The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

The boy asked Oscar if he wanted to play a game together.

Oscar did not reply to the boy's request. He was missing a lot of information, and this boy seemed to have some answers, calling the creature a Keeper. He sat down and motioned for the boy to sit in front.

The boy compiled and stared at Oscar with longing. It had been so long since he met someone else, not since he was trapped in this place.

"I will play with you." Oscar quickly interrupted the boy, who was about to burst into joy. "But can you answer my questions?"

The boy bobbed his head up and down fast in his excitement. He would answer anything as long as he could play a game together with this mister. His eyes gleamed with radiance despite his poor conditions, waiting for Oscar to ask away.

"First. What is this place?"

The boy looked to struggle for a moment as he tried to remember. He scratched his head nervously and kept it up as the hairs started to fall off. Oscar saw the boy was in an odd state; the boy's eyes rolled back as his breathing quickened, prompting Oscar's worry.

"Stop!" Oscar held the boy's wrists to stop him from scratching into his skull. The boy had scraps of flesh and blood under his nails, and blood began trickling down his pale head. "You don't need to answer that question. I'll ask another one."

"Huh? What question?" The boy blinked innocently. Was he trying to answer something? He tried to remember and moved his fingernails toward his head.

"Abe! My name is Abe!" The boy, Abe, shouted.

"What about your last name?" Oscar asked. "Everyone has a last name."

"La-Last name?" Abe swayed from left to right; his brows scrunched as he thought hard to remember. Oscar was on standby to stop Abe from scratching his head. Then Abe's eyes widened with a smile. "Oh! My last name is Elire."

"Abe Elire," Oscar muttered. "That's a good name."

Oscar was still suspicious but decided to treat Abe like a child and patted his head. Abe smiled widely despite the blood on his pale face and felt comforted by Oscar's warm hand.

Something was odd with Abe.

Oscar thought about Abe's strange behavior when asked the first question. It was as though he was possessed and unaware of what he was doing. The fact he forgot he was asked a question was very telling of his strange situation.

'If I inquire about the things Abe shouldn't answer, he'll scratch himself until his brains fly out.' Oscar took out a piece of jerky he kept in his bag and passed it to Abe. "Have some. You must be hungry."

Abe drooled at the sight of the dried meat and gulped his saliva audibly. He snatched it out of Oscar's hand and devoured it in mere seconds. He started to have a coughing fit.

"Don't eat so fast. Here's some water." Oscar passed his water, which Abe drank profusely.

"Thank you, Mister! I haven't eaten something this delicious in so long!" Abe wiped his mouth with the ragged cloth he wore.

"In so long? That leads to my next question. How long as you been here?" Oscar continued his line of questioning.

"Uh. Mmmm." Abe took a long time to process the question, but he shook his head. "I don't know. I've been hiding in this house from the Keeper forever."

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"You've mentioned this Keeper before. Is it that creature I fought against before we came into this room?" Oscar's hands trembled, remembering the incredible power of the creature. It was far more powerful than the Rainbow Didus and the Wendigo Alpha. Oddly enough, Oscar noticed his buckler was still somehow intact after all of that.

"Yes. That's it! The Keeper…." Abe huddled in his arms, quivering in fear. His voice was trembling as he spoke, "It stays in the hallways, looking around. I run away from it whenever I see it."

"How did it not catch you until now?"

"The doors. The Keeper cannot break open locked doors. It can enter open rooms and unlocked doors, so I always ran in one and locked it shut." Abe glanced at the door that shut this room. It was the one barrier between him and the monster.

Oscar pondered for a moment. It was still odd that this Keeper could display such power but could not catch this child for such a long time. Something was missing; it was nagging at Oscar's mind, but he needed more information.

Then he realized something strange about Abe's responses. "Why do you call it the Keeper?"

Abe froze for a moment and murmured to himself. "A Keeper? Keeper….Why do I call it the Keeper?"

He showed signs of resuming his self-harming episode. Oscar moved and stopped Abe, but this gave him a much clearer picture of what was going on.

This boy, Abe, had something inhibiting his memories. He could recall things like the creature being a Keeper, but not why it was called that. The details about the house were also lost in the recesses of his mind.

Oscar wanted to help Abe remember so he could provide more knowledge, but he knew no spells that could help cure an ailing mind. The most he could do was stop Abe from hurting himself.

"You said the back entrance was the exit? How do you know, and how can we get to it?"

"The game!" Abe exclaimed, back to his normal lively self.

"The game?" Oscar was confused.

"We have to play a game to get to the back entrance! It's small but has a big sign saying 'Exit' over it." Abe jumped up and down.

Oscar was about to ask how Abe knew, but it was most likely something Abe could not explain without falling into madness. The more important topic was the game itself. "What are the rules? How do we play?"

Abe posed like a superhero, despite his frail frame. "Let me show you!"

He went onto the bed and leaped onto the table, laughing joyfully. "The floor is lava!"

"The floor is lava?" Oscar dumbfoundedly said. "That's the game?"

The game entailed thinking of the floor as hot lava and anything that wasn't on the floor as rafts. This was an old children's game; he never expected it to be like that. But he saw Abe and realized this game was tailored toward him.

"Yes. Mister, this game is pretty fun. We need to jump on top of anything that isn't the floor and leap over to the next until we reach the back entrance."

"And how do you–" Oscar cut himself off quickly before asking how Abe knew this. "Ok. How do we start the game?"

Abe looked at the door. "We must go back to the entrance and step on the stool near it to start. Mister! You're fast; you must be great at the game!"

"But the Keeper will be outside to stop us." Oscar reminded Abe of the dangers.

"Oh…." Abe lowered his head sadly, about to cry. He had finally found someone to play the game with, but he forgot about the Keeper.

"Come here." Oscar decided to trust Abe. From everything he gathered, Oscar realized Abe was an unfortunate prisoner in this house. "What about the other people?"

Emily was still somewhere in this place, so he had to find her.

"I didn't see anyone else." Abe tilted his head in confusion. "There's only you and me here. But if there's anyone else in here, going to the back entrance can free them all!"

Oscar's brows raised up. If Abe's words were true, then Emily and perhaps Frederick could be freed from this nightmarish house if he succeeded in reaching the back entrance.

"Are you certain?" Oscar asked.

"I'm sure!" Abe answered confidently. "The house will stop if we get out! "

"Ok, hang on tightly to me. We'll be exiting this place." Oscar held the skinny boy with one arm, letting him cling to his neck. Abe was so fragile and thin that he felt like a sheet of paper in his hands.

Abe started to tremble, remembering the scary monster, the Keeper, that had hunted him for so long. His grip tightened on Oscar, who patted him comfortingly.

"I'll keep you safe."

Abe's scared face loosened as a small smile appeared.

Oscar unsummoned his deer anima. His deer anima was not the best choice in such a precise game like this. Slowly, Oscar unlocked the door, letting his head peek through.

There were no signs of the abhorrent Keeper nearby.

Quickly and silently, Oscar returned to the entrance where he had arrived with Emily. There he saw the stool Abe mentioned.

Abe pointed with one hand while the other covered his mouth to hide his excitement. Through his muffled voice, Abe said, "That's the stool. Jump on it to start the game."

Oscar looked around with caution, eyeing the stool. It was a white stool with engraving carved into its legs; even the stools in this manor were well decorated.

But this was not the time to admire it.

Oscar leaped on the stool and looked around.

Suddenly, the white-marbled floor became black as the void. In contrast, all the other objects, like the stair handles, fences, and lamps, had a white glow around them.

Oscar's face tensed up. The game was on.

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