No reaction came from Zheng Yan, but confusion was still shown on his face and his words.
The very man who he believed stood next to him and supported him all these years just simply lied to him. For what reason did he lie to him? Did he hold a grudge against him? Or was there something else?
Zheng Yan looked down, face darkened and a possibility of a spike of anger slowly rising to take control and do something unpredictable. The room was quiet, no one spoke, all eyes were on Zheng Yan alone. Yet he didn't say a word and just stood still.
All of a sudden a small chuckle was heard. Both Kinzau and Shuren gaze at the direction of the chuckle and to their surprise it was Zheng Yan. His chuckle slowly started to grow louder. The moment felt uncomfortable for the two of them.
A smile steadily grew on Zheng Yan's face, he did not care about him being lied to, he did not care about him already staring at death's door even if no injuries and he also did not care about the repercussions of his actions.
"Ah…Kinzau, to be honest with you I am still disappointed with the fact that you lied to me. But that is the least of my worries as now, I don't even care anymore because as of right now I'll just offer my life to the god of the Clan Of Sin, the prince of funerals, the lord of reason. My wish of becoming a core member will be long gone, but my sacrifice will continue more to their plans into the future."
Shuren tilted her head in confusion, why would someone sacrifice their own life? But what Zheng Yan did next made her eyes widen.
He went inside of his shirt and took out a necklace with a grey moon and let it swing around for a while.
"So I was right, you do have The Necklace Of Pestilence." Shuren said.
Zheng Yan did not answer and only smiled. He then bit his finger and the blood hit the grey moon necklace. The necklace glowed in grey energy and it blinded Kinzau and Shuren. The light was so bright it even reflected from the outside.
Taura and Assad saw the bright light and were also blinded as well.
Mya who was still outside saw Assad and Taura covering their eyes almost as if they were being blinded.
Mya hesitated at the gate.
The blinding light had already faded, but the air beyond it felt wrong, heavy, suffocating, as if the space itself was warning her not to enter. Still confused, still searching for answers, she stepped forward.
The moment her foot crossed the threshold, a voice reached her.
"Mya…run away…now…out of here."
Mya's eyes widened.
"O–Onee-chan?" she whispered, panic instantly flooding her chest.
The voice trembled.
"Mya…please…run…"
Her heart started to pound violently. She took another step forward instead.
"Where are you?Why...why are you telling me to run?" she asked, her voice shaking
The pressure in the air intensified, pressing against her ears, her lungs. The gate behind her creaked softly, as if urging her to turn back.
"Where's Nui? What's happening?!" Mya cried
Back inside the mansion, the grey light started to clear.
It didn't clear immediately; it seemed to be pulled back into nothingness. Shuren and Kinzau were still blind for a few more seconds, their eyes burning and watering as the last of the light disappeared. Their eyes could open again.
Shuren stood still.
Her breathing caught in her throat, her body stiffening as if her mind could not process what it was seeing. The mansion was different. The marble floors, the grand halls, the expansive staircases everything was covered in a layer of something. There were bodies everywhere.
Merfolk.
Mermen and mermaids were strewn across the floor, against the walls, in the corners, on the furniture as if they had simply fallen where they stood. Their dead eyes looked blankly into space, their faces twisted in fear, pain, or shock.
The air was thick with the stench of death. Shuren's stomach rebelled in revolt.
"…What…?" she whispered, the words barely audible.
Her threads responded at once, trembling, recoiling, curling inward in a desperate attempt to protect her from the horror she saw. Her chest constricted, breathing in short, ragged gasps as fear crawled up the back of her spine.
"This many…lives." she breathed, her eyes trembling as she tried to scan the room.
Kinzau stood beside her, unflinching. His face was a picture of shock, true, but not shock at what he saw. Shock at what he knew. His jaw was clenched tight, fists slowly bunching at his sides.
"So it's already been done…" he said softly.
Shuren turned to face him, a look of accusation in her voice.
"So you knew about this?"
Kinzau didn't look away from the bodies.
"Yes, I was accompanying him when he went to kidnap all of these merfolk from the sacred purified ocean. All of them were taken and dissected brutally. Me and some of the other guards, especially that maid Mischa who you killed, just stood there as he smiled and laughed like a maniac." Kinzau explained.
Shuren stared at Zheng Yan and could only mutter one thing,"monster."
The air changed.
A pressure, slow and deliberate, spread through the mansion, causing the bodies to shift slightly, as if answering some call.
Zheng Yan stepped forward.
His body appeared undamaged, yet something about him was fundamentally wrong, something that distorted the space around him, causing the shadows he cast to be wrong in relation to the light.
He raised his arms, palms open, as if offering the scene around him.
"My dear lord, here are your sacrifices." he said reverently.
The bodies around him seemed to sink slightly into the floor, as if the mansion itself were swallowing them.
"And here…is my life as well." Zheng Yan continued, putting a bloody hand over his chest.
"If I cannot become a core member then use my life for your plans and if you truly wish for me to join you, then I beg of you…make me a core member."he whispered, bowing his head,
Shuren looked up, her eyes wide with horror.