Part 5 The Red Priestess Chapter 10 What’s Behind the Door
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Behind the bronze gate, the sound of clapping followed one after another, echoing in the empty ground, as if from an unusually distant ancient time.
Forsyth’s body tightened and shuddered uncontrollably, his voice involuntarily lowered again:
”What could be behind the door?”
”I don’t know.” Hugh shook his head honestly and subconsciously swallowed.
Her right hand, which had just picked up the three-pronged thorn, looked extremely hard as the joints bulged and veins surfaced.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of tapping on the door came one after another, not getting faster or slowing down, keeping the same rhythm, and each sound was like a knock on Forsyth’s and Hugh’s hearts, knocking them to the point where their sweaty hairs shrugged and their scalps tingled.
”I don’t think it’s coming out …… If it was that easy to get out, it wouldn’t have waited until now.” Folth relieved himself slightly dry-mouthed.
Hugh nodded vigorously:
”When the material takes shape, we will leave immediately.”
In such an environment and such an atmosphere, her curiosity was completely unable to overcome her instinctive fear.
”Good!” While casting her gaze towards the place where the two ancient spirits were purified, Foerth complained in her heart that the information provided by the “Moon” was not detailed enough, and that it did not even indicate that there was such a strange door underneath the ground of the ancient castle.
At this moment, a little bit of dark and glowing dust was like fine broken jewels, continuously falling to the ground, divided into two piles and gathered together.
Around them, the nearly invisible remnants of spirituality each congealed into a seemingly illusory crystal.
Accompanying the “crystallization” and dust were two different items, one in the shape of a ring, completely transparent, as if it were an eroded ring, and the other one looked like an eye carved out of crystal, with a faint black aura flowing inside.
Seeing this scene, Voorhees suddenly had a realization:
Ancient Spiteful Spirits are ghost-like creatures with a mishmash of extraordinary characteristics, in which the cursed objects are related to a certain item in a certain part of their life, which, combined with the characteristics, becomes the foundation on which they rely for their existence, and because of this, the manifestation of the cursed objects corresponding to different Ancient Spiteful Spirits won’t be the same, but the essence is the same, and Dust is an additional characteristic, which is the source for the majority of their abilities, and as for the remnants of their spirituality, which is slightly equivalent to the Monster’s blood and other materials.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The tappers behind the bronze gates were persistent and unceasing, constantly testing the nerves of Folth and Hugh.
The two who were so scared and cautious that their bodies were slightly trembling were in a trance that they actually had the illusion that the gate appeared to be slightly shaking, and a heart was always hanging high and poofing.
In a state where they could bounce up the stairs at any moment, Voorhees finally waited for the dust and curses of the ancient spirits to coalesce and take shape.
While signaling Hugh to be on guard, she crouched down and took out the three square iron boxes she had prepared.
After hesitating, Voorhees looked up at Hugh and spoke:
”These two ancient resentful spirits have been waiting for each other for too long, I think I would like to divide a portion of each of the things they left behind and bury them together …… Uh, in that case, I will take a cursed object, you will take a pile of dust, and the remnants of the spirituality will be divided equally, is that okay?”
Hugh didn’t hesitate and gently nodded his head:
”Good!”
Forsyth let out a silent sigh of relief, pursed her lips, flipped through “Lemanor’s Travel Notes”, and slid her finger across one of the pages.
The five fingernails of her right hand suddenly grew an extra length, the tips of which were sharp and covered with black patterns and symbols.
This was the “Corrosive Claw” from the Blood Clan.
Looking at the change in her palm, Voorhees scratched at the ground and easily dug a hole, leaving traces of corrosion.
Immediately afterward, she placed the crystal eyeball-like cursed object and a pile of dust into the hole, and filled it with the masonry and dirt she had just scratched out.
Swishing and swishing, she flicked her nails and wrote an epitaph on the patted flat piece of ground:
”Returned for you, guarded for you, never to be parted.”
After doing so, Voorhees was about to let out a sigh, but just in time, she met the back of the bronze gate, and the sound of slapping turned violently loud.
Bang!
She nearly jumped up in shock, and hurriedly put the remaining pile of dust, ring-like cursed objects, and remnants of spirituality into separate square-shaped iron boxes.
Then, she loaded the boxes, straightened her body, and together with Hugh, slowly walked towards the coiled and narrow staircase.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The clapping at the back of the bronze door grew more and more violent, and Forsyth and Hugh, their teeth subconsciously clenched, made their way up the stairs, rapidly.
They were getting faster and faster, and by the end of the day, they were running, not caring at all if they fell down the steps and tumbled down like wheels.
At last the sunlight appeared before Forsyth and Hugh’s eyes.
They shone in from the outside world and poured down on the steps in front of them, bright, pure, and warm.
At that moment, the banging and pounding that had been coming from the ground came to an abrupt end, and there was no more to come.
Forsyth and Hugh looked at each other and slowed their pace, making several leaps back into the upper levels of the old abandoned castle.
Without conversation, the two men simply left the area and headed back toward the edge of the forest.
After walking for a while, Voorhees eased up and pursed his lips:
”It was really scary just now, although the thing behind that bronze gate didn’t cause us any harm, and didn’t even show its appearance, I still think it’s more terrifying than the Ancient Grievous Spirit, and more terrifying than everything I’ve ever experienced before, ergo, those few minutes, I couldn’t help but visualize several miserable ways of dying, one more scary than the other, but without the banging and clapping sound itself being frightening.”
Hugh turned his head sideways and nodded approvingly:
”Well, at the time I had the feeling that I was walking on the edge of a cliff.”
Forsyth was about to say something else when he suddenly saw two streams of bright red blood running down Hugh’s nose.
”Hugh, Hugh, you have a nosebleed!” Foerth hastily reminded his friend.
Hugh froze for a moment, his pupils slightly dilated and said:
”You have a nosebleed too!”
”Huh?” Folth reached out in bewilderment and wiped the end of her nose, only to find that it was warm and the liquid was slightly thick.
She was stunned for a moment, and busied herself with bringing her right hand up to her eyes, only to see the blood-red coloring on it open up in stark relief.
”Caused by being too nervous earlier?” Voorhees wondered to herself.
It was at this time that she realized that a light black spot had grown at her wrist at a speed visible to the naked eye under the sunlight that pierced through the forest shade.
That black spot spread rapidly, heading towards the small arms, the back of the hands, and other places to cover.
”Yikes!” Forsyth subconsciously screamed, and busily raised her head to look at Hugh beside her.
Her eyes spiraled to reflect a black spot on Hugh’s cheeks and neck!
”This, this isn’t normal!” Forsyth blurted out.
Hugh also noticed the abnormality of his best friend and himself, and said in retrospect:
”Do you remember what that female grudge said?
”She said that the previous guards were eroded by the power that seeped out from behind the bronze gate!
”Could we have been eroded as well?”
Folth froze for a second and nodded solemnly:
”It’s possible!”
She hurriedly took out the potion she had prepared earlier and distributed some of it to Hugh, and she herself then unscrewed the cap and gulped down two bottles in a row.
However, the two of them didn’t get a bit better, the black spots grew more and more, so much so that their vision began to blur.
Plop plop plop! It wasn’t long before Foerth, who was ineffective at even doing self-help, heard her heartbeat and felt her body begin to lose strength.
Unable to think of anything else to do, she opened and closed her lips a few times, and with a clench of her teeth, she violently turned her body and took a few steps sideways, pulling away.
Immediately after that, she buried her head and chanted the name of Mr. Fool.
Within ten seconds or so, a crimson glow appeared before her eyes, flooding her like a tidal wave.
A few hisses and murmurs flickered away, and Forsyth saw the familiar mottled table and the ten high-backed chairs across from it.
She realized in a whirlwind that the dizziness in her head and the blurring of her vision had all but disappeared, and that the odd black spot had not protruded above her aura.
”Thank you for your help.” Voorhees rose in a hurry and bowed to the figure shrouded in a thick gray mist at the top of the long bronze table.
Then she heard Mr. Fool say in a flat tone:
”Your spirit was eroded by some power.
”It’s okay now.”
Purified by Mr. Fool? Forsyth was about to ask what could be done to save Hugh when there was a sudden flash of red and light.
After a short interval, she found herself back in the real world back in the Delaire Forest, the black spots on the backs of her hands and wrists were fading and receding rapidly, and the blood dripping from her nose had stopped.
Turning back to her body, she saw that Hugh was already weakly holding on to the tree next to her, and the black spots on his face were one after another, extremely frightening, the muscles on both sides of Forsyth’s neck tensed violently, and her thoughts began to spin rapidly.
After a few seconds, she approached quickly, pressed Hugh’s shoulder, and said in a rather fast tone:
”I have a way to save you, but you need to do as I describe!
”Read it in Ancient Hermetic, not of this age of fools ……”
Hugh rolled his puffy eyelids with difficulty, looked at Forsyth for two seconds, then chanted in a low voice:
”Fools who do not belong to this age;
”The mysterious lord above the gray mist;
”The yellow and black king who reigns over good fortune. ……”
Before the words left his mouth, Hugh was startled to see a crimson starlight surge out of nothingness and sweep over him.
The indescribable hissing sound lasted for a second and disappeared into Hugh’s ears, and she then saw that she was inside an ancient and majestic palace, seated at a long, mottled lime green table, with an infinite gray mist at her feet, and a figure looking down on her to her side, giving her a looming sensation.
The scene was both unfamiliar and familiar to her, having seen it once before in a “dream” and not recalling it after the exorcism.
That purification didn’t really work …… Hugh suddenly came up with such a thought, and rising with deliberation, she saluted the figure shrouded in gray mist:
”You are the great King of Yellow and Black?”
She didn’t act too surprised or alarmed, and seemed to have expected it to a certain extent.
”You can directly address me as Mr. ‘Fool’, have a seat.” The figure whose breath was like a mountain or an ocean responded calmly.
Hugh curtsied again and sat down, making sure she was out of the bad state she was in earlier.
She looked around and thought for a moment:
”Dear Mr. ‘Fool’, does Folth Wall have a seat here?”
The ‘Fool’, shrouded in gray mist, nodded gently and said:
”Yes.”
Hugh was silent for a second and spoke directly:
”Can I join as she did?”
”The Fool laughed softly:
”It’s a party they’ve organized themselves, and I’m the one who called it.
”There are currently seats available for you to join.
”Draw a card, they all use one of the main Tarot cards as their code name here.”
Without asking or saying more, Hugh nodded instantly:
”Yes, Mr. ‘Fool’.”
On the long bronze table in front of her, there was immediately an additional deck of tarot cards.
Hugh stretched out her right hand, solemnly cut the cards, extracted one, and turned it over on the table.
Her card depicted angels with trumpets and the dead waiting for redemption.
The “Judgment” card!