32 Terrifying Problems Require Terrifying Solutions

{Author's Note}

Not much of a note to make right now. Happy I could write this chapter within a day of finishing the last one.

In other news...

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***

<Inside the Haunted Mansion>

Entering through the large pair of front doors, the trio walked into the mansion's large foyer. It was just as ominously silent and dilapidated as the outside. The two large stairways that led to the upper floors were moldy and their banisters were rotting away; the mixture of carpeting and tile floors were torn up and decaying in multiple places; a chandelier hung down from the ceiling in the middle of the room by a rusty chain; and the doors on both the upper and lower floors looked as if they would crumble away at any moment. On a few of the walls were faded paintings of what must have been the building's previous owners, now forgotten by the world as a whole.

"Wow! How scary!" Sylph excitedly exclaimed as she floated up to the chandelier. "It's so dusty and smelly! Even the wind blowing through the cracks and windows is spooky!"

Kevin remained silent, taking the moment to completely take in their surroundings. One of the benefits of his Eevee form being upgraded was that he could now easily sense strong sources of Elemental Energy. As of right now, he could detect multiple Ghost-Type signatures in the area with varying power levels; but, what caught his attention the most was one source of Dark and Ghost Type Energy moving about the building.

'Hm…' he thought. 'If I had to guess, I'd say that's the boss-type creature I need to beat. Still, I'm gonna need to pummel Amira the next time I meet her for saying that this would unlock a new form, rather than just empower a form I already have.'

Having heard her Host's internal speculation, Sylph was about to admonish him for wanting to hurt someone who helped him…before she looked at his memories of Amira. Everything about the backwards monster, from her appearance to the things she said, made the Spirit's skin crawl, so she deemed it unnecessary to save the abomination from Kevin's wrath. Besides, if he was right about her nature as what he called a 'plot device,' then it's not like he could even kill her in the first place.

Alice also looked around, but her observation of the environment was more cautious than that of her companions. While they were walking/flying around the room with reckless abandon, touching anything they found scary enough to warrant it and generally disregarding the aura of horror that the mansion seemed to passively produce, the lamia was finding it increasingly difficult to not visibly shiver in sheer terror. They were INSIDE now, which means that they could possibly be surrounded on all sides without even knowing it.

The only silver lining she could see to the current situation was that the front door was still open, giving her the perfect method of escaping.

SLAM! CLICK! CLANG! CLONK!

Kevin and Sylph immediately turned around to see what made the sound, but Alice's movement was slower and filled with existential terror. Upon making a full rotation, she was able to confirm that: yes, some unseen force had slammed the front doors shut and slid multiple locks into place to keep the trio from leaving. If she were thinking clearly, she would've remembered the fact that no man-made door was capable of standing up to her full power as the Monster Lord, but her irrational fear gripped her mind so tightly that she couldn't think of anything other than –

"No! Now we're trapped and there's NO WAY OUT!" she cried out in despair, hugging herself as she trembled.

Kevin raised an eyebrow at her, before turning to regard Sylph. "Well, she's useless."

"Yeah!" the small Spirit agreed. "Are you sure she's really the Monster Lord?"

"To be honest, I doubt it more and more by the day," the teenager sighed. In fact, if it weren't for every Queen Class monster and three out of the Four Heavenly Knights vouching for her, he would've already written her off as just some overpowered, gluttonous vagabond that had decided to follow him around. Seeing her in this state really chipped away at the already-crumbling opinion he had about the monster hierarchy.

Before the quivering snake-woman could fire back an indignant reply to their insults, a presence made itself known by phasing through one of the walls.

Unfortunately for Alice, the creature did so within her field of view, causing her to launch herself back against the opposite wall in fear. "AIE! G…GHOST!"

"…"

"…"

"…"

Neither Kevin, nor Sylph, nor the new arrival in the room knew what to say in response to the blatant overreaction. The latter – who took the form of a floating, armless woman with six hands levitating around her and black ectoplasm leaking out of the disembodied wrists – even tilted her head to the side in confusion. Apparently, this reaction was over the top even by her experience.

[Ghost Girl]

[Type: Ghost]

"Is…she…okay?" the monster asked Kevin, one of her hands pointing at the hyperventilating Monster Lord.

"Eh," he shrugged. "I'd say…maybe? She's terrified of ghosts, so your entrance didn't really help."

She blinked a few times, before turning fully to face Alice and bowing her head slightly. "I'm…sorry for…scaring you."

In the time it took for the new monster to get around to apologizing, Alice's vision, which had been clouded by sheer terror, finally cleared up enough to get a good look at the being that had frightened her so badly. To the surprise of everyone else, she almost instantly calmed down and adopted an expression of pure relief. "Oh. It's just a Ghost Girl. I thought it was a ghost"

"…" Kevin stared at her, silently and judgingly.

His deadpan gaze was so intense that it drew her attention to him, causing her to raise an eyebrow. "What?"

"I'm just wondering why you make absolutely no sense," he informed her.

"…what do you mean?"

"You are absolutely terrified of ghosts, but you're now just brushing off the existence of a 'GHOST GIRL,'" he stated, emphasizing the last two words by gesturing to said monster with both hands. "Is there some difference between the two that I'm not seeing?"

"A Ghost Girl is born from a collection of souls mixing with magic power," Alice explained. "It's much different than something unscientific like a normal ghost."

"…" the teenager's disbelief intensified as he stared harder. "What the hell do you think a SOUL is? A type of food?"

The Monster Lord shook her head dismissively. "Irrelevant. Just finish this quickly." She followed this up by performing another of her disappearing acts, this time pulling an Itachi and bursting into dozens of crows that scattered to the shadows of the room.

The Eevee sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why does no woman I meet make sense?"

"What about me?" Sylph piped up, coming down to land on his shoulder. "I make a lot of sense!"

"True," the boy conceded. "But, you're an exception because: A) you're a lot simpler in terms of your thought processes; and B) you're less 'woman' and more 'embodiment of an element and the concepts that are associated with it.' You know what I mean?"

"Ooooooh. I get it," she nodded in understanding.

Silence settled over the room for a few seconds, before the Eevee turned to face the Ghost Girl again "Soooo…what's your deal?"

She tilted her head to the side in confusion. "My…deal?"

"Yeah," Kevin said. "Are you here just to scare us, talk, or try to forcefully have sex with me?"

"…" she was quiet for a moment, before she replied. "…I was hoping…to suck up all…of your energy."

Kevin arched an eyebrow. "And what if I refuse?"

"Then…I will…take it by…force." Despite her tone never changing, her words now sounded threatening.

By now, the teenager was familiar enough with these encounters to know that there was no reasoning with this monster girl. Any further attempts to change her mind would just be wasted time and breath. Someday, he was certain that he'd come across a monster who would just go away when he refused to have sex with them. Today was not that day, apparently.

Sylph, having retreated into his soul at the confirmation that there would be a fight, posed a question. 'Are you gonna transform?'

'I don't really have a choice,' he mentally responded. 'Normal Type Moves are unable to even touch Ghost Types, so I can't expect to win as an Eevee. I only have one form that's both super effective and not bound by the downgrade, so I'll have to go with it.'

'Oh! You mean –'

'Yep. It's time to fight fire with fire,' he concluded, mentally preparing for the evolution –

– Only to get stopped by Sylph speaking again. 'But…I thought you were going to use your Ghost Type form? What good would your Flareon form do here?"

'*sigh* It was a metaphor, Sylph. Just…shut up and let me do my thing.'

'Okie Dokie!'

With that little interruption out of the way, Kevin proceeded to be engulfed by the blinding light that always accompanied his evolutions. When it faded, though, any onlooker would be able to tell that something was…strange. At first glance, it appeared as though the boy hadn't evolved at all, considering he was wearing the exact same clothes, was still just as short as before, and had the same brown hair and fur on his head, ears, and tail.

It was only when one took a second look that they could see the numerous changes the transformation had brought. For one, his body was thinner and more feminine, but his clothing didn't change size with him, leading to them hanging loosely off of his body. Said clothes were torn and shredded in multiple locations, with the exposed skin underneath visibly gouged and endlessly bleeding, some wounds even showing bones and muscle that lie beneath. His long brown hair, that looked as if it hadn't been taken care of in years, hung like a curtain over his eyes; although, small glimpses of the dark pits they had become, with small flames representing his pupils flickering in the center. Overall, he was now a semi-transparent ghost of himself, with the added 'bonuses' of being female and looking as if he'd been brutally murdered.

[Name: Kevin]

[Age: 17]

[Form: Spookeon]

[Type: Ghost]

[Ability: Wonder Guard/Infiltrator]

[Weapon: None]

Looking at her own stats, her mouth stretched into an unsettling grin that was almost too big for her own face. With Wonder Guard, only attacks that were Super Effective would be able to hit her in the first place, so this form would be perfect for Psychic Type enemies in the future. Adding Infiltrator, which made it so there were NO defensive tactics that ANYONE could use to prevent her from attacking them, as she would phase right through any barriers or shields. The only options left were to either fight, or run away in terror.

The Ghost Girl, who watched the transformation unfold, was more than a little confused by the now-female monster she was seeing. "What…was…that?" she asked.

The Spookeon's empty eyes immediately focused on the other Ghost Type Monster, the grin never leaving her face. "That, my potential Victim, was the unveiling of a horror unlike any you've seen before."

"…Really?" the Ghost Girl asked, raising an eyebrow for the first time. "You don't…seem that…scary."

"Is that so?" Kevin asked back, taking a step back. "What if I were to do…this,"

Before her enemy could say anything else, the short girl opened her mouth, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth, and let out an ear-piercing scream that shook the room around them. At the same time, she lunged at the Ghost Girl, both hands morphing into horrifying claws as they swiped at the motionless monster.

The Ghost Girl was frozen as fear gripped her soul, unable to dodge as the claws – that logically should've passed right through her – raked across her torso, spilling black ectoplasm everywhere. Even when the dual swipes had finished carving deep wounds through her ethereal dress and skin, with their owner now standing off to the side, the Ghost Girl still found herself unable to move. Feeling pain for the first time had rooted her to the spot, leaving her unable to retaliate.

[Astonish – Ghost Type Move]

[Description: The user attacks the target while shouting in a startling fashion. This may also make the target flinch.]

Kevin looked eerily over her shoulder at her victim, going so far as to lick so of the ectoplasm off one of her claws before she asked. "Am I scary enough now?"

"…" the Ghost Girl was rendered speechless. For as long as she had existed, she'd been aware that she was the most terrifying in any room or building she entered. That…was no longer the case at that point in time. In just a few seconds, the monster she threatened had transformed and attacked her, all while maintaining a creepy smile and a chillingly calm demeanor.

She knew that she had to get out of there, no matter what.

As the Ghost Girl was turning to flee, though, Kevin's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Are you really trying to leave? After that big claim of 'forcefully draining my essence?'" A hand suddenly clamped on the monster girl's shoulder, its nails digging into her flesh. "That's not how things work with me. You see, I have a motto: Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes. When you made the monumentally-stupid decision to fight me, you forfeited the right to NOT be in unimaginable amounts of pain."

"…but I –"

"No buts," Kevin cut her off, using her grip to turn the monster girl around to face her. The Spookeon's other hand was cocked back and a ball made entirely out of shadows. "You're gonna take your beating like a good little Victim, whether you like it or not."

[Shadow Ball – Ghost Type Move]

[Description: The user hurls a shadowy blob at the target to deal damage. This may also lower the target's defensive stats.]

Even as she was hit point-blank by the [Shadow Ball] and released so she could fall to the floor, the Ghost girl couldn't stop thinking about how the most horrifying part of this encounter was the eerie, echoey voice the Spookeon spoke with. If she were alive, the monster girl would be drenched in sweat and shivering in fear from that alone. Paired with the overwhelming power she was presenting? The Ghost Girl resigned herself to whatever horrible death the shorter girl had planned for her.

Standing over her Victim, whose disembodied hands were scattered around her, Kevin pointed a single finger at her. "Well, it was fun while it lasted. Hopefully the next Victim will be more entertaining."

Moments after this statement reached the Ghost Girl's ears, a beam of Ghost Type energy fired from the teenager's finger, quickly expanding to the point where its diameter eclipsed her entire body. In the blind of an eye, the Ghost girl was reduced to nothing but a puddle of ectoplasm on the ground, her magic completely dissipating until nothing remained of her body,

[Moongeist Beam – Ghost Type Move]

[Description: The user emits a sinister ray to attack the target. This move can be used on the target regardless of its abilities.]

With the Ghost Girl gone, Sylph came back out from where she was hiding inside Kevin's soul.

"Wow!" the small Spirit exclaimed, energetically flying around the teen to get a good look at her. "This is your Ghost Type Form? It's so cool! The Moves you used were awesome too! You were all like 'Screech! Slash! Bam! Zap!' I wish I could've fought too!" she ended with a pout.

Unfortunately for her, she'd already had to accept the fact that her powers weren't going to be useful to Kevin in EVERY battle they found themselves in. So, they'd come to an agreement on the second day of their traveling together that he would let her help if she could, but if she couldn't, then there wasn't really a point in her participating in the first place. She'd stayed silent as agreed, only coming back out when the enemy was gone.

Oddly enough, their other travel companion hadn't made her own reappearance. Due to no longer being in her Eevee form, the Spookeon's sensory capabilities when it came to elemental signatures was back to being almost non-existent, making her unable to detect where the Monster Lord had disappeared to.

Sensing her Host's thoughts, Sylph hummed. "Hm…maybe she got lost? This is a big house, after all."

"That it is," Kevin nodded, her smile receding back to believable proportions, but not disappearing from her face. "Maybe if we look for her, we'll not only find her, but more Victims to play with."

"Yeah!" the Spirit shouted, flying off in a random direction at a speed that made it easy for Kevin to follow.

A few minutes later, as they ascended a staircase in one of the side wings, the duo spotted something that was completely out of place. Resting on the floor at the top of the steps was a realistic doll, dressed in a kimono that didn't match the environment whatsoever. Anyone with half of a brain would be able to tell that this was a monster waiting for someone to come close enough so she could pounce on them.

The duo avoided the doll altogether, leaving the soul inhabiting it unaware that it just dodged a bullet with them ignoring it.

Having looked through all of the doors they came across on the ground floor and found nothing, Kevin proceeded to continue the pattern by opening up the first door on the left as they entered one of the upper hallways. This time, instead of just an empty room with dusty furniture, they found…

"Alice? What are you doing here?" Kevin questioned the lamia, who was currently curled up in the corner of the room and shivering in fear.

"…"

The Spookeon approached her slowly, playing into the suspense in the air. "Alice, if you don't turn around, I will assume that you've been possessed. That would be sad, as I would hate to need to reclassify you as a Victim instead of a friend."

The Monster Lord, however, was in her own little terrified world up to the point where the teenager placed a hand on her shoulder. Suddenly jolting out of her catatonic state, she jumped up with a terrified scream and started slithering in circles around the room, knocking over bookcases, pictures, and any other furniture that got in her way.

While Kevin moved to a safe distance so she could continue her meltdown in peace, Sylph had no such plans. "That looks like fun!" she shouted, before joining the Monster Lord by flying in a circle and screaming as well, only for her it was in excitement.

Ten minutes passed, and the Spookeon finally lost her patience. As such, she stepped into Alice's path, grabbed her by the collar of her revealing top and proceeded to slap her across the face. "Calm down."

"B-b-bu –"

SMACK! "I said: Calm. Down.

"Wha –"

SMACK! "Calm." SMACK! "Down." SMACK! "Now."

At the very least, Alice was no longer panicking. However, that was mainly due to the shock of being repeatedly slapped until she was forced to pay attention to the world outside of her panic-induced rampage. Her eyes rapidly focused on the one responsible for the current pain in her cheek, which was the gender-swapped ghost of her traveling companion.

"Kevin? Are you here to save me?" she asked, her mind still fuzzy.

"No," the Spookeon replied, letting go and allowing her to drop. "I'm here to ask you why you were running around like a chicken with its head cut off."

Normally, she'd feel indignant at the idea of being compared to a flightless bird, but the memory of what caused her to be paralyzed in fear powered through her personal feelings. "I s-s-saw a gh-ghost…" she whimpered…only to freeze as she spotted a photo on the floor. "There! That's the one I saw!"

Kevin looked down to see the picture of a human woman in an elegant dress, holding a parasol. It looked like it was painted over a hundred years ago, with how faded it was and how the edges were turning yellow. Instead of discrediting her, however, the teenager simply nodded and slipped the paper out of the frame and into her pocket.

"Wouldn't surprise me," she mused as she looked around the room. "In my experience, young ghosts tend to stick around in the locations where they died. It makes sense for her to be haunting this building, if she died at that age."

"R-R-REALLY? THEN WE NEED TO GET OUT OF –!"

Bam! "No. None of that anymore," Kevin admonished her, retracting a smoking fist. The Spookeon then turned to Sylph, who was still flying in circles and having the time of her life. "You too, Sylph. This is getting us nowhere."

Said Spirit stopped mid-air, then gave her Host a dramatic salute. "As you command, Captain Kevin!"

Kevin continued to give her a blank stare, before muttering to herself. "I need better assistants."

As she started to think over what she could do to convince the Monster Lord to continue searching through the mansion with her…a loud cracking sound came from the floorboards. Alice had just enough time to give Kevin and Sylph a look of panic before the floor caved in beneath her, leading to her crashing down to the ground floor…and then through the floor below that…and the floor below that.

"Wow…" the Wind Spirit commented, staring at the hole. "She's really heavy."

Kevin nodded. "Yes. It makes one wonder how densely packed her muscles and organs are. Speaking of which, I never did get an answer for where her stomach actually was."

"Should…we go find her again?"

"Probably. After all, almost every horror movie I've seen includes the most terrified member of the party always being where the most dangerous creatures are."

With that said, the duo left the room –

– and walked straight into a group of shambling, half naked corpses. They were all female, but one or two looked to be elf corpses instead of human ones.

"…Zombies?" the Spookeon questioned, looking close at them. "Well, we've already encountered a ghost and a haunted doll. Might as well add the undead to the horror show."

[Zombies A-E]

[Type: Ghost]

"Good," she nodded, the unnaturally-wide grin making its way back onto her face again. "I needed a group of Victims to test this next Move."

Spreading her arms, the teenager manifested over a dozen wisps of ghostly flame in front of her. Each one burned with an unearthly purple glow and, upon her thrusting her hands forward, they shot toward the approaching group of zombies with laser-like precision. Each of the zombies ended up being hit by at least three of them and immediately catching fire. Oddly enough, the flames didn't spread to the nearby railings, painting, or carpet, focusing only on the monsters they'd been fired at.

[Infernal Parade – Ghost Type Move]

[Description: The user attacks with myriad fireballs. This may also leave the target with a burn. This move's power is doubled if the target has a status condition.]

Watched on as the zombies, who up until that point had been slowly inching closer, began to collapse as their skin melted, muscles turned to ash, and tendons snapped. Within the span of five minutes, all that was left was a pile of ashes and bones in the middle of the hallway, with no evidence of them having been full-grown zombies just moments ago.

It was as Kevin was looking over the ashes that an unknown voice drew her attention.

"Ah! My experiments!"

Looking up, the Spookeon saw the same girl she'd spotted in the window from outside. This time, though, she was a lot clearer. She was short, had long black pigtails, gray skin, pink eyes, and wore what looked like a crop-top with short sleeves, a skirt, pink and black striped socks, and some kind of hat with a plus symbol on it. She stared at Kevin with a mixture of surprise and despair, likely pertaining to her referring to the zombies as her 'experiments.'

"Oh? Were these Victims yours," Kevin asked, her smile still firmly in place. "I must say, they were fun while they lasted. Do you think you will last as long?"

"WAWAWA!" The gray-skinned monster girl screamed in fear as she took off running, obviously not wanting to tangle with a being that could reduce her creations to almost nothing.

Sylph floated up to sit on Kevin's shoulder. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"That if we follow her we might find Alice?" the teenager asked back.

"Actually, I was thinking that she looked really cute…but…your idea works too."

And so, they followed the trail of the girl deeper into the house.

***

{Author's Note}

Spookeon = Creepy and Really Into Murder

Once again, not really much to say. not gonna post again or write for the rest of the night, and hopefully my job tomorrow doesn't completely demolish my will to continue.

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