The sinistrous presence which once sunk Trick's being into the crippling oceans of fright was now all over the hall in the form of a baleful voice.
A voice so grim that it snuffed out the flames of one's hope, a voice so sinister that it exiled one's courage to the valleys of desolation and a voice so calamitous that it elicited destruction wherever it rang.
That very dreadful voice, was the voice of…
Oneiros, the champion of Zyakoria!
"Hmmm?!" Like a man possessed, Astravan's gaze immediately redirected, his head turning to face where the baleful voice resounded from.
"So the little cowardly dog finally shows its presence?" A melancholic smile etched across the Trickster's face as he stood up from the headless corpse of Mimetrieze.
There was a slight chuckle from above as the voice of Oneiros gave a soft laugh, causing it to echo audibly across the castle hall.
"Cowardly dog?" Oneiros asked rhetorically, his voice still maintaining its calm tone.
"I merely wished to offer my salutations to the great Machiavellian Trickster himself, but it seems like you would rather not have my greetings Artifact hunter."
Trick tried to follow Oneiros' voice, only to find himself turning his head in circles.
'Dang it, where's it coming from?' Trick questioned the bizarre phenomena that was currently playing before his very eyes. Oneiros' voice resounded from different ends of the castle halls they currently stood in.
Without a body to emblematize the resounding voice, all they could do right now was direct their gazes to the sole direction their ears would pick up Oneiros' voice, before redirecting their attention to a completely different area, where the voice would echo once more.
However, the pretext guiding the Chieftain Void beast's ever moving voice was an entirely different mystery on its own, one Astravan could only guess its manner of creation.
Yet, right now he couldn't care less.
"You and your salutations can go to he…" Astravan replied in annoyance, pausing his words mid statement on seeing Trick standing meters behind him, alongside his mysterious bunny who shook his head in disappointment…
Disappointment that Astravan didn't curse the Void beast in that very instant.
"I can't curse while the kid is here." Astravan moved his lips, uttering inaudible words, words which could only be picked up by Athanasios' large bunny ears.
Noticing the silent cryptic conversation going on for only a short moment between his master and Athan, Trick couldn't help but feel, a little bit left out?
"You know, one thing really did bother me when I came across a certain Artifact hunter." The Void beast's voice echoed in another end of the hall's ceilings once more, interrupting Astravan's noiseless chat.
"He was an Artifact hunter with brown hair, and he wielded a toothpick in the name of a katana, in the name of an Artifact no less!" Oneiros proclaimed laudably, stealing the attention of the now angry Trickster.
Astravan's mood suddenly dampened once more on hearing Oneiros belittle Nicolas in a mocking manner.
"What was his name?" Oneiros took a pause, trying to recall the human's name before continuing his words in remembrance.
"Yes, that feeble human was called Nicolas."
Astravan then paused his violent quivering, calming his nerves to better follow the Void Chief's words. Right now, every bit of information was essential.
"He wished to judge me." Oneiros screamed a short derisive laugh in the air.
"I, a champion of Zyakoria?" The Void beast lauded his signature boisterous statement. It was truly a wonder if he couldn't start a conversation without saying those prideful words.
"But like the moth which desperately tries to seize the radiant brilliance of a blazing lamp, only to burn, leaving their bodies as ashes to sway in the winds of the air, he lost pitifully, crying and begging before…"
A light huff made its way from Oneiros as he prolonged the length of uttering his next statement.
"I made his head burst open!"
Astravan then clenched his hands into a tight fist, listening on the dreadful words uttered in mirth by the melovalent Void beast.
"But, that wasn't what bothered me regarding the foolish Artifact hunter…" Oneiros then paused his uncontrollable chuckles, casting an odd silence over the entirety of the castle as all waited for his next words.
"It was what he said next." The void beast continued once more, the spell of curiosity cast upon his listeners not yet being disenchanted.
"Before his heart became drowned in dread, before the light of hope lightening his heart became swallowed by my darkness, before he accepted his cruel fate of an agonizing death and before his head burst from within."
"There was one peculiar thing he cried out in tears." Suddenly, a diabolical laugh resounded across the entire castle, thundering loudly as he uttered Nicolas' dying words.
"Astravan…"
"PLEASE, CLEAN UP MY MESS!"
The Void beast's sick cries of unbridled joy echoed all through the halls, piercing the ears of all who heard. But the one it had the most effect on—
Was the Machiavellian Trickster himself.
Like a disgruntled lion, Astravan quivered violently in rage, his clenched fist being so tightened that it began to bleed out, soaking his gloves, before slowly dropping onto the ground.
His heart overturned in fury and his soul was set ablaze in the flames of wrath as he thought one thing towards the Beast that currently yelled with melancholic laughs.
'I despise Void beasts!'
Amidst Oneiros' parade of crazed chuckles, Trick turned to look upon his Master, the boy's eyes creasing in sadness as he watched his kind Master tremble with fiery rage.
'Nicolas…' Astravan voiced softly in thought.
'He was an upright man, a decent young man with a bright future ahead of him.' Astravan cursed mentally, enraged by the man's sorrowful ending.
'No matter how high he ascended in ranks, he never let pride rule his heart, always humble and always—" Astravan paused his thoughts, heaving a breath before continuing.
'Looking up to me as his mentor.'
'Yet, his death was too cruel…'
At that thought, Astravan's rage bubbled in inextinguishable flames of fury as he gritted his teeth in a devouring fit of calamitous rage.
His mind then echoed one very terrifying statement into the ears of his thoughts.
'I'll destroy that bastard!'