Chapter 119. Tira and the Temple of Demons (4)
swish-! swish-!
Tira, who was following Hanson, brandishes a burning stick.
A look of vigilance, not knowing what might come out of the surroundings.
The problem was that Hanson was also where the stick was swung.
“… … Are you trying to set me on fire?”
“Oh, sorry.”
Hanson pushes away the stick.
Stepping forward, he smashed through the dense bushes around him with the curved sword he had stolen from the pirates.
If it was daytime when the sun was up, you could see the ruins from afar and find them, but now the only clue was the grotesque cries heard earlier.
Long way to go like that.
Finally, a wide open area appeared in front of the two of them.
In the vacant lot, huge stone structures were left to collapse.
“It’s bigger than I thought.”
“Yes, I thought there would be one building because I heard it was a ruined temple… … . Is this much bigger than the Meirium Temple?”
“It seems to be at the level of Derdrang’s Sunflower Hall. If it remains intact, that is.”
Tira nodded.
“excuse me! The large building in the middle has not collapsed!”
“Let’s go.”
The ruins where the rainwater flowed and the black dirt sat.
Unidentified grasses were growing between them.
Even if it wasn’t rumors of evil spirits, the sight was grotesque enough.
Tira pressed close behind Hanson.
“… … Be careful not to be small.”
“yes.”
“No, just give it to me.”
“Maybe?”
Hanson took Tira’s flaming stick.
Holding a torch in one hand and a curved sword in the other, Hansson moved towards the building little by little.
The only huge building that didn’t collapse.
At the entrance of the three-story building, bones that appeared to be human were rolling around.
“hehehe… … .”
Tira hid behind Hanson’s back and took a breath.
Then Hanson said.
“There are traces of something being dragged.”
Hanson scrutinizes the torch by dropping it on the floor.
There was evidence that something large had been dragged toward the building.
“It’s about the same width as the pirates’ wooden crates we saw on the beach earlier.”
“Could it be that the looted treasures are hidden inside this building?”
“It will be. If you chose this island as a storage location to protect the treasure from rumors of evil spirits, it would be most efficient to bring it to a building where you can hear the cries of evil spirits.”
“It is probably the safest. Although it is dangerous for those who carry treasure.”
The two slowly made their way to the entrance of the building.
A stone gate made of thick stone.
Above it was engraved a magic circle composed of runes and geometric patterns.
Tira saw that and said.
“It’s a barrier!”
“Barrier?”
“yes! I’ve never seen a magic circle with a pattern like this. From the Sun God Bible.”
“Are they traces of divine magic?”
“yes. The barrier of the seal is clear. It seems to have prevented people from entering it. However, part of the barrier is broken. Are they pirates?”
“It could be, or it could be the work of someone who found this place before the Harpy Pirates. and… … .”
“… … ?”
“It may not be a barrier that prevents people from entering.”
“sure?”
“Couldn’t you have constructed a barrier to keep what’s inside from coming out?”
“What?!”
gulp!
Tyra swallowed.
“Dae, how scary can there be… … .”
Gyaaa
Suddenly, a grotesque sound echoed from inside the building.
Tira, as well as Hanson, had hair all over her body.
“Oh, that’s right, right?”
“what?”
“That is what we are going to do now. He should be able to exorcise evil spirits, but he seems like a very scary guy… … .”
“… … Because it is unavoidable.”
“yes… … .”
Right around dawn, the son of the innkeeper and the pirates will come.
Then the pirates will blackmail the boy into moving the goods into this haunted building.
Having made up their minds, the two entered the building.
Here and there, I saw the bones of the dead.
“Looks like other people have visited here as well as the Harpy Pirates.”
“Or it could be the people who used to live here.”
“There is a chance of that. There is not a single piece of flesh left on the bones.”
If it is a corpse that has just died, the rotten smell vibrates and maggots infest it.
But the corpses here are literally white bones.
It was clear that the corpses were probably more than 100 years old.
“Hanson, there’s a lantern over there.”
“hmm.”
The wall of the passage from the entrance to the inside was filled with oil and set on fire.
Hanson approached, checked the inside of the lantern, and lit it.
“Oil remains. The pirates must have come and gone here.”
The corpses are the owners of this place, and they have been dead for over 100 years, but the oil remains?
It was proof that someone had been in and out of this place.
The two slowly entered the room, gluing each one to the lanterns hanging on the wall.
Soon, a large place with a drawing room atmosphere appeared.
I could see the stairs going up, and there were stained glass windows through which the moonlight permeated.
“I think it will be a very old-fashioned place if you clean up the dust. And that stained glass… … I’m pretty sure this was a temple. Of course, I don’t know what kind of god the picture of that glass is in the image.”
“It must have been an ancient temple. It is very different from the paintings of the Sun God Church.”
“Iknow, right.”
It was old and broken, but the furniture around it was very luxurious.
In addition, many of the items that remained without being stolen were also items that felt the hand of the craftsman.
Tira looked around, found something on the floor, and lifted it up.
“Okay.”
It was a rather heavy slab.
“Hansson, there is something here.”
“… … ?”
As Hanson approached and shone a torch over the stone slabs, he saw strange letters.
“I think these are characters that were used before the establishment of the Cron Empire?”
“Right. I can’t even guess what that means.”
Characters that are too different from the language currently used in the Cron Empire.
If you could read the contents, you would know what this temple was doing, but it was a pity.
Tira tried to set the slate back on the floor, but Hanson stopped her.
“Wait, there are other letters on the back.”
“uh?! Really!”
Surprisingly, the language of the empire was written on the back of the stone tablet.
Tira quickly read it down.
“It seems that the adventurer who identified himself as ‘Hireon’ interpreted the ancient language in front of the stone tablet. The interpretation is engraved on the back of the stone tablet.”
“What is it about?”
“that is… … .”
Tira swallowed again.
“… … It was said that this was the shrine of the monks who imprisoned and managed ancient demons. It was a powerful and terrifying demon whose name could not be called, but a curious new monk accidentally broke part of the demon’s seal. Evil energy leaked out from the broken seal and all the monks went mad… … .”
“… … It’s terrible.”
The two looked around.
Dozens of fallen white bones.
It was the body of the monks who guarded this place.
“It looks like they killed each other. Many of the bones were damaged. There are also weapons that are covered in rust all around.”
“… … It’s written that way here too. Monks who were possessed by demonic demons killed each other. The leader of the last surviving monks sacrificed his soul to complete the demon’s seal again. This is the record left by that leader, translated by an adventurer named Hireon.”
“Is that person?”
Hanson’s gaze shifted to the area where Tira had picked up the slate.
There was a dead white bone with its back against the wall.
Unlike the other white skeletons, who had lost all their clothes, they were wearing worm-eaten leather armor.
Although it is also quite old.
“… … The date is written here. That’s 50 years ago. Hearing the news of this cursed island, he came for an adventure, but he died because he could not overcome the evil spirit. Even while he was translating this tablet and leaving the last record, he said that an evil spirit was watching him… … .”
“… … .”
“If you haven’t encountered an evil spirit yet, you want to go back right away? They say it’s an evil spirit that can never be defeated.”
“… … That’s what you’ll know when you fight. But the devil’s seal has been completed again, so why is there a demon there?”
“Couldn’t it be the demons of the monks who were said to have been possessed and killed by Magi?”
“Hmm… … .”
Tira took the slate and approached White Bone.
Tira carefully placed the stone slabs around him.
She took off her cloak and covered her white bones.
Then something caught Tira’s eyes.
It was the letters Baekgol’s fingers wrote on the floor.
“huh? The adventurer left something here too.”
The dry letters, probably written in blood, are black and stuck together.
Hanson approached and lit a torch to read the text.
“Burn?”
Words whose meaning is not exactly known.
Hanson and Tira tilted their heads at the same time.
“Am I going to burn this temple?”
“well. Could it be that he wants his corpse to be burned?”
“hmm… … Or the corpses of other monks?”
“… … .”
Questions that cannot be answered no matter how much you think about them.
Hanson said.
“First, we have to find that demon. Let’s decide then whether or not to burn the skeletons or the temple.”
“yes.”
Undoubtedly, bizarre sounds were heard from within this building.
But since the building is so large and has so many rooms, it seemed like it would take quite a while to find it.
“It would be better to scatter and open the doors one by one.”
“hehehe?! Heh, let’s scatter?”
“Are you scared?”
“… … I’m kind of scared.”
“Then it doesn’t matter. Let’s search together from the first floor.”
“yes!”
Tira picked up a wooden stick from nearby.
He picked it up and clung to Hanson’s back.
But at that moment!
wheee-
A cold wind blew from somewhere.
Soon after, a spirit appeared in the middle of a passage far away, dressed as a monk.
“Ha, Hanson… … ?!”
“… … I am watching too.”
A monk with an ax on his right shoulder with his head half blown off.
One eyeball came out of where it should be and swayed wildly.
“Ahhhhh… … .”
The monk saw the two of them, stretched out his arms in front of him, and slowly began to approach them.
“You were right. The ghosts of the monks possessed by the Magi remained.”
“… … It’s terrible. To harm his comrades with madness while alive, and to roam around here as a specter after death.”
“Stay back for a moment.”
“yes.”
Tira took a few steps back.
Then, a pure white light began to shimmer in Hanson’s curved sword.
Transfer the divine power learned from Carl!
Originally, strengthening the body through divine power was Hanson’s specialty, but recently he was learning how to use divine power in a different direction.
Hansson focused on the idea that an opportunity had arrived to put the practiced skill to use.
Woo-woo-!
The blade of the curved sword stained with divine power began to cry.
“Ahhh… … .”
The monk’s ghost, which was approaching the divine power emitted from the curved sword, hesitated.
At that moment, Hanson lowered the curved sword from top to bottom.
Shuyut!
“Ugh… … .”
A spirit that disappears with a faint cry.
From the point where the sword imbued with divine power passed, the spirit’s form was shattered like ashes flying.
however.
“I… … Hanson?”
“Why but?”
“I think we have some problems.”
Tira’s voice hardened.
Hanson quickly looked around.
Surprisingly, the monk’s ghost was popping up all over the place.
“… … It wasn’t just one demon.”
Hanson raised the curved sword he was about to insert.