The sky outside started getting cloudy. The once sunshiny day had now turned into a dark and gloomy morning, with the wind blowing strongly. Besides the whistle of the wind, no other sound was present in that large mansion that stood tall in the middle of a forest. It was almost midday but it felt like dusk to Valentine, who was now standing in the kitchen of that very mansion.

Valentine closed the door to the corridor carefully behind him and observed the new room which he was in. The kitchen hadn't been in use for ages, but most of the cooking utensils there were still intact. He could come back here and grabbed an iron pan if he needed another container to use. On the kitchen counter, there was a piece of paper. To his right, there was a door that had a blue marking on it when he approached. To his left, on the other end of the room, there was a staircase leading down, probably to the basement. In front of him was another door that led to the courtyard, which he could see clearly from the barred windows there. The courtyard was just a plain open area without any kind of decoration. The ground had no grass or other plants, and the soil was parched; it was just like the area around the outer fence of the mansion.

Based on his memory of the aerial view of the mansion, he should be very close to the center of it, so his goal would be a room across the courtyard, around the corner. Because of that, he wasn't interested in the blue seal door on his right. It was also not a good idea to keep breaking the seals because the Leyaks would only get empowered. It was the same case for the basement; he wouldn't go and check unless necessary.

Valentine went over to the kitchen counter first to read what was written on the piece of paper. There was only one line written there and the handwriting was very messy; it was probably written in a hurry.

'If you're reading this, do not, I repeat, DO NOT go to the basement!!'

After reading the note, he instinctively looked at the staircase in front of him and looked down to where it was leading. There was a door blocking his view, but he got a bad feeling about whatever was behind the door.

"Whoever is leaving these journal pages, you have my sincere gratitude," said Valentine politely. "This gives even more reason not to check the basement,"

He put the note back down on the kitchen counter for whoever would come next to the mansion for whatever reason and said, "G, the basement will be another homework for you."

If Graham could speak right now, he would probably complain endlessly about the countless things he had to remember and divine later.

Valentine didn't stay still long. He quickly moved to the door to the courtyard and reached out to the door handle. He managed to reach it without his hand being stopped midair; however, he couldn't open it as it was locked.

"Of course..." he complained inwardly.

He crouched down and took out the lock picking tools from his coat, but as he was just about to insert the pin to the keyhole, he heard the sounds of liquid dripping-- a lot of them.

Drip drip...

Drip drip...

Drip drip...

And then a door was opened.

Creak...

He didn't bother to check first, but rather, he increased his pace to pick open the lock of the door. He concentrated hard while the sound of dripping was quickly getting closer and closer.

Click!

The door was unlocked! He quickly turned the door handle and pulled it open to escape to the big courtyard outside. As he was closing the door behind him to obstruct the Leyak, he saw three of them floating fast toward him.

Slam!

He pulled the door closed as quickly as he could and moved away from it. If he had to fight three of them at the same time, the courtyard was a huge space, so he had the advantage; he had a lot of room to move about to avoid being too close to the evil spirits.

The door was opened and he could clearly see the three ugly beings floating past it. Each of the Leyaks was wearing an ornamental mask with a lot of space for their building eyeballs. Their teeth were sharp and they had two protruding fangs at the corner of their mouths. Their elongated tongues were hanging almost as low as the bloody entrails swinging from their heads.

"I've broken one more seal since I last saw one of these things. Let's see now what power they have evolved," he said while getting ready to shoot.

Whoosh!

The bullet that was shot by the silent revolver moved quickly through the air. Valentine didn't wait for all of the Leyaks to pass through the door before attacking them.

The Leyak that he aimed at teleported away, but the one behind it didn't manage to dodge the bullet. It drilled a hole in its head, which created a lot of blood veins that enveloped its whole body. From the vein, blood burst and melted the Leyak in a very painful process.

Growl!

The Leyak let out an animal-like cry as it died.

Valentine didn't wait for the whole process to finish. He quickly shot another bullet at the Leyak behind the dying one.

Crash!

The Leyak teleported away and his bullet hit the wall in the kitchen.

"They seem to be able to teleport faster now. This will be problematic," he said analytically, "and I just wasted a bullet,"

He quickly scanned his surroundings and found the location of the other two Leyaks. They were not far from their initial locations, but they were quickly closing in on him.

"They didn't directly teleport near me. Probably their teleportation distance is limited," judged Valentine calmly.

He reached out to his briefcase in his left hand to take out a Barong talisman. He needed to make them stop in their track before shooting them to make sure it hit.

The moment the Leyaks got close enough, he held out the talisman to the one closest to him with his right hand, which had the revolver hanging from his pinky, and the trident-like object in his hand created a gloomy red light before turning into ashes. The red light stunned the Leyak, which gave him a window of opportunity. He skillfully moved the gun to its correct position and aimed at the thing. But when he was about to shoot...

Bump!

The other Leyak had somehow managed to hurl a small rock at Valentine's hand, ruining his aim. He quickly adjusted his aim and shot.

Whoosh!

The bullet moved quickly through the air but it missed! The Leyak had managed to buy enough time for its partner to recover from its state.

"They've also gotten smarter? What is this? Evil spirit development institution?" he mocked inwardly.

He moved quickly from his position because he was now almost too close to the Leyaks, and it would be bad if he was cornered by the two evil spirits. He darted to the other side of the courtyard and held out a talisman while turning around. He had felt a Leyak following close behind him, so he seized the opportunity.

The talisman turned into ashes after stunning the Leyak. However, Valentine didn't shoot right away; he dashed to the other Leyak and held a talisman to stun it.

Swoosh!

It teleported away before he could get close enough. Without wasting time to chase it because it should now be too far away, he aimed at the still stunned Leyak and shot it.

Bump!

Again, the other one that was not stunned hurled a small rock that perfectly hit his aiming hand. The pain was nothing, but the impact was strong enough to move his hand several centimeters to the side, making his gun shoot nothing. The timing was too perfect-- it was as if the Leyak wanted to make sure that he would waste his bullets.

"Even from that distance? That Casper needs to behave," he said in annoyance while moving away quickly from his spot.

"Let me try this then," he moved closer to the Leyak that was still recovering from the talisman's effect.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Uncovering, hereby put you under interrogation!"

As soon as he had finished chanting, he got a throbbing headache. His power had failed to take effect. He couldn't control the Leyak with his Interrogation.

"Shit. It would be much easier for you to control those two things at the same time," he muttered, "but you're much slower than they are now."

Valentine ran back towards the door to the kitchen while the two things moved quickly toward him. His next plan was to enter the kitchen and waited for them to open the door, which would give him the chance to stun and shoot one of them.

He swiftly entered the kitchen and slammed the door behind him. The sounds of blood dripping were right behind the door, and not long after, it got violently pushed open.

Flash!

Valentine held out another talisman and managed to stun the one opening the door with its gloomy red light. He could see that the other Leyak had readied another rock to throw at him, but the position made it more difficult to aim for his hand. Without even giving it a chance to react, he triggered his gun and shot the stunned evil spirit.

Growl!

With its animalistic cry of pain, the stunned Leyak melted into a pool of blood which vanished into thin air as soon as it touched the ground. In its spot, there was now a purple crystal fragment lying.

Clank!

The other Leyak hurled the rock that it had prepared and aimed for Valentine's head, but he managed to dodge in time. The rock hit a pan behind him and made a loud noise.

In the spot where he dodged to, suddenly the Leyak appeared!

He felt very weak in an instant. His whole body seemed to just want to give up and lied down on the floor, accepting its fate. He was now within the evil spirit's range and it was sucking the lifeforce out of him; on top of that, its life-sucking power was now much more powerful than when he first encountered it. Its bloodshot eyes looked menacing, and its elongated tongue was reaching out, trying to lick him.

With much difficulty, he put his left hand up and held the talisman that he had prepared before against the thing. A red light came out of it and stunned the Leyak before it turned to ashes in his hand. However, the suction force didn't disappear even though the thing was stunned.

He forced his weakened body to move out of its range, crawling heavily on the floor. He didn't have much time before it recovered from its state, so once he felt his power returning, he quickly shot the motionless Leyak between its eyes.

"Die!"

The bullet drilled a hole in its head, from which countless blood veins came gushing out, entangling the evil spirit. From the veins, blood spurted and melted the Leyak, which let out a very loud, beastly cry.

Growl!!

Valentine lied down on the floor for another second, recovering from his weakened state. After that, he got up and picked up the purple crystal fragment that the Leyak had dropped, as well as the ones by the door that the first and the second Leyaks had dropped. He also picked up the briefcase that he had quickly discarded in order to hold the talisman and the gun at the same time in each hand.

"I hope we can use it for other purposes than just breaking seals," he looked at the small translucent object between his fingers and then stuffed it inside his briefcase together with the other fragments.

"That last growl might have attracted the other Leyak, or worse, that black thing. We'd better hurry," he concluded and made his way across the courtyard.

He ran quickly across the huge open space and stopped at a door in the corner, where the book he was looking for should be. The clouds were getting thicker and thicker, and as a result, the morning became darker and darker. He needed to grab the book as fast as he could and escape from the mansion before the black thing appeared. With the sunlight gone, it would be much more difficult to face the thing.