

A dim chandelier casts an orange glow across the room, and you can vaguely make out Dolce’s silhouette sitting at a table in the center of the room, facing away from the door. The door creaks open and you step inside.

An electric shock? An explosion? Armageddon? You chastise yourself for even being worried, pull out your sword, and turn the knob. Nothing happens, and you breathe a sigh of relief. At this point you should trust her with your life, right? What’s intuition in the face of that kind of unyielding trust? You draw in a deep breath and grab the handle. Still, Dolly had to have a reason to invite you to the place, right? You’ve been dating for several months, and she even helped you take care of the Sechs right up to the end. Why then, you wonder, does that single door seem impossible to cross? After freeing the guardians and defeating Ethelberd there isn’t much left in the world that you wouldn’t be confident fighting. It would be fine, right? You’re way stronger than you used to be.

Now you stand back on the outside of the mansion for the first time in over a year, hesitating to go in. Every time you turned around, though, they were gone. Sure, when you’d visited you’d expected weird things like slimes, bats, and ghost-like monsters, but on your way through the place you could have sworn that an actual ghost followed you through the whole thing. Something more sinister.Įver since you killed Marionetta and freed Dolce as a guardian, there’s been a bridge from Dragon Lake to the mansion, but whenever you visit the lake you can’t help but wonder why. If it was a magical force from the forest of beginnings you’d probably be able to deal with it just fine, but it’s something else. The large oak doors loom over you like great guardians, emitting an other-worldy force that sends a tremor down your spine. You chew your bottom lip, hesitating to take the final step over the threshold and into Obsidian Manor.
