(Y/n's POV)
After hearing what Bierce had to say to you, you jumped into the new nightmare portal that had just opened up. As usual, there was an obstacle placed inside that blocked the way to the other side.
"Malak's blocked the entrance, now that's just pathetic, don't you think?", Bierce says as if commenting on how poorly Malak has made his trap. "Well never fear, love. There is a solution to your problem. You'll just have to... rearrange your brain a bit. Come back to the altar.", Bierce says to me reassuringly.
You then walked back to the ballroom and made your way to the glowing altar. "Now, just hold still for a moment. You might also want to close your eyes. It keeps them from popping out.", Bierce states as she grants me a new power called, telepathy.
"Thank you, Bierce.", you said to her nicely. "Not a problem, my dear! Just don't let me catch you trying to see through anything else besides walls.", Bierce kindly warns you as you jump back into the portal.
You use the new abilities to get past the trap and you make your way to the (now cleared) entrance way. Once inside, you see that you are in the sewers and that the water level there is almost up to your knees.
"Not afraid of a little sewer water, are you? Just don't get any of it in your mouth.", Bierce says as you start walking. You then notice that you movement is a lot slower in the water than usual.
As you walked, you heard Bierce stating, "You've might have heard of the urban legends, I'm sure. All kinds of things get flushed down here. Alligators, Goldfish, ... Duckies." Suddenly, a spotlight was turned on inside a grate room and you turned to see the duckies that Bierce said.
The duckies looked like the one you saw on their portal, except they looked decrepit and covered with cracks and sludge. They had sharp, pointy teeth and a traffic cone on top of their heads.
'Man... these things just give me the creeps!', you said to yourself as you moved on to the next room. "Mmm... this sewer smells very... ripe. *Gag* I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.", Bierce complained about the sewer's smell.
You ignored Bierce's remarks and entered the next room, this time there was a medium sized hole next to the door and on top was a message that said, "Watch out for the big one!" "Well, that's interesting.", Bierce commented to you as you went to open the door to the next area.
Suddenly, a beak came right at you and grabbed you in a tight grip. You managed to get out of the tight grip and the beak retreated back to where ever it came from.
"It's unlocked.", you heard Bierce say as you tried to calm down after that surprising encounter you just faced. You then entered the next room which was the starting point of this world's maze.
You saw from one of the corridors a few Dread Duckies floating in the water in the distance. "Oh look! They're trying to blend in, eh? Let's see how well you pay attention to details.", Bierce says after seeing the duckies too.
You knew this was a caution, not a snarky remark like Bierce would usually say about a bad situation. You decide to listen to her advice and ran into the maze to start the first round.
*Time-skip to after collecting all the soul shards in zone one and avoiding/escaping the real Dread Duckies later...*
You were standing in the middle of where all the corridors connected together after you had gathered all the soul shards, while also using the telepathy power to figure out which Dread Duckies were safe and which weren't. "Congrats! You've gathered half of the shards. Just try to live long enough to get the rest of them.", Bierce says to you.
You then notice that the central room has now opened, so you run over there to see what's inside. Once there, you see tons of empty Dread Duckies stacked together in a pile, a valve switch in the middle, and two large sewer pipes on the left and right side of the room.
You also see the ring alter in the distance as well, but once you approach it a loud, violent roaring sound is heard. "What the what was that?!", you asked Bierce in fear.
"Oh, I'm sure that rumbling noise is nothing to be concerned about. Now, come along. You still have some more shards to collect before your done.", Bierce states. You began to walk out of the central room through a passageway and to get to the next starting point.
You soon notice that the areas are much darker and that there's barley any light to see where your going. "Looks like those duckies are using the darkness to their advantage. I'd keep an eye out if I were you.", you heard Bierce say.
Suddenly, you hear a Dread Ducky coming your way, so you run into one of the large rectangular chambers that you had saw earlier to hide. You waited there until the monster was gone.
"You might want to take a shower after all of this.", Bierce remarks due to how smelly those rooms were. You decided to continue onward to get the rest of the shards, but to watch out for any of the ducks.
*Time-skip to after gathering the rest of the soul shards and escaping the Dread Duckies later...*
"That's the last shard, now go get them to the ring alter.", Bierce says after you had gotten the final soul shard from this nightmare world. Following Bierce instructions, you began to make your way back to where the ring altar was.
Suddenly, you hear Malak's voice say, "You can't speed boost your way out of my grasp this time!" You turn around to see Malak in his reaper form coming after you in high speed.
You ran as fast as you could to get away from him as well as the now frenzied enemies that began to chase you too. Finally, you saw the ring altar in the distance and managed to make it before Malak could catch you.
You obtained the next ring piece and were about to head back to where the portal was, but was stopped by Malak, who was now in his demon form. "I'm afraid that's far enough, my love. You know, I do love you very much, but I need to make sure that that witch doesn't succeed in her plans. Oh don't worry, I won't kill you. I would never! I'm only going to slow you down a bit, so that way you can't get that ring piece to Bierce. Fortunately, just like Bierce, I too have a loyal pet as well. Here, let me introduce you to it, since it will be your new pet as well soon!", Malak says to you sweetly.
Suddenly the door behind him begins to slowly open and a large duck-like creature with multiple appendages appears. "Now, you'll have to excuse me, my queen. But, I must take my leave. I have to begin preparations for your arrival and our wedding coming soon. Oh, and Bierce... I know you're there, peering through my future wife. Don't worry, I'll be settling matters with you very very soon.", Malak says and he then teleports out of the room, leaving you alone with his "pet" to deal with.
"Now, that's one huge duckie.", Bierce says about the huge monstrosity in front of you. The Doom Ducky begins to throw duck statues at you, so you try to dodge the incoming objects that are coming at you.
"Quickly! Use the pillars to slow it down!", Bierce advice's you to do in order to defeat the boss. You do what Bierce says and ran to a nearby pillar to hide behind.
You then decided to turn the two levers that stood in the middle to see what happens. Once you manage to stun the Doom Ducky again, you race to the levers and turn the one on the left first.
Suddenly, a Dread Ducky comes out and starts to chase you as well. 'Are you kidding me?! Great, just when I had to deal with one enemy...', you angrily thought to yourself.
You then notice that when the Doom Ducky is stunned, the Dread Ducky is stunned too. You decided that once the boss is stunned again, you would strike.
*Short time-skip to after battle with Doom Ducky is over later...*
You defeated the monster boss and the door on the Doom Ducky closes shut. "Well that was easy.", you say as you began to walk back to the portal through the opened doorway.
"Getting back to the portal is not going to be so easy this time. Don't screw this up!", Bierce states as you continued your way back. Just then, the Doom Ducky came bursting in from behind you, as it made a loud roaring sound and was coming right at you.
"You're not out of this yet, my love.", you heard Malak say as the monster was coming up to you. You ran as fast as you could to get away from the Doom Ducky's deadly grasp, while a few more nearby Dread Duckies gave chase as well.
Soon, you reach the portal, but see that one lone Dread Ducky is blocking your path. With no way to get around it without dying, you used the teleportation power to get to the other side.
Once over there, you made a mad dash to the portal, but not before the Doom Ducky tries one more time to catch you. You jump into the portal and make it back to the ballroom area.
You get up from the ground to see Bierce and Malak arguing over something important. "You know, Bierce? It vexes me greatly that my bride is still here. So now, you have gotten another piece of that infernal ring you so desperately want. How pitiful...", Malak claims rudely to Bierce.
He then sees you through his doorway and blushes bright red as you walked closer. "My dear, please hear me out. Every piece that Bierce gets will make her more powerful. Don't you get that? What do you think is going to happen when she doesn't need you anymore but me, hm?", he says in a strange caring voice.
Frightened, you turned to hear what Bierce had to say about the situation right now. "He is right. I am getting more powerful. Powerful enough to fulfill your every wish. That's why your here, isn't it?", Bierce responds to what Malak said with confidence.
You saw Malak roll his eye in annoyance before saying, "Bierce, why not tell her what fate befell the last person who trusted you, hm?" You turned your gaze back to Bierce to hear what she had to say about that, but she had her back turned on you and looked a bit nervous about the subject.
You saw that Malak had just left, so you went over to Bierce to see what was the matter. "Um Bierce? What did Malak mean by that?", you asked.
Bierce turned around and she had the same cheerful look on her face from before. "Oh, that's nothing! That's just Malak trying to trick you into believing one of his outlandish lies again. It's all false if you ask me.", Bierce reassures you.
But, you weren't so convinced and felt like she was hiding something from you. 'I think I might have to keep my eye on Bierce. Just to be safe.', you tell yourself as you followed Bierce.
"Now, come along! You still have five more pieces to go, love.", Bierce says. You then see the next portal open and it had a scary clown face on it.
"So, do you want to try your luck again? Or would you rather just want to stay here with me?"