The Mysterious Manor – Team Distraction
Upon Bernkastel examining the basket of dark orbs, clearly inactive for quite some time, Guardian simply stared with curiosity, watching her search for its counterparts. The deeper Bernkastel looked around, the more artifacts she found from various worlds—including her own and even things that took place in the place. While they were in a deteriorating state, they were carefully preserved to prevent further damage.
Strangely, there exist no white orbs at all. A peculiar situation, since the tools was thought to required both dark and white orbs to activate it. Yet, no matter where Bernkastel searched, she would only find dark orbs.
Guardian’s eyes softened when Bernkastel briefly mentioned the existence of white orbs. “Someone managed to absorb Jinaira’s power from the dark orb, resulting the first ever white variation.” It was indirect, but it somewhat answers Bernkastel’s question. “I have yet to see any attempts from others doing the same.” It was an indication that white orbs are not only uncommon, but a near improbable event unless done in extreme circumstances. Guardian ended her statement and turned her eyes towards the direction of stunned Zenta, but she was looking what lies before him.
Spina eyed the record player briefly, the music fizzled out instantly. The classical melody was more than just an annoyance, it infuriated him, causing an upset his focus and psyche. The bulging veins that became apparent on his forehead ceased and receded, and he became calm afterwards. He couldn’t explain why he did it. Neither could he explain why it bothered him so much that destroying it completely was the first choice he picked. He just reacted on a “instinctively” level.
The old Saiyan’s head cleared from any “infuriating music”, he returned his usual demeanor. “Tch. It was easier that way.” He justified. Ultimately, the matter was dropped when Detective Bage revealed the bottle to the team. No doubt it will contain another round of critical information; perhaps a deeper inspection of this grand hive that Nia claimed. “Alright,” Spina crossed his arms. “Hurrying it up and tell us what it says—”
Spina felt a thud due to Zenta’s careless movements. “What the hell are you doing?!” He snapped. Seeing Zenta acting all distraught over something, pushing everyone towards the ground, nearly tripping himself and claiming that he saw something. “What lady in a dress?” The old Saiyan grabbed onto Zenta’s fur on his chest, trying to make him stay still so he won’t be bumping into more things. “There’s no one here except us?!”
After Spina attempted to make Zenta stay still, his voice feeble out and instead replaced by a feminine tone. Once again, Zenta witnessed a womanly figure in a dress. This time, she was observing the record player that was smashed by the old Saiyan. “So many visitors as of late—the House of Jinaira will be in a disarray if this continues.”
She turned her head slightly towards Zenta, eyeing the beast with combination of curiosity and genuinely anger. “The record players are one of millions I’ve gathered for preservation, but that vase is one of its kind.” She turned around, revealing herself to him. As previously stated, she towers over Zenta. Holding a churchwarden pipe and wearing an impeccable dress, she walked as she sway her hips back and forth, indicating a kind of oozing confidence around her. One particular thing to note that her eyes, like Zenta, was also covered, but with a blindfold rather than a visor. “Noisy visitors aside, you wronged me by destroying that precious vase. I’ll shall take something from you, Baliko.”
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The Mysterious Manor – Team Stealth
“Killing intent?” Spawn turned to Bara. Due to the influence of this room in particular, his thoughts immediately rush to the thought that Bara herself was emitting killing intent. “So, it came to this…” Spawn clenched his fists as his thoughts run wild.
However, when May agreed with Bara’s institution that there was killing intent in this room, Spawn relaxed slightly. He had no reason to doubt her, even if his mind was filled with paranoia and assumptions based on nothing. Furthermore, when Avalon expressed the horrors, he saw with the night vision google that aligned with Bara’s warning, the Detective turned on the night vision goggles to see it for himself.
His eyes widened upon the absolute horrors that these creature’s appearances. While their silhouette can assist anyone of what they are, upon closer inspection, their entire bodies were blackened. Only their eyes, bursting with red, and their teeth, as white it can be, are explicitly seen. But their appearance isn’t what shook the Detective.
The souls stashed away under his cloak rattled dramatically—each of them signals warnings to the Detective of what to come next. Killing Intent, as Bara described, was a mere understatement of what everyone was feeling at that moment. “Run.” They warned with fear in their voices. “Get out of there, now.”
A single creature emerges from the darkness. With his eyes and bear teeth present, the Detective had a choice as an influx of paranoia filled his head: leave or fight. Regardless of his choice, it did not matter. The mere thought causes the creature to react and he was battered with multiple blows. From their perspective, the creature never moved from his spot, but it was clear that he unleashed deadly blows against Spawn. The wind knocked out of him; Detective Spawn tumbled back a few times before stopping.
“Ultra-Instinct, more or less, bypass the uses of sending commands to the brain to allow a movement. No longer bound to it, your body moves freely without restrictions or delays…” A memory appeared in Spawn’s mind: a brief moment with Detective Goku.
“There are different variations of Ultra Instinct from other worlds from what I’ve seen. But all of them along with Ultra Instinct has a drawback: no matter how we tried to suppress it, our personalities will always be a factor.” Detective Goku’s tone sharpened. “I won’t get into the details, but I’ve learned one of two states where even personalities will no longer be a factor.” He turns to Spawn. His lips parted slowly as he tells him a name of a “state”, he warned, that symbolized the concept of “pure instinct: “Empty Mind”
It was an odd memory that appeared after being attacked, but it was enough to realized that they needed to escape this room. Seeing that the fate of these dead Xy’phers were clearly done by these creatures, oozing with pure instincts, the Detective turned to the direction of the door as he tried to recover from his sudden injuries. His eyes narrowed seeing Lucifer already halfway through.
“Come, friends.” Lucifer said in a deep, monotone voice. “Death is all but certain here. Do not engage or perished by the hands of these foul beasts.”
There wasn’t much to considered. Spawn was clearly in no position of fighting something that he’s not aware of and did not want to find out what result the Xy’phers to end up in the state like that. He forced himself up to his feet and ran towards the door on the other side. A signal that drove all the creatures that eyed them into a frenzy as they rushed towards Team Stealth.
