"Our next sacrifice."
That monotonous voice with a little hint of an emotion. It made me question if she was the same person as she was a moment ago.
"Sacrifice?" I was curious, more than confused. I looked at Lily, then at Jasmine, who wore a bitter expression compared to her emotionless sister.
'Hmm?' I was about to move, but then I found my movements restricted. Looking at my feet, I found an array circle drawn, rendering me unable to move.
"I am sorry. But we have no choice-" Jasmine tried explaining, but she was interrupted by Lily.
"Jasmine, start the ritual. The faster we do it, the faster we will be able to free our family. We have little time, we would need 4 more sacrifices before dawn," Lily spoke as she looked at me without any change in her expression.
'First it was Aisha and now Lily,' I pondered, wondering if it was connected to Vladmir again. Or was it a different thing altogether this time?
"[Oh blessed heaven! I came upon here…]" Jasmine then began her chant, while I observed her with pure curiosity. It was really another adventure.
'I wonder what is going to happen next,' I smiled as I looked at her, completing her chant, before I suddenly found my location changing within a blink of an eye.
"Hmmm? Now, where is this place?" I questioned as I looked around the area.
A small pale grey room with only a door leading outside. There was a small lamp on the opposite side, making the room barely visible.
[Eyes of mana!]
I tried using the skill, but even then I couldn't see beyond what was visible in front of me. I pondered before turning off the skill and then going to the [System Menu!]
Choosing the [Maps!] option, I then tried finding where I was but…
'??'
All I got was the small room where I was. I tried searching around the room but nothing was visible around the room, even as far as a kilometer away.
'Interesting,' I thought as I reloaded the map, but this time starting from the point from where I vanished.
'Lily and Jasmine are still there. That orange haired kid is still there as well… Did they send me to another dimension or something? Or perhaps a pocket dimension like the Ghost World?' I thought of the possibility, as it made quiet sense.
And then I closed the [Map!], before I looked at the door in front of me.
"All right. Here goes nothing," I spoke as I opened the door.
"Wow!" I thought as I found the view in front of me quite enchanting. I was inside a huge castle. Directly in front of me was an empty throne room. A shattered throne was present on the other side of where I was standing.
Red carpet that reached my foot. And pillars on both sides that reached at least 50 meters above, with giant guard statues between each pillar, each at least 30 meters tall.
The throne itself was huge, signifying that the being who sat there must be at least 10-20 times the size of a human. One look at it, and it makes you feel like an ant standing among giants.
Looking behind, I saw the door from where I appeared had vanished as well. In its place there was a huge 30 meters door blocking my exit. From the texture on the walls, I understood that I knew no shit about this place.
'Just where is this place?' I thought as I looked forward again.
"?!!" A bit spooked, I saw a man standing about 50 meters away from me. I observed him standing there still as his black aura was oozing out of his body.
Wearing a red long coat over a white shirt and black pants, he stood there menacingly. His red devil-like eyes bored deep into mine, sending slight chills all over my body.
While he was pretty handsome, his hair was kind of long and untidy. Maybe he was lost in this place, too?
"Hey-" I tried to start a conversation, wondering if he knew anything about this place.
-Whoosh!
But he reached in front of me before I could even finish speaking and used his long silverish broadsword to cut my neck.
-Thud!
But before it could reach near my neck, I used my hand to catch it, stopping that guy from making any moves.
"Didn't your parents not teach you to not point your broadsword at a stranger's neck?" I asked with a smile as I took a few steps back with his sword in his hand.
His eyes were alarmed. He looked at me with extra caution. Nevertheless, the presence of fear wasn't there.
-Whoosh!
He attacked me again, this time faster than before. At least twice as much as last time.
I could sense strange power in his attack this time too, so this time I took a step back, swiftly dodging his attack, before he did a 360 degree and moved in for another attack.
-Slash!
-Slash!
-Slash!
His attacks were powerful, containing quite a bit of malice. His speed wasn't bad either. It was just barely enough to make me move around while I dodged his attacks.
"You seemed pissed? Lost your last cent in gatcha?" I wondered what could drive him to this point? Well, he wasn't speaking yet, so it was going nowhere.
-Slash!
"If you can just stop slashing…"
-Slash!
"…I can refer you to a good barber…"
-Slash!
"…Good deal. Don't you think so?"
The air slashes chipped parts of the statues and pillars while I kept trying to talk with him.
As I wondered what I should do next, I saw him creating a bit of distance from me. I observed him, wondering if he was going to talk now. But looking at his intense gaze, doesn't seem like that.
"AAAAA!!!!" He then shouted loudly as two giant black wings, each at least 6 meters long, sprouted from his back before his power soured at least thrice as it was now.
He then looked at me with that same hateful look as I smiled.
"Round 2, I guess?" I spoke as I decided to take this a bit more seriously now.