Chapter 68: Abomination – Part 1

Chapter 68: Abomination – Part 1

Gify gives us a massage to finish our treatment for "broken heart" and helps us get back into fighting shape.

"Are you sure we should go straight back to the mansion? Shouldn't we investigate the Mayor's Office a bit more?" Yunia asks.

"What, scared?" I ask with a cheeky grin.

"Me? Scared of a monster that uses your own fear of your parents to drive you insane? Ohohohoh, of course not!" She exclaims and shows an angry smile.

"But you're not even going into the mansion," Ciel says, confused.

Yunia clenches her fist and frowns. "My [Disruption Field] could be useful against The Lady," she says.

"Ooh... how does that spell work, anyway?" I ask.

"First, I draw a circle of blood on the ground, then, when someone enters it, I can disrupt their flow of mana and prevent them from casting spells. I can even kill magical beings if I disrupt them strongly enough."

"Hm... that's quite a useful ability. Couldn't Ciel carry a vial of your blood and make the circle herself, then?"

"I still have to be close to it to activate it."

"Oh..."

"'Oh' indeed." She smiles wryly and sighs.

"Anyway, there wasn't much in the Mayor's Office from what they saw. In fact, the only room that seemed to be fully furnished was the mayor's personal office," I continue, and Alissa nods.

"You could send in a Holly to investigate. The guards didn't seem to react to her," Lina says.

"Good idea."

We enter the Residential district and start sneaking. We don't want to risk drawing the attention of the Possessed Mannequins.

With everything made of concrete, the streets have a rather modern air to them. All that's missing is the black asphalt and we'd be set. There aren't any sidewalks or obvious lanes, but everywhere except for the middle of the street seems worn-out, indicating some form of separation of the flow of traffic.

The buildings are mostly apartment complexes, but there's still a large amount of empty space above them, so this district doesn't feel claustrophobic like the administration corridors did. Every once in a while, we see a dead green space, but it's still mostly a concrete jungle.

There are a few windows in the ceiling letting in some light, but they are far too few to properly illuminate the entire district, creating a very moody atmosphere.

"This place looks similar to my town back on Earth," I comment.

But it reminds me more of Brazil than Canada since every house is gated.

"Your home isn't a very pretty place," Yunia says.

"Polished rock is better, but these concrete buildings are really nice," Lina says.

"Really?" I ask.

She nods emphatically and says, "If only the air weren't so stale and we had more illumination, then this would be a good place for dwarves to live in."

"Ho~h. I can't even fathom how dwarves are capable of living in such small and closed off places," Yunia says.

"An elf that doesn't understand the coziness of a small and sturdy house is just another monster for the Lord," Lina says and shakes her head.

The two share a brief glare without any mean feelings behind it.

We give the shopping center a wide berth, but we still end up encountering a mannequin standing still in the middle of the street.

"I can't sense their presence," Alissa whispers, worriedly.

"Don't make any loud noises, they seem to react to sound," I whisper, and we cautiously continue forward.

Roxanne shows her tongue to the mannequin as we pass by it.

"I think I can use [Chain Life] on them if they start to move," Yunia says.

"Good, I have a feeling that we'll need it," Hana says and chuckles nervously.

As we walk deeper in, the district starts to become mossy and ruined, but even more so than when Hana and Roxanne passed through here previously.

"We are too loud," Alissa says as we pass by another mannequin.

"I'll store Jarn for now," I say.

The other two golems can float, so they never make that much noise.

"I can try to fix that," Yunia says.

Alissa grabs Lina and lifts the little dwarf onto her shoulders, surprising her, then she turns into a fox with Lina already on top of her.

"That felt really weird," Lina says.

"You must be more sensitive to mana, like Wolfy," Alissa says, then she turns to Yunia. "Just try to make Aoi and Ciel silent."

Yunia nods and starts concentrating. Her fingers subtly move around, as if they were typing something. I feel mana gathering within her, then it starts to surround us before pooling closely around Ciel and Aoi. I stop sensing the mana right when I stop hearing their footsteps. Even the soft jingle of their padded armor vanishes.

Ciel's mouth moves, but no sound comes out.

That spell must be really useful for assassination.

"I can't hear anything," Ciel says in my soul space.

"I'll share my hearing with you, then," I reply.

"This feels really weird," she says with a chuckle.

I also notice a change in the volume of the sounds that we're making. With Alissa being completely silent, and Yunia barely making a sound, the loudest sound we're producing is when we move too quickly, making our armor jingle.

It's fortunate for us that we have Yunia since the number of mannequins in the streets rises quickly.

We avoid them all without a problem, then they suddenly stop appearing.

"Are we safe, now?" Aoi asks in a low tone.

"We aren't that close to the mansion yet," Roxanne says, and I nod.

A few meters further in, our [Spirit Light]s illuminate a line of mannequins blocking our way.

"Spoke too soon," Lina whispers dejectedly.

I look to the side and see another line blocking our alternate path. Yunia suddenly looks behind us, and we follow her sight, then we see a third line of mannequins blocking our way.

"Uh... those weren't there before," I say, and the girls frown.

I look forward again and notice that the line has moved closer to us.

Oh, Gods, no!

I make Hana look behind us and have Roxanne look to the side. Now both of these lines have come closer, too.

"Their webs of Life are coming closer whenever no one's looking at them," Yunia says.

Ugh... does this count as plagiarism?

There's a gate ajar beside us, so I guide the girls there. We enter the front garden of an apartment complex with a few dozen mannequins spread around.

"Roxanne, watch the left; Lina, watch the right; Ted and Suzy, watch behind us," I order.

We move close to the wall and circle around the building to the other entrance. Then we take the streets again and continue avoiding the mannequin blockades.

Creepy-ass place. I'm starting to get tired of this shit.

On a particularly dark street, the road suddenly curves in a way that I haven't seen before in this almost perfectly grid-like district. This place just doesn't make any sense, and now it's changing things up to mess with us.

Down the curve, a blockade stops us, forcing us to double-back.

Oh, boy...

We don't get far before another blockade stops us. Now we are sandwiched between two walls of mannequins. There's no gate for us to escape this, but we can still climb the walls flanking us.

Suddenly, our [Spirit Light]s blink, plunging us into darkness for a moment, and when they come back on, the mannequins have moved closer. Even the Hollys "blinked."

Okay, we're getting into SCP territory now...

"What is going on?" Alissa anxiously whispers.

"Something is messing with our [Spirit Light]s," Ciel says, a hint of fear leaking into her voice.

"We can't stay here," Yunia says and looks at me, starting to get desperate.

"Climb up there," I say and point to a wall.

"This will be... hard," Aoi says.

"We'll dismount and cross over it on our own," I respond.

"Okay."

Alissa jumps across the wall with little difficulty, though she did make Lina scared for a moment. Yunia and Ciel quickly vault over top while we carefully dismount and use our abilities to cross over it. Roxanne, the golems, and I can simply float while Aoi and Hana have to use their wings.

On the other side, Alissa is getting cornered by four mannequins as our [Spirit Light]s start flickering every few seconds.

I keep my eyes on them as she runs around, then we run across a large dead yard and towards a gate that leads to another street. The few spread out mannequins follow us slowly due to the flickering of our lights.

We exit onto the street, and the duration that our lights stay "off" increases, allowing the mannequins to move a longer distance with each blink.

"It's... fine. Now, go with Ciel," I respond.

She nods, and the two of them depart.

Yunia didn't learn how to control her emotions to not let them bleed through the [Bind]. [Mask] has only diminished the intensity of her emotions. She's "numbing" herself to the world, allowing her to use her will alone to drive her actions.

The lethargy I felt must've been the [Mask] starting to take effect. And if that's how it feels to use it, then it must be really tiring to keep it up for a long time.

The mansion had its windows boarded shut when Roxanne and Hana first came here, but now, almost all of them are broken. The mansion itself seems like it aged a hundred years, with blotches that are either dirt or blood staining most of its surface.

"This station gets even creepier the more we explore," Ciel comments, and Yunia nods stoically.

They cautiously open the double door at the entrance, making it creak loudly, then stare into the main hall, wary of any movements.

"I'll start to set up over here," Yunia says.

"Alright..." Ciel says, a little tense.

The hall is wide and open, devoid of any furniture. There's only a wide staircase that splits in two halfway up to the second floor and doors to the other corridors of the mansion.

"How dull," Yunia whispers.

"Everything around here is dull," Ciel whispers.

"True."

The white tiled floor is completely covered in dust, making it look rather gray.

Yunia cuts her hand with a dagger and lets the blood drip all over the hall. Ciel goes upstairs and takes a right turn, towards The Lady's room.

Satisfied with the amount of blood spilled everywhere, Yunia starts making a large, uninterrupted circle of blood in the middle.

Ciel powers up her [Spirit Light] and makes her [Holy Spirit] walk beside her. She draws her shortsword since her glaive is too long for these narrow corridors.

A tense minute goes by as Yunia continues her work, and Ciel cautiously walks forward. Beads of sweat start to form on her forehead due to the tension; her sword arm trembles, making her armor rattle slightly; and her jaw shivers, making her teeth begin to chatter.

Her anxious breathing sounds a bit loud amid the complete silence of the mansion; her slow, quiet steps become quick, heavy stomps; the soft jingle of her armor now seems like the scraping of a wire brush against a wall; her heart is beating so fast that she feels it slamming against her rib cage.

Yunia starts to walk away from her circle of blood, but she suddenly freezes in place, and her head snaps to the balcony. Her [Mask] instantly breaks, and she shrieks in terror.

"CIEL, GO BACK! SHE'S AT THE LEFT WING!" I yell through [Bind].

Ciel sucks in a sharp breath and starts a mad dash back to the main hall.

Yunia runs in the opposite direction of The Lady, fleeing towards the right wing of the first floor. She crashes into a room and hurriedly closes the door, then locks it shut. She drops to her knees, and five sharp claws burst through the door a few centimeters above her head.

"HYAAAAAAAAAH!" Yunia shrieks and falls down on her ass.

The Lady starts to hack at the door, making splinters and chunks of wood fly everywhere. She opens a hole, then looks through it.

"YUNIA! LISTEN TO ME!" I yell through [Bind].

Yunia stands still, frozen in shock.

"YUNIA, CIEL NEEDS YOU! YOU NEED TO GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!" I plead to her.

The Lady grabs the rough edges of the hole and pries it apart, making the door crack.

Ciel jumps off of the balcony and lands in the main hall, then she sees The Lady down the corridor.

"I'M YOUR OPPONENT, YOU HATEFUL WOMAN!" Ciel bellows.

The Lady turns her gaze away from Yunia, allowing her to breathe again, and stares at Ciel.

Her [Spirit Light] and [Holy Spirit] shine like the sun, working hard to repel the hate of The Lady trying to break her heart.

"HRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" A shrill wail hurts Ciel's ears and stuns her for a moment.

Yunia goes limp on the floor, catatonic.

"YUNIA! WAKE UP! GET UP! CIEL NEEDS YOU!" I try to force her to move, but she's resisting the [Bind].

Ciel recovers, then she sees the five long claws rushing towards her. She activates [Wind Shield], and The Lady is pushed back.

Gify, hit me with the good stuff.

Gih!

Visions of dragons mating, killing, eating, and flying fill my mind. Power, glory, majesty, confidence, these feelings fill me with endless energy. My dick tries to escape out of my armor, but I control my lust, then I redirect all of my feelings towards Yunia.

I don't know how to cast [Disruption Field], I need her to wake up!

"YUNIA, GET UP! CIEL NEEDS YOU! I NEED YOU...! WE... NEED... YOU...!"

Yunia trembles, the overwhelming energy of my emotions stunning her for a second.

"Okay," she responds and gets up. "I'M COMING TO GET YOU, YOU LOATHSOME GRUDGE-FESTERING MASS OF EXISTENTIAL IMPOTENCE!" She bellows.

Ciel trades blows with The Lady, but her body is completely incorporeal, except for her claws and her eyes. The only thing that affects her is Ciel's [Wind Shield], for some reason.

Yunia races down the corridor and The Lady turns to her. Instead of stopping, Yunia seemingly speeds up and yells, "I KILLED YOU ONCE, I'LL KILL YOU A THOUSAND TIMES, MOM!"

Then she leaps and lands with her hand on the circle of blood.

A storm of mana suddenly appears and wracks through both The Lady and Ciel. The [Spirit Light] and the [Holy Spirit] disappear, the [Wind Shield] stops working, and The Lady shrieks, almost stunning Yunia and interrupting the [Disruption Field].

A naked crone with sickly, pale skin and hair, and a half-rotten, half-skeletal body suddenly becomes visible. Her nails are long, wickedly sharp claws caked with blood. Her hair thankfully covers most of her hideously twisted face.

"GET HEE~R!" I order Ciel.

She doesn't waste a second before driving her sword through the crone's heart. A heavy tension suddenly lifts from my shoulders, making me notice how tired I really am. Ciel and Yunia suddenly calm down, their minds are confused, but their hearts are light, now freed from the cold grip of The Lady.

The crone goes limp and falls backward on the floor.

Alissa frowns. "I can sense her now, and she's not dead yet," she says.

Oh boy.

Announcement

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