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Suikoden III - Sextain of Destiny	By : Streti Category: +S through Z > Suikoden Views: 7006 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: This is a free fanfic without profit. Suikoden and all related characters are the property of Konami.

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
Chapter 11 - Haunted Mansion
by Streti, thestreti@gmail.com
"This should be the place," said Hugo.
The group stopped, and looked at the ruins before them. The sunset of early spring cast a golden light on what could have once been the grounds and buildings of a wealthy mansion. Now only the main building and a stone wall around the inner grounds remained. A steel gate in the stone wall was ajar, making a creaking sound with the light breeze.
"Matches the description, at least," continued Hugo. "Look for any other clues. Signposts, old books, vampires lurking just beyond your field of vision..."
"What if there really is another one?" asked Alanis.
"Yeah, that Richard guy was tough, and there were more of us then," said Melville.
"The reports from this area mostly talk about this mansion being haunted," answered Nera. "But no stories of vampires attacking the Camaro border villages close by."
"If there is a vampire here, it's keeping quiet," affirmed Hugo. "But in any case, keep your wits about you."
"Will do!" said Louis. He had been very energetic since the the hot spring cave.
"We go in now?" asked Wan Fu. "With sun setting?"
Hugo nodded. "In the best case, we get a roof over our heads for the night." Then he lifted his right hand, where the True Fire Rune glowed faintly. "Worst case, I don't have to worry about burning down the place."
They all looked at the muscular Hugo and his powerful Rune with varying amounts of relief and worry. They were glad to have the immense power of a True Rune on their side, but few had seen the full effects of its magic. Hugo used the Rune only sparingly in battle situations, and still he cast with ease fire magic that normally required a high level of learning from mages.
"Let's not keep the vampires waiting," said Nera and moved on. The group of six approached the mansion in a loose formation, looking around for monsters or information.
"Hey!" said Alanis, when they got closer. She pointed at a name plaque next to the gate. Surrounded by floral decorations carved into the plaque, stood the name "CERVANTES" in big bold letters.
"Can't be any clearer than that," commented Hugo. "Keep looking for anything else."
They went through the gate into the inner grounds. It looked like there had been several buildings around the mansion, but they had been burned to the ground.
The air was drier and colder here than on Mt. Haru, and there were still some patches of snow here and there on the grounds. Black charred remains of wooden buildings and ashy spots littered the surroundings of the mansion where the snow didn't cover them.
"What happened here?" asked Alanis.
"There are stories," came an unknown voice.
"Huh?" said Hugo. They all stopped, Nera and Melville took battle stances.
A figure stepped out from the shadows of a wall still standing. She was a beautiful woman, with a piercing gaze in her bright blue eyes. She had a heavy grey cloak, a green and white outer vest, under it a red shirt, and earthy yellow gloves and pants. Her boots looked well suited for long travel. Around her forehead and dark brown hair was an elaborate circlet, decorated with the kind of an inexpensive jewel that were often used by rune sages for simple magical enchantments. She was armed with a simple spear.
"You don't look dangerous. Are you?" she said.
"To the wrong people and monsters, yes," answered Hugo. He noticed the unknown woman was clasping something in her hand. A smoke bomb? "Weird place to hang around in," he continued.
"You should know," the woman answered.
Nera stepped forward. "We don't, really." She lowered her bow.
There was a brief pause, with complete silence. The light breeze pushed the chill of the coming night into their bodies as they stood there. Around them, the black and burned grounds lay dead.
"You mentioned stories," she continued. "Do you know what happened here?"
She gave the group a slow look-over. "No," she said. "In the villages around here, each village has their own story. In one, they say the lord made strange experiments with rune magic, and it backfired on the whole family and all the servants. Literally. In another, they say the family was good folk, kind and welcoming to travelers and paupers alike, but the mansion was suddenly beset by monsters. And then there are stories where the lady of the house engaged in sordid liaisons behind the lord's back, and he went mad with jealousy, torching the grounds and finally offing himself."
"How horrible..." commented Louis.
"One man?" asked Wan Fu. "That's too much."
"The lord... Lord Cervantes?" asked Hugo.
"Yes," answered the woman. "But whatever the story, they say--"
"Lord Richard Cervantes?" he continued.
"That's the name I've heard, yes. And his whole family. Whatever happened here, it was bad. And now they say the mansion and its grounds are haunted, by monsters or the ghosts of all the family and the servants, and that even the Knights of Camaro haven't dared come here."
"Yet you're here, all by yourself," commented Hugo.
"Well," she said. "The best part of stories is to see for yourself if they're true or not."
"Agreed," said Hugo. "The place seems peaceful so far."
"Still and peaceful like a graveyard," commented Alanis, peering around.
"There is a graveyard here," said the woman. "It's beyond the wall."
"Any open graves?" asked Hugo.
"What?" asked the blue-eyed woman.
"Sorry. We've had some zombie trouble."
"Alright. I guess I can trust you," the woman said, and put the thing from her hand into her satchel. "I'm Nell."
"Pleased to meet you," said Hugo. "We're from the Grasslands and Zexen, mostly. I'm Hugo, this is Nera, they are Melville and Alanis, the knight is Louis, and the big guy is Wan Fu."
"You're not so small, either," said Nell and smiled, looking at Hugo's muscled frame. Her eyes settled on the rune in his hand. "You use magic?"
"When needed," he replied. Nell's gaze lingered on the True Fire Rune, then she took a step back and looked at the mansion.
"I was hoping to sleep there for the night," she said. "Unless there are ghosts."
"If there are, it's better to go together. Don't you agree?" said Hugo. She nodded, and they started walking toward the main building. When Nell wasn't looking, Hugo gave a barely noticeable sign to Nera. She nodded and looked at the mysterious woman.
Whatever had happened to the rest of the buildings, it hadn't befallen the mansion proper. When they got closer, they could see that the ground floor structure was made of very finely fitted dry stone, painted over with an earthy brown and with windows that looked like recent additions. The walls of the second floor looked ever so slightly different, but with the same paint and same type of windows.
"Hey! Up there!" shouted Melville, and pointed at one of the dark windows of the second floor. But when they looked up, they could see nothing. "There was... I thought I saw a face..."
"You sure?" asked Hugo. Melville nodded earnestly. "Alright. Stay ready, everyone. There may be someone or something here."
The thick wooden doors stood out from the stonework around them, but opened with ease. As they entered, the sun had set, and the mansion was dark.
"Does that Rune of yours double as a torch?" asked Nera.
Hugo threw her a warning gaze, but answered in plain tone, "No."
"There are torches by the walls," said Nell and detached one. "Anyone got fire?"
"Let me," said Alanis, lifted her staff, and with intense concentration, sent a flame through the air onto the torch. It lit up, spreading a dim light into the dark interior of the mansion.
Nell located another torch, and lit it up. She continued, down a hallway, and then came back following the other wall, until there were 8 torches burning, including the one in her hand. Even with eight torches burning, the dark stone of the mansion seemed to absorb the light, and they couldn't fully make out all the details of the hallway they were in.
"Brrrr... It feels colder here than outside!" complained Louis.
"And less safe," said Nera. "My bow is next to useless in tight spaces like this."
"Come on, cheer up," said Hugo. "It's not every day we get to explore a haunted mansion."
Melville looked around the sturdy stone walls. "Feels more like a weird and creepy castle."
"There's something on the walls," observed Alanis. Barely visible from the dark stone in the dim light, there was an inscription in black, a circle with a line crossing over it from top to bottom.
"A rune?" asked Melville.
"None that I know of," said Alanis. "Look, it repeats - over and over on the wall, at the exact same distance."
"Should we open the doors?" asked Louis and took a torch in one hand and his sword in the other.
"One at a time," said Hugo, and also took a torch.
"Here goes..." said Alanis, and opened a door on the side of the corridor. "EEEEEEEEEEK!"
Everybody scrambled for their weapons, but nothing happened. Melville dashed next to Alanis, and looked into the room. There was a decomposed body, sitting in a chair and hunched over a table. There were stains of dried blood on the floor.
"Is it moving?" asked Hugo when he came closer, then entered the room. It was a small study, with some books on a shelf. "Need to check those later," he said, then closed the door behind him. "That one," said Hugo, and pointed at the door on the opposite side of the hallway.
"I will do it for you," said Wan Fu, grabbed a torch and opened the door. He went in, and Nera followed. "It's a kitchen," he said.
"A slaughterhouse for them," remarked Nera. On the floor, there were two more corpses. One of them looked like a teen.
Just then, they heard rustling from the door at the end of the hallway leading deeper into the mansion.
"There is something here!" whispered Alanis.
"Only one way to know for sure..." said Hugo, and opened the door.
There was a big, dark hall. In the middle, there were three corpses, with scraps of armor spread around them. One by one, the group made their way through the doorway into the hall, their torches bringing feeble light into the oppressing darkness.
"Doesn't it look like?.." said Nera.
"Like they were fighting each other. Yeah," affirmed Hugo.
"But that... not that..." said Melville, with some shock on his face. On their corpses, there were spots where not only the clothes but the flesh alike had been torn off, and their bones showed through a mess of rotting flesh, entrails and dried blood.
"If I was alone, I would have turned back by now," commented Nell.
Louis gasped with resignation. "Doesn't sound like a bad idea..."
"Hold it together, everyone," said Hugo. "I know this sounds weird, but whatever's here, it's also afraid of us. Otherwise it would have attacked already." He left out 'or it's biding its time.'
"Alright..." said Louis.
The hall opened into five directions, three doors, a stairway into the second floor and the basement, and the hallway from where they came.
Hugo tried the door on the left. It opened into a corridor, and Hugo could see a few more doors. The end of the corridor was shrouded in darkness. He closed the door and pointed at one at the other end of the hall.
"Nera, see if that's also another corridor."
Nera opened the door... and a shrill scream deafened their ears. From the narrow doorway, Nera, Louis, Nell and Wan Fu scrambled to get inside the room, which looked like a dining hall, and at the other end, a figure like a woman's, with a tight dress and bare breasts, but with a deep purple tone of skin and eyes that gleamed red in the darkness. A black sphere suddenly flew by them, into Wan Fu, and he groaned in pain, and fell to the floor, twitching as black energy coursed over his body.
"It's a succubus! Don't fall under its spell!" shouted Nera, barely hearing herself.
Then the succubus opened her mouth, but instead of a shrill scream, they heard a song, sweet and alluring, perplexing and confusing. Louis breathed heavily, as if intoxicated, and looked at the rest of the group, then at the succubus. He took his sword, and rushed at Melville, somehow still keeping hold of his torch.
"Look out! It got him!" shouted Nell, and shoulder-tackled the knight. But Nell just stumbled to the floor, and Louis kept going.
Melville noticed just in time, and managed to parry Louis' slash with his sword. "Snap out of it!" he yelled to the knight, and tried to strike his sword out from his hand. But in Louis' eyes, there was a weird haze, and he didn't seem to hear anything. Instead, he lifted his sword for another strike.
Just then, a wooden shaft hit him hard on his sword hand, and Louis dropped his sword. Nell lifted up the blunt end of her spear, yelled, "Sorry!" and hit Louis on the head.
Nera rushed at Louis, took hold of his face and looked him in the eyes. "Kid! Are you there?!" she exclaimed.
"Uhhhh... not a... kid..." mumbled Louis, and his gaze sharpened. Nera hugged him, then took her bow, maneuvered herself into a spot with enough space and took aim at the succubus.
Fiery streaks flashed through the air, from Alanis' Fire Rune onto the succubus, and it screamed again, in what sounded like the most hellish pain imaginable, and again when Nera shot an arrow straight between its breasts. Suddenly, it went for a door, and before Alanis or Nera could attack again, it was gone. Melville and Hugo were about the enter the dining room, but just then, out of the corner of their eye, they saw the succubus appear from another door into the hall, and float through the air onto the stairs and down into the basement.
"Damn! It knows its way around this place!" exclaimed Hugo. "Wan Fu! Are you alright?"
"Uuuurghhh..." the warrior replied, still down on the floor. Nera picked up the torch he had dropped on the stone floor, and brought it closer to examine him. There were no visible signs of the spell left.
Hugo fell silent for a moment, observing Wan Fu and the stairs.
"We need to move fast. Nera and Louis, stay here with Wan Fu. Use some of your medicine. The rest of you, follow me!"
Melville, Alanis and even Nell followed Hugo as he dashed into the basement, torches in hand with all except Alanis. When they were at the bottom of the stairs, Hugo motioned them to stay still. Despite his rapidly beating heart, he stood still, listened, and took in their surroundings. Then he noticed that there was a fresh trail of blood on the ground.
When he moved, they all followed silently, the light of their torches slowly illuminating the blackness in front of them, and darkness swallowing what was behind.
Then, another sphere of black magic flew through the air, and they couldn't even react. It hit Nell, and she grimaced and gasped with pain, but she stayed up.
The treacherous notes of the succubus' sweet song came through the air, but Melville rushed at the darkness and found the creature, slashing at it with his sword. The song of temptation turned into an inhuman shriek, and the monster floated back into the darkness. A wall of fire appeared ahead of Melville, illuminating the creature's grotesque imitation of the female form in an unnatural light, and Nell dashed forward, making repeated jabs with her spear. It shrieked again, and suddenly a black force spread around the creature, pushing Nell and Melville back and putting out their torches. Then the black force enveloped them, filling them with a pain like their whole bodies were being torn apart, making both cry in pain.
Hugo lifted up his hand, and the True Fire Rune flashed in the air. Immediately, darkness rushed over what little they could see, and a boulder enveloped in flames crashed onto the succubus, instantly dissipating the black force of its spell and relieving Melville and Nell of their pain. A fountain of fire erupted from the boulder, growing ever fiercer, until even Melville and Nell had to scramble out of the way. In the middle of the constant eruption, the succubus screamed endlessly, its voice reduced to a disgusting gurgle, as the flame consumed the creature, burning it away, until there was nothing left.
Hugo's remaining torch crackled silently against the darkness, and there was no other fire left.
"Wow... that's no ordinary rune, is it?" said Nell.
"Ever heard of the True Runes?"
"Yes. That's one of them?"
"Yeah. Don't spread it around too much."
"I won't."
They lit up the two other torches again, and quickly returned to the dining room. Wan Fu was standing up, but only barely.
"Did you get it?" asked Nera.
"Yeah. Didn't have to burn down the whole place after all," said Hugo and grinned. "It's alright, she knows," he said and nodded at Nell.
"Even that Rune of yours shouldn't be able to burn down stone," replied Nera.
"Um, was that the lady of the house? Turned into a monster?" asked Louis.
"I should think not," said Alanis. "People don't just turn into monsters, no matter what some stories tell you."
"We've seen monsters like that before," said Hugo. "And we might see more of them in just a minute. Let's head upstairs."
"What?" said Alanis.
"I bet there are bedrooms somewhere in here. Maybe even without dead people and homicidal titty monsters."
"Could be worse," said Melville.
"Oh Captain..." moaned Louis under his breath.
The group moved cautiously into the second floor, but the mansion stayed dark and silent. One of the first rooms they tried was the master bedroom, with a large four-poster bed and enough floor space for the rest of them. Nell shared watch duties with them, so they had three watches with two people each. Hugo took first watch with the blue-eyed woman, and told her all he knew about Richard Cervantes, the vampire, and how his appearance at Grasslands and Zexen had led them here. Nell shared some more stories from the nearby villages, but grew reluctant when Hugo tried to probe further into her past. He didn't push it further.
They listened to the creaking and the rustling of the mansion, and the howling of the wind, but one by one, their watches went, and nothing happened. When the light of the morning finally shone through the windows, they were refreshed and full of energy, including Wan Fu.
As they ate their breakfast, Nell seemed to consider something. Then she spoke to Hugo.
"You know, there's a curious shrine not far from here. Would you like to see it? I think it may have been used by ancient magicians."
- 10
- 11
- 12
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Suikoden III - Sextain of Destiny