The drops on the floor were minute, most of them were in crevices of the tiles, barely visible to the naked eye. But Crow had an epiphany instantly seeing this.
Before Sheva could approach, he made a small cut on his arm, letting the blood drop onto the sa floor.
"Sacrifice." He said, and like Sheva had contemplated before, it really was the answer to their problem. By the ti Sheva and Henry ca to Crow’s position, they could see the fallen blood moving on their own, getting absorbed by the floor.
"What now? Do I need to bleed more?" Crow asked Sheva, who looked at him with so surprise before she looked at the floor again. "I..."
But before she could say a thing, the floor under their feet trembled and then started to split apart one by one, causing the trio to move out of the way as they saw the magical scene in front of their eyes.
"There was a path underground?" Henry was surprised, it was the first ti he saw such a thing. As in the rumors, there was only the talk over how the ruins were dangerous, never were there any details about it, making him almost ignorant of the situation over the ruins.
"Is the mist still there?" Sheva asked Crow, who looked at the door and then nodded. "Then we go in." She made up her mind, before giving Henry a look and saying. "You can stay if you want... I would recomnd this to you."
But he just shook his head, there was no reason to not go after coming this far. Although this whole thing was dangerous, in this particular case, he was putting only his own life on the line and not bringing this harm to his parents, as he had earlier thought.
So he moved, With Sheva at the front who knew what she was doing, then Henry and then Crow, whose eyes kept turning toward the Mist which were beckoning him again and again. ’Root bastards.’ he said before walking into the underground tunnel.
*****
"Can the two of you see in the dark?" Crow asked, walking calmly following the two people in front of him.
"Not ." Said Henry, while Sheva’s answer was more in line with "not needed". "Light might attract enemies to us." And so she warned Crow who was in the process of taking out a small lantern.
"How far ahead will they be from us?"
"Considering they were able to use a direct path and didn’t dally longer in a singular place, they should have reached this place half an hour ago."
"Explains the bloodstains I presu."
Half an hour of advantage would put them way ahead of Crow’s group, or so Sheva thought would be the case if there were no obstacles in this place or anything not slowing them down.
But she knew, with how infamous this place was, each step needed to be calculated. It’s why she tapped on the wall beside her, which helped her map out the path ahead through so echolocation.
"A three-forked path, one of them should be the correct one." She wondered before her ears caught the sound of squirming, causing goosebumps all over her body.
’H...e..lep’ It was impossible to make it out, but the closer she got to the three forked path, the higher the sound beca.
"I... I seem to be hearing things." Said Henry was her back, startling her. She asked if he had heard sothing as well and he nodded.
"It sounds like my mother... but that is not possible. So I don’t know what to make of it." He said, confusing Sheva further. But before she could co to her own conclusion, Crow spoke from the very back. "Hallucinations, the deeper you go in these ruins the more danger you might face."
Above them was the mist, and now below, there were sounds of soone they were familiar with. "What do you hear?" Sheva asked and he just laughed pathetically, saying. "Just the voice of my parents... I had completely forgotten what they used to sound like."
A sentintal tone made Henry feel bad about Crow, while Sheva on the other hand didn’t know what to say.
’Isn’t he soone who didn’t mind his father’s death?’ But she didn’t bother pointing this out, this was not the ti or place for this. Nor can she claim to know that she fully understood what kind of person Crow was.
Before, all might just be an act just to eke out a survival for himself when the killer which ans her and Max ca to kill his father. Or it might be sothing else entirely, sothing she doesn’t understand.
"The sound I hear is coming from the right," Sheva said, feeling the path through her hand and then asking the other two just to confirm one of her suspicions.
She had wondered if the sound the other two heard ca from a different direction or not. But to her surprise, the answer she received was. "It’s the right one." The two agreed with her.
"Then let’s choose the other paths." She said, but before she could do so, Crow shouted from the back. "I would suggest you follow up on the voice and see what the reason for it is." He then explained his reasoning of how if he was the creator of these ruins and had to manually set up traps of such kinds, he would attempt to hide the dangerous ones so that others don’t find them while making the one he used to move obvious to the eyes. Scaring the people away before they could ever set their foot in.
And this reasoning seed sound for now at least.
Yes, none of their minds had been affected, all three of them were clear that these voices were false and just hallucinations, nothing more. So it’s not like they would be fooled by sothing so obvious.
"Let’s move," Sheva said and then continued on their path.
But the deeper she walked, the louder the cries for help beca. Causing her so distress, as she found the voice familiar, as for Henry, he seed to be experiencing the sa things. "This is getting annoying." He said, taking out the sword, as if ready to face the battle at any ti, while Sheva did the sa and took out a Machete she had stolen before.
Using a gun in this environnt would be stupid, not to ntion the loud sound which might give away her position. Aiming was also troubleso in such a tight space.
While Crow beca awfully quiet, and as it was dark, neither Sheva nor Henry noticed how cold he currently looked. Even his skin has started to change in anger, showing the effect his emotions had on his body. But he didn’t say a thing, he just remained quiet and looked straight, ignoring the walls around him which had turned into at sarcoma, pulsating with life.
It was already troubleso how little the two ahead of him were affected by all of this. And if he were to say sothing like before, Sheva, who was already suspicious of his earlier claims might just call him out for this one as well.
’Warm as a womb... Ok, I will play with you.’
Then he kept moving and moving until Sheva paused and pointed toward a squirming sound ahead of her. "Whatever is ahead of , is coming close to us."
"Rember, it’s a hallucination, but just to be sure, neither of you are to participate in this fight." her reasoning was simple.
The path was narrow enough that none of the three can fight at once to begin with, not to ntion, the only capable sense of theirs which was the ears was not played with, so they can’t trust them as well.
With that, she went ahead and as expected, a fight broke out.
A fight that barely lasted for 10 seconds, before the sound of Sheva ca again. "Co to ." She said, and Henry did move ahead. "Don’t’ Said Crow, putting his hand over Henry’s shoulder.
"She would co to us. Don’t call us there."
And Crow was right, as it was only after a minute of constant calling, did Sheva finally co back with a head of sothing in her hand, which Crow can see clearly. "What kind of bad is this?"
After telling Sheva what had happened, she nodded to the two and even praised crow for stopping Henry.
"But what was that about the obvious danger was not danger at all?"
"A mistake, all of us make it sotis.’ Crow said with a laugh. And then they kept moving.
*****
"Seek your roots and seek the truth."
Words written in modern language that was easy to understand for anyone in the current world. "Don’t see part of the ruins."
"Old adventurers, probably to help newbies like us." Crow spoke. But Sheva shook her head. "They are not poets you know."
"Its probably written by so high nosed noble or a scholar, the writing itself is the proof. So bad and lacking form, but filled with wild sense, as if the writer was in a hurry and did it in a passing way."
The end of the path was simple, it was just a giant door with a faith light breaking out from the ceiling, making Sheva even wonder why did the old adventurer’s didn’t break open a path above, which would have made it all much easier.
"Well, let’s go." Crow said, not wishing to waste any ti. And She nodded, before pushing the door open and finding.
"What?’
It was the ruins again. The sun was shining brightly as the birds chirped all over the ruins.
But with one start difference.
"This seems bigger."
Now, the small street has expanded, with so new additions to the buildings on the side, while the distance between them and temple has almost doubled.
"Now... now this is what I was looking for." Said Crow with a loud cry. Smiling from ear to ear.
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