Chapter 100: Dark Cloud
Void, the Path of Nothingness, to achieve it in the current time is extremely difficult. The requirement for it is to become empty of everything: possession, emotion, and soul. And so far, only Device V can assist in performing the necessary rituals safely.
The First Step of Void is called Exorcist, speaking of Void's power to nullify mystical powers.
Then the Second Step adds in Despair, granting the power to gradually drain every emotion around. Becoming a Nihilist.
And at Third Step, obtaining the final counterpart, Oblivion, a darkness so deep that nothing can reach the depth of it. Becoming a Hollowed.
But when Solafant walks on the Path of Divinity, gaining the power of the Abyss... their form melted, becoming a mass of indescernable slime... they became a Formless.
"I invoke the Authority of the Empty Throne!!"
A dullness instantly washed over the other two, a disconnection and emptiness. It swept over the entire mansion, banishing something away...
!!
Lea took a step back, sensing something wrong.
"Be careful—"
Before she could do anything, smoke came out of the mansion, and pulled all three of them in. Not even Jim could properly react in time.
Jim tried to use his Trailblazer speed to escape.
Lea activated Shadow Sneak.
Solafant's Void powers should have nullified it.
Yet everything failed.
The smoke pulled, and reality twisted. Overwhelming darkness overtook every one of them.
=0=0=
"Games are a wonderful thing, it is just too bad that this world has yet to reach the level when I was born."
A city of pure silver, in a location where the sky is forever dark, yet there are no stars— drowned by the light of the city.
"It has been a while, my dearests."
An angel with ebony wings and hair landed behind Charlotte. Her pale golden eyes stare at her Lady's with respect, following the Chalk Princess.
"Welcome back, Your Majesty."
Then a gravely deep voice echoes from the entire city, "[Welcome back, Your Majesty.]"
"I am back.", she nodded with a smile.
"Since someone is impatient, let's take it easy then...", she tapped her lips, "Hmm, let's play some games..."
"[What would you like to play, Your Majesty?]", the city asked.
"Well, I would like to try... Hooked on You. That is a rather bizarre concept but a fun one, and it is pretty short."
=0=0=
They landed hard on hard wooden floors.
Lea rolled to her feet immediately, Hastur manifesting in her hand. Her Cursed Constructs writhed around her defensively.
She was inside the mansion now. But something was wrong...
The interior was far larger than the three-story building they'd seen from outside. Hallways stretched in impossible directions. Stairs led to floors that shouldn't exist. The architecture defied logic, rooms connecting in ways that made her head hurt.
A scream echoed through the corridors.
"There!", Jim pointed.
Down the hall, a man ran in terror. Middle-aged, wearing clothes from decades past, blood on his shirt. Behind him, something else pursued.
A massive figure, easily 3 meters or close to that, wearing a crude mask made of burlap. In its hands was a rusted machete the size of a small child.
The killer moved with terrifying purpose, closing the distance with mechanical precision. The fleeing man turned a corner, and the killer followed.
Her instincts kicked in. She shadow-stepped down the hallway, appearing between the killer and its prey.
Her Cursed Constructs lashed out, wrapping around the masked figure. Jim arrived in a flash of black and yellow lightning, kicking it in the legs and knocking it down.
Solafant reformed into cat shape, hissed from behind them.
The masked killer tried to swing its machete. Lea caught it with Hastur, the blade-to-blade impact sending sparks flying.
Her Fourth Step strength easily overpowered it.
One golden Judgement Blade manifested and shot forward, piercing the killer's chest.
It collapsed immediately... into smoke.
The body dissolved, leaving only the mask and machete behind. The objects began dissolving too, turning to black mist that dispersed into the air.
"What...", Jim was not comprehending it at all.
The man they'd saved collapsed against the wall, breathing hard, "You... you killed it? But they always come back. They always—"
"Who are you?", Solafant asked, their cat voice suddenly very serious, "What is this place?"
The man looked at them with wild eyes, "There's no escape... I've tried... Everyone's tried. You can't leave. The mansion won't let you...!!"
"When did you enter this place?", Lea asked, using her power to read his surface thoughts. What she found made her blood run cold.
"I... I don't know anymore. It's been so long. So long...", the man clutched his head, "The year was... 105? Year 105 of the Fourth Era. I remember that...!! I came to investigate the disappearances!!"
Lea and Jim exchanged glances.
It was currently year 135 of the Fourth Era.
Thirty years.
This man had been trapped here for thirty years.
But he didn't look older than thirty himself. As if time had stopped, or moved differently, or—
Solafant hissed suddenly, their fur standing on end, "Above!"
Lea looked up.
The ceiling wasn't there anymore. Or rather, it was there, but beyond it was black smoke roiling like storm clouds, and from within it...
Spider legs.
Massive, chitinous spider legs emerged from the smoke, each one as thick as a tree trunk. They descended with terrible speed, stabbing downward like spears.
One pierced the man through the chest. He screamed, but no blood came out. Just... paralysis.
Another leg stabbed toward Lea. She tried to shadow-step away, but her powers felt muted, weakened by something in this place.
The leg hit her shoulder, and pain exploded through her body.
Not physical pain, but something that went deeper, touching her very essence. Paralysis spread through her limbs. She couldn't move, couldn't activate her powers.
Couldn't even think properly.
Jim was caught, too, generating lightning with his power fruitlessly.
Solafant yowled, their Void powers flaring, but even the Abyss couldn't stop the legs completely. They were caught, wrapped in chitinous limbs.
The legs then pulled.
Reality twisted again.
Lea felt herself being dragged upward, into the smoke, into something vast and incomprehensible.
Then everything went black.
...
When awareness returned, Lea was walking.
Her body was walking, but she hadn't given it permission to do so. She was walking against her will.
She was in a forest. Dense foliage surrounded her. Night had fallen, but moonlight filtered through the trees, providing just enough illumination to see.
Ahead, through the trees, she spotted firelight.
Her body moved toward it automatically, feet crunching on dead leaves.
Four people huddled around a campfire. Two of them had eyes devoid of life. The other two were shaking, clearly terrified, whispering to each other in voices Lea couldn't quite make out.
And in her mind, something whispered.
Not words. Not exactly like her Malediction at the beginning. Just... intent.
Hunt them.
Kill them.
Lea tried to resist. Tried to activate her Paths, to use Shadow Sneak, to do anything.
Nothing responded.
Her body continued walking forward, Hastur materializing in her hand without her willing it.
The whispers grew louder, more insistent.
Hunt. Kill.
She was ten meters from the campfire now. The two conscious people spotted her, their eyes going wide with terror.
"No, no, not another one—"
Lea tried to scream, to warn them, to explain this wasn't her choice.
But her mouth wouldn't move.
Her body just kept walking forward, weapon raised, mind invaded by something vast and hungry that wore her like a puppet.
And somewhere in the back of her consciousness, a terrible realization formed:
This wasn't a haunted mansion.
This was something else entirely. A twisted, impossible domain where reality bent to the will of something that turned people into hunters, victims into prey, and trapped them all in an endless cycle of violence.
Where thirty years could pass in subjective time, while barely any time passed outside. Three demigods had just become the newest pieces in a game they didn't understand.
And Lea was about to murder four innocent victims.
While something ancient and terrible watched from the smoke above.