By the time he broke through the last wall of vines, the world had turned dark blue beneath the moonlight. Sid stumbled forward, pushing branches aside until his eyes finally caught sight of it— tall and imposing, half swallowed by creeping roots and weeds. The Mayor’s mansion.

He stopped just short of the towering golden gate, its bars rusted and twisted but still standing. Moonlight glinted off its surface, cold and haunting. Sid exhaled, his breath shaky, his heartbeat pounding in his ears.

"There it is..."

He muttered, tightening his grip on the strap of his bag.

"Evelise... please still be here."

The wind picked up again. The sound of the Haribon’s cry echoed one last time in the distance as Sid pushed himself towards the gate. What greeted him at the gate wasn’t the silent ruin he expected but a thick swarm of zombies. They weren’t the aimless shamblers he usually ran into— these ones were clustered tightly around the entrance, their bodies pressed together like a mob trying to break through. Their guttural moans and clawing hands blended into a low, rumbling roar that made the air vibrate.

"Sh*t! Why are there so many here? What is this, a rally for the mayor? Well, with that perfectly carved mustache of his, he sure looks like a corrupt one."

Sid thought, quickly ducking behind a crumbled stone pillar to observe. This concentration of the undead was highly unusual for the Nexus Park area, which was only considered safe in the few "green" zones he knew.

"The Freeland Woods, the Nexus Tree Plaza... all of those spots were cleared of zombies. But here, they’re everywhere. Does that mean only the literal green parts of the park are safe? What the hell does that even mean?"

He peeked again at the swarm. Their movement was lazy and hungry, heads bowed, some gnawed by vines that had grown into their flesh, but there were dozens of them, and they filled the path from the gate out into the Nexus Green. Sid’s knee flared at the sight; the idea of cutting through that mass made his chest tighten with rage.

"No way I can blast my way through that lot, damn it!"

With his bad knee still aching from the long run, and facing a dense, volatile swarm, killing his way through was impossible. He knew Evelise, even with her shotgun, couldn’t have safely bypassed this.

"She must have known another way in."

He realized. The human Evelise had been an inhabitant here; she would know every secret entrance and servant passage.

Sid began to slowly circle the perimeter wall, his eyes scanning the cracked, moss covered stone for any sign of a breach. The wall was too high to climb, but after a tense few minutes, he found it: a small, almost completely hidden culvert pipe used for drainage, half clogged with earth and roots near the foundation. It was small, disgusting, and likely the forgotten servant’s way in from the days of the mansion’s glory.

He crouched beside the narrow culvert, grimacing as he brushed aside the thick tangle of roots. The smell of damp earth and rot wafted out from the opening, hitting him like a slap.

"Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me..."

He muttered, leaning closer to inspect it.

"That’s it? That’s the grand entrance? Evelise, please tell me you didn’t crawl through this thing back in your fancy human days."

He jabbed the ground with a stick, testing how deep the mud went. It sank instantly.

"Ugh, perfect. Mud, bugs, and probably a zombie rat or two."

He sighed, tightening the straps on his backpack and glancing toward the distant swarm still crowding the main gate.

"Alright, Sid... it’s either this or getting eaten alive. Guess we’re going full sewer rat mode today."

With one last deep breath, he muttered under his breath,

"Evelise, you better still be alive in there... or I’m haunting your dead Chapters after this."

He dropped to his stomach, using his knife to frantically clear the opening, then squeezed himself into the tight, cold space. The pipe was dark, smelling strongly of mold and stagnant water. As he crawled through the pipe, the cold slime smeared across his arms and jacket, and the narrow walls pressed against his shoulders. The stench was unbearable.

"Oh god, this is disgusting! I swear if this ends with me crawling out into a septic tank, I’m respawning myself out of pure shame!"

He muttered through gritted teeth, gagging as something wet brushed against his neck. A faint squeak echoed from ahead. He froze.

"...That better not be what I think it is. Please, no zombie rats. Anything but that."

He forced himself forward, inch by inch, until he finally saw faint light at the far end.

"Come on, almost there, Sid. Just a few more meters of misery and existential regret."

Then— thud! He slid out onto the damp earth, gasping for air and brushing mud from his hair. He quickly scrambled to his feet and found himself hidden behind a massive, overgrown shrubbery. He was inside the manor grounds. Pushing through the thick leaves, he emerged into the courtyard, where the sculpted Haribon topiary stood, now merely a dark, unrecognizable silhouette against the moonlit ruins. He had made it to the heart of Evelise’s past.

"Damn, welcome back to this place. Feels just like yesterday I was working my ass off here to avoid getting whipped."

He walked the perimeter, checking each topiary like it was a line on an old blueprint. The hedges were thick and wild, leaves choking the shapes he and the gardeners had once kept tidy.When he reached the Haribon, his chest tightened. Even through the overgrowth and decay, he recognized the rough, proud contours of its wings— he had carved them. Or rather, the man whose body he inhabited on the dead Chapter.

"Sheesh, this place is a wreck. Guess all those servants finally got what was coming to them... or maybe they’re the ones getting a tour of the manor’s torture room now."

He swallowed the joke and moved on, thinking it’d be better to keep Evelise and her towering butler hidden from whatever history still haunted this place.