Alicia had no idea where she was now, or where the supernatural power had taken her. The invisible power propelled her at an alarming pace. Every time the girl tried to connect with Orb, a violent collision with a wall would abruptly interrupt her before she was forcibly yanked away once more.

"Orb, stay with me. Dinnae let go!" Alicia hugged the Arcane orb tightly out of fear.

But Orb nagged the girl back. Cease this vice-like hold! Use my might!

Alicia strived to realign, but the intangible ghost caused severe turbulence. She careened into the aisle multiple times and almost made her head hit the floor tiles from a height of thirty metres!

"No, no, no! Tis futile!" she wailed. "Whoever did this knew I would synchronise!"

Make another attempt!

"Ye're off yer head, Orb! I dinnae want to—"

Hey, foolish girl!

This was the first time Alicia had received Orb's chorus of loud scoldings. The girl was stunned, her eyes glazed over.

Calm your heart! It is I, be not afraid! I shall not permit your demise before your time.

Three succinct sentences, yet their resonance was as magical as a mantra. Alicia's little heart suddenly found tranquillity, even amidst the tempestuous ghostly tantrum jostled her body.

"S-sorry..."

Don't be sorry. Be better. Connect with me, NOW!

Alicia surrendered. She focused her thoughts on Orb, just as the disembodied entity steered her close to the antlers of a deer skull. Arcane outburst unsettled the entirety of the animal skeleton exhibition hall. The paranormal force relinquished its hold on Alicia, and she fell to the floor.

The forked antlers of an eikthyrnir deer skeleton almost became the bookworm girl's impaling site. Whimpering, Alicia crawled toward the toppled Orb. When she turned around, she found the skeleton of Vanir's endemic deer cluttered on the floor like a puzzle toy. Just as she thought that the phantom had fled, all the animal skeletons throughout the exhibition hall quivered in place.

"Oh, no, not again," Alicia muttered.

The fossils, of course, defied the lass' entreaty. A gargantuan skeletal frame of a wyvern parted and clamped its jaws repeatedly, greeted with a thunderous, evil cackle. Before long, the inanimate objects throughout the room joined in raucous mirth, deriding the girl's distress.

"Oh, she trembles, the poor thing!" jeered a pendulum clock that showed the time as two past fifteen. Its long hands oscillated as if forming the animated arcs of a talking mouth.

"Are you afraid, little one? Afraid of us?" A crane skull surprised Alicia with its long legs. She stumbled once again. "Why the aghast look, little one?" asked the crane skull. "We're dead!"

"If you wish not to share our fate, come with us or deliver unto us the orb right now!" snapped a tiger skeleton from its nearby post. The cacophony of similar threats bombarded Alicia's ears, nearly driving her to the brink of insanity. Clinging to Orb with a fierce grip, she rushed for the exit.

"Stop it! Stop it!" Alicia screamed against the siren call of fossilized fauna and perverted furnishings.

"Deliver unto us the orb!" the wyvern skeleton went berserk! Suddenly, the dragon came to life and swung a pair of legs and wings over the cordon! Alicia immediately quickened her pace!

The creatures' skulls grew increasingly incensed that they dared to transgress their cordon confines and hounded her like mad. Accessories and office supplies levitated and hurled themselves towards her too; even the clock pendulum managed to bash her from behind. A masterless knife flew out, grazing Alicia's arm before embedding itself in the wall. Madness indeed! Who in their right mind kept a knife in the middle of a recreation room? Literally, the entire animal fossil museum seemed to harbour animosity towards the young lass!

As the army of inanimate had surrounded her, Alicia once again unleashed Arcane torrents to quell the supernatural tumult she perceived as manipulated by Khaos.

The fossils dispersed at once. All but the fossil wyvern that advanced later. Its otherworldly roar signalled its growing aggression. A pair of bony, desiccated wings flapped, and before she knew it, those bloody bones were soaring! The wyvern's eternal talons were primed to seize Alicia Crimsonmane's shoulders!

Alicia swiftly summoned her Arcane might once more and directed it straight into the dragon's sternum. There was little resistance from the flying lizard. In a fleeting moment, the wyvern crumbled, its bones strewn across the ebony tiles.

After a spell, the object displayed no further signs of malign intent. Nonetheless, Alicia dared not breathe a sigh of relief. Slowly, she retreated, reaching out for the ajar door behind her.

The door shut on its own.

The invisible being was not yet satisfied with teasing the young lass. The rattling of bones forbade her to turn her head. But curiosity mingled with her trepidation, as the shadow cast upon the door loomed over her.

All the animals returned with their bones neatly arranged. Tools and implements danced through the air. Freshly sharpened pencils floated, ready to sting her being.

"Come with us, or deliver unto us the orb!"

"No!"

Alicia discharged her plasma once more, and everything fell once more. The problem was, everything arose once more!

"Bloody Hades! Why don’t ye perish?"

"Come with us, or deliver unto us the orb!"

Sensing that half her strength had waned, Alicia bashed the door behind her and securely bolted it shut.

The door already boasted the lock of iron-clad. A chair affixed to the knob further fortified the sentinel between chambers. The banging still clamoured the room before it died down, followed by the clang of countless falling objects. Alicia struggled to ascertain her whereabouts; in all likelihood, she found herself within the cleaner's break room.

No, there was no way they abandoned the charade just like that. The scattered bones did not necessarily indicate the conclusion of their ordeal; Alicia was certain of it!

But how stupid she was when she challenged the unseen force.

"That's it? C-coward! Ye want me and Orb? Stop playing in the shadows and show me your true form!"

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The crack in the wall stimulated Alicia's hearing. When she faced sideways, there was indeed a hole gradually widening. Then, a crimson liquid flowed out as dark as the girl's curls, exuding a pungent iron and fetid odour—blood.

She should not have uttered that forbidden phrase earlier. Not only it was taboo, it was common sense! Her legs pleaded for movement, to escape. Consequently, her trembling legs betrayed the sheer terror that had gripped her.

The stream of blood from within the wall surged swifter and swifter. The crimson fluid had already encircled Alicia's black shoes, staining the floor. Desperate to elude its advance, she retreated to another room, yet, as anticipated, all the doors swiftly slammed shut and bolted.

The wall ruptured, and the blood torrent inundated Alicia's very being!

Her body was drenched in foul blood. The torrent of spray was met with Alicia's screams of terror! She unleashed Arcane burst and obliterated the blood flow from the hole in the stone wall, nearly knocking her unconscious. Not solely due to the blood, saturated with the essence of Khaos, colliding with the lingering Arcane clinging to her being, but also because of the overpowering stench that induced the poor girl to retch!

One deluged clogged, a thousand spewed forth. Fresh blood-fall poured out from multiple sides. The confined chamber swiftly brimmed with the viscous liquid, reaching a height that surpassed an adult's shins. Alicia had no recourse but to employ her Arcane shield to cleave through the blood, leaving a patch of dry ground within the protective blue dome. The bloodwater that made contact with the Arcane emitted vapours akin to an acidic solution. Every vein within the girl's body constricted, akin to the cramps afflicting her muscles. Her pallid skin smarted as if dragged along the cobbled street.

The crimson tide now surged higher, ascending to a level that matched a man's waist. Should Alicia fail to discover an escape route, she would drown in a pool of blood.

However, most of her consciousness was centred on Arcane control while the rest was paralysed, submissive to fear. There was no fragment of mental capacity available to devise a solution.

Truly, how the Divine had cursed her. As if such an ordeal was not enough, a pair of colossal, hirsute hands emerged from the surface of the tiles upon which Alicia stood, seizing hold of her thighs! In an instant, Alicia's synchronisation with Orb was severed, and she plunged into an ocean of blood!

Not long after, Alicia emerged from the puddle, choking. Her fingers clung desperately to Orb, yet her attempts to wield it were futile, hindered by the grey-brown, fur-covered hand with elongated nails that obstructed her airway. Gradually, the strangler's form took shape—first the hands, then the forked antlers, and finally the hairy giant bipedal elk, twice Alicia's size, cradling the suffocating lass as if she were a plump turkey. Its grip was cold. Utter cold. Its whole body was cold despite being full of fur. Boiling steam escaped its nostrils. Its neck trembled with a growl.

The very same human deer that had injured her brother's chest all those moments ago.

Her heart raced. Her eyes widened. Her body convulsed as if in the throes of a seizure. Old memories came rushing back to her; her encounter with the fanged entity that had nearly siphoned her life essence from her delicate neck and rent her abdomen asunder in Glasnagour. The haunting spectres of abhorrent bullies who nearly propelled her towards the very gates of Hades. The ceaseless assassination attempts made by her kin. Time and time again, she found herself ensnared in the clutches of this abomination, perpetuating an all too familiar sense of anguish and despair.

No words came out of Alicia's mouth. How could they, when her neck felt constricted, as though it were being crushed? Her only recourse was to channel her Arcane might directly into the chest of the colossal deer. The creature screeched, yet instead of relinquishing its grip on Alicia's neck, it tightened further, an iron hold. The surge of adrenaline coursing through Alicia's veins fueled her determination. Confronting the gates of Hades, the girl had nothing to lose; thus, she unleashed an even greater surge of Arcane might!

In an attempt to subdue the Child of Miracles, the Deer Man sent surrounding objects hurtling through the air. However, Alicia's terror was already engulfed by numbness even as she stared into the snout of the towering, white-eyed deer before her. The monster picked up the scissors floating in the air and stabbed them right into Alicia's left pectoral tendon.

Surprisingly, it did not work. The sight of fresh blood mixed with foul blood failed to send Alicia's mind into turmoil. Her mind was already in turmoil.

Pure Arcane began to undermine the deer's skin, then melted the fibres of the deer's flesh, to the point where it had to push Alicia against the wall and smash her head against it repeatedly. It proved effective. Her Arcane assault ceased and the human deer slammed her into the corner of the room.

Alicia collapsed into a half-drowned heap. The scissors were still stuck in her chest. Orb was no longer in her hand, probably rolling in a murky sea of black blood. The human deer approached with five claws extended, about to slit her throat. However, its evil intentions were thwarted by another helper besides the Arcane orb—her mother's knitted robe! The cloak emitted an incandescent shock, sending the deer tumbling and a piece of its antler crashing into the wall. This marked the second occasion the red cloth displayed its prowess in the absence of Orb as a helper. However, it could ill afford arrogance, for it only had one more chance to shine, and Alicia, the wearer, was unsure her mother's magic cloak could kill the beast.

Laymen did not know what would happen when a male elk's crown of fame was marred by the loss of half its splendour. But if the male elk is a humanoid monster with a human-like mind, the natural inclination would be to rend asunder anyone who dared defile its symbol of authority. The elk monster went berserk, all of its ebony claws now protruding from each hand. Alicia would never again get the privilege of being stabbed with a trivial object like a pair of scissors.

Without a second thought, the humanoid deer launched itself into the air! Yet, mid-leap, a eucalyptus log hurtled with the swiftness of the Thunderkeeper's lightning, impaling the deer's chest! The concrete wall separating the museum from the room crumbled under the force of the sharpened timber. A deluge of viscous blood, accompanied by its abhorrent stench, spread to the animal skeleton museum. The wooden projectile was a spell wrought by Broin, accompanied by two other druids.

The human deer howled! Two druids ran over to seal it with plant magic. The beast quickly destroyed the trunk and crawled into the wall. Alicia was already unconscious. While the two druids were busy fighting the human deer, Broin recited a prayer, summoning ethereal tendrils that would enshroud Alicia and her magical orb.

The humanoid deer slithered along the wall, deftly evading the vines' onslaught. Then, with a snout bristling with serrations, it leapt, snatching a druid's head from his body! In one swift motion, its razor-sharp claws tore through the throat of the other druid, and just like that, both were powerless to resist "nature’s wrath".

Broin only needed to divert the giant elk until Alicia was completely covered in foliage. But his slightly worn-out mind forgot the presence of the bones he had just trodden upon. With its hand, the human deer commanded each splinter of animal bone to shatter the frail frame of the druid elder like a hailstorm of bullets!

The druid elder crumpled, drenched in blood.

In his final moments, Elder Broin's gaze settled upon a miniature forest taking shape, with a girl and a sphere nestled amidst a receding pool of blood. A smile graced his lips, gushing crimson. A final prayer was intended before being claimed by Hades.

"I am sorry, Alicia... for the sake of well-being... I must send you to a realm afar... Make haste... seek out those five children!

"Hear my command before I merge with nature! You are small in stature, but your roots reach to the other side of the earth. Take her who takes refuge among you, may her feet again tread on fertile soil and fresh grass!"

The human deer immediately sprang forth and tore apart the cluster of trees to shreds. Damn a thousand damns, nought remained but the remnants of the foliage it had recently severed. Frustrated, it turned its attention to the verdant sphere, only to meet with the same outcome. Nothing but fibres of interwoven roots. Both targets were lost to the trees, maddening the deer-bodied monster even more. It yelped aloud, then vented the rest of its anger by blindly ripping Broin's body apart, until his form was nought but unrecognisable mire...

***

Mayit! Ana mayit!”

“Astaga, jebulna sawong wong wedok! Ambune ora enak, apa dheweke wis modar sawetara dina? Getihe akeh pisan!”

That time, a girl drenched in gore was found lying in the middle of a barley field. A sharp object was stuck in the side of her chest. It was under the ochre sky in broad daylight that two rural farmers in conical hats stumbled upon her, for an unpleasant smell wafted through the field. Alarmed, one of the farmers fetched a wooden branch and prodded at the girl's body.

How aghast they were when her pair of eyelids slightly fluttered.

“Cok, dhewe isih ngobah!”

“Wah jancok! Isih urip rupane! Piye iki?”

“Wis, kowe ngentengi kene, aku arep ngundang lurah.”

“Eh, ojo ditinggal aku nang kene!”

“Ojo wedi, ah! Omahe lurah ora adoh tenan. Wong iki dudu Wewe Gombel. Delengen, rambute werna abang. Dheweke dudu saka kene.”

The ears of the lady mistaken for a corpse caught a faint conversation between two people in a language that was completely foreign to her. Was she stranded in another world?

Perhaps she was just stranded on the other side of the world. Even so, her body still did not desire to wake up. It still wanted to enjoy the pile of barley, withered by her weight, for a while longer. []