[Player Adder has initiated the key.]
The four red cocoons tore out of his palm, spinning violently.
The barrier around him thickened into a black blanket, not even allowing light from outside to interfere.
He barely caught his breath before the cocoons sped up again, screeching.
In just a few seconds, all of them started glowing in a bright red color. The intense heat from the cocoons made him squint.
Suddenly, all four cocoons came together.
Bang!
The collision burst open all four spheres as the now molten cards spilled into the air.
Though the very moment the amalgamated mixture started separating back into four parts, each part turned back into a card.
It was just that each card was formed differently from the others.
The first, leftmost card had a big white center surrounded by a thin black border.
There were random red veins over this card, likely from the red strings the devil used.
The second card, though, was opposite, with a black center and a white border. The red veins on this card were more prominent.
The third card was half and half, with the top half black and the bottom half white. This one had a thick red, veiny border.
Finally, the last card was completely dark red, distorting from time to time, as if something was struggling inside.
Suddenly, all four cards rushed to his left hand.
The four cold cards touched his fingers when the world around him morphed into a dark corridor.
Surprised, he looked around with wide eyes. 'What's going on here?' He had never heard of this.
What was more surprising was that even with no light, he could still see the surroundings.
Just then, a loud banging came from deeper into the corridor. Startled, Adder walked toward the noise.
He walked a few meters, and a massive metal door appeared on his left side.
From time to time, something slammed into it from the other side.
He took a step toward the metal door when suddenly an odd beam of red light flashed behind him.
A part of it slammed into the metal door as the rhythmic banging turned frantic and flashed ahead.
He stared at the mass of light rushing deeper into the corridor when suddenly he found himself traveling with the light.
The red light continued to move through the corridor, passing three more metal doors. Frantic noises came from each door.
Finally, the light slammed into the end wall of the corridor.
Once again, the scene changed. To his shock, this time he was floating in a dark space full of distant bright stars.
In all this, a mysterious, massive black castle floated before him. No, it looked more like a prison.
As he stared at the prison, its walls suddenly became transparent, and he saw the dark corridor he had been in.
From outside, he saw that instead of disappearing, the red light actually traveled to the second layer and then to the third floor.
Both these floors had four prison cells each, though he could not see past the metal doors.
From outside, he also noticed that every metal door the light had passed through started to form a layer of red veins on it.
Finally, the light disappeared from the third level. All he saw was a blink of red light at the fourth, but it was surrounded by dark fog.
It was hard to see anything as thick dark fog covered everything at that level.
Suddenly, the entire prison shook as if the red light had awakened a sleeping beast.
As if responding to the threat, thick red strings appeared all over the prison.
He recognized those strings, and it became clear to him that the red light should be the red devil.
In response, dark fog started traveling up from the fourth floor.
In a moment, it had reached halfway to the second corridor when all the cell doors started shining in distinct light.
Not stopping there, he saw the entire prison starting to vibrate as if it had come to life. At that very moment, something powerful pulled the red veins and dark fog back to the fourth corridor.
In front of the mysterious prison's power, the red veins and dark fog helplessly got sucked back.
He did notice that in this tussle, some of the red strings and dark fog broke off to different levels.
The point lights on each cell door only intensified.
It took him a moment as he realized each door had a projection of mutated metal cards.
Everything faded, and Adder once again stood before the very first metal gate.
There, he saw the palm-sized white metal card with a black border and red veins.
It was the first card, but then he noticed similar mixed white light coming from the other three doors.
He looked down, as the floor below was still transparent, and saw the black light with a whitish border coming from the second floor.
Much deeper on the third floor was the mixed black and white light.
The prison rumbled once again. All the lights started blinking except for the constant glow from the card before him.
Not wasting this opportunity, he reached for the white card. The moment his left palm touched the cold card, the awaited notification popped in front of him.
Ding!
[Congratulations to player Adder, you have discovered the forgotten ??? prison.]
Everything went dark as the walls lost their transparency. Just then, three other cards flew to his left palm from the cell doors.
Ding!
[Ancient four restrictions have been recognized… Error… Foreign energy detected… Calculating!]
Adder held his breath. 'Don't tell me it's the mutation from the red devil again.'
Ding!
[A new prisoner has been detected… corruption across the prisoner detected… adjusting the restriction.]
The metal door before him vibrated. The very moment the frantic banging sound turned back to its old rhythm.
Ding!
[Your actions have led to recognition from the forgotten prison. The forgotten prison chose to reveal its true name.]
[The Prison of Desolated Vile greets its first guest of this millennium.]
Ding!
[You have met the condition to gain access to the prison. The ruler detected, adjusting the offered role. The Prison of Desolated Vile has offered you as its jailer.]
[Are you sure you want to select the 'Desolate Jailer' subclass? (yes/no)]