The mansion near Struttemberg, otherwise known as the Holsten mansion, was built on the site of the original castle that sat as ruins for almost two hundred years. The present house, and the compound surrounding it, were finished in 1787 under the supervision of duke Archibald of Holsten.

The House of Holsten had always had a good relationship with the reigning Dusdolfian monarchs, yet by the turn of the 20th century, members of this noble house became recluse. It was caused by a scandal that damaged their long relationship with other nobles. The scandal in question wasn’t something threatening, though it did damage their public image, turning them into a recluse.

However, what the public did not know was that the scandal, which involved the death of a young noble child, hid something far more sinister than simply an accident. This sinister plot happened in the Holsten mansion our three heroes were exploring, and slowly, but surely, they found the disturbing facts that were kept out of the public’s eyes.

Even if Albert suspected that the mansion was a site for black rituals, evidence that corroborate those suspicions were found scattered all over the mansion. Even he was unnerved by the sight of demonic sigils and summoning circles, along with the remains of humans and Lycans scattered about, rotten and blackened by whatever corruption they absorbed. The Demon Hunter took his time cleansing the rooms where these rituals happened, but he soon found that he needed more than what he had.

“This is what Otto asked us to do?” thought Albert. “Why do I have a feeling that our paths will cross in this mansion?”

As he checked the dozens of rooms repurposed into what he assumed to be places of debauchery and orgies, he couldn’t help but notice that each of them always had the same demonic sigil: a pentagram based with conjuring words written on any surface by either blood or chalk. It was as if they were intended to summon a specific demon. Albert considered consulting the demonologia to see which demon was being summoned by the ritual, or at least attempted to be summoned. Whatever the sigil was, it was too obscure, even for him.

Albert decided to skip the next room, which was a twisted painting room full of painting of torture and instruments of torture (though the painting seemed to have a masochistic tone to them) and regrouped with Eshdar and Lilac. The two were also unnerved by the place, though Eshdar seemed to be more worried of something else. Albert could tell by Eshdar leaning near a doorway while watching Lilac looking around.

“Hey,” said Eshdar when Albert approached him. “You got a minute?”

“What do you have in mind?”

“Lilac.” Eshdar looked at her, who was still checking the rooms aggressively. “Don’t you think she’s acting strange?”

“Like she’s being more assertive? I think that’s more of her own development.”

“She’s restless. It’s like something agitated her to the point of souring her mood. Al, could it be something in this mansion? I mean, we saw a lot of these rooms and most of them were used as room for orgies.”

“It could be an attempt to summon a demon of lust. Clearly, they failed. Otherwise, this whole mansion will be full of cultists.”

“But…what if they didn’t? What if they succeeded, but they lost control of the demon?”

“Hmmm…I think you’re onto something there, Esh.”

“I don’t like this place, Al. I don’t mean the gore. This place is more than haunted. It’s like a death trap. We really, really shouldn’t be here.”

Albert, thinking that a hellhound could have a better sense against anything demonic-related, then asked, “What are you feeling, Eshdar?”

“A bad feeling. Like a fight or flight response every time I opened the doors. It’s like someone…something, is waiting on the other side. Lilac seems to think that way, too. We both readied ourselves for a fight, but then…nothing. Then, there is another, and then there is nothing. Al…what the hell is going on? Is it demons? Is it just like that horse demon we fought earlier, that…Orobas?”

“No, this is different,” said Albert. He then looked at Lilac, who contemplated opening the door to a room before she decided against it and turned back to the two. “But it is likely. You’re right, Esh. This feels almost like a trap. Lilac, I know you’re disappointed, but this is not a job only the three of us—”

Albert turned his head to find Lilac gone, with Eshdar also surprised that she vanished. Just a moment ago, they both turned to see her walking towards them. It was just a glance, but then she was gone.

Alarmed, they both reached to their weapons. Eshdar then felt something. He felt something dangerous coming right at them. Impulsively, the vulpine hellhound grabbed Albert and pulled the human down with him just as an invisible object went over their heads. They both turned to find parts of the wall behind them had a deep gash which wasn’t there before. If they kept standing, their heads might no longer be connected to their bodies.

“Come on!” exclaimed Eshdar, with Albert scrambling to safety with him into one of the rooms. The room they entered soon changed into something terrifying, with blood slowly flowing down from the ceiling, soaking the wallpaper. The lights, which came from outside, were soon replaced with an ominous crimson light. The door leading into the room was also forcibly shut, trapping the two inside.

Albert, acting quickly, pulled out his Demon Hunter crest and chanted, “Saints of Dusdolf! Give me the strength to overcome the demon’s temptation!”

The crest glowed bright, prompting Albert to point it towards the door. Just like with the Orobas, a powerful blast went off of the crest, destroying the door. Albert and Eshdar quickly got into the corridor and kept their heads down, wary of the previous attack.

They quickly became concerned of Lilac and where she ended up. Without delay, they got back to where they came from, ending up in the grand staircase, and thus the entrance of the mansion, where they found the exit were sealed shut, with Albert noticing an aura that kept it closed and burned his hands when he touched the door.

“So much for backup,” said Albert, shaking his head.

“Never mind that! What happened to Lilac?! You saw her approaching us earlier, right?”

“The demon is playing tricks with our minds,” said Albert. “Why didn’t I realize it was a demon? Why did I assume it’s just a simple black ritual gone wrong?”

“Don’t blame yourself,” said Eshdar. “We already suspected something’s wrong. We just don’t know how to fight it.”

“I should’ve been more insistent in keeping Lilac out of this.”

“You can’t change her mind.”

Eshdar and Albert then also realized that they were trapped, and the mansion was vast. Lilac could be anywhere or even nowhere in the mansion. They also had to content with anything the demon threw at them.

And now they lost Lilac.

***

One blink, and she found herself in an unfamiliar place.

Lilac was frustrated that every single room where she felt alerted with turned out to be empty or the remains of a black ritual. While she was mortified by the sexual theme of the rituals and their sadomasochistic nature, she was more frustrated by the fact that somehow, she felt like something could ambush her when she carefully opened the door. Eshdar, who also felt this sensation, was similarly frustrated by the false perceptions, though he concluded that the mansion was playing tricks with their minds a little earlier than Lilac was.

With a sigh, especially after making sure the last rooms were harmless, she walked back to where his friends were when, suddenly, she lost her balance. This happened just after she blinked. Before she was aware of what happened, she was in an unfamiliar place.

It was a place devoid of any features. In fact, there were no features at all. It was a space surrounded by darkness, where even light couldn’t penetrate it. There was nothing in the mansion to suggest that there were any rooms like that.

She quickly concluded that someone, or something, caught her, separating her from Eshdar and Albert. The other two could also be dealing with the same situation. Lilac lamented the fact that she was the first who got caught, but she couldn’t dabble on that for too long.

Instead, Lilac chose to try and find an exit within the darkness. However, it was not that simple. The room was featureless and infinite. Wherever she went, there was no wall. The only surface she could feel was the floor her paws stepped on, but even she wasn’t sure if it was a floor either. She experimented by strafing instead of walking forward, then backwards, then skipping, expecting that there would be a pitfall where she would inevitably fall into.

Then, as if hearing her thoughts, a malicious voice, which filled Lilac’s lupine ears, whispered, “If that is what you wish for, Lilac Rezmirn.”

All of the sudden, Lilac felt herself falling infinitely. She screamed, hoping that she did not end up a smear on the floor. She impacted the floor, but she did not feel pain. In fact, she wasn’t sure if she was merely being suspended or falling. The darkness made it impossible to tell.

She was going to say something derisive towards the voice, but then she remembered Albert’s warning. The voice clearly fitted what a demonic whisper would be, so she stayed silent. Unfortunately for her, her mind was not as closed as she thought.

“That Demon Hunter did give you a good advice,” said the voice. “But that only applies for someone who is pure in heart and flesh, which you clearly aren’t.”

She was aware of her status as a Tainted, which the demonic voice reminded her. Right now, she was alone, and alone, she was vulnerable. It wasn’t because she was scared. It was because she was aware of her overwhelming weakness. She started to think that she underestimated the grave implications of having demonic essence changing her body.

But then, as she thought about demonic essence, her thoughts lingered to Ifrit. This was caught by the demon, who chuckled.

“He gave you the gift,” said the demon. “How quaint.”

Lilac did not want to answer. The demon was taunting her.

“And yet, you denied it. How about if I make you see how fortunate you are?”

That declaration was followed by the infinite darkness giving way to a different scenery, though one that she was more familiar with. She was back inside the mansion. However, she soon realized the discrepancy of the scenery, namely the lights were on, and the place were still decorated lavishly, a far cry to the decaying mansion she was just in.

But it was only a moment later did Lilac realized that something was wrong, specifically the moment when she saw naked people making sensual love in the corridor, apparently unfazed by voyeurs watching the act. In fact, Lilac was the only one embarrassed and quickly tried to look away.

“What’s wrong?” said the demon. “Isn’t this what you did to your love?”

Then to Lilac’s horror, the couple turned into her and Ifrit, having sex while being watched by Albert and the others she knew in her life. The embarrassment was immeasurable to the point she shouted, “Stop! Stop it, I say!”

The demon then chuckled. “Good,” he said. “You do have a voice.”

“What do you bloody want from me?” asked Lilac, clearly incensed. “My bloody soul? You think by tempting me with Ifrit, you can take me? Not bloody likely, demon!”

“Oh, but then why you’re embarrassed? Perhaps, there is a certain truth to it? Maybe, deep down, you know you miss your dear demon. He did take your virginity, after all, and look what you become.”

By this point, Lilac, already frustrated by the demon toying at her, became incensed and overly sensitive. When one of the cultists approached her, ostensibly to ask her to join the orgy, she clawed at him, creating a deep gash in his otherwise naked body. The other cultists saw this and became horrified, gasping and pointing at Lilac.

Lilac, strangely, did not feel horrified. The act of violence, for her, felt liberating. It was like she could finally be honest to herself: that she terribly missed Ifrit. That she hoped her brother would come. That she hoped anyone would understand her plight. It was like this was something she should’ve done from the start.

“This is what you want?!” she said, raising her voice. “You want to see me lose my mind?! You do not want to anger a grieving woman, demon!”

But the demon silently chuckled. He knew everything went according to plan. He clearly found the perfect candidate, one who tried not to show that grief overwhelmed their lives. The woman, whose body had been irreversibly transformed, was perfect. He could only watched in glee as Lilac started searching for the demon in each of the rooms, even shoving and rudely shouting at some who tried to stop her, Lycans and humans alike.

And all it took was a little push.

“Oh, how a little thing can make great things,” said the demon to himself. “Well, then. Time to see how much you really mean that, girl.”

Meanwhile, Lilac started to act irrationally. Her mind was fixated in killing the demon for mocking her grief. She did not realize that her mind was being corrupted by the demonic essence Ifrit inadvertently gave her, the one that the demon infesting the mansion took advantage of. The trigger was her frustration, then the scent that alarmed her when she caught it. A normal human and Lycan with no corruption would take a while to corrupt, and it would take the demon quite an effort to do so.

The cultists never knew that demonic essence was essential to properly summon him, not virgin sacrifice. While he belonged in the Circle of Lust, not all demons were sex demons. All the demon need was a Tainted person in grief, and he could trap them to take over their body.

Lilac, mind already addled by progressing corruption, ran to the second floor of the mansion, not even thinking that the cultists and the orgies were all just memories made vivid by the demon to tempt her. The demon made it worse by making her see Ifrit and others she knew in several of the cultists, most of which were staring at her judgingly. Lilac ran and ran, searching for the demon who played with her mind. Then, when she finally got into a vast room that seemed to function as a music room, her rage subsided and changed into surprise.

The room soon turned from the beautiful room, full of painting, into a room full of all her acquaintances, covered in blood and blankly staring at her. Her rage turned into fear as she realized that this was the thing she feared: the death of those she knew. Even the villagers from Sidve joined, including some whose death she witnessed, along with their injuries such as heads spilt open, disembowelment, and even decapitation. Like ghouls, they walked at her, uttering words such as ‘This is your fault’ and even ‘we shouldn’t let the wolf in our village’, and all things Lilac expected them to say. Her addled mind made her unable to defend from this, making her believe that this was true.

Feeling betrayed and depressed, Lilac froze as the ghouls of her acquaintances approached her while intensifying the negativity and insults. Then, to her surprise, someone grabbed her arm and said, “Run”.

Lilac did not hesitate. She ran with the person through the ghouls, finally knowing that someone really did care for her. She was hoping it would either be Albert or Eshdar, and it seemed to be that way when she recognized Albert’s burgundy jacket. Albert and Eshdar had comforted her during her time of grief, knowing that both knew Ifrit well enough to feel the same loss. With their help, she could stop herself from blaming Rhynsa, and even tried to help him overcome what looked like a misdirected attempt to channel his own sense of betrayal.

“Al! Oh, thank the moon, you’re alright!” she said as they ran through the vast mansion. “I don’t even understand what’s—”

Then, to her horror, ‘Albert’ turned his face, and she saw nothing on there. His dirty blonde hair was there, but his face was a giant gaping hole. She tried letting go, but she found that the horrific apparition had a tight grip.

A menacing voice then declared, “Now, it is done! I must thank you…for the gift!”

Lilac could only scream as she was being pulled into the hole in ‘Albert’s’ face, again feeling betrayed and unable to understand why.

For the first time in her life, she felt alone.