Alomitsu

Chapter 38: Nightmare (6)

Ayatos was at the forefront. He arched his waist like a hunter in the forest. He was agile, careful, and possessed a keen sense of danger.

He was not frightened by the panicking sight in front of him. He raised his arm to make a forward gesture. Tadek and I followed him. There were also a lot of deep pits in this ancient ruin, which were exactly the same as the weird pits in the forest.

The black and blue sky was like a prelude covered by heavy rain and dark clouds. The falling snow continued to hit us with the wind, and the air was scented with dust, even though we could not see any flying pieces of dust.

We stepped on the snow and moved forward, covering us in the half-dark evening. We passed by the big trees that were frozen into blocks of ice. For these trees, they were ice coffins.

The broken well was slumped and the eyes were full of desolation. This was my description of the ruins. There were broken sculptures everywhere. The gods in the myth were like fighting to death here, because the sculptures portrayed their appearance.

The fall of Olympus! Twilight of the gods!

If I were alone, I’m afraid I would have escaped long ago, but now, I had to bite the bullet and follow. The abhorrent sight behind me had become stronger.

We were walking on an old stone road full of dilapidated stones, and a sculpted arm stretched out from the collapsed stone turret around it. At this time, the half wound on my wrist was blown onto the sculpture arm by the cold wind.

“Be careful,” it whispered.

“Be careful, Dante!” cried the wound belt swinging in the wind.

Hoo~hu~

The white air we exhaled drifted away with the cold wind, and none of us dared to speak. I guessed that in this abandoned city like a tomb, speaking would disturb the deceased’s sleep.

This avenue occupied by trees, even if they were shaded in the green darkness, still couldn’t conceal the city’s once gloriousness. The gravel piled on both sides of the avenue were probably residential houses. What made this magnificent building was buried in the forest?

It was definitely not a war, because there were no traces of war.

How long have we been away? I didn’t know. I only knew that this road was very long. At the end of the road was the palace built on the top of the mountain. Even if it collapsed, its majesty could not be concealed.

On both sides of the entrance of the palace were two sculptures with bat faces. Even if their faces were weathered, I could clearly identify certain creatures.

They had angel wings. Because of their age, their limbs were very fuzzy, and the bones and joints were deliberately cut off. I just guessed that this was probably the shape of a human limb.

After walking past these two horrifying sculptures, Ayatos walked to a corner. He removed one of the stones, and the black cave appeared. It led to the back of the ruins. This stone hole was only enough for an adult to climb through.

Climbing through the stone caves, magnificent tall walls were presented in front of us, and niches (kan) were placed in the walls, just like the stone niches made by the Japanese national shrines. The Japanese will build Buddhas in the stone niches.

(Note: The niche, to put it simply, is a small square hole on a wall, where people put the god on to worship.)

There were many sculptures placed on the niches. They had different expressions, from laughing and crying, to man-eating sculptures. They were different and had their own actions. However, the only thing in common was that they all had bat faces.

They were like a forgotten god waiting for sacrifice, and they were like sinking into an art window that no one cared about. Every statue here was chattering about what happened here.

Twisting, the surrounding scene was still twisting. It is exactly the same as the reflection on the water surface, but it was more realistic.

There was no longer snow under our feet. There was wet mud, very sticky, and there was a “crack” when we walked, which was similar to the weird fin sound I heard.

The warm and foul smell blows from the front along the wind. I carefully observed the surroundings. This road was very similar to the “soul road” in history.

The pharaohs of ancient Egypt would build pyramids after their death. At the top of the pyramids, the place where the pharaohs slept was specially left with a small mouth, which was the exit for the reincarnation of the pharaoh’s soul.

The number of layers further down was arranged according to social status. Before they entered the pyramid, they would weigh the good and the evil. The God of Death, Anubis, would put their hearts on the scales to determine their sins. The people of the burial would be brutally killed, the kind people would be buried. Only the burial person could follow the Pharaoh to the path of the soul.

After death, people would take the path of the soul. The path of the soul was only circulated among the population. For the path of the soul, it was called Huangquan in the East, but the bridge was hell in the West. That meant Satan!

The soul road was also called the road of reincarnation. It was said that somewhere in the world, there was a road full of evil spirits. People who wanted to walk through it must pass through the wetland, which was full of sticky wetness. The soil could pull out the sin they carry.

The statues on both our sides were completely similar to the rumors of the soul road. Why did the builders build such a terrible road?

When we walked through the muddy “soul road”, I was completely shocked by the scene in front of me.

In front of the ancient throne, there was a huge oval-shaped deep pit, and the stench wafted in the air. The stone pillars on the edge of the throne palace were engraved with tied up evil gods.

Especially at the bottom of the pillar was an evil god with arms and feet carved on the stone pillar. It was lifelike. Its front protruded from the stone pillar. It seemed to be howling and screaming. I even thought I heard the curse of the world.

Is this Huangquan? I immediately thought of some folklore about the current situation.

In the ancient and mysterious East, they believed that after death, people would walk on Huangquan Road (Soul Road). At the end of Huangquan Road was the abyss of the dead, and they would fall into it one by one.

Snap!

Ayatos patted me in a daze. I was frightened by the scene. I almost screamed with fright. He covered my mouth with one hand and put the sharp blade on my neck.

Ayatos was very nervous, and I saw the sweat on his forehead because of the nervousness.

I quickly nodded, indicating that I would not yell or talk indiscriminately. He gave me a vicious look and stretched out his hand. Tadek was scared to death by my actions just now.

Ayatos led us to the corner of the wall, where the statue of the evil god was on the stone pillar. We didn’t want to stay beside this sculpture, but the surrounding stone pillars were close to the wall. All the pillars were side by side. There was no gap, which gave us no extra place to hide.

We squatted under the stone walls surrounding the pit. The stone walls had partially collapsed over the course of an unknown number of years, and some had eroded in time.

When Ayatos and I squatted, the fat Tadek kept shaking, and the statue behind him was squeezing him. Ayatos motioned for him to be quiet and not to move.

Tadek looked at Ayatos, took out a branch and wrote a line on the dust. Ayatos and I looked at the words written by Tadek at the same time.

“It’s even more crowded than when I came last time!”

“It’s just that you have become fat, you pig. Bear it, and it will soon be over!” Ayatos pointed his finger at his mouth and belly, and cursed Tadek with his mouth.

Boom!

Taddock struck uncomfortably at the statue behind him. It was not very hard, and the sound was very small. It seemed that this place really wronged him.

Thieves!

We looked at the bottomless pit through the holes like thieves. As time passed, the pit echoed a faint weeping sound, more like the whispers of a hell demon.

I was very nervous when I heard the sound. My heart felt like it was about to jump out of my chest, and the dark light shone into the throne hall from the outside.

What do they want me to see? At least, it’s not a good thing. Knowing that, I should have believed Ayatos’s words or made up a lie to deceive Bruyer to leave.

Whew.

The gravel fell from the top of our heads, I wiped my head, and I found that these were not rubbles, but broken stones. They were so thin that they shattered with a pinch.

Whew~ Whew~

This time, the fall was even more obvious. The two also discovered the falling of the broken stones. We raised our heads and looked up.

We were all stuck.

Behind us, the statue of evil god was molting! It’s like a beetle shedding its useless skin, but what it shed was the stone on its body.

It shook its head. It wanted to lower its head and kill us. The evil gods around the stone pillar did not move. The only thing that moved was the statue where Tadek had just punched.

Its black teeth in the shape of a triangular pyramid appeared in its concave mouth. Its body was constantly shaking, and it was breaking free from the restraints brought by the stone pillars.

I saw its pale eyeballs. There were only white eyeballs. Its pupils had nothing, and its eyes emitted dim white light.

Guru~

Its eyes kept turning and finally stopped moving. At this time, we were covered with fallen stone fragments.

There were falling fragments of stone again, and I found that the statue of the evil god beside me was shaking again.