The monster continued to attack Aubrey, oblivious to her internal debate. She sidestepped another lash of its chains, ducking low before leaping forward on one leg into a spinning pirouette—just like one Seraphine pulled off before. Her heel connected against its side in a fierce roundhouse kick, landing hard enough to lift it off the ground and send flying sideways into one wall.
[Skill: Shove of the Heartbeat's Force Activated! Cooldown: 8 seconds]
It crashed heavily into the bricks with a crunch before sliding down onto its knees atop scattered debris where it remained motionless for a couple moments.
"Get ready, because I have an idea," Aubrey called out as she dashed straight toward it again. "Get those chains off its body and I'll try something!"
"What? What sort of plan do you even intend to try?" Levy responded in surprise before complying with her order, throwing a series of ofuda strips against the Unhallowed's form, pinning it against the wall in place. "I trust you have something planned."
Aubrey didn't bother replying. Her mind ran through the available options at her disposal, trying to pick out anything that could possibly work in this situation while evading another chain thrown forth by the chained monstrosity.
Seraphine leapt into action too, running towards the monster's left while brandishing her rapier high. Her blade glinted brightly in the dim light as she slashed once through both sets of manacles binding it, severing their hold around its arms just as they attempted grabbing Aubrey by the ankle mid-stride. The broken lengths fell limp at its sides.
That left only the one coil wrapped around its right arm. A chain shot up to block Seraphine's second slash, but she managed to knock it aside before striking true. The metal clanked loudly upon impact against stone floor, releasing its grip around its owner's limb entirely.
With the creature completely unbound at last, Aubrey lunged towards her target with one hand raised high. Her palm touched down against its chest as she felt her mind slipping inward into itself, reaching toward a place far beyond where even words existed anymore...
She closed her eyes and focused on the cantata she had used to soothe and influence the emotions of those around her. But this time, she would combine it with two more abilities—Echo of Vitality, the power that boosted stamina and life force, and Chorus of Clarity, the power that removes negative mental effects.
[Abilities: Mood-Inducing Cantata + Chorus of Clarity + Echo of Vitality Activated!]
[Successful Combination: Con Brio!]
The world around her dissolving into a storm of whispers and shadows. The creature's anguish bled into her, filling her senses with despair and rage. But beneath it all, she felt a different voice calling out to her: pleading, crying, begging to be heard.
Aubrey responded by projecting a soothing melody along their shared connection. She wove the cantata's power into a gentle lullaby, carrying with it the promise of calm and release from the prison of its own suffering.
Her voice rose and fell in gentle waves, wrapping around it like a soft, comforting blanket. She could feel its struggles lessen, its movements slowing to a standstill as the song began to take root in its consciousness.
But she needed more than just calmness. Aubrey needed to free it.
The soothing melody intertwined with rejuvenating energy, forming a harmonic resonance that filled the air between them as she belted out the final notes of her impromptu composition.
[Combination: Requiem of Release Activated! Cooldown: 12 hours]
It let out a low, keening wail, its arms limp by its sides. Its grotesque features softened, the sallow skin gaining a hint of color. The chains that had bound it so tightly started to dissolve, turning to ash upon the ground as it sank forward onto its knees. Aubrey felt its pain and anger fade away until only the barest thread of its presence remained in her consciousness.
"You... helped me," came a quiet, feminine voice echoing inside Aubrey's head. "Thank you."
Aubrey stared down at the kneeling creature whose body began disintegrating into dust and ash. Even its clothing turned into tatters, falling off its form as it shriveled in size until only a withered skeleton remained, crumbling quickly afterwards.
[You've acquired a large amount of experience]
[Your rank increased from Allegretto to Vivace]
[You have 2 unused Talent Points]
[You have 2 unused Ability Points]
[You can increase one of your attributes by one grade]
Seraphine approached cautiously, lowering her guard while eyeing the scene unfold before her with a raised brow.
Levy joined them a moment after, glancing around for any signs of a remaining threat. "How did you do that?"
"I just followed my gut and improvised," Aubrey sighed heavily, wiping away at her sweat-covered forehead before turning to the two. "Are we safe now or not?"
Seraphine took another moment looking over everything again but nodded eventually, sheathing her weapon back on its scabbard. "Yes... the remaining ghouls have been dealt with. How did you know how to free her? I've never even heard of such a thing happening before..."
Aubrey shrugged in response. "Again, just going with my instincts. My songs aren't just meant for entertainment, ya know! They can also heal. That creature needed to be healed, both mind and spirit, so I gave her what she needed most."
The two Hunters shared a long look before returning their gazes toward her—both looking somewhat bewildered.
Levy chuckled and shook his head in wonderment as he pocketed his last unused ofuda strip inside his coat, muttering under his breath about having never seen anything quite like it before.
Seraphine, too, cracked a slight smile despite herself, giving Aubrey a curt nod of acknowledgment. "Fair enough then. Let's continue on before something worse pops out."
----------------------------------------
The trio returned to their exploration, leaving the empty hallway behind as they continued along a different route than whence they came earlier. Seraphine and Levy flanked her, walking at an arm's length apart from one another without exchanging so much as a single word.
They came upon a heavy wooden door, its iron hinges rusted and worn from age. The nameplate that had adorned its surface at some point in time now lay on the ground before it, its engraving barely decipherable from all the wear and tear. Levy knelt down beside it, running his thumb gently across its surface before reading aloud "Doctor Augustus Schröder..."
Seraphine frowned at him. "That name sounds familiar." She paused a moment in thought. "Isn't he one of the leading researchers here at the Obsidian Tower? What was his specialization again?"
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Levy pushed aside his glasses, rubbing at tired eyes before rising back onto his feet. "Schröder's focus of expertise laid primarily within the arcane arts of transmutation and transposition. His published research in the field remains some of the most highly cited works within modern scholarship."
He glanced over his shoulder towards Aubrey while explaining, "Transmutation deals with transforming matter—including organic substances—by breaking down its constituent elements into simpler substances, then reconstructing it using new materials."
Aubrey couldn't help but stare dumbly back at him, still lost on what he meant.
Seraphine stepped in as her partner's eyes glazed over while trying to think of a way to put everything simpler to grasp, "Basically, he studied how to create powerful alchemical mixtures that change someone or something else entirely into whatever else—even animals—using different compounds, ingredients, and magical formulas, right?" She turned to Levy who nodded in agreement.
"Yes, there's more nuances than that but you're not necessarily wrong."
"Ohhh... okay," Aubrey drawled in understanding after digesting that bit of information. That sounded pretty cool, honestly. "So he's one of those mad scientist types then—gotcha. And the second one? Trans... umm—," She looked towards Seraphine with a raised brow as she tried to recall. "What's the other thing he worked with? I'm blanking here..."
"Transposition. Basically, moving people and things around through space. But it's far more complex than just teleportation since he worked extensively with how the mind factors in during this process, how it interacts differently depending if done via arcane formulae or through natural phenomena like portals or gateways..." He trailed off into another ramble about the exact details, only catching himself when Seraphine gave his elbow a firm nudge. "Sorry. Right, the door."
Levy stepped inside cautiously first, followed shortly behind by Seraphine whose hand rested upon her sword hilt. They scanned their surroundings briefly while Aubrey entered last, taking note of how much cleaner this office appeared in contrast to the rest of the ward.
No broken furniture littered the floor, no grisly corpses laying in various states of decay; even most of the dust covering everything remained undisturbed aside from their own footprints upon entering.
A simple workstation occupied one corner: a heavy desk constructed entirely from mahogany wood. The surface contained numerous scratches and scrapes but remained in surprisingly good condition otherwise, as well as its accompanying chair. Its cushions had faded over time though from what once might have been crimson red to faded orange.
A few cabinets sat nearby along adjacent walls, made of matching material with handles fashioned out iron bars. A handful of bookshelves stood opposite them on either side of the door, stocked nearly to capacity by texts both large and small. Many spines sported cracked leather bindings with titles printed upon their spines in gold-leaf lettering.
"Well... seems like we've got quite the haul here," Levy said as he began scanning the spines closest him, picking up each item that caught his interest before glancing briefly over its contents.
"I'm surprised this place hadn't been looted already, or at the very least, the people who worked here hadn't taken all these books with them when they abandoned the place." Aubrey voiced out loud while rummaging around through some notes left behind atop a stack near one shelf.
Seraphine, who had begun poking her head around the office's nooks and crannies while the other two investigated the study, called back over. "Perhaps they had fled in such a hurry that there wasn't time to grab them. As for looters... Well, I suppose those Unhallowed we encountered earlier might have kept anybody else at bay."
The young woman crouched down beside a cabinet's drawers, pulling out each one in turn to peer inside before moving on to the next one. Upon reaching the bottommost drawer, she stopped in place, eyes widening slightly. "These might hold the answers we seek."
Aubrey approached her as she lifted up a cache of recording tapes from inside, each labeled with what appeared to be handwritten names on tape labels. They seemed to mostly consist of names—patient names perhaps? Some other kind of identification too by the looks of it.
"Is my name in there?"
Seraphine sifted through the collection of cassettes again, flipping a couple of them over to read the text printed along their sides before letting out a soft exclamation. "Right here." She held up a small tape bearing an orange-colored sticker with the following title written out on it in black ink: "Patient Aubrey Sinclair."
The sight of her name on the cassette brought with it a sudden uneasiness in Aubrey's gut.
This might lead her one step closer in solving her murder... yet at the same time it felt like she might uncover things better left unknowing. But, no, this would surely give her the leads she required.
"Is there some type of recording device that still works around here, maybe?" Aubrey asked Seraphine who handed it over to her carefully without a word.
"Let me check," Levy answered after a pause, shoving aside some clutter aside from atop the desk before locating what looked like an old tape recorder. The case sat half-covered by loose parchment papers, but beneath all the mess, it appeared fairly intact. "I believe so—it's at least in one piece. Its ley line battery seems fine, too. I could use one of my talismans to jump start the mechanism if need be though..."
He slid open one side of the recorder before peering inside curiously, then motioned to Aubrey to bring the cassette tape over with a motion from one hand.
Seraphine watched on with interest as Aubrey handed him her tape and sat back a couple paces away to listen.
After attaching a couple of his talismans atop its surface, Levy flicked another switch and soon the sound of static filled air amidst the silence between them. The recording played itself out, filling the room with muffled voices until a woman spoke clearly, her tone calm and clinical.
"Experiment 237: Subject Aubrey Sinclair. Age 14. Vocal manipulation and resonance tests continue to show promising results. The subject’s voice has the potential to generate powerful emotional effects. However, she continues to prove unable or unwilling to exert sufficient control. Additional studies will likely prove necessary for the patient to wield her abilities effectively..."
There was another brief pause—this one shorter than the previous as someone moved around in their chairs—before someone else spoke in turn, their voice male. His words lacked any real cadence as he addressed the woman, though the contempt behind them became evident enough.
"The child is nothing more than another failed investment, Helena. We should cut our losses and terminate this project."
Another pause followed immediately afterwards during which Aubrey could feel both Hunter's attention fall upon her as she clenched her jaw tightly, refusing to meet their gazes. Instead, she glared down at the worn wood floorboards between her boots, trying not think about anything else except making sure she didn't lash out at anybody.
The recording continued playing without anyone else commenting. Helena spoke up again eventually.
"I disagree. The potential here remains untapped; we simply require greater insight into the exact mechanics behind its operation. As I stated earlier, additional testing—combined with intensive psychological therapy—should produce significant breakthroughs. Furthermore, if I may speak openly: You lack vision, Augustus. The work done here could revolutionize our entire understanding of arcane harmonics and their relationship to human emotions..."
Aubrey's fists clenched hard enough that her knuckles turned white, feeling more and more angry with each second that passed by as she continued listening to these two argue back and forth about whether to kill her or not.
Someone cleared their throat loudly before continuing their discussion after several seconds, presumably to give time for those present to digest this information. The man resumed talking in clipped tones as if he hadn't heard what the other said before, but no matter how hard she strained to hear his voice clearly from underneath her rage-filled fog, everything became garbled into indistinct syllables once again until they fell entirely quiet again.
Finally, the tape abruptly ended without warning as it ran out of footage and the sound of static filled air amidst the silence between them.
After that, no one spoke for several moments.
Then Seraphine slowly stood upright with a slight frown etched upon her face—one of pity, possibly, or maybe something else altogether different. She reached over towards where Levy held the player and pressed stop button down while giving him another nudge before speaking softly, "We'll take as many evidence as we can find and report our findings to my superiors later. It's almost undeniable that Augustus and others are involved in experimentation that yielded Unhallowed beings. My and Levy's Order should know about this. It should also help your case."
"We should probably not stick around too long either," Levy added while packing up the last few books he planned on bringing along for further study later back down into a bag by his foot. "While I didn't detect any alarm wards when we first entered, we still shouldn't chance staying much longer lest we risk alerting anybody else who might've been keeping watch over the place."
Aubrey swallowed thickly as the last of the voices faded away leaving only the static buzzing quietly inside her ears. With considerable effort, she forced her muscles relaxed one-by-one until finally managed to let her hands uncurl.
"Yeah. Let's get outta this fucking place."