The two saw the interior of the hall gradually being cleared by the moon after the cloud passed while still feeling the cold wind of the place touch their bodies, Arthur signaled with his finger next to his mouth for them to be silent when entering.
Chris saw and nodded as he saw the swordsman start walking through the mansion, following after that entering the mansion, Arthur looked at the door and called Chris to come closer.
Together they made a little more effort to close the door, again leaving the environment a little darker, but the windows behind them allowed the moonlight to enter and illuminate the place, allowing them to see more clearly.
The carpet muffled their steps, but as soon as one took a step out of it, the sound of the boot echoed, even if it was damaged, it made the sound of the steps echo throughout the place for the silence it made, Chris removed his foot and returned walking with Arthur.
They walked on the carpet that seemed to be attached to the floor and went to the middle of the place to see the surroundings.
Both could see that the second floor also had a continuation, in addition to a flowery and gold wallpaper, there was a floor and other doors a little narrower in the corners where the large window was not.
The whole environment generated a feeling of strangeness in both of them, but they needed to act and then Chris touched Arthur's shoulder calling his attention, then the blonde pointed with his head to one of the doors for them to check.
Even though he felt strange, Arthur consented and followed the blonde who started walking towards one of the doors.
Arriving at the door on the right, they took their hand to the doorknob and realized that it was also open, even so they opened it cautiously and looked through the gap before opening it completely.
The attention was in vain, since all they could see were some bags on the floor, it seemed to be a smaller room than the others and very tight, having a strong smell of grain and wheat.
After opening the door completely, his doubts were cleared and he showed a pantry of food, but these, unlike those in the house, were apparently new and without dust.
The two looked at each other strangely and closed the door, continuing the investigation.
Splitting up to save time, the two checked most of the ground floor doors and found themselves again in front of the red carpet with neutral expressions.
Arthur crossed his arms and sighed.
"I found the kitchen, the bathroom and a space that looked like a storage room at the end of the hall, but it was empty… what do you think?"
Christopher didn't have a better expression on his face and was counting on his fingers.
"In addition to the pantry, there was something similar to an office and also an environment with a piano... there were residents here but unlike the pantry, everything was dusty..."
It was as if the house had nothing much and Arthur looked up looking disappointed and bothered, while Chris looked towards the entrance to see if he found something, but he had his attention caught by something he hadn't noticed before.
Arthur kept watching the doors trying to find something different, until his shoulder was touched by Christopher, who signaled him to look down.
He looked right after and noticed subtle marks all over the carpet that went from the beginning of the door and led to the top of the stairs, as he crouched down to take a closer look, Arthur realized that the footprints resembled those he had seen outside of the big house, the frequency and brands were similar.
"It's not our footprints... we didn't go to the stairs..."
Seeing that, Arthur ran his hand over the rug and rubbed his fingers.
It was a strange feeling, in addition to the dust, there was also something similar to earth, but somehow similar to sand, it was as if it crumbled easily at the mere touch, which made Arthur face it with some confusion.
Chris saw the swordsman seeming to examine the footprints and then he would go to the top of the stairs following her, the sounds of the steps on each step seemed to echo even more in the place, until he reached the middle where there was a fork leading to the second floor, noticing that the footprints had stopped there.
Arthur soon noticed the blonde standing still and got up, going up the stairs he saw the same, the footprints simply stopped after a step on the last step, in addition to the carpet looking more messy.
The swordsman faced it with doubt and crouched down, taking his hand to the carpet and then trying to move it, feeling a certain ease to remove it, as if that part was not stuck to the ground, generating a strangeness in the swordsman who soon had his doubt answered.
Beneath the rug was a small, round, sliver-like window that was covered by the rug, and had locks and a large iron padlock that prevented its opening.
Chris whispered.
"Wow…shit…"
The blonde was trying to force the padlock and they noticed that it was resistant, it wasn't dusty and much less dirty, it looked very clean and all the locks looked recent, explaining the cause of the footprints stopping in the middle of the staircase.
Arthur seeing that opening the hatch that way wouldn't work, so he held Christopher's arm indicating to stop while he stood up whispering.
"If it was covered and locked, there's no point in forcing it, there are still other rooms, let's have a look."
Chris listened attentively and looked at the hatch again, but then he nodded, getting up so that the two of them could cover it back up with the rug, trying to get it back to where it was.
Arthur got up and looked at the second floor, seeing that the left and right side had the same number of doors, then an idea came to his mind.
The swordsman looked at the blonde and pointed to his own chest and then to his back, indicating the left side of the second floor, after which he pointed to the right side and to Chris's chest, suggesting that the two split up to see the doors.
Chris looked at it with a certain fear, but soon confirmed with his head and got up, covering the hatch next to Arthur who helped.
The two went to their sides and went to the doors, Arthur tried to open the first one in front of him and realized it was open, inside there was only an apparently common room, with a single bed and a desk, but soon something happened. called his attention while his sight got used to the darkness and allowed him to see something on the wall.
Entering the room, he saw the window of the place barely illuminating the corners, which allowed him to see a drawing made with something black and liquid on the wall.
It was a strange symbol with several equal shapes, there were some with 7 points, others with 3 and others with 5, all within a single design, with a mark in the middle similar to a short sickle being crossed by something.
It was not something Arthur knew, the drawings were very well done and it seemed to be a job that had taken hours, looking at that symbol made Arthur strange, even if he saw it, he knew he would not be able to replicate it, feeling an extra energy in that drawing , as if it gave him a headache just looking at it.
On the other side of the second floor, Christopher opened the door with some ease and saw an empty room, but on its floor there were several papers full of words, they seemed to be thrown at random and did not look like letters.
As he approached, he saw that the words were written more beautifully, picking one up to read he soon realized that they were similar to notes, in his mind he read slowly.
"Everything is going well, the whole place seems to be under the influence of miasma. The creature is strong and perhaps our best specimen. Despite not being able to distinguish allies from enemies and entering a state of constant hibernation to be able to use the miasma, its power is great. She is the beginning of a big step for my lord, soon not even Luhz will be able to stop us."
It was the message of the letter that among others seemed to be details of some study, Chris faced it with doubt and collected some papers going to the door.
The two had left at the same time and found themselves leaving each of their doors, Christopher lifted the papers and opened his mouth to speak.
"Hey, Arth-"
But soon his sentence was interrupted by a door creaking sound, the noise made both of them widen their eyes while looking at the door that slowly opened.
In a quick movement, Arthur entered the room and before closing the door, he pointed to Chris and made the movement with force indicating for him to enter the room.
The two simultaneously closed the bedroom door, but didn't let them slam, Arthur leaving a small crack so he could peek around the corner while Chris closed it completely while he bent down to try to see under the door.
For the moment, the hearts of the two accelerated and their breathing became heavy, something had entered that big house by the sound that the door made, being opened completely making a slight creaking noise.
A cloud took the front of the moon and the house darkened, leaving the environment almost a pitch black and when looking again through the door, seeing that something had entered, he noticed three shadows.
Arthur, who was peeking, could see the three shadows that were placed in front of the door, one was in the middle and was a little shorter, while another to his right was tall, but seemed slender and was next to the one on the left of the smallest, who he was of medium height, but had a different posture.
The shadows remained in front of the entrance of the house that was darker with the absence of the moon's brightness, while watching, Arthur felt his senses weaken, hearing only his own breathing next to his heart beating rapidly from nervousness.
His expression showed fear as he watched the images that remained in front of the door, seeing only two eyes glowing yellow as the cold wind entered the house, he understood that that place was no longer safe and he was sure that those oppressive presences were not of allies.