Untold Poems about Stigmata

"I don't know why, but for some reason, I felt a familiar feeling from that guy. A-and to be honest... it was quite a scary one," said the guard accompanying Diana.

"Don't be stupid, Brian. The only scary person I know is Captain Esmeralda," the third companion replied dryly. Then, glancing at Diana's toned muscles, he added with a half-smile, "...And Diana too, yeah. To some extent."

Unlike Owen's gray hair, inherited from his father, Esmeralda and Marielle bore their mother's radiant golden locks. And while his golden eyes were a rare recessive trait, none of his siblings shared them

So, even though both Esmeralda and Owen were both quite good in the looks department, it was really hard to connect them as siblings.

"But seriously, Diana—why are we here? Don't tell me you dragged us all this way just for cotton candy."

"Ayy~why are you always so serious, Brian. Our job is to gather information about all the suspicious events around Lumina Town. And we can also eat cotton candies while we're at it." She replied with a mischievous face.

"I knew it! And this place is so far away from Lumina Town. What do you think we can learn from here?" Even though they trusted Diana to take the lead, sometimes she'd just choose the most bizarre of locations.

"Haha... No person with even a little brain would plan something and hide inside Lumina Town to attack. If they're really planning something, they would rather hide in a place that no one would suspect."

"Like Springbell?" Brian raised an eyebrow.

"Like Springbell, yeah." She seemed quite confident. "And that's why we're going to the Adventurer Guild. That's the best place for all events and rumors"

Diana suddenly stopped and looked back towards the portal. The ones waiting in line to go to Lumina Town had already passed through.

With a smile, she said in a low voice.

"And who knows, we might find someone really interesting there."

***

"So this is Lumina Town..."

If I have to describe it using one word, it'd be obviously- 'breathtaking'.

'I have been to several towns the past few months to do my adventuring jobs, but this place doesn't even compare to anything. Heck! This place can only be compared with The Capital. '

The streets buzzed with life. Lanterns glowed warmly outside every shop, and the people—humans, elves, dwarves— mingled effortlessly.

I did arrive a little earlier as I had some things in my mind I wanted to check. And the most important thing was to visit the library.

'I heard the library here was assigned as a 'Central Library'. Books from all races are found there.'

The reason I wanted to visit the library was because I needed to learn about some stigmatas.

One needs to mention their stigmata while registering in the competition and I don't want to reveal my real stigmata as it was an unusual one.

'I don't want to become a lab rat for the Nobles. I'd be in trouble if someone finds out that my stigmata can grow.'

I needed to find a stigmata similar to mine. Although they don't check how the stigmatas look while registering, I can't risk a scenerio where it is revealed during a fight.

If I register as Stigmata of Purification which is light green in colour, they would obviously find out that I lied, considering the black wings on my back gets revealed.

'So troublesome.'

***

"Which books would you like to read, sir?"

It was a lady that looked around forty years old. She was wearing big round glasses and there was an 'Assistant Librarian' badge on her shirt.

"Something about Lower-stigmata or unranked stigmata?"

"Second floor, shelf no. 33 and 34" She replied immediately. It seemed like she was quite good at her job.

"Thank you"

I walked up to the shelves and saw the different books lined up neatly.

'It looks like people rarely visits this faction'.

I quickly scanned through the various names of the books on the shelves.

"The real strength of Lower Stigmata"

"How to become strong with a Lower Stigmata"

"Explanation of all 16 Lower Stigmata"

"Unranked Stigmata and their uses"

"101 ways to beat a Upper stigmata using an unranked Stigmata"

Apart from normal books like these, there were also many other books that I didn't even touch. They looked as if they were written by some Evil God worshippers.

I grabbed two books called "Explanation of all 16 Lower Stigmata" and "Unranked Stigmata and their uses. "

Suddenly another book in the shelf caught my eye.

"Untold poems about Stigmatas"

'Interesting... '

It took me about half an hour to read the first book about lower stigmatas. I just scanned through the pages and didn't see anything that I could use.

There's only one black coloured stigmata amongst the sixteen lower stigmata. It was called 'Stigmata of Nightmare'.

But its shape was very different from mine. It was a crescent black coloured moon. And its skills were more to the psychological side, like hypnosis.

Obviously, as I didn't have the slightest similarities, I couldn't register using it.

The second book though, "Unranked Stigmata and their uses ", I found something useful.

'Stigmata of Desire', an unranked stigmata. Apparently, its skill allows someone to use their desires to increase their overall power.

Its symbol was a little strange. It looked like a black flower. The petals were tilted and it somewhat resembled the wings of my stigmata.

But if one observes closely, they would immediately see the difference. If the flower looked more like something evil, my wings felt like something forbidden and hidden.

'Anyways, I think I can use this. I don't think others will find out.'

These books didn't have the details about many stigmatas.

Firstly there are only a handful of books about the unranked ones. Secondly, the many unranked stigmatas that I've heard of before haven't even been mentioned here.

'There's also no mention of my Void stigmata anywhere.'

I opened the last book holding no expectations of getting anything out of it, but to my surprise, it was quite better than other books.

It had the information about very few stigmatas in the shape of poems. It didn't classify anything about Upper, Lower or even unranked ones. It just mentioned some stigmatas randomly irrespective of their ranks.

'Stigmata of Pride'

"It was pride that created Gods and Devils,

It was pride that created chaos,

Dividing countless children, drunk in its taste,

It finally created several doors of fate"

'That sounds... ominous. Don't tell me it is also really written by some Evil God worshipper. '

There were several other poems that didn't mention anything useful, or to be honest I didn't quite understand anything.

But the stigmata of greed did have a few lines that made me think quite a bit.

'Stigmata of Greed'

"It made them thirst for their creator,

Attempt for something that shouldn't be thought,

Boiled in hot water for one's deep desire,

It led to the new beginning of this world"

'It didn't even rhyme!!!'

By creator, it must mean the Original Gods. I think it's talking about some kind of revolution against the Original Gods. Though I had no idea about the latter two lines.

I thought of ending my library session for today and go to find an inn near the competition venue.

But just as I was about to skip through the pages, suddenly something caught my eyes.

As if hiding itself from the all mortal eyes, amidst various pages filled with strange poems, there was one page with a deep black coloured heading.

"Stigmata of Void''

'What? The poet knew about this stigmata too? Or did he just write something arbitrary?'

There was only one place I knew of where the Void Stigmata was mentioned and it was the Grand Library of Elysium in The Capital.

But still the books in that Grand Library almost didn't have anything useful except for indirectly mentioning that it was a useless stigmata.

I quickly turned my attention back to the poem.

'Stigmata of Void'

"He unmasked the untold truth of this world,

He faced those ugly deities,

Fighting against the 'Chaos' every sleepless night,

He became the only thing he vowed to fight"

.

.

'What... does this mean? He became the only thing he vowed to fight? More importantly, who is the 'he' mentioned here? '

This book really made me question what the stigmatas really are. Were they really a blessing of the Original Gods to other beings? Or something completely different. What were the truths hidden in them?

'There is too little information. I can't figure out anything like this. I have no choice but to ignore it for now'.

No matter how much I searched, I couldn't find the name of the poet. There was nothing. No name, no date, not even a page number in the pages.

Except for the name of the book and the poems, there was literally nothing else mentioned here.

***

I left the library and went to carry out the final task.

The competition will be held on a stadium called 'The Heart' and just as the name suggests, it was located at the heart of Lumina Town

The stadium was made by the best group of builders, designers and architects of dwarves, humans, elves and demigods together.

Therefore, everyone can participate here irrespective of their race. Though very few demigods could be seen because of their high pride.

"So what was your name again?"

"It's Marcel Mistmer".

And I was right now in front of that stadium to register myself for the competition.

The inns around here were really extravagant and most of them were already full because of the competition, but luckily I managed to get one with a few rooms available

Although it looked quite shabby compared to the other inns here, it was still better than the other inns I stayed in before.

"Let me see your identification"

"Here... "

"Marcel Mistmer from Pearlton. Nineteen years. Hmm... Hmm... Looks like there's no problem here."