Sensing the eerie atmosphere, Senya’s beautiful almond-shaped eyes widened, her dilated pupils filled with terror, her breathing slowing.
She raised the candlestick high and carefully examined the crack, but found nothing except dust.
Her heart eased slightly, and she immediately gave a self-mocking smile. Card Court Town was a tiny place crammed with fifty thousand people—its population density even higher than Fountain City’s. How could it possibly be haunted?
The night temperature had dropped, and while the parts wrapped in her sleepwear were fine, her bare legs in just panties suffered. Her skin prickled with needle-like pain.
Though her legs were a bit thick, their shape was elegant, the curves swelling sharply at the hips to form an enticing pear shape.
With her knees pressed together, her originally snow-white and tender skin had frozen to a pale sheen, like a piece of exquisite porcelain.
“So cold…”
One hand held the candlestick while the other tucked into her chest like a cat, borrowing the fat there for warmth.
As she passed the window, she turned her head and looked, a puzzled expression crossing Senya’s face.
This was the fourth floor, with a view over all of Card Court Town, but she saw not a single glimmer of light—only the pitch-black outlines of buildings. Thick black mist surged through the streets like tides, forming vortex after vortex.
Pitch-black substance seeped from the window cracks, making the windows look like eyes bleeding black blood, staring straight at her. She stumbled back two steps in fright.
The glass reflected her own figure, but in the background, the corridor walls had peeling and cracked plaster, with dark gray mold spots spreading rapidly, blooming into clumps of disgusting black velvet. Thin, wriggling tentacles emerged from the wall cracks…
Senya’s little face drained of color. She hurriedly turned around, stumbled, and nearly fell—but saw nothing abnormal.
Was it a hallucination from lack of sleep? This was bad; she… she couldn’t hold it anymore!
She rushed toward the bathroom, the room numbers in her memory repeating endlessly—402, 403… around the corner… hot water room, stairwell, bathroom…
But after passing the stairwell, the door ahead actually had a 402 sign hanging on it!
What was going on?
Had she come back again?
Terror froze on Senya’s small face, like being held underwater, her whole body wrapped in icy, suffocating dead water.
She quickened her pace, traversing the quadrangular corridor, and soon discovered that not only the bathroom, but even her own room 401 had vanished!
Life felt decapitated and tailless—no home, no direction, lost in confusion, wandering in an infinite loop of repetition, circle after circle, accompanied only by fear and loneliness…
“Ah… ah…”
Senya panted rapidly, sweat beading on her forehead and trickling down her nose bridge and temples, tracing her delicate, watery features, curving at her chin, dipping into her snow-white slender neck, and finally gathering in the valley of her chest.
Was this the second or third lap?
Senya’s head whipped around like a startled baby chick.
The candlelight grew dimmer, and from the unlit corners came rustling sounds. One or two black, multi-legged insects crawled out of the shadows, traced an arc, and hid back in the darkness.
Just as Senya hesitated, a rough, prickly sensation came from her neck. From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed an insect crawling from her shoulder toward her neck, then scurrying up her cheek to the top of her head!
Senya screamed and slapped at it desperately. She managed to swat it off, but a strong wave of disgust surged in her heart.
And in the next moment, as if in retaliation, countless insects swarmed out of the darkness—like ticks, like cockroaches—rushing toward the girl’s white, plump, tender little feet. They submerged her ankles and poured into her slippers en masse. Her feet felt like they were trapped in rain boots filled with hard pebbles; the wriggling sensation and the pain from the segmented legs scratching made Senya scream hysterically!
She plopped down on the ground, kicking her legs wildly, her slippers flying off. Big and small insects bounced around her, crawling up her white tender calves!
“Help!”
Senya cried out as she ran madly through the darkness, not knowing where she’d dropped the candlestick.
Suddenly, she saw the bathroom curtain. In a daze, she glanced back—the insects were gone.
The cold moonlight shone through the window, casting a patch on the floor like a small white handkerchief, gradually calming her nerves.
She reached the window. The black tide on the streets was gone; people bustled about, and the breakfast stalls had opened before dawn, steam wafting as the lids were lifted.
Senya panted in exhaustion, relieved herself, and walked back along the corridor.
Had everything just been a dream?
403, 402…
401!
Seeing her room hadn’t disappeared, excitement surged in Senya’s heart. She quickened her steps to the door, cautiously pushed it open, and peered inside. Seeing the simple yet reassuring furnishings, she breathed a sigh of relief and closed the door behind her.
Sitting on the bed’s edge, she recalled the ordeal and patted her chest in relief. The nightmare was finally over.
Her mouth was dry, so she picked up the water glass on the bedside table and took a sip.
The water tasted strange—slimy and sticky, actually wriggling! Like a snake prying open her teeth to slither inside…
In an instant, a intense pressure surged from within her skull, swelling and painful, as if something was forcibly squeezing into her brain. A soft-bodied creature wriggled out from her nostrils…
This was bad…
In her final moments, Senya recalled the Blue-Haired Loli’s childish yet stern tone—absolutely prohibit taking food from containers—filled with regret, but it was already too late.
–
In the zigzag stairwell, a figure stood in the shadows, gaze level with the fourth-floor corridor.
After confirming Senya had returned to her room, the figure sighed in relief, as if a task was complete. But upon turning, it suddenly collided with a Blue-Haired Loli!
Its heart clenched. It was the one inflicting fear and manipulating everything, yet it jumped in fright at the little girl who had appeared silently behind it!
Walking at night, anyone would be scared half to death by a blank-faced little girl’s face suddenly emerging from the dark.
“Do you know why I don’t light candles?” the loli asked in her thin, soft voice.
How did she know about the candle…
The black shadow was dumbfounded. Not only had its actions been exposed, but its trick seen through—a strong sense of danger welled up.
“Because I like sneaking up on prey, so I evolved night vision for low light.”
The loli’s eyes contracted like a cat’s into vertical slits, capturing the faint light.
The black shadow had an utterly ordinary face and build—the kind that blended seamlessly into a crowd. Truly an excellent scout, and one that would excite Ashley.
“Your ability is quite special. You process Spade A’s personality excretions, shaping them into lamp oil or candles. When lit, they emit light that subverts rationality and distorts perception,” Ashley said, nodding—whether in approval or pressure unclear.
As she peeled away layer after layer of its secrets, the scout’s pupils shrank to tiny points. Its muscles tensed like a leopard poised to strike, fingers gripping the mechanism of its poisoned sleeve sword, arrow nocked!
“Your ability and Spade A’s are like sisters, working in perfect tandem… Since neither is complete on its own, I couldn’t copy them. But isn’t this too coincidental? Like two irregular leaves fitting perfectly into a circle… Maybe there are more abilities, pairing up into a full deck… Sub-abilities subordinate to a higher one that can delegate downward—what a form for an ability to take…” Ashley explained methodically.
The scout’s head buzzed, face flushing red, veins bulging like earthworms crawling across its skin!
Couldn’t let this one keep talking… She’d touched on the Card Court Society’s core secrets… Had to silence her…
Shing!
As the sleeve sword extended, it slashed left and right toward the loli’s neck in a scissoring strike!
But a split-second earlier, Ashley’s hand blade suddenly elongated. The Metal Lifeform-formed sword had pierced through the scout’s chin and out the top of its skull, a sharp tip emerging!
The scout dangled in the air, body convulsing rigidly.
Ashley swung her arm, flinging the corpse aside. She reached out with an empty hand and said coldly:
“You’re more useful dead. ‘God’s Palette’!”
