"Oh, so you guys weren't affected by the dark aurora?" I asked as we walked towards the left wing of the manor

"No. We were definitely affected," Angerly stated. "It was so uncomfortable, and several people started brawls or otherwise freaked out. But we were definitely not nearly as affected as the people from the city."

"I think the cutoff is for anyone directly underneath the aurora," Moonwash claimed. "It matches what we've observed. Those who were even just a small distance outside its umbrella experienced significantly less effects. It was an abrupt cutoff."

"She was really brilliant!" Berry praised, wanting to say something positive after all the doom and gloom. "Moonwash figured that out real quick, and advised our generals to not rush under the aurora. So many more of our own forces would've died if not for her."

"Oh? Well, it's good that they listened to you. I didn't know that's how that worked."

"She's really proven herself this past year," Granuel informed, "so they were amenable,"

It seemed that Moonwash had only gotten more amazing in my absence. What discoveries had she made, without me by her side? I'd always been present for everything else, and I hated how I'd been forced to miss so much.

I heard a crack. My hands had balled into fists, and the ground underneath me splintered. It quickly healed back up, as did the small sting of pain disappear from my hand. Well, the real physical pain, at least. My hands still burned like lava coursed through my veins, and perhaps that may not be too far from the truth. My entire body was like that, and it had only gotten worse. But at least I wasn't being actively tortured while strung up like a puppet anymore. It was only the magic that I chose to have coursing through my body that made me feel like shit.

We made it to the building, and entered. Most of its insides looked just as desolate as the outside, but there was a subtle red glow visible through one corridor. It grew brighter as we approached and followed the trail. Finally, we came upon a scary-looking forge, complete with an anvil made of many different metals and bone, and a furnace that burned with the strong glow of hellfire… but different, somehow.

"This is amazing," Moonwash said as she ran her hands over the perfectly straight surface on the anvil. She hit it once, then healed her hand after the object fused to the floor had only given a scarily solid sound. "How does it work?"

"Uh, Pandemonium?" I passed the question off to my friend.

The walls subtly bent, before snapping back into place.

"It's a place for forging weapons of war and destruction," I informed.

"Can you be more specific?"

The ceiling danced a negative.

"Nope."

"I guess I'll just have to try it out then. Do you have any materials with you, Haell?"

"No……. that's a good question actually. Maybe I do? Wait, shit. What happened to my sword!?"

The floor trilled sadly.

"No, no. It's not your fault. They might've disposed of it, or taken it someplace else. Fuck. I loved that thing. But whatever. I'll get it back somehow. Oh! What about my chains though? Those were made of precious herokane!"

That, Pandemonium responded to differently. The whole complex shook, and my friends held on to the unadorned walls as they grew increasingly worried about the continuing earthquake. But they needn't have freaked out. The floor opened up, and out came long chaotic strings of metal that were not recognizable as chains anymore. It was almost artsy in its jaggedness and imperfections.

"Okay. This is great." Moonwash immediately grabbed the thing to toss into the hellfire.

"Eh, later!" I grabbed her, and only squeezed a little bit too tightly. "Save it for later. There are so many new facilities left to explore! But just in case. Any more materials for us?"

Pandemonium obliged, and after another round of shaking came an eruption of mishapen pieces of metal from all sides, a few of which I could vaguely recognize as ruined weapons. There were also bones and fangs and claws from many different creatures, but they were similarly damaged, only it might be more difficult to salvage them than the pliable steel.

"Ow," Granuel complained as a spear split in two poked him on the nose. My requested materials had kind of just exploded over all parts of the room. We were swarmed and buried in them. But it also wasn't nearly enough for the supplies an entire ducal manor might've had. Many of them were missing, and the door burped to inform me of what had happened to them.

"Fair enough," I chuckled, nonplussed by the loss. I requested Pandemonium to move all these materials to a nearby empty room, and to please not eat any of them anymore. I would catch more delicious morsels for it later, if it wished.

~~~

"There really isn't anything here, is there?" Berry said. We had explored the rest of the complex, only to find nothing else of note. All the rooms were bare and empty, as it turned out, save for the one large smithy that didn't even have a chimney. The smoke was just eaten by the very walls. I was impressed with Pandemonium's waste disposal system. It had a short but impactful history with that. Of disposing trash.

"Hey, be nice," I crossed my arms in defense of Pandemonium.

"Oh! Sorry! I didn't mean–" Berry began, but was cut off by my snort.

"I'm kidding." Perhaps the first real joke I'd told in over a year. "It is empty. Pandemonium, can't you fill it out?"

A nearby room shifted, as furniture began to appear. From a bed made of tongue, to a couch that was spikes of metal and bone. There were even attempts to frame intestines arranged in an almost artistic manner, though a fair bit did spill out. Moonwash examined it closer.

"High fashion," I nodded.

"I don't think that's what high fashion is…" Angerly sighed.

"How does it work?" Moonwash asked.

"High fashion?"

"No. Pandemonium. Is it alive? It has organic components." She suddenly pressed her face to the ground now that we were back on the ground floor. Her ears strained as they scraped against the floor. "I think I hear beating. But it doesn't feel regular enough to be a heart. Then again, it could just have many hearts of many different varieties."

I considered the question for a moment, because I didn't actually know either. "I can feel different… densities within the walls," though I didn't elaborate on why. "I think there's many things there." Like the metals I'd seen the manor spew out, and the many organs.

"Is that your… bond with Pandemonium?" Angerly asked, with a look on the symbol present on the clothes she had lent me.

"Something like that." It was actually my Localized Dimension Scanner Matrix. That was a mouthful.

"Where does its power come from?" Moonwash further questioned. "Does it have mana founts inside itself, because the smithy we visited earlier is still going." We could see its continued glow from here. Hell, the whole manor burned just a few hours earlier. There was clearly so much mana being used in this place, and I didn't think it was running out.

"I'm not sure…" I approached a Mark of The Beast painted over a nearby wall, and laid my hand on it. The gesture helped, and I was able to delve deeper into the inner workings of Pandemonium. It functioned similarly to a cursed object or otherwise mana-infused gear, and generated mana all on its own. The organs and stone and metal it grew were… real, but they were the absolute weakest form these materials could ever take. Literal babies could grow tougher bones. Only, the byproducts of Pandemonium was something that it itself could resonate with and greatly enhance. It was a process that I could only compare to an anatomic mastery, though still vastly different. But in practice… if I were to take away any of the blades Pandemonium had conjured, it would bend and break in my hands the moment I flew far enough away. Pandemonium could effectively conjure an endless deluge of materials that would be useless literally anywhere else.

"It does have organs inside it, but they're not that important," I eventually decided. Moonwash pressed me for more details, but I just told her that we could talk about all the boring stuff later.

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We arrived at our next destination, and found the central wing to be just as empty as what came prior. Hellfire bloomed on the walls to light our way, but there was really only one real destination. Just a tiny bit underground was a bedroom that hurt to even look at. It hurt to feel. More than my eyes or any other sense, my dimension scanner could perceive the truly warped space within, and I felt like I was being spun around inside my own head the more of the space came into view of my new organ. The bed of hair rustled in worry, but I gestured for Pandemonium to settle down. I was fine.

"Are you okay?" Berry asked.

"Like I just said. I'm fine."

"O-oh… you didn't say anything."

"Ah. Right. Pandemonium asked the same thing. Don't worry about it."

"Okay…"

I led my friends out of there and out of the central wing. There was nothing left to see there. I got a good understanding of what my bedroom could do upon stepping hoof into it, and I touched my chest right where the mark could be. I bumped my tail on the door frame on our way out, which caused me to stumble. It was remarkable really, how well I'd been able to move so far, though I wasn't exerting myself at all yet, and part of me really wanted to.

~~~

The many smaller residences and towers and sheds across the grounds proved to be empty as well, and we didn't find anything new and interesting until we got to the right wing. In a room very near the entrance was a fleshy red space full of even fleshier pods. They were each covered by a semi-transparent organic membrane, and held an even redder liquid inside. Blood. But not just any blood. This room had a specific ability it inherited from me. A power I had not even put to the test just yet.

"It's a healing chamber," I muttered.

"What?" Granuel asked.

"Exactly what I said," I shrugged. "I have blood magic now, by the way," they would've found out about that sooner or later. "And this room is all about its healing aspect." Perhaps more.

Only my bedroom was super weird. I did not have space magic of any sort, yet it showed more than small hints of that element. It was awash in it. Pandemonium had powers I could not replicate.

"Ah. I see." My friend paced. "Say, Haell. Would you be willing to let other people use this?"

I furrowed my brow. That was a totally reasonable suggestion that never once crossed my mind. I didn't want to. This was my home, and I didn't want to have abject strangers in it.

Pandemonium agreed as one pod bubbled as if it were being boiled.

"No," I eventually said.

"Oh… why? It might help a lot of people, and we could make money off of it. You'll get resources that you also need…"

"Because this is my home now, and I don't want anyone I don't know just prancing around like they own the place," I answered honestly.

"I-I see." Granuel was a bit taken aback by my intensity there. So was I. He looked to others nervously, and then our scary surroundings, as if trying to find the courage for something. "Uh, Haell?"

"Yes?"

"You do know… that the city has just been captured by New Grandera right? They kind of… own everything here. Especially… a complex like this…"

"....What?" I asked after a moment too many. "WHAT!?" The ground shook and the ceiling leaked the blood of my fury.

"S-sorry! That's just what happened!!"

"Relax, Haell," Angerly clasped a firm hand on my shoulder, and my head snapped to turn my glare at her.

"Hands. OFF."

"Okay," she raised them gently in surrender. "We're just trying to help, alright? I mean… I guess we did lead them here to try and rescue you, from all the way back when you were first captured. And I know… you had to free yourself and give us the opening we need in the end, but if you trust my words at all, then I want to tell you they really mobilized in force. We looked for you everywhere. And it was the New Grandera spies that intercepted where you were hidden in the first place. We really tried, and I'm sorry that we could not save you at all. I'm sorry."

She bowed.

I deflated.

"No… no, I realize it, Angerly. I'm being an asshole. Part of it is the evolution, as you know. But I'm really just… so fragile right now. No, I'm already broken, and what you see are all the jagged blades of glass that poke out."

None of that meant that I would give up Pandemonium.

I hoped it wouldn't come to that. Even as the excited beating of my hearts disagreed.

~~~

There was one other location to check out, and I went there with my friends just to round out the tour. The former church had been converted into one massive chamber, with a massive eldritch circle drawn in the very center. It covered a great area that went from one end of the hall to the other. The flat and clean stone of the floor was soft and pliable like putty or clay, and Moonwash figured out what its purpose was almost as fast as I did.

"This is for making rituals," she said as she stood in the middle of the building. Only the two of us were here, for the rest had decided not to go through the door that looked like a maw, and cursed landscape inside. The place was so thick with miasma that it almost felt like being underwater, and it somehow looked even worse than it felt, like the most terrifying versions of hell I had ever seen depicted.

Hellfire sporadically spread and snaked and flared and died along the walls. It smelled of burnt meat, for the fire met the fleshy body parts scattered along walls, which then quickly healed. No full face was visible, but torsos and limbs were aplenty, as if they'd been buried inside. The walls literally had ears. What partial bodies were present were arranged in a way as if they were in eternal combat. Eyes glared lovingly upon us from above. Some burned with hellfire inside, or cried tears of blood that evaporated before they could reach the ground.

A massive heart pumped on my right, despite not being connected to anything. It was slowly being sucked into the wall, as a cage of ribs and skulls took its place. This place was shifting fast, and I could tell that this was just a temporary chaotic state. It would never remain as just one thing, but Pandemonium could exert some control over it. The insane decorations were meant to complement whatever accursed ritual we could think of to cast within.

Moonwash was already drawing things on the clay-like floor.

"I'm not going to be able to pry you out of here, will I?"

"No."

I shrugged. I… trusted her with my life. I still did, as hard as it was. "Don't cast anything without me. I've already missed so much! But, I guess you can explore more of the place. Pandemonium, do listen and support her." And protect her, I knocked on a tongue near the door. "I'm going to sleep."

Moonwash stood. "Wait, I'll go with you."

I looked back at her. "No… not yet. I don't think I can sleep like that."

"I see," she said after a long pause. "I'll sleep in a nearby room then. After I'm done just exploring a bit more."

"Fair enough." I reached out my hand, hesitated, and then patted her as gently as I could on the shoulder.

I exited the building and met the rest of my friends, who had patiently waited outside.

"How about you guys? You're… welcome here. You are. Stay as long as you like. There are so many vacant rooms."

They looked at each other. Angerly clapped and bumped into the other two before they could say anything. "Okay! Thanks Haell!"

I watched them go to the nearest complex, before chuckling.

"You guys don't have to stay if you don't want to. If that wasn't clear."

"Oh…" Angerly considered her words. "I'm going to be honest… That just seemed like an… important invitation to you. So I thought we should take it. But fuck, I'm being silly! Ahahahhaa!"

"......No. You were right. It's… hard not to see shadows everywhere. To trust anyone. And I want to still trust you guys. Just because Therick betrayed me, doesn't mean you will too." It felt good to say it out loud, even if I wasn't fully there yet. "Which is why I made the offer. But then I remembered how unpleasant this environment is for everyone. Honestly, I'm surprised that you're acting so normal despite that. The miasma is thicker than most goblins could ever hope to achieve."

"It's… friendlier," Granuel reasoned smartly. "It's still hard and difficult, but it feels more like if you were using great amounts of wrath mana near us. It's still super scary, but that's it. That's all it wishes to impart. Terror. Nothing we can't handle."

I raised a brow, and the ground underneath me fissured… bashfully and expectantly. I took a deep breath and felt the mana, the background miasma. It was… constantly flowing away from my friends. It chose to project regular intimidation, to avoid subverting my friends' behavior as much as it could. It was impossible to leave them completely unaffected, but I could tell that Pandemonium was actively trying to make it so.

"Thanks," I told my new friend, and the ground beneath me burned briefly. I turned back to Angerly. "Seriously, it's fine. We can hang out some other time. I know it'd still be hard on you to stay here. Especially if you sleep here. Your unconscious dreaming mind will surely make you suffer."

"...Okay," she agreed. "Now I'm glad we're not staying here!"

Berry almost hugged me on their way out, but instead just hovered nearby… intensely. "We love you, Haell! Don't forget that. I'm so so sorry about what happened. I'm so sorry we could not rescue you. I so sorry we were weak. And there's no need to contradict me there, we both know it's true! You've just done what our entire army can't! But even so, I want to say that we want to be here for you! We're here for you! So please rely on us. Lean on us. Don't… don't leave me. I won't betray you ever, I promise! We will be loyal til the end!!"

Angerly and Granuel nodded behind her, and gave their own words of approval.

"Yeah!"

"Just tell me if you need anything. I'll find it for you!"

"Or just hang out. Like we used to!"

"Byebye! See you tomorrow!"

It was so incredibly cheesy and… and silly… yet my vision had become clouded by my tears. I needed to hear those words directly from them. I needed to be reassured. No matter how sappy and cringey and painfully obvious it might feel. I felt thankful to have them in my life. I was grateful to have them again in my life. I missed them so so much, and I swore to get well enough to hug all of them at once again.

I would not let them take that away from me too. How could Therick ever have thrown this away?

They were already dead.

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