66 Saint-Saëns 1874

Julia's beautiful smile stood in contrast with the blood that painted her face. Arthur coughed blood with a look of disbelief in his eyes. However, before he could voice out anything, he fell on the ground—dead.

"What the fuck are you doing? What kind of fucking joke is this, Julia?!" Lancelot marched towards the two, his shield in hand.

"Lancelot, no!" Tybalt screamed, making the latter turn around at him.

That split second was all it took for Julia to do her job. She smirked and pounced at Lancelot, her speed much higher than anything she had shown before. She plunged her rapier deep within Lancelot's throat, making him gag and cough torrents of blood. Neither his shield nor his armor could save him from that split second mistake he made.

Tybalt raised his staff in an attempt to heal his tank, but a quick inspection told him the latter was already dead. Mordred also started chanting the lightning spell, but before he could complete it, Julia appeared behind him. Her rapier went through his back and went out through his gut. Blood and pieces of intestines fell from her blade.

With a quick draw, she took out her rapier from the human sheath and made her way towards Tybalt with a spin. Like a dance of death, the players fell like thorny black roses on the ground.

Shesmu stood unbudging until his eyes clashed with Julia. She pounced at him like a feline, but Shesmu knew that it was a feint. Just as she closed in on Shesmu, she disappeared like an illusion. Shesmu turned around and parried Julia's slash with his sword. The force of the parry made the latter lose control of her weapon. Shesmu took a stance and pierced her chest with his blade.

"What the fuck is going?!!"

Alex's cry and Julia's fall happened at the same time as if they were in sync. Throughout the whole fight, he was paralyzed. He didn't know what to do.

"Things-things weren't supposed to happen like that!"

"Oh, and how were they supposed to go?" Shesmu asked while checking on Julia's body. The multicolored crystal was still in her hand. Fighting with only one hand free? How little do you think of me?

Alex stood flustered at Shesmu's question before he retorted with one of his own. "Weren't you the one who told me Arthur was the monster? Then what the fuck is this?! Now everyone is dead!"

"Ah, guess sometimes people do make mistakes." Shesmu scratched his head before looking at Alex. "Why don't you come here? I have something to tell you."

Alex cautiously walked towards Shesmu. The latter put his sword away to ease the tension. When Alex reached in front of him, Shesmu gestured for him to come down, as if he was going to whisper something.

Once Alex kneeled down to Shesmu's level, the latter pierced his stomach with his hand. They were empowered by Ki.

"Shhh." Shesmu put his index on Alex's lips. "Next time, think of a better plan to fool me."

Alex fell down on his knees, blood and gore dripping from his stomach. Soon, his HP reached zero, and he died with eyes open wide.

With every player dead, Shesmu took a deep breath and stretched his muscles. "Well, that was a whole lot of work for a one day job."

Just as he said those words, the bodies of all of Arthur's party turned into grey smoke and converged into one point.

"Guess I talked too soon." Shesmu scratched his head before standing up with a jump. He then activated telepathic communication and said, 'Hey Hector, let's start with the plan. Also, care for poison gas, you have to crawl.'

The smoke soon took corporeal form. White hair, ruby-red eyes, and a purple dress. The little girl floated above the ground holding a gigantic black scythe in her hand. The grin plastered on her face was that of a child who just found a new toy.

"How did you know?" She asked. "How did you know that Alex was the monster too?"

"Is that what you first ask? Shouldn't you be introducing yourself first?"

The little girl chuckled at Shesmu's fearless attitude. "You're right, my bad. Where were my manners? I go by different names: The old man of Summerrise, the little girl of the new age. But I guess the name that everyone knows me by is Lavador, the primordial chaos."

"Ohh, scary scary. How come a personage such as yourself, a primordial, is here in this remote place," Shesmu asked with a smile. Even though he knew the answer, he figured that he needed to at least play the part.

"This is just a little hobby of mine," She responded. She looked at her body and played with her dress as she continued, "Plus, this is just an avatar that is calibrated to the level of the participants. We, primordials, cannot physically interfere with the world after all."

She focused back on Shesmu and asked with a more serious tone this time, "But enough of that. Tell me, when did you see through my plans?"

"You know, you made three critical mistakes in this whole run. But if you wanna know when exactly I started suspecting you, it was from the very beginning," Shesmu responded. "Since Arthur took center stage before we even entered the tower, I knew that he had something to do with the monster. I wasn't exactly sure whether he was the monster or not, though."

"Oh, and what confirmed your suspicions?" asked Lavador with interest.

Shesmu scratched his head and answered, "You say that, but you already know. All the little hints, all the minor acts of hostility, the clashes of eyes. All of that led me to one conclusion, that he was not the monster. It was clear to me that Arthur was just a pawn in a much bigger game of chess, and that whoever the monster was wanted me to keep suspecting Arthur."

"Hoo, so that was your line of thinking, huh. Interesting." Lavador smirked. The smile on her face told tales about the sick enjoyment she was getting from this battle of wits. "That was indeed my plan, to lure you into thinking that Arthur was the monster and lead you into a goose chase that would never pan out. But that alone couldn't have told you that I was controlling the whole party."

"It was your second mistake that gave it away," Shesmu responded simply. "When you sent Alex to talk to me, that's when your whole plan unfolded like a book in front of my eyes."

"Oh, and how is that?" She asked.

"That whole story about Alex coming to me because he was suspicious of Arthur was clearly horseshit. What you wanted me to believe is that Arthur sent Alex to check on me under the pretense that I was the monster. You see, the problem with that whole story is that if Alex was suspicious of me, then why weren't all the other party members suspicious as well? Weren't they a little bit too cozy with a person they believed to be the monster?"

Lavador chuckled at Shesmu's reasoning. The chuckles turned into laughter and they then soon turned into crazy hysteria. "Hahaha, you're too good. You're just too good. A shame that you'll still die anyway." Her maniacal laughter dissipated leaving place for only a cold uncaring voice. "Now, before I kill you, tell me what was my last critical mistake."

Shesmu shrugged and responded, "That was the fact you let me in your group. That was how I was able to confirm my suspicion about the group, and that was the move that rendered all of your meticulously crafted plans to nothing."

"I see. Lesson learned. Thank you, Shesmu of Pliyx Stal."

Shesmu looked around with a smile on his face. Somehow, his eyes naturally landed on Ryan. He was still laying on the floor.

"I wouldn't be so confident, Lavador."

The girl looked at Shesmu with surprise before she chuckled. "What again? Do you have some other trump card up your sleeves that you still didn't show?"

"Something like that." Shesmu beamed a smile. And just as he said those words, the sound of tapping from outside the room took Lavador's focus. Shesmu also turned around to look at the door. His friend, Hector, had arrived, and with him a party of players.