Once it was decided where Aurora needed to head out to, she quickly bided her time and left the scene.

Of course, Rita followed after her while Karan separated from the group. He was going to attempt to buy them more time by pursuing the tower to not attack the bottom.

For a tall-standing castle like this one, it was a common practice to attack the base to take the whole fortress out. This time it was no different but Karan could no longer allow that to happen.

He hurriedly stepped up the stairs in an attempt to reach the top as soon as possible. That was the easiest way for him to get out of the palace.

He had never seen the hallways of this palace so empty and devoid of life. Not even a single shadow could be seen in the vicinity of the place which was rather concerning.

Not only had everyone disappeared all of a sudden, but it had also left a visible gap in the defense of this place.

This was akin to asking someone to come and take this place over.

‘What is that woman cooking up? I cannot believe she is leaving herself this defenseless like this. But I cannot see any motive behind her actions as well.’

Karan could not see any motives and that was the real problem for him. Lady Dheva was a powerful enough force for even him to not be careful about.

As such, he was not sure he was suer confident in being able to repel her attacks once she got serious.

For a human, she was surprisingly powerful. Even Minerva had to think twice before crossing her and causing trouble.

But for a woman like her to just sit back and do nothing as all this was happening was a little concerning. What was with this open invitation to attack?

Karan felt that something was wrong but he did not realize what it was until he was halfway through the hallway and stopped in shock at the site in front of him.

If there was one face Karan had not expected to see in his life again, it had been the one in front of him. It was his face from his past life staring back at him with dead eyes.

“You are a liar and a conman. That body is not yours so you should return it and come back. I am sure some people are waiting for you to return home.”

Karan was sure he was shaking quite badly. It was tough to hide the expression of horror on his face but he was also sure that no one would be able to find him anyway.

This had to be one of the tower’s tricks to let his guard down. As much as he loathed to admit it, the Southern palace did not deploy such cheap tactics to win.

And they especially will not need such underhanded tricks with the three god-level powers under their expertise.

“I’ve heard enough of your yelping. Do you think that I cannot tell you what you are planning on doing to me and everyone else in this place? You should have thought twice before trying to deploy force against me.”

Karan’s words echoed in the space and the shadow doll grinned with an amused expression.

He knew that it had not been his real body since that expression on that doll’s face was unnatural.

“Ahhh, I got found out. What should I do now? What should I do now? Should I kill you and become the real one? Hey, tell me what I should do?”

Karan took a step back from the over-excited female in front of him. She was closing in toward him with a happy smile but there was murder in her eyes.

Karan seemed to have ignited the fire of death and intent in her body which forced the female to attack him.

Now that things had come to this, he remembered why he was being currently attacked by this doll-like creature.

It was because this was a shadow puppet as well but this shadow puppet was special. It was a curse made of his energy and shadow and it had an unnatural obsession with becoming ‘real.’

Unfortunately, that would be only possible once Karan’s current body was taken over by the said creature and it devoured him from the inside.

“You rotten creature. No wonder you felt so familiar to me. So you have been hiding this kind of interest, huh? And did you think I will just it back and allow you to do as you pleased?”

Karan gave as good as he got from the creature. His powers were running low because of using them the whole day but he still had enough magic to be able to defend himself.

His retaliation took his shadow aback but ‘Lucy’s’ face grinned at his efforts before she opened her mouth again.

“You are good but not good enough. Did you think these measly tricks will be able to save you? Look, you don’t even have enough magic to sustain yourself currently.”

The shadow taunted as its attacks picked up in ferocity. Karan needed to finish this fight right now or he would end up burning himself.

The worst thing about fighting a shadow puppet was that it consumed the magic of the person to whom it was connected. And in this case, it was Karan.

He did not doubt that he would be able to win in an all-out brawl but it would still exhaust him a lot.

__________________________

“A-Are you sure we are going in the right direction? This palace has started to give me the chills.”

Rita complained as she picked up the pace to be with Aurora. She could not understand how anyone could come down here and not feel awkward about it.

Even she was getting chills by walking further and further. And she was someone who was used to such an atmosphere.

“Don’t worry too much. This atmosphere is common in most places that connect to the abyss. These nodes are the parts where the abyssal resentment gathers. All you need to do for now is to not let the miasma in your body.”

“Miasma? What are you talking-“

Just as Rita opened her mouth to ask that question, Aurora covered her mouth with her hand. A blast of concentrated magic hit her straight in the face.

There was a little bit of poison mixed in that blast that would have made breathing difficult for Rita had Aurora not covered her mouth in time.

Aurora let go once that blast has passed and it was safe to continue once again.

“Oh, so you were talking about that Miasma. I can see why that would be a problem for anyone. Thank god we managed to avoid it.”

Rita sounded far too pleased for someone who had managed to just avoid being crippled for life. It made Aurora uncomfortable to see her disregard for life like this.

But she chose not to say anything for now. She did not want to come off as too overbearing.

Besides, Rita needed to start thinking for herself sooner or later and this was the prime time for her to do that.

And anyway, they were right in front of the door that contained the secret her mother had whispered to her. The place behind the door was reeking of the abyss and inviting Aurora to come in and embrace her powers.

“This place is so creepy. No offense to anyone but how can someone be expected to live here? We should start heading back home now-“

Aurora should have been glad to see that Rita was unaffected by the sudden change in momentum and even with everything going on.

But Aurora found it hard to concentrate with the sudden bout of magic rushing into her body. It almost felt like corruption and Rita would have to help her out later.

The door was hiding a big secret and Aurora felt scared to open it all of a sudden. She felt like she did not want to look at the other side.

“Hey, hurry up and enter already. How long are you going to keep on standing there like that.”

But what Aurora lacked the courage to do, Rita managed to do quite easily. She forced the door open and entered the room without any care in the world.

Once she was in, Aurora had no other choice but to follow along as well. She did not want to send Rita in there alone.

And she especially did not want to seem like a coward. She had to face these truths one day.

“I guess there is no choice for me now.”‘

Aurora whispered as she entered the room as well. She was assaulted by the familiarity of the abyss as it rushed to greet her but her eyes were focused on the only source of light in the whole chamber.

And it was coming from a cocoon-like entity in front of her.