The stony, ancient temple was empty.

Its walls were decorated with indescribable glyphs, a yellowness seeping out of them.

Darth Kars made a note to study and decipher those glyphs in detail later, once he had taken control over the demon’s mindscape.

He slithered forward cautiously.

There were no defensive measures anywhere, Darth Kars noticed.

That seemed about right, as with the demon’s entire focus on keeping herself alive, she was bound to lose some control over her mindscape.

He wouldn’t be surprised to find half the paper city in shreds when he left the temple.

Of course, he wouldn’t let her die then.

As a Sith, she would be destined to live and serve him, till he made her mindscape his own, advancing his Super Intelligence Ability to Master level.

Thinking and relishing in those thoughts, Darth Kars slithered deeper into the temple.

Here he would find the loose knot he had been looking for, he had known.

But what he found instead was a statue, letting out a suffused, yellow glow as if there was something wrong with it.

The squirrel-headed snake lifted its head, coiling its body as it looked at the statue.

It had the appearance of a robed figure, its face hidden under a hood.

Following an irresistible urge, Darth Kars slithered forward to look under the hood.

For a moment, he saw nothing but darkness there, as if the statue had never had a face to begin with.

Then, out of nowhere, a vision began taking shape — deluding reality.

It was the vision of a universe, as large as a Bubble, holding infinite timelines, uncountable worlds, and even more beings.

Slowly, a yellowness began seeping into this universe.

At first, it looked like rays of light, undulating, rejecting the rules of physics.

Soon, they revealed their true nature, taking the form of yellow strips of cloth... tattered at the end.

NOT GOOD!

Every particle of Darth Kars’ senses roared, finally recognizing where he was and what kind of abomination’s mindscape he had barged into.

Panicked beyond measure, he willed the squirrel-headed snake, which was a fragment of his own mindscape, to explode on the spot, totally letting it go.

His mindscape would definitely suffer because of such destruction, but...

Anything.

ANYTHING... was better than getting corrupted by Him.

Sadly, just as the squirrel-headed snake ballooned to self-destruct, a Yellow Crystal bobbed into existence right over it.

Under the dreadful threat of an Old One’s corruption, Darth Kars couldn’t even notice it.

Taking advantage of the situation, just before the squirrel-headed snake could cease to exist, the Yellow Crystal slammed right into it!

...

"Argh!" Darth Kars let out a painful grunt as his Advance Super Intelligence dropped by three percent.

Unconcerned with the abomination dying next to him, the 12th Floor Contestant stumbled, creating loud THUDS that rocked the entire Forest Vault.

Using his free hand, he held his head as if someone had stabbed nails in his mind, the pain making him unable to even open his eyes.

This was a price he had willingly paid, though.

If he hadn’t decided to discard a part of his mindscape, then...

Suddenly, even as Darth Kars writhed in pain that stemmed from his mind, he realized a crucial thing.

For the first time in his entire life after resurrecting into the Primordial Tower, he had been fooled two times in a single day... only hours apart... by the same Contestant!

Yes.

That flicker of hesitation he had noticed on demon’s face couldn’t have been a true one.

The remaining Advance Super Intelligence’s Proficiency was high enough to let him calculate this conclusion.

Not only had he been fooled by the abomination, but he had also been fooled to the point of losing his life!

Anyone else in his place, without the Super Intelligence-like Ability, would have died a hundred times over.

In fact, death would have been a mercy.

Darth Kars had heard worse tales about what had happened to those who had been Cursed and Corrupted by Old Ones.

Thick, bronze-red bolts of lightning snaked around him as he grabbed his head and opened his one eye.

In his black sclera, thick red veins were pulsating with pure wrath.

Darth Kars let out a breath, tasting blood in his mouth from clenching his teeth too hard.

To think... a puny 3rd Set Contestant almost... killed him...

"No..." Darth Kars said, seeing the abomination crawling forward to hold the Vault’s door open by an inch. "I... will not kill you. I’d thought... I could walk away from the label of Darth... But, for you, I will accept it once more. Yes. Just for you..."

The bronze-red lightning cracked around him as he straightened himself, slowly letting go of his head.

His fingers had dug so deeply into his skull that they had left impressions, blood spurting out and streaming down his face.

The wounds healed instantly.

But the fury that Darth Kars carried in his eyes only seethed even more, his massive chest rising and falling like the tides of a black-watered ocean.

Grinding his teeth, donning a cloak of lightning bolts, and fuming out hot, lava-like breath, he walked up to the abomination and stood over her.

"So that’s why Red sent you here..." Darth Kars said, his voice rumbling across the Forest Vault. "He must have learned about us having a way to counter his Luck. So... he sent you. A virus! What a brilliant conspirer..."

Despite uttering words of praise, his body was shaking, knowing what could have happened today.

His prized Super Intelligence... defeated by conspiracy...

A Sith like him... fallen to conspiracy...

Darth Kars’s face twisted, gaining ugly wrinkles.

He let go of the lightsaber clutched tightly in his hand and leaned forward, grabbing the abomination’s hair with one hand while his other hand landed on the Vault’s open door to slam it shut.

"You..." Darth Kars said, pushing the door in and bringing the abomination’s face near his own. "... are going nowhere."

Then, he paused, in pure shock.

The white-skinned, dying demon was smiling, showing her bloody teeth.

But that wasn’t what had shocked Darth Kars the most.

It was the fact that he couldn’t close the door.

It was the fact that someone was holding it open... from outside!

****************

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