Chapter 25 - Haunted town
After the dinner nothing much happened. Angela and Luan went to the inn and slept. Angela on the bed and Luan on the mat. As the bed was small.
•••
Angela woke up and saw luan still sleeping. She opened the window and fresh morning air crashed into her face.
"Hoo." The cold weather made her shudder but she didn't move away from it and enjoyed the breeze.
"It's February so the surrounding is cold." A voice spoke behind her.
Luan was beginning to wake up as well. He stretched his hands.
"Let's go early today."
...
After getting ready they started going towards the edge of the town. Many stalls came across them.
"...!" Angela saw a specific store on the right side of the street. On one side of the store were many different kinds of masks on the wall and on the other side were small statues of people.
Angela grabbed Luan's sleeves whilst looking at the shop. He saw Angela's hesitant reaction and gestured her to the shop.
The shop owner was reading a book and briefly saw the two but went on to read again.
Angela went to where the masks were hanging on the wall and luan went inside the shop.
Masks of different design and textures were present there. Many looked creepy and unsettling. But she looked at them with intrest.
Angela took a mask from down the wall.
The primary colour of the whole mask was white and a wand like design was in the middle of the mask with a blue bar under the right eye. There was another mask of the same design next to it, but with the bar on the left side of the wearer.
"Pretty." She spoke.
"Young lady, those masks are a pure work of art. Do you want to buy them?" The shop owner asked.
Angela looked at them again, she didn't find anything unusual or creepy about them, but there was something that attracted her towards them.
"Hmm yeah." She said and placed the mask on the table in front of the owner.
Her gaze then fell to the side. There were some statues of different sizes there. Small to very small.
Pointing at the only human sized statue in the collection she asked, "Who's statue is... This?"
Anybody could tell that it was well made and the sculptor had put their soul in it. It felt as if it would come to life any second.
The statue was of a young women with long hair. The right arm of the statue was in the air, away from it's body, and the palm was pointing at the sky. A flower was in her hand. It looked as if it was still blooming, but it was already as big as 1 meter.
The statue was colourless so identifying the colour of her robe or the flower was impossible.
"That is the statue of our State Lord. 'Witch of the Cold Night'. She is from your sect." He replied.
Angela looked at the statue and just stared at it.
After a few seconds luan was also finished with what he wanted.
"What is that?" Angela asked him.
"This? It's a landscape painting." He showed it to her. It was a book with sketches and painting of nature.
"What did you get?" He asked her.
Angela showed him the masks. He noticed the extra one.
"Did you take one for me too?" Luan asked and she nodded.
"Our Angela is so thoughtful."
'But I don't need masks.' He thought this but smiled anyways and took one from her. The mask with the bar on his left eye.
They purchased the three things and after leaving the store angela put on the mask. She looked at luan as if waiting for an answer.
"Definitely looks good on you." He gave her a thumbs up. He couldn't see her happy face behind the mask.
They continued their trip.
•••
Once again, they were in front of a huge gate and guards were guarding it. But this time there was only one gate instead of many.
Luan and Angela got into the small line of people and waited until it was their turn.
"500 for both of you." The Guard said and luan was dumbfounded.
"Isn't that too much?" He asked.
"It's the toll for passing. People have been following this for years now." The guard said.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
"OPEN THE DOOR!! OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!!!"
Just at the moment someone started ramping the gate with all of their strength. Everyone behind luan and Angela took a step back and waited for someone to come. The shopkeepers around them didn't flinch, they didn't even look at the source of noise.
The two guards opened the door and a skinny dude ran away form in the opposite direction.
"DON'T-DON'T GO *cries" IN THAT SHITTY PLACE I'M WARNING YOU ALL!!!!!" The middle aged man yelled. His voice cracked and he was crying all the was until he disappeared in the distance.
"What the? Wha? I mean Wha-" Luan looked at the person with confusion. The other people looked at him and then at the guards who just smirked at them back.
Their skin turned pale, "I-I think my trip is completed here." One of the people said.
"Y-Yeah peace ." The other one agreed with him.
They started going on in a different direction. Everyone else stayed in the line.
Angela who watched everything happen was almost grinning behind the mask. She turned to luan.
"Let's go!" She said with excitement. Luan noticed the chance in her voice and smiled. He took out the required gold out gave it to the guards.
'They have storage ring?' The guard thought.
He took out a pamphlet from one of their bags and handed it to them.
"What is this?" Luan asked.
"Information about everything you need to know inside." He said and the line got shorter.
...
Once they stepped inside the town, they heard a loud noise of the gate closing behind them. They looked behind for a brief moment of time and saw the gate had disappeared. There was a wall there now.
They looked straight ahead at the town. The weather, the area and the atmosphere, everything changed all of a sudden.
The place was filled with fog, but not as much to hinder anyone's vision too much. The surrounding smelled mold.
The houses were cramped in this place as if to tell the people where they should go and where shouldn't.
"It's night." Angela looked up the sky and said. It was a surprise because it was only morning when they came here.
Only the moon was illuminating some light. And bats roamed freely in the sky.
They started moving, every single step of theirs could be heard several tens of meters away from them.
Luan looked at the paper. There was alot written on them.
"First place to visit is the Graveyard of Demonest."
They started going to the direction told in the paper.
Step, step, step
"The silence is...Creepy." Luan said.
There were some people that entered before them and even after, but now there was no one to be seen.
As they were going to their destination, they observed the weird houses. They had scratches on the door and walls, as if someone, or something wanted to barge inside.
"Not... Animal scratches." Angela said. Luan nodded. They both knew that because of Kai.
They crossed the final street and a graveyard was visible on the left side of the road.
Small fence up to the carbs pf the two were covering it. The gravestones were stationed in irregular manner.
"We're here." He said.
They went above the fences and stepped in the yard. The two started roaming and reading the names of the people written on them.
"Eukos's gravestone."
"Aenes' gravestone."
"...Gravestone of Demonest." Luan spoke.
These three gravestone were at the very middle of the place. Words of unknown language was written on the gravestone.
"The demonist was a demonic cultivator several hundred thousands years ago." Luan read the paper.
"Oh it's written here that if we say the words 'salvation' we can summon his ghost."
Angela's intrest peaked from that.
"I... want to try." She said.
Luan was caught off guard as she never wanted to try something for herself. This was the first time she had did that.
"Sure" He agreed immediately.
They went a little further away from the gravestone and luan handed the paper to her.
"SALVATION" Angela spoke.
... Nothing happened. They waited for a few seconds but no one appeared.
"This doesn't work?" She tried looking at the paper from another angle.
"I guess so." Luan breathed a sense of relief. They turned their back and started going to the second destination, when everything stopped.
The leaves of the tree that were twitching, the owl that was looking at the two for quite some time, the bats in the sky. Even luan and Angela, Everything stopped.
"Wh-What's going on?" They could still think properly, but it was as if the whole physical world around them stopped working.
"No-" When Angela was about to say something, their back turned cold.
It was not the kind of cold they had ever experienced before. It wasn't a physical cold. But the feeling that something is continuously watching you. Something that is just behind you at this very second. A feeling of terror at the unknown.
"S... Salvation." A low pitched but powerful voice came behind them. Their back was turned opposite to it but Luan and Angela could still see it's faint shadow from the corner of their eyes.