The moment his blade was about to cut through the air, he realized something was wrong.
The figure in front of him… had not tried to dodge.
It was the cub, whose eyes were glowing red.
He understood in time — otherwise, because of this misunderstanding, he might have killed him.
Then he picked up the flashlight and started moving forward.
After going a little further, he saw that there was a corridor made entirely of metal, which connected the mansion to another building behind it.
When he went outside, he saw that this building was even bigger than the mansion.
Inside, on a table, he found a note.
It said that if you manage to find that book, then perhaps no one would be stronger than you — but if it was not used correctly, the book itself would kill you.
Kunal thought that maybe the code and this note were both indicating the same book.
But what if that book could really make him the strongest? Yes, it could kill him if he made a mistake — but maybe he could use it to survive and defeat all those spirits.
While he was thinking this, the cub suddenly came in front of his feet, and Kunal lost his balance and fell.
As he tried to get up again, he noticed some patterns under a broken cupboard.
When he went closer, he realized that everything had been hidden behind it.
He pushed the cupboard aside with effort and saw that there was a castle drawing on the wall.
Above it, many dragons were drawn, and below it there was a city made of ice.
The painting looked old, as if many parts of it had already faded away.
He still could not understand anything.
Then Kunal and the cub both carefully observed the place, but they still did not find anything useful.
At that moment, Kunal realized something — when they had entered through the mansion earlier, they were on the second floor, and this corridor was also connected to the second floor.
That meant they had only been moving around the upper part of the building this whole time.
They had not found any stairs or path leading downstairs yet.
So the way to go down must exist inside the mansion itself.
Just then, his flashlight batteries died, and the entire floor was covered in darkness.
Nothing was visible.
He picked up the cub in his arms and slowly started moving back toward the mansion.
Because of the darkness, his foot got stuck in a hook, but he managed to balance himself and noticed that there was a metal rod in front of him that was extending outward.
If he had fallen, he might have died.
He moved forward again.
In a cold voice, he told not a bad idea.
After some time, he reached the mansion, and the electricity supply was still active, some lights were glowing there.
He went down to the ground floor and began thinking —
what was the meaning of that drawing?
Did such a place really exist somewhere?
Or was it connected to the book?
Maybe someone had drawn it based on the book itself.
And if there was no path downstairs in that building, then maybe something was hidden there — or someone had hidden something and then sealed the way.
All these questions were running repeatedly through his mind.
Then he noticed a basement door.
He suddenly remembered that when he had first entered the mansion, there had been no electricity — so he had not searched properly.
Then he think when he entered the basement for the first time.
Inside, there was water everywhere.
As he walked further, and found the electricity board near the wall suddenly some unknown entity grabbed his leg and pulled him into the water.
When he tried to escape, he attempted to grab the wall with his hands, but his hands did not touch anything.
Was there really some kind of water leakage there… or had someone deliberately done this?
He finally stood up and moved toward the gate.
As he opened it, the sound of the door echoed throughout the entire mansion…
© Kunal Singh
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