They started with the top floor, going room to room and searching everywhere to see if they could find any clue as to how to proceed. It took them just over two hours to go through the top floor and in that time they had found nothing of note.

They walked down the stairs to start searching the main floor but stopped when they heard the sound of porcelain clinking.

Sera motioned for them to be silent and led them while tiptoeing towards the noise coming from the kitchen. She peeked her head around a corner to see what was happening in the kitchen before bringing her head back.

“There's someone in the kitchen.” She whispered to them.

“Really? Should we… Introduce ourselves?” Iris suggested.

“They could be dangerous though!” Sera replied.

“I mean we're kind of stuck here, we’ll probably run into each other even if we tried to sneak our way through the house— which would take us forever to do the searching then.” Bo remarked.

“That's true.” Sera nodded. “Let's go say hi then.”

They walked around the corner into the kitchen and saw a tired looking skinny man with hollow cheeks making his jawline stand out. He had messy cyan hair paired with similar colored eyes and he was currently munching on a sandwich.

He looked up at them… and ignored them to finish his sandwich.

“Hey sorry to interrupt your meal but we just wanted to say hi since we're both stuck in here.” Sera greeted him.

“Stuck?”

“Oh, did you just get here? The doors and windows are blocked by some sort of white barrier that prevents exit.” Sera explained.

“That sounds annoying.” He said and took another bite of his sandwich.

Sera nodded and continued, “We just came to announce our presence, we're gonna continue looking around to see if we can find any clues as to how to get out of here. If you wanna work together just let us know.”

“Mm. It would be faster to work together.” the man swallowed the last bite of his sandwich and stood up.

“Great! I'm Sera, this is Iris and the metal one is Bo.” She introduced them to the man.

“Sera, Iris and Bo… Okay, you can call me Zorn.” Zorn said.

“Nice to meet ya Zorn.” She reached out for a handshake.

Zorn looked down at her hand and paused for a bit before shaking her hand.

‘What strength!’ Sera remarked at the grip strength Zorn had for such a small figure.

“Are you okay searching by yourself? We'll take the left side of the house and you take the right, sounds good?” Sera suggested and Zorn agreed.

He walked away to go searching.

“Whew, that was nerve wracking.” Iris said.

“Really? I find it exciting meeting new people myself.” Sera patted Iris on the shoulder.

“Me too.” Bo chimed in.

“We're getting distracted! Let's continue searching!” Iris said and they headed off the left side of the house.

They went to the library first which took awhile since Iris would find a book she hadn't read before and open it up to see what it was about. After searching the entire library they found nothing.

They headed into the main living room and kept searching but even after lifting rugs off the grounds, moving couches around and opening every dang desk they could find, there was still no luck— until a voice spooked them from behind.

They whipped around and it was Zorn.

“Think I found it.”

“Oh where is it?!” They excitedly followed Zorn towards the office room where he brought them next to a giant cabinet full of books and trinkets.

“I can feel a slight airflow coming from behind this cabinet, it's just a little too heavy for me to push.” Zorn explained.

“This is where I come in.” Sera cracked her knuckles and got into pushing form with her two hands tightly pressed against the side of the cabinet and her knees bent ready to push.

She pushed without her ember but the cabinet didn't even budge. Activating her ember at x2 the strength made the cabinet slowly move but it wasn't enough.

“Let me help.” Bo stood by her side and started pushing himself. The cabinet was inching away as they pushed but when Sera turned her ember up to x3 strength, the cabinet easily slid along the floor.

A skinny stone staircase only wide enough to fit one person side to side revealed itself as the cabinet moved out of the way. The stairs were heading upwards.

‘Upwards?’ Bo thought it was strange considering the mansion was only two stories tall.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

He peered up the stairs and realized they went way past two stories up, they seem to go maybe three or four stories high.

‘Maybe the house goes higher than two stories, we just couldn't see because of the fog?’ Bo thought to himself.

“I assume this is the only way forward.” Sera commented.

“It has to be.” Bo remarked. “Who wants to lead the way?”

Bo looked at everyone else but then saw Zorn was already walking up the stairs by himself and they all followed after.

It took just under a minute to walk up the lengthy staircase and when they reached the exit they were perplexed by the sight in front of them.

The main floor of the mansion was in front of them. Everything looked the same, the same couches, rooms, painting on the wall, it was all the same— or not.

“The position of things is different. That couch used to be over here instead, and that painting had a blue sky not a purple one.” Bo pointed out after surveying the rooms in front of him. They had spent so much time looking at the rooms he could tell the little differences.

“You're right, it's similar but definitely not the same.” Iris commented.

“Ya and the front door isn't blocked by that white barrier, it's the staircase downwards. We must be progressing then.” Sera said.

“Found it.” Zorn’s voice echoed forth from the kitchen.

They jogged over to the kitchen to see Zorn holding the opened door to the refrigerator where instead of food, there was a similar staircase leading upwards.

“How'd you find it so fast!?” Sera asked doubtfully.

“I wanted more food so I came to the fridge but I guess there's no food here.” Zorn explained.

“Wait, you ate the food from the refrigerator?” Iris said with raised brows. “Aren't you freaked out that the food could be… like cursed?”

“I inspected the food and nothing looked wrong with them.” Zorn shrugged and didn’t wait any longer and rushed up the new staircase.

“Shouldn’t we look around before heading up incase we miss any clues?” Iris said, looking at Bo and Sera for an answer.

“It doesn't like the staircases disappear so if we have to come down again we can, I think we should try to stick with Zorn, he seems able to find the exits with ease.” Bo said.

“I agree, even though one of the times seemed like luck to me.” Sera agreed.

They did not wait any longer and rushed after Zorn.

This time when they exited the staircase at the top, Zorn was still standing there and had not rushed off.

This time the main floor was vastly different, and not because some items were different colors or had been moved around, but because some items were missing. All of the desks and tables were missing.

No living room table, no kitchen table, no desks, none.

Tap tap tap.

All four of them went on guard and summoned their weapons as they heard the sound of tapping. The sound got closer until they saw a creature round the corner to the living room.

It was a dog-like creature but its body looked to be made of wood. On its back was a glow sap lamp that looked to be a part of its body.

The dog growled at them and lunged down looking ready to pounce.

Two more wood hounds but with different items on their backs appeared near their sides, partially surrounding them.

The wood hounds dashed at them at the same time, teeth at the ready to rip their flesh apart.

Zorn ran to fight the one who first appeared with the lamp, while Bo and Iris took the one on the left and Sera took the one on the right.

Bo bent his knees ready to take on the hound. When the hound got close to him it jumped at his neck which he was ready to receive but was surprised when he saw a wooden staff jam itself in the hounds open maw.

Iris straddled onto the hounds back, grabbed both ends of her staff stuck in the hounds mouth and pulled. The hound couldn't do anything as its neck and mouth were compromised, it tried to shake Iris off but she held strong.

“Kill the thing Bo!” Iris shouted.

Bo stopped being surprised at Iris’s initiative and stabbed his machete deep into the hounds neck. Red sap gushed from the hounds neck onto the floor into a thick viscous pile underneath it.

The hound whimpered for one last time and died on the floor.

They looked at how Sera and Zorn were faring and saw two more dead hounds on the ground already dealt with.

That's when a lot of scampering noise was heard coming from upstairs.

“Get ready!” Sera shouted.

Ten wood hounds flew down the stairs of the mansion and before rushing in blindly, the hounds spread out trying their best to surround them. The sound of low growling was slightly intimidating but they stayed calm and readied themselves.

It didn't take long before the hounds were prepared and leapt into the main room wildly sprinting at them with violent intent.

Bo took them head on and slashed one of the hounds. Its side was cut but it was still very much alive. Two more hounds joined their injured comrade and attacked Bo from his sides.

He kicked one away but the other managed to latch onto his arm which he used to block its attack. Its teeth dug into his metal skin leaving a toothy indent and a reddish bronze liquid flowed out of his wounds.

‘Is this blood? My blood?’ Bo wondered seeing liquid flow out of him.

Momentarily distracted, another hound bit into his calf which woke him up. He used his free arm which held his machete to stab the hound on his leg, killing the beast.

He flipped the machete around and continuously stabbed the one on his arm until it let go. It was bleeding heavily and with a final kick, the thing flopped onto the ground dead.

Two down, one to go.

He briefly turned to see how everyone was doing and saw no one inherently losing so he focused up so he could finish this last one and then he could help his friends.

The last hound dove at him and managed to sidestep his counter attack and maneuver around to his backside. It jumped at his back trying to get to his neck but Bo ducked out of the way, grabbed the hound out of midair and slammed it down into the ground.

He held the beast down with his legs and slit the hounds throat letting it quickly bleed out to its death. He wiped the beast's red sap blood off his face and went to help out his friends but it was pretty much over when he arrived.

The bodies of thirteen dead hounds lay around the room, their bloody red sap staining the wood floor and walls.

Sera’s wounds, which had partially healed due to her ember, had been replaced by bite and claw wounds. Iris had a few wounds but nothing too serious. Zorn on the other hand was completely fine.

‘He must be pretty strong’ Bo summarized and his wariness grew a little in case Zorn ever tried something.

“Let's take a little break before moving on. With the way things are going the likelihood that each new floor gets harder is almost guaranteed.” Iris said and sat down addressing her wounds.

Sera and Bo sat down beside her and took a meaningful break to eat and wrap their wounds while Zorn went to look for food in the kitchen and luckily found some.

‘Guess my body isn't as powerful as I'd hoped.’ Bo thought looking at the dried blood stains on his body.

After a twenty minute break, they were ready to move on to the next floor— they just needed to find the damned entrance again.