Chương 202: 191. Into the trap

"What?" Josh asked, blinking rapidly, a mask of confusion glued to his face.

"You all right?" Filip asked.

"W-what do you mean?" he asked, still out of it.

"Your mind got invaded," I said from the side, still observing him in case of any sudden attacks. The issue was, I couldn't feel anything crawl its way to him. His mind was different. It worked in a way I was unfamiliar with. I assumed I would have felt an attack coming, but whatever the enemy was, it reached him slowly and undetected. His lack of training was getting dangerous.

"You can't approach this building," I explained.

"What about us?" Marvin asked, looking at me. I wasn't sure what to reply. There was something in there, something waiting. The place seemed an awful lot like a trap, but what was the alternative? If the creature's or person's specialty was the mind, then calling for more FBI reinforcements might do more harm than good. And in turn, I doubted the FBI would just 'leave it to me' to waltz in without them, and I needed to learn more about this magic-granting procedure.

I could have really used someone I could trust to have my back, someone I knew would shrug off any mental attacks. The only people available were Luna, who was more of a healer than a fighter, and Myhur, who would have been the perfect choice if not for his… mushroomness. I struggled with the decision. The main issue was the natural mental strength the mycanoids possessed thanks to their god, a strength I could really use right about now. Using my trump card of eldritch magic was also a no-go with civilians around.

If their minds were attacked, adding the strain of the void might just shatter them.

"We can't just burn the place down to lure them out, can we?" I asked Marvin.

"I'm not sure you're serious," the man replied, slightly confused.

"Well, if not that… Are you aware of other races? Like elves, dwarves?" I asked, dead serious. Filip, Rey, and Josh looked at me like I was crazy. Marvin, on the other hand, gazed at me with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Maybe…"

"Yes or no, because I'm not going into a trap with you as my only backup."

"I… I have to get clearances. Wait," he said and pulled out his phone, calling Elias, as we were far enough for the phones to work. After a brief argument with his boss about calling during his family time, Marvin disconnected and turned to me.

"We are aware of their existence. We met a few elves and dwarves. Not much about others."

"You're in for a shock," I murmured, pulling out my phone. I knew this would have political repercussions, so I also called Q'Shar about the idea. The cat took a few minutes to discuss something on his side before giving the green light. Transporting Myhur took around two hours, during which Josh recovered as we observed the building from the outside. It was just a precaution, as I was pretty sure they wanted to lure us in. Or rather, lure Josh or me in.

I was really curious about all of it—the strange magic, the parasites, and now the ever-present aura. Those were all new experiences—very exciting ones. Then the white van arrived. Thankfully, finding an empty space in the silent neighborhood wasn't exactly an issue.

"Ladies and gentlemen," I said, approaching the back of the car as the rest looked on, curious.

"Theeeee mushroom himself," I said, opening the back door. There Myhur stood in all his fungal glory, the massive six-foot man with a hanging beer belly waving at the stunned crowd.

"Iii hope you all rot in the ground," he greeted. There was a deafening silence all around as I tried to hold back a smile.

"I wish for your flesh to feed the forest," I said, giving the man a hug.

"Hi?" Marvin said in greeting. The rest followed. Myhur didn't seem offended as he gave me a look and then sat down in the back of the car, not stepping out into the open.

"Okay," I said as the rest continued to stare at the new arrival.

"This is my good friend and an excellent fighter. If anything there jumps out at us, he should handle it. You, Josh, take his place in the van. The driver will take you farther away. Any objections?" I could see the four had many questions, but anything not pertaining to the plan was immediately shot down because it was not the time. I just explained to them that my friend would be in the front acting as a bodyguard and that his involvement was nonnegotiable.

The rest finally agreed to the plan after reassurance from Myhur that he knew how to handle himself and what he was getting himself into. We would go into the building, trying to find whatever was hiding there, whether the real culprit behind Lesley's madness or something else entirely.

"Hey," I said, trying to get the rest to stop staring.

"Are we going in or not?" Marvin nodded after a second of consideration.

"Oh, and just a warning. If anything in there takes control of you, I will knock you out… or worse," I warned.

"Same for my mushroom friend."

"Same goes for me," Rey added, looking at me and the rest. Marvin and Filip nodded in confirmation, and we made our way toward the building after putting a large coat over Myhur, just in case. We finally approached the place as the same aura assaulted my senses, small, delicate, and ever-present.

"Sooomething's in there," Myhur said from beside me.

"Something… familiar?" The first part didn't surprise me; I could feel the same thing, but the second made me turn to him.

"Familiar how?" I asked. Myhur shrugged after a while, unable to put it into words. We entered the building, and the presence inside fell over us like a sheet of wet, cold silk, not overbearing but clinging and uncomfortable. The interior was mainly a large hall with rooms at the end, a few old machines too large to be carried out, and a set of stairs leading up and down in front of us. The floor was empty and silent.

"Up or down?" Marvin asked. I concentrated, trying to sense something, but I wasn't getting much. Finally, I just shook my head with a slight irritation and turned to Myhur.

"You got something?" I asked. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. The mushroom frowned deeply as the moss on his face formed a large patch in the middle of his forehead.

"Iiit's… it's fluctuating," he said.

"Huh?" I asked, confused, as I didn't feel anything that could be described as fluctuations.

"Fllluctuating. Barely perceptible, but the presence is not even… I think," he said, seemingly confused by his own words.

"What does that mean?" Marvin asked.

"Not a clue," I said.

"Maybe it means we should burn the place down after all," Rey suggested.

"I'm down." For a second, Marvin looked as if he were about to agree, but then shook his head.

"Let's go up and work our way down. There has to be something here if you're this on edge," he said. And we did as he proposed. The building had five floors in total, mostly barren concrete, with the steel frame visible here and there, giving the abandoned factory an industrial feel. There were also a few abandoned machines, too rusted to be recognizable.

The only difference was that the presence seemed to have lessened, and now, on the highest floor, I could feel we were above it, meaning it was mainly concentrated on the first floor and probably in the basement. The rest took out flashlights as we made our way back to the ground and finally took the wide stairs one level down into the basement. We stopped immediately after a few steps, the moment we noticed silhouettes of men and women standing around the wide underground hall.

I snapped my irises open to take in the whole place. The basement was a large hall, but this one wasn't empty, unlike those above ground. Old pipes snaked around under the ceiling and into the walls, while some of them still connected to a few old boilers left behind in the place. The whole construction was rusted and falling apart, leaving jagged edges where the pipes had rusted away. The center of the floor was empty of machines, and instead, a small workshop was set up.

A series of desks stood there, half of them clearly magical workstations with runes and circles carved into the granite tables. Others, on the other hand, were purely technical, with monitors and computers set up neatly and cleanly, all powered up, judging by the slight hum present in the room. But what was most striking was the people. All of them were sickly pale, standing around the workstation in the middle. All of them looking straight down, so we couldn't see their faces. All silent. All unmoving.

We froze on the spot, unsure what to do, as I snapped my irises back closed. Marvin took a breath, then swallowed whatever words he was about to say, and looked at Myhur and me, opening his eyes wide and jerking his head toward the people in a clear question. I shrugged.

"You can try," I whispered.

"It's not like it's going to make it worse." Marvin nodded.

"We are from the FBI. Please come out with your hands in the air!" he commanded the room as the rest swept their flashlights in nervous jerking motions, trying to make sure every person was in the light. No answer.

"Shoot them in the leg," I proposed.

"Can't they just be hypnotized normal people?" Filip asked. I considered lying for a second but then just groaned in agreement.

"Sure, they could be. I'll check," I said, and then, using Force, launched a piece of pipe at one of the creatures. It bounced off its head with a hollow thud and dropped to the ground. No reaction.

"I'd say they're neither human nor alive. We shoot them from this vantage point," I suggested. I wasn't lying. The strange aura was clearly coming from them. I was also pretty sure they were capable of some sort of mental magic, but different from the kind Lesley used. Similar in feel, but less… outer, more inner, contained in the bodies. The good news was Marvin didn't reject the idea outright.

"Shoot one in the leg," he finally told Rey. Marvin surprised me with that decision, and without much hesitation, Rey raised his gun and fired. The bullet must have shattered the bone as the person fell to the ground, but I noticed it shifted its weight to go down face-first, not revealing its front.

"Oh, come the fuck on," I groaned.

"Put one in its chest," I said, considering whether the FBI cooperation was worth the trouble.

"Iii'll go," Myhur said.

"You watch my back." I nodded and cast Armor on myself, as the mushroom slowly made his way down toward the nearest creature. I could hear gasps of surprise as his body twisted and changed, taking his battle form. I readied Bone Spear as he approached the potential enemy. Coming closer, he stopped within attack range. Still no reaction. He then bent down to look at its face.

The moment his eyes met something, he straightened and, without hesitation, put his hand straight through the head of the thing in front of him.

"What the—!" Marvin shouted, raising his gun. But there was no time for any more shouting as all the creatures jumped to attack, finally raising their heads. The reason for hiding those ugly faces became obvious. The faces were still there, deathly pale, but the mouths and eyes were changed. They were wide open and filled with tumors—pinkish, spherical growths spilling from their orifices. The moment they moved, another strange thing stood out. They didn't move like humans, but more like snakes.

Their bones either weren't there or were made of rubber as the creatures coiled and jumped.

"Aegis of Rot," Myhur shouted, forcing the chant through the sudden attacks, and two of the creatures slammed into the spell while another met his waiting fist. Cutting Storm. I released two stored spells at once, one on either side of him, keeping the Bone Spear for something larger. The attacks struck the enemies and ripped them apart with surprising ease. They fell to the ground around Myhur.

Before I could cast another spell, gunshots rang all around me as the rest tried to hit the monsters within the shaky beams of their flashlights. Myhur dodged an attack as one of them lashed out with its hand like a whip, the fingers snapping loudly right by his head. The mushroom rotated and kicked the enemy away. The rubbery body bent under the impact of the kick, flying away but remaining whole.

"Sam!" he shouted, and I could see the moss on his body glow. I jumped toward him, casting a Dome of Protection over both of us, leaving a black, tar-like substance behind me where my shadow had been, just in case. Three of the creatures attacked, hitting the dome, but were unable to punch through before Myhur finished his cast. Then, suddenly, a few smaller attacks landed from the ground. Looking to the side, I saw that they were the ones that had been hit by my Cutting Storms. Not all of them died.

I could see they managed to save their heads, and the two that had managed it were still alive as their tumor-filled faces turned to us, slithering on what remained of their bodies, using pieces of spine the way snakes used their tails, as they began hitting the dome from the floor. I immediately switched to death spells. Myhur finished his cast as the moss now glowed a sickly green. I let the dome break, firing Deep Rot into one of the heads point-blank, dodging another attack, with my back to Myhur.

The mushroom grabbed the two enemies in front and simply hugged them, crushing their bodies against his. The glow overtook their flesh as they began rotting away in his embrace. The others, however, noticed the much easier targets on the stairs as they coiled their bodies and jumped at the three men. One of them received a bullet straight to the head from Rey, falling dead to the ground.

But two others made it close, ready to kill with their superior strength, only to be flung away by my chimeric familiar, who materialized from the black tar.

"Fucking shoot!" Rey roared at the two stunned men as my massive black dog-goat jumped from behind them. I could see one of the creatures climbing the side of the stairs, but Filip, finally waking up, looked over the balustrade, hesitated, and finally unloaded point-blank into the creature's skull. Marvin also got his bearings as he aimed at one of the enemies struggling against Myhur and me. He aimed and shot right at its head, only for the creature to dodge at the last moment. I frowned.

Something here was wrong, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. The things still had eyes buried in the flesh filling their eye sockets. They clearly used them, but one of them had dodged a bullet with its head turned. We needed to finish this fight as fast as possible. Deciding to take a small risk, I raised my staff.

"Duck!" I shouted to Myhur. Then I unleashed all my stored attack spells, aiming at heads. Bone Spear flew, skewering two enemies, followed by two Pierces, buying me more space. Myhur didn't need a command as he jumped backward, landing on one of the things going after the men on the stairs. I, on the other hand, used Force to jump into the gap I had just created between the remaining creatures."

Death Surge," I shouted to speed up the cast as I needed to direct the attack higher, toward the heads, without letting it reach the stairs. One of the creatures whipped its hand at me. I let the armor spell take the attack as I finished casting. The rotting energy exploded from me, overtaking the things around me. I then danced away, casting shield after shield to fend off desperate attacks from the monsters dying to the spell, before Myhur jumped in like a wall materializing between me and the monsters.

Then silence descended over the room as bodies hit the ground. We won. I should have been happy, yet the strange aura remained. Something was still wrong.