"Let's move past that," Weems said, taking the mic back with a composed expression that didn't quite hide her irritation. "I trust all of you will focus on your studies and make proper use of your time at Nevermore."
Her tone remained steady, but the decision was clear.
She should not have called Ethan up.
The ceremony continued, but Ethan had already lost interest by the time it moved forward.
Not long after, he met up with Pugsley, who looked far more engaged than he had any reason to be, his attention fixed on a very specific idea.
Pugsley brought it up immediately, talking about going to the grave beneath the skull-marked tree, clearly excited at the thought of digging it up and seeing whether the story was real.
Ethan didn't argue.
"Okay, I'll come," he said, more out of practicality than curiosity.
If Pugsley was going to do it anyway, it was better he went along, and the thought crossed his mind that if the clockwork body was still there, he could at least make use of it. It was strange he hadn't considered that earlier.
Not long after, the two of them were walking into the woods, away from the academy, the noise of the event fading behind them. Ethan carried a shovel over his shoulder, his pace steady, while Pugsley walked beside him, still focused.
"Why are you bringing that?" Pugsley asked, glancing at the shovel.
Ethan didn't look at him.
"What else do you think we're going to do there?" he replied. "We're digging it up."
They reached the skull-marked tree soon after.
The place felt different.
Pugsley slowed slightly, his eyes moving toward the ground before the tree, and something about it immediately stood out.
There was already a hole.
Not freshly dug by them—
Already there.
"Ethan…" Pugsley said, his tone shifting. "When you came here before… did you dig this?"
Ethan stopped.
He looked at the ground properly now, his expression changing as he took in the disturbed soil, the shape of it, the way it had been pushed outward instead of neatly opened.
"No,"
That answer came with confusion.
Something wasn't right.
He shoved the loose soil aside and pushed deeper into the hole, expecting to hit the body, but there was nothing there except empty space and broken earth.
The grave was empty, the soil pushed outward like something had crawled its way out.
Whatever was buried there was gone, and there were no tool marks, no clean cuts, nothing that suggested someone came here and dug it up.
'Who the fuck did this, or rather what the fuck did this?'
So much for a peaceful school life, because that was over the moment this thing got out, and whatever came next was going to be trouble.
"Hah, here we go again."
He was about to step back when something reached him from deeper in the woods, faint at first, like distant murmurs carried through the trees, enough to make him turn his head slightly as his focus shifted.
"Pugsley, did you hear that?" Ethan asked, his tone sharpening.
"No,"
Which only made it worse, because if Pugsley didn't hear it then it wasn't normal sound, it was something only Ethan was picking up.
Ethan frowned slightly, listening again, trying to pinpoint it.
Then the ground shook.
Not lightly, not like a tremor, but sudden and violent, the soil beneath them cracking without warning as the earth gave way under their feet, breaking apart and collapsing inward before either of them could react.
They dropped.
The fall wasn't clean, dirt and loose stone falling with them as the ground above sealed into darkness, the descent lasting just long enough to disorient before impact.
Ethan adjusted mid-fall, twisting his body to control the landing as they hit the ground below, his feet absorbing the impact while his hand caught Pugsley before he could slam into the surface.
The dust settled slowly around them.
Then red flames lit up along the walls, one after another, low and steady, showing they had fallen into a narrow underground corridor.
Pugsley got off Ethan's grip immediately and started looking around, already interested instead of worried.
"Wow, a secret underground chamber," he said, moving ahead and checking the walls like he had just found something fun.
Ethan followed behind, slower, watching everything as they walked. The walls weren't empty, they were covered in carvings, lines and symbols repeating in a pattern that didn't look random but also didn't match anything he knew.
He frowned slightly, trying to make sense of it.
"What the hell is this language?" he muttered, already thinking this was something Wednesday would understand better than him.
They kept walking until the corridor opened into a larger space.
It was a circular chamber.
The flames burned stronger here, casting steady light across the room. At the center lay a large inverted pentagram etched into the ground, marked with a goat-faced symbol. Along the walls, crude drawings stretched in repeating patterns—distorted bodies fused together beneath a single horned face, the same unnatural form sketched over and over.
Pugsley stepped further in, looking around without hesitation.
"Wow, a demon worshipping place," he said, sounding more curious than concerned as he looked at the markings and the center circle.
Ethan didn't move much.
He stood there, looking at the symbol, then at the walls, taking in the setup and what it meant.
What the fuck?
When did this become part of this world?
***
A/N: It's decided—the next world will be .
And on Patreon, the Wednesday arc is about to end, with The Boys arc starting next.
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