8. Chapter 7

Omen's POV

I stomped on his foot and elbowed the 'kidnapper' in the ribs. He grunted in pain before he released me while speaking up.

"Damn it, Omen! It's me!"

I froze and turned around to stare at the auburn haired man who was rubbing his ribs while grumbling.

"Mike?! Where the hell have you been?"

"I was held up by more assassins but the Phantomhive's servants took care of them. Once I received the message from you, I slipped into the mansion and tried to find you." He closed the door quickly when he heard pursuers coming. "So Undertaker has defected to Dark Shadow."

"Yeah..." I sighed, putting my weapon away.

His expression darkened. "Undertaker might not be the only character who supports Dark Shadow. There could be others like him across the Worlds."

Mike was right.

Dark Shadow and his Army were bad enough. Now even characters, mostly villains, in the Worlds have a possibility of defecting to his side.

"But I don't think Undertaker is truly loyal to him."

"Why is that so?"

"Undertaker agreed that if we found out how the guests got possessed, he will give up information relating to the object. This benefits us more than it does to him."

Mike's brows rose up at my analysis of Undertaker. "You are right."

"We only have a time limit of 1 hour. So any idea how the guests got possessed?"

I saw the gears in his head moved as he pondered for a while. "I may have an idea."

From the internal alternate dimension storage inside his Guardian ring, he took out a black marble and tossed it to me. I held it up under the fireball I had conveniently conjured and scrutinised it. I realised that it wasn't a marble. It was a sphere shaped container which trapped a piece of dark matter that writhed and trashed against the inner walls of the transparent container.

"This is...?"

"Negative energy created from humans' thoughts. It was there in the spot of the assassin whom I killed in the garden and some more appeared when the Phantomhive servants cleared those assassins that blocked my way."

I raised an eyebrow at the seemingly harmless container of evil thoughts.

"It's similar to a Shadow." I remarked.

Shadows were also born from negativity and sins. In fact, they feed on them. If there's mana, they would gladly sucked the World they are residing in off of it. They start as formless little parasitic monsters that can level up to possess hosts and later form their own thoughts. What is worse is that, a small army of ten of them can bring the total destruction of a World.

"Correct." He plucked it from my fingers and stared at it. "I didn't think it is quite possible to create something similar to a Shadow."

"Shadows are hard to control." I placed a hand under my chin and thought out loud. "But this thing can easily control someone like a puppet."

"Have an idea where there are more of this?" He looked at me while holding onto the ball.

I paced around the room, trying to recall.

"I remember seeing something similar at the buffet table. Someone could have secretly slip a bowl of this on the table. And anyone could have just taken one and pop it right into their mouth."

"So we have to go back."

Mike then gestured me to move to the middle of the room while he shifted a table there. He pulled out a piece of blue paper from his Guardian ring again. He unfurled it and placed it flat on the table.

This paper is one of Mike's inventions which is useful for storing information. One such example is storing the layout of the Phantomhive mansion.

He inserted his mana into the paper and the imprinted magic formation activated, releasing the 3D layout of the mansion. Taking out a specialised pointer pen, he began to point out the moving red dots which are the possessed guests located all around the mansion but the majority of them were still in the ballroom. It was like they were protecting something.

"How about Sebastian and Ciel?"

"According to the map, Sebastian is trying to lead the guests out of the mansion," he pointed at a black dot rounding up several red dots and pushing them out of the windows of the mansion.

"He is trying to reduce the number of guests." I said in awe.

"While, Ciel is located at the other end of the corridor, and is running towards our direction with a few more guests."

"Well then, I think we better regroup with him and quickly find those pearls. We don't have much time, right?"

"That's correct. He's coming in our direction within a minute." Mike informed as he nodded towards the door.

He stood up and wrapped up his map while I turned around and opened the door immediately.

"Ciel, duck." Ciel dived forward when he saw me raising my hands. "[Water Shot]!"

Several jets of water were conjured up in the air before shooting forward to knock out the pursuers behind him. Without uttering a word, Mike purified the guests with his Light attribute magic and sent them out of the mansion.

"The food is most likely the problem. So let's get back to the ballroom." Ciel spoke as he patted himself off the dust.

"As expected, you figured it out huh?"

"Of course, if I can't do this much, how can I be the Queen's Guard Dog and solve the unexplainable?"

He turned back and gave a small smile before sprinting towards the ballroom. Mike shook his head in mock disappointment at me before pulling my collar to follow the young boy.

~~~~~

"Odd." I muttered as I knocked out a man with the hilt of Corvus.

"What is it?" Mike asked.

"I would expect more guests coming to prevent us inside the ballroom but there's only this many."

I observed my surroundings while Mike activated his magic and sent the people out. Undertaker was nowhere to be found, he was not even found near the staircase so only the hour glass was there. From the looks of it, there were 10 minutes left.

"I found it." Ciel hollered out as he held out a fruit bowl.

Our suspicions were confirmed when we noticed several spheres containing writhing dark matter disguised among the grapes. We triumphantly smiled at each other.

"Hehehe... As expected, you found them." Undertaker giggled as he stepped towards us.

"How did you... Step back!" I commanded as I raised my sword at him, threatening to stab him if he did not comply.

"Fear not. I came to give my part of the deal." He stayed on the spot before he kept his death scythe. "Dark Shadow was very obliged to align his research with mine."

He gestured to the bowl.

"As you can see, these objects are called "Black Pearls". You saw how they can be used. Place them among the food, people can eat them. Activate them, they can be controlled with little to no resistance. And when we complete our research..."

"You can control anyone you want... even Guardians." I growled, gripping onto Corvus tightly.

He nodded, his smile turning even more malicious than before. Mike held me back before he cleared his throat.

"Why are you so willing to give us information?" Mike questioned.

Something in Undertaker's glowing green eyes flashed, like there was something more to his actions and words.

"I wonder why."

Suddenly, he grabbed the tip of my sword.

"Wha..!"

With one fluid motion, he plunged the tip of Corvus into his heart. He staggered backwards before falling down on the ground. We quickly ran to his side. Blood trickled down his lips as he struggled to speak.

"Save everyone, will you? I don't want... any more Phantomhives to... die."

His trembling right hand reached out. I grabbed his hand before it gave out from the lack of strength. As I opened my palm, there was a key. When I glanced up to Undertaker's eyes, I was met with glassy and lifeless ones. I slowly gazed up at Mike who uttered the two words to confirm my thoughts.

"He's gone."