Chapter 56 - Taboo Of Soul

Mark laughed after reading Noah's records.

"Well, this was to be expected. A fool to the end, you might say."

The corner of Osric's lip twitched.

"This madman dares to mess with the soul? ...He is willing to go against the natural order."

My head tilted to the side.

"The soul? What is that?"

Leon sighed.

"It is believed that every living being has a soul. Not much is known about it, and attempting to find more is taboo."

Mark chuckled.

"There are many stories that come from rumors. There was a small home and a cemetery next to it. There was supposed to be a person who cleaned the cemetery, but for some reason, nobody was manning that post for over twenty years."

Mark's eyes narrowed.

"The head of that particular town was curious as to why that was the case. He thought that someone was already assigned to this post. Thus, the head investigated the cemetery. Even though nobody was appointed, the cemetery was clean."

Mark took a deep breath.

"The head thought that someone had been taking care of the cemetery despite the fact it was not their job. He asked around, but nobody seemed to know. As he walked around the town, there was a small house. This was strange to him, as the head knew the tenant of each house, yet couldn't recall this one."

Mark looked down at the papers.

"The head decided to investigate this strange house. He was unable to find anyone inside, it seemed the person living there was out. Though it was a breach of privacy, the head decided to explore a little further."

Mark pushed aside some papers, revealing more papers underneath.

"He found some dirty dishes in the sink, still wet with food stains. There was even a custom hat made. He also found the basement. There were rotting bodies inside and many pieces of parchment. The head briefly scanned over the documents to find this person was exploring the soul. Unsettled, the head swiftly left the house."

Mark picked up one of the papers and looked at it.

"He asked the others if anybody knew who lived in that house, but everyone was clueless. That was when the head remembered the custom hat. There was a tailor in town that made a special hat for each customer he had and wrote down the owner of each hat. The head took the hat from that house and brought it to that tailor."

Mark turned over the piece of paper in his hand, then set it down on the table.

"The head asked the tailor if he knew who he made that hat for. The tailor was confused, she forgot who it was. She pulled out his records and looked through them, only to find a random spot was empty, and no mention of that particular hat. The tailor mentioned she clearly remembered making the hat but forgot why."

Mark turned to look at me.

"The head realized something. A person disappeared out of thin air and nobody remembered their existence. The head burned down the house and made the soul a taboo subject. He believed that research down that path would cause one to be erased, like a figment of one's imagination. The cemetery had been abandoned and became a forbidden area. As for where this town was or what it was called, nobody knows."

My finger scratched the side of my head.

"So... no messing with souls?"

Leon shrugged.

"More or less."

Osric furrowed his brows.

"However, this person wasn't erased. He refers to himself in these records, meaning that his existence hasn't been removed."

Mark laughed.

"That's why fool is such a fitting address. He was unable to succeed in his endeavor."

The center of the ceiling rumbled, causing the four of us to look towards it.

Osric sighed.

"These monsters really are persistent."

Three two-meter tall skeletons fell from the ceiling. When they fell, they landed on their feet. All three of them had a wooden round shield they were crouching behind and had a spear poking out from their formation.

The three skeletons were standing back to back, covering every direction.

Leon walked up to them, like strolling in a garden.

One of the skeletons attempted to stab Leon, but he simply caught the spear and the skeleton could no longer move the spear.

Leon threw his fist at the shield, the shield shattered into splinters and the three skeletons took a few steps back.

However, right as the shield shattered, the pieces flew back, reassembled, making an undamaged shield.

Leon sighed.

"This is quite annoying."

Mark waved his hand.

"Do not fret."

The three skeleton's heads all fell off and they began trembling.

Osric frowned.

"Where is their weakness?"

My mind was trying to catch any sort of strange bean ball within the skeleton, but there was none that I could find.

My brows furrowed and my focus increased.

The skeletons had sunk into the ground and reemerged brand new.

...But there was a strand of mana attached to these skeletons.

My mind pushed the crystal close to the three skeletons. The skeletons tried to back out of the way, but they also tried to maintain their position. Their retreat ended up being too slow, letting the crystal catch up to them easily.

The moment the skeletons were within ten meters of the crystal. Their body fell to the ground like a puppet that lost its strings. As for their spears and shields, they disintegrated.

Osric raised an eyebrow.

"Why is the mana inhibition so effective this time?"

My hand rubbed against my chin.

"These skeletons appear to be controlled with mana somehow. They didn't have that weird ball thing in them so needed magic to move."

Leon picked up a skeleton and held it outside the range of the crystal.

A spear and shield began to materialize and the skeleton was struggling fiercely. Leon tossed it back in, and it became motionless again.

Leon nodded a few times.

"You are right, they are being controlled by mana."

A sigh escaped my mouth.

"Well, I guess we have to lug these things around if we don't want them to start stabbing us."

Both my hands picked up a skeleton and Leon picked up the third one.

There was another pathway that led even further down. Leon turned his head to look down further.

"Should we continue?"

Mark shrugged his shoulders.

"Might as well."

We continued even further down, more out of curiosity than anything else.

The next room we reached was quite different from the rest and was quite large. The only difference is that there was a wooden table in the center of the room with a piece of paper on it.

Considering how many papers were in the last room, this was not what I expected.

Instead of any stone tables, there were ten pedestals at the far end of the room. Four skeletons were standing on the pedestals, three pedestals had a small bean on them, and the other three were empty.

The four skeletons were all two meters high and held a staff. A spell was forming at the tips of their staff.

The four skeletons were standing far apart, meaning my crystal could only stop one of them from casting. But if my crystal went to inhibit one of them, the three skeletons would stab us in the back.

While my thoughts were circulating in my head, Osric and Leon were already running towards the skeletons.

My mind fixed the crystal to its current spot and I joined Osric and Leon.

Somehow or another, there was plenty of mana for the four skeletons. All four of them were casting multiple spells at the same time.

A barrage of thunderbolts, beams of water, and large stones had fallen on us. The number of spells was a little intimidating.

The stones had a rough diameter of two meters, while the beams of water and thunderbolts were half a meter each.

Though my initial charge was valiant, my steps ended up being more backward than forward.

Right, when my foot was about to take a step forward, it shot back, and a bolt of lightning zapped right where it was.

They seemed to be more concerned about preventing us from getting close rather than actually killing us.

Leon was making slow progress. He dodged the water beams and thunderbolts, while the large stones were directly shattered by his fist.

Osric was not much better than Leon, slowly making his way while dodging the water beams and stones. As for the thunderbolts, he did not bother dodging, opting to take them head on. The thunderbolts were unable to harm Osric, other than produce many tiny arcs jumping across his body.

Osric flicked his wrist and the charge collected on his body disappeared, being sent towards one of the tiny white beans.

Unfortunately, a lightning bolt diverted Osric's attack.

....We won't lose this fight right?