Chapter 10: The Thing Behind the Door

Chapter 10: The Thing Behind the Door

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Behind the bronze door, the sound of striking came one after another, echoing through the empty underground space as though it came from some unimaginably distant ancient age.

Fors’s body tightened. She trembled uncontrollably, and her voice instinctively grew extremely low:

“What could be behind the door?”

“I don’t know.” Xio honestly shook her head and swallowed without thinking.

Her right hand, which had just picked up the triangular blade, showed protruding joints and bulging veins. She was clearly gripping it with great force.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The knocking sounds came one after another. They did not speed up or slow down, maintaining the exact same rhythm. Every sound seemed to strike Fors and Xio’s hearts, making their hair stand on end and their scalps turn numb.

“It… it probably won’t come out, right… If it could come out so easily, it wouldn’t have waited until now.” Fors comforted herself, her mouth slightly dry.

Xio nodded hard.

“Once the materials finish forming, we’ll leave immediately.”

In this kind of environment and atmosphere, her curiosity was completely unable to overcome her instinctive fear.

“Good!” As Fors cast her gaze toward the places where the two ancient wraiths had been purified, she inwardly complained that the information The Moon had provided was not detailed enough. He had actually failed to mention that there was such a bizarre door beneath the castle.

At that moment, dust glowing with faint, dim light, like finely crushed gemstones, continuously fell to the ground. It separated into two piles and gathered together.

Around them, nearly invisible residual spirituality condensed respectively into two seemingly illusory crystals.

Along with the “crystals” and dust were two different items. One was ring-shaped and fully transparent, like a corroded ring. The other resembled an eye carved from crystal, with faint black gas flowing inside it.

Seeing this, Fors suddenly came to a realization:

Ancient wraiths were ghost-like creatures in which Beyonder characteristics had become mixed and tangled. Their cursed items were related to a body part or an object from when they were alive, and this combined with their characteristics to become the foundation of their existence. Precisely because of this, the cursed items corresponding to different ancient wraiths would not have identical forms, though their essence was the same. The dust was another characteristic and was the source of most of their abilities. As for the residual spirituality, it was roughly equivalent to materials like a monster’s blood.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The one striking behind the bronze door was very persistent. It did not stop, constantly testing Fors and Xio’s nerves.

The two of them, cautious to the point that their bodies were trembling, were so tense that they even vaguely had the illusion that the door had begun to shake slightly. Their hearts remained suspended high, pounding chaotically.

In a state where they might spring toward the stairs at any moment, Fors finally waited until the ancient wraiths’ dust and cursed items fully condensed.

While gesturing for Xio to remain on guard, she crouched and took out the three square iron boxes she had prepared.

After hesitating, Fors raised her head and looked at Xio.

“These two ancient wraiths waited for each other for far too long. I want… I want to take a portion of what they left behind and bury the two portions together… Uh, in that case, I’ll take one cursed item, and you take one pile of dust. We’ll split the residual spirituality evenly. Is that all right?”

Without hesitation, Xio nodded gently.

“All right.”

Fors silently breathed out in relief. Pressing her lips together, she flipped through Leymano’s Travels and slid her finger across one page.

The five nails on her right hand immediately grew an extra length. Their tips became sharp and were covered in black patterns and symbols.

This was Corrosive Claw, an ability originating from the Sanguine.

Glancing at the changes in her hand, Fors clawed at the ground, easily digging out a hole and leaving behind traces of corrosion.

Immediately afterward, she placed the crystal-eye-like cursed item and one pile of dust into the hole, then filled it with the bricks, stones, and soil she had dug out.

Swish, swish, swish. Her nails lightly scratched across the packed earth, writing an epitaph:

“For you, I returned. For you, I guarded. Never to be parted.”

After finishing all this, Fors was about to sigh when the sound of striking behind the bronze door suddenly grew louder.

Bang!

She was so frightened she nearly jumped. Hurriedly, she placed the remaining pile of dust, the ring-shaped cursed item, and the residual spirituality into different square iron boxes.

Then she packed away the boxes, straightened, and together with Xio, slowly walked toward the narrow, spiraling staircase.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Behind the bronze door, the sound of striking grew more and more violent. Fors and Xio unconsciously clenched their teeth and quickly ascended the stairs.

They moved faster and faster. In the end, they had already begun running, not caring at all whether they might fall on the stairs and tumble downward like wheels.

Finally, sunlight appeared before Fors and Xio’s eyes.

It shone in from outside, scattering over the steps ahead—bright, pure, and warm.

At that moment, the faint banging from underground abruptly stopped, and there was no continuation.

Fors and Xio glanced at one another, slowed their steps, and leaped a few times before returning to the upper level of the abandoned castle.

The two did not talk. They directly left the place and returned toward the edge of the forest.

Only after walking for a while did Fors calm down. Pressing her lips together, she said,

“That really was terrifying. Although whatever was behind that bronze door didn’t actually harm us, and didn’t even reveal itself, I still feel it was more frightening than the ancient wraiths. More frightening than anything I’ve ever experienced before, uh, all of it. In those few minutes, I couldn’t help imagining several miserable ways to die, each scarier than the last, yet none as scary as the banging sound itself.”

Xio turned her head slightly and nodded in agreement.

“Mm. At that time, I felt like I was walking along the edge of a cliff.”

Fors was just about to say more when she suddenly saw two lines of bright-red blood flow from Xio’s nose.

“Xio, Xio, you’re bleeding from your nose!” Fors hurriedly reminded her friend.

Xio froze, and her pupils widened slightly.

“You’re bleeding too!”

“Ah?” Fors raised a hand in confusion and wiped beneath her nose, feeling that it was warm and somewhat thick.

She was stunned and hurriedly brought her right hand before her eyes. Blood spread across it, vivid and dazzling.

“Was it caused by being too tense earlier?” Fors muttered doubtfully to herself.

At that moment, she discovered that under the sunlight penetrating the forest shade, a pale black patch was growing on her wrist at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The black patch rapidly spread, covering her forearm, the back of her hand, and other areas.

“Ah!” Fors instinctively cried out and hurriedly looked up at Xio beside her.

Her eyes immediately reflected patch after patch of black on Xio’s cheeks and neck!

“This… this isn’t normal!” Fors blurted.

Xio had also noticed her friend’s abnormality and her own. After recalling for a moment, she said,

“Do you remember what the female wraith said?

“She said the previous guards were corroded by the power seeping out from behind the bronze door!

“Could we have been corroded too?”

Fors froze for a second, then nodded solemnly.

“Possibly!”

She hurriedly took out the medicine she had prepared earlier, shared some with Xio, and immediately unscrewed the cap of her own, gulping down two bottles in succession.

However, neither of them improved in the slightest. The black patches grew more and more numerous, to the point that their vision began to blur.

Thump, thump! Before long, Fors, whose attempts at self-rescue had proved ineffective, heard her own heartbeat and felt strength begin to leave her body.

Unable to think of any other method, she moved her lips a few times, gritted her teeth, and abruptly turned, sidestepping a few steps to create distance.

Then she lowered her head and recited Mr. Fool’s honorific name.

In just a dozen seconds, crimson light surged before her eyes, engulfing her like a tide.

A few roars and ravings flashed past, and Fors saw the familiar mottled long table and the ten high-back chairs opposite her.

Immediately, she discovered that the dizziness in her head and the blurriness in her vision had completely disappeared. No strange black patches protruded from her spirit body either.

“Thank You for Your help.” Fors hurriedly stood and bowed to the figure shrouded in dense gray fog at the head of the bronze long table.

Then she heard Mr. Fool say in a calm tone,

“Your spirit was corroded by a certain power.

“It is fine now.”

It has already been purified by Mr. Fool? Fors’s heart stirred. She was about to ask what method could save Xio when crimson abruptly filled her vision again, and light surged up.

After a brief interval, she discovered that she had returned to the real world, back to Delaire Forest. The black patches on the back of her hand and wrist were swiftly fading and receding, and the blood that had been dripping from her nose had stopped.

Turning around, she saw that Xio was weakly supporting herself against a nearby tree. The black patches on her face connected one after another, terrifying to behold. The muscles on both sides of Fors’s neck instantly tightened, and her thoughts began racing.

A few seconds later, she quickly approached, pressed down on Xio’s shoulder, and spoke rapidly:

“I have a way to save you, but you need to do exactly as I describe!

“Recite in ancient Hermes: The Fool that doesn’t belong to this era…”

Xio struggled to move her swollen eyelids and looked at Fors for two seconds. Then she began reciting in a low voice:

“The Fool that doesn’t belong to this era;

“The mysterious ruler above the gray fog;

“The King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck…”

Before her voice had faded, Xio saw, in astonishment, a field of crimson starlight surge out from the void and sweep over her.

An indescribable roar lasted for one second before vanishing beside Xio’s ears. She then found herself inside an ancient, magnificent palace, seated beside a mottled bronze-green long table. Beneath her feet was endless grayish-white fog. Diagonally ahead was a figure looking down at her, giving her the feeling of an immense mountain.

To her, this scene was both unfamiliar and familiar. She had once seen it in a “dream,” but had not remembered it again after the exorcism ritual.

That purification actually had no effect… This thought suddenly occurred to Xio. Choosing her words, she stood and bowed toward the figure shrouded in gray fog.

“Are You the great King of Yellow and Black?”

She did not show too much surprise or panic, as though she had already expected something like this to some extent.

“You may directly call me Mr. Fool. Sit.” The figure, whose aura was like mountains and seas, replied evenly.

Xio bowed again, sat down, and confirmed that she had already escaped the abnormal state from earlier.

She looked left and right, thought for a moment, and asked,

“Honorable Mr. Fool, does Fors Wall have a seat here?”

The Fool, shrouded in gray fog, nodded gently.

“Yes.”

Xio was silent for a second before asking directly,

“May I join, like her?”

The Fool chuckled.

“This is a gathering they organized on their own, convened by me.

“There are still seats available at present. You may join.

“Draw a card. They all use one of the major arcana Tarot cards as their code name here.”

Xio did not ask more and did not say anything extra. She immediately nodded.

“Yes, Mr. Fool.”

A deck of Tarot cards instantly appeared on the bronze long table before her.

Xio stretched out her right hand, solemnly cut the deck, drew one card, and turned it over on the table.

Her card depicted an angel holding a horn and the dead awaiting salvation.

The Judgement card!