As Nairo and Kaizen stood facing the haunted manor, they could both feel heavy energies emanating from the place.
Both the Psyker, and also the huntress, had had enough supernatural experiences before not to be surprised, but to face a place totally distorted and overrun by mist was totally new to both of them. Their impression was that this house had the same aura as a graveyard, in fact, the whole village had that feeling on that cold night.
They stared at the big house for a few seconds and then looked at each other. The only company for them, besides each other, was complete silence now.
At this moment Kaizen realized the main difference between fighting monsters and fighting spirits. The psychological burden of fighting beings with paranormal abilities was on another level, totally above what was considered normal.
Uncertainty, insecurity, unpredictability, and various other characteristics that Kaizen did not yet know used to be normal aspects of fights against spirits and beings of the kind.
However, Kaizen, Nairo and several other hunters of the Order of Dalamyr had one characteristic that used to be more frightening for beings with paranormal powers than for monsters, and that was the total lack of ability to feel fear in the face of a challenge.
So when Kaizen faced the manor, instead of shaking and sweating like a normal person, he smiled with excitement. He knew that he was about to face something unlike anything he had ever faced before, he knew that this would not be a battle like any other, and that was what excited him so much. A new experience for someone crazed by the adrenaline of Rise Online was tantamount to a generous gift.
Kaizen threw back part of his cloak and unsheathed the Eye of Storm. His blade had been restored in the last few days, so it shone like a new weapon.
"I'm coming in." Psyker said, walking toward the front door of the manor.
"Hey, wait. What are you doing?" Nairo asked. She was still busy, fixing some things on her belt. "Are you really going to go through the front door?"
"Are we going to investigate the place or kill the evil spirit? Flanking would only delay our clash against the spirit."
Nairo took a deep breath. "Did you hear what I said earlier? The evil spirit is the wife of the village chief. All we need to do is not irritate the spirit while we search for clues inside the house until we have her name so we can get her exorcised. Got it?"
"Yes, I understand that part, except that I have another plan for this and in that plan of mine there is no reason why I should not confront the spirit head on. So what do you think about waiting here? If I'm not back in half an hour, you make your plan." Kaizen proposed.
The woman looked at him for a few moments and simply had no way to debate. How would she tell Psyker that it wasn't safe for him to go alone? There was no way she could even say something like that to him.
That being the case, she just crossed her arms and leaned against the low wall to wait for the next thirty minutes, but first she said:
"Take this." She held out to him a small glass vial with a clear liquid inside.
"What is it?" Kaizen inquired.
"Holy water, of course."
Kaizen almost laughed internally, but he didn't doubt that this would actually work out, considering it was inside a game, so he nodded in thanks and took the glass jar.
Soon, he walked to the door of the manor with the Eye of Storm in his left hand, and with the old candlestick and the vial of holy water hanging from his belt.
He slowly pushed one of the doors open with his right hand, and just like the door to the small cottage, the door's hinges creaked loudly. However, unlike the cottage, the sound echoed for many meters inside the house.
Kaizen looked into the place and saw only darkness. Still, he went inside and to further stir up the evil spirit, he closed the door he opened himself.
When Nairo saw the door close, she immediately denied with her head, sighed and confessed:
"I hope he really is as strong as he thinks he is.... Facing an evil spirit head-on like that is something even experienced hunters avoid."
Inside the manor, Kaizen got an immediate surprise. The moment the door was closed and he was completely surrounded by darkness, classical music began to echo throughout the house. The melody in question was fine and sweet at the same time. Kaizen immediately recognized that this was the sound of a finely tuned violin. The sound came from all directions, making it impossible to locate who was playing.
Suddenly the lights in the entrance hall and the chandeliers came on, revealing a huge hall with white porcelain tile floors and tables decorated with vases of beautiful flowers.
Kaizen immediately noticed how the interior of the residence was even more beautiful than he could have imagined. All the decoration with wooden furniture, the chandeliers on the ceiling and the paintings on the wall were worthy of someone of nobility.
Soon Kaizen also noticed that next to the entrance there were two paintings.
The painting on the right was of a smiling, middle-aged, brown-haired man. He was wearing a military uniform with decoration medals. Below the picture of this man was his name: Irgio Kulenov.
The picture on the right seemed to be of a woman. Kaizen could deduce this because there was embroidery and the clothing appeared to be a white dress. However, much of the center of the painting was torn, especially all around the head. Unlike the painting of the village chief, there was no name below the painting of his wife.
'Nairo said I just needed to find out the woman's name, right? So, if she was married to the village chief, the last name could only be Irgio or Kulenov. Considering that Rise Online uses the Western form, then their last name must be Kulenov.'
Interrupting Kaizen's section of internal thoughts, people in flashy clothes began to appear in the hall after the entrance. They were all already seated at the tables, and the din of their conversations filled the hall in the next second.
Kaizen immediately hid himself near one of the paintings and tried to understand what they were talking about, but for some reason he couldn't do it. It was as if his own mind was ignoring the conversations of these people as he tried to understand what they were saying.
'If things are like that, the only thing I can deduce is that I am probably inside an evil spirit memory.' Kaizen thought and soon realized that suddenly the clatter of voices disappeared.
At that moment Kaizen ventured another look into the hall where the people were and was surprised when he saw all these people looking in his direction. They were staring at him with wide eyes and serious looks on their faces.
'Shit, if this is supposed to be a memory, why exactly are they looking at me now?' Kaizen asked himself, frowning and going back into hiding.
In the next second, he heard people getting up, dragging their chairs around.
Kaizen looked around the room and saw that all these people were walking in the direction of where he was standing, so he smiled encouragingly and stopped hiding.
"If you want things this way, I won't complain." Psyker stated and brandished his sword forward.
People then began to run.
Kaizen also propelled himself forward and swung the Eye of Storm skillfully to cut down his opponents.
Kaizen tried hard to prevent these things from being able to touch him, after all he didn't know what might happen. However, he soon discovered something unpleasant. All the people he sliced had somehow managed to regenerate, and to make matters worse, clones of those people had appeared.
Still, the Psyker insisted on direct combat and continued to slice anything within his reach, only it was to no avail. All the enemies he defeated came back within seconds, and to make matters worse, clones accompanied them. In this way, the number of enemies began to increase at an alarming rate in less than a minute.
These people didn't say anything, didn't have any special techniques, were basically like zombies, but the amazing speed of their multiplication mixed with the ambient sound of classical music, which also only got louder and more intense, made Kaizen realize that the best option, at least this time, was not to fight.
Kaizen then stepped back a few heels, returning to the front door. Beside him now were two paths, two corridors to either side of the main door. Since the people didn't seem to have given up on grabbing him, the only alternative for Kaizen was to escape down one of these corridors.
He was not afraid of the dark, even inside a haunted house, so he quickly decided to run to the left corridor, which was the same direction as the picture of the village chief's wife. However, as he got closer, he realized that the darkness facing him was solid as concrete.
So now he was trapped and surrounded by an ever-increasing number of beings.
...
Edited by: DrHitsuji
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