The girl began walking towards the mansion. Haji’s eyes wandered to its towering sides, his expression still laced with curiosity, before shifting to the girl as she moved forward. The chain binding them clinked sharply, a cold reminder that neither could stray too far without the other. To avoid stirring up more trouble, Haji followed the girl’s lead while the maids trailed behind at a asured pace.
As they reached the mansion’s entrance, both Haji and the girl ca to a halt. Uncertainty clouded the girl’s eyes, her body stiff with hesitation. Then, without warning, a cold chill swept through. "What’s this?... Why can’t I move?" He thought, panic creeping in.
Though the others had entered through the sa doorway monts before, the entrance was now shut tight, and not a single sign of life stirred around them. The maids passed them without pause, and as they neared the entrance, the doors creaked open on their own. A thought flickered through Haji’s mind. ’Are the doors automated?’ But the mont they fully opened, he was t with a vast, narrow corridor stretching deep into the mansion, fading into a shadowy distance.
"Shall we proceed?"
One of the maids asked, her gaze fixed on the girl. Without answering, the girl simply began walking, trailing behind the maid ahead. The other maid moved behind them, ensuring they wouldn’t pause again for any reason. Haji fell silent, his eyes shifting restlessly as he scanned the corridor for anything out of place. The door creaked shut just a few steps after they had gone through, sealing them in with a quiet finality.
Haji and the girl turned sharply, looking back. The girl trembled in fear, while Haji clenched his teeth, trying to mask the dread rising inside him. Then, without warning, a small tal pin dropped onto the floor ahead, clinking and bouncing twice before coming to a still, eerie stop. They both turned their eyes forward once more. What they saw next was even more startling: the long corridor had vanished, replaced by an expansive dining room that had several doors standing tall and parallel to each other.
"... Huh?"
He whipped around, eyes wide. The room behind them was shifting, walls sliding, furniture folding, the space rearranging itself like a living puzzle. The design morphed before his eyes, yet the maids walked on, completely unfazed. Haji’s heart began to race. The maids seed unfazed by this... Haji could feel the hamring in his chest, each beat louder than the last, as if trying to break free.
’What’s going on?... Is this so kind of haunted mansion?"
’I need to co down and focus.’ He told himself, trying to make sense of the shifting walls and eerie silence. Suddenly, "You will be staying in here." The maid ahead said. Haji snapped his head towards her. Just in ti to see her pointing at one of the tall, looming doors.
Without a word, the maid behind them stepped forward, walking past both Haji and the girl. She had been holding a ring of keys ever since the corridor had been changed. These keys were to open the door that the maid ahead was pointing to. Reaching the designated door, without wasting ti, she selected the key and inserted it through the keyhole without hesitation. The door creaked open.
The mont the door creaked open, neon lights flickered to life, casting a soft glow across the vast chamber lined with normal bookshelves like a library from Earth. From a distance, just across the shelves, there lay another room in wait, with its door already opened.
"You may proceed." The maid said, withdrawing the key from the rock (The keyhole) and glancing back at Haji and the girl.
Without a word, they stepped forward, crossing the threshold. But the mont their feet touched the floor inside, the door swung shut behind them with a silent echoing thud, sealing the maids outside.
Haji turned to the door, his eyes wide in shock. But before he could utter a word, the girl collapsed beside him. Her legs gave out beneath the weight of it all. The pressure was just too much for her to handle. She simply couldn’t take it anymore.
"... Hey?"
...
Elsewhere, in a place that looked like the aftermath of an imnse battle, rain poured relentlessly, like the sky itself was weeping in agony and solitude. From a distance, aerial view, a massive crater stretched across the land, as if carved out by a nuclear blast. And in the middle of it, lay a woman, dressed in white and drenched in blood. Her right arm and both her legs had been torn away. And a growing golden sword was embedded deep in her chest, its light flickering through the downpour. That woman was Nanako. And against all odds, she was still breathing.
"I see... what a fine work you are."
"You almost had with that final spell."
A man dressed in white said as he approached Nanako. His tone dripped with mockery, as though the entire battle had been nothing more than a joke. Not a speck of dirt marked his shoes, and despite the pouring rain, not a single drop clung to him. He looked untouched.
The golden sword embedded in Nanako’s chest began to dissolve, vanishing from her body only to reappear in the man’s hand, still growing. He let out a laugh, sharp and cruel, as blood bubbled from Nanako’s lips and began to choke.
"If you’d taken the fight seriously, maybe, just maybe, you could’ve beaten ," he said, watching as the light faded from her eyes. "But you won’t change Makina. Always looking down on the rest of us just because you’re special... But that ends here. I’ll be taking your role now."
"... What is he talking about?" Nanako thought weakly, confusion swirling in her fading consciousness as her inner voice began to fade away.
In a sudden flash, golden light began to gather at a single point in front of the man. The formation resembled the one that had appeared before Miyoko. ***Recall Chapter 2. *** But this ti, instead of forming a mat, the light slashed through the air, cutting reality itself. Within seconds, a portal ripped open. From its growing center, a massive hand made of stone erged, reaching into the rain-soaked crater. It slowly wrapped around Nanako’s body and lifted her from the ground, dragging her into the portal. The man followed close behind, never looking back.
The portal closed.
anwhile, in the capital of Staria, Rinne (Rin) suddenly collapsed in the middle of the road while walking beside Zest (Gilbert).
"Hey! What’s going on there?"
People who had been going about their day stopped, turning their eyes to the woman lying motionless on the cobblestone path.
Then, without warning, the sky split open. A massive rift tore through the clouds, and a blinding pillar of light descended, engulfing the entire capital in its radiant glow. On the ground, Rin’s body began to disintegrate, fading, crumbling into dust. Gilbert stood frozen, eyes wide with disbelief as tears started to gather in his eyes, and an unbearable pain pierced his chest.
Suddenly, as it appeared, the pillar vanished.
Rin’s body reford in an instant, whole again. She gasped awake, trembling; her eyes wide in shock as if she had just experienced death. The world felt different as silence fell over the people... And in the kingdom of lcelut, in the area where the village of Dol used to stand. The goddess statue that was standing there shattered into pieces.
....
Back to the mansion.
Haji strained as he dragged the girl across the floor, desperate to find a safe place to rest her. Her body felt impossibly heavy, far too much for soone his age to carry alone. But he had no choice. His arms burned, his legs trembled with each step, yet he kept on going.
His hands and legs quivered violently. Sweat mixed with the chill air clung to his skin. His eyes wide and anxious, he darted from side to side, scanning the shelves, half expecting sothing to lunge out from the shadows at any mont.
’Breath. Breath. Breath.’
He repeated the thought like a player, dragging the girl towards the open room a few ters ahead.
Then, his foot caught the chain that still bound them together. He stumbled forward with a yelp, crashing into one of the bookshelves. It rocked violently, and several books tumbled loose, raining down on them. In chaos, Haji instinctively let go of the girl and quickly raised his arms to shield his head.
A sharp clang echoed through the room. A key, hidden among several books, had hit the floor. Haji froze, heart pounding, eyes wide. He glanced to his left and saw the key sitting on top of one of the books.
"... Is that-?" He breathed.
Lying on the floor, partially buried beneath the scattered books, was a key, small, black, and jagged at the edges. But what caught Haji’s attention was its size. It matched the iron clasps of the chains binding them together.
His gaze snapped to the girl. She was beneath the fallen books from head to knees. "Oh, no..." Panic surged through him as he scrambled to clear them off her. One by one, tossing them aside with shaking hands. And once the last book slid away, revealing her bruised face, he turned back to the key, waiting to be picked.
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