Chapter 132 Something underneath.

Rasmus stored all the loot in the ring, and since it required a lot of Mana to maintain spatial space inside the ring, it began to squeeze his finger uncomfortably. He had to feed more Mana into the ring until he could unload all of it later. When they left the camp, they were on their way out of the forest and meeting with Carrion and Aris. However, suddenly stopped walking and looked at his left in the distance. "This forest is cursed, right?" Rasmus asked as he kept staring at one spot in the distance. "Yes, so many lost souls roaming around, trapped in this place and can't leave. This whole forest has something that prevents them from leaving," Videl nodded as he crossed his arms. "Why do you ask?" He looked at Rasmus. "I'm just thinking that it's cursed for a reason, and I wonder what it is..." Rasmus rubbed his chin with his eyes narrowed. "Do you think there's an item or an artifact that someone dropped her during the war? Something powerful that keeps the souls here?" He looked at Videl. Videl hummed as he looked at the director where Rasmus was staring earlier. He never thought about that until Rasmus mentioned that the forest was cursed. "Now that I think about it..." Videl closed his eyes and tried to recall the demon's memories. "Yeah, you're right..." he opened his eyes and began to look around. "There's another reason the demon decided to use this place to hide. It appears the emissary is looking for something here," he added as he tried to sniff and look for some kind of energy. "But I can't sense it at all, and so neither the demon. It might be hidden, buried somewhere in this fast forest." "Maybe Aris can help, for now, let's head out first," Rasmus said and continued to walk. ... Once they left the forest, Carrion was nowhere to be found, and nor was the carriage. Aris was the only one there with the prisoners who stayed by her side. She had become their guardian and gave them comfort. Aris didn't mind them at all, in fact, she conversed with all of them, asking them how they felt. She showed her gentle side to them and gave them a warm, faint smile to assure them. Since she could see emotions like lights around their bodies, she understood their pain and suffering. "Where did Carrion go? Report this to the authority?" Rasmus asked. "Yes," Aris nodded and then grabbed something from the ground. "Here, your spare clothes..." She offered Rasmus's shirt, suit, and trousers. "Thank you," Rasmus took them and went into the forest to get changed. While Rasmus was changing, he felt someone or something was watching him. He turned around and found nobody, even with his magic perception using the wind. However, even after he searched for who it was, he still felt like he was being watched. He looked over his shoulder at Aris and Videl, knowing it might take a while to wait for Carrion to come back. He decided to explore the forest on his own and left marks on the trees to make sure he knew his way back. As he walked deeper and followed his instinct and the direction where he was being watched, he found a pond. A pond that was as big as a tennis court with dark blue water in it. There was no fish or anything on the pond, not even a dot of moss on it. He went to one knee and looked at the dark water. The only thing he saw was his reflection on the still water. His reflection began to make different expressions even though he wasn't making any expressions. He narrowed his eyes and noticed his reflection's mouth moving slowly and mumbling. It looked like his reflection was trying to tell him something, but it was hard to understand. Suddenly, his reflection pointed at him, not at his face but at his right shoulder. He still didn't understand until an eyeless head appeared from behind his shoulder from the reflection. The figure had its mouth wide open with its sharp, long teeth as if it was ready to bite his head off. He turned around, but then he saw nothing behind him. While he was looking for the eyeless figure, multiple hands wrapped his face from the pond and pulled him into the water. The sound of the splash made Aris's ear twitch, and noticed Rasmus wasn't nearby. Videl noticed it as well when the soul that he had been tasked with keeping an eye on Rasmus came to inform him. Both of them hurriedly went into the forest and knew where he was without having to look at the marks he had left earlier. When they found the pond, Rasmus was on all fours, completely drenched. His ragged breath, the shock in his eyes, and his trembling body made them both confused and worried. "What happened?" Videl went to his knee and looked at Rasmus. Rasmus didn't say a word, his breath was still ragged, and his eyes blankly stared at the ground. He groaned both in the cold and traumatized, something that affected him deeply. Aris removed her cloak and wrapped it around Rasmus. She used her energy to calm him down and dry his drenched body. She wondered what had happened because she didn't see any evil energy around him or within him. Rasmus took a deep breath as he tried to stand up, but his legs didn't listen to his commands. He was about to fall again, but Videl grabbed his shoulder and helped him get up. Aris and Videl brought him to a big stone and let him sit on it. They stared at him, wondering what had happened and why he looked so traumatized. "The thing we talked about earlier..." Rasmus said quietly, looking at Videl. That thing is in there..." he pointed at the pond. Sёarᴄh the Novelƒire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Videl and Aris looked at the pond, and they couldn't see any energy coming from it. Aris then looked at both of them and wondered what Rasmus was talking about. "What's down there?" Videl asked as he kept his eyes on the pond and realized how the souls he owned didn't want to be near it. "Not what, but rather who down there..." Rasmus muttered as he stared blankly at the pond. "What I felt down there... something or so many things tried to rip my body apart from within. It was pitch black and my senses were so sensitive because of it. It was terrifying..." he explained as he clenched his fists. Videl looked at the pond and decided to approach it so he could see it from up close. When he looked down, he noticed that something was off about it and he noticed how his reflection began to act on its own. He didn't hesitate and decided to jump in and dove deeper into the pond. It was pitch black as Rasmus said and the cold was freezing his bones. It didn't take a while until hands were gripping his body from inside and outside. He felt fingers moving right behind his eyes, and he didn't like it all because his power was being absorbed constantly. He decided to go back to the surface and crawl away from the pond in almost the same state as Rasmus. He realized why the souls didn't dare to be near the pond because they might get trapped inside. "What was it?" Aris looked at Videl with a curious look. "I have no idea, but if I have to make a guess, the spirits in this forest, they're nothing compared to what's down there," Videl stood up as he used a fire spell to dry his body. "It's unpleasant, and I'm not strong enough to go to the bottom of it to find out," he explained as he looked at the pond with his brows furrowed. Aris didn't think twice about jumping into the pond and checking it out herself. As soon as she was inside, her eyes began to glow bright blue, and she saw hundreds, close to a thousand spirits circling below her like a school of fish. They were moving in motion as if someone or something was controlling them. She dove deeper and when the spirits tried to grab her body, she released Aura from her body and created a blast that harmed the spirits and pushed them away at the same time. She kept swimming deeper until she saw piles of corpses at the bottom. Corpses from different times were based on the armor they wore, and the disturbing part was that their bodies were preserved and looked like they had just died a few hours ago. She narrowed her eyes and noticed an unusual energy from underneath the biggest pile of corpses. She went down and pushed the corpses as the energy grew stronger and stronger. "(A casket...)" Aris furrowed as she looked at the black casket at the bottom. As soon as she opened the casket, she was shocked by the inside, her eyes wide open.