"Okay, on my signal, we run while I lead the way, understood?"
"Understood."
As everyone stared at the door, determined yet afraid, Petrisha did not waste any more time and quietly moved the bookshelf away, and then opened the door, taking one quick look outside but unsparingly seeing nothing but darkness. With sleeping Phoebe in her arms, and holding Violetta's hand with her other one, who was holding Henry's hand and so on, Petrisha began running at a pace everyone should be able to follow. But if things got out of hand, she could of course always carry everyone. Or leave everyone but Phoebe behind, depending on the situation.
"Sir Bronelli, how far is it to the fork?"
"It should be right in front of us!"
"Right, I think I see something…"
"Hello, everyone!"
Everyone tripped and stumbled over each other as Petrisha ran into three people, standing in the middle of the hallway now of all times.
"You imbeciles! What are you doing here!?"
"Urgh… W-we came to assist Sir Bronelli… But why are you in such a hurry? Have you found the children?"
"You need to get out of our way at once and return back to where you came from without another word!"
"Excuse me, but we are of noble blood! We will not be commanded by what I just felt to be someone dressed as a mere maid!"
"You…!"
"Quiet all of you! It is noble of you to come out here and try to help us, but don't let your guard down! Something dangerous is after us."
As the nobles were about to respond to Bronelli, Phoebe stood up from the ground after being dropped woke her up.
"Ouch… Phoebe's head hurts… Who threw her on the ground while she was scheming her escape and completely awake…?"
"Lady Phoebe, are you alright? Follow my voice and grab onto the end of my dress so I can find you!"
"M'kay… But Phoebe sees some sort of light behind us… Maybe we can all meet there?"
"Light? What light?"
As Petrisha looked around, sure enough there was an odd ball of blue glowing, liquid like mass floating behind them. Despite illuminating the area around it, it did not make it easier to see anything besides it at all.
"Lady Phoebe, no, stay with me instead!"
"Phoebe thinks it looks pretty…"
The liquid was actually moving closer, but this was hard to tell since it simultaneously decreased in size, making it appear as though it levitated stationary. Suddenly, when it was close enough to almost be touched, it turned bright orange, at which Phoebe's eyes turned empty as she stared into the somewhat semisolid matter.
"Lady Phoebe? Are you okay?"
"…"
Thick, orange roots spread out over the floor, the walls and the ceiling, growing faster than anything would naturally be able to. They spread in all three directions of the hallway, where Petrisha and the group came from, where the three nobles came from, and where they assumed Yamato and Yuki went. Though they only advanced about five meters in each direction. They could tell since the roots themselves appeared to be somewhat bioluminescent. Petrisha grabbed all the children, as well as Philip Bronelli and placed them in the Yamato and Yuki directed hallway, outside of the roots reach. Shortly after that, small orange glowing particles were released from the roots, floating up and spreading in the area around Phoebe, which is where the three nobles still stood. As Petrisha was about to go get them, they all collapsed, as well as the original orange light ball screeching and pulsating, before becoming transparent and losing color and splashing onto the ground as one slime-like ball.
"Phoebe…?"
"Stay back, Lady Violetta! It's not safe."
"But what about Phoebe? We need to help her!"
"We can't… But the Mistress or Master might, so we need to hurry… But it seems she is blocking the way for both us and whatever might come after us, so at least that's no longer an issue, I hope."
"B-but…!"
"You must go ahead now without me. I need to stay with Lady Phoebe, so I cannot come with you."
"Misses Petrisha…"
"I promise Lady Phoebe will be fine. And Sir Bronelli will surely take care of the rest. Now go, find Phoebe's parents. If I'm not with you untik then, tell them where Phoebe and I are."
"You have my word. Come now, everyone find a hand to grab onto and then lets go."
After looking back at Petrisha and Phoebe, Violetta reluctantly moved along. Once they were out of reach, Petrisha pulled out the Book of Abilities Yamato gave her just in case, and read Phoebe's entry, which previously had been empty besides the title of Incarnation of Sloth. Now there was an additional entry, regarding a corresponding ability.
Decay:
Once activated, individuals within range are targeted by Sloth Particles released by Sloth Roots spreading from the user upon activation. Organisms inhaling sloth particles permanently forget how to use their muscles and organs, even functions normally automated stop working, such as breathing or blood circulation.
"Hm… It appears I sounds like I could get closer if I cover my mouth and nose, and therefore prevent the so called Sloth Particles from entering my system. The book does not say anything about mere contact being dangerous, so I think that would be alright… But let's test it first."
Reaching out with her finger tip, she gentle touched one of the floating Sloth Particles. But to be extra careful, she cut her arm off, which of course regrew immediately, and only made contact with the detached hand. Of course, she would not be able to tell whether the muscles were still functional, but she could see if the Particles would attach or be absorbed by the skin, which they did not. Interestingly, the particle blew up into many smaller particles, causing her to back off again. If this process repeated, putting her hand in front of her mouth and nose might not be enough to block out all the particles, if they continued to split smaller. So she let go of that approach for now.
Meanwhile, the group with Violetta reached a slightly glowing door, and chose to approach it. However, all that was inside was a crushed circus tent, as well as blood smudges all over the floor.
"What happened here…?", Violetta asked nervously.
"I can't think of any kind of wound that would result in this kind of blood spatter… Sister, don't you read these fantasy novels? Any creative idea what could have happened here?"
"This is not the time to make fun of me, Henry! But I guess… Judging from the amount of blood, it looks more like many small things were crushed, rather than one big source of blood dripping everywhere… I don't know, like… Fairies or something…"
"Well, whatever it was most certainly wasn't the ones we are looking for, so I suggest we move on. Come now, all form a line again starting from me."
Sir Bronelli drew his sword again, and reached out to the children with his other. Using the tip of his blade as walking stick to feel in the dark what lied in front of them, as they continued to follow Yamato and Yuki's path. Meanwhile, they had made quite a distance from where Yuki had slaughtered the gnomes, and finally reached the next illuminated door.
"If there's any more stupid creatures in there, I will not leave survivors again!"
"I guess then they'd be asking for it anyway… So let's just go in and see."
Yuki carefully opened the door, sticking her head in first and looking around, only for an empty space to be found instead of a room. After stepping inside, she turned around only to see Yamato was no longer behind her, despite having been holding hands with him the entire time. Finding the door to have disappeared as well, Yuki was naturally considering flattening the entire mansion in response, but for that she would have to get out of this room first. Luckily, she was not completely alone, and the people she wanted to see the most right now had remained in the white endless space alongside her. The five gnomes, who should have stayed with Yamato, for some reason sat on the ground now, looking up at Yuki as she looked down at them. The thought stomping on them to end their whole gimmick of course immediately crossed her mind, but since they seemed to have learned their lesson, she let go of the thought for now. Seeing them cover in fear and not hearing their stupid music and laughter was somewhat entertaining to her anyway. As she turned back around to look more closely if there was anything useful in this empty void, which was only became empty to her after Yamato disappeared, she backed off in irritation for a brief moment. Suddenly, countless Yamato's stood in front of her.
"Hey, boo."
They all said in sync. One could think this was Yuki's dream. Infinite Yamato's, what more could she want?
"Boo, I'm the real Yamato, you have to believe me!"
"It's so obviously me, please don't even waste a thought on these guys…"
Yuki walked up to the one who spoke out to her first, cupping his face gently.
"Is it really you?"
"Yes, of course."
"…"
With her hands on either side of his face, she pushed them together and crushed the skull of whatever creature thought imitating Yamato was a good idea. A dream come true? It was the exact opposite. The ultimate insult, disgrace and outrage, is how she would describe this. There was only one, wonderful, handsome, genius and perfect Yamato. And none of these were him, she was certain, the mere fact that this was supposed to challenge her genuinely disgusted her. Unsurprisingly, the stupid brainless gnomes immediately ran away from Yuki towards a random Yamato.
"I'm glad you saw through this imposter, boo! Now we can leave together and—"
Crushing his face the exact same way just a bit faster, her face and clothes were already covered in the blood that splashed onto her each time. But she did not care, any lesser imitation of Yamato would have to be exterminated one by one, without exception.
"…Next."
Meanwhile, the real Yamato stood in an identical empty space, all by himself. Slightly disoriented after a mere blink had made Yuki disappear right in front of him, and her hand slip out of his own, he looked around the unfamiliar surroundings. Standing in front of him was someone he instantly recognized. Even though it had been around a decade since he last saw them.
"Hey, we are all grown up now, aren't we?"
"…"
Eight year old Yamato stared at his adult counterpart, and current Yamato stared back at the child of the past.