They stood in a huge grand hall surrounded by candles and torch light illuminating it with faint yellowish glows. The lack of a natural source of light made for an increasingly eerie feeling permeating through the hall.
A feeling of isolation, one of desertion and befitting of a castle lost within the ages of time. The Castle of the Forgotten.
“ Welcome to the final trials, and as usual, there are no rules. All you need to do is to survive! Do enjoy yourselves at The Castle of the Forgotten!”
As soon as the voice was done everyone snapped back to reality.
They had all been in a daze after the sudden teleportation from the second to the third and last trials until the voice spoke.
Emlyn turned his observation from the castle to the remaining participants and was pleasantly surprised to find out that Marvin and Danielle had survived, and as soon as they noticed him, they approached in relief.
“You're alive!” Danielle exclaimed cheerfully, reaching out to pull Emlyn in a hug, who passively received it.
After receiving Emlyn’s memory Dina was sure of never getting her OOC meter to rise again. Before she had been too overly focused on Emlyn’s original settings, she forgot two things: one, people's change during life and death situations wasn't suspicious, unless overdone, as it was a normal thing for humans, and lastly, no one knew Emlyn enough to know if he's changed or not.
Thus, if she played her cards well and didn't behave too outlandishly she could get away with acting a certain way that Emlyn probably wouldn't act, just like accepting this hug.
The original would have never, but she did, and just as she suspected, nothing happened. Dina smirked internally; she finally understood how to navigate this tricky stuff.
“Am awesome, aren't I?” she asked Zero, who replied nonchalantly with a ‘yes’.
Dina: Ugh, what a killjoy!
Zero: That's your business (¬_¬)
‘Anyway, I definitely should be careful here. I'm on my third life and if I fail this time… that's it for me.’
“I'm so glad you made it; nearly everyone is dead! Who would have thought it was a solo mission!” Danielle wept into Emlyn’s chest who patted her softly in a bid to calm her down.
Looking over to Marvin who just stood before him downcasted, he muttered softly, “I'm sorry for your loss.”
Marvin choked harshly before bursting into heavy tears. Emlyn ended up having the two nestled into him weeping heavily.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, it made for quite a funny sight, especially since Emlyn was smaller than both of them, making it look more like he was being swallowed up by their embrace.
“Ahem,” a blonde-haired girl with brown eyes coughed in a bid to get everyone's attention.
“They all turned to her; everyone had been doing their own thing; there were a total of eight people that had survived.
Three females and five male's. For the girls: a red-haired girl with blue eyes and a blonde-haired girl with brown eyes and freckles whom Emlyn recognized as Crystal and Danielle.
For the boys: a brunette male, one with sky blue hair, another with black hair and red eyes, a blonde beauty with pale blue eyes and lastly, Emlyn and Marvin.
“Guys, I want someone to kill me,” Crystal said bluntly with a calm face.
Dina didn't panic; after all, she knew the sorcerers weren't allowing any of them off that easily. It did bother him, though, that the seer who was very crucial to her winning this mission was already this suicidal. Would she even be able to help? Wait, could it be she had already foreseen the future of them dying?
But that was odd, after all, according to Emlyn’s memory… Crystal's power awakened on the last trial mostly being triggered by the amount of magic that surrounded her.
Are you crazy?! I understand our situation seems hopeless and all this struggle seems pointless, but the fact we survived THIS far has to mean something! Do you just feel the need to depress people?! If you want to die so much, hide somewhere and get it over with! We're already depressed as is, and you're worsening it!” a brunette male harshly reprimanded; Emlyn tried to recall his name but couldn't, to his frustration.
“Guess all that introduction went to shit,’ Dina thought in annoyance, she had never been one to recall names anyway.
Seeing the hopeful group Emlyn sneakily shook his head in pity. Unlike the second trial where everyone was demoralized, the exact opposite was happening now.
Everyone had ceased mourning others except Marvin and Danielle, who were still mourning the loss of their best friend and team, respectively.
Everyone else had either shut off their feelings or decided to focus on survival. The fact this was the final trial gave them hope that maybe, just maybe, they could survive, and as humans they were, they clung desperately to this minuscule hope except for Crystal.
It left Dina wondering just how someone as unmotivated as Crystal passed the second trial with how lethargic she was about this whole thing.
“I'm sorry…” Crystal muttered softly and just when everyone was about to put it all behind, with a shocking speed, she suddenly pulled out a knife and plunged it deep into her neck.
Everyone's jaw dropped, excluding Emlyn; they watched in horror as blood spurted from the stab wound onto Crystal's clothes and the the floor.
She collapsed weakly unto her knees as her blank look morphed into that of self-deprecation. A gurgling sound escaped from her bleeding throat, a very poor imitation of laughter but somehow gave the point across, she was laughing at herself.
No one said a word; they were in too much shock to speak, but then Crystal's quivering hands reached out to the knife in her neck and, with an unsteady grasp, pulled it out in one sudden movement.
They all watched in horror as blood spurted out with successive motions while Crystal's eyes remained full of vitality. Without even speaking they understood the message Crystal was trying to convey but didn't want to accept it.
Crystal chuckled, blood flowing with every motion staining her clothes and making her look like an infamous urban legend.
“You see guys, we're already like this, so why try surviving?” she asked with a bloody and terrific smile.
“You… You…” the brunette who had previously chastised her blubbered, too shocked to speak.
Emlyn sighed loudly; he didn't want to step in before; however, with how everything turned out, if he didn't, something terrible might happen soon.
Dina couldn't afford to lose this team before finding the painting. After all, they would be quite useful. As for Crystal… She probably guessed the sorcerer's true motive and, knowing there was no hope, decided she couldn't endure being the only one suffering in silence; as the old saying says, misery loves company.
“Ripping a piece of fabric from his cloth, Emlyn skillfully wrapped the clothes around Crystal's injury. He knew it wasn't necessary since the wound would soon varnish on its own; however, leaving that thing open would be too grotesque.
“Calm down, you're fine; this is all in your mind, Crystal; if we survived to this extent, then there's hope,” Emlyn said calmly. His words held a certain chill to them; more than a consolation, it seemed more like a warning to behave.
Crystal gulped; she found it odd; why did this harmless-looking boy give off such a dreary aura? However, as soon as his eyes met hers, she understood.
The sharp golden brown eyes held a completely different feeling from the person's words. While he said, ‘Calm down, it's fine, everything is all in your head,’ his eyes spoke, ‘shut up, stop shattering the hopes of others, or there'll be hell to pay for it’.
Dina who was just angry at her for trying to make others miserable and wasn't trying to threaten her: *sweatdrop kaomoji*
“Stop lying,” Crystal scoffed, grasping Emlyn’s hands and shoving him away, “We can see they have no thoughts of letting us go! We're only alive because we still have use—we haven't reached our breaking point. Misery can still be skinned from us! They don't plan on having us survive only—ahh!!”
With a sudden yelp, Crystal cut off her ramble as she fell to her knees once more, a bright light flashed before her eyes, and her stare became vacant.
As if in a trance, she saw kids, children who looked around ten or younger, cheerfully walking from the palace entrance up the stairs. They were normal kids, with the only difference being the odd fact that all of them had their own unique hair and eye color along with odd clothing striking a certain resemblance to medieval dressing.
As the children walked up to the stairs, the light faded, and she came out of the trance-like state to everyone, shouting in a bid to wake her up.
“What happened?” Emlyn asked almost eagerly.
Crystal's lips parted as she tried to speak but faltered. Even she couldn't fathom what had just happened to her.
Feeling a tight grip on her shoulder, she was snapped out of her daze and was met with Emlyn’s worried look.
“It's alright,” he muttered, “You can speak to me.”
Crystal faltered, feeling very reluctant. However, as soon as her eyes met Emlyn’s brilliant eyes, she could feel all resistance wane from her, and she spoke.
I-I saw kids.”