If it weren’t for the fact that these shadows appeared in the man’s way, he wouldn’t even bat an eye. As of now, all he could do was circle around the strange illusory scene and try his best to not let all of these influence him. When he found that woman, they would need to find a way to leave or at least call for help.
“Please. I’m begging - really begging you.” The voice of the ghostly woman who almost had her face completely peeled off came from the shadows: “Please don’t hurt our children. Whatever we did - just, please don’t hurt them, please.”
“Where’s the book?” A shadow standing over the kneeling ghostly man and woman asked with a distorted, hoarse and echoing voice: “Where did you put the book?”
“We don’t have it, you got to believe us!” The ghostly man cried: “We left it for you in the house - we never dared take it! You’ve got to believe us!”
“That’s a lie!” The interrogating shadows barked together: “It’s never there! How dare you take us for fools! It’s not there! Where is it!? Where are you hiding it!?”
“We left it under our bed in our bedroom! We left it there with a note!” The ghostly woman screamed, almost breaking her throat: “Please - just check with the people who searched our place. We never took it! Please please please, don’t hurt our children - ”
An eardrum-piercing scream rocked the entire mansion, even as the man was backing away from the shadows, he was knocked down on the ground and had to cover his ears. It was the cry of a young man, but made hoarse and much higher in amplitude. The walls cracked and the windows burst broken from this scream, and fog as dark as ink began flooding everywhere.
“No! No! NOOO!” The ghostly couple cried out and struggled to stand up, but were immediately struck down by the interrogating shadows. What happened next was invisible to the man, because the fog had blocked his vision, even with his Qi-enhanced eyes.
A chilling aura struck the man in but a moment. Even when he had activated his Qi entirely to protect himself, he could feel his muscles getting numb, his reflexes becoming slow, and he could no longer feel a lot of his exposed skin. What was more terrifying, was that his mind began to slow and blurr. Illusions and despair began setting in, just when it was most fatal for him..
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“Fuck! FUCK FUCK FUCK!” He cursed as he swung his two swords around him, again and again, unleashing blades of Qi all over the place. His attacks cut through walls, pillars and windows, but none hit anything material or corporeal. Some of the dark fog was blown thin by his attacks, and through which he caught glimpses of the shadows - they were no longer in their original positions, but were all standing up, staring at him with their eyes glowing blood red. Tar was seeping through cracks on their faces and dripping onto the floor.
“My son - my daughter - HOW COULD YOU!?” The combined voice of the ghostly man and the ghostly woman screamed at the same time, the entire mansion shook. The man had to cover his ears once again, but the voices penetrated his palms and into his head like cold, hard drill blades.
A sense of danger exploded in his mind, he dived to his left while raising his blades facing right. A loud clunk exploded from the collision between his swords and a long crooked sword - it was the woman’s weapon.
“You cannot fool me! I see through your tricks!” The woman, with bloodshot eyes and corners of her mouth foaming, barked as she raised her crooked sword once again and swung down at him once again.
“It’s me! What the hell are you doing!?” The man began backing off while swinging his swords to shield himself from being slashed and stabbed. She was actually attacking with full intention to kill, which was made extra evident by the sparks shooting off from their weapon’s contact points.
“My children! MY CHILDREN!” Shadows of the ghostly woman and the ghostly man appeared all around them and lunged at them from different angles.
Swords cut through the air, Qi blades shot across the interior of the mansion, causing more damages to the structural integrity. Both watchers of this site started fighting each other as well as destroying the shadows at the same time.
Midway through the fight, the man noticed that there were dark handprints on the woman’s forearms and face. Some of them were light in color and incomplete, some were darker and closer to fully fleshed out. He rolled up his sleeves, and saw the same thing.
“Fuck! ” The man leapt backwards and raised his voice as much as he could: “Wake up! This is a curse! You can’t fight it like this - ” Before he could finish, his long sword jerked without his maneuver, and blood was spilled all over it as well as his arm. It was not his blood. He looked up at the woman, just in time to catch the sudden stab wound manifesting on her chest.
The woman gurgled, dropped her sword and tried to hold her neck. His sword jerked once again, another stab wound appeared on her arms. The next moment, a horizontal slash wound appeared on her neck. Her head fell from her shoulders. His blade did the damage, yet it did not touch her at all, all this time.
An invisible blade with what felt like a crooked shape cleaved through the man’s chest, slicing and tearing up his muscles. This could only be the work of the woman’s sword. But her sword was nowhere near him.
The sword on the ground was covered in blood, fresh blood.
Before the man could realize what was going on, the woman’s sword bounced on the ground, as if it just came into contact with something.
A clear, gaping penetration wound appeared on the man’s left chest. It was the invisible blade again. This time the wound was fatal, as his heart was almost rendered to completely minced meat by it.
Darkness began to take over. During the last few seconds of his life, he finally saw what it was - hands of shadows, grabbing a crooked shadow blade that was still in his chest.