Esstrey has been preparing for this moment for a while now, not that there's a ce she would ever admit it out loud. She was tasked with finding a proper punishment for insane cultists that do not fear death. To this erey prepared a dimly lit room with a table in the ter, on that table is a gau with a retractable spike. She ihe accused, and the leaders of all the cults, to her little game show. Neancers included.

  The leader of the Beyonders for this is the woman with the bck dress made out of ribbons, it seems she switched out to something more cult like with a spiked robe. She looks around the room with aertained look, and introduces herself as Plynka. One of the accused on their side follows fidently after her, apparently eai the sight of Esstrey's initial intimidation attempt with the room. Plynka's small group is followed by a man who introduced himself as Ronald Flester, the head of the Infernal Host research divisioreating it much more like a busirip, and was also there wherey first ehe castle. He's still wearing his usual robes, red robes with lightning on them, he's also wearing some accessories this time around. His accused is twirling something in his hand, but Esstrey only see the movement in his bloodstream, not what he's holding. Lastly, is a representative of the neancers, they apparently act much more on a cil basis without a head honcho, their representative ecifically picked for his observation skills from what Esstrey heard.

  Esstrey gestures for the accused to have a seat, and their representatives to take pces behind them. The neaands further away against the wall, far enough so that he's standing fully in the dark. The representatives and their accused are on opposing sides of the table, with the gau in the middle.

  "Ladies alemen, thank you for joining our little game show today, the rules of the game are simple, st one of the two accused alive gets to go home. Our method of determining a winner will be using this gau here, modified by the workshop to suit my needs." Esstrey puts two of her oversized fingers in the gau, and puts the gauo her temple. She triggers an internal meism and-

  *Chik*

  "This gau, has a one in six ce ter a spike emerging, if five charges were empty, the sixth will always be a hit. You two will be pying until someone dies, if the gau hits the fifth charge, I will reset it and we will py again. Who wants to go sed?" Esstrey looks over the table, the Infernal Host accused looks serene, while the Beyonder looks excited. The Beyonder eventually raises her hand like a child who just found out the ao a teacher's question.

  She puts the gauo her temple, and-

  *Chik*

  Nothing... the Beyonder outwardly looks as excited as usual, but Esstrey picked up a small spike in her heart rate. It's w. She puts the gau in front of the Infernal, and he picks it up while giving the others he see a wary look, he puts it to his temple, and-

  *Chik*

  Nothing... he looks at the gau with some curiosity, keep looking, who knows what that gau will truly do? He shoves the gau back to his oppo, who puts it to her skull silently, she's a little less excited now.

  *Chik*

  Nothing... a small sense of relief goes through the Beyonder as her heart jumped, her lungs let out more air than usual. She fets to slide the gauo the Infernal for a moment, so Esstrey slides it over instead. He's now looking at the gau like one would at a breag charge set on their own front door. He slowly puts the gauo his temple.

  *Chik*

  He puts down the gau a little fast, it ctters a bit as it hits the table, a visible sense of relief going through him. The representatives have small bits of sweat ing from their foreheads as well, if Esstrey is smelling it right, oh she so does love the smell of fear.

  "Well done... looks like you made it to the sed round without any winners." Esstrey picks up the gauo reset it, and also removes the safety. What? Did you really think she would put that thing to her skull without some sort of safety precaution? Besides, it wouldn't have done if someone died on the sed charge, this would have eoo quickly. Esstrey puts the gau in front of the Beyonder.

  She looks at it with visible fear in her heart, the room is still too badly lit for ao make out details of each other, but the ck of details is now attributing to their collective fear, giving off a sehat the only others in the room are silhouette's. She puts the gauo her temple while her hand shakes slightly.

  *Chik*

  This time, she doesn't hesitate in sliding the gau over to her oppo as fast as possible, wanting it as far away from her as possible. The bcksmith told Esstrey that it seemed very weird for an assassin on, ohat only activated once every six times, ohat made too audible noises, oh a safety. The safety is there for obvious reasons, but the audible noise and one in six is vital. High enough ce to be a high ce of death, low enough ce to not be guarahe noise is also vital to the game, a loud click that doesn't defte tension all the way, it only staves off the fear.

  *Chik*

  In her idle thoughts, Esstrey didn't notice how the Infernal had pyed again. His breathing is borderline hyperventiting, deep focused breaths are ing from him to the point that the audieices it as well. He stares at the gau in front of him, if he feared it earlier, that feeling has only increased. Esstrey takes the gau and puts it in front of the Beyonder. She just stares at the gau, her hand shaking without reag for it.

  "Py." Esstrey's tone is cold and anding, and the two lock eyes for a moment. The Beyonder visibly swalloicks up the gau, she puts it to her temple, a singur tear going down her cheek as she maintains eye tact with Esstrey.

  *KAK*

  A spike goes into her skull, her corpse falls to the ground, while everyone except Esstrey wi the iable development. The Infernal is holding his chest, and the representatives have aed heart rate now as well. Esstrey grabs the gau, and sloppily shakes off the corpse attached to it. Then she grabs the corpse, and holds her hand high.

  "We have a winner! gratutions!" She looks at the infernal as she says that, but he doesn't feel like a winner, it feels much more like the person who died and escaped this room is the real winner, especially with how Esstrey is holding up her harey flings the corpse of the woman toward where the neancer is standing.

  "You guys all love recyg, right? Well, the corpse is yours, enjoy." Esstrey waddles out of the room, leaving the various representatives to stew in the sequences of their as.

  She does so love the smell of fear.

  Prickly