"Why the hell did you do that for?" Uriel growled as he crouched to pick up the pen and by the ti he stood back up again the monk was already retreating through the door behind the desk. It seed odd, but no one thought much of it until a few seconds passed with him not coming back.
"I... uhm... found him suspicious." Luna muttered.
"Right, but we still need a place to crash and even if he was a wanted criminal it would be far from the worst we've seen." Nika said.
"True, but look at this." Luna showed the book where Uriel almost put his signature. Instead of the long list of guest they were expecting to see, it seed like so sort of contract.
"Well, if this isn't the guest log then what is it?" Uriel asked Nika, the only one present who was fluent in Spanish.
"huh, let see... Oh, boy! We need to get out of here." She paled at the realization that it wasn't just any contract, but the worst kind of contract they could have encountered.
"No kidding." Uriel scoffed as he turned on his heels to exit the place, finding the door locked from the outside. At first he attempted to gently push the door open, when that failed he used more force until he full on bashed at the door, yet it didn't budge an inch.
"This is fine...," Luna muttered. "it just ans we will et a new kind of cryptid."
"Not really, I don't think there's a cryptid involved in this. It may as well be the case but why would a cryptid want our souls?" She let out scratching the back of her head.
"Our souls!? This is outrageous! Let's find that guy and beat the crap out of him." Uriel stomped his feet on the ground.
"Do you even have a soul?" Nika inquired in a sarcastic tone.
"Honestly, after all I've seen and done I don't know anymore, but that doesn't change the fact that he tried to overcharge us. As if ten thousand credits wasn't enough..." He bit his thumb nail in frustration. If it wasn't for Nika draining his flux reserve he would have likely been able to bash through the heavy door with ease, but with only the strength level of an ascended it proved to be an impossible feat.
"Aside from the fact that the guy was sketchy, this at least confirms that souls are a thing." Nika nodded after putting on her glasses. They didn't have any effect on her sight and were rely decorative, but both Uriel and Luna found her acting amusing and decided to play along with her.
"So tell , Professor Nika, what exactly are souls?" Uriel asked, not expecting a true answer.
"It's the core of our identity that remains even after death, of course." She said pointedly.
"Uhm... do you have a silver coin?" Luna joked, though after a couple seconds Uriel did hand Nika a trite which she pocketed with a smile. This effectively killed Uriel's playful mood and he proceeded to enter through the sa door the monk had gone through, finding an empty room with cleaning supplies and nothing else.
"He's gone!"
"I can find him," Luna waited until Uriel exited the room and walked in. Her sense of sll allowed her to pick up traces of many different people, but none matched the scent given off by the monk. "maybe I can't, but I think I can find more people."
Since they were unable to leave the premises they followed Luna across the inner cloister where the thick fog had taken over and despite it not carrying a hint of flux energy, it brought back nasty mories to both Nika and Uriel.
"Over there." Luna pointed with her finger at the second floor and Uriel attempted to reach it in a single jump, failing miserably as he didn't take into account his weakened state. Nika, on the other hand, used her shadow blink to hop over to the second floor but still failed to find anyone.
"Stop using your skills, you're sucking dry!" Uriel complained from the ground. Thankfully, the only thing wounded was his pride.
"Uhm, over there now." Luna pointed at the second floor, but across from where Nika was located. This ti, instead of a shadow blink she just made the jump and graciously landed on top of a man wearing a flowery shirt.
"Get off of ! I'm complaining to the staff!" The man shouted as he struggled to be released from Nika's steely grasp, yet upon closer inspection he slightly blushed up and continued. "nevermind, I may even leave a tip."
"Where is that monk, Daniel?" Uriel climbed up the stairs to interrogate the man, though he refused to have ever seen such a person.
He explained that the monastery was indeed near Sevilla and it was one of the most popular places to spend the night for travelers, especially when the weather was acting up.
"This place used to have such a nice diterranean weather, now it's completely unpredictable." The man spoke.
"It's not like we have satellites anymore." Nika shrugged after releasing the man from his pleasurable imprisonnt.
"Satellites made things easier, but the science behind forecasting is older than modern society." The man said.
"That is correct, people used to tell the weather according to certain pattern of clouds and even the temperature of the wind." Uriel nodded.
"You seem like a knowledgeable kid, it's hard to believe you're a hunter. They're usually all airheads, no offense." The man scoffed.
"I'm archaeologist, Uriel Sage, pleasure to et you, mister..."
"Doctor," The man corrected, then extended his hand towards Uriel. "the na's Alfaro."
"Well, Alfaro, do you know what is going on here or not?" Nika scowled, prompting the man to answer in a hushed voice.
"This place is haunted, it won't let you leave during night. It's safe, though, but be wary as there's rumors going around that so people have been missing. There's a group of hunters investigating it at the mont, but I'm more focused on a different phenonon. Before the arrival, anthropogenic clouds used to be a huge factor in weather forecasting, now it's always hunters or cryptids. You have no idea how much hate mail I get each day because I predict rain, then a funny hunter decides to ss with and drives the clouds away with their traits." The man ranted.
"A hunter moving clouds? Does that sound like soone we know?" Uriel asked without thinking, but then realized that although the fog itself carried no flux it may as well be the result of soone's trait.
"I would be very interested in examining the trait of a hunter capable of controlling the weather." Luna muttered.
"I don't think Bella can do sothing like that if you ask . Sure, she's powerful but..."
"No, she definitely can do it. She caused a storm inside the dungeon the day I t her." Uriel said, prompting the man to butt in with a disappointed tone.
"Don't tell you're here to look for that old place too?"
"What old place!?" The three hunters said in unison.
"El monasterio del diablo." He replied in a voice so small it was difficult to understand him.
"The devil again!? Co on!" Nika let out in a deep shiver as though soone splashed her with a bucket of ice cold water.
"Don't be surprised, most of the lore in this country is related to religion. In fact, if I was to list all the places where the devil was allegedly sighted we would be here until morning." Luna said.
"Don't say that na out loud!" The man frantically waved his hands and retreated back into his room in complete panic.
"What a weirdo." Nika blurted out after the man shut the door to his room.
"I don't know, I kind of liked him," Uriel caressed his chin in a pensive manner, then continued. "I think we should look for the other hunters and let them know about the Daniel guy we just t. If they are looking into a missing people's case then we pretty much solved the case for them."
"Let's try to not get separated." Nika said, afraid to explore the monastery on her own now that she knew there could be more than t the eye to that old building.
"You had to jinx it, every single ti anyone says that we end up apart." Uriel grunted as he opened the door that let further inside the convent.
The first thing they noticed upon entering the main hall was that, contrary to the entrance and the inner cloister, the place was crowded with people. Not just that, there was also electricity which ant they should be safe from cryptids.
It brought relief to Nika who was pretty shaken up, but Uriel not so much when he encountered the actual receptionist and she charged him one thousand credits each for spending the night.
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