Deep below, activities continued to be revealed to the doctor's psicrystal. The rats by and large scattered, a few rats sticking behind draped in crude mimicries of priest garb. They proceeded to dismember the scissorman, and then surrounded the whole thing in a magical circle composed of grime and excrement. It was filthy, but it "worked" presumably. And Drosselmeyer sat patiently, the helmet humming away and dimly glowing. And then they left to join the others, and he was alone.
There was a fair bit of meditative silence, before Drosselmeyer glanced up and kneeled by a wall, apparently speaking to something invisible to sight and sound.
"My lord! It is I, Drosselmeyer the Speaker. I bring news, and entreat questions."
There was an eerie silence. There is no one here. You're positive of it.
"Good angel, the scissorman is fallen, but the barrier remains. I do not understand. I was granted visions of the future through the blessings of Thoon, the Voice from the Deep. It said that if the scissorman dies, the barrier would be no more. But it only gets stronger."
...
"Good angel, please, speak to me. Why do you ignore me?"
...
"...
...what... what is it you are doing exactly?"
There was a long period of silence, as he studied the walls in confusion. Suddenly, the walls seemed to shutter and groaned as if subject to tremors. It was mild, but even the others within the master bedroom would notice the minor shaking. The mansion was shifting shape and size again, and it was getting more intense.
Something about this triggered a moment of realization within the rat. "Angel of Thoon, it can't be.
I... I think I understand, but, no... no, none of that makes sense. Why would you do that? The hole. It is too deep, I cannot survive there. What about our escape?
Oh no.
Oh no!
No!"
Drosselmeyer stepped back in horror at whatever sights he saw. Behind him there was a slap of flesh on stone, and a soft feminine grunt. He spun around witnessing an arm sticking up over the edge of the vast pit in the middle of the room, as a somewhat short but familiar looking woman pulled herself out of the pit.
"WHAT!?"
Her appearance... it wasn't one that Drosselmeyer immediately recognized, but the psicrystal has seen someone like her before. It was Akemi.... you think. Her hair is bleached pale, her eyes different, and her knightly armor stripped down and altered. And she appears to have just crawled out of a pit to the Underdark.
"A....a human!?"
The ground shudders again.