Chapter 040 - Eerie Night Fair 12

  We had already examined the fountain from every angle.

  Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Even the statue of Cupid, standing with his bow poised, appeared perfectly mundane.

  Still, just to be certain, I turned to No. 25—the fastest and most agile among us.

  "Wind, think you can jump up there and check the Cupid statue?"

  "See if there's anything unusual?"

  I nodded.

  No. 25 smirked and pointed a confident thumb at herself. "Leave it to me."

  Without hesitation, she bent her knees and sprang onto the fountain's edge. With a fluid motion, she leaped over the three-meter-wide basin, her right hand latching onto Cupid’s left foot. Using both hands and feet, she climbed onto a protruding base of the statue and began feeling around for anything amiss.

  Then, suddenly—

  "Guys!" she shouted. "The arrow in Cupid’s hand is loose! Should I try pulling it out?"

  In this game, every alteration—no matter how small—had the potential to be catastrophic. That was a hard-learned lesson from our very first trial.

  Which was why, before taking any action, it was always best to consult the group.

  Her voice rang out loud enough for players in adjacent zones to hear. A chorus of responses echoed back.

  "Go for it—!"

  So she did.

  With a firm tug, she wrenched the golden arrow free.

  The ground beneath us rumbled.

  It wasn't a subtle vibration but a deep, visceral tremor. The entire floor shuddered, then, almost imperceptibly, began to rotate in a slow, deliberate clockwise motion.

  The only reason we knew it was moving at all was the shifting of our overlapping shadows.

  The ground… was turning.

  Even No. 25, normally unfazed by chaos, was momentarily stunned. "Whoa—what the hell?! Is this some kind of 'heaven is round, earth is square' nonsense? Holy crap, the ground actually moves? That’s insane."

  "Watch yourself," I warned. "Don’t fall."

  "Relax, I got this!" she called back, steadying herself. "So? Should I turn it again? Or put it back the way it was?"

  "Try turning it the other way," I said. "See if it resets."

  She adjusted her grip and yanked in the opposite direction. Sure enough, the floor shifted counterclockwise.

  Above us, the twin suns in the sky inched closer to the horizon. Their fiery glow stretched our shadows longer and longer, the ground’s rotation making the shift even more pronounced.

  "Does this actually do anything?" No. 25 frowned, clearly unimpressed. "All this dramatic movement, and for what? Just some weird gimmick?"

  I stared at our shadows. A realization struck me like a bolt of lightning.

  My head snapped up. "Turn it ninety degrees—now! Align the trajectory of the twin suns with the line connecting the prince and princess statues!"

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  The prince’s statue stood at the precise center of Zone A.

  The princess’s statue mirrored it in the heart of Zone B.

  The two zones were nearly symmetrical, an invisible axis running between them.

  Before, the suns had moved along this axis—one traveling east to west, the other west to east. The shadows they cast had never intersected.

  But if their paths could be made parallel to the statues’ alignment…

  Then, when the suns finally set and the shadows stretched to their fullest—

  No. 25’s eyes sparkled with understanding. "Ohhh, I get it—"

  "Shadows," Elliot murmured, catching on. "Sylas is talking about their shadows."

  The light above us was blinding, but our silhouettes were distinct. Black and white. Clear and sharp.

  "If the statues themselves can’t meet…" No. 25 grinned. "Then we make their shadows meet? Damn, that’s actually kinda romantic! Alright, let’s do it!"

  She yanked the arrow once more.

  The ground groaned as it rotated, grinding into place at a precise ninety-degree shift.

  At the same moment, the suns dipped lower.

  Their scorching glow stretched every shadow impossibly long—including those of the two massive, ten-meter-high statues.

  We held our breath, watching.

  The two elongated figures drew closer.

  Then, finally—

  They touched.

  The prince and princess, forever apart in stone, found each other in darkness.

  A whisper rose on the wind, ethereal and haunting.

  A trickle of crimson tears dripped from Cupid’s eyes.

  With a sudden clang, the sword in his grip tumbled, striking the ground where the shadows intertwined. The moment it touched, flames erupted—twisting, writhing, alive.

  The fire devoured the space between them, its heat warping the air.

  The last light of the suns faded, swallowed by the encroaching night.

  And yet—

  The two shadows remained.

  Interwoven. Embracing.

  As if locked in an eternal dance of longing and reunion.

  The entire amusement park trembled. Fractures spiderwebbed across the ground, spreading like veins of lightning. The earth groaned, shuddering beneath us.

  Then it cracked.

  Deep and wide, the ground splintered, breaking apart like shattered glass.

  And we—

  We fell.

  The world crumbled around us, chunks of land plunging into the abyss. The amusement park, once a stage for our trial, disintegrated into nothingness.

  We tumbled downward, deeper and deeper, swallowed by darkness—

  Until, at last, we were engulfed by blinding white light.

  —

  "Congratulations, all sixty-seven players. You have cleared the third trial."

  Sprawled on my back, limbs loose and weightless, I glanced toward my companions, still catching their breath mid-fall.

  Grinning, I called out—

  "See you in the next level."

  — The End of **Eerie Night Fair** —