what community service could possibly compare to saving over two hundred lives?

Everly was overjoyed and, at the same time, became even more determined to study wilderness survival at New Osebuch State University. The theater incident had come completely out of nowhere, and several times she had only survived thanks to her agility and strong muscles. She knew that similarly unlucky and dangerous incidents could happen again, and the more skills she learned, the higher her chances of survival.

Misha, on the other hand, seemed uncertain about her own future.

Her family was average. Originally, she had planned to follow the path of other local children: attend public schools through the 12 years of compulsory education, then go to a vocational school in Micano to study beauty and hairstyling, and afterward work at a relative’s beauty salon back home. But Misha didn’t want to be trapped in a remote, backward hometown, living decades of ordinary, repetitive life.

“I want to see the outside world—see the fashion hub of Yonah State across all of Micano, see Pukati, the small town you mentioned, Everly, that’s shrouded in mist year-round, see the long coastlines of North Naradka State, see the world’s oldest Abanayaqi Mountains that the books talk about…” She leaned against the window of Everly’s hospital bed, staring at the worn cityscape outside, murmuring dreamily.

“That would be dangerous,” Everly said.

Since the cockroach disaster ended, nothing remotely horrifying had happened in Lemot. Everly could be fairly certain that, in the original film Lewis shot, the town was meant to be destroyed. But because she had rewritten the ending, this town—never meant to exist—had escaped the endless horror of that world’s nightmare and become a rare, peaceful sanctuary. If Misha followed the life her parents had planned for her, living quietly in Lemot, she would have led a calm, ordinary life.

Misha smiled. “Yeah, it would be dangerous. But I still really want to leave home and see the world… I’ve thought about it before, but my family isn’t wealthy, so I didn’t dare dream too much. But now I have thirty grand, earned by myself! Everly, you said you’re going to Katak High School for high school and then to New Osebuch State University to study wilderness survival… Can I… can I go with you?”

“Huh?”