Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

As Kaizen followed the direction in which the chandelier was pulling him, he felt like he was making progress, unlike when he was walking in circles because of the Cursed Spirit's illusion ability.

However, in every room he passed, he saw the surroundings getting stranger and stranger.

For example, the red, gooey liquid that Kaizen saw in the first hallway only became more and more common. The wooden floorboards and wallboards gradually began to be replaced by this strange liquid in its more solid and, shall we say, fleshy form. Kaizen felt a little afraid to step on this thing when he first saw it, considering what he felt just from looking too long at the liquid, but he didn't have a choice but to try to step on it, because the chandelier was guiding him forward.

When Kaizen stepped on this red, gooey flesh, he felt the softness of it, and instantly received a debuff with a temporary effect that took half of his Intelligence attribute points away. Consequently, this halved the amount of his mana points, leaving him with only 200.

Kaizen was annoyed by this, however, there was nothing he could do to remove the effect until it passed on its own, so he moved on.

Soon, Kaizen passed through a corridor filled with large windows, and when he looked out, he got another surprise. The view was not of the pine forest, or even of the ghost village, but of a megalomaniacal landscape whose sky was filled with black clouds, the ground was littered with graves, and a forest of eucalyptus trees with twisted trunks stretched as far as his eyes could see. Beyond this, black skeletons kept digging the graves with their own bony hands, and Kaizen could also see that in the background there were skeletons much larger than the treetops of the vast forest, and the eyes of these creatures glowed brightly like two fireballs.

At that moment, Psyker finally understood why most people cannot see the world without the distortions of reality, the true face of the supernatural world.

If everyone could see what he was seeing, Rise Online would probably be known as a much more macabre game and this would bring a lot of problems with sensitive people, leaving them too scared to play. No wonder Kaizen was only able to see all this after he wished intensely, as if he had signed a disclaimer to do so.

So, while most types of people would be horrified to see this frightening sight, Kaizen was awestruck and fascinated. But this was not so much because of the scenery as because of the richness of detail that the developers have put into this game, as well as the vastness of this world, or rather these two divergent realities.

However, Kaizen soon realized that this reality he was in was much larger than it should be. He passed through dozens of rooms and the amount of corridors he traversed was even greater. The impression he got was that the mansion in the supernatural dimension was much larger than the mansion in the physical dimension that he saw from the outside, but whether this made sense or not, he couldn't tell yet.

Kaizen also realized that he had finally reached his destination when the chandelier finally stopped shaking in front of a very large door, which was at the end of a dark, gooey hallway.

"Looks like this is it..." He said to himself as he observed how abnormally large this door was. If the manor was really the size it appeared to be on the outside, there was no way that a door like this could ever be inside the house like this one was.

The door before him had huge black chains locking it, and pulsing red liquid was soaked into them as if it was trying to 'swallow' the door whole.

Kaizen reached out to touch the door, and to his surprise, it opened with a touch, causing the liquid to recede and the chains to fall off.

He was confused and surprised, yet he entered, discovering a room much larger than the other rooms he had passed through within this manor.

The first thing he noticed was how the red liquid seemed even darker in this place than elsewhere in the residence.

The second was that the veins were even larger here and pulsed constantly, as if the reason for them pulsating was there. And when Kaizen looked into the center of the room, he saw that all the veins were carrying this red liquid to a single point, a large sphere that mixed the weird flesh from before and a massive amount of reddish energy. This thing was emanating power at its most corrupted base.

Instants after Kaizen came across this kind of spherical core, a voice coming from this thing spoke to him.

"Welcome, visitor... or rather, I should refer to you as what you actually are, Psyker. Your visit is somewhat unexpected, but... still an honor." The voice that said this was dual, at once male and female.

At this moment, Kaizen realized that this core was not only the Evil Spirit's source of energy and life, it was the core itself. Both the body, and also the soul.

Hearing this, Kaizen remained serious. "Why do you think it is an honor to meet me? Can't you imagine that I might be annoyed that I went to so much trouble to get to you?"

"I needed to make sure that...you really were who I thought you were. As for the reason for my contentment with...your visit, I hope that...you can help me."

"Help?"

"Yes, setting me free, I hope.... I have been in this form for too long...to know how much I hate it. However, this was the only way I found to stay... alive while waiting for my savior. So, Psyker, I will give you...anything in exchange for this one wish of mine.... However, I sense that you are here to kill me, so I ask that you first listen to what I have to say... before you make a decision that you will regret, whatever it may be."

Kaizen thought about her request and seconds later made his decision. "All right, speak." He stated.

"I used to be a mage... A mage belonging to a Circle... I had balance, peace and... knowledge. However, something was missing... love. I found this for the first time in a traveling man... He courted me like no other did... and accepted me for who I really was. I abandoned the Circle and my sisters and hid in this small village... with my beloved."

The Evil Spirit paused for a few moments and continued.

"But then... My former Circle companions found me.... We had sworn allegiance to knowledge and that should be above any carnal desire.... And for breaking this oath, they punished me and my husband... with death. In my last sparks of consciousness and life, I clung to what was left, clung to the... knowledge of chaos that I had... and so I cursed my own soul, trapping myself in this place, in the stronghold... of my love."

"Why did you do that? You could have moved on with your husband to the next plane." Kaizen said with a frown.

"It's much more complicated than.... that, Psyker. He died while fighting for my life... and I died while grieving for his departure. His soul...went to the home of warriors, Valhalla, while mine would be sent directly to the world of the dead, Helheim."

"So your intention when you trapped yourself here was to live long enough to strengthen yourself again and seek revenge?"

"Yes and no... The Circle mages are not good people... and I bet they are doing even more atrocities all over the world after stealing most of my powers... I will stop them not only for revenge... but also because that is what my husband would want, for the... greater... good."

"And what do you need to be freed?" Kaizen asked, staring at the bizarre sphere from which the voice came."

"Just a half-dead body... of any animal. Even a mere raven would suffice."

"That's it? Sounds easy enough to me."

"Does that mean... that you will free me?" The Evil Spirit asked, anxiously.

"No, it was just a question. Before I decide, I have one more last question to ask you."

"All right, go ahead... I will answer truthfully, I swear."

Then Kaizen raised the hand that was holding the candlestick and asked:

"What does this mean to you?"

The object in Psyker's left hand was trembling, as well as his flame was stronger than ever.

The core answered him only after a little over ten seconds.

"It's a candelabra, of course. Why the questioning?"

At that moment, Kaizen finally made a decision. "It would have been so much easier if you had forced yourself to speak the truth."

He sighed, smiled falsely at the Evil Spirit, and threw the candelabra into the core that condensed so much energy.

What happened next was that the candlestick fire when it came in contact the pure energy of the core caused a combustion chain reaction similar to how the energy was a gas, thus generating an overwhelming explosion of light, energy and flames.

*TZOOOMMM*

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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