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The ground itself seemed to tremble as the manor vibrated with an unnatural force. I didn\'t hear the telltale sound of the world changing, but I could\'ve sworn that the very fabric of reality must\'ve changed with how hard and deep the growl went from right underneath our feet.

"I-I\'m not afraid... I\'m not afraid... I\'m not afraid..."

Behind me, Shen had clearly taken the event rather hard, her mutterings clearly showing her distress as her eyes bugged out from their sockets.

"W-What was that..." Shade hauntingly whispered.

"A-An Eldritch-class Vermes," Guidance breathlessly whispered out in response. "At least, I think it is."

"You think?! An Eldritch-class Vermes is hiding right in front of us and we don\'t even know about it?!" Shade incredulously pointed out. "The Empire should\'ve known about this! They would\'ve sent an entire army of Somatics to try and get rid of it!"

"And yet it\'s now up to us," I let out a sigh of resignation. "I suppose it should be possible, seeing as we\'re being forced to do this by the world."

"Ugh..." Shade groaned. "I didn\'t even think that Eldritch-class Vermes were a thing. But apparently, they are."

"Didn\'t you just say earlier that you should start getting used to being proven wrong about the wider world?" I joked for a bit of levity.

"I was hoping more along the lines of non-threatening information, Moriya," Shade glared at me in reply. "If the myths are true, then Eldritch-class Vermes would be more than capable of wiping out one of the three Great Nations if left completely unchecked."

I blinked at that. That was certainly news to me.

"A-As I was saying," Guidance coughed aloud, grabbing everybody\'s attention back to the matter at hand. "The systems in place here would check the player for their [Fortitude]."

A hint of recognition suddenly flashed through me. "You mean [Mental Fortitude]?"

"What\'re you two talking about?"

Turning to Shade, Guidance and I shared a look before the dev stepped in to continue her explanation. "[Mental Fortitude] is a stat that dictates how resilient you are against an enemy [Manifest]\'s effects. It... might not be working as well as it should be right now, but it could still make or break someone depending on what kind of [Manifest] they\'re fighting against."

"So it relates to what the Marquean\'s have in terms of [Manifest] classifications then," Shade seemingly nodded. "But what does it have to do with us fighting against an Eldritch-class Vermes?"

And wasn\'t that a sobering thought... Here we were, about to face what was possibly an enemy that we were far too underleveled to even try to challenge, but what other choice did we have? Shizu was still inside, and we couldn\'t possibly leave without her.

"As I was saying, [Mental Fortitude] relates to a Somatic\'s defense against a fellow Somatic," Guidance explained. "It might not work the same, but the Eldritch class also has a version of their [Manifest] due to how old they are-"

"What?! You\'re saying that these monstrosities have [Manifests] of their own?!"

An awkward tension built up after that. There was no telling what was happening, and we didn\'t even know what to expect. And here was Guidance telling us that the big bad had a power of its own?!

"That... That would probably explain Shizu\'s disappearance," I wondered aloud.

"Explain."

I hummed in thought, "Well, what if this thing\'s power was to lure people in? Maybe some kind of brainwashing or hypnosis? It would at least explain why Shizu got affected."

"That wouldn\'t explain why the princess is the only one affected in the first place," Shade pointed out.

"Well, her [Code Watcher] constantly flared up just before we went inside the forest, I postulated. "Her power must\'ve been in tune with this thing\'s ability... or something like that to some extent."

Another bout of silence settled between the five of us after that, the ominous visage of the manor looking down upon us as we were struck with an utter lack of knowledge. And that was despite Guidance trying to give us something we could work with.

"So... with this [Mental Fortitude], we\'d be able to shrug off whatever this thing\'s power could be, right?" Shade confirmed.

"That\'s right," the dev nodded. "If nothing else, it\'d give us some resistances to it that Shizu might\'ve not have had with her [Manifest] activated."

So that was the plan then. We just go in and hope that we\'d be able to shrug off this thing\'s effects. Well, it wasn\'t the worst thing in the world, but it was better than nothing.

"Alright. I guess we already know what we\'re doing?" I followed up.

"We walk inside and try to find the princess?!" Maruki replied with his usual volume.

"Well, that, and we make sure that we won\'t fall under this thing\'s spell," I reminded them. "If you feel something in the similar vein as to what Shizu showed earlier, don\'t hesitate to call it out. At best, we might be able to knock you out before you do anything stupid."

At that, we all gave out a nod of understanding before we all turned to face the open manor doors. The very air that came off it looked like it was about to swallow us whole, but still, we kept our pace.

"M-Moriya?"

Shen? "What is it?"

".....I\'m scared..."

A chilling feeling came over me as I looked at the girl\'s shivering form. She was clearly out of her depth, as did the rest of us, really. But she just wasn\'t adapting quick enough, unfortunately.

"Shen, as much as I\'d like to leave you in a safe place, we can\'t do that anymore," I sighed. "Right now, the safest place on this entire island is right with us. That way we can at least protect you."

"And besides, you\'ll need to learn how to survive out in the Deep like this anyway," Shade suddenly chimed in with his two cents. "You\'re gonna grow up big and strong like the Prin-Shizu, right?"

"R-Right!"

"That\'s the spirit," Shade smirked. "Now let\'s get this over with."

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