The bells continued to echo throughout Arven Manor, announcing an inevitable execution.

The metallic sound rippled through the corridors, halls, and stairways of the entire property while, above them, footsteps began to emerge from multiple directions simultaneously. Organized patrols were no longer distinguishable. Now there was only frantic movement. Orders shouted. Doors being violently opened. The growing noise of a fortress entering a state of absolute alert.

And it had all happened too fast.

Damon still held his sword embedded in the fallen guard’s chest when he realized this with brutal clarity. They had lost the silent advantage before even reaching the main wing. The infiltration had ended the instant those creatures found them in the archive corridor.

Or perhaps...

Perhaps it had ended long before that.

The corpse at Ingrivid’s feet still writhed slightly, even after its throat was partially destroyed and the bolt pierced its eye. The black runes burned into the man’s skin pulsed with a faint, uneven glow, like living veins slowly reacting to the death of their host.

Elizabeth knelt beside the body for only a few seconds before looking up again. Her face had lost any trace of irony or elegant coldness. Now she looked genuinely worried.

"This isn’t just mind control," she murmured. "This is deep arcane binding."

Cherry made an expression of utter disgust as she reloaded the crossbow.

"Those words keep getting progressively worse."

Morgana watched the symbols burned into the guard’s arm without showing fear. But Damon immediately noticed something else in her expression.

Recognition.

Not complete.

But partial.

"You’ve seen this before," he said.

She hesitated for a brief moment before replying.

"Not exactly." Her voice came out low. "But my father investigated similar practices during the Northern War." His eyes remained fixed on the runes. "Noble houses used criminals and condemned soldiers in arcane subjugation experiments."

Cedric was visibly uncomfortable.

"I thought those stories were exaggerated."

"They weren’t."

Another bell rang violently above them.

Closer now.

Then came voices.

Guards rushing down the upper corridor.

"LOWER WING!"

"SEARCH EVERYTHING!"

"FIND THE INTRUDERS!"

Cherry let out a small sigh.

"Ah, great. They’re already using the word invaders. That sounds very definitive."

"Movement," Damon ordered immediately.

Everyone reacted instantly.

Cedric led the group out of the archive wing while Ingrivid quickly wiped away traces of blood near the shelves using a dark cloth soaked in alcohol. There wasn’t enough time to completely conceal the fight, but perhaps it would delay a precise understanding of what had happened there.

Perhaps a few minutes.

Perhaps less.

Even so, any delay now was precious.

The corridor beyond the archives was narrow, lined with old stone walls partially covered by Arven family tapestries. The lighting came only from a few spaced-out lamps, creating long shadows that made the mansion even more oppressive.

And then Damon noticed something else.

The house was too quiet.

No servants running around.

No panicked employees.

No domestic sounds.

Arven Manor seemed empty.

As if life itself had been ripped from it.

"She isolated everyone," Elizabeth murmured as they walked quickly. "Employees. Servants. Maybe even part of the guard."

"Why?" Cherry asked.

"Control."

"This is starting to become a recurring theme."

Cedric raised his hand abruptly.

Everyone stopped.

Footsteps.

This time coming from the adjacent corridor.

Slower.

Heavy.

Damon immediately turned off the flashlight.

The group retreated into the shadows.

Then three figures appeared at the intersection ahead.

More guards.

But different from the previous ones.

These still seemed... human.

Frightened.

Confused.

Veterans of the old guard.

One of them gripped a sword so tightly his fingers trembled.

Another kept his eyes constantly turned back, as if expecting something to emerge from the darkness at any moment.

Then Morgana emerged from the shadows.

The impact was immediate.

The men froze.

The oldest of them even paled.

"Lady... Morgana?"

She nodded slowly.

"You still know who I am." The man seemed torn between relief and sheer terror.

"We thought you were dead."

"She probably would have preferred that."

The three exchanged quick glances before the veteran stepped forward.

"She’s gone mad," he said quietly. "The Duchess... she..." The man visibly hesitated. "Something’s wrong in that house."

"Explain," Damon ordered.

The guard nervously scanned the surrounding corridors before continuing.

"People started disappearing first. Then came the silent men." His breathing seemed unsteady. "Now there are things walking the corridors at night."

Cherry immediately raised her hand.

"No. Absolutely not. I refuse to accept ’things walking the corridors’ as normal information."

No one laughed.

The veteran continued:

"Yesterday one of the servants tried to escape through the east wing. They found him hours later." The man swallowed hard. "He gouged out his own eyes."

A brutal silence fell over the group.

Even Ingrivid seemed disturbed for the first time that night.

Elizabeth was the first to react.

"She’s completely lost control of the magic she’s using."

"Or the magic is consuming her," Morgana murmured.

Another thunderclap echoed over Arven.

The mansion windows trembled slightly from the distant impact of the storm.

Then screams began.

Far away.

Coming from the west wing.

Cedric immediately looked up.

"The veterans have started."

Damon understood at once.

The distraction.

The parallel operation had finally begun.

More screams echoed.

Metal clashing.

Doors slamming shut.

And then—

A crossbow bolt.

The silent war had finally exploded inside Arven Manor.

The veteran before them took a deep breath.

"So it’s true." His eyes returned to Morgana. "You came to take her down."

"We came to save this house," she replied coldly.

The man held her gaze for a few seconds.

Then he nodded.

"Tell me what you need."

That changed everything.

Because at that moment, internal resistance ceased to be just an abstract hope. Now there was real adhesion within the mansion. Guards were beginning to choose sides.

And Damon knew exactly what that meant.

The situation could get completely out of control at any moment.

Elizabeth seemed to have reached the same conclusion.

"We need to speed things up," she said immediately. "When the fighting spreads through the corridors, the Duchess will react."

"She’ll run to the Duke," Morgana replied.

"Or use him as a hostage."

The atmosphere instantly became heavy again.

Cedric turned to the veterans.

"The central wing?"

"Partially blocked off," one of them replied. "But the inner corridors are still accessible."

"And the silent men?"

The guard hesitated.

"More of them showed up today."

"How many?"

"...we don’t know."

Cherry let out a dramatic sigh.

"Fantastic. We’re being hunted by silent, demonic aristocrats inside a cursed mansion during a storm. This has really escalated."

Damon turned immediately to Morgana.

"How far are we from the Duke’s chambers?"

"If we go through the central corridor, a few minutes."

Elizabeth frowned.

"Too fast."

"Because it’s a trap," Morgana replied.

Another sound echoed through the mansion.

This time closer.

A scream cut off abruptly.

Then silence.

The veterans paled.

"They’re coming," one of them murmured.

Damon drew his sword again.

"Then we move now." The group moved quickly through the side corridors as the sounds of the conflict began to spread further and further throughout the property. In some places, it was already possible to hear men fighting on the upper floors. Doors slammed. Glass shattered. Contradictory orders echoed through the aristocratic halls now plunged into chaos.

But the worst was still something else.

The silences.

Entire sections of the mansion seemed dead.

No one.

No breath.

No movement.

As if certain parts of the house had been abandoned by all human life.

And this made Damon feel a growing discomfort under his skin.

The central corridor appeared before them a few minutes later.

Large.

Luxurious.

Ancient.

The enormous windows revealed lightning illuminating the outer gardens while heavy rain fell on the statues of the property. Tapestries of the Arven lineage covered the walls, silently observing the collapse of the family itself.

Then they saw the first body.

A guard.

From the old guard.

The throat had been completely destroyed.

But not by a sword.

It seemed...

Bites.

Cherry stopped immediately.

"...No."

Cedric approached slowly.

His face hardened instantly.

"What happened here?"

No one answered.

Because at that moment everyone heard.

Something moving upstairs.

Slowly.

Dragging.

Damon raised his sword slowly as he watched the shadows above the main staircase.

Then came the sound.

Breathing.

Heavy.

Wet.

And then...

A figure appeared at the top of the stairs.

For a brief moment, no one understood exactly what they were looking at.

It was still wearing the Arven guard uniform.

But the body seemed... distorted.

The skin darkened by runes.

The arms elongated grotesquely.

The jaw partially dislocated.

The eyes completely black.

Cherry fell into absolute silence for the first time since the beginning of the invasion.

The creature slowly tilted its head.

Then it smiled.

A smile too wide for a human face.

Cedric involuntarily took a step back.

"By the gods..."

Elizabeth paled.

"She’s crossed all the lines."

The creature began to descend the stairs slowly.

Without haste.

Like something it already knew it would win.

Then others appeared behind it.

More guards.

Or what was left of them.

Morgana gripped her father’s sword so tightly her fingers turned white.

Her gaze became utterly cold.

"She did this inside my house."

The creature in the center moved its jaw erratically.

And then spoke.

With a broken voice.

Multiple.

Like several people trying to use the same throat at once.

"Lady... Morgana..."

Cherry took a step back.

"No. No. Absolutely not."

"She... wait... you..."

The sound of that voice made even the veterans shudder.

Damon stepped forward immediately.

"Formation!"

The men reacted instantly.

Bows were raised.

Swords drawn.

Ingrivid pulled out two small blades hidden under his coat.

Elizabeth stepped back slightly from the main line, observing the creatures with frighteningly clinical attention.

Then the monster grinned again.

And they all rushed at once.

The corridor erupted in violence.

The bolts fired by the beasts pierced two of the bodies immediately, but the creatures continued advancing nonetheless, brutally colliding with the veterans’ defensive line. The metallic sound of swords echoed violently as Damon intercepted the first blow from the main creature.

The impact almost knocked him off balance.

Monstrous strength.

Far beyond any normal human.

Morgana appeared beside him the next instant and pierced one of the creatures directly through the neck before twisting her blade and tearing half the man’s head off in one brutal movement.

Black blood splattered across the walls.

But the body still tried to move forward.

Cherry fired another bolt directly into the creature’s mouth.

"KEEP FALLING, YOU DAMNED DEMONS!"

Cedric blocked the attack of another transformed guard while shouting orders for the veterans to maintain formation. But the line was already beginning to crumble.

Because those things didn’t fight like men.

They felt no fear.

No pain.

No hesitation.

And worse—

They smiled.

Damon pierced the chest of one creature before kicking it against the wall, but immediately another surged above him from the side staircase. The thing’s distorted jaw opened grotesquely as it tried to sink its teeth into his neck.

Then a gunshot rang out.

The creature’s head partially exploded to the side.

Cherry slowly lowered the smoking beast.

"I deeply hate this night."

Another thunderclap shook the mansion’s windows.

And somewhere above them...

A woman began to laugh.

Loosely.

Softly.

Distantly.

But perfectly audible through the chaos.

Morgana froze.

Her face lost any remaining trace of doubt.

Because she immediately recognized that voice.

The Duchess was watching everything.