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Hans's scream echoed through the basement corridors, and somewhere in the distance, other things began to answer with screams of their own. The sound sent chills down their spines, because Hans was tough, experienced, someone who had faced horrors for forty years.
"We need to help him," Ren said, his tentacles beginning to emerge from his mask.
"How?" Sarah asked. "Your powers are weakened. Mine barely work. We can't fight three of those things."
"Should we try to distract them?" Irene whispered, her voice barely audible.
Before Ren could answer, a sound like thunder crashed through the mansion above them. The entire basement shook, dust falling from the ceiling as something massive impacted the floors above.
"What was that?" Sarah asked.
Another crash, closer this time. Then another. Something was systematically destroying the mansion from the inside, working its way down toward them.
The surgeons in the operating room stopped their work, their heads turning toward the ceiling. "What is that noise?" one of them asked, his voice losing some of its cultured confidence.
A third crash, and this time they could hear the sound of stone and wood splintering. Whatever was happening upstairs, it was big and it was getting closer.
Then came the explosion.
The wall to their left simply disintegrated, blown apart by some massive force. Through the smoke and debris came a figure in black lace, flying through the air like she'd been launched from a cannon. The woman in black lace, the one who had tormented Irene, slammed into the opposite wall with enough force to crater the stone.
She stuck there for a moment, embedded in the wall like a twisted decoration, her dress torn and her face showing shock for the first time. Dark liquid dripped from her mouth as she tried to speak.
"You... you can't..." she gasped. "The rules... the mansion protects..."
Before she could finish, a figure stepped through the hole in the wall.
Henry.
He looked exactly the same as always, cheerful and relaxed, his golden bow slung across his back and his daggers at his sides. But there was something different about the air around him, a sense of barely contained power that made the basement feel smaller.
"Sorry about that," he said casually, dusting off his hands. "I'm not really good at using my head for these puzzle things, so I figured I'd just brute force my way through this place."
"Henry!" Irene said, relief evident even in her quiet voice.
"Hey guys," Henry replied with his usual grin. "Sorry I'm late. This mansion kept trying to separate me from you, so I decided to stop playing by its rules."
Ren stared at him in amazement. Henry's power felt exactly the same as it had outside the mansion. Strong, confident, undiminished. The suppression effect that had been weighing down Nox's abilities seemed to have no effect on him at all.
"How?" Ren asked. "The mansion suppresses our powers. The Obsidian God is watching us."
"Yeah, I noticed that," Henry said, pulling out one of his daggers and examining the edge. "Weird thing though, it only seemed to work on some of us. My abilities work just fine."
The realization hit Ren like a physical blow. Henry was a real S-rank hunter, someone who had earned his power through genuine countless battles. The mansion's suppression was targeting S-ranks below, people like Ren But Henry's power was real, earned, unshakeable.
"Ren?" Sarah asked, noticing his sudden stillness. "What's wrong?"
"No it Nothing" Ren said quietly.
Henry looked at him curiously but didn't press the issue. Instead, he turned his attention to the operating room where the surgeons were starting to panic.
"So, I'm guessing those guys in there are the ones making all the screaming sounds?" Henry asked.
"They have Old Hans," Irene said softly.
"Ah." Henry's expression grew serious, though his voice remained cheerful.
"Well, that's not acceptable."
He walked toward the operating room door like he was taking a casual stroll. The surgeons inside scrambled for weapons, scalpels gleaming in the harsh light.
"You cannot interfere!" the lead surgeon shouted. "This is our domain! The mansion protects us!"
"Yeah, about that," Henry said, pushing the door open fully.
"I've been having a chat with your mansion. Turns out, it's not as tough as it thinks it is."
One of the surgeons lunged at him with a bone saw that screamed as it cut through the air. Henry moved with casual grace, his dagger appearing in his hand and slicing through the surgeon's wrist. The saw clattered to the floor along with the severed hand.
The surgeon stared at his stump in shock.
"That's... that's impossible. We cannot be harmed here. We are part of the mansion."
"Were part of the mansion," Henry corrected, his second dagger taking the surgeon's head clean off. "Past tense."
The other two surgeons attacked together, moving with inhuman speed and coordination. It didn't matter. Henry flowed between their attacks like water, his daggers finding gaps in their defenses with surgical precision. Within seconds, both were dead, their bodies hitting the floor with wet thuds.
"There we go," Henry said, wiping his blades clean. "Much better."
He moved to Old Hans's side and began cutting through the leather restraints. Hans was conscious but barely coherent, his eyes wide with trauma and his body shaking uncontrollably.
"Hey there, Hans," Henry said gently. "You're okay now. We're getting you out of here."
Ren felt a mix of relief and concern. Relief that Henry couldn't tell exactly what was wrong with his power, just that it was being suppressed. Concern because it meant the mansion was specifically targeting him.
"Can you destroy this place?" Ren asked. "Get us out of here?"
"Oh, absolutely," Henry said with confidence. "I've been mapping the structural weak points while I worked my way down here. This whole place is held together by supernatural forces, but the underlying architecture is actually pretty fragile."
He pulled out his golden bow and nocked an arrow that glowed with intense light.
"Just need to hit the right spots in the right order. Should bring the whole thing down."
"Will that get us out?" Sarah asked.
"Should dump us back into the gate proper," Henry replied.
"The mansion is like a pocket dimension inside the main gate space. Collapse it, and we get ejected back to the glass plain."
"What about the rules?" Irene asked quietly.
"Rules are for people who can't break the game," Henry said with a grin. "Sometimes the best strategy is to flip the table."
He drew back the bowstring, the arrow blazing like a miniature sun. "Everyone might want to stand back. This is going to be loud."
Nox helped support Hans while Sarah and Irene moved to safer positions. The old alchemist was alive but clearly traumatized, mumbling incoherently about things that crawled and voices that whispered.
"Ready?" Henry asked.
"Do it," Nox said. "Destroy everything."
Henry released the arrow.
The explosion was beyond sound, beyond light, beyond anything their senses could properly process. The basement, the mansion, the very concept of the place simply ceased to exist around them.
And then they were falling through darkness, four hunters and one shattered old man, tumbling back toward a glass plain under a red sky.
The Obsidian Mansion was gone, reduced to nothing but bad memories and the taste of fear.
But somewhere in the darkness, Ren could swear he heard laughter.