Claudina looked over her shoulder.
The chest was quite now.
She knocked on it one last time. "Then I shall take my leave…" She started to walk away.
"WAIT!"
She stopped dead in her tracks. "Yes?" She smirked. 'Torturing that fool finally paid off! Now hurry and give me something I can lord it over you~'
"…That demon of yours…do you not wish to help him?"
"There is no need for it as I was simply doing what I was meant to do. Good bye."
"Please wait." It was the quite voice of a child.
"Why have you stopped me?" Though she talked in a cold monotone voice her face betrayed her emotions. She was grinning from ear to ear. She didn't know what she will get out of it but she knew this for sure; it would be completely worth it.
"You also have the same sinister Forbidden magic running in your veins," the voice said. "We want to help you, you who is our brethren."
"Is that so?"
"Yes so please open the lid. We swear to never hurt you," the hissing voice said. "Let us become your power."
She sneered in victory. "Alright then~" 'See you DO have some use in death, Aidan or whatever your name is~'
Almost tripping over her feet she rushed to unlock the latch. "Then I am opening it." The moment the latch came off dark smoke filed out the chest while the dark liquid fell down in torrents.
The voices were getting louder with incomprehensible mumblings.
Claudina flexed her fingers. "I am going to open the lid now," she whispered. The chest started to rattle in place. "Patience."
She gripped the lid and let it open a breath. Wispy smoke peeked out curling around her wrists. She was wincing in pain when the voices got more louder.
Taking a deep breath she threw open the lid. She was thrown back due to the force from the impact of opening the lid.
Out came an assortment of dark winged creatures shrieking at the top of their lungs. Creatures made entirely of smoke had sharp stingers and horns. Some of them had human faces with their eyes being gouged out by an invisible hand while others possessed deer head tearing off their own rotting flesh and eating it. Smoke continued to fill the room.
Claudina coughed in her hand as she attempted to fan away the smoke in front of her. "Agh! Enough!" She clapped her hands and a gust of wind blew the smoke from the room.
She got up and dusted herself off. "Gosh! This is the thanks I get?" She dusted off her back. "Phew! I have had it with all this eldritch beings. After my death I will ask the World Tree to reincarnate me to a world where none of them exists!"
She stood in a cloud of soot. "I swear it better be something good…I am a complete mess…At least in the frontlines my clothes weren't ruined…" she mumbled as she stomped angrily to the chest.
The lid had been left open from before. Inside was nothing but eternal darkness that swallowed all the light when she looked. "Tsk! What sort of luck is this?" She frowned when suddenly the voices spoke again, this time they sounded very far away. Almost as if they were speaking from a deep well or cave.
"Reach inside," the tiny voice said and for the first time it sounded hopeful.
The usual angry hiss sounded gentler. "You'll find something you'll like."
"Hurry!" the croaking was now more of a singsong voice. "A present of the most wonderful kind is waiting."
She stared skeptically at the chest. 'If there is one thing those stories about fae my nanny told me is to never trust sweet words.' Her frown deepened. 'Well it's not like I have anything to lose either way so…' "…I might as well take the plunge."
She put her hand inside the chest. She couldn't distinguish her hand in the darkness. Surprisingly the chest seemed to go even deeper then it looked with her whole arm now sticking inside. Something brushed the tips of her finger but when she tried to grasp it, it was out of reach. She pulled out hand.
"…Must I really climb inside this chest to find their so called present?" She signed. "Hah! Well at least there are no witnesses to see what a noble lady like me is doing with this chest…"
Using both of her hands she pulled herself up and swung her legs inside. "Whoa! That feels cold!"
Slowly she lowered herself to sit on the edge. She looked down. Her legs were lost in the darkness. "Here goes nothing then…"
She sat up, let of the edge and plummeted into the darkness.
Sylvester stabbed though a monster attacking a child. Without his Holy sword he substituted for a normal sword after reinforcing it with Holy magic.
"Are you alright?" he asked gently as he knelt down to the cowering little girl who only nodded by how frightened she was. He reached out his hand for her. Hesitantly she took it before she started to cry.
"Waaaaaahhh! It was so scary!"
He carried her up in his arms. "There, there. It's alright. Let me take you to the shelter hm?"
The girl only sniffled. He gave her a kind smile before turning his face to the half burnt palace.
"Claudina…"
After Claudina had left with the Crown Prince's guards Anatole and Oriane came over with worried faces. When asked what was wrong they only said these words; "Monsters attacking the capital."
Immediately he had rushed to tell the Prince but he was nowhere to be found. So they left the ball and went to the attack site. Everything was burning when they got there.
It wasn't long until demons were attacking too. They could defeat monsters with magic but they had to use Holy sword to put a dent on the demons' hide.
While they managed to overwhelm their foes, they were grateful when soldiers were sent as reinforcement. But not so much when they realized that the soldiers were sent to guard the carriages of the nobles that attended the party.
Anis Arche and Lucas May professed ignorance when their eyes met his. Lucas even drew the curtains to avoid out right laughing at their sorry states.
To add insult to injury they were ordered by the nobles they had dance with to clear off filth from the path. The filth being the dead bodies of common people they weren't able to save in time.
Later on they had to fight both monsters and demons from devouring them. One of them even slapped Sullivan because he wasn't able to save the carriage and demanded to know how she was going to go back to her estate because she certainly was not walking.
He and the other saints wondered if Claudina would become like this; unfeeling, depraved and self important.
He shook his head and focused on getting the girl to the make shift shelter.
The shelter was crude hut with the roof made of a large quilts knitted together to make a huge one. One side of the wall was the fallen foundations of a house while the other was the end of the quilt. Oil lamps were set up in small circles as they swayed overhead. Oriane was the only one in the shelter healing everyone. The rest were making rounds to search for survivors while hunting down any remaining monsters or demons.
Thankfully the mother of the girl was in the shelter. The grateful mother took the wailing child from Sylvester's arms. She thanked him profusely as he bashfully tried to evade it saying "This is our duty!" and "Please, there is no need for you to thank me so much!"
He left the shelter after taking a sip of water. He signed as he secured his sword on his hip. His new clothes were dirty with ash, burns and blood. His slicked hair fell back down on his eyes.
The others were the same mess with both Shulia and Oriane ripping the long skirts from their gowns to use as bandages.
"I hope you are Ok Claudina…" he said to the burning wind.
Suddenly something caught his eye. It was white haired figure wearing a cloak that sneaked in an alley. Sylvester gazed at the alley before moving from the entrance's sight.
Unbeknownst to the stranger, Sylvester had been climbing noiselessly up the opposite house.
Holding a pebble in hand Sylvester aimed it at the entrance of the alley from the roof to make the stranger go in even further. Like he thought the figure in cloak got startled and moved least they got caught. They went deeper in the darkness.
Sylvester dropped down and covered the stranger's mouth with his hand before they could scream. He put his other hand on the stranger's neck.
The stranger struggled in his hold. "M-mph!"
"Move and I'll break your neck," he quietly threatened, his amber eyes glowing in the dark.
Finally the stranger got his hand from their face. "N-no Mister Sylvester! It's me!"
He let the stranger go in surprise. He recognized the voice. "You…?"
Claudina didn't know where she woke up.
Everywhere she looked it was pitch dark. And cold.
"…They lied to me didn't they?" She let out an annoyed sign. "Hanging around those saints has made me gullible too. Ouch!" Her left hand burned.
"Alright I won't speak ill of your masters! Geez! Aren't I supposes to have full control over my Ancient Power?"
She tried to stand but it only caused her to sink further. She tried to swim up but ended going down instead. Any movement from her just made her sink in further. Claudina gritted her teeth.
Something grabbed her from underneath and pulled her in, ignoring her thrashing. "Get off of me!" She tried to jab whatever it was with her sword but with the dark obscuring her sight she could only try to wriggle aimlessly.
Just as suddenly the thing that grabbed her, it tossed her in the air and she was engulfed by a bright light.
Claudina landed on bunch of wigs and leaves to soften her landing. "Ow!" she rubbed her back. 'I didn't break a bone there now did I?"
She stumbled up to her feet and took in her surroundings. Everything was hazy like a lucid dream. She was standing on top of a grassy moor. Clouds passed in the gentle summer breeze. In a distance was a crumbling stone mansion of sorts.
She squinted. "Did the voices mean this…structure… is my present?" She raised a brow. "The only way to know is to go and cheek it out myself."
She made her way down the building. It wasn't as rundown as she thought it was. It was simply old with moss growing in between the stone. Cobwebs hung on the archway of the door. She knocked on the skull door knocker.
No one answered.
She exhaled. "I must truly thank the voices for gifting me a place used by bandits and such." She tried the door. It was locked. She turned away in disgust.
Just as she was about to leave a footman rushed to the door. He ignored Claudina as he knocked on the door knocker three times.
As he waited he looked around guiltily. "Excuse me?" Claudina tried to get his attention. He ignored her. A vein appeared in her forehead.
"You dare to ignore me?" she said through gritted teeth. She kicked the footman but her leg went straight in. She recoiled back in shock.
She mulled over it. She decided to observe before reaching a conclusion.
The door was opened by a blurry faced man servant. The footman produced a sealed letter and gave it to the servant. He said something to him but all Claudina heard was static.
Whatever it was, it must have been grave for the footman to quickly leave. The servant looked at the address and slightly crinkled it. Just as he was closing the door, Claudina slipped in.
She was surprised to see the mansion was decorated for a masquerade. "The owner has a peculiar taste for location."
She followed the servant out of the room. Rather than giving the letter to the butler as he ought to do, he entered a backdoor which led down a stone staircase. He took the lamp that was hanging from a nail and went down. The staircase went down for a while when they reached landing. There was door adjacent to the landing. He put the lamp down and went inside closely followed by Claudina.
She looked around. "This doesn't look like a basement." In front of them was a narrow hallway with multiple iron doors. A small plaque had numbers '5', '13', '49', '28' and '00' written on them on the center of the doors. The servant entered the door numbered 49.
It was laboratory.
Wires and pipes flowing with green liquid were scattered on the floor. On both sides of the walls were large cylinders connected to pipes contained bubbling animals.
On closer inspection it wasn't animals in the cylinders.
There submerged in lime green liquid were mutated humans. Some had wings and feathers growing out form where their hands should be while other had missing limbs or more strange appearances like fish scales, horns, multiple eyes sewed on their bodies or being dissolved in the liquid.
She came and stood over to see a man being dissolved his organs were leaking out as his face held terrified expression from his death. "It would have been me had I been born as commoner's child," she grimly said.
"It's the same thing no matter what era; people will rise up to be arrogant in peaceful times and try to oppose the Five gods, always forgetting the Great War. And how do they oppose it; simply try to attain the same powers as them or recreate them by experimenting on humans."
Someone shouted from deep within the room. The servant was nowhere to be found. Curious she headed to the direction of loud sound.
She came across three people in lad coats gathered in one corner. The woman of the trio was writing something on her clipboard. All of their faces were blurry like the footman and servant.
On the operating table surrounded by tables of surgical tools, syringes and more empty glass cylinders was a small boy. Both of his legs and hands were strapped on to the table.
She leaned closer to inspect. "Oh dear…"
The boy's eye sockets were empty. His head was shaved bald. On his head was a small hole where a metal rod was inserted to stir his brains. His lips were sewn shut yet he let out tiny whimpers. On a jar labeled 'Experiment 51: EYES' she found his eyes floating. They were the clearest blue she has ever seen.
She straightened up. "I can clearly see the experiments and humans in here but not the faces of anything else…Strange…"
"Ah!" She clapped her hands. "I must be in a vision scape! What did Sullivan say about those?...Right, a series of memories seeped high in emotions of a person who left behind regrets in the human realm. Certain conditions or things that were held by the person trigger these vision scape. It appears in a dream like state that someone sees from the fourth wall. Some events are quite detailed while others can be blurry."
She looked at the people in lab coats still talking. She couldn't hear them since it all came as static.. "…I wonder if the voices are willingly showing me their memories. Or maybe because I touched the chest in a wrong manner so I am inside someplace different."
She went outside. "Whatever it may be…it's not her suffering I have to look at again." Claudina walked inside the next room when someone opened it.
Here was a woman not older than 20 hung on the opposite wall. Her hands were pinned on the wall with large nails. On her head was a metal helmet with wires attached. The wires led to a podium where a orb was resting. Another man in a lab coat put his hands on the orb and the woman's body jolted from being electrocuted. She screamed in agony as sparks flew off.
The man lifted his hands and wrote something down. Claudina peeked over his shoulder to see what it was. Unfortunately like his face it was obscured in mist.
The woman on the other hand was twitching mumbling. "…wa…ter…plea…se…wat…er…"
The man ignored her and shocked her again.
She turned away. "Wonder when I can leave…What else did he say?...You can only leave when all the memoires have been seen." She groaned. "How long is it going to take?"
Someone entered the room.
A tall man dressed smartly walked in with a gold skull walking cane and a top hat. Stranger even was his face was the most detailed; a thin face with a closely trimmed beard, red eyes, pale blue hair turning grey and a cruel sneer.
"What is the status?" he asked.
"Oh I can hear you."
The man in the lab coat said something which once again was static.
The tall man frowned. Whatever he said has greatly displeased him. "I don't care if it can no longer move. I just need it to talk. The spell will be useless if there are no Forbidden magic users."
The man tried to say something but he raised his hand silencing him. "I don't wish to hear any excuses. Have it speak before midnight else I am using you as entertainment for the party."
He sneered at the woman hanging from the wall. "What a rare specimen a Forbidden magic user is…You will do wonderfully for my guests to witness the revolution we can create when we humans tear down the Celestial heavens and become the new gods."
He spun on his heels and left the room. Claudina followed him. The tall man didn't enter any of the other rooms. Rather he left the basement.
He walked up the stairs and went outside the mansion. "Where are you headed sir? You can't possibly leave without a carriage or a horse. The moors don't have roads for them." Though she asked him she knew he couldn't hear her.
The man took quick long strides to reach a small shack. There was a woman sweeping the front steps. The man assumed a friendly smile. "Afternoon Margret," he said lifting his hat in greeting.
The woman turned. "Mr. Morris" and the rest were static.
The woman nodded and let the man now known as Morris in.
Morris waked inside the pitiful shack. He opened a trapdoor revealing a ladder made of ropes. He climbed down it while Claudina jumped and landed on her feet.
"There it is," Morris said turning. Light coming from a crack illuminated a book on smooth marble stand.
He ran towards it, a mad grin on his face while Claudina walked behind slowly.
"I don't know what has made you so excited but I do hope it can send me back."