19 XIX. Saisho no Hinansho

When he came to, Nilo was back in the familiar decrepit mansion. Being in a place as dangerous as that immediately triggered his senses the moment he woke up. He stood up and found himself in the morning room with the strange ornaments on the walls from earlier.

Something felt different though.

The darkness was, almost, gone. The last time he was there, there wasn't faint light anywhere in the mansion, but now, it almost felt like the sun was directly above the mansion. That was when he realized that the windows were no longer boarded up, they were wide open, making it easy for him to simply jump out and escape. But Nilo wouldn't do such a thing. He was too curious, curious to know what was going on, to why he was back there.

There was no doubt that it was the woman that brought him here. He wondered about how she had the time to remove all the boards and light up the entire mansion, while the stitchreaper was possibly roaming around. Perhaps she was the summoner, the one in control of the stitchreaper, Nilo thought. The reaper was tied to a wraith, but that wouldn't stop a human from interfering with the connection. The wraith and the stitchreaper were definitely one at some point before, but they were two separate entities now.

All these thoughts and deductions going through his head at the same time made him neglect the question of how long he had been there, of the whereabouts of Eeira and Leslie.

He walked out of the morning room to the lobby in a hurry. It was there that he saw the staircase that lied in the center completely gone, without a trace as if it never existed in the first place. The main door behind him was wide open, but even then, something was stopping him from running out.

A scent passed by him. It wasn't the scent from before, but it was familiar. He knew it very well. He had sensed it many times before, when he walked into the old man's hut, when he summoned the undead in the Outlands, and when he fought the stitchreaper.

It was the scent of terror.

"I CANNOT RETURN. FOR I NEVER LEFT."

Those words were smudged onto the wall atop the main door, not in blood, however. Nilo failed to understand what the words meant. There was too much that was unknown. It couldn't have been the wraith, for they were simply just figments of the undead and had no impact on the reality that surrounded them.

'Looks like you don't like to keep traditions, huh,' Nilo laughed.

Like an arrow from a bow, the stitchreaper's scythe shot through an inch away from Nilo's face. He stepped away in quick succession and pulled out his shotgun. Even if he couldn't inflict great damage on the stitchreaper, he wouldn't go down without a fight.

The stitchreaper screeched and floated all around the lobby in a maniacal manner. It was odd that after a strike like that against Nilo, it didn't try to attack him again, or perhaps it was preparing for another strike. Nilo was high on his guard, he wasn't going to let himself fall to the same trick twice.

Another strike came through but he dodged it with flying colors.

His attention was the stitchreaper no longer. If he wanted to defeat that reaper, then he needed to reach its core, the summoner. The stitchreaper knew what it was doing, there was a clear indication that it had not been detached yet. By calculating the distance, Nilo deduced that the summoner should not be far. With no stone or not, he had already decided to end that matter then and there — even with being short on inventory, it wasn't going to be a hindrance.

The defensive stance wasn't going to last long. Running away wasn't an option as well. He needed to face it head-on.

***

Meanwhile, Eeira was being dragged away by the woman, Violet, across the city, all the way back to the cave that had the manor. She held onto the elastinum like it was a newborn. Even amid the panic, she wasn't going to let it go. The entire town was in shambles, people were suddenly evacuating, running left and right. The crowds were, it was amazing that the two gals managed to move smoothly among them. Violet was quick on her feet and reflexes, going through a panicking crowd was barely a hard thing for her, even with an "escort".

Still, Eeira lacked an explanation of what was going on. She was just following along, assuming that she was going back to the manor and stop this disaster once and for all.

'Um, hey,' she called out, 'What are we going to do? And why is everyone running away?'

'We are stopping the manor's curse,' Violet, 'Its toll on this town is running out. If we don't act, this entire mountain could be gone. The wraith is too much.'

'Isn't it the spirit of the girl from the tales?'

'Yes and no. It's quite complicated. And much worse than what a wraith actually is.'

'So what is the plan exactly?'

Violet stayed quiet for a second. There was no definite plan, rather, she was acting upon what she was told before, even if the method that was told was all a farce. 'Just follow along, listen to what I say, and everything's going to be fine!'

***

Nothing was going to be fine. Nilo's fight already had a victor, and it wasn't him. He was yet to be knocked down or killed, but he knew that in due time, the stitchreaper would get the upper hand and take the strike. You could only take so much as a human. A human against an undead was already an unfair fight.

It was then, that the stitchreaper caught his slip-up. But as the strike went through, nothing happened. Nilo wasn't dead lying on the floor, with blood pouring out of the spot his head used to be. He was pulled in… somewhere, a dark void. There was everything. There was nothing. Was he dead? Was his death so quick he barely noticed a thing?

— No…

He could still feel his heart beating, that was surely a sign his death did not come to pass. Yet, he failed to understand his whereabouts. Perhaps it was the dark depths of the curse that lied within. He thought that maybe, just maybe fighting the stitchreaper wasn't the solution to ending the curse.

In this dark, empty, void, Nilo felt that he was being watched. That an eye, as gigantic as it would get, was carefully watching, staring at him from directly behind, its gaze enough to garner immense heat and send fear down to what it watched. Nilo had no idea what was going on, but he knew it was terrifying. Terrifying to know of the existence of another presence, only for it to remain unknown. There was no greater threat or fear than to cower away from what you don't know.

And that was exactly what was watching Nilo, the dweller in the darkness, the chaos that crawled from within, everything that embodied the horrors of mankind, it was the Man in Black.

Even with Nilo not knowing his appearance, he still somehow recognized the Man in Black when he stepped forward. The Man in Black was no longer just an eye watching from behind with a burning gaze, he was the truth that lied on the surface.

Alert, Nilo approached him carefully. But with one blink, the Man in Black was gone, no longer standing in front of him.

'How many times did the Butterfly flutter?' He whispered from behind.

***

Not too far from the void, in the world known as reality, Nilo was nowhere to be found. The two gals entered the wide-open manor to find the technorunner had disappeared. If that were truly the case, then the only solution now was to leave, but Violet knew better. That mysterious woman was the one who brought Nilo to this place, she was the one who tore down all the windows, and brought the faint light back again.

That was when they noticed it. Right where the stairs used to be, was a black void formed in a circle, almost looking like an out-of-control black hole.

'That's it!' Violet shouted.

That void was where Nilo was. It was only a matter of time before that void would completely break down and destroy everything in its surroundings. Violet and Eeira needed to save Nilo, bring him back, and end this nightmare forever.

'You got your bag?' Violet asked.

'I- Yes!'

'Alright! Perform an alchemy circle, you know how to do that, right?'

'Of course, I do!'

'Great! Just draw it, set it up straight, and then we'll drop the stone right in.'

It didn't take much time before Eeira's work was done. An alchemy circle, right below the black void, was ready. However, Eeira still had no idea what her work might do to the place, to Nilo, who was stuck inside especially. She was simply following orders.

'Follow after me,' Violet tried to guide Eeira through the steps to be taken.

'Will this really work?' Eeira questioned.

'For a neuroalchemist, you seem to be pretty hesitant. You should know better.'

It was time to exorcise the demon within.

***

When he came to once again, Nilo was back at the manor's lobby, lying on the floor, faced by the two gals who saved his life — and possibly ended the curse way easier than he expected.

The curse was over, and so was the manor. A building this old shouldn't have lived that long. It started to crumble from beneath as if quicksand suddenly surrounded the area. Eeira quickly erased her circle, grabbed her back, and ran out the door, expecting everyone to behind her. But Nilo was still on the ground, he was too weak both mentally and physically.

Violet knew that well. As the manor tore itself apart, Violet helped Nilo up and escorted him in a hurry out of the manor. Everything fell apart. The mysterious morning room with the strange inscriptions on the wall. The upper floors they never got to explore. Everything.

In the last second, Violet and Nilo jumped out of the entrance and to the outside. They were relieved they managed to escape, but it was not over yet. The whole cave was going down. Even with the curse completely gone, its power was already too much.

'Where's Leslie?' Nilo asked as they all ran.

'We sent him to alert everyone, he should be outside by now, don't worry,' Eeira answered.

More importantly, where was the mayor?

His crystal tower was long gone. No one dared to collect the broken crystal parts, they all valued their life more than meaningless fortune.

The trio made their way to the marketplace, which was nothing but a huge area of rocks. All the booths probably burned all up or got smashed by the falling rocks.

Making their way to the exit, there was no one blocking it off surprisingly. Everyone had their evacuation smoothly.

When they reached the light outside, the entire town was already safe and sound. Just Nilo, the last one behind, passed the entrance, the entire cave crumbled before him.

This "curse" was over.