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“Are we good?” Ethan asked, catching his breath as he looked around the room.

It was an abandoned home, though it wasn’t as in poor shape as the shop he’d been in prior; the furniture was in order, except for a dark-wood table that had been toppled over.

Joel scratched his head, “Err, for the minute, yes…but, there’s a reason I wasn’t inside of a building when we met.”

“What’re you talking about?” He asked.

“Stuff can get kind of…weird when you’re inside of someplace for too long,” Joel told him.

“Quit being vague already,” Ethan said, narrowing his gaze.

Before Joel could open his mouth to further clarify, both of the young men jumped up as a creak echoed throughout the old home.

“What was that…?” Ethan muttered.

Joel gulped, standing beside him, “…Err, why don’t you go check?”

“Me? You said I looked sickly, right? A healthy, strong fella like yourself should do it,” Ethan retorted nervously.

They were both like frightened cats, listening to the creaks emit from the hallway devoid of any light, completely drenched in shadows. It wasn’t enough that the interior of the home was absent of illumination already, but the wailing of the man-faced clouds up above, muffled but still audible, never left him at ease.

“…Together?” Joel looked at him, wide-eyed.

“Yeah…sounds good,” he nodded in agreement.

Though they opted to quietly move together to check the source of the ominous creaking on the other side of the home, he found himself leading the way as Joel stayed directly behind him, shivering like a puppy.

Why’d I get stuck with a guy like this…? He thought.

Each step into the hall pressured the tender floorboards into drawn out groans; the deeper they moved into the corridor, lined with somber walls and weathered paintings, it felt like the darker and more eerie it became._.

…Did it get even darker? He questioned.

THUD.

He nearly jumped out of his skin as he spun around with his staff raised and readied, bringing his other hand near the handle of his sheathed blade.

It was Joel; the clumsy adventurer had accidentally broken through the rotten floorboards as one of his boots fell through.

“Ehe…my bad,” Joel quietly chuckled.

A sigh of relief briefly left his lips as he turned back around, “…Sheesh.”

Just as he turned back around, his blood ran cold as he was face-to-face with ‘something’; that as all his frazzled brain could process it as in that moment. It had a face as pale as moonlight with sunken, abyssal eyes and a row of smiling teeth that were completely black, drenched in a liquid of that color.

“What’re you standing like a statue for, Ethan?” Joel asked, bringing his boot out of the hole and bringing his gaze up, “–Ethan? Hey–what the?!”

Joel froze as well once seeing it; they were both like deer in headlights at the sight of the blood-chilling entity that stood at the end of the lightless hall.

It was hunched over with a body wrapped in an all-black cloth that blended with its floating, jet-black hair that seemed to spread in every direction; stringy and flowing like threads of the abyss. The face it held was hardly human, like a mask attached to a bundle of malevolent energy.

“Gah–move!”

Just as he was about to raise his catalyst to invoke magic, Ethan was suddenly tackled as Joel yelled out, bringing him into the room to the side of the hall as something had struck in the place he just stood.

“–Huh?” Ethan looked up, having fallen to the floor in the next room.

The stringy, abyssal hair the entity possessed was sharpened and honed like a spear, having jutted through the hall in an attempt to skewer the two men.

Joel picked himself up to his feet, scrambling over and slamming the door shut, “…Help me seal this thing!”

“R-right!” Ethan said, getting up as well.

Invoking his magecraft, he summoned the element of stone to reinforce the door, blocking off the edges and sealing it shut tightly.

After the entrance to the room was firmly shut, the two didn’t so much as let out a breath of relief as they carefully watched the door.

“…Seriously, what the hell is wrong with this city?” He said under his breath.

Joel unsheathed his sword, holding it forward as he gulped, “I told you, the ‘Dread Period’ is bad news…You can’t relax for a minute!”

As if cementing those words, a black, stringy material began to slip through the small gaps in the wooden wall; it was the hair of the ghastly figure from the corridor. It slithered in, stretching out and gripping the material, beginning to tear open the wall as the seemingly endless hair took over the wall.

“Shit!…” Joel said.

“Stand back! I’m going to blast it with some fire!” Ethan stepped forward.

There was no hesitance from the silver-haired, verdant adventurer, who stepped back and let the magic-wielding self-proclaimed adventurer take the initiative.

Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to use fire magic in the confinements of the house, let alone the enclosed room, but driven by fear and desperation, it was the foremost plan of action in his mind.

Burn! He thought.

Invoking the chaotic element, he spurred a spray of flames that launched against the grotesque, hair-covered wall, which slithered and vibrated as if every strand was alive.

“Hot, hot, hot…!” Joel said, flinching.

The sizzling sound of fabric being burnt whistled throughout the room following the end of the release of fire.

“…Phew…” He breathed out.

“Didja get it…?” Joel asked, gulping as he looked forward anxiously.

Smoke obscured their vision of the other side of the room; swaying and billowing as an entire portion of the quarters had its wood turned to a blackened state, though the fire itself was put out by the caster’s will.

“Don’t raise event flags like that, please…!” He responded.

Of course, after staring at the smoke in suspense for seconds that dragged like minutes with the eerie silence that was left stagnant in the room, something lunged towards the two young men.

Tendrils of hair; cast out like ropes meant to bind.

“Grgh! Crap!” Joel said.

As the whips of abyssal hair tried to snatch the silver-haired man, Joel defended himself with swift strikes of his silver broadsword, effectively repelling it.

Ethan summoned a shield of water in front of himself, managing to halt the hair as it was caught in the crystal-clear, strengthened liquid.

“Get behind me!” Ethan called out.

“–Right!” Joel nodded.

Magic was invaluable against a supernatural foe like the one that lurked in the home. As the shield of water, wrapping around the two, successfully safeguarded them from the ghastly tufts, the source of it lumbered in.

The pitch-black, white-faced entity with onyx teeth and sunken eyes entered; its mere presence began consuming the room in its deathly hair.

“It’s here…!”

“I can see that!” Ethan responded.

All semblance of light, whatever little was left, was snuffed out like the soft flame of a candle with the presence of the tall, hunched-over entity as its mouth began to part. Black liquid poured from its maw, revealing something coming out from the depths of its being.

Hands.

Arms stretched out from its mouth; snow-white limbs that cracked and contorted outward, stretching out from the horrific being’s mouth.

“I’m gonna hurl…” Joel muttered.

“Not next to me you aren’t!–Stay ready!” Ethan said.

“I should be saying that to you!” Joel retorted.

Just then, from the ceiling, spikes of reinforced hair shot down in an attempt to pierce the frail-bodied mage, to which the silver-haired man stepped in, using his sword to slice the bundled hair in half.

“Nice save!” Ethan called out.

“Just focus on dealing with that freak!” Joel replied hastily.

Contrary to the clumsy, easygoing nature that the silver-haired, youthful adventurer presented himself with, he proved himself to be a capable fighter as he moved with swift grace, easily cutting down any hair that tried to sneak them from above or below.

Covering their front and sides, Ethan manipulated the wall of mystical water around them that blocked any incoming strands of the weaponized hair.

It was only a short term countermeasure, however; the water didn’t actually fully stop the hair, destroy it, or harm the ghastly entity itself. Only merely defending them, it was simple to realize he’d need to shift his approach.

A whip of the hair cut through swiftly, leaving a cut on Joel’s cheek, who barely managed to turn what aimed for his throat into a small cut by a last moment dodge.

“C’mon, bonesy! I’m not going to last all day–!” Joel said, moving frantically to keep up with his repelling of the hair.

The nickname caught him off-guard as he snapped back, “–Don’t call me that!…I mean, just give me a second!”

It was beginning to break through; the overwhelming wave of hair that interlaced itself with the rotting wood of the home lashed out from all angles.

“Gah!” Joel winced.

—Coming in from behind, a razor-sharp spear of hair cut through the leather trousers of the emerald-eyed fighter, leaving a gash on his thigh.

Did fire actually work against it? It was hard to tell since it came in afterwards, seemingly unharmed, so I assumed it wasn’t effective, but maybe…He pondered.

As he considered his options, something stuck out to him when he saw strands of the supernatural hair suspended in the aquatic wall. It flipped a switch in his mind, seeing the magically-conjured barrier around them.

That’s it! He realized.

Just then, a swift onslaught of the supernatural strands broke through the two-layered defense of blade and water.

ɴ[0)ᴠᴇʟ “…Watch out!”

Joel was only a split-second late in cutting away the mystical, abyssal hair before it left a slash across Ethan’s stomach.

“Ghh…!” Ethan gritted his teeth.

“Crap!” Joel said worriedly, looking at him.

“I’m fine! Don’t let up!” He assured Joel, holding his staff up, “I’ve figured out our path to victory! I’ll need to lower the water barrier, so just buy me a few seconds!”

Though they hadn’t known each other long, Joel placed his trust in those words as he pressed on with more energy than before.

“I’ve got your back, partner!” Joel assured him.

Ethan would have smiled if not for the pressing horror of the intense situation, but he squeezed the smooth oak of his catalyst, disabling the protective aqua around them.

A wave of hair swept in the moment it was let down, but Joel didn’t shy away as he roared out, wildly cleaving away with his sword as if mowing overgrown weeds.

You might be a bit obnoxious, but…I’m glad to have you by my side at a time like this, Joel! He thought.