Back with Kris, he was now walking along with mai towards the entrance of the basement.
Kris was uncomfortable by the gaze mai had set on him. "uhm you're staring at me a lot"
"Oh well you have a strange attraction to me and also you are very strange, The knights of Belhamis should have told you about the 100+ people that went missing here…well my sister killed them all for her 'Gift for me', i don't know why she would be conducting the Ritual of the Accursed Bond" She said that so casually that Kris had to stop for a moment to process her words
Kris stopped dead in his tracks, staring at Mai in disbelief. "Wait, what? Your sister killed over a hundred people here… and you're just casually telling me this now?"
Mai tilted her head, her green eyes gleaming with an eerie calmness. "Yes. My sister… she's always been more ambitious than I am. The Ritual of the Accursed Bond is an ancient and forbidden rite, meant to grant immense power by sacrificing lives. She must have been desperate to finish it."
Kris's stomach churned. The cold air in the mansion suddenly felt suffocating. He had expected to clear out a haunted mansion, maybe face a few low-level monsters. But this? A hundred people murdered for some dark ritual? This was way beyond anything he had imagined.
"Why didn't you mention this before?" Kris asked, his voice strained. His mind raced, trying to figure out if this was something he could even deal with. "And why are we going down there if your sister's involved in all of this?"
Mai shrugged, seemingly unfazed by the gravity of the situation. "I wasn't sure if you were ready for the truth yet. Besides, you're already here. The least you can do is help me clean up this mess."
Kris stared at her, unsure whether to laugh or run away. "You're serious?"
"Completely," Mai replied, her tone light but her gaze sharp. "The basement is where the heart of the ritual took place. If we don't stop it, the residual energy could spread and affect the entire town."
Kris felt a weight settle on his shoulders. He had only wanted to take on a simple job, but now he was apparently in the middle of a life-or-death situation with a girl whose sister had performed a forbidden ritual. And to top it off, they were walking straight into what could very well be a death trap.
"Great," Kris muttered under his breath. "Just great."
Mai smirked slightly at his reaction. "Don't worry, I'll protect you. Besides, you're stronger than you think."
They reached the entrance to the basement—a heavy iron door covered in strange, unfamiliar runes. The air around it was even colder, and Kris could feel a dark energy seeping from behind it.
Mai pressed her hand to the door, and the runes glowed faintly before the door creaked open, revealing a dark stairwell that led deep into the earth. Kris took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves.
And then he started descending.
Faye and Eskira who were going down another path towards the basement were killing monsters with upmost efficiency.
After a while they arrived at a large space filled with shelves and countless weaponary atrange neatly next to each other, a throne was there and on it was a girl with flowing black hair and green eyes, she was looking at the new people in front of her.
She glanced towards the ominous sword beside her and then looked back at them. "My sister took interest in your master, so i won't fight you for now, ofcourse you are lucky i finished the ritual, now both me and my sister will finally be free"
Eskira hummed slightly. "You talk too much but you seem useful to master, i am excited on how he will tame you"
May raied an eyebrow, her ghostly form flickering. "hmm, if he can beat me i wouldn't mind becoming his slave, but us phantoms are different from a Legend Spirit like you"
Eskira merely smiled but her eyes were looking at may intently. "Well that can still be fixed, death is just another way to gain a new life, it's like destroying the concept of life and taking it away to merge with death, without life not even ghosts can live"
May sighed. "I very much know about that already, i just want my sister to live again, even if it means i have to curse her and i have to die"
"Sacrificing your soul for your sister, it's wasteful for a mage like you to do that though" Eskira said.
Faye silently watched them, she slowly transformed back seeing no need to keep her Deadly paw's at the moment, her ears twitched, she went to a corner and sat there waiting for her master to arrive.
Back with Mai and Kris, they went down the stairs without any interruption and finally arrived at the basement, the moment he did he looked at the gurl sitting on the thrown.
Mai immediately floated toward her and gave her a big hug, Kris turned his head glancing at Eskira who just waved at him.
He felt a tug on his shirt. "Master you're finally here, this place is dirty can we leave"
He placed a hand on her head. "Not yet, i have to retrieve that sword"
Faye nodded and Kris looked at the two sisters, the one on the throne was doting the one who was hugging her. "sigh, sister i could have gotten rid of all of them but you stopped me for no reason, why is that"
Mail glanced up at her sister. "Because i don't want you to hurt yourself for me May, i know i am not as smart as you when it comes to magic but i know what you're doing isn't woth it, i don't want ti live in a world where you aren't with me"
"Sigh, i have no choice then" The air in the basement turned several times colder and Mai who was near may was suddenly whisked away somewhere else.
May stood up from the throne and slowly floated down, her ghostly pale feet touch the ground. "I am May, My family members which worked under the All-seeing-Hand were slaughtered by their foolishness, they killed my sister to complete their work for the cult so i used their souls to keep her spiritual force here and abandoned my own mortal coil"
As she spoke her appearance changes by the second, she was covered in a dark fog of misery and despair. "I became the vessel for the souls they sacrificed, and with every fragment of their anguish, I gained power. I thought I could bring her back, but all I've done is entrap myself in this darkness."
Kris's heart raced as he watched May transform before him. The once gentle spirit was now a towering figure, her ghostly form swirling with shadows that twisted and turned as if alive. "You don't have to do this!" he shouted, instinctively stepping forward to confront her. "You can still find another way."
"You're so pure, i would take it you know nothing of this world we live in, even i don't know about everything," May's voice thundered, reverberating through the cavernous space. "But I have tasted power, and I know what it can do. I did this for my sister, yet I lost myself in the process. I can't just let you take that away from me!"
Kris didn't know if it was just him seeing things but what sprouted behind may were a bunch of dark skulls with glowing crimson eyes that hovered in the air like a sinister cloud of malevolence, their presence radiating an overwhelming sense of dread. Kris staggered back, his breath hitching in his throat. The skulls surrounded May, forming a protective barrier that pulsed with dark energy.
"…I am just here to retrieve a sword…it doesn't have to be that one" Kris stated with a gloomy expression on his face.
May didn't seem to hear him. "I will take your souls and my sister will finally be free"
Kris was in a dilemma but he suddenly remembered he was a lolimancer, the girl in front of him was a loli, right? so why not try to make a deal with her. "I have a counter, i can bring both you and your sister back to life, it's because of my special ability"
May who was about to attack stopped and then leaned towards him. "You expect me to believe that, very well entertain me"
Kris scratched his head, is he going to finally embrace being a lolimancer or just die than go through the entire process, he sighed knowing there is no running away from his inevitable fate. "…Well it's like this, i can make you into one of my uhm members and you would gain some benefits, you could gain a physical body and you and your sister will be together"