Meanwhile, at Nevermore—
The academy was still alive with light and laughter. The students, who seemed to know no rest, kept partying. The teachers couldn't do anything about it since the principal had allowed it.
Agnes sat at a table with her friends, chatting and laughing.
"Guys, let's talk about the Midnight Hunt! I'm so excited!" one of them said.
"Midnight Hunt?" Agnes tilted her head.
"Oh, right, you don't know it!" her friend Esabell, a young girl with long blond hair, leaned in, excited. "My brother told me about this. At midnight, students form teams and get released into the forest to hunt and capture magical creatures. And the most exciting part? If you catch one, you get to keep it as a pet!"
"That sounds exciting. When will it happen?" Agnes asked with a small smile.
"Next week!"
Agnes listened to her friends chatting and laughing, but her gaze was blank, staring off into nowhere as she thought about her big brother running around with those girls. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Jass standing beside her.
"Hey there, girls," Jass greeted, then turned to Agnes. "Agnes, do you know where your brother is? I've been looking for him, but I haven't seen him."
Agnes clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Tch. Did you see them? That rainbow mutt and the gloomy raven? My brother ran off with those two."
"What? Damn, Viktor! You're the ace of the party!" Jass laughed, but after catching Agnes's cold glare, he quickly apologized and turned to leave.
"Oh my gosh, Agnes," one of her friends whispered, giggling. "Do you know Jass Doline? He is so handsome."
Agnes's mood soured, and she no longer felt like talking. Ever since she and her brother had come to this academy, Viktor had begun to change. This academy must be cursed, and those two girls, Enid and Wednesday, were to blame.
A smile crept onto her lips. When they got back, she decided, she would prank Enid and Wednesday, prank them so badly that they'd avoid her brother altogether. She couldn't wait to see their faces. Agnes chuckled to herself.
At that moment, another of her friends sat down beside her, crying.
"What's wrong, Yube?" Agnes asked.
"M-My boyfriend just cheated on me," Yube sobbed harder, pointing toward a couple not far away.
"You have a boyfriend?" Esabell gasped, but quickly realizing her mistake, she grabbed Yube's hand and turned to Agnes. "Who is that scum? What should we do, Agnes?"
There are rules, you know. Lines you don't cross. And betraying your partner… that's one of them." Agnes's smile grew wider, "They thought they could humiliate Yube, my poor friend. But we'll show them what we're really made of. Revenge is only fair, don't you think?"
"No one messes with our group," another girl chimed in.
A passerby suddenly felt a chill down his spine as he overheard them. He quickly hurried to his friends and whispered what he'd heard.
Agnes's group was well-known around the academy. They were notorious pranksters who loved to spread chaos. They were unpredictable little creatures, but the worst part was that no one could do anything to them. If you tried, they'd get you back ten times worse.
So everyone at Nevermore called them the Goblins.
...
"Come on, just tonight, alright?" Yube's boyfriend grinned, his hand running over the girl's body.
The young woman before him smirked playfully and let out a soft laugh. "Alright, just tonight. But you do know I have a boyfriend, right? If he finds out about this, he'll kill you."
"No one will know," the boy whispered, showing his fangs with a grin. "And if he does… I'll kill him first."
The girl just giggled as they slipped down a hallway, found a hidden passage, and made their way outside Nevermore. Yube's boyfriend shoved her gently against the wall, kissing every inch of her, neck, collarbone, chest, his hands greedily exploring every bit of her body.
"You've got a girlfriend, right?" the girl teased between breaths. "What if she catches us? I think she's part of that Goblin group."
"I broke up with her. I'm tired of her anyway," he said quietly. "She's a nerd, wants to wait until after marriage."
"Really?" The girl laughed sultrily, her hand sliding across his chest. "But what if she tells her friends? Everyone knows how terrifying those Goblins are."
"Let them." He kissed her again, eyes blazing with lust. "If they come after me, I'll tell Viktor, and he will obey me, after all."
The girl giggled under his lips, neither of them noticing anything else as they got lost in the moment.
Not far away, hidden behind a tree, Agnes hissed through her teeth. "Scarred for life, that's what I am. And obey? He dares to act like he owns my brother? That worthless parasite is poisoning his name, dragging down everything he's built. I won't let him ruin my brother, not ever."
She turned to her friends, her voice becoming colder. "Change of plan. Code: Let's kill 'em."
Stery, their tech genius, pulled out a small remote and nodded. Agnes took out her phone and typed a quick message: "Code: Let's Kill 'em. Bring the camera now."
Not far from the couple, the ground began to rumble. A mechanical car-shaped bot rose from its hiding place, a camera attached to its top, its lens pointed straight at them.
"Once the camera's rolling, press it," Agnes said with a chilling smile. "Make sure they remember why you don't cross us."
The bot whirred to life, its red recording light blinking.
Yube's boyfriend was just undoing his belt, the girl already kneeling, when suddenly, something wet splattered across her face. She blinked as she wiped away the liquid, a red sticky liquid.
Then she looked up, her eyes widened in terror as she screamed.
The boy's head was gone. His body stood for half a second before crumpling to the ground, blood pooling around her knees.
From the darkness, something stepped into view. A shadow monster.
Its long, twisted limbs dragged against the dirt as it shrieked, an unholy sound that ripped through the air. The girl tried to run, but the monster's arm lashed out, hooking into her stomach.
She screamed as it dragged her close, stabbing again and again. Blood gushed over the ground, splattering her hair, her face. Her head lolled to the side, lifeless.
And then, more shadows appeared. Dozens of them, slipping out from between the trees.
"Kyaaaa!"
The Goblins, frozen in horror, finally screamed.
The monsters' heads snapped toward the sound.
"Run!" Agnes shouted.
Chaos erupted. Everyone bolted for the school. Agnes turned invisible and sprinted ahead, holding the doors open as the others scrambled toward her.
"Faster!" she screamed.
"Kyaah!" Esabell tripped, sprawling on the ground. One of the shadow creatures leapt toward her, about to slice off.
"Stery!" Agnes shouted, voice sharp. "Now!"
Hands shaking, Stery slammed her thumb onto the button.
The ground near Esabell split open, and several strange dolls shot up, each with blue hair tied into ponytails. They spun on their axes, singing a high-pitched, haunting tune. The shadow monsters froze, their attention snapping toward the sound.
Then, all at once, the dolls stopped spinning. Their heads twisted with a loud click, faces stretching into wide, nightmarish grins. Slowly, their arms moved, revealing hidden cannons. The dolls laughed eerily as they fired.
A ball of red liquid slammed into the monsters, followed by a barrage of bizarre ammunition, bees, scorpions, nails, broken mirrors, and daggers, all raining down on the shadow creatures.
The monsters shrieked in rage, slamming into the dolls and tearing them apart. The attacks didn't seem to do much damage, but they bought the Goblins the time they needed to escape.
Esabell scrambled to her feet, sobbing, and dashed inside.
Agnes slammed the door shut behind her, her chest heaving. Her eyes were wide with terror.
They had just barely made it.
The shadow monsters shrieked, their screams splitting the night as more of them poured from the forest. They swarmed toward Nevermore, smashing through windows, tearing down doors, and scrambling up the walls like spiders.
At the four cardinal points of Nevermore, North, South, East, and West, cultists stood waiting. Each one carried a single candle. Moving in eerie unison, they knelt and drew circles around themselves, setting their candles carefully outside the lines. Then, with ritual precision, they produced beating hearts, fresh and wet, and laid them beside the candles.
As they finished, they all tilted their heads back, gazing skyward. Above Nevermore, the clouds began to churn, spiraling together as if a storm was gathering over the academy.
Low chanting echoed across the grounds, the voices blending into one haunting rhythm.
In the Nevermore quad, another cultist appeared. He knelt and repeated the same ritual, circle, candle, heart, before looking up at the sky, a manic smile spreading across his face.
"It has begun," he whispered. "The five locations are prepared. And now… the sixth. My god, we are waiting for you."
A roar shook the sky the moment his words faded.
The cultist threw his arms wide, his voice rising like a prophet's sermon:
"Our god… Vorythar, the God of Shadows and Eternity! The Nameless One who existed before time and space, the Abyss from which all darkness flows. He is the silence between stars, the endless void beneath creation. The Devourer of light, the Monarch of nothingness, the Eternal Night beyond all gods. Vorythar, Supreme Ruler of Darkness!"
"We welcome you into our world!" he cried, laughing wildly as moonlight bathed his face.
...
"What should we do, Agnes?"
The Goblins were shaken to their core, sweat running down their backs, fear gripping every step as they bolted through the hidden passage.
"We need to warn everyone, the teachers, the principal, before more students get killed!" Agnes snapped, her voice sharper than usual. "I'm going to the party to find Jass. You all get Principal Weems and the other teachers, now."
But before they could split up, a shadow monster destroyed the wall, emerging before them.
Esabell gritted her teeth, thrusting her hand forward. The air around them crackled as an unseen force slammed the creature into the ground, pinning it there.
"Hurry!" she shouted.
They dashed past the writhing monster, racing up the stairs. The distant sound of laughter and music washed over them like a momentary relief, but it was gone just as quickly, drowned out by more bone-chilling roars echoing behind them.