A new servant has arrived.
It was as if these words activated some kind of mechanism, and along with a low and muffled sound reaching their ears, countless shadowy outlines suddenly emerged in the darkness before the eyes of the Annihilation Cultists - a faint light from nowhere swayed in the air, illuminating an unusually spacious, quaint and elegant hall!
His eyes widened as he saw this hall that was as magnificent as a palace, yet as old as if it had been abandoned for decades. He saw a curved staircase that spiraled up at the end, connecting the corridors and platforms on high. Huge pillars stood vaguely in the dimness, with exquisite curtains hanging from the tops of the pillars, swaying gently in the breeze that came from nowhere. On the walls around the hall were dark, empty windows - those holes were like the mouths of evil beasts. There was no light outside the windows, and the windows themselves were tightly blocked by criss-crossing steel. Huge oil paintings that could not be seen clearly were hung between the windows. There were no specific people or scenery in the paintings, only creepy colorful blocks of color.
The Annihilation Cultist looked at the scene in astonishment, and then suddenly realized that the restraints on his hands and feet had disappeared at some point. He took two steps forward, felt his body back under his control, and then subconsciously called out to the demon that coexisted with his soul.
However, only a hollow whistle came from his soul, and the dark demon that had been with him for many years seemed to have never existed. Nothing responded to his call.
"Squire, move forward to the end of the carpet."
That low, muffled voice sounded again, and this time it even came directly from my mind.
"Who is it?!" The Annihilation Cultist widened his eyes in horror and looked around the gorgeous yet eerily empty hall of the villa, but he did not see anyone.
He raised his head again and looked towards the end of the hall - the dark red carpet stretched far from under his feet, and at the end of the carpet was the staircase that connected to the second floor along an arc like a wing.
For some reason, when his eyes looked over there, his legs moved uncontrollably - as if to obey the voice he had just heard, he walked to the end of the carpet and stopped a few meters away from the stairs.
The sound of a heavy object falling to the ground was heard outside the alley, and the Annihilation Cultist who had just tried to escape suddenly fell from mid-air. He made a loud noise when he landed on the ground, and his body instantly broke into pieces like porcelain, even his clothes were not spared.
The butler slowly raised his arm and pointed to a large black door at the end of the corridor.
Several servants were passing through the corridor, and even though they had no sight, the 'new servant' still felt the sense of being watched.
A howling sound like a strong wind sounded behind her. Vanna rushed to the alley. She stared at the scene in front of her in amazement. After a long pause, she turned her head to look at the puppet next to her: "Did you do this?"
"This is Alice's Mansion, and you are the new servant here," the dull voice of the "Butler" suddenly sounded, interrupting the new servant's distraction, "Follow me, your next post is upstairs."
As he spoke, he raised his head and looked at the mansion not far away.
"Why is everyone looking at me?"
The new servant nodded subconsciously and followed the headless butler. He looked down unconsciously and found that he was wearing a servant's clothes without knowing when - the same as the maids in the hall.
"There's no time to think about this. We have to leave here," Vanna said slowly. "The noise is too loud. Even if we're not in the central city, the night patrol team should have reacted."
"He grabbed my line and then used force - he started it first, I was a little scared..." Alice spoke incoherently, gesturing as she spoke. Her explanation was very effective, and just a few words made Vanna even more confused. "Do you understand?"
The puppet bent down, took out a handkerchief from his pocket, and gently wiped the ornaments near the door.
Alice was startled for a moment: "Wow!"
There were only rough spherical protrusions on their necks, as if they were the connecting parts of the dolls, with a texture between wood and ceramic.
The low voice of discussion came from
It came from their chests - because these servants were headless.
The "new servant" looked in astonishment at the servants busying about in the hall, feeling a little dazed for a moment.
"Because he is the first servant with a head," the butler stopped and turned around, with a smile in his voice, "and there hasn't been a newcomer here for many years."
The puppet took a step forward.
The "new servant" said with a trembling voice. He could not remember why he came to this closed mansion, nor could he remember his name and origin. He only felt an instinctive fear, a strange feeling was eroding his heart bit by bit. He looked at the headless butler in front of him, and mustered up the courage to ask, and at the same time, the sound of whispering and the feeling of being spied on came from all directions.
"Where...where is this place!?"
"... I didn't understand," Vanna shook her head, then looked back at the end of the alley, where there was a pile of charred debris, emitting a faint black smoke. "Damn it, the priest I dealt with didn't say a word in the end, and his side simply shattered, leaving no information at all."
After taking the last step, he raised his head and looked at the platform in front of him and the corridor inside the platform.
The new servant bent over and slowly backed away until he was out of the room. The door of the sleeping Alice slammed shut in front of him, making a low and majestic roar.
There was no trace of blood in the broken porcelain fragments, as if he had been a fired doll from the very beginning - the flesh and blood body was just an illusion of his.
"What does that mean?!"
Beyond the bed, at the end of the bedroom, where the wall should have been, there was only an endless darkness - it seemed to lead to some distant and deep space, where the floor, walls and roof appeared in fragments, and chaotic dark shadows and countless flickering points of light in the distance slowly rose and fell, turning into bizarre illusions of light and shadow, silently beating at the end of the bedroom, whispering and wandering in the darkness.
"What are you going to do?" the new servant asked cautiously.
"Go ahead, open this door and greet the hostess."
With each step he took, he became more determined and hesitant. At first, he vaguely remembered that he did not belong here. Then, he only remembered that he seemed to be trapped in a strange house. When he was only a few steps away from the second floor, he only remembered the housekeeper's instructions to him -
The figure stood straight in front of the stairs, his dress was meticulously done, a folded corner of a handkerchief could be seen in his chest pocket, and a thin golden chain of a pocket watch protruded from the other pocket. He held a copper bell in one hand and stretched the other hand behind him - this posture was like a butler welcoming a newlywed, a trusted steward who ran the house.
The new servant nodded and turned to walk towards the door.
Figures dressed in servants and maids' attire were busy in the hall. They were obviously the servants who took care of this huge house. These servants would stop when passing by the stairs, as if they were looking at the newcomers curiously.
His steps were steady, his expression gradually became calm, and the swaying of his limbs finally became as stiff as those servants in the hall. He came to the door, stretched out his hands, and his eyes calmly swept over his wrists that had become ball joints - he exerted a slight force and pushed the door open.
In an elegant bedroom that could almost be described as huge, a gorgeous bed was placed in the center of the room. Curtains with intricate patterns and tasseled drapes were draped around the bed. A silver-haired doll lay quietly on the bed, soundly asleep.
The new servant, transformed into a puppet, stood at the door of the bedroom, staring blankly at the beautiful puppet sleeping soundly on the bed, and the darkness rising and falling behind the puppet - then it bent down and saluted the mistress respectfully.
“…I don’t know,” Alice blinked and looked back a little dully, “Hmm… maybe?”
"Does that mean the captain will be dissatisfied?"
Were there so many people here before? Was it so quiet when I first came to this hall
But I have no head. On this body in a black dress, there is only a bare neck, as if... the connection port of the doll is very special.
This surging darkness and light spots are like the puppet's bizarre dream, or like an invisible creature trying to invade the house, blocked from reality by the puppet's sleep.
"Serve our mistress, become a member here, you will naturally know what to do, but before that, you should go and say hello to the mistress..."
It was a body in a black dress - a headless body.
A figure suddenly appeared here.
His mind became increasingly muddled, and more and more memories were being pulled out of this body, as if those things that were not "no longer needed" were impurities that prevented him from fulfilling his duties as a servant in this mansion.
“Plop—”
“Swish—”
He turned around in astonishment and looked at the scene in the hall—
But the servant's face would never change expression again.
Some dark threads extended from his limbs, floating in the air and disappearing in an instant.