A journey through the night corridors of the deserted mansion. He carried a mp. The girl in the gothic dress led him. Closed doors drifted past, behind which y many secrets of the magical mansion.

  They climbed the stone stairs to the very top of the eastern tower. Here stood a door with magical symbols drawn on its surface.

  “I can’t go any farther,” the girl said.

  The Cursed carefully pulled the door handle. It opened. Inside was a dark room with unfamiliar technological equipment and instruments. A fleeting fsh in his mind showed him simir equipment he had seen in the dungeons of the Sleeping Demons. The difference was that the devices in this room were switched off. With the mp in his hand, he moved farther into the room. Heavy air. From the darkness two technological capsules gradually came into view, standing upright against the far wall. Figures were inside them. Closer still. The light revealed them.

  The Cursed stepped back in horror.

  Inside the capsules were almost completely decayed skeletons. Torn remnants of a man’s and a woman’s clothing. The skulls, with the bck hollows of their eye sockets, stared straight at the Cursed.

  He stepped outside. His face was white as a sheet.

  “Well?” the girl asked expectantly, pressing her palms together. “Have they awakened?”

  “No. And it seems they won’t awaken anytime soon.”

  “What a pity, what a pity. Why is everything like this?”

  They headed back.

  When they entered the room, the candles in the candebras went out all at once, plunging the surrounding space into complete night darkness.

  “The demon is coming,” the girl said. “Are you ready to defend our refuge?”

  In the night garden she led him to the front gate and the estate gates. Someone had drawn a magical symbol on the gate. Now it was almost erased.

  “This is a magical symbol of protection,” the girl expined. “For many nights it protected the mansion from the demon’s attacks, but now it has weakened. When it disappears completely, horror will enter here and devour our souls.”

  The Cursed opened the gate and stepped outside. He peered into the darkness ahead. It seemed alive. Far ahead, something appeared to be moving toward the estate.

  “Close the gate behind me,” the Cursed said to the girl.

  The girl closed the gate. He remained standing alone in the night darkness before the grounds of the magical mansion. The darkness outside continued to move toward him. The mp in his hands went out. He dropped it to the ground. Now only the vampire’s eyes allowed him to see the supernatural threat relentlessly approaching. Тall bck figures with long growths or spikes all over their bodies were drawing closer. In their hands they gripped long bck swords. The sound of armor came from many directions. A line of enemies surrounded the estate and closed into a deadly enchanted ring, from which there was no escape for an ordinary human.

  100 feet to the nearest bck figures. 70. 40.

  The Cursed’s eyes filled with a dreadful supernatural darkness. His teeth bared. He spread his arms to the sides. From him rushed twisting streams of bck smoke in different directions. They pierced the numerous bck figures, smashing through their armor with a crash and bursting out the other side. The bck figures rose high into the air on the bck streams of smoke, hung there for a frozen moment, and then flew apart into small pieces.

  The Cursed dropped to one knee. Much strength had left him.

  From the darkness ahead a rge bck figure was approaching. A powerful blow came from there and hurled the hero straight against the fence wall. He slid down. Something terrible and invincible was advancing ahead. Merciless. Hungry.

  He burst through the garden gate and closed it behind him.