Lockeroom's Pandemonium

Chapter Nineteen: The Gorgon's Head

Silver Cassano was fascinated with the Aries' battle set that Yohanna has equipped of herself. As what she had told, the battle set she has been wearing was a celestial-level item, an extremely rare item that can be found in this whole killing game.

Yohanna told that that there are only thirteen celestial battle set that is present in the game, all are inspired by the main celestial zodiac found in the sky.

“But I thought there are only twelve?” asked Silver.

Yohanna swung her staff, causing a formation of cottony texture floating in their front. Soon, a muffled sound of the needle bomb has tingled their ears.

“Recently, Ophiuchus, the serpent holder has been added,” answered Yohanna.

“I see.” Silver looked at the surrounding. At the far side, he saw Aunt Mathilda and Lukas struggling with the needles that is coming towards them.

“Another question: where did you get that set?”

Yohanna smiled as she elegantly spread another fluff of cloud. “I just got lucky. I found it floating with the waves of the ocean at the beach.” She then displayed a more excited smile.

“Thanks, it was a great help,” said Silver.

Yohanna then stopped from moving. Her body suddenly become stiff, eyes are widened in shock.

“What's wrong, Yohanna?” Silver asked. He held her stiff shoulder, concerned with her sudden action.

Then, Yohanna shook her head. “Nothing,” she smiled, “I'm just . . . glad I could help.”

Then another set of needles came rushing towards them, making Yohanna jerk in a more alert action than before, as if his word of thank you had given her huge amount of motivation.

“Stay at my back, Silver. I will try my best to hold these bombs.” Despite the fact that Yohanna's body was shaking out of nervousness, she did her best to remain calm, to be alert, and to look fierce and courageous.

She had, indeed, no experience of fighting nor any skill that requires rigorous physical movement. She moved clumsily. Yet, her willingness to help Silver, her alert mind, easily spotting the fast-rocketing needles, had given her a lot of advantage.

And Silver was impressed.

“AHHHH! THIS IS INSANELY BORING!”

Silver looked at Aunt Mathilda from afar. She was furious. She was holding a giant fan, black is the color, gems and diamonds was intricately designed in the handle, and floppily fanning it to counter the momentum of the needles that was rushing towards them. Lukas, at Aunt Mathilda's back, was holding two kinds of calibrated gun. Both of them are huge in size. One is loaded with rounded, black cartridge, revolving fast as Lukas pulled the trigger, releasing unstoppable attack of bullets that met the force of the rocketing needles. The other gun is probably a shot gun. But, because this island never became normal, that loud, extremely fatal shotgun does not release a simple load of bullet, but an exploding magma—for as soon as the bullet touched the needles, it exploded, as if a violent eruption of a highly active volcano.

Soon as Aunt Mathilda bursted her concern, the echoing of the clown's laugh had again, boomed in the surrounding.

“Geez! You boring clown-looking alien! You're as boring as hell! Do not just laugh! Give us thrill!”

Aunt Mathilda's throat was about to burst because of her furious shouting. Thankfully, Lukas had held her shoulders and did his best to calm her down.

“Ooh! What a courageous woman you are, Aunt Mathilda!”

Sooner, a wide sheet of screen appeared in their front. The needles stopped attacking, and the face of the ugly clown was now displayed on the screen.

“That's what we are finding here. We want more entertainment.”

“And what I want is something fun to kill for!” said Aunt Mathilda.

“Very well, I'll give you something fun,” the clown blurted back.

He displayed his decaying teeth again as he let them see something he was holding from his hand.

Silver saw that as Yohanna saw what was the dark clown was holding, she immediately covered her mouth from shock and horror.

What the dark clown was holding with two of his hands, is a head. A severed, horrible looking head.

It has no eyes. The mouth is widely opened. And its hair, instead of one silky normal hair, is a group of slithering snakes, angrily hissing at the screen.

“Well, this is the Gorgon's head,” the clown started explaining. “This is the cause of the needle bomb you've experienced awhile ago. The mouth of every snakes attached in this head knew how to spit exploding needles. Amazing, isn't it?”

Then the clown laughed again.

“Geez. Why would a needle-spitting snake be amazing? This game is truly out of new and fresh concepts,” Aunt Mathilda countered.

“Well, this will be the reward if you win this game.”

“The Gorgon's head?! Jesus Christ! This special game is nonsense!” Aunt Mathilda started snapping again.

“Tsk tsk, Aunt Mathilda, you're missing something,” said the clown.

Aunt Mathilda then stopped from exhaling fury. Her curiosity was painted on her face.

“Please look at the item’s color.” Then, the dark clown let the Gorgon's head to float in its own. Sooner, bright golden light enveloped the whole feature of the head. Even the blood that is dripping from the part where it was severed, was burning in golden light, burning in a classy wave of color.

“Mythical item,” Silver heard from Yohanna.

“Mythical item?” asked Silver.

Yohanna looked at her and answered, “every items or weapon has different types of level. You will see it through the color that it was emitting when in holographic form. And the bright golden light that the Gorgon's head is emitting, is a mythical leveled item—the highest level of all.”

“The highest level?” Silver asked in shock. He immediately return his stare at the screen where the Gorgon's head was floating. “That means its more powerful than what our items is?” he asked.

“Yes. I never thought we would be seeing that high leveled item this early.”

“Why?”

“Because there are only five of them. Out of a thousand item in this whole game, only five of them are on mythical level.”

“How did you know all of these? It seems like you're knowledgeable.”

Yohanna blushed. “Uh, I found a book about the rules and regulations and the basic knowledge that this game has. And I secretly read it behind my partner's back.”

“That's kind of helpful, really.”

“Thanks,” said Yohanna in a shy tone.

Then they heard the Dark clown laughing again.

Everytime that they were having serious conversation, the Dark Clown's laugh would interrupt them in a most annoying and dissatisfying way.

“Look at your drooling faces,” said the clown. “Isn't this item made your greedy soul alive and kicking?”

Then, in a sudden snap, the Gorgon's head disappeared at the Dark Clown's hands.

“You see, the Gorgon's head is an item that was physicalized and made real from the stories found in greek mythology. It has two incredible skills. I bet you have an idea what those skills are. At least one of it.”

Silver was glad he once had the interest of learning greek mythology, when he was still a college student. He knew the existence of the stories of olympians, the demigods, and even the titans.

The clown snapped his finger.

One second, there were only four of them standing in the middle of the ruined, isolated city. But then now, there were hundreds of them—or hundreds of reflections of them.

Silver’s heart started to pound hard in his chest. He can see his own self standing in his own front—hundreds of him.

A reflection. Or a clone of himself.

Just like him, they also have a flustered expression were smeared on their faces. It totally mirrors him, even how he act, how he look, and even how his expressions were executed.

“Wh-What's happening?”

He was about to ask Yohanna, but then the confusion he felt was added with more burden when . . . he saw hundreds of figures of the girl he thought was on his side. There are too many of her. Hundreds of reflection, of copycat, of clones.

“Wh-Who among you is the real Yohanna?” he asked.

“Me!” Yohanna told, raising her hand—hundreds of them.

It was impossible to find who is the real Yohanna in his front. They all have the same expressions, the same way of raising the hand, the same afraid and frightened look, the same worn Aries' battle suit.

“But who among you is the real Silver?”

Is she the real Yohanna? He asked his self. He was about to ask it, when another of Yohanna—maybe real, or a clone—pointed her finger towards one of Silver's copycat.

“Are you the real Silver?” she asked.

“No!” Silver said—hundreds of Silver. “I am the real one!”

The real Silver cannot believe what was happening. His head wanted to burst from confusion. The peculiar phenomena that is in between him is surely about to ruin his sanity.

“Gorgon's skill: Left eye.” Silver, Yohanna, Aunt Mathilda, Lukas, and hundred of their clones looked at the Dark Clown who finally talked again.

“Gorgon's head knew how to copy every figure she can see—though literally, the Gorgon's head in this game doesn't have an eye to make it more horrible looking. Whatever. Now, I commanded her to make a hundred copy of all of you. And that's what you are seeing right now.”

The Aunt Mathilda—the real and the reflection—buzzed at each other, saying mocking words towards the Clown.

“This will be the real game. The hide and seek.”

Then the whole surrounding stopped in making noise. It became eerily silent that it made Silver really uncomfortable.

“Greed brought you here, and greed will make you out of here. The mechanics is simple: this special game allows you to kill—partially allows you to kill.”

“What do you mean?” said one of Silver's clone.

“Well, Mr. Silver, you will be allowed to kill the player's reflection, but not the real player. That means, the purpose of this game is to find the real person and not to kill them. The only one you are allowed to kill is their reflection.”

“That means, eh, we can directly say I'm the real man here, and the rest are clown so, eh, they'll know we're not clones?”

“If you can, Lukas, if you only can. In this game, you are not the one to hide. The game is the one who will hide you.”

“Pretty crazy you are, eh,” said another Lukas.

“I am, Lukas, I am.” Then, the clown laughed again.

“If ever you managed to kill the real player, among any of you, if you did it, you will be facing sufferable punishment.”

“What would be it?” asked one of the Yohanna.

“Oh, better not known. I want to make it thrilling.” Then another coarse laugh.

When he calmed down from laughing, he started explaining again.

“Of course, I will be giving you greedy reason why you have to kill every clone or reflections that was in here,” said the clown, “because one of the body of the clones is where the Gorgon's head can be found.”

All of them went silent again.

“And basically, whoever managed to kill the Gorgon, is the one who will have the Gorgon's head.”

Sooner, the ground shook and trembled.

The ruined houses, the exploded cars, and the debris found in the whole city where they were standing, bursted into ashes, and dragged by the wind.

Gigantic pillars soon then emerged from the ground. Its white color, intricate designs, and unexplainable aura, has overwhelmed them.

Silver found it familiar. Those pillars where similar to the pillars found in greek architectures.

Now, instead of a ruined city, they were standing on a huge, flat surface with a thousand hectare of white, shining floor, and gigantic pillars pointing in the sky. The heaven were clear—a crispy blue heaven. No birds were flying, no clouds were floating.

The whole place is shining in white. Clean. Pure.

Yet, Silver knew, in any second from now, this will be filled with blood, with death, with chaos.

“The iron dome started to change its features. That means it is ready to cater the event. Now, for the final rule; you can kill clones, but do not kill your own. That would be too boring. Of course there will be punishment too.”

Then, he smiled.

Unlike the usual smile he had, the curve of her slitted lips became more prominent, more forced. His dark-filled eyes emitted more pressure, more fearing, something unexplainable eerie sensation. His saliva—dark and dirty—poured down at the corner of his smile.

In a dry whisper, the clown said, “now, let the Hide and Seek . . . begin.”