CHAPTER 12

After a few moments of feeble silence, staring at the ocean of emptiness outside the mall, Giselle slowly unsheathed the blade without moving her eyes for a single bit, not even blinking any fraction of a second. She let the case slip down, carefully walking through the marble tunnel of oblivion. Something began, something beyond dark and horrid, something never seen before in the city. By the time Giselle stepped out of the mall, a few meters away of the big grayish fountain, silence broke bonds between the calm and the solitude, turning it all into vile terror. 
The sky shattered to pieces of putrid fog colored in brown and black at the same time, while the buildings nearby began to literally rot as if getting consumed by imaginary flames of the very hell. The streets looked hazardous, starting to transform into solid rivers of rusted iron, as in some distorted pavement turning entirely into this wine color similar to human blood. The buildings rotted as well, being overcome by the darkness all around the city and the stench of horrible ambience in the air. Their walls now looked rusted as if made of steel or burned wood out of a dying forest. And meanwhile the clouds couldn't stand their own horrendous reflection in the windows, all of them melted into a bloody liquid sliding down the petrified walls. Finally, the fountain made this strange sound of an animal being ferociously tortured or strangled while rotting too, acquiring a dark orange color similar to the flames of a bonfire. But no blazes were seen, and the water, now completely dried, showed a bunch of bleeding muscles and filthy bones dirtied by the very dust of eternal slumber. 
She stood calm, analyzing the new surroundings due to the sudden transformation of the whole city into a darkened abyss she had never seen before. And it was there, at that perilous moment, when the long-black-haired ghosts emerged from the floor around and behind the lady holding her precious invaluable sword. They all smiled like trying to convey their happiness so cynical and wretched. They were going to try again, as usual, to drive her crazy, like they did with Mordoll, and turn her into a similar assassin; a demon, the game’s demon.

Giselle stared at the far down street where the previously destroyed buildings were, now reconstructed by the ornery maneuver of the hellish city. Turning around a few seconds later, looking serious and determined as usual, Giselle's eyes were now of this furious red, terrifying the hollow spectra present in the situation. Little by little, the darkness of the sky began turning into a horrible fog never to be avoided, never to be forgotten by the villagers of the infinite nightmare.  

It was starting. Mordoll was atop the fountain. He exchanged glances with Giselle, but he ignored her, looking beyond her, at a small street between the mall and the next building. She followed the stare and realized why he was ignoring her; Grace had arrived. Mordoll jumped towards her and Giselle became jailed with a swarm of ghosts.

Busy she stayed outside the commercial center, in the middle of the spot between it and the fountain, facing these dreadful beings. They admired her as if she was some kind of legendary figure for them. They did not approach, not even when she took a step forward, looking at them with that red demonic stare. But Giselle wasn't some kind of mutant or fusion of multiple beings; she was just a normal human being with this new power she did not understand yet. And there was no reason to understand it anyway, since she had known all along that these phantasmagoric creatures were no other but the ghosts of all the murdered participants of all the previous games. The reason why they appeared to be exactly the same in physical appearance was still unknown. But Giselle knew it was them; every single player, dragged into this mess, kidnapped against their will that had been killed either by Mordoll or by other players who managed to vanish from the game, supposedly escaping the nightmare. She lured them, somehow, because they wanted to provoke her. They wanted her to awaken that horrendous but marvelous power that resided within her. But she knew that if she ever did that, evil would take over her, forever, and Mordoll, and the game itself, would win. They would triumph. And she could not allow that.

All that torment went completely bruised again. Had she not let herself into the poisonous road of the darkness devouring the city, the ghosts would have never stood up against every single life on it, trying to face them with their fearless struggle; such were the creepiest presences of all time and their always cynical beautiful smiles. But if Giselle was going to stop everything, and destroy the game, she needed that power, and she needed the ghosts’ provocation.

A bunch of ghosts were seen around Mordoll and Grace, and around Giselle. The latter went down on her knees, knowing this darkness was getting not only ahold of herself but as well as the others, starting with Grace. Nonetheless, Giselle's possession was far much worse she couldn't contain it anymore, but the time was close. On her knees, she let go off the sword and put both hands on the red pavement, staring at her own distorted reflection coming out of the imaginary crystal floor of wine perfect color. Once again, blood came out of her mouth and she vomited it, trembling slightly while her eyes went totally dark like glimpses of a beautiful eclipse. The ghosts just stood there, starting to disintegrate from the bottom to the top, slowly. And they did nothing at all, nothing but to smile at such masterpiece of art they were watching, the girl on her knees as in animal position, ready to let the darkness finally roam inside her very heart.
She crawled towards the vanishing ghosts, very slowly, very focused on going to the fountain. There was something human still inside of her, preventing her from total collapse, and her sword... it was nearby. She stopped and looked back for a second while the ghosts reappeared behind her, smiling, laughing silently, following her when she regained the strength to crawl forward once again. She grabbed the katana, using all the power, releasing atrocious waves of crimson color energy around her, trying to stop the total apocalypse on the city. The only goal she had in mind was to break the seal. She had been searching for it ever since Charlie, the priest and some of the previous participants had concluded that there had to be something tangible, some kind of device controlling the game, some alienated/foreign and unknown force behind it all. Mordoll found the fountain and protected it until she had arrived. Why? Because he knew that was her plan. She wasn’t just trying to kill him; she wanted to destroy everything. But seeing Grace, his wondrous bride, his true nemesis, immediately disposed him of that task. As to why this was happening, Giselle didn’t know. She had no time to wonder; all she needed to do was reach the fountain, the source of all hell, and destroy it.

The game was ending, she knew that.... The Game knew that.