The terrain told the story without words. Fissures were cutting through the ground, rotten corpses were scattered where they’d dropped, and dry blood had long since stopped being blood and started being soil.

The pavement had been distorted and forced out of place, like a catastrophe had walked through it.

The sun outside was scorching, and none of it reached the mansion. Inside, the place felt warm with lamps still burning steadily despite the age.

"This place is unusually warm. I think someone has been staying here."

Luccy whispered.

"Yes... but no one should be living here. This place smells like a battlefield."

Solus added.

They moved through the walkways as a group. No one knew what was inside the mansion, and no one was eager to find out alone.

Scar stayed with them, but his attention kept catching on the dark energy. It was everywhere. Seeping from the walls, saturating the air. It hadn’t just passed through this place, it had settled here.

They had checked multiple rooms, the courtyard, and even the kitchens. Nothing.

Every surface was covered in moss and cobwebs, ceilings leaking steadily. The whole place spoke of long, quiet abandonment. Not a single sign that anyone had lived there.

"Isn’t it strange that there are no bugs in here? And this is part of Area 9, isn’t it?"

Amber whispered in Scar’s direction.

Scar weighed his thoughts for a moment.

"I think it’s because of the unusual energy I’m sensing here."

Scar had barely finished whispering when a loud voice from behind caught their attention.

"What are you guys mumbling about? Can’t you let the rest of us in on it?"

"Shh, Walker. Use your common sense and stay quiet."

The moment Solus spoke, it was already too late. A sudden sound from the main hall caught their attention. They went defensive for a brief moment before pushing toward it.

At the entrance to the hall stood countless creatures. The same Scarlet Kins that had been hunting the village. That was all the proof they needed, the hall was where they needed to be.

They began slaughtering them without hesitation, but something was wrong. These weren’t like the ones they had fought before. They weren’t fighting back. They were trying to get into the hall. For creatures whose entire existence was built around hunting anything that breathed, that made no sense.

They finished killing the creatures and opened the door. What waited on the other side sent chills down their spines. Figures that appeared to be ghosts, and yet they were too calm, too relaxed for that. Almost transparent, and yet unmistakably human in every other sense.

The hall buzzed with figures dressed in suits and gowns, their fashion placing them at least a century back. Everything before them was formal and aristocratic. It felt almost like walking into a ball. And yet strangely, not one of them seemed aware of their presence.

Amber immediately motioned in the distance.

"Look over there... doesn’t the woman in the middle look familiar?"

Scar found her. A woman in a white gown, with silky blonde hair, wearing a smile that needed no explanation whatsoever. This was her big day, and it showed.

"Oh... I see. That’s Selena. I haven’t seen many portraits of her, but I know that’s her."

Walker turned to Solus.

"Selena? Are you fucking kidding me... didn’t she die decades ago? Why is she here?"

"Stop yelling, Walker."

Luccy commanded, and Walker was quick to shut his mouth.

The name Selena rang familiar, though he couldn’t quite place where he had seen or heard it.

"This... was the day of the Selena Dance."

The moment Amber spoke, the room dimmed. The ghost audience began exchanging wary glances, and Selena, who had been smiling just a moment before, looked utterly heartbroken.

The scene darkened slowly. Selena wept as the audience watched, some laughing and some feeling sorry, until the sympathy gave way entirely and everyone was laughing, pointing, and mocking her without restraint.

Selena cried out. She was nothing but a ghost, her voice was lost, and yet the rawness of it, the sheer weight of her anguish, was enough to make anyone who watched feel sorry for her.

But then she began to dance alone, crying through every step, and that was when it truly became depressing.

The audience laughed harder, but their laughter was shifting into something else entirely. Something creepier with every passing minute.

"I think I know this dance..."

Scar muttered to himself.

This was the dance he had shared with Haven at his banquet over a month ago. Back then it had been lovely, beautiful even, but watching the person who had created it now made it something else entirely. Depressing.

"This doesn’t match what happened. I think someone is influencing Selena’s emotions, keeping her here longer than she should be."

Everyone’s attention turned to Solus.

"What happened? I’m not familiar with what happened here."

Luccy asked.

"No one laughed at her. They were actually impressed. She was meant to dance with her lover, and this ball was meant to announce their wedding... but her fiancé canceled it."

Solus motioned toward a door to their left. Behind it stood a male ghost with dark hair and gentle eyes, and he was the only one not laughing.

"That’s the one who broke the news about the wedding being canceled... and she’s her childhood friend as well."

Scar grimaced. Weird and creepy didn’t begin to cover it. Selena looked around fifteen, and she was getting married? More than that, who would tamper with memories this sensitive? They were only making her suffer more.

"No one in the audience laughed. They watched Selena dance in awe, some even imitating her movements, but it was said she never stopped dancing. Eventually, it became unsettling, and the crowd began to leave. She danced for an entire week and died while still dancing."

Solus stroked her chin for a moment.

"I didn’t know this took place in Area 9... the timeline doesn’t make sense. Yeshe would either have been dead or already old by that point."

Luccy motioned positively. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"This is strange... the person at the gate is Lionel the necromancer."

Scar’s eyes went wide. It was all starting to make sense now. If the young man was Lionel, the dark energy he had been feeling finally had an explanation, but then again, Lionel had also read the Chosen One tablet.

"Whether the timeline adds up or not doesn’t matter. We’re here for one thing: to eliminate the source of the people’s troubles."

Walker’s words came out angry, and he was already moving toward Selena. Storm stepped in to stop him, but Walker shrugged him off without a second thought. He unsheathed his sword, stood before Selena, and sent countless slashes through the ghost.

No one knew what had come over him, or whether he had any idea how foolish he looked. No one said anything either. And before long, he stopped trying to kill a ghost with a sword.

"I think Walker is right. Regardless of whether history is distorted, we just need to stop this so the villagers can live in peace."

Storm asked, and everyone agreed. Scar, however, already had an idea forming. He wasn’t sure it would work, but it was worth a shot.

"This is how Selena saw that day... and I believe the best way to heal a bad memory is to replace it with a good one. If someone had danced with her back then, it would have meant everything to her. I think one of the key steps to stopping this is someone dancing with her."

Solus locked eyes with Scar.

"Why don’t you dance with her, Scar?"

Storm and Luccy agreed.

"This can’t be just a bad memory. Someone must be manipulating her emotions. We have to find the culprit... you can dance with her while we search."

Scar weighed his thoughts. That was a good alibi, a pretty good one. It would show that he had played a meaningful role in the mission. Enough to earn at least a little of Chica’s trust.

"Wait... why must he be the one to dance with her? Does he even know how to do the Selena Dance?"

Solus glared at Walker.

"Would you shut it, Walker?"

Scar paid Walker no mind. A bastard through and through, but Scar wanted to make a good impression on all his teammates. Even Walker. He walked toward Selena.

"I want Amber to stay behind."

Luccy opposed.

"We’ll need her keen senses to locate the culprit. You’re to stay here with Solus."

Scar was okay with it, though Solus still unsettled him. And she wasn’t helping. She laughed as if this were precisely what she had been waiting for all along.