When Riku and Kaede finally found themselves no longer being moved and shifted around, they soon found themselves in a large sort room. It appeared rather fancy, with a wonderful and large chandelier, adorned with the brightest and most spectacular crystals. It appeared to be solid gold as well, and in the center of the room was a large, ornate dining hall with a table that was decorated to the level of royalty. Crystal glasses and decorated plates, silverware made of the purest silver, and chairs made of wood that looked more expensive then all of the stuff in their rooms combined. One could probably afford to feed a hundred families for a hundred days with the wealth poured into these creations.

Unfortunately, it appeared their purpose had been twisted slightly. When Riku and Kaede had been placed into the chairs, magical bands went around their wrists and ankles, and their possessions were horribly out of reach at the moment. They were strapped to these chairs with no way to escape, and no matter how hard they fought they could not break through the bands. The chairs were too tall as well, so their feet could not touch the floor. Instead they just dangled off of them, helpless and incapable of escape.

It was only then that a figure emerged from the shadows. It wore a metal mask that covered its face and head completely, with a person's face on the front. It had a neutral expression, although it seemed a bit stern and rigid. It wore fanciful robes that were adorned with rings, one for each finger except the thumb, but from what they could see, its skin appeared old and dried, like an old zombie or a mummy.

"I see we have new guests" it spoke in an excited sort of way. Its tone seemed a bit flat at times, but they were fairly certain there was excitement in there. "It has been ever so long since we had guests. And I suppose, in the end, they were never guests to begin with. After all, they became residents of this place just like me. Ah, but like them, we should get you fed!"

Riku and Kaede didn't feel all that great about this line of thinking. Or rather, they had no intention of also becoming residents here.

"Kaede, any closer to breaking free?"

"Not at all".

"Breaking...changing...oh wait a second, how foolish of me. We can't have guests in such shabby clothes".

With a snap of his fingers, the bands bent themselves around their wrists and ankles and made them stand up, before their clothes magically came off on their own accord. One by one they removed themselves and walked off to a corner of the room, until they were both as naked as the day they were born. The figure then made them walk closer to him, as he revealed his hands. They were boney, with just a thin layer of skin upon them, but noticably his fingers were incredibly long. Each one was at least a meter long, with who knows how many joints.

Both of their bodies became wrapped within his fingers as it felt their skin, their muscles, their everything.

"I see, so those are your measurements. I shall go fetch some proper evening attire for you both. In the mean time...you two should practice your ballroom dancing".

Snapping his ridiculously long fingers, the two of them were forced to take each other's hands and pull themselves close, close enough for their chests to push against each other. Both of them blushing like crazy, in part because they both had a crush on each other, not that they knew the other person had a crush on them back. Although they had seen each other naked plenty of times since coming to this world now, this was different. Leaving aside the forced nature of this, they had also never been made to be so close like this, nor made to ballroom dance in such a condition.

"Ow!"

"Sorry" Riku said, as the music changed and they learned in close. Given their current states, this caused a rather unpleasant situation. As a result, stepping on each other's feet were common among other annoyances. "...sorry, for ummm...that too..."

"It's fine" Kaede said, only slightly in pain and embarrassed. "I don't suppose you have any way to break us out?"

"These bands seem to have right control on our movements, we are in that guy's clutches until we can break free. And I think he will come back soon, and hopefully he doesn't kill us when he dresses us, so we are better off escaping soon".

"Thats good...to be honest, as embarrasing as this is, I am rather concerned on what he might return with more. Iv heard stories about these corsets, and somehow in this place, I get the feeling we might not survive them".

"I get the feeling we might end up as dinner at this rate" Riku added. Unfortunately for them, things did not look so easy for them to deal with.

It was only then that the figure returned, carrying a whole variety of fancy looking clothes. The clothes seemed to flow out like magic, flying around and then putting themselves on the two ten year olds. These clothes were fancy and wonderous, with one being a lovely yellow dress with some moderate frills, with the shoulders and arms exposed and the edges of the dress stopping just before the knees, as well as a rather comfy pair of panties and some lovely matching yellow shoes. The other was a rather dashing noble suit made for children, with a lovely red velvet overcoat, black pants, red bowtie, and white collared shirt. The dress shoes were comfy enough to be good for dancing as well.

"Ah wonderful! Perfect!"

"Wh-what?!"

"Seriously?"

Both of them were shocked by their new clothes. They were clearly super expensive luxury materials that high nobles would use. The creature was so overjoyed, tentacles came down from under the mask and wiggled with what appeared to be joy. The fact it also had tentacles kind of freaked them out, but they were also glad they were not used to measure them earlier.

Suddenly it snapped its fingers, as spectral guests began to flood into the room. However, there was something clearly wrong with these phantoms. Like the two of them, they had bands of light around their wrists and ankles, and many of them while dressed in a fancy way appeared to have been brutally murdered, possibly slowly and over time. This just reaffirmed their need to escape as soon as possible, as the way this thing acted likely was some form of delusion. The phantoms seemed to grumble and speak incoherently, and a number of them just randomly screamed in pain on occasion.

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"This is not looking well for us...we need to break free".

"How? None of us have the power needed. Maybe if Kuroki, Riza, or Ozlo was here".

Kuroki might know a spell to break them free, Ozlo could probably burn away the bands with Dragonfyre, and Riza could probably cut through them. Any of them could help them, but they were a warrior and a rogue. They were severely lacking in the magical restrain breaking category.

"Didn't you learn how to pick locks from Ellie?"

"Yeah, but do you see locks on these things?"

"Fair enough".

It was obvious the creature was controlling all of this, but so long as these bands were on, they could not do anything about it. As music began to play, everyone began to dance.

"...may I have this dance, Kaede?"

"...you may, Riku".

With nothing else to do, the two decided to play into it a bit to get their minds off of it. However, they were still scared for their lives, and trying to figure out a way to get out of this somehow. Riku really wished he had his sword with him. it was across the hall, resting against a wall, clearly in view, but with the bands controlling their movements, they were basically puppets on a string.

"Puppets...hold on, the rings on his fingers. Those fingers are way too long for rings, so why does he wear so many?"

"They were probably shorter before".

"Or maybe, one of them contains the spell being used to control us".

"I see. So we just need to cut off his fingers then, but we cant even freely move. How will we do that?"

"He wants us to dance right? What if we got really into it...it might be a bit embarrassing, but our best bet is to go all in on the dancing".

"Very well. Lets do it".

Kaede took his hand as they began to dance. With proper footing and clothes, they were much better this time, and the music was slower...and rather romantic.

The two began their waltz, knowing just enough from what they have seen in TV to know what they are doing. No, it was actually really messy, but for ten year olds, it was brilliant. They were taking it slow and steady and keeping to the music very well, as they gazed into each other's eyes. Their feelings flowed over, as they danced their danced.

Many of the other phantoms danced as well, and the room became a beautiful sight of dancing and music. Even if no one was here by choice, Kaede and Riku had each other. They were only ten years old, but after everything that happened, they have done a lot of growing up lately. And in the background, some things had been building up. They danced and danced, forgetting about the dangers, the troubles, all of it for a moment as they gazed into each other's eyes.

"Kaede..."

"Riku..."

As the two danced and danced and as the lovely music flowed around, it was then that something changed.

Suddenly, two of the phantoms were skewered by the creature's claws, and they shouted in pain. "No no no! You two should not be dancing together, you are not comatible with each other! No no no!"

"Oh no..."

Unfortunately for the two of them, he was heading their way. With the bands, they would be helpless. No savior had came, and they were doomed.

"Kaede, sorry. It looks like this is it".

"Would...would you mind doing one last thing for me?"

"What?"

"I...never really kissed a boy before..."

Riku blushed, but then he just went right in and kissed her on the lips. Suddenly, with their emotions in a flurry, their mana surged as well, and a strange pulse of white renergy resonated within them before errupting outwards.

"That was...electric" Riku said as he pulled away.

"Yeah, it was..." Kaede said as she wiped away a tear with her hand...and that was when they noticed it. They could move their hands and feet again. "What, how the..."

"it doesn't matter how...hold on! Brilliant Flash!"

Picking Kaede up briefly, Riku used his Brilliant Flash stepping technique to get them out of the way as the Host almost skewered them, saying they danced too clumsily. He brought them right to their gear as well, and they quickly got their weapons.

"No! Cannot...must stop! Cannot let rebellious children ruin the party! Must educate!"

"We don't need any education from you, creepy thing".

The Host was certainly creepy, as Riku had started referring to him as in his head. It was clearly some sort of combined creature, and Riku had a feeling its stench it might have been an undead.

"Brilliant Flare!"

Riku charged forth. It immediately moved to counter, but then a bomb landed at its feet. It errupted into smoke and a bit of napalm, setting it on fire as Riku cut through it with a burning sword. Unfortunately, the Host seemed to move away, avoiding any critical damage although it did lose a finger and part of one of its four legs, as Riku managed to cut through its clothes. It suddenly created several red spheres around him, which it proceeded to launch at them. The violent magical attacks seemed hellbent on ending them, and they ripped apart the very air itself. As they moved to dodge, the attacks followed after them, like a relentless bloodhound chasing its prey. Riku threw a chair in its way, and it was utterly obliterated.

"Nothing seems to stop these things! And we are running out of room!"

Had they been faster, the two of them would be dead already. Right as they accepted their fate though, a golden barrier protected them, as the phantoms shielded them from harm. The phantoms too no longer had the golden bands of light on them, meaning they were free...and glaring at The Host with a lot of anger. It had been the one to kill them here, and then imprison their ghosts. They were absolutely pissed off at the creatures.

Unfortunately, whatever this Host was, it was overpowering them. The barrier successfully blocked and prevented the projectiles from going forward, causing them to detonate. However, it was just creating more, more and more with even more power. Its long fingers spread themselves out, magical energy pouring out of them from the rings.

"I must educate and lead you all, so you can truly enjoy your time here!"

Suddenly beams of light fired from it. The two of them took cover as the ghosts tried to block it. They were protected from the worst of it thankfully, but their allies had dwindled a bit, using up their power. The beams scorched and obliterated all in their way, and resulted in lots of death and destruction, although it was true a good number of them were already dead. There was nothing they could do about that however, as the Host charged up another beam, looking forward to ending them for good.

"I must ensure the Crown's guests are treated properly! I shall serve forever, I shall help him teach and train his guests! Hehehehe!"

Its strange laugh made them even more unnerved, as the creature summoned tentacles out of the ground to try and ensnare them all, so that way they would be unable to dodge this time. They had several turnarounds, but this appeared to finally be the end...

"Reversal counter!"

Suddenly, someone new burst through the sealed doors and cut through the beam with his sword, then turning the flight side towards it as it fired back at The Host, blasting him backwards.

"Sorry it took me so long to get here guy...pfft! What the hell are you wearing?!"

"Sh-shut up and kill that thing so we can change back!"

"Pf...hahahahaha!"

"Shut it Riza!"

Yes, it was Riza who had arrived and found them.

Riza nodded, understanding the situation now. However, there was one thing he needed to know.

"The ghosts, are they hostile or friendly?"

"Friendly and long term victims! They need saving...and to be avenged".

Riza narrowed his eyes, his tone dropped to a more serious level.

"UNderstood. I will handle this quickly then".

And so, Riza went and faced The Host.