Beyond the Old Ones

Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is purely a fanfic for enjoyment.

Cross-over from various games, books, anime, manga, and movies.

The familiar characters you see here belong to their respected authors and owners.

"Speech"

Time*

Chapter 34: New Choices

We stepped into Room 13. Opening the door unveiled a space that instantly defied comprehension. The room was vast—cavernous and entirely disconnected from the physical dimensions of the hotel. It was as though we had stepped into another plane of existence, a pocket of warped reality contained within those cursed walls.

The air inside was dense and oppressive, carrying a faintly metallic tang that evoked both blood and rust. Breathing felt like an effort; each inhale carried an inexplicable weight. A dim, sourceless light suffused the room, creating long, erratic shadows that danced and shifted as if alive, mocking the absence of any visible source. The temperature fluctuated wildly—icy cold one moment, suffocatingly warm the next—like the room itself could not decide on its nature.

Geometry seemed meaningless here. The walls were impossibly tall, stretching endlessly upward before vanishing into a void of flickering, colorless light. At first glance, they appeared covered in peeling wallpaper, but a closer inspection revealed a far more sinister truth: the "peeling" was actually writhing, organic veins of some unknown, pulsating flesh. The walls seemed alive, exhaling a faint, sickly warmth that made my skin crawl.

The floor was a mosaic of black and white tiles arranged in a pattern that never remained the same. When not looking directly at it, the design seemed to shift, twisting into nonsensical forms that almost resembled symbols. Each step I took felt heavier than the last, as though the room resisted my movements, dragging at my limbs with an unseen force.

The room was far from silent. A low, resonant hum filled the air, vibrating through my bones. Layered beneath it were faint whispers that came from no discernible direction. They were unintelligible yet invasive, burrowing into my thoughts and amplifying my deepest fears and doubts. Occasionally, the whispers coalesced into a single audible phrase, spoken in a voice that was neither human nor entirely otherworldly: "Stay."

Sparse and warped, the room's furniture offered no comfort. A single chair with impossibly long, spindly legs leaned precariously in one corner, its structure seeming on the verge of collapse but never falling. A desk sat at an odd angle, it's surface covered in papers scrawled with indecipherable text. The writing appeared to pulse faintly, as though alive, and looking at it too long made my head throb.

Every element of the room seemed designed to disorient, terrify, and overwhelm. As I stood in the doorway, I could feel the room watching me—judging, probing. Whatever this place was, it was no ordinary room. It was alive in ways I could not comprehend and wanted us to stay.

"Anyone else feeling sick to their stomach, or is it just me?" Momoyo finally broke the silence, her voice shaky but trying to mask her unease.

The question hung in the air, unanswered momentarily before Alucard spoke up. Her usual sarcasm was absent, replaced by a tone of quiet seriousness. "No." She admitted. "I must confess, I too find myself... rather unsettled in this place." The rare glimpse of unease in her voice made the oppressive atmosphere feel even heavier.

I shifted my gaze between them, trying to focus, trying not to blink. "Quick question. Do you two see anything out of the ordinary in this room?" My voice was calm, but internally, I was bracing for answers I wouldn't want to hear.

Momoyo frowned and glanced around, her brow furrowed in concentration. "It's just like any ordinary room. There's a chair and a desk. But... no bed, which is strange, considering this is supposed to be a hotel room." She hesitated before continuing, her voice lowering as though she feared the room itself might be listening. "But what I'm feeling right now—just standing here at the doorstep—is making me feel like my life is on the line. The longer we stay, the worse it gets."

"That mirrors my sentiments exactly." Alucard agreed, her crimson eyes narrowing as she scanned the room. Her expression darkened, and she seemed almost reluctant to continue. "Even more troubling..." She paused as though unwilling to admit it. "... I find myself unable to teleport away." Her gaze locked onto mine, her usual confidence replaced by something colder, sharper. "It seems the only way out of here is through the same door we entered—physically. Whatever power holds this room together, it's anchoring us in ways I've never experienced before."

Her words sent a chill down my spine. The whispers that filled the room seemed to grow louder, almost as though they were feeding off our collective fear. One word echoed clearer than the others, burrowing into my thoughts like a needle: "Stay."

"Right..." I muttered, my tone firm but quiet as I quickly swapped the Card of Wheel of Fortune for the Card of Red Priest. Without hesitation, I brought out the Card of Demoness, channeling its power to project the Sefirot: City of Calamity into the room.

As soon as the projection took hold, the oppressive atmosphere of Room 13 vanished as if it had never existed. The unnatural geometry, the writhing organic walls, the suffocating whispers—all of it dissolved in an instant. What remained was exactly what Momoyo had described earlier: a mundane, unremarkable room.

The air lightened, the metallic tang disappeared, and even the shifting tiles returned to their fixed, ordinary pattern. The chair and desk, no longer warped or menacing, stood as innocuous pieces of furniture, their angles and dimensions now entirely unthreatening.

"What the...?" Momoyo muttered, her voice filled with disbelief. Her wide eyes darted around the room as if trying to reconcile what she had just experienced before. Confusion etched itself deeply into her expression.

Even Alucard, usually composed, seemed momentarily at a loss for words. Her crimson eyes flicked between the room and me, narrowing in what I could only describe as reluctant amazement and interest, much more compared to before now.

I allowed myself a brief glance at the City of Calamity, its otherworldly presence hovering just beyond the veil of comprehension as it emanated from the Card of Demoness. Its power thrummed in the air, subtly reminding me of the cost of its influence.

Without a word, I reached out and grabbed Alucard and Momoyo by their wrists, gently but firmly pulling them out of Room 13. Neither of them protested, still too stunned by the sudden shift in reality.

As we stepped out into the dimly lit hallway, I released my hold on them and turned back to look at the now-ordinary door to Room 13. A sense of unease lingered in my chest despite the apparent success of the City of Calamity's projection of just its aura alone. Whatever power resided in that room had been suppressed, but I doubted it was gone entirely.

It's odd how the Sefirot: Key of Light didn't do anything. Instead, it just drew whatever part of Room 13 closer to me. Then again, I shouldn't be surprised. However, the City of Calamity did the opposite, making me wonder what it could do along with the other Sefirot.

30 minutes later*

Back in the room rented for the night, shared by Alucard and me. Momoyo was with us now, seated across the room, holding the still-silent Aya in her hands. The faint glow of a table lamp cast long shadows, deepening the eerie atmosphere that seemed to cling to the hotel like a second skin.

"I know it's well past midnight." I began, breaking the uneasy silence. "But isn't it strange that no one's come to check on us? I mean, Momoyo destroyed the door and part of the wall around it earlier. Yet no staff showed up, no guests complained, and we didn't see a single person while heading to Room 13. It's as if we're the only ones here—completely alone in this hotel."

Momoyo shrugged, her gaze still fixed on Aya's vacant expression. "They could've panicked and rushed out of the building, thinking the place was about to collapse." Her voice was casual, but there was a note of uncertainty in it, as though she didn't fully believe her own explanation.

"That would ordinarily be the case." Alucard interjected, her tone sharp. She leaned back in her chair, one leg crossed over the other, her crimson eyes glittering in the dim light. "But I heard no other doors opening apart from the ones we used. No hurried footsteps, no hushed voices, no panicked cries. Save for ours, this building is devoid of sound—apart from a faint whisper, which, I assure you, is barely audible even to someone like me."

She turned her sharp gaze toward Momoyo, her expression unreadable but tinged with something close to interest.

"No." Alucard continued, shaking her head slightly, "I suspect we've been relocated. Separated from the rest. Or perhaps the individuals we encountered in this hotel were never real to begin with."

I nodded slowly, turning to Momoyo. "So, Momoyo. Are you alone, or was someone else with you? Maybe someone went out for the night and hasn't come back yet?"

Momoyo didn't immediately answer, her focus still locked on Aya as though she were trying to provoke a reaction from the bodyless head. It was an odd, almost unsettling sight—the staring contest between the two.

"Just me." Momoyo finally replied, her voice steady but distant. "By the way..." She added, her tone shifting slightly as though testing the waters. "You two wouldn't happen to know anything about an old painting of a mountain, would you?"

Her question seemed to come out of nowhere, breaking the logical flow of the conversation. Yet she didn't break eye contact with Aya, as though she were asking the question to her rather than to us.

I exchanged a glance with Alucard, whose crimson eyes narrowed slightly in thought. A painting of a mountain? The question lingered, heavy and strange, adding yet another layer of mystery to the already surreal night.

"Other than it being an old painting of a mountain, is there anything else unique about it?" I asked Momoyo, leaning forward slightly. "Because that description alone makes it nearly impossible to narrow down."

Momoyo frowned, finally breaking her prolonged stare with Aya. She placed the still-silent head carefully on the table beside her, the dim light casting odd shadows over its features. "That's all I know." She admitted with irritation in her voice. "Someone told me it's something I'd recognize the moment I saw it." She sighed, leaning back in her chair. "What I do know is the last place it was reportedly seen... was here in Paris."

"And how long ago was this?" I pressed, hoping for a more concrete lead.

Momoyo shrugged nonchalantly. "Beats me."

Alucard leaned slightly forward, a faint smirk curling her lips. Her crimson eyes gleamed with faint amusement as she addressed Momoyo. "And what of your apparent banishment from a hundred different places?" She asked, raising a single eyebrow in mock curiosity as though she found the topic both amusing and intriguing.

Momoyo shot her a sharp glance, clearly unamused by Alucard's jab. "Let's just say some places don't exactly take kindly to collateral damage." She muttered defensively, crossing her arms.

"Collateral damage?" I echoed, my brows furrowing.

Momoyo sighed, her tone growing more irritable. "Yeah, well, things tend to break when I'm fighting. Not exactly my fault things around me can't handle the heat."

Alucard chuckled softly, the sound low and melodic, as she reclined in her chair. "Ah, of course. Always the misunderstood hero, aren't you?"

Momoyo rolled her eyes but said nothing, choosing instead to pick up a nearby bottle of water and take a long sip.

"Back to the painting." I interjected, steering the conversation back on track. "If it's as significant as you say, and it's tied to Paris, we'll need more than vague descriptions to track it down. Did this 'someone' who told you about it mention anything else? A museum, a private collection, even a specific arrondissement?"

Momoyo paused for a moment, considering. "Not really. But if I had to guess, it's probably in some place where no one's looked for decades. People don't lose track of things like that for no reason."

Well, it looks like I'm going to have to rely on Computation Divination if I want to help Momoyo out. After all, Alucard tends to disappear; Momoyo wouldn't and would be a very helpful helper.

But first. We have to deal with this hotel or just outright leave it. Well, either case, I've already found Momoyo.