The group looking at the unnerving door didn't know what to do with themselves. Awkward silence filled the room as everyone looked at each other. Besides Dillee and Oolong, who seemed unfazed by the thing. They just smiled at each other.

"I say what-what, this old chap will take the plunge on behalf of the young master. 'Twould be an honour, sir." Despite MC not saying anything, Dillee took it upon himself to start proceeding through. As he reached closer and closer, the vacuum sucked him in. MC and Horace flinched since it was so unexpected.

"SIR! I'VE BEEN TAKEN TO THE KITCHEN." Came the shouts of Dillee from far away in the house.

"Well, that's a relief. I thought he was just going to drop into some random pit of spikes." Dion said with a slightly zingy zest in her tone. You dare to try and take my zing? Only I can zing! MC thought with a twitch in his eye, looking away.

One by one the group started making their way towards the door and were sucked in by the vacuum. Landing in the kitchen just like Dillee did. He stood there waving a rusty grater around in the air. "Fascinating piece of old technology this is. Reading about them in books is great, but in person, they are truly remarkable." Curious tones and fixation on the tool. It is rather unusual to meet someone that gets fascinated by things such as that. It's charming; there's more to Dillee than we know. MC thought.

"Well, we have two doors to try in here. Do we take that one with a window that looks like it goes back towards the main hall, or this one that doesn't have a window on it?" Dion said to the group. Dillee, breaking out of his grater fixation, interjected.

"That door screwed MC; I tried it already." Dion hid her desire to punch Dillee for that display just now and barged past him with force instead. She tried to open the door, but a group of ghosts flew into the room through it.

"We've got you cornered now, BOOooo, prepare to be ganked, trespasser! This is courtesy of the master." Bo had been harbouring some resentment from earlier shenanigans, and it was time for her to step up and let off some steam. She summoned clones of herself. Though unlike Art users, there were no symbols appearing here, they seemed to just materialise through her rage.

The clones were Liquid-like in appearance, but they perfectly resembled her without the stilts. They were various colors that the trio assumed were probably element-related. A good observation from the trio.

One by one they threw themselves into the crowd of ghosts that had appeared in front of the door. A blue clone collided, and ice shattered outwards, causing the group to dive and duck to the sides.

Electricity sparked outwards, hitting the lights and electrical outlets. Small fires formed, which became explosions after a fluorescent green clone sprayed acid everywhere and mixed with the electricity. Splinters of wood and shards of glass flew around the room. Oolong, in all the madness, simply stood there casually being impaled over and over by the various tiny pieces, but as we've learned from earlier. If me core is not harmed, am all good!

One of the ghosts hung in there, a sliver of energy keeping it tied to the place.

"Mm-master…yyyou sent us to die~ BOOoooooo." Slowly it dissipated along with the echoes of its voice into the air.

Well, that was a thrilling encounter. Great thinking using something like that in such a small place, you absolute fucking helmet. Rage floated around MC's head, not matching his awkward smile that the rest of the room could see.

"Bo, are you ok? Haven't seen you get that mad in a long time…" Dion brushed herself with her hand, the dust and wood chips fell to the floor, and then stood up to face her. Bo was sweating buckets and breathing heavily. They were close to hyperventilating, but MC and Horace waited to see how their group reacted. Slimmy bent down and helped her onto his back, while Dion tied a rope around the pair of them, keeping her fixed in place.

"Your powers, they're so different from the ones we see on Maliterr." Admiring the cohesion and family-like unit they had as well, MC couldn't help but speak out. When the new friends had finished, Dion responded.

"Without warning, we were all born anew. Could do the things we could only dream of doing. Be a new person that was free of their shackles from before." Her face matched the sadness of her tone.

Oolong continued the conversation. "Lots of people died in the process, though, and some of us transformed into things like me, Slimmy, and Bo. Now home is a mess. There ain't going back for us, but we can try to figure out what happened." Somehow still smiling whilst saying such harrowing things. Poor guy.

MC had more things to ask. This was not in his favour, however. As an announcement, reluctantly and sarcastically, came through the PA system.

"You have defeated 20/150 ghosts. Great job, ya ghost hating arseholes."

"Heh. I BET SOMETHING great will happen IF WE TAKE THEM all out!" Piped Horace psyching himself up and trying to change the subject as quickly as possible.

"Alright then, ghosticide it is. Zing-zing!" MC said loudly, "Bet I get more than you numbnuts." "YOU'RE ON!" Horace piped back at him, determination in his eyes.

"A competition between you two fine sirs? I shall keep scores, so your focus may be on the fights ahead!" Dillee joining in on the fun between the two. "Be serious. We're still trapped, remember; have your fun time afterwards." She walked over to the door, greeted once more by a swirling, colourful, flickering static. The emotional faces appearing again did nothing to steer Dion's advances as she took the first step in. Neither did it affect the rest either.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

A smooth wooden floor was their landing point upon exit. Followed by unexpected loud clapping, clap-clap. Dazzling lights shone towards the floor and group. None could see what was beyond the powerful beams. It was an endless darkness. Bracing themselves, the group readied to fight. Moving in closer together, forming a circle. They began to hear movement out in the places they couldn't see.

Yellow energy began to envelop above the group whilst the lights that had been directed at them began to reverse towards the darkness. Now finding themselves bathed in darkness whilst the room lit up full of ghosts in various forms.

Five hulking, ethereal white masses akin to Slamchamps the trio had faced before were amongst the crowd. Only now adorned with sharp metal armour and spiked maces in each hand. The cretinous skeletal ghosts they have faced so far made up most of the numbers, while one singular large type of non-ghost the trio hadn't encountered before had appeared this time; the rest of the group, however, did recognize it.

Dion wasted no time in speaking. "Fuck, they brought a Totin with them. And Bo's too out of it right now." Her voice hurried and stressed at the sight of it. A large brown stone-like monument that appeared to have holes all over it was at the far back.

"What's so bad about that thing? It's just a big ~"

The announcer had decided to finally show himself, interrupting MC's words. His entire body was cloaked in a pitch-black, shadowy robe that seemed to have a mind of its own.

"I shall be your conductor this evening. You better appreciate this dance of death. Do you know how long it took me to train this bunch!?" So, try not to die that fast. "

I grow tired of you all, so prepare yourselves.

Feel the rhythm at your feet.

Action!

The sound was abysmal. Screeches and scrapes against instruments that were not meant to be played outside of your mum's basement. It didn't help that they played instruments that were clearly out of tune either.

"I don't know music that well, but instead of being a C#, that sounds more like an F for fucking kill me now. If you're going to play a waltz, PLAY IT PROPERLY. 1-2-3 1-2-3 He clapped his hands to demonstrate the rhythm for the ghost orchestra. They started to get upset from the criticism; ghostly weeping howls rang out instead, and the figure, angry from hearing how terrible it was, bit back.

"You leave my cretins alone, Terrahuum! Get back to playing, you fools. And the rest of you out there, KILL THEM!"

The ghosts began making their way towards the group. In the back woke the Totin. Holes throughout its body produced eyes that glowed purple and orange. It pulsed out waves that flew across towards the group.

Dion shielded the group from the attacks that seemed to detonate against her powers. Like fireworks going off, the colours of her powers produced explosions that seemed to mix together. Brown burst outwards when the purple wave hit the green-colored energy. Orange and white produced softer, fireball-like explosions. The embers of which flew around them all. Harmless yet pretty to look at.

Dillee began to transform. His snarls as he expanded scared the new friends for a moment, who tried to back away. Roaring as he finished his transition, waiting for the order to get in there.

"What the fuck is he!?" Dion said whilst continuously being pummeled by the waves. "He's our little vegeflotrosity. Don't worry, he's harmless, and he brings a ton of flavour to cooking too, don't you widdle buddy? Who's our good boy?" Scratching at his chin only empowered Dillee, who let out a "RUFF." When MC and Horace finished scratching him.

Slamming his fists into the ground, he jumped towards the Totin. The eyes began to crawl out through tentacle-like appendages, dozens of them hovering and swaying in the air. One struck at Dillee, who grabbed hold of it and punched it repeatedly as Slimmy and Horace helped him by nailing the rest with long-range attacks.

Rapid-fire bullets from Slimmy's bizarre fighting style of dancing gun-fu tore through the ranks as they reached the Totin, whilst the shockwaves from the turret shelling cleared the occasional group.

The first wave of minions had managed to get into range. Their ghostly clawing and flailing tried to reach Oolong MC and Grinzy, who were ducking, diving, flying, and rolling around with dodges. One or two had managed to get MC, who shrugged off the attacks and returned the gestures with a water-infused Great Hammer. I

t was hard for him to use, unlike his other weapons; this was one he always struggled with. Even with all the stat benefits from his gear and glove effects, its heaviness was full-on. What choice did he have, though? None of his other pieces could make a dent in these sorts of beings; the attacks would pass right through.

Wide arc swings clear 4–6 at a time. These minions were numerous but cannon fodder. It was the rest that they had to watch out for. Dion constantly switched her focus between defending and watching for any changes that the conductor may try to put everyone off. It was so far, so good, but vigilance was essential here.

Oolong fought like a spinning top, bouncing minions around, while Grinzy was like a torpedo flying into the bigger, more monstrous ghosts that were gaining ground. If only the group knew the kind of thing they had with them, that's probably not even 1% of their power. Thought MC, who had managed to defeat about 15 ghosts so far before needing to take a break.

This thing is such a fucking nuisance to use; I need to start hitting the gym. Can't always rely on strength potions, he thought whilst a brave ghost was punching his face repeatedly. MC shouted at him, "WILL YOU PISS OFF?" Taken aback, it paused for a few seconds before Dion's energised red fist punched its head off. Dissipating away, she grabbed hold of and dragged MC back into the fray, huffing and puffing.

Watching his plans continue to fall apart. The figure began to creep away from the performers. "This isn't fair! Why did you lot manage to get sent here? It's normally homeless types!"

He waved his hands and scuttled through a door. Watched by his ghostly minions still trying to perform. The remaining minions began to transform. Trash mobs became like the big ones; the big ones just became bigger…and angrier.

Everyone was fighting with all their might around Dion. She watched as MC swung the hammer into the knees of one of the newly transformed big, armoured ghosts falling to the floor with splashes of water flying out as it connected.

Slimmy and Horace continued to pepper the Totin whilst Dillee was punching it to pieces from the top. Grinzy and Oolong still Launching and spinning around continued to pick off anything that got close. She took it upon herself to deal with this now that there was an opportunity to focus. With deeper, longer breaths. The world began to stand still. And she dug deep into herself to channel all she could into one move.

"Enough!"

Her words boomed out. The room had her attention as she shook violently. Her whole being was charged, pulsing, and ready. And she let loose a devastating attack that pushed away all the darkness. Screaming at the top of her lungs as she kept it powered.

An uncomfortable stillness filled the room long after the dust settled. Grinzy caught Dion as she began to fall backwards from exhaustion.

"All ghosts have been eliminated…the path to the control centre is open."

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