#and then somehow present day ephael is like. head empty no thoughts. please will we get to see this scary side of him again one day

[microwaving-tesilid-argente]

scratches head. rereading toy mansion arc and genuinely, how on earth did ephael manage to kill all the children in the mansion in the original storyline.

1. the entrance to the boss room closes the instant the fight starts. there's a bit of conflicting info about when it opens again - toy mansion (ch 23) says that even the boss can't run once the fight has started (more specifically, while fighting is in progress). but dungeon 300 says that the boss can be careless and open the dungeon if they mistakenly believe that everyone has died. maybe the specific condition is that no one has to be in the state of fighting?? so the fight ends once tesilid & ephael give up, even if they're still alive? i believe that once rodrigo gets the chance to, he would've chosen to open the doors open the doors to watch ephael wreck havoc on the other children.

edit: just realised that the "boss fight" started the instant rodrigo first appears and that the whole mansion is the "boss room", nvm

2. tesilid would've beat ephael's ass for that. how did that go. was he running after ephael trying to stop him while ephael was like, opening cupboards checking for kids. is it even possible for ephael to find the kids, much less kill them, if tesilid is trying to stop him? tesilid is much, much stronger than ephael - he brought down the mole in an instant when ephael couldn't do so even with hestio's help. PLUS, if ephael was that determined, i think the only thing that would have effectively stopped him was death. did tesilid have to try to kill him? his own roommate? or did tesilid also give up and help ephael track down the other kids? i don't think tesilid would have - not just because it would go against his stigma commandments, but also because it goes against his own personal beliefs. did ephael knock him out first? or was ephael entering rooms and checking under beds while tesilid was also tracking him down? probably telling him that this was wrong and they should find some other way?

3. isn't the mansion supposed to be big as hell. did ephael really track down every single kid in the whole place to kill them. the round of hide and seek they played in canon (w the monsters as the seekers) is scary but even that isn't as deranged as this. that's messed up. that's messed up. how many children were still alive by then and how long did ephael take to track the last of them down. and if tesilid was trying to stop him, how long did ephael have to run. how long did he have to spend thinking about the blood on his hands and how he was soon planning to take his own life. like. can you imagine. ephael coaxes a child to come out of their hiding spot. he's a stigma bearer from the vatican, so he's safe, he says. the child looks up at him, clothed in white and covered in blood.