"Bang."
The muzzle bloomed with light like a camera flash from hell, burning an afterimage onto the eyes.
Heat surged forward in a sudden breath. The smell came immediately after, a bitter cordite and scorched metal, thick and unmistakable, crawling into the nose and settling at the back of the throat. Smoke spiraled from the barrel in thin, lazy coils, almost calm compared to the chaos that had birthed it. Mana residue flared up at the barrel.
The rope holding up Elias' platform snapped, the wooden platform tilted as Elias slipped off.
"Wh-wh-whaat?!!"
Elias stared down into the nothingness below, time seemed to slow down as the air rushed towards his face, blood rushed towards his head as his breathing started to rush.
[I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die!]
Before Elias could hit the floor, Hoshimi disappeared in a flash, jumping up and catching him en-route by the collar.
He landed with a grunt, Elias's small, surprisingly solid body jostling against his own. The force of the impact was absorbed by Hoshimi's mana-reinforced legs, but Elias still gasped, clinging to Hoshimi's suit, his eyes wide and unfocused with terror. The descent had been mere seconds, but to Elias, it must have been an eternity.
Hoshimi threw the boy to the floor with a blank stare. Elias staggered, still shaking in the aftermath of that near-fall, eyes darting about the cavernous chamber in an almost desperate fashion. The hum of the colossal machine pulsed ominously, casting a glow over the emptiness.
"What?" Elias stammered, his usual composure shattered and replaced by raw, unadulterated fear, as his eyes, devoid of the maniacal gleam they once held, darted between Hoshimi and the complex machinery. "But you. You were going to shoot me."
"Why would I kill you?" Hoshimi replied-the look in his eyes scoured the console Elias had used. You seemed rather committed to your monologue up there. And I need you alive, Elias, talk. If I'm fucked then so are you, if you don't want to die then get us out."
"Talk?" Elias scoffed, though his voice still shook. "I'm prepared to die!" Once more, a desperate manic light flared in his eyes as he tried to regain his lost confidence. "You can't stop me! Lady Bleu herself has blessed me! I'm the chosen one!"
Hoshimi was upon him in a disconcertingly swift movement, closing the distance between them. He grasped Elias by the collar and yanked the boy's face toward his own. "You sure are stupid, I thought you were supposed to be smart. If you really let whatever is down here out, then who's going to protect Audrey." His voice lowered to an aggressive whisper.
He let Elias go, and the boy stumbled backward. "Now," Hoshimi went on, his hand gesturing toward the humming machine, "you're going to tell me how to get out of here. Or I'll make sure your 'ascension' is a very literal trip to the afterlife for Audrey and you, starting right now."
Elias stared into Hoshimi's unyielding eyes, into the set of his resolute jaw. It was absolute conviction emanating from Hoshimi, far colder and more terrifying than Elias' calculated malice. Elias swallowed; his Adam's apple bobbed. "It is in Lady Bleu's grace that I will survive."
There came a soft click in the room.
"It's here," Elias whispered, his voice trembling.
Something moved in the darkness outside the machine, not the rhythm of feet but the muffled, wet drag of something shedding skin from the floor itself. The air chilled, not with cold but with the emptiness of something essential being scooped out.
Next, it emerged into the light.
It was small. Too small.
The child's body, bare and shaking, with a slightly wrong proportion that caused the eyes to flinch in reaction before the mind could process the exact why. The skin had been wrong, too, raw and faint, scaling in sheets that were like boiled flesh sprinkled with dust. Veins had thrummed through the surface layer, dark and listless, as though the blood itself had been loath to flow.
Its eyes were pure white.
No reflection. Only smooth, featureless globes gazing straight ahead with neither focus nor interest nor fear. Battered lips distorted in a grimace of pain and pulled apart at the corners, a cheekbone shattered and sunken into the skull like a broken hemisphere, mottled purple-yellow bruises boasting atop scars that never healed properly. The hair was colorless, a complete lack of melanin.
It took a step.
Every movement was slowed, as if its body was waiting for approval to move. His arms extended forward, not pleading, reaching out towards Hoshimi trying to grab onto his throat, fingers convulsing weakly, joints clicking softly as they unlocked in reverse order.
The noise produced didn't include a cry.
It was a breath that was scraping through a ruined throat.
Hoshimi moved aside.
It came within inches of him, then fell face-first to the metal floor with a sodden thud. Bones rattled together improperly. Its fingers spasmed once, scrabbling feebly at the ground, leaving a trail of blood and skin.
Silence.
Hoshimi looked down at it.
"Are you sure it's this little thing?" he asked bluntly.
The child turned its head enough to glance at him. The mouth opened and shook. No words issued, only a faint, jagged noise that was like the sound of air leaking from a punctured lung. The eyes fixed upon his face with a pitiful, empty directness that searched for something it could not define.
Hoshimi raised the gun.
There was no hesitation. No warning. No visible emotion.
The barrel lowered until it almost touched the forehead of the child.
The shot was fired from point-blank range.
The noise echoed in the empty space. The child's head recoiled backward in shock as the bullet ripped through flesh and bone and brain with ease, spitting out the other side in a bloody mess of gore and cerebral matter that splattered the gun behind it.
It just sagged, falling in on itself like a marionette whose strings had been cut, a widening circle of dark red seeping into the grooves of the metal flooring.
Blood dotted Hoshimi's cheek. His gaze held a faint undertone of violet in the aftermath, the hum of his mana, a low and constant vibration surrounding him.
He shot the child again.
And again.
Until it stopped moving.
"Did you really have to shoot the kid more than once?" Elias asked him.
"Yea, how else would I make sure that whatever this is, stays down?" Hoshimi nudged the child's head with his shoe, its head rolled over to the other side.
Hoshimi fired another bullet into the child's head.
"Did you-"
Hoshimi interrupted him. "I had to make sure."
The child's body started to balloon up rapidly, like an absurd amalgamation of flesh, soaking up every single bit of blood back into its body.
Hoshimi looked over his shoulder, speaking with a blunt tone. "I'm not dealing with this, find a way out or you're probably going to die." He took in a deep breath as he held onto his nose, holding his breath as he started to fade into the background, his irises started to disappear as his vision started to fade.
"Wh-where did you-"
Whatever was left of the child stood up, ballooning up even further like a large mass of flesh exploding outwards.
Then it suddenly contracted, the flesh turned into thick and strong muscles, its stature was large, as tall as a two story building and a face that was pure white, like a blank canvas.
Its tongue stuck out of its mouth with saliva coating its lips, a creature that was out of this world.
The shape of its soul started to shake, its pale white fingers started to fade, its feet turned invisible until its entire body disappeared.
It was mimicking Hoshimi's soul.
And his ability.
The creature raised its disappearing arm into the air, the muscles bulged as Elias stood beneath its knees, staring up with a frightened expression on its face, his hands shaking.
"I-I…. Lady Bleu help me!!"
The creature slammed its hand down at incredible speeds.
Before the impact hit Elias, a sudden force threw him back by the collar, narrowly avoiding the blow.
"Have you changed your mind on dying today? I thought you were prepared to perish for your cause?" Hoshimi stood in front of him, sighing as he ran his fingers through his hair.
"Y-yea I have! I w-want to live."
"Thought so. Find a way out of here before the both of us die."
"It's all your fault! If you-you didn't come here in the first place!! And Ne-" Elias grasped onto his chest, he dropped to one knee as he felt the strings on his beating heart tighten, foam leaked out of his mouth as he collapsed to the floor.
Hoshimi's eyes widened slightly as he stared back at the child behind him. [A Witch's Oath? Who the hell could he have a contract with? Right now I have to focus on the thing right in front of me!]
Hoshimi felt the air twist again, an incoming strike coming down faster than the speed of sound.
"Find a way out now!"
Hoshimi yelled out, strengthening his arms with as much mana as he could muster, as the ground beneath him caved in.
Hoshimi's mana flared, an impossible violet shield erupting around him an instant before the creature's invisible fist slammed down. The impact was deafening, a shockwave tearing through the cavernous chamber. Metal groaned, glass tubes containing the slumbering children vibrated violently, and the very ground beneath Hoshimi buckled and cracked. He was driven deep into the concrete, his legs acting as unwilling anchors, but he barely held on, blood spewing from his lips.
He didn't wait for a response. Mana exploded from his feet, not as a concussive blast, but as a dense, invisible wave that spread across the floor. It was a net, a sensory web designed to catch the faintest ripple in the ambient energy. The creature was invisible, but it still displaced air, still had mass, still radiated mana, even if it was miming his own suppressed presence.
A flicker. A micro-tremor in his mana-net, directly to his left.
Then the creature suddenly stopped, its footsteps echoed then slipped.
A large dent in the ground.
"You can't see can you?" Hoshimi smiled.
It began to reappear again, revealing a fleeting outline of its massive, pale form. It was a silhouette etched in raw, pulsating mana, a brief glimpse of pure white muscle rippling under unseen skin.
Elias convulsed on the ground. Foam now bubbled freely from his lips, his small body seizing uncontrollably. He stood up even as his body convulsed, his legs shaking as he reached out towards the sky.
"Help!!"
A black void appeared beneath his feet, a portal that began to swallow his feet, Hoshimi dashed towards Elias, quickly grabbing his head and squeezing his body with his legs until the two of them dropped into the hole.
Hoshimi stared at a carpeted floor, the light of the morning sun poured in through the window, the hallway in front of him seemed to be infinite, he pushed himself off the floor as he stared at his bruised arms.
"A portal? That must've been what caught me off guard, it must be one of the maids with that ability, but there seems to be limitations or else they would've teleported me into the sky."
He looked to his left, a beautifully engraved door, the entrance to the library, and a petite girl leaning against the frame, a golden blonde with a cold demeanor attached to her face, her blue eyes stared daggers into him.
"Well you managed to get out of there didn't you? I can't believe that someone would put a trap there. Y'know it could be one of the authorities trying to check for the killer."
Her eyes wandered to Elias' twitching body.
"Nevermind."
"What do you want, Neila?"
"Nothing really." She shrugged her shoulders. "I was just checking to make sure you were okay, and well… I guess Elias too. What happened to him anyways?"
"Who knows why he's twitching like that?" Hoshimi responded, wiping away the blood on his lips.
"He looks pitiful." Neila's eyes narrowed.
[He's figured out that Elias is under a Witch's Oath, but he doesn't know the rules and the contractor yet. He only knows that someone has control over him, not who. It seems that he doesn't nearly trust me enough for him to tell me directly]
"Neila," Hoshimi said. "I need your assistance in something."
[What could he possibly want from me?]
Neila crossed her arms.
"I'll listen to what you have to say, for now. So speak up, puppet."
"I want you to-."
On the other side of the Estate.
Tian extended a hand to her. "Come with me, Miss Kira. There is a chamber within this estate, a place designed for such refinement. A place where you can explore your abilities without… external complications. A place where the true potential of your gift can be nurtured, not feared."
Kira hesitated, her eyes darting from the extended hand to the muffled sounds of Elias' birthday celebration in the distance.
Tian's lips curled into the faintest, barely perceptible smile.
Her determination evidently deepened. "Alright, I guess," she gasped, taking his hand. "Show me."
Tian's grip was surprisingly firm, cold against her trembling fingers. He led her deeper into the mansion, away from the grand halls and the faint sounds of celebration. The corridors became narrower, the light dimmer, the air cooler and heavier. She noted the lack of surveillance cameras in this section, a detail that pricked a faint unease, but her desperation to control her gift overshadowed it.
They came to a nondescript, massive steel door that blended seamlessly into the featureless metal walls that were now closing in on them. Tian produced a keycard, which opened the door with a hiss of compressed air.
Beyond was a small room that was equally clinical. A thicker door was waiting.
"This chamber," Tian declared, his words echoing slightly in the confined space, "is intended to be completely contained. It will confine any... accidental emissions, so you may practice without repercussions." He gestured to the second, thicker door waiting beyond the airlock. "And through there lies your future, Miss Kira."
Kira stepped through. The heavy door slid shut behind her with a definitive thud that echoed like a final declaration, sealing her in.
The room was circular, sparsely lit by a single, high-mounted light. The walls were a smooth, mana-dampening alloy, and the air felt unnaturally still, devoid of dust or draft. In the center stood a transparent, cylindrical enclosure—tall and wide enough for a person, yet unmistakably designed for containment.
Kira breathed in and out heavily. A cold, white vapor seeped from her mouth, though the room wasn't freezing. Her fingers twiddled rapidly against her thigh, and she tapped her foot against the ground in a rhythmic, anxious motion.
"Now, Miss Kira," Tian's voice crackled through a hidden speaker. It was devoid of its previous soothing cadence, replaced by something sharp and clinical. "If you would kindly step into the central cylinder. It is designed to aid your focus."
A cold dread seeped into Kira's stomach. The way his voice had changed, the sudden confinement… this wasn't training. Her eyes darted around the room, searching for an exit, but the walls were seamless.
"This," Kira said, her voice shaking but finding courage. "This isn't right. What… what is this place?"
"This, Miss Kira," Tian's voice dripped with cold pleasure, "is where your particular skill is going to be put to the very best use. After all of you are safely contained, we can begin the extraction. Domino doesn't wish to stay in the body I've worked so hard for her to inhabit, but the flesh of your body would be the perfect home for hers."
"Domino? Extraction?" Kira's breath caught in her throat. She looked at the glass wall of the cylinder, and the realization clicked into place. It wasn't a gym. It was a test tube. "You... you were lying!"
"Ideally, you would have walked in willingly," Tian sighed over the intercom. "But force works just as well."
A button was pressed. A low hum filled the air, and a sickly green glow began to pulse along the walls. The pressure in the room spiked, causing Kira's head to swim. She took a step backward, a gasping breath escaping her lips as she leaned against the glass wall for support.
Tian watched from the observation deck, waiting for her to collapse.
But she didn't.
Instead, Kira looked up at the mirror-glass where she knew he was standing. Blood seeped from the corner of her mouth, but her eyes were focused.
"Carbon monoxide," she whispered, the words amplified by the room's acoustics. "It bonds to hemoglobin 200 times faster than oxygen. But I changed the property of my mana that allows it to bond to inorganic matter, too."
Tian's eyes widened slightly on the other side of the glass.
"I released it the moment we walked in," she said, pointing a trembling finger toward the structural supports of the room. "I laced the air with high-density corrosive mana. Even the slightest vibration now will cause the structural integrity to fail."
A spiderweb crack appeared on the "indestructible" glass in front of Tian.
"You..." Tian's voice faltered.
Kira gasped for air, her lungs burning, but her mind clear. "You were the one that put Audrey through all of that. You know about Domino. You're not just a butler, are you? That must mean that you are—"
crack.
A deafening noise tore through the air, louder than thunder. The walls of the magic-suppressing chamber groaned violently as the corrosion took hold.
Then, with a scream of buckling metal and snapping rebar, the ceiling above the chamber burst inward.
There was a deluge of twisted rebar, shattered pipes, and massive concrete blocks that destroyed the visibility tube and created a shockwave in the room. The communications speaker died, silenced by the ominous rumble of wreckage.
A flesh of mass exploded from beneath the estate, ballooning up and breaking through the steel walls.