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"T-There..."

With a press of a button, a warm flush of air erupted from Guidance\'s keyboard. I let out a sigh of relief, letting a bit of comfort seep into my skin as I soaked in the warmth that the dev was giving us.

"That should give us a bit of leeway," Guidance nodded in satisfaction, her keyboard still glowing as it kept us warm against the cold. "I don\'t know how long I can make it last, or if it can even handle much colder temperatures than this, but it\'ll have to do for now."

"Right," I nodded. "Let\'s keep going then, shall we?"

With a collective nod, the party pressed on with our exploration of the manor. Unlike going up, going down almost felt like we were spelunking as the light behind us slowly blinked out of existence. Soon enough, the only source of light we had left was from Maruki\'s shield and what little glow Guidance\'s keyboard emitted. It wasn\'t much, but at least we weren\'t completely blind.

"How long is this stairwell?" Shade curiously asked with hushed tones. "It feels like we\'ve been going down for quite a while."

"I don\'t know," Guidance replied, the fear in her voice becoming more apparent despite her eyes being stuck on her keyboard.. "All we know is that we should keep going until it stops."

"Are you sure you don\'t remember designing this part of the manor?" I quickly chimed in, my eyes starting to strain against the proverbial void gnawing all around us.

"If I did, I wouldn\'t be pissing my pants right now," Guidance weakly muttered. "At the moment, all I know is that I made this place as scary and creepy as possible, possibly to the point that I forced myself to forget it the moment I was finished."

"How convenient," Shade scoffed.

I almost let out a small chuckle when I suddenly realized just how quiet the world had been ever since we stopped talking. With the exception of our own footsteps, there was absolutely nothing that seemed to be making any noise around us.

"It\'s-"

[*ggggrrrooowwwlll....*]

We all stopped dead in our tracks as a low grumbling growl echoed from right underneath us. The stairwell shook dangerously as the foreboding groan bounced off unseen walls, repeating itself in a staggered manner that just emphasized how completely out of depth we were.

"S-Should we stop?" Shen fearfully asked.

"We can\'t," I frowned, controlling my own fear as the darkness seemed to grow even darker. "We have to keep going if we want to save Shizu."

The deep dark confines of the basement never seemed to end the further down we went. Despite the light coming from Maruki\'s shield, it never truly pierced through the void as darkness was the only thing we saw in front of us. With our view never really going past a few meters, each step felt like we were about to walk off a cliff, a sinking feeling growing ever so stronger as we plunged down the deepest depths of this place.

The silence that surrounded us was both eerie and deafening. None of us dared to make a sound as the creaky wooden steps beneath our feet made more than enough noise for us to not feel the need to speak. It was.... unnatural... There was the sound of the howling winds faintly echoing from beyond us, and yet the air was as still as a hot summer desert. There was nothing... No sight... no sound... not even a certain type of new smell that greeted us the more we went down.

It was all... nothing...

Absently, I tried looking down, only to be greeted by more darkness despite Maruki\'s light piercing through as much of it as it could. Still, was it truly that bottomless? Or maybe Maruki\'s light was just too weak to pierce through the veil of nothingness in front of us?

[*aefiywegygwasfhuy3q7rq8gwia*]

We all stilled in our steps. There were no words to be shared as we kept ourselves on edge. I could feel my palms sweating as the cold seemed to return. Not as debilitating as it was back when we first stepped foot on this staircase, but it was just enough for us to know that Guidance had to up her warmth a bit.

Giving the dev a nod, she fiddled with her keyboard, and another pulse of warmth echoed out of her [Manifest]. Well, it didn\'t completely solve the problem, but at least it was enough to keep us from freezing over like last time.

Wordlessly, we all stared at each other, with me giving out the nod to continue as we kept on going.

With each step, a strong all-encompassing feeling of being watched became stronger. For some reason, it felt like the very air around us wanted to keep an eye on us. And if I wasn\'t thinking any better, I would\'ve thought that there were eyes hidden underneath the veil of darkness just piercing us with their ever-present gaze.

How I wanted to talk, to at least share some of my thoughts with someone, but the absolute silence felt far too quiet for me to break it with my words. It felt like speaking would somehow invoke the wrath of whatever it was beneath us, and my heart just couldn\'t bear the thought of angering such a creature.

...

...I blinked. That was a stray thought... Something was wrong.

"Guida-"

[*fbaiubfLEAVEu3y489Ahscabdv8vUSoier89wf*]

Another echo of incomprehensible noise smothered us from underneath. This time, I somehow understood what it was trying to say. It sounded like a woman... almost like...

"S-Shizu?"

Shen\'s words almost felt like a bucket of ice dumped over my head. It did sound like the princess, only less energetic and more imposing... almost like she was actually an Imperial princess.

[*jefbiyvbiWEoudsuvAREbuonfo834y98YSAFE834y98H*FYSFG*]

Another one... This time, it was more understandable as Shizu\'s voice became clearer amidst all the garbage.

"T-The princess..." Shade whispered out... almost in a daze... "She calls..."

My eyes widened. "Guidance?!"

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