Chapter 6: Chapter 6: A Strange World Part 2
After about 10 minutes past, the long drive came and Don's alone time with Lady Noir came to an end. He had initially been worried that Lady Noir would constantly bring up things they had perhaps done in the past, or at least spoken of, but to his surprise, all she did was sit silently and watch him… without blinking… and with a rather stiff smile on her face…
After about the six-minute mark, Don came to the realization that maybe Lady Noir wasn't speaking about past events they had done together because there were likely very few, most of which the original Don had likely forgotten due to how unimportant that part of his life was.
With this suspicion in mind, he reached yet another unsettling conclusion. '...I'm in danger.'
As the car finally came to a stop, Don didn't wait for the mysterious and imposing-looking guards with masks to open the door for him. He immediately stepped out of the car, facing an entire line of guards who saluted while yelling, "Welcome, my lady!" Looking to the other side of the car, he saw another long line of them, totaling more than 50 altogether.
One of these men opened the door for Lady Noir, and she elegantly stepped out before immediately turning her gaze toward Don and smiling. "This is our base," she revealed.
Taking a moment to look at it, Don was genuinely left speechless. Even with his unfazed trait, he couldn't hide his surprise as his mouth hung open at the sight of the base.
To start, it was incredibly expansive, so much so that it would be strange to call it a supervillain base rather than a palace, despite it having the latter type of architecture.
Seeing Don look so surprised, Lady Noir couldn't help but blush and smile widely for perhaps the first time since they met as she asked him, "Do you like it, Predator? I remember how much you love Griik architecture and mythology, so I had the best of the best do this for our base. Do you like it?"
Don's mouth went dry as he was unable to form words, instead thinking, 'Her childhood crush liked Griik mythology, so she decided to build a palace in that style for him? That's insane! She's insane.' As Don thought this, he tried to slightly calm down as he looked to face Lady Noir, additionally thinking, 'But she's also really beautiful…'
"Well, Predator, do you like it?"
Don quickly came out of his daze and nodded. "Yes, yes, I love it. It's a great surprise. Thank you, Lady Noir," he hurriedly replied, still trying his best to maintain a steady tone to mask how flabbergasted he was.
Unfortunately for him, the surprises didn't stop there. Lady Noir giggled playfully while lowering her head again, hiding her eyes while fumbling with her fingers. "That's not the surprise, silly Predator. This is just our base."
'How can she say "just our base"? This place puts the pyramids of Geza to shame.'
"Let's go inside and I'll show you the real surprise," she revealed while panting a bit heavily with excitement.
'I don't know if I should be scared or excited…' Don thought as Lady Noir turned away from the car and began walking toward the entrance of the base.
Don followed her, and together they began to ascend a set of obsidian stairs lined with what looked like gold. Upon reaching the base's main doors, which were several meters wide and tall, Don noticed two large standing statues on either side. The strange thing, however, was that both of them were covered with very large cloths up to their ankles, so he couldn't really see what they were. But he could more than take a good guess.
As the doors automatically began to open the closer they got, Don's ears twitched as he heard what sounded like chanting coming from behind the doors. 'What if the surprise is a sacrificial ritual?' Don worried as he cautiously continued forward. At that point, a system prompt appeared.
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**50-50**
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'Not helpful,' Don thought nervously as he walked through the doors. Once past them, he was in an incredibly dark room, almost entirely pitch black. If it wasn't for the glimmers of gold he could spot every now and then because of the light that came from the now open doors. After they stepped through though, the doors slowly began to close.
'I don't like this. I don't like this one bit,' Don became understandably anxious. But once the doors fully shut, a bright light flashed above, coming from a spotlight shining down on him and Lady Noir.
Don immediately tried to look up at the spotlight but found he couldn't see anything apart from its brightness. He then proceeded to look down and found that he was standing on a large brick red carpet lined with gold trim.
"The way to the main office is just up ahead. It's a short walk from here," Lady Noir sweetly said, but this time she wasn't looking at Don. Instead, she stared at the ground, awkwardly tapping the tip of her foot on it while keeping her left hand held out for anyone to hold if they so wished.
'I don't see an altar yet, and it's not like I have anywhere else to go,' Don thought to himself as he slowly extended his hand before grabbing Lady Noir's. 'Why is it so cold?' Don wondered, feeling another shiver run up his spine but pretending to remain straight-faced.
As he held her hand, he could feel her jerk slightly. It was as if she was shivering a bit but he could also hear her letting out a rather eerie giggle. "*~hehehehehe~*"
Don felt another shiver run up his spine and quickly looked away, feeling it was better to stare at the darkness. As he looked in the direction, something caught his eye.
Within the distance of the darkness, he could see what looked like the illuminated masks that those imposing guards wore, with his face on them. Just as he saw one, another appeared, then another, and another, and another. Row after row and column after column of them began to appear, filling what was once darkness with an incredibly unsettling sight.
As if looking at this alone wasn't bad enough, Don began to hear the familiar sound of the theme song belonging to an antagonist from a popular sci-fi series called "Moon Wars."
Instead of the instrumental thump that would usually play, Don was hearing, *Su, Su, Su, Sususu, Su, Su, Su….*
Given how many eyes were on him, Don tried his absolute best not to show the surprise he currently had. It was at this time Lady Noir shyly commented, "Predator, you're sweating."
At that point, Don tried to pull away. "Oh, sorry," he started, but before he could pull away, Don felt perhaps the strongest grip he had ever felt holding his hand in place. Lady Noir stopped his hand from pulling away, cutting him off by saying, "No!! I-I mean, I don't mind it. We should go."
And so Don began to make his way down the strange long carpet, the spotlight following them with the chanting continuing in the background.
It was then that Don came to a very worrying realization.
'What if the surprise is a marriage certificate? And this is all just some creepy wedding ceremony.'
As he had that worrying thought, a system prompt appeared.
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**50-50.**
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Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone