Chapter 62: Basement Dwellers (2/2)
A reincarnated Isekai human from Earth and chosen of Cybele, the goddess of pleasure; which means that you have NO excuses. Chocolatine’s best friend, but would like to do the pastry with the werewolf in the barn, if you see what I mean; unlike you, she’s smart enough to keep things simple. Go for the melting pot salad!
Good to know. He feared to read the new information on Chocolatine but peeked anyway.
Shadowman
Doppelganger Inveigler (Fairy/Humanoid)
Strong against Fairy, Mind-Control, Poison, Illusions, Paralysis, Sleep, and Truth-Detection.
Weak against Manslayer, Cold Iron, and Silver.
Just your natural born killer.
Victor immediately grabbed his scythe. “Doppelganger! Allison, behind me!”
“What?” both the dryad and the werewolf said at the same time. Did the doppelganger hope to mislead him by feigning confusion?
If so, it didn’t deceive his Perk nor his allies. Kia instantly drew her sword and moved with such swiftness, Victor didn’t even see her pull her blade on Chocolatine’s throat. The werewolf let out a squeal of surprise. “Where is the real one?” Kia threatened.
“What is all the racket?” a familiar voice called out of the room, a second Chocolatine stepping through the door. She looked up at her double, exchanged a glance with her, then turned to Victor himself. “Vic, you replaced me?”
Victor and every person in the room blinked, the Vizier immediately used his Perk on her next.
Shadowman
Doppelganger Inveigler (Fairy/Humanoid)
Strong against Fairy, Mind-Control, Poison, Illusions, Paralysis, Sleep, and Truth-Detection.
Weak against Manslayer, Cold Iron, and Silver.
Just your natural born killer.
… damn.
“Stop!” Victor told Kia. “They’re using a spell to reflect false information somehow, I can’t see which one is the real Chocolatine!”
“They’re identical,” Kia muttered to herself, pushing the first Chocolatine against a wall with her free arm, and then threatening the second with her blade. “It’s not an illusion. [Karma Scan]... they both appear as strongly evil too! How could they falsify their karma?”
Victor decided not to comment on how her karma scan hadn’t misled her.
Charisma check successful! Shadowman can’t read your thoughts, and now you know it tried!
Victor eyed both women with suspicion. One, if not both, of them, was definitely an infiltrator. The Nightblades must have sent him because they couldn’t bypass the wards.
“Vic, it’s an impostor!” the first Chocolatine pleaded. “She’s trying to confuse you!”
“Oh, oh, I see!” the second Chocolatine said with disturbing cheerfulness. “It’s a spot the fake moment! I always wanted to encounter one!”
“What do I shout when I use my legendary sword,” Victor asked. Trick question.
“EXCALIBUR!” both shouted at once.
Victor face-palmed. The doppelganger may not be able to detect his own thoughts, it could probably read the minds of others, including Chocolatine herself.
“Oh, I know a way!” Ranger Pink said. “We summon two fiends!”
“Good idea,” Blue nodded. “The one who murders it in the most painful way is obviously the real one!”
“You all think I’m crazy?” the first one asked, dejected.
“Chocolatine may kill, she never does it sadistically,” Allison pointed out. “Only to feed. It’s pretty much in her god’s tenets.”
“I knew you would stand by me, Allison!” the second one chirped.
“Eat both,” Junior said hungrily. “Sure.”
“Sure!” the jelly on its back agreed.
“Vic…” Kia trailed off. “You make the call.”
The Grand Vizier examined both women, trying to figure out personal information that could tell the true one apart. If he hadn’t switched ‘mount’ in preparation for the fight with Lavere, then he could have summoned the real one, but now...
Think, Victor. How did they get around his Perk, after it managed to pierce through all their natural immunities? Why risk him telling the right one apart? Unless… unless...
Intelligence check successful.
“None of them are the real one.”
He hadn’t had the time to finish his sentence, that it was over already. Kia cut down both werewolves in the blink of an eye, letting them fall on the ground.
Allison let out a scream of horror and surprise, putting her hands on her mouth. “Vic, what the… what have you...”
Both corpses shifted into solid shadows, before collapsing into nothingness.
“They captured the real one,” Victor explained, while Allison calmed herself. “Psychological warfare.” A ploy based on his innate acceptance of the rules presented before him? Smart, but he had learned from the best.
Then the hall went dark, all light and the fire dying out.
The terrain has been temporarily changed to [Dark Underworld].
Nocturnal creatures, fiends, and undead on the field have their stats increased, and will be harder to turn. All non-nocturnal creatures will suffer from the [Blind] ailment. Monotype, non-undead creatures will be animated as undead if killed on the field.
All stats increased by one stage!
“[Light Shield]!” Victor heard Kia shout, a round barrier of solid light forming around the group. A haunting, piper melody echoed across the hall as she did.
“Behind us, chief!” the Kobold Rangers formed a ring around Victor, alongside Junior and his protegee, “Stay back! We have a mimiczord on our side!”
A wail echoed in the darkness in response, as half a dozen, skeletal ghosts crashed against the barrier.
“This mansion…” Kia trailed, as the vengeful spirits bounced off the light barrier, disappearing as soon as they hit it. “How old is it?”
“Older than the town,” Allison replied, “A dark wizard inhabited it when Rolo first began to labor the fields. It is full of grudges and dark spirits.”
“That is odd since the architecture seems… gothic?” Kia struggled to find the right word. “It looks straight from Earth.”
A place full of spirits and dark grudges? “Wait, wait, wait,” Victor said. “Didn’t that magician do experiments in the basement or something?”
The Nightblades knew that he had the map, that killing him might destabilize Murmurin, and that this manor may have served as some nightmarish lab...
Victor searched in one of his armor’s hidden containers with his free hand, drawing out Mot’s map, and reading it by the light of the barrier.
It showed Lavere’s location right next to his own.
His basement.
The ghostly assault halted, a new shape approaching the light barrier; Victor recognized him as Emile Lavere, the vampire whom he fought before. “We only want Dalton and the map,” he announced. “Leave him to us, and we’ll let you go.”
Kia responded by bursting into laughter.
“We may not be able to kill you, Shining Knight, but you can’t protect them all,” the assassin replied, unfazed. “And that’s not even mentioning the civilians we’ll keep killing so long as he lives.”
“Why me?” Victor protested, putting the map back inside his armor. “What have I ever done to you?”
“If you die, this regime collapses,” Emile Lavere pointed out. “The dragon will go crazy, mismanage his troops, and return to his old ways. You’re his emotional anchor, so we’ll take you off the board. Forever.”
Warning: The manor is under a [Soul Trap] effect!
If you die within its radius of effect, your soul will be trapped in its focus point.
“The focus?” Victor pondered, assuming the others had seen the same message.
“The [Solomonari’s Grimoire],” Kia explained, “It will catch your soul and prevent any form of resurrection so long as it exists.”
“No more revival,” Emile unsheathed his daggers, others glittering in the darkness. “No afterlife. No nothing.”
Victor knew his angel insurance was a waste of SP.