Chapter Text
People look at Finral and find him unimpressive. Compared to others he was easy to overpower. Next to his captain who was one of the biggest people he’s ever met he looked like a toothpick.
He wasn’t ugly but he also knew he could only get girls to look his way if he said the right things and overcompensated for the Black Bulls cape. Usually it was a turning point in his conversations with women when his squad was mentioned. Their title as ‘the worst of the worst’ superseded them. But since the mess with the Midnight Sun their team had grown even closer than they were before, repeatedly fighting for your life side by side caused a certain solidarity between people.
And they had gained more stars! They were improving.
Finral’s lack of offensive mana had also been a big source of rejection and bullying for him throughout his life. His younger brother was a powerhouse of offensive spacial mana but Finral’s had manifested as portals. No matter his efforts, he could never make it more.
At least he served the Black Bulls for transportation. People constantly dismissed him for his mana but always wanted a fast ride somewhere.
People overlooked Finral for a lot of different things but one thing Finral could do was endure. He had spent a lifetime doing it. Being the black sheep in a turbulent, harsh, and unforgiving house was a practice of endurance.
Finral had taken a very long time to claw himself out of certain holes he thought he would never escape. He had to teach himself certain things, put his foot down. Grow a spine like Langris would hiss.
So ghosts were where Finral drew a line. A hard, mana reinforced line. In stone.
“You don’t got an option. No other squads wanted to do it.” Yami says flipping the second page of the newspaper. Finral has a running theory that he doesn’t even really read it. He just looks at it. His boss is sitting in his favorite common room recliner under direct sun.
He looks like a lazy, sunbathing cat.
“Because they’re smart! What if there’s ghosts, Yami!?? I can’t die yet! I’m too young! I’m too handsome!” The mission was to investigate a mysterious SOS call traced to coordinates of a long abandoned property deep in the woods.
Who the fuck would even be out there?
Not even a glance. “No one makes it out alive in the end,” he says mildly flipping the page.
“Yami!?!”
“Already told them we were going. Luck and Magna can’t focus when it’s just them, that’s why I’m sending you. I’m sure Vanessa will keep you safe. There should be enough brain cells between the four of you to survive.”
And with that his newspaper comes up higher and Finral knows that’s the end of the discussion. “You’re sending me out there to get killed, you know. You’re going to have my blood on your hands.”
“You keep complaining’ and I’ll make sure I have your blood on my hands.” The air gets heavier, thicker, chills running rampant across Finral’s skin. He doesn’t see it but he senses his captain’s dark icy mana in the air, Finral thinks he can see the ruby red glare of it through the thin newspaper.
“Don’t come back until you’ve surpassed your limits. Or Thing One and Thing Two do something incredibly stupid and you need backup.”
“Yami” Finral whines.
“Captain Yami” his boss mocks in a higher pitched voice, the paper shaking from his jerky head movements. Fine .
“C’mon guys let’s go! The faster the better!” He implores up the stairs.
“Remind me why we’re here again?” Vanessa says pulling away from the dead brush reaching around her ankle like ropes. She’s already a bottle in. This should be worth while.
Finral is shaking like a leaf behind her but she loves her friend enough not to comment on it. Instead she grabs his hand and tugs him forward. Luck leads the way, as headstrong and curious as ever, his bright blond head like a beacon within rolling clouds of fog. For once him and Magna walk side by side without shouting.
The presence of the castle almost demands their silence. Cradled amongst dead, shriveled brush and bare branches outstretched like yearning fingers into the dull grey sky there is no one around for far. Very far.
“This feels like a setup. We’re like cows on the way to the slaughterhouse.” Finral says purple eyes skimming the treeline wildly and spooking when an owl takes flight.
“Ah! At least call us sheep not cows” Vanessa says playfully. Luck tilts his head. Frowns.
“There’s…..there’s mana here. I just can’t make sense of it….C’mon let’s go, guys! This is gonna be interesting!”
Magna mutters something under his breath. Finral knows he’s not the only one that does not want to go further. The only reason Magna is quiet, walking deceivingly leisurely by Luck’s side with his hands pillowing his head is because he’s lying.
Because he’s a liar and an imposter. And Finral knows it.
He can’t be the only voice of reason. Dirt compacts around his heels from digging into the ground.
“Let’s be real, an emergency signal sent out from here!? From a castle!?! That looks abandoned!?!? In the middle of the forest!?! On the border between the forsaken realm and neutral territory!?!? Please I can’t be the only one using my brain here!?”
Luck shrugs. “Captain Yami sent us so we gotta go.”
The psycho continues onward, an easygoing swing to his stride. The other two sheep follow. Luck was going to get them murdered.
“You can stay out here if you want Finral! We’ll come back for you!!” Luck says with laughter coloring his voice. Finral looks around.
The landscape lacks color and life, pine trees a dull, dull green. Brush so overgrown and wild it schemes to trip them. An owl croons in the distance where a branch snaps. The forest is quiet but it makes Finral’s skin want to shrivel up and dissolve to dust. A vulture takes flight. Vultures only appear near death and decay.
Stay out here? By himself?
Finral quickly shuts his mouth and scurries forward.
“It’s okay” Vanessa quickly takes his hand in hers and pats it softly.
A massive gothic iron wrought gate blocks their entrance. Past it they can see open large stone arches leading further into the grounds. To the right are smaller sections of the castle. Sitting atop the multiple long and pointy apexes are iron crosses jutting into the somber sky.
Murders of crows sit in clusters along the rooftops perched on crosses. Cawing as if mocking. Finral swears their beady eyes shine a Yami red when they all turn to stare in unison.
Finral freezes when he notices the onyx gargoyle sculptures guarding the castle structures. Their faces contorted mid hiss, oily black and repulsive. He sees Magna stiffen. Luck pushes and pulls on the fence.
“Well! Looks like no one’s home!” Finral doesn’t even get to take a step away, Vanessa’s gloved hand in his collar.
“It’s okay! It’s just jammed with all these branches!” Luck chirps moving them aside. Once they’re cleared it’s easier to push the gate, hinging and groaning like a pained howl.
“Hello!!” Luck calls and Magna immediately clamps his hand over his mouth. Big blue eyes blink wildly. Finral’s can see Magna trying to play it cool with the roll of his shoulders.
“We can’t just be hollering and shit in a place like this!! Let’s just ya know, go… carefully, and see what we find.”
“You’re right for once in your life Magna! We’ll split up further ahead.”
“Absolutely not!” Finral cries.
“The more ground we cover the faster we’re out of here. You stay any longer and the ghosts are gonna get youu.” Luck singsongs with his trademark cheekiness. He practically skips ahead.
Magna wears a hidden grimace as Finral points a sharp finger from behind the shield of Vanessa.
“You’re scared! I know you are! Just say it!!”
“Of course I’m not! I’mnotscared! You’rescared!”
“I am scared!!! And I want to go home!!”
“I’m not scared!” Luck says.
“I could go for another drink” Vanessa hums.
“Because you’re insane!! Who enjoys this!?”
“Well, we’re both stuck here for now” Vanessa says with a placating gesture. She approaches Magna like a cornered animal and grabs his other hand. He looks down at it almost painfully. As if he’s lost all his manliness.
“Don’t worry. You won’t die a virgin just yet.” Luck bursts into peals of laughter. Magna looks like a gaping fish. “C’mon children. It’s just a little run down. Luck will sense when there’s a threat around. Right?” Their resident witch encourages.
“Yup! I can sense something but we need to get closer!”
Pulling them along Vanessa hums softly, swinging their hands. Might as well get some enjoyment out of their theatrics.
Luck follows the largest flow of mana which truthfully isn’t a big one. He almost loses interest because it doesn’t feel big enough to fight but Magna and Finral’s reactions are priceless.
They’re slowly walking under the long stretch of cracked stone archways. Lattice fencing connects the gaps overhead between arches with large overgrown ferns and ivies dropping through. Finral lets out a girlish scream when they tickle his neck and then he’s wrapped up and fighting against plants.
Vanessa tugs him out of the way and they pass onward through a massive ornate door into a slightly dusty but dark grand foyer. The floor is made of cracked black and white checkered tile. An old and worn but finely made rug decorated with songbirds sits underneath the massive iron chandelier. Two columns sit at the base of the staircase. Matching candelabras are lit on opposing side tables.
“Someone clearly lives here” Vanessa says, eyeing the lit candles. No cobwebs. Light dust but not dirty. No bugs. A vase of now dead flowers.
“Great. So false alarm-“
“This way!” Luck says suddenly picking up his stride up the stairs. The sheep follow behind and as Finral looks to his left he makes out a library from the gray patches of light through the massive opulent windows. Just looking inside makes his baby hairs stand on end. It must be the sudden surge of anxiety spurring him forward because he refuses to entertain that he sees shadows shift and expand as if breathing in his peripheral.
Don’t look at it. Don’t look at it. It’s not real.
At the top landing of the staircase is a massive mural that spans most of the wall. Angels dance in an enchanted garden. The paint is faded, chipped, and peeling. What is supposed to be light and innocent has turned odd and unsettling with time.
The blood red carpeted stairs continue higher up stretching both left and right. The angel at face level has the paint missing from its eyes. The faint smile seems less coy and more malicious. Finral shivers. At least to the right is a hallway lined with massive windows.
Clear as day they hear a snap from no definitive direction. Magna and Finral react viscerally, with a full body. Vanessa looks around confused and frowns.
“What was that?” She asks and Finral will write in the official mission report handed to the Wizard King himself that he hides behind her. Magna edges closer to her side also but draws his flame sword. Finral’s body whiplashes between the cold of fear and the heat from Magna’s fire.
“Who’s there?!?” Magna says.
“I don’t think anyone’s there. The mana is telling me that way.” Luck points to the corridor lined with windows and Finral almost sags with the momentary relief of being under direct light. Even if it is dull and grey. The monsters can’t get you in the light.
“It’s a very old castle. It’s supposed to make noises.” Vanessa says with a self assured nod following after Luck. Finral hovers behind Magna, grabbing his jacket arm by just the smallest sliver of material pinched between his pointer finger and thumb. At least Magna has his sword drawn. He doesn’t bat Finral away as they cling to Vanessa.
The second they step into the long hallway a crow thuds against the window. Magna would’ve shattered the glass if Finral hadn’t deflected his blow with an instinctive portal.
“Wow Magna I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this scared! Not even when we were fighting Vetto!” Luck laughs. Another crow taps its beak against the window over and over. Wanting to get at them. Finral’s stomach churns.
“Oh god. We’re gonna die.” He moans dreadfully.
“Don’t say that!” Magna hisses and yanks him forward by the arm so at least they’re side by side.
The view outside the window is as eerie as it is high up. At the center of the atrium is an old, massive, and dirty fountain surrounded by dead grass in patchworks of browns and yellows. Beyond the castle perimeter is endless forest in every direction. At the center of the hallway is a large circular stained glass window of foxes in a meadow.
The hallway leads right into an open drawing room. Fancy oversized furniture sit neatly around a beautiful marble coffee table. A grand piano sits in the corner by regal looking curtains. An unused fireplace is far against the wall. An odd portrait of a man sits above it.
“The curtains,” Finral tugs on Magna as alarm trills down Magna from his hair to his toes. “The tassels-I swear they moved.”
“You better not be fucking playing right now” he aims his sword at the curtain.
“Would you two calm down? You’re going to scare yourselves to death, just breathe.” Vanessa says with clear humor in her voice. Luck marches right towards the curtains as the cowards hide behind Vanessa and pulls.
The result is a massive cloud of dust and the quick scramble of nails as a dark mass darts along the floorboards and Vanessa shrieks, jumping onto the coffee table. They jump up with her as Magna shoots fireballs everywhere. Luck is having way too much fun.
“I’ve never seen you so scared of a rat before, Magna! I’ll have to keep that in mind for later!”
“I wasn’t scared of a rat! It was a totally natural human reaction to Vanessa screaming! I was trying to protect you all. So you’re welcome.”
“So what you’re saying is you wanna take the lead, huh?” Luck’s smile grows as Magna sputters.
“No! Can we just get a move on! Slowly and carefully, we don’t know how old this place is! It could collapse right under us as we speak!”
“The ghosts don’t seem to mind.”
“Luck, stop scaring them. We have a mission to do.” Vanessa chides with a huff. She does not do vermin. Vanessa nudges them both off the table as they regain their wits.
Luck’s face furrows with concentration. Finral can practically hear Magna and his own in sync pounding hearts. Luck taps his chin lightly. “It’s not here. It’s underneath.”
“Huh?? What do you mean? Underneath. What-whatdoesthatmean???” Finral insists with a pull of Magna’s leather jacket.
“Eh?” Magna says eloquently.
“It means…” Luck goes out of the room and looks left then right and points right into the dark. “This way.”
The sheep follow behind, but Finral swears he feels eyes on his back. Heels digging into the ground and gritting his teeth Finral stops once he sees exactly where Luck is leading them.
“Nuh uh. Nope. Not me.”
“You can wait here then” Luck says producing a small lightning ball in his palm using it to guide his way down a very very dark very narrow stone spiral staircase. One Finral does not want to go down. Magna takes a gulp, ignites a fireball and follows after Vanessa. His hand wraps around Finral’s cape and against his will he’s being dragged in tow.
Finral knows.
Certain he hears a single note play off the old piano. Chills dance like fingers down his back and he dares not to look behind him but he can feel it, it lingers so close. The disturbance in the atomsphere. Something is in his personal space… hovering, daring to bite down the screaming nerves at his neck. He stares unblinkingly ahead.
Knees going weak he misses the step and sends them all tumbling down the rest of the way. A collection of yelps ping pongs out of the stairs as Finral crawls away from the dark as quick as he can. Not daring to look behind him.
“Dammit Finral!” Magna says laying on his back, spread starfish. Luck is already up and jabbing him in the rib.
“It was dark! I’m sorry!” He says taking Vanessa’s offered hand that yanks him to his knees. To their left is the dining hall and to the right more hallway back in the direction of the main foyer.
“This place is like a maze” Vanessa says smoothing her hair. Luck powers on through the massive dining hall with its high ceilings and massive chandeliers.
“This place is real fancy!” He says in slight awe. “I wonder what happened?” His voice ricocheting off the grandiose walls. He stops suddenly in the middle of the room and looks directly to his left.
He points, “there.”
“The kitchen? Are you sure?” Magna insists hoping for anything else. Luck nods and walks over, the kitchen seems to be the most used area so far. Following the exact pull of mana Luck turns in the corner of the room. Finral’s stomach turns violently when he sees his sunshiny head angle down.
The basement door is wide open, a small lone torch sitting along the wall. Beyond the reach of fire is nothing but impenetrable black.
Oh hell no.
“Hello?” Luck says and they shiver when they hear a very low haunted groan answer back. The voice calls again, muffled when Luck darts down the stairs with lightning in hand ready for attack. He gasps.
“It’s an old lady!”