Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

The voice Kaizen heard whispering was masculine, but weak, as if it was already very weak. Immediately, he looked at Jayaa, in order to check whether his companion also heard it.

The bard was wearing a countenance of astonishment, but it was not one of pure dread which was what Kaizen had expected.

"You didn't hear that?" Inquired the Psyker, frowning.

"Huh? I should have heard something?"

Although Kaizen's experience with ghosts was still very short in Rise Online, he had seen many horror movies, so for him the ominous whispering was nothing new, only it was definitely a completely different experience to hear something like that being the only target of the haunting.

Kaizen nodded, fearfully, to his companion's question. "Earlier, I heard a whisper. As if the ghost was not happy with our visit."

At that moment, Jayaa smiled with debauchery. "I know what you're trying to do... You're trying to scare me, aren't you? That won't work on me."

"What?"

"No need to play dumb, man, you're acting to get the desc-" As Jayaa spoke, a bony hand with big fingernails covered his mouth, and then he was pulled so fast into the darkness that Kaizen didn't even follow to see what caught him.

Just then the wide-open door of the hall behind Kaizen slammed shut, and within seconds he was alone. He kept his cool and looked at Jayaa's life bar, so he was sure his friend was okay, so he sighed and began to walk calmly into the hallway where Jayaa was dragged.

"Jayaa?" He called out loudly, but all he heard was the echoing of his own voice in the empty rooms of the house.

As Kaizen explored the second floor, searching for his group partner, he noticed that the house was actually quite large. There were at least five huge rooms on the second floor alone, not to mention the kitchen, living room and bathroom. This was great for him, who also wanted a safe place to store some items and his money.

'Damn. If I were a ghost, where would I run to?'

As Kaizen thought about this, he heard a creak of wood coming from the second floor and when he looked up, some of the dust from the old floorboards upstairs fell on his face.

'The second floor, but of course!' he concluded as he wiped his face with one hand.

Finding the stairway was not difficult, because Kaizen had already caught a glimpse of it when he had walked down the main corridor of the second floor. That being the case, he went back a few rooms and found the old wooden steps that awaited him. The staircase was dark and Kaizen didn't know what he would find on the second floor, but he hoped he wouldn't encounter an aggressive ghost that would try to kill him and his friend.

At the very moment he climbed the first step of the staircase, holding the banister with one hand and stretching the lamplight forward with the other, a series of mutterings plagued him this time.

"What do you think you are doing?"

"You dare challenge me?"

"Don't be foolish..."

"Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to make mistakes..."

"Hihihi."

Still, Kaizen climbed the next step and then one more, undeterred as he spoke:

"Are you going to keep whispering in my ear or are you going to show up for me right away? I don't have all day."

Psyker's words made the whispering cease, for now.

When he reached the second floor, he came upon the ledge he could see from the living room. Now the light from the lamplight was hitting the clear crystals of the magnificent chandelier on the high ceiling of the living room and reflected quite a bit...

Kaizen looked both ways down the narrow hallway he was standing in. There were two doors next to him, one to the left and one to the right, and after them there were two other corridors, however, the novice noticed that on the floor in the direction of the right corridor there was a thin, creeping mist, which was not even enough to fully cover one's feet.

'I saw this same mist in the room seconds before Jayaa was captured.'

There was a possibility that this mysterious mist was something ghost-related or not, and it was only up to Psyker to think about it. So, determined to find out more, he headed to the right. When Kaizen turned the corner of the corridor, he saw a red door ajar at the end of it. Although there were two other doors, one to each side of the hallway, he made his way to the end and pushed open the red door.

The old hinges on the end creaked with the opening.

*Nheeeec*

Just as the lamplight was about to penetrate the overwhelming darkness, the glow of the crystals suddenly grew dim and quickly faded, leaving Kaizen surrounded by pitch.

In the next second, Kaizen could hear only his heavy breathing. He tried to push the button on the lantern to turn the light on again, but nothing happened when he did so.

"Oh, shit..."

"Your friend is in a room in the hallway to the left, yet you came after me. What would you wish for by breaking into my house?" The voice Kaizen heard was no longer a whisper, but a voice that filled the entire room he was in. "There is nothing of value here, no treasure, there is nothing in this house, just a man who wishes to live in peace for all eternity."

"Is that your wish? To live in this house?"

"You... you are not afraid of me. Why aren't you screaming?"

Kaizen raised his right hand and scratched the back of his neck. "Well, I guess dealing with ghosts will be normal from now on because of my class. I've dealt with a ghost like you once before, only she wasn't as azucrinating as you."

Suddenly, an orange light flashed across the room.

Kaizen looked to the left, which was where the dim light was and watched the flame of a candle gradually get more. Then several candles lit up all over the floor of the room, finally illuminating a face that was not Kaizen's, but that of a middle-aged Caucasian man, who had droopy eyes haunted by dark circles under his eyes and very long, dirty black hair. On the top of his head were two small horns and his ears were very pointed.

This man looked at Psyker and said seriously:

"Man, I am not a ghost, I am a demon."

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

If you want to see original illustrations of Rise Online characters, consider helping me on pa treon: Pa treon.com/NandoFalske

More character images in:

https://discord.gg/bpqq9u4gS8

Like it? Add to library!

Don't forget to vote with Powerstone to support the book if you like it...