21[]Č̣ursed Knowledge

To Avatha Odd was a weirdo, yes she is a guardian ghost of a divine artifact, but there were many things wrong with the friend she calls Ode...

She calls him Ode for more reasons than one but that's not important at the moment.

As her friend Ode was walking through the cave, suddenly he flinched and stopped as if he saw something in front of him, then without saying anything Ode resumed his walk.

In reality she didn't see anything, which meant one of two things, either the other Ghost of these caves has managed to get into his head or... Ode is seeing things... crazy in a more blunt wording.

She had done many crazy things of her own and she can recognize a mad man, but to her even Ode is too weird and un-understandable.

She had chosen to give him the precious artifact she had been protecting for centuries so easily.

She had befriended him and she even helped Ode and protected him, for more reasons than one.

It all boils down to the simple fact that she grew bored of her duty, so she just took the opportunity.

But there is the thing... Avatha was supposed to be the test for whoever wanted to claim the devine eyes and Ode weirdly passed.

Which means that she is actually free to leave their contract, which was meant to protect her from the lord of the underworld.

So... she could just go anywhere freely, but she didn't.

For more reasons than one.

There is an old prophecy known only to the dwellers of the underworld, and it made the name "Odd" a bad omen and so nobody in the underworld says "Odd".

But she chose to name him "Ode" which was for a good reason, an ode is known in the underworld as an event that's paranormal enough to be turned into a poem... or an Ode.

That's some things she thinks about.

Her attention was now taken to something else, as Odd moved past the stairs and into the other cave, she noticed a faint red glow from one of the sides of the wall.

As they walked closer, Avatha realized that the glow came from torches connected to the left wall... wait what?! Torches??

She had never seen torches in the cave colony, so why are there torches here?

Ode has the same question it seems, he stopped to examine the torches before he looked between the two torches.

Avatha was still in the form of a glove but she could see and hear, and so she could see what's between the two torches.

A wide and deep carvings into the stone wall representing a language, but she didn't even want to read it because she immediately understood just how dangerous those words are.

But it was too late, Odd's eyes were already on the stone wall and before she could stop him, he suddenly fell back to the ground his head jammed against the stone wall.

Blood stained the wall with a wide ugly mark of blood, which slowly slid down to mark the floor.

Ode ignored the injury and instead all he did was digging on his face with his nails to the point of digging blood.

He made quiet noises and wails, as he moved his legs erratically as if trying to get away from the carvings.

His legs slammed and pushed against the stone floor, his movements chaotic but also resembled that of a swimmer.

His breathing was cracking and shivering as if unable to draw in a full breath, and instead drawing in many hectic hysterical breaths.

Odd gritted his teeth, blood drops fell down his cheeks from the torn skin of his face underneath his nails.

His body was restlessly convulsing in an intangible agony.

He muttered like a lunatic - "Haa- ugh- chaos prevailed- ugh haa... uh- fell the first-ugh~ lord"

Looking at him he looked almost like a terrified prey or someone with a mental illness, but how could someone who doesn't feel fear act like that?

Avatha manifested in front of him in her true monstrous form, she was almost invisible with a faint ghostly glow.

She had to choose one of a few choices from what she could do to help the sorry state of her companion...

In the end she extended her ugly hand, her ghost fingers went straight to his brain, she did something then she disappeared again back to the glove.

Suddenly Odd stopped shaking and then looked around with a blank expression, eventually he stood up then muttered - "Thank you Avatha."

His tone was emotionless and quiet.

Avatha knew why he survived reading a cursed knowledge and it's simply because of his devine eyes, but his brain wasn't as strong.

While the curse was almost completely filtered by the eyes of truth, but the minute and insignificant small remains of the curse were enough to almost drive him mad.

But she didn't forget the words that she caught him mutter - 'Chaos? First lord?'

Those were unknown to her but she did hear legends of the past in the underworld, the underworld was always like a timeless place.

Odd already cleaned his wounds with a detached expression, and his wounds already healed because of the gem in his chest.

'What a weird sight he was... Ode.'

After that Odd walked deeper into the cave making Avatha uncomfortable, his steps were both confident and unsteady.

Eventually he reached a staircase downwards, and the stairs seemed to go a little too deep...