Luca stood there, stunned by the images of other players that he saw thanks to someone's ability, or maybe thanks to this giggling child… the information flowed through his head so fast that it probably only took 2 seconds to transmit everything. The fact that Lys turned into an NPC, but the answers and questions were blocked, and the fact that Sol and Rivenhart found the secret tunnel, and their abilities, and the fact that Arknight wasn't a new player. But it seemed like only he could see it.
The child giggled when she saw Luca's expression and calmly jumped down from the ceiling to look at them with greedy eyes. Honestly, if they split up, the first person to be targeted would be him.
"Mom… aren't you happy?"
The child was slowly approaching him with a pair of giant scissors in hand; now, it was sober enough to see the expression on this child's face. Anyway, the second thing that had happened was that he had been small all this time…
The child was wearing a classic black dress with a simple long-sleeved top and a fluffy knee-length skirt with delicate white lace frills along the hem. Completing the look were simple black Mary Jane-style shoes. Her long, dark, wavy, and curly hair was held back with a light colored headband or ribbon, and the wavy dark hair created a stark contrast to her simple outfit. She carried a special item with her, a pair of scissors that were a dark reddish brown color, hidden underneath her doll-like appearance.
Luca could only smile at the moment, and all eight eyes were looking at him in utter disgust. Luca shook his head, which only made the child much happier, her smile growing wider and wider, not at all more adorable.
"So, let's go see daddy together?!"
The child spoke with an extremely excited voice, and just as she was about to rush into Luca's arms, Eirene quickly pulled out a 3D cube-shaped prop from her bag and threw it into the air.
[Prop '3D cube of genius']
[You have activated the 1-hour active time prop officially countdown]
Everything around them started to move from the walls or the floor, and even the interior of the house was displaced.
"NO!! MOM!!!"
The child screamed in despair with tears streaming down her face as she ran faster, but still not as fast as the '3D cube of genius' prop.
The child saw her 'mother' disappear before her eyes and officially lost control of her screams and cries, even louder than before.
Luca was the first to stop. His feet were rooted to the cold ground, and his body was numb from the nape of his neck down to his back. He couldn't move; it was just a little uncomfortable. His body also started to tremble more. Luckily, that girl still had maternal love... probably.
"That sound... not good at all, it was completely different from crying at first."
Crestfall glanced, her voice calm, but her eyes twitched.
"The crying now is no different from a child being strangled..."
Mareen's stupid move led to him being hit hard on the head by Crestfall... But slowly, Mareen was right, maybe Crestfall just felt uncomfortable, so hitting him like that was an effective way to relieve stress.
Eirene really ignored the other two, anyway. Luca was scared and was being targeted; the other two were new, only she was the one who had passed the game once, so she only had one prop on her body, the 'genius 3D cube', unlike the new players.
But this prop has a fatal point that it creates a maze for her to escape, but she doesn't know the way out, and the opponent can find her at any time… that's the problem.
But… People often say that motherly love is sacred, right?
Eirene suddenly thought of that; she felt that something bad was about to happen to them. Indeed, people's guesses are not as good as God's guesses. A person with the small body of a 3-5 year old child, and her head was turned 180°, bent all the way back, but her body was still standing straight. The child in her hand was indeed a pair of scissors that was even bigger than the ones she used to hold.
The body didn't listen to the emotions that were affected by the child, swelling up in his chest like a balloon about to burst. That was Luca's current state; he could only stand there, trembling nonstop like a coward.
"AAAAAAAAAAAA!! MOM…MOM! WHY DID YOU ABANDON ME!!!"
"No… no… no…"
Tears welled up in his eyes despite his unwillingness. His heart rate increased to the point where it felt like a sledgehammer hitting his ribs.
"Luca! You're so emotionally amplified that you focus on one thing or pick anything and stick to it, you idiot!"
"I…I can't…can't…"
Luca trembled as if he'd been electrocuted. Eirene gritted her teeth; this was something they'd experienced before, so she quickly grabbed Luca's wrist and pulled hard.
"GO!"
Eirene pulled Luca to run after Crestfall, who was leading the way. Mareen ran after her, almost falling over when the crying rang out again.
Slap… slap… slap…
The sound was small and light… but the footsteps were running so fast that the sound of footsteps turned into the sound of wind tearing through the air.
"That little devil is running! RUN FASTER!"
The group of four rushed into the hallway that was swallowed by darkness. But the child ran faster than a normal adult. Every step it took felt like it was being pulled by a zipper. The lights flashed as it moved from the end of the corridor to be right behind them.
"DON'T LEAVE ME!!!"
Her voice screeched; at the same time, a strange feeling swept across their backs like a hot knife. Mareen screamed in despair that its new skill was stuck to him.
"What?! My heart hurts, and it's aching!"
A sense of unfounded guilt pressed down on their chests as if someone was whispering.
"It's your fault… that mom refused to stay with me."
"You don't deserve to live…"
Eirene cursed softly but didn't stop as if she had been provoked by the child. As for Luca… well, Luca almost fell to his knees, or rather, had a stroke. Not only were his emotions amplified, but now he was being attacked in a new way. All the fears he had experienced in his fading past slowly emerged like a diary so fast that he couldn't process the information.
"No, don't… don't come any closer… I'm not… I'm not your mother!!!"
He said, but his voice was broken. Crestfall turned to look at Luca, and at that moment, the child leaned towards Luca. The group could hear the sound of her bones cracking as his arm stretched out like rubber. She grabbed Luca's shirt.
"CRESTFALL!!!"
Crestfall raised her hand in a quick reflex action and punched the child straight in the arm.
SNAP!
The arm snapped back like a stick that had been bent by using too much force. But the child didn't cry; instead, she laughed like a madwoman. A huge, ragged smile stretched from ear to ear.
"Mom, you've been caught for real!"
Then it lunged at them without arms. Luca's emotions exploded as if someone had stuck a hand into his chest and twisted it. He fell, hitting his head on the stone floor.
Eirene knelt and tried to pull him up.
"Luca! Wake up! Focus on my voice! Luca, are you listening to me?!"
But Luca didn't hear her. In his head, there was only the sound of the child.
"You left me…you left me…you left me…"
He burst into tears again, but this time not because he was afraid of the demon, but because his emotions had been twisted into a piercing pain.
The child lunged forward, and Crestfall stood in front of him. Eirene turned her head to look at Mareen, her eyes almost using 100% of her brain to find a way out.
"Mareen! Help Luca! I'll think of a way!"
"What?! I…I don't…"
"JUST DO IT!"
Mareen gritted his teeth and gently lifted Luca's light, malnourished body, pulling him into his arms like a living sandbag. Eirene closed her eyes.
Concentrate and Breathe Deeply….
She remembered all the positions of the walls, the distance they ran, the direction of the wind, and the echo of the cry. Eirene pieced together every little piece of information into a pattern in her head. An image appeared… There was a small turn to the right where there was a crack in the door and the sound of the wind sucking from under the only exit.
"CRESTFALL! TURN RIGHT! 6 METERS AWAY!"
They ran together as they had never run before, and the Child just kept chasing after them until Crestfall took a knife from Eirene's bag and mercilessly cut it, creating a small wound to divert the child's attention first and then think.
The tearing cry from behind hit their brains, causing all four of them to almost stumble at the same time.
"HUHU HUHU!!!"
The sound was not a normal child's voice. It was heavy, like hundreds of throats crying at the same time, but forced through a broken or distorted speaker. Luca felt as if his head was being squeezed by a hand as he listened. His legs were weak, and he almost collapsed.
"Don't freeze! Run!"
"It's getting closer, it'll be here in a bit, but it's faster than I thought!"
Crestfall said in a loud voice, and Mareen couldn't help but gasp, his arms clutching his chest, almost fainting.
The lights flickered continuously. The dirty floor was covered with someone's dry footprints.
Clack!
The sound of a small child's footsteps, but the speed was too fast, like crawling on the floor. Then the sound of a neck bone turning. Luca almost threw up because of dizziness, and the child was crawling on the wall, chasing after them as before.
"OVER THE OTHER SIDE! Enter that room!"
Eirene just screamed, and the group rushed in and slammed the door shut. It was dark inside, only a little light from the hallway shining through the crack of the door.
Luca leaned against the wall, his arms hugging his chest; his breathing was rapid and suffocating. His voice trembled uncontrollably.
"…It…it's digging into my head…"
The child cried, and also amplified emotions.
For example, maybe the fear multiplied by 10, guilt multiplied by 50, and pain was probably multiplied infinitely?
That was Luca's current conclusion. Luca would normally freeze when he saw a ghost, but now he was almost crying for real. His body was shaking, and his shoulders were twitching. Crestfall frowned, grimacing as if needles were pricking his body.
"Damn it, it's pushing our emotions to the bottom…"
Knock… knock…
The child started banging its head against the door from the outside.
Knock… Knock… BAM!!!
"Can it open the door!? CAN IT OPEN!?"
"Shut up!"
Crestfall shouted softly, but her voice was shaky as if she knew it would get in anyway.
As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, Eirene spotted a tall filing cabinet in the corner with the door slightly open. She walked over and opened it. Inside… were children's drawings. All clipped together like a notebook. Crayons scribbled in the drawing had three people. The mother, father, and child.
"…This… looks like it belongs to… her."
She held up the first drawing. A simple, brightly colored, smiling family. The second picture had the father holding the child while the mother stood next to her. The third picture had the father missing and the mother and child hugging each other with some red paint on the back. The fourth picture had both adults missing, like in the album Luca had found earlier.
Only the child was standing in the middle with a black circle drawn on his head instead of white, like in the album. The fifth picture had a black figure standing on the bed, and on the floor were two adults lying motionless with red splattered on them.
"…Maybe she had… witnessed something she shouldn't see."
"I swear I don't have time to analyze a little devil's psychology!"
BAM!!!
The door was slammed so hard that one corner was dented.
"In the painting… in the last one… behind it there is a PERSON…"
She held out her hand with a trembling hand, and Crestfall came closer and looked at her, frowning. Then her face turned pale.
"…It's not that its parents were killed."
"…But all three were killed."
"…The thing behind the child… is something else."
"Y…you mean…this child is not a real demon…but…was…made into this thing by someone…?"
"A form of emotional seal? A living instrument. The child was trapped with its last emotion…to the point where only crying remained?"
The crying outside suddenly stopped. The four people froze.
Luca was almost holding his breath, his body was so tense that he looked like he was about to faint, but they needed him more than anyone else right now…
"It's not certain that those are the parents of that brat; it could be that the brat was killed by her father or mother, and the person below is a servant… don't follow that pattern."
Luca tried to calm himself down and voice his thoughts in this situation, and it was strangely reasonable…
Right next to the door, a child's voice… distorted whispering…
"…Dad… mom…"
"…where..."
Luca immediately burst into sobs and spoke out not out of sympathy but because that voice hit his memory, the loss of his memories. Crestfall's annoying shout exploded like a lifeline.
"DON'T LISTEN TO HER! Luca, focus on us!"
Eirene quickly pushed Luca behind her…
"He can't take it, let me help!"
Crack…
The sound of a neck twisting came from right next to the door. The room was unusually cold.
The dark room suddenly felt cold as if someone had opened the freezer door. The group's breaths evaporated into misty curls.
Crack… CRACK... CRACK.
The sound of someone's neck twisting wasn't fast, but slow, as if deliberately prolonging the wait. Luca hissed through his teeth, trembling like a rabbit, and he returned to his previous state.
"…It's right out there…"
Crestfall stood close to the door, her hand on the dagger's handle, knowing it was useless. Eirene took a step back, silently analyzing each sound. Mareen could only hold his head…
"Dead… really dead… we're dead for sure…"
"…mom… where… mom…"
"…dad hit… hurt…"
The group seemed frozen. Eirene softly repeated the words the child said.
"… Dad hit?"
Luca wiped away his tears and tried to hold back his consciousness, speaking in ragged breaths.
"…I… I told you… the people in the painting… aren't really her real parents."
He pointed to the last painting…
"The child… drew her mother hugging her. But the next one… her mother disappeared, and the last one… the person standing behind her… doesn't look like a normal adult."
"You mean… her father killed them all?"
"…Or a servant, or someone who took care of her. But… that shadow's eyes weren't the father's in the first painting."
"…The shape is completely different. So the child may have turned into bait."
"A trap, used to torture those who enter."
Eirene voiced her guess, and the banging outside stopped. The space was empty…. No one dared to breathe loudly. The door opened, not because it was banged, not because it was broken….But… It opened by itself.
Thump…
The door opened 5cm. There was no child on the hallway floor. Only small, bloody footprints squirmed like worms and stopped right in front of the door.
"…d-dang… don't tell me it's already in…"
The door opened wider… It was colder… Luca almost fainted. But Eirene pulled his hand.
"Don't freeze!"
"Run."
They rushed out of the long hallway. The lights were flashing…. the shadow of a child running on all fours on the wall followed behind them, twice as fast as a normal person.
Crack, crack, crack!!!
The sound of nails hitting the wall was as intense as a knock on the door, rushing to his head. Luca gasped, tears welling up from fear that were about to dry up again.
"It… It's too close… too close!"
"Look straight ahead! Don't turn around!"
But the distorted whispers filled the back of their heads…
"…don't leave me…"
"…it hurts…mom…"
All four of them felt like their hearts were being squeezed. Mareen screamed and ran faster.
"IT'S ON THE CEILING!!!"
They looked up just in time to see the child's distorted face, hollow black eyes, lying close to the ceiling, her neck twisted 180 degrees, her mouth smiling from ear to ear. A child's voice mixed with an adult's voice, broken.
"…let me… play…"
Then she dove down, and a door on the left opened due to the wind pressure.
"Eirene! Luca! TURN LEFT!"
But the child landed in the middle of the group, and the four of them scattered instinctively.
Boom!!
A wave of emotions hit them, splitting them into three directions… Crestfall was thrown into the dark hallway ahead. Mareen was pushed into a small room with the door slammed shut. Luca and Eirene fell to the left turn, where the lights flickered constantly.
"CREST! MAREEN! KEEP IN TOUCH!"
But the sound was distorted.
They ran into a closed hallway, the sound of heavy crying following closely behind.
sniff… sniff…
It hit Luca's brain like a hammer. Luca stopped and leaned against the wall, sobbing loudly.
"No… no… I can't breathe…"
"I hear it in my head… …its voice… …like it's speaking for my memories…"
Eirene knelt and held his shoulders tightly as if trying to calm him down.
"Luca! Look at me!"
But he couldn't see her. Luca's eyes were blurred with tears.
"Why can't I remember anything…?"
"Why is everyone disappearing…?"
"I… what did I do wrong…?"
His body shook as if he had a high fever. The child's voice mixed with Luca's sobs like two voices clashing.
Eirene bit her lip until it bled. If she let Luca drown in his emotions, he would die before she could even reach him. She reached into her pocket and took out a small piece of paper with the emotion rune she had gotten from the previous level by that strange girl. She placed her finger on Luca's forehead.
"Luca! Listen to me."
"The emotions aren't yours."
"They're HER."
Her finger quickly traced a star-shaped pattern in the air like the one in Luca's pupils to set up the ritual. A thin ray of light spread out. It wasn't a powerful spell, just separating the foreign emotions for a few seconds. But those few seconds were enough for Luca to breathe. He took a sharp breath as if pulled out of the water. This is the gif she got from a friend from the previous game.
"cough… cough… I… I heard it…"
"Good… But I can't do it for long. This child is too emotional."
"Run after me."
The sound of clacking nails approached. Luca nodded, swallowing his tears.
"…Yes."
...…
Crestfall started to get mad because she was separated into a dark hallway without lights. She pulled out her dagger; her breath was cold.
"…Fine. Want to play mind games?"
"I'll tell you… a person's true feelings are DIFFERENT from the thing you chewed up."
But the cry that crept into her head pulled up her angriest memory.
"No one can read my mind!"
...…
Mareen accidentally triggered the trap. Mareen fell into a dark room with old music boxes. He flicked one to find his way…
Click
A spinning melody played. And the entire room… lit up with red light.
"…No! No More Traps!!!"
Small footsteps began to echo from every corner of the room.
...…
The baby's cries echoed closer and closer. Eirene pulled Luca through the hallway in a zigzag pattern. But Luca was still held back by the haunting sound of the baby's voice.
"Eirene…"
"…I think I know why it chose me first…"
"Why?"
"…Because I am the same as her. A person… who had the memories taken away from them."
...…
The red light flickered, and the floor began to lengthen, then shorten, then twist.
"DON'T LOOK AT THE FLOOR!!! IT'S CREATING AN ILLUSION!!!"
"I KNOW!!!"
Crestfallen snapped, but her voice was shaking. Somehow, the two of them were triggered by Mareen's trap and brought back together. But whatever, continuing with the present, the hallway was now like a distorted painting, the walls tilted, the doors stretched like a monster's mouth, the ceiling gradually lowered as if it wanted to press down on their heads.
...…
Eirene still pulled Luca to run zigzag to avoid the dark spaces where the child could jump out. But then… From a crack in the wall, a tiny white hand stuck out. Then a head appeared, its neck twisted in the opposite direction, its dark eyes looking straight at Luca.
"…dad… mom…"
"Luca! DON'T LISTEN! LOOK AT ME!"
"No…"
Luca whispered, tears falling without even realizing it.
"…I heard… it wasn't her… it was my past…"
Crestfall lunged forward and slapped Luca so hard that the echoes swirled in the air.
"WAKE UP! WE'RE NOT DIETING HERE!"
The child turned her head with a crack once more and then bent it 45 degrees. Eirene pulled Luca up with all her might…
"Run!"
...…
They rushed into a new room. A room full of mirrors. Ceiling mirrors, wall mirrors, floor mirrors. A maze of reflections.
"Fuck this again?!"
This time, the four of them met earlier than they thought, but in a situation where no one wanted to be…
"She wants to split us up."
"Split us up! I'm not afraid!"
Crestfall screamed. The child stood in the doorway. It took a step… splitting into five shadows. Then that silhouette was reflected in the mirror… into hundreds of children. All of them looked at them… all of them bowed their heads.
HU… HU… HU…
The sound of crying shook the room, making the mirrors shake.
"I… I can't take it… They're looking at me…"
"LOOK INTO MY EYES! DON'T LOOK INTO THE MIRROR!"
Eirene cheered for Mareen, who was standing a little far away from her… but at that moment… A mirror in front of her shattered into pieces, and from that broken mirror… A hand reached out and pulled Mareen away.
"MAREEN…!!"
Crestfall pushed Eirene and Luca aside and ran to Mareen. The floor opened, and they were separated for the second time.
The hallway was as dark as a monster's throat. Eirene checked the walls, the floor, and the ceiling like a scanner.
"…you didn't… ask me if I was okay…?"
"Whether it's okay or not doesn't change anything."
"…"
"Focus, your fear is the group's greatest weakness."
Her voice was not mocking, just speaking the truth. When she was really tired, she couldn't be like normal. Luca understood, so he gritted his teeth. But the child's whispering echoed again.
"…dad…mom…"
It hit the empty spot in Luca's mind, the empty memory of a child who lost his family. Luca held his head.
"Don't… don't come into my head again…"
"Stand up straight. If you let it in again, I'll leave you."
Luca shivered, not because of anger, but because he knew Eirene could do it for real.
CRACK.
The head popped down from the ceiling. Eirene didn't react emotionally, just took out a small knife and held it ready.
"Take three steps back."
Luca backed away. The child crawled across the ceiling like a spider, her neck turning 360 degrees and then folding at an angle that no living creature could. She fell, and Eirene grabbed Luca's wrist.
The door opened into the foggy room.
"No… I don't like this place…"
"Focus on reality. Don't believe anything you see."
The fog rolled up… Then the silhouette of a family appeared. A mother holding her child, a father behind her. The father's hand… held something.
"…oh god, it's not like that…"
Eirene raised her hand to block Luca from touching the illusion…
"Don't touch it. This is bait."
The illusion changed shape, blood flowing down like red paint. The child's voice echoed…
"…hurt...don't...don't…"
"PLEASE STOP!!"
Eirene looked at Luca, then at the illusion. The child was attacking each person's fear unfairly, without rules.
"Luca."
Eirene's voice was low and cold, but not cruel.
"Listen to me. What you hear is not your memory. It is using its own emotions to override your head."
"But... why is it so similar to me.... is it because we both have a space in our heads?"
Eirene spoke as if reading data.
"It takes advantage of that space."
Luca's eyes widened. It was not reading his memories. It was pouring its own memories onto Luca, forcing him to bear and sympathize with it.
"Do you want to live?"
"...want..."
"Then stand up."
"We are not here to sympathize with it. We are here to survive."
Luca inhaled… Deep breath… And stood up. At that moment, the sound of childish footsteps rang out. Five times faster than before. Eirene pushed Luca to the left.
"DOWN!"
The demon passed by where they were standing… So fast that the wind tore at their faces.
"…it's faster…"
"Yes."
Eirene replied simply.
.....
Crestfall was straining to endure the poison. Her hands were shaking, but her eyes were shining as if she wanted to smash the world in half. Mareen was trying to cover her wound.
"Don't move!"
"But you're bleeding!"
"As long as the blood is coming out, I'm still alive!"
The mirror in front of them transformed itself into the shape of a child crying blood, but this time it looked straight at Crestfall. The mirror began to grow spikes, each one as if it wanted to stab from every direction. Mareen shouted
Crestfall smiled the crooked smile of someone who was about to go mad…
"Good. I was also curious to see how much it could take."
.....
They ran down a narrow hallway. Suddenly… A door opened in front of them. Inside, the light was white, not red. It looked like a hospital room.
She stepped in first without hesitation. There was a child's bed in the room, a small blanket, and a drawing placed on the pillow.
Eirene picked it up. A child's scribble of a red room, a crying child, and a shadow standing outside the door, and the words warped
"Eirene… what it meant was…"
"Not father, mother, or a servant."
Eirene folded the paper.
"Another entity. The one who created this room."
"That means the child we see isn't the real thing… but just…"
"…an emotional puppet copies the appearance of the child."
Eirene concluded
"The real child of the mistress that we need to see is still somewhere."
At that moment, all the lights went out quickly. The sound of children's footsteps returned, but this time it wasn't one step but two or three running around them.
"Eirene?"
"Silence, something bad is going to happen…."
She stared straight into the darkness ahead.
"It's getting close to its maximum."
"What do you mean…?"
"It's really about to get going, it's a real threat… the mistress of the rose mansion…"