The eerie room was cloaked in silence, thick and suffocating, leaving all present in the haunted house immobile.
The sudden, brutal slaughter of Sia had left everyone frozen in place, fear gripping their hearts like iron shackles. It wasn't like they had never lost a team
The stillness stretched on endlessly, broken only by the faint dripping of blood pooling on the wooden floor.
It was as if time itself had been suspended, trapping them in this moment of horror.
Then, a raw, piercing scream shattered the oppressive quiet.
"Ahhhh!!"
It was Jaya, wailing loudly as he shook his head continously.
Jaya's voice cracked with anguish as he clutched his head with trembling hands, disbelief etched onto his pale face. His legs wobbled, barely holding him upright as he stumbled toward what was left of Sia's corpse.
"No... no, no, no!" he muttered frantically, each word laced with desperation.
Alisson stood rooted to the spot, her hand still gripping the hilt of her sword. Her wide, vacant eyes remained fixed on the bloodied remains. Sia's death was incomprehensible—a surreal nightmare unfolding before her.
She was bewildered by what laid infront of her eyes as well.
From what she had remembered, one moment, Sia had been jubilantly celebrating their survival after defeating the Worm Devil. The next, faster than the blink of an eye, she was gone, slaughtered by an unseen force.
Whatever it was that was in the haunted house with them, although it couldn't have been exactly determined but- it was without a doubt- far above Seeker class.
"Sia was good... she didn't deserve to die like this." Alisson whispered, her voice barely audible.
The weight of her words settled heavily in the room, amplifying the tension.
It was then, that her eyes turned down towards her hands- while still gripping the hilt of her weapon, she was trembling uncontrollably. Without a doubt, she was afraid.
She gritted her teeth, trying to will the tremor away, but fear coursed through her veins, making her almost immobile, again.
Kai, lying weakly on the floor, bleeding from multiple wounds, caught sight of Alisson's trembling hands. Seeing this, his mind raced, filled with chaotic thoughts.
'My god... I couldn't even follow what happened. Sia was right there a second ago, but now...'
A cold realization gripped him. Whatever force was lurking in the haunted house was far more dangerous than the Worm Devil they had just barely managed to defeat, but that wasn't his only problem....he was bleeding out. Fast.
In little or no time, he would soon lose consciousness and consequently, his life.
'If we don't move soon, none of us are getting out alive, especially me. I have to be the unluckiest man alive.'
A sudden, heavy thud echoed through the room, snapping both Kai and Alisson out of their spiraling thoughts in an instance.
THUD!.
They turned toward the sound, their gazes landing on a grim sight.
Jaya had collapsed onto his knees beside Sia's mutilated remains. His head hung low, shadowed by grief and madness.
"Don't worry, Sia." he muttered softly, an eerie calm settling over his voice.
"Everything's gonna be okay. I still have mana left... do you know what that means? It means I can patch you up. Good as new."
His hand dipped into the thick, crimson pool around him, smearing the blood across his palm like paint.
Alisson's confusion overshadowed her
fear as she stared at Jaya. It was painfully obvious that Sia was beyond saving, yet Jaya seemed trapped in some twisted state of denial.
At this point, it was obvious. Jaya was losing it.
"Jaya..." she managed to say, placing a trembling hand on Jaya's shoulder as she spoke.
"She's dead Jaya. You need to stop this."
Jaya didn't respond. Instead, his eyes gleamed with desperation as he activated his magic technique, a soft green glow mana flickering faintly in his palm as he raised them over Sia's corpse.
"You have such little faith in your friends , Alisson." he whispered with a strained smile.
"Just believe in me. I might be a weak healer, but when it comes to my friends I'm the-—"
Before he could finish, Kai's eyes widened in horror. Right at that moment, he saw it. The shadow like glow he had seen just before he lost sight of Sia.
'There it is again.'
A blur of motion faster than thought- A flicker, no it was a shadow.
A gust of wind sliced through the room. To Alisson, it felt like a soft morning breeze flow afront of her, gently disorienting her hair. On opening her eyes however, she was dumbfounded by what met with her eyes.
The resulting sound was wet, and brutal.
Jaya didn't even have time to scream. One moment he was there, kneeling beside Sia. The next, his body was split clean in half—from head to pelvis.
Both halves of his corpse thudded heavily to the floor, blood pooling beneath them in a grotesque tapestry.
Silence descended once more.
Alisson's lips parted, trembling as she struggled to form words. Her gaze remained fixed on Jaya's mutilated remains.
"....Jaya?"
"...Why... why... why is this happening?" she whispered, her voice cracking with disbelief.
Kai gritted his teeth, suppressing the bile rising in his throat. He knew they didn't have time for grief.
Whatever had killed Sia and Jaya was still here—and it was serious about finishing them off.
'We have to move. Now.'
Summoning every ounce of strength left in his battered body, Kai forced himself to speak. His voice was strained, desperate.
"Alisson... we have to get moving. Now. We'll only have one chance. "
However, Alisson didn't respond immediately. Her expression twisted into one of bitterness as she turned to face him, almost glaring at him with disdain, which was strange because she had never done this before.
"...We? You still think..." she muttered darkly as she maintained her gaze at Jaya's corpse.
Kai blinked, confused.
'Huh? What does she mean by 'we'?'
"Yeah...We...Is there a problem?" he asked cautiously, hoping he had misheard her.
Alisson's gaze hardened, as she casted her gaze down to Jaya's split corpse for only a moment before returning a glance at Kai.
"There's another Devil in this building," she said flatly.
"And I'm pretty sure it's not done yet, not until it has killed every single one of us... but you don't need to worry, I have a plan, which might increase our chances of getting out alive."
A faint smile drew on Kai's lips as a glimpse of hope appeared on his face.
"You have a plan? That's great!"
He exclaimed, excited, ignoring the 'might' she had added into her sentence.
Alisson hesitated for only a moment before nodding grimly.
"Yes. I do."
Currently being suffocated by the suspense, he added in reply.
"What's the plan?"
Alisson's lips curled into a bitter smile.
"You die, acting as bait—and I get away."