CHAPTER 33: THE UNBOUND WITNESS

The great doors groaned open, spilling a faint, cold light into the yawning void beyond.

"What the fuck..." Stephan muttered, stepping inside cautiously.

The interior was nothing like he’d expected, no twisting corridors, no labyrinthine halls. Instead, the mansion’s heart was one vast chamber, a throne room hewn from shadow itself. The air hung thick and heavy, saturated with an oppressive pressure that pressed against his skin. It was soul energy, dense and relentless. Not from a single source, but dozens.

"I don’t see anyone," Yennefer whispered, eyes narrowing, "but their presence... it’s everywhere."

"This place is wrong," Anna Mary said, her voice tight. "Like we’re being watched by a hundred unseen eyes."

They felt the lurking predators all around, hidden and maybe waiting.

Towering statues lined the walls, black stone giants gripping immense swords pointed to the ground. But these were no ordinary knights. Their helmets were replaced by the fierce heads of beasts: antlered deer, snarling wolves, regal lions, hawks with glassy, unblinking eyes, crocodiles frozen mid-snarl. Dozens more unknown to Stephan, all silently judging the intruders with an ancient, unyielding gaze.

A crimson carpet bled from the massive doorway to a distant throne, its deep red seeming to drink in the faint light.

Their eyes followed it. The vast chamber seemed to hold its breath. Atop the throne sat a figure unlike anything they had ever seen, something not human, something divine yet terrifying. Clad in tattered black robes that whispered like shadows, the figure’s form was both regal and sinister. Its face was hidden beneath a hood, yet not truly hidden, what lay beneath was not flesh but a dark, gleaming avian visage, sharp as a raven’s beak, eyes burning red like twin embers in the dark.

Feathers black as midnight spilled from its shoulders, edged with subtle blue hues, draping it like a living cloak. Broad shoulders bore cruel, spiked pauldrons embedded with glowing red gems that pulsed faintly, as though alive. Its long, clawed hands rested calmly on the armrest, talons sharp enough to rend steel. Behind it hovered a jagged halo of ethereal energy, its purple glow fractured and shifting like a broken moon.

The throne itself was forged from twisted iron and dark stone, its form echoing the monstrous statues along the walls, barbed edges, writhing shapes, crowned with a jagged crest that seemed to hum with raw power.

The figure did not move, yet the weight of its presence was suffocating. Stephan swallowed hard. Yennefer’s fingers twitched toward her magic. Anna Mary’s breath hitched.

Then Stephan noticed something else.

Unlike every other encounter with players or corrupted souls, his system remained silent. No alerts. No quests. Nothing.It was as if the mansion itself had swallowed the connection whole. Here, in this yawning void, his system was dead.

"What... what is that thing?" Anna Mary whispered.

Yennefer didn’t look away. "I’ve seen something like it before," she said, her tone flat but trembling at the edges. "The thing that dragged me out of the grave. The thing that gave me my second life."

Anna Mary’s eyes widened. "No way... that’s..."

"A death god," Stephan finished for her, the words curling into a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

Then he tilted his head slightly, voice low and edged with a dark amusement. "Well... what do we have here, Lucidas’s uncle?"

They were still staring at the death god on the throne when it spoke.

"Welcome to the Void Mansion," the voice rumbled, deep, resonant, carrying the weight of eons. "Stephan King, vessel of Lucidas the Hollow Architect. Anna Mary, vessel of Sacrus, the Death God of Secrets. Yennefer Brown, vessel of Azrael, the Death God of Vengeance. I have been waiting for you."

The three stood frozen, the oppressive silence pressing in.

Stephan broke it with a scoff. "Who the fuck is you?"

The figure inclined its head slightly, the burning red eyes never leaving his. "I am Noctis Corvath. The unbound Witness. Observation of Fate."

Stephan’s smirk faded, his posture tightening. "And what is a death god like you doing interfering with players?"

"A good question, vessel of Lucidas."

The beaked visage tilted slightly.

"I am not like the ones you serve or oppose. I am what your kind calls an Unbound Death God, one of the rare few who choose no vessel, swear no allegiance, and take no side in the eternal contests. I belong to no house, no war, no game."

His voice never rose, but each word pressed heavier than the last.

"My role is singular... I watch. I bear witness to moments that matter. I record them, not in parchment or stone, but in the deep memory of the dead itself, so they can never be erased. I ensure the balance is not tipped so far that the cosmos unravels. That is all."

A pause.

"I do not judge and I do not act. But when I attend, all know the weight of the moment. Death gods temper their words in my presence. Vessels... often feel their very thoughts measured."

The halo of black feathers behind his throne gave a slow ripple, like a great bird shifting its wings.

"You may find my being here strange. That is because it is strange. I do not come unless the threads of fate knot tighter than they should.

The words hung heavy in the air, settling into their bones like frost.

"Did you call us for the players’ meeting?" Anna Mary asked.

"Players’ meeting?" Noctis tilted his head, the faintest glint of amusement in his ember-like eyes. "If that is what you would call a basic address in the human world... then yes."

"An address?" she pressed.

"Yes. I have summoned every remaining player in the game for a special address."

Remaining players. The phrase dug into Stephan like a blade. That meant some were already gone, killed or eliminated. His mind flashed to Gabuzar and Salimi. Those two were probably racking up victories by now.

He clenched his jaw, fists curling tight at his sides. I haven’t even killed a single motherfucker yet, he thought, bitterness rising like bile.

The air seemed to grow heavier around him. Even Yennefer shifted her stance, glancing at him sidelong, sensing the storm building under his skin. The oppressive silence of the Void Mansion seemed to press closer, like the statues themselves were leaning in to watch.

Noctis didn’t move, but those burning eyes lingered on Stephan a heartbeat too long, as if reading the bitterness in him, weighing and memorizing it. Then the death god’s gaze swept past, returning to the unseen crowd beyond the chamber’s shadows.

Then Noctis’s gaze returned to them, lingering on Yennefer.

"Vessel of Azrael," he said, voice deep and measured, "I can tell you have a burning question. You are free to ask."

She hesitated, then spoke. "What’s this place... this Void Mansion?"

The beak tilted slightly, almost like a grimace. "One of my many residences. Not as ’fancy,’ as you mortals might call it, as the ones in your living world. It is built for a different purpose, and it stands in the middle of nothing."

He paused, his burning eyes narrowing faintly. "That is not the real question you wished to ask... is it?"

Yennefer’s throat tightened before she spoke again. "You’re right, Noctis... the Unbound Witness. When we first arrived, we sensed a mixture of soul energies, strong, distinct, many of them belonging to players still in the game. I can still feel them, all around us. But I can’t see them. Why is that?"

Noctis leaned back slightly on the throne, the halo behind him flickering with subtle distortions.

"You feel them because they are here," he said, "but not in the way you understand ’here.’ The Void Mansion is not a single room in a single place. It is a hall stretched across layers of my design. Every player stands in the same throne room, sees the same walls, the same statues, the same me, yet no player can see or touch another.

"You are present together, but you are apart. Every breath you take exists beside theirs, yet will never reach them."

He raised one clawed hand, and for a moment the air rippled, Yennefer caught a flash of shifting shapes in the periphery of her vision, silhouettes she could not quite grasp before they were gone.

"I can speak to you all at once," Noctis continued, "or to each of you alone. I decide what you hear, and what remains unheard. This conversation is for you three, and you alone. The others are having their own... moments with me."

His gaze burned brighter, locking on Yennefer. "And that is why you will never know which of your enemies is standing only a few paces from you."

So we can’t see each other, but we can definitely sense each other’s presence, huh? Stephan thought. Nicely done, Noctis.

"Can you feel him, Stephan?" Anna Mary asked quietly.

"The mystery man with the strong soul energy? Yeah," Stephan said. "He’s definitely here."

"Gabuzar and Salimi too," Yennefer added.

They could each pick out familiar threads in the dense weave of hundreds of soul energies pressing in from every side.

"So, Birdman," Stephan said, glancing up at the throne, "if players can’t see each other, why can I see Yennefer and Anna Mary?"

"Ah, yes," Noctis said with a faint tilt of the head. "That is because I allow it."

"Why?" Stephan pressed. "You know we’re enemies. This is just a temporary alliance."

"I am aware," Noctis replied smoothly. "Which is precisely why I grouped you together. You will understand the reasons... soon."

Silence stretched between them for a moment, heavy and deliberate.

Finally, Noctis’s voice rumbled again. "I believe all players have now entered the Void Mansion. It is time to begin the address... and explain why I have summoned you all here."