Ethan's POV
We soon reached the central throne room. Similar to before, it was cloaked in darkness and its atmosphere looked oppressive and eerie.
The dim, bloody glow from the crimson chandelier cast sinister shadows that flickered and danced across the walls.
I scanned the room but found no sign of Master Nyx or Duchess Altheria. Obvious confusion churned within though after so ti it made sense that they wouldn't remain in one spot waiting for us indefinitely.
Seeing this Victor, Virelle, and I exchanged glances. I noticed the shadow of disappointnt that flashed across Virelle's face.
"Master must have gone hunting in the Stygian Woods," Virelle said after a brief silence. Her voice carried a tinge of weariness.
"With night approaching, it's the perfect ti for her hunt. Elder Brother, would you prefer to wait here until she returns or head back ho through the Nexus portal?"
Victor sighed and his troubled expression betrayed his thoughts. I could tell that he hadn't anticipated such inconvenience.
In a resigned voice, he replied, "It's not a big deal. I don't have to travel by foot after all. The Nexus portal to our territory is close and I can stay here for the night. My only concern is whether the lord will find it presumptuous of to take up residence here without her permission."
"You don't need to worry about that, Brother," Virelle replied in a voice as cold as the darkness surrounding us.
"I'll explain everything to Master, including the fight in the underground. She'll deal with the Countess's family soon enough and root out the tumors in their midst."
I stayed silent, knowing that my presence in the castle for the next two years was already decided. There was no question of leaving it now like Victor and I had to remain here till Master Nyx ca to pick up.
It was just that I was confused as they hadn't made anything clear to .
"Let's go," Virelle said, her tone more composed. "I'll show you both to your quarters for the night."
She led the way into the shadowy corridors once more, and Victor and I followed close behind. As we walked, the encroaching darkness seed to gain a life of its own.
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The castle which was already foreboding in the daylight now felt wholly otherworldly as the sun sank below the horizon.
The dark corridors we had traversed earlier now dissolved into shifting shadows that seed alive. The air grew colder and heavier, and the dim walls around us appeared to ripple like water under an unseen current.
A strange sense of familiarity pricked at my thoughts. This seems similar to… yes, the Shadowed Paths. The realization hit as we turned into yet another shadowy corridor.
However, the phenonon here seed controlled and less chaotic and volatile than the underground city's Shadowed Paths. The difference between them intrigued , and I pondered over its reason.
'The castle's oppressive atmosphere which is clearly steeped in blood and darkness must have triggered the appearance of these pseudo-paths.'
My curiosity flared, pulling back to the swirling dark fog I had encountered in the Shadowed Paths. The shadowy snake-like creature that slithered through those depths was etched in my mory.
Its existence and appearance had felt like a glimpse into a parallel world—a place that existed alongside our own and was accessible only under specific conditions.
I recalled the esoteric texts I had read in the Black Tower Library that spoke of overlapping worlds and higher dinsions. At the ti, I had dismissed their contents as too complex and abstract without any actual base in their claim.
But now, as I walked through these alive and pulsating corridors those fragnts of theory began to take shape in my mind.
After thinking deeply for a mont in this silent walk, I concluded that the boundaries between the Agate Star World and this shadowy realm seed to dissolve here which created such a precarious overlap in the Scarlet Hollow City and this castle.
This realization sent a thrill through . For the first ti, I felt like I was scratching the surface of sothing vast and profound.
A fleeting glimpse of the vast scope of this magical universe flashed in my mind and I felt happy from the bottom of my heart. It felt as if I had achieved sothing great and opened doors to a whole new world of possibilities.
A small smile crept onto my lips as the thought of uncovering such secrets filled with an almost childlike excitent. The seemingly alive and unreal corridors seed to welco into their mystery as we vanished into the darkness.
Virelle's POV
Leading Ethan and Big Brother through the castle's dark corridors, I couldn't help but glance back.
Ethan was smiling faintly with his eyes fixated on the shadowy walls around us. He seed lost in thought, completely unaware of my gaze.
I followed his line of sight but the sight that t sent a shudder through my body. The shadows clinging to the walls no longer felt inert. They moved subtly, like tendrils of liquid darkness slithering just out of sight.
The night was arriving fast. A wave of dread gripped as I thought of what that ant. We needed to reach our rooms soon.
The castle changed at night. It always did.
Even after all these years, I had never dared roam its halls alone once the sun setted on the horizon and night arrived.
The night brought with it a primal terror and a suffocating sense always seed to scream at that the walls themselves were always alive and watching. The darkness whispered, groaned, and howled, filling the air with sounds that seed to pierce the soul.
I still clearly rember my first night in the castle vividly. The walls and floor had looked like black, pulsating flesh that moved as though they were alive. A distinct vibration had echoed in my mind that seed synchronized with the grotesque rhythm of that living structure.
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