This was Odin's third time entering the Haunted House and yet, if anyone were to ask him to draw a map of the house, he'd be completely useless finding his way around. The house consistently changed every time he ventured inside, which had brought about the theory for the Lich, something he was convinced would be the case, and something he needed to find out.

It was a relatively simple theory: the house was somehow alive. Whether it was just enchanted wood to give the house some form of sentience or whether there was something more going on, that was the answer Odin sought after. To that end, he figured he would need some assistance. Not that he'd ever admit requiring help for anything particularly challenging, his pride as a Wizard Lord would never allow it. However, the assistance required was more to act as bait. The house was alive, there was fact there. The next question was whether or not it had a heart, or something even remotely close to a heart. That required, venturing down into the abyss that made up whatever constituted a stomach in the house and moving through the body, assuming it even possessed equivalent organs.

No matter what happened, Odin had to wait for his assistant to arrive. He had no idea who it would be, as he had just slapped a request for help on a board in the marketplace. Anyone could be showing up.

Phoebus found himself near the Haunted House again, his past experience with Kurisa and the whole murder game incident didn't appear to be enough to sate his curiosity. What would he find in the host's stead now that he was dead, maybe a duplicate host or a spirit or the house could have just been abandoned, anything and everything was his guess. He stopped for a moment as he approached it, had the exterior's material changed after he had left? That's not how he remembered it, or maybe his mind was just playing tricks on him, maybe the chill and eerie feeling in the air made him fantasize things that were never true to begin with.

He clasped the piece of paper in his hand, a request for an assistant here at the house something about adventure and exploration. He hoped there were no more death games, thinking about it again however he realized that it could have been an invitation to yet another game, he didn't know who the person that required assistance was and it might as well have been a trick. In any case he climbed up the stairs and saw the door left wide open noticing a figure inside the house, for a moment he couldn't see clearly and just exclaimed "Are you the one that made the request for an assistant?" he continued by explaining that he was curious to explore the house as well. After all being two instead of him alone could prove a much wiser option in case something goes wrong.

As Odin turned to look at his assistant, who had finally arrived, he realised something. Something that was pretty important and had lasting consequences due to his lack of forethought.

He hadn't signed him name on the letter.

The man who appeared before Odin had absolutely no idea that he had been walking to meet a Lich, and the Wizard Lord himself. He wondered if that would've changed this man's opinions, if perhaps he would've left the notice for someone else to pick up. Regardless of what might have been, Odin's assistant was now here and it was too late for him to run away.

Taking a step closer towards him, Odin stood with the moonlight draping his form in white light as he spoke, "Welcome. I am Odin Morningstar, what's your name?" It seemed smart to at least start off somewhat friendly, even an undead Lich had manners. He would let the man answer before continuing, "So the plan for today is to find out what is going on with the house. I don't know if you've been here before but if you have I'll bet it looks completely different. We're here to find out why."

Odin would give the man a moment to process everything that had been said before he stepped back over the threshold and into the house. He would stand in the main entrance to a grand mansion, with one main stairwell heading to the second floor. However, they wouldn't get a chance to scale it. Once both men stood in the centre of the foyer, a trap door would open, and they would both fly down a chute towards a darkness. A few seconds later it opened up to a collection of skeletons. Unlike Odin, these ones were definitely dead.

"It seems like we were expected."

Phoebus stood still for a moment as the figure stepped into the light revealing his skeleton structure that left him breathless. What kind of game was this now, he was going to play assistant to an undead skeleton? The skeleton introduced himself as Odin Morningstar... Odin as in the Lich, the Wizard Lord, of course he had heard of him but had never seen what he looked like... well he looked very much dead that's certain, or undead in any case. With a soft head bow he acknowledged him and introduced himself as he was now the reason he asked for assistance.

This looked like a grand opportunity for Phoebus, being able to explore a mystery with a notorious celebrity could prove very beneficial as he could learn a lot from him, if he was allowed to. Good or bad mattered not for him, all he wanted was knowledge and it appears the situation proved perfect for that. Not to mention that he himself wanted to solve the mystery of the house changing ever so often. He agreed and followed him inside as he looked in wonder at how the house had changed yet again, it looked nothing like the manor he had been in before. They walked up to the center of the foyer having in mind to go up the staircase but suddenly he felt the floor opening and seconds later he was falling down, a trap door, things were getting interesting and somewhat frightening but hopeful with the two of them they'd be able to fend off any danger.

He looked around once they landed, a room full of skeletons, the bones seemed dirty and dusty. Were they expected to rot in this place? He heard the Lich's comment about them being expected. Maybe it was random travelers that were expected, he thought but he dismissed the thought and tried to look for a way out. A few moments of search later and there didn't seem to be an exit, or a visible one at least and the trap door above them seemed to have closed up like it was never there, how peculiar. He could create a skeleton key from the bones of all these skeletons lying around, it would open any door but he saw no lock anywhere, only walls. He turned to Odin "Can you sense anything with your magic?" he wondered, after all the Lich's magic was far superior to his own, it only made sense.

Phoebus, for that was the name he gave, and Odin were now both trapped inside the belly of the beast. However instead of a belly they were in a skeleton-filled basement with no exit other than the one they had come through from, and instead of a beast it was a house. In literal fact, perhaps that hadn't been the best analogy to their current situation, but it sounded pretty cool.

Phoebus looked around before asking if Odin could sense anything with his magic. The Lich didn't want to ruin the young mage's sense of adventure, but he didn't actually possess any kind of sensing abilities other than feeling vibrations in the air, and that was unlikely to be useful in this situation. However, he could hear something. There was a repeating beat, almost like the wind but not quite, and the reason it took Odin so long to realise was because it was something he hadn't needed to do himself in years: the house was breathing.

Odin held up a hand to stop Phoebus from saying anymore, and he waded through the bones to one of the walls. Sure enough, he felt a slight breath coming from the other side. Taking his gauntleted fist, Odin punched the wall in front of him, breaking through to the other room where he saw, bathed in ominous red light, what almost looked like a heart.

"I think we might have found something."

Phoebus stood silent like he was instructed to, spectating Odin's movement towards the wall, he wasn't certain as to what happened but amidst the silence he could hear a repeated sound and it seemed to be coming from the direction the Lich was moving towards. Watching him use his gauntlet and smashing through the nearby wall he became amazed at the power he was packing and at the same time heard a noise like a roar of pain echoing throughout the place. That couldn't be good he thought, and quickly followed Odin through the opening wanting to tell him about the noise but he stopped, frozen on his feet as he saw something that looked like a heart with crimson red light all around it, it was rhythmically beating just like a real heart.

He started panicking slightly but didn't show it as he was realizing what was happening, it looked like they were inside a monstrosity and by the looks of it they had gone from its stomach onto the heart. He approached Odin carefully wanting to tell him about the sound he heard but it looked like it was a tad too late as the beating became louder and faster, perhaps it realized that the pain it felt was from its prisoners escaping from its bowels and were now staring at the core. All of a sudden he saw movement on the floor, as in the floor itself started moving and the pipes came alive going after the duo. "I-I don't think we're supposed to be here!" he exclaimed and stared at Odin, what would they do now, would they run or do something else, he would follow Odin if the choice was reasonable.

The two men, well one and a Lich, were a virus to the house. They were a foreign entity that was now causing damage inside the body. And so the body did what any would do when it encountered a virus: it tried to fight it and expel it. That resulted in fierce vibrations reverberating throughout the house, and the breathing of the building became more rapid and tense. It wasn't happy with Odin breaking down its literal stomach to get to the heart. Openings formed on the ground, the skeletal remains of everyone else who had been digested were now moving further through the body as pipes came to attack the two, supposedly acting as antibodies.

The pipes were pretty tough, but Odin's strength was enough to crush and break some of them. However, they weren't stopping, and there were many of them. If it came down to a battle of endurance, Odin wasn't sure he would last. He had his magic, but he didn't want to reveal something like his powers to anyone he didn't know. Greed was still a new acquisition for the Lich, and it was not something that everyone needed to know about.

That left one main option. "We follow the skeletons. Jump in the holes and see what the house equivalent of an asshole is. You in?" Odin would wait for Phoebus' answer before jumping it. He didn't intend to harm the house after all, and now he had the conformation that it was, in fact, alive. It functioned as a body, and that was already an incredible find.

How did he find himself in this situation, the house didn't seem to be alive last time he was here, but then again last time it was his life he was putting at risk. Well the difference wasn't this big, right now his life was at risk as well and he was unable to do something about it. He stared at awe as the Lich was able to throw some good punches and stop or outright destroy a few of the pipes that were attacking them, he hoped he could have been of help to him but his magic was still not strong enough for battle but only for showmanship.

He tried to find a way for the duo to escape but couldn't see a way out until his gaze caught the skeletons being dragged down a hole and then came the Lich's words. "Disgustingly put, but would be worth the chance." he yelled amidst the chaos, the house looked like it was coming more alive by the second and everything started resembling a living organism or organ for that matter. He followed Odin as they made their way towards were the skeletons were being dragged to and made the jump down the tubular hole. That tunnel seemed to going for a while but thankfully the attacks towards them seemed to have stopped as the pipes had ceased their chase once they made it in. After a few seconds he saw another hole, an opening, so they were really seeing what the back door of a house looked like, at least it was made all from wood and you couldn't smell much there.

They were finally expelled from the interior of the house and thrown further away from the backyard. "That was certainly an experience!" he exclaimed looking somewhat shocked and staring once at Odin and once at the house. He hoped the findings of the house being alive would be worth it as he told Odin with a soft smile, he had figured after all that this was probably what the Lich was wanting the assistant for, he was glad that at least he wasn't left to explore alone and that he actually protected him as Phoebus thanked him for that. Having solved the mystery of the house he told Odin that he'd like to meet again maybe under better conditions and learn more from him, he didn't have the time capacity of the Lich but he was certainly out for knowledge. No matter what the Lich's answer would be he would smile in an appropriate manner and wave goodbye, now on his way to rid himself of any foul odor or substance.