Realm Lord
Chapter 87: Monster of the Halls

Chapter 87: Monster of the Halls

"Okay... here’s the deal," she began, her voice carrying the weight of leadership.

Everyone sat or stood quiet, waiting to hear what Lara had to say. Jonas leaned against the wall, his massive arms crossed over his chest. Kay remained standing, his hammer within easy reach. Jake perched on the edge of a chair, fingers drumming silently against his knee. Arthur and Aziel exchanged glances, both acutely aware that they were the newcomers to an established team.

"We have about 2-3 weeks left of food if we’re frugal," Lara announced, her expression serious as she laid out a rough inventory sheet. The flickering light from the lanterns cast shifting shadows across her face, emphasizing the lines of concern etched there.

She gave Aziel a pointed look that made him squint and smile awkwardly, clearly remembering his voracious appetite from their previous meal. A soft chuckle rippled through the group, briefly lightening the mood before Lara continued with her briefing.

"In this next week, we will move from room to room as a group," she stated firmly. "We will never separate or go into a different room alone unless absolutely necessary. Understand?"

She looked around the room, making eye contact with each person in turn to ensure her message was received. The gravity of her words hung in the air—in this place, separation could mean death. One by one, everyone took turns nodding to her command, acknowledging the seriousness of her instruction.

"During this week," she continued, "we will no longer be looking for totems in these rooms... we will be looking for anything and everything." her gaze piercing. "One must know thy enemy. There has got to be stuff we can use to help us, even in the slightest, so that is what we’ll be keeping an eye out for whilst we travel from room to room."

Arthur, feeling slightly confused by the vague directive, raised his hand as if he was a student in a classroom. The gesture felt awkward, but he wasn’t sure how else to interject into the well-established dynamic of Lara’s team.

"Uhm... who exactly is our enemy?" he asked, his voice betraying his uncertainty.

Lara turned toward him, her eyes narrowing slightly as she gave him a piercing look. The silence stretched for a moment before she answered with a single, ominous word:

"The castle..."

Arthur couldn’t help but chuckle nervously, the sound escaping before he could stop it. ’Oh, is that all?’ he thought sarcastically, trying to imagine how one fights a building. The very notion seemed absurd—and yet, after everything he’d seen in the Second Realm, perhaps not so far-fetched after all.

Lara seemed unperturbed by his reaction as she went on.

"We’ll be leaving in a couple of hours, so prepare yourselves," she advised, her tone brooking no argument. "In one week’s time, we’ll be attacking the first sheepman."

The announcement hung in the air, causing a palpable shift in the room’s atmosphere. Jonas and Kay exchanged knowing glances, while Jake’s fingers ceased their nervous drumming. They had clearly faced these guardians before and understood the danger they presented.

Arthur, still processing this information, yet again raised his hand. The gesture seemed to annoy Lara as she gave him a very stern look, her patience clearly wearing thin.

"What!?" she demanded, a hint of exasperation coloring her voice.

Arthur swiftly took his hand down, feeling like a scolded child. "Well, um..." he began hesitantly, "have you guys run into anything in the halls... some sort of monster?"

The question landed like a stone in still water. Lara’s face immediately softened, her irritation replaced by something darker—concern, perhaps, or fear. She looked down in thought for a moment, before raising her gaze once again.

Arthur noticed a change in the rest of her group’s expressions as well. Some showed disgust, others fear, while others registered slight shock. The room temperature seemed to drop several degrees as memories of something terrible flashed across their collective consciousness.

"Yes..." Lara finally responded, her voice quieter than before. "You must be talking about the monster of the halls."

Aziel tilted his head, brow furrowed in confusion. "Monster of the halls?" he asked questioningly, leaning forward with renewed interest. His fingers sparked slightly with nervous energy, tiny arcs of electricity dancing between them.

"Yes," Lara confirmed with a grim nod. "We don’t know much of anything about it. If you guys are talking about it, that means you must have run into it already, which means you know that actually getting a good look at it is easier said than done."

Arthur sighed heavily, remembering the otherworldly fear he had felt when confronted with the creature—the way his body had refused to cooperate with him, how his limbs had frozen and his mind had screamed for him to run. The memory alone made cold sweat bead on his forehead.

"Yeah..." he agreed softly, unable to articulate the terror he had experienced. How does one describe a fear so primal it bypasses rational thought entirely?

Silence enveloped the room for a short moment, each person lost in their own thoughts or memories of the mysterious entity.

"We don’t know much," Lara finally continued, her voice steady despite the disturbing subject matter, "but what we do know is that the fear it permeates isn’t natural. It must be some sort of ability, which isn’t good because I don’t even know how we would begin to fight something if we’re too scared to even look at it."

"We also know, unlike the sheepman, it isn’t locked to a specific room and seems to just endlessly wander the halls."

Jonas shifted uncomfortably at this information, his massive frame suddenly seeming smaller. Even Kay, stoic as he was, gripped the handle of his hammer a little tighter.

"It’s definitely some sort of corrupted monster," Lara continued, "but we can’t tell its rank. To be honest, there’s a chance it’s weak and tiny, but with the fear that it induces, I can’t see a future where we would want to find out."

She offered a small, reassuring smile—though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. "It doesn’t seem to be too fast. We have run into it three times and escaped each time, so as long as we don’t get cornered and stay vigilant, we shouldn’t have to worry too much about that thing."

Arthur nodded, trying to purge his mind of the flooding thoughts of the monster of the halls. The memory of its presence sent shivers down his spine. He glanced at Aziel, who seemed unusually subdued.

Eventually, they all stood up to begin getting ready to leave. The weight of their upcoming task settled over them like a heavy cloak, but there was also a sense of purpose, of forward momentum that had been lacking before.

As Arthur moved to help them pack, Lara turned to speak to him and Aziel, her expression softening slightly.

"Hey," she said, gesturing toward a wooden dresser tucked against the far wall. "I think there’s some clothes in that dresser over there that might fit you two. It won’t do much as far as armor, but the clothes you guys have on are practically falling off, so go get changed."

Arthur couldn’t help but smile at this unexpected kindness. He looked down at his current attire—torn, blood-stained, and bearing the scars of countless battles since entering the Second Realm. The fabric was worn thin in places, barely holding together at the seams. The prospect of clean, intact clothing was suddenly the most wonderful thing he could imagine.

He looked toward the dresser she pointed at and made his way there with excitement, Aziel close behind. ’Finally, some new damn clothes.’