Chapter 14- Tests Of Wits End- Fall of the Murder Mansion

It was a slow stalemate, and a difficult one to surpass at that. 

The group of four had their weapons, but none of them were revealed to be projectile weapons, and even if they somehow could use them as such, they didn't have the weapon mastery enough to achieve that. 

As such, they hid behind the doors, their gaze flickering at each other while Ferralo's footsteps echoed louder with each step. 

"How the fuck did you come to the conclusion that I was the killer? Because I killed that bitch?! Oh please….don't kid me." 

His tone dripped with malice, his gaze soldered with his rage. 

Ferralo had had enough of their nuisance, the constant bickering and detection of their Killer. It had all failed, and now, he was unanimously voted as the killer. 

Why wouldn't he be enraged? 

He stopped in his tracks when a loud thud echoed behind him, his head snapping to find the source of the noise. 

"Bryan?" He called out, a soft flicker of malevolence bidden in the depths of his voice as he turned around. 

"Ferralo, you have to think twice before you decide on what to do. You're a suspect, any more would make it so." 

"This son of a bitch!" Ferralo pulled his barrel to Brayn, pulling the trigger in the next second, the bunt erupting with a loud explosion as a bullet shot out in the next second. 

Bryan couldn't get the chance to move out of the way, but the bullet struck the door beside him, a loud explosion of wood occurring. 

He froze in shock, his gaze flickering with intensity as Ferrralo closed in. 

"What are you talking about? I'm innocent, you all are the ones who are the killers. Why shouldn't I kill one of you, huh?" 

He asked, his voice dripped with malice. 

The group of four glanced at each other, Zon especially turning contemplative. 

'We need to do something. He's really going to kill one of us if we don't do anything'. 

He thought, biting down on his lip as he glanced at Paxton. 

He sat behind the wooden door, next to him, an unreadable question on his face. 

Zon found this odd, raising a brow in curiosity. 

'Isn't his friend in danger?' He wondered, stretching his hand towards him. 

"Zachary, we need to come up with a plan". 

Paxton suddenly shifted his gaze towards him, a smirk growing on his lips. 

"The plan? The plan is me". 

'What?' Zon thought when Paxton glanced behind, his gaze lingering on Ferralo for a moment. 

His thoughts reeled in, as anticipation built within him. It seemed like he had a plan of his own, one that the others weren't aware of, or able to figure out. 

Zon could stand there and try to figure out what he meant, but by the time he was about to ask, Paxton rushed into the hallway. 

"Paxton!" Goliath called out in shock, their gazes widening from his carelessness. 

Ferralo suddenly clicked his tongue, spinning around just before he got to Bryan, who was only a few feet away. 

His barrel was aimed at Paxton as he pulled the trigger, a blast of sound energy occurring as a bullet shot out within the blink of an eye. 

To the others, it seemed imperative that what he was about to do was dumb, but Paxton never acted without a plan. 

His gaze glimmered in the dark hallways, a shade of light yellow glowing as adrenaline pumped into his system. 

For a moment, it felt like his body was going in slow motion, and so did the world around him. 

The bullet had become so clear to him now, that he evidently stepped on the wall of the Hallway and jumped over it in the next second. 

Just as he landed, speed returned to normal and the bullet whizzed past him and struck the end of the Hallway. 

"What?!" Ferralo cried out as he shot another, but Paxton seemed to have dodged it again, sliding down the floor as he did so. 

Ferralo cursed bitterly, reloaded his gun and shot out another, and before getting used to the former recoil, shot put another. 

His body was tensed with pressure, his bloodshot eyes etched in rage as the bullets whizzed through the air. The sound of metal cracking into the mansion's walls as Paxton dodged them while closing the distance between them echoed loudly throughout the walls of the Mansion. 

Zon and the others were left in bewilderment at the sight, Dollina especially as she watched in silence. 

The sound of metal continued to whiz past them, a sparkle of light and the eruption of sound energy occurring with each passing second. 

It was a tight encounter until a groan pierced the air. 

Paxton had reached Ferralo just in time, lowering his upper body as Ferralo shot out a bullet and slammed his body into him with a solid thud.

Ferralo groaned in pain as he was thrown to the ground, slamming his body against it. 

His gun slipped out of his grasp, sliding away as he attempted to stand up, but Paxton closed in the distance in a heartbeat. 

"Wha–What are you?!" Ferralo asked, his gaze slowly easing from rage to something else, fear. 

Paxton suddenly swung his leg through the air, slamming the tip of his foot against the man's chin with a powerful thud. 

Ferralo groaned in pain as his head was nearly decapitated into the air, while his body lifted up. 

He stood dismayed and distraught, his gaze firmly closed and his mouth biting his lip in pain. 

'What is he?' He wondered, despite the pain as Paxton suddenly turned around and kicked him on his trunk. 

His body was slammed against the wall as a result, a loud strike echoing as he coughed out blood. 

Ferralo fell to his knees, writhing in pain as he grabbed his stomach, his head spinning without focus. Paxton stood in front of him, his gaze slowly dimming as he panted lightly. 

'Wow…..was I going to be that fast? Why did Dad think I wouldn't be able to control it?' 

He wondered when Bryan walked up next to him. 

Zon poked out his head from behind the door. 

"Did you disarm him?" he asked while Dollina and Goliath looked out. 

Paxton turned towards them as Bryan dropped to one knee, his left hand firmly grasped on a knife. 

"Whew," Zon said in relief as he came out with the others, slowly walking towards them. 

Their gazes lingered on Ferralo, who was unable to speak from the pain and disorientation he was experiencing, and then it shifted to Bryan next to him. 

"Is there a point in killing him?" Zon asked with a sigh. 

Bryan looked up at them, a frown creasing his lips as his brows furrowed. 

He turned away and pushed the knife, slowly into the back of the man's heart, snuffing the light out of him and startling the others. 

"You did that so easily," Zon commented. 

"Yeah, I didn't think you could hurt a fly, Bryan. You seemed like an innocent one." 

Dollina interjected with a wry smile. 

"Though he did try to kill us, it's only fair that we end him first". 

Goliath raised a brow at that moment, his gaze shifting around the Mansion. 

They turned towards him, noticing the worry etched in his expression. 

"What's wrong?" Dollina asked. 

"...shouldn't the Test have ended now?" 

Zon and Dollina widened their eyes in shock, a palpable tension ensuing in the hallway as they turned towards Paxton and Bryan. 

Their gazes flickered with intensity, and a lingering question hung at the back of their throat, but just when they were about to ask. 

—[TIME IS UP! EVERY PARTICIPANT, RETURN TO THE WHITE ROOM] 

[I REPEAT! ALL PARTICIPANTS RETURN TO THE WHITE ROOM!]

After the sudden announcement, a shockwave spread through the Mansion, a sudden vibration shaking it to its very foundations. 

The group of five stood surprised by their predicament. 

The roofing of the Mansion seemed to break apart and fall while the floorboard gazed way to the shockwave. 

"The mansion is getting demolished?" Zon muttered, his gaze lingering on Bryan before turning around. "Let's get out of here." 

Without waiting for a response, the others ran out of the Hallway, their goal already in mind as they did so. 

The vibrations spread throughout the Mansion, its wooden construct and designs falling apart while it did so. 

The wooden floors gave way, falling to its lower depths and causing the contents of the room to crash into its depths. 

Irons rattled, the dead bodies slipping away into the cracks, a testament to the gruesome fate that awaited those who failed the Test. 

Unable to resist, unable to fight back, everything was sucked into the lower depths of the Mansion. 

The stairway wasn't spared in the destruction. Each row of stairs they rushed down would disintegrate and collapse, crushing any hope of climbing back up. 

Though, at this point, it would be a far-fetched dream to do so. 

The group continued on their way, panicking evident in their gazes until they got to the room, their gazes landing on a black mass of swirling energy in the middle of the room. 

"Is that a void?" Zon wondered as they rushed past him, witnessing the constant pulling effect of the void on the mansion. 

Each destruction and collapse was pulled towards the spiralling void, swallowed into its dark depths without an ounce of hope of it returning. 

They witnessed the dead bodies descending with other constructs of the building and swallowed into the void's depths. 

Luckily, they had reached the door, walking one after the other into it, with Paxton being last. 

He stared behind him, a lingering attachment to the once Murder Mansion as a sigh escaped his lips. 

'That wasn't so difficult'. He thought as he headed into the door. 

A solemn silence remained in the Mansion, its vibrations growing with vigour as it pulled apart everything in its grasp. 

The once mysterious building for a bunch of ten humans had now become nothing.