0028 Exploring the Inheritance

"Wait Helena!".

"What was it?".

"Calm down, can you hear that?".

"That... Alex! This is music!".

Alex and Helena were already tired of walking, after passing the rice fields, they still walked through several rough terrains, and now, they reached a few meters of a small hill.

Both heard sounds that sounded like music, and excited by the discovery, they ran up the few meters high hill.

"It looks like a village...".

"Look over there Alex! Does it look like someone who came on the bus with us?".

"Yes, there is more than one...

... One there, another there, a woman on the other side...

... There's another one... Oh shit! Hide!".

From the top of the small hill, the two could see a small village a little further away, it was possible to see the silhouette of at least a dozen wooden houses, several spots of light together with the music denounced some kind of party going on.

The two also found at least five people who fled in the same direction as them, and among these five people, policeman Henry was one of them, and this made Alex get scared and scream for Helena to hide.

Lying on top of the hill, Alex and Helena watched these people approach the village, and so they began to argue about whether to enter the village together or not.

**************************************************

The phenomenon darkened the entire salon, and everyone felt the body being pulled forward.

During total darkness, the sensation of being pulled forward became the sensation of falling forward, and then came the sensation of being thrown forward as the notion of gravity returned to be directed downwards.

And so they all stepped onto the solid ground with a few steps forward trying to stop the force that was pushing them forward.

All emerged scattered and with their backs to another phenomenon with the black streaks running through the air.

Lucius almost tripped as he felt the ground again, but unlike him, Jeffrey on the other side fell facedown on the ground, but Jaffrey was not alone, other would-be soldiers also fell as they emerged on the spot.

^"Now like this! This is really cool!

I just need to find out how it all works!"^.

Lucius looked back analyzing the seemingly calm phenomenon as he floated in the air, the smile on his face was indeed attractive, making Sara on the other side avert her eyes, even though she was worried about Lucius being discovered.

The Fathers analyzed the place together with their men, it looked like a warehouse, despite being dark, the torches in the hands of the would-be soldiers helped to recognize some objects.

There were flags hanging on some walls that represented the Marquis of Marro, as well as other flags with a strange insignia, of a skull, leaves and other objects.

In addition, swords, axes, hammers and gray armor decorated other parts of the wall which were made of apparently refined masonry and well decorated with some woods.

The ceiling of the place was at a height of almost 6 meters above the ground, and near the ceiling, short windows at heights but extremely wide showed a completely cloudy sky outside, and finally, a large double wooden door completed the scene.

*"Break down the door, let's get out of here!"*.

Father Alberto gave his order, and one of the Envoys took the front, illuminating the place with his body glowing bluish green, he arrived in front of the door, gave a big push that broke the locks and opened the way revealing the outside.

One by one, everyone left the warehouse to look outside, old-looking trees and dry branches, with trunks more than 2 meters in diameter, surrounded the open ground around the warehouse.

The sky looked well lit, but black clouds covered the entire sky taking over all sides of the horizon, thus diffusing any light coming from above the clouds and making the whole place equally dark.

A tiled road led into the forest on one side, on the other side, the road split in two, one going up the mountain to the right, and the other following the path with few trees to the left.

*"Oh Angels of Diore, this humble Father asks you for a light to illuminate our paths..."*.

Alberto took the lead, and began a simple prayer, the white light began to come out of his body illuminating the place, the would-be soldiers joined their hands close to their chests in respect for the Father's prayer, and so everyone waited.

Maycon and Jeffrey shook their heads negatively, Sara watched Lucius near Father Alberto and saw him looking with interest at the light coming out of Father Alberto's body, next to her, Jenany was smiling and restless, as she was going to try to talk to Sara, but now everyone was silent and she didn't want to disturb the moment.

The Watchers and Envoys were watching the surrounding trees, looking for any threat that might arise, but they were still relaxed, for as abandoned as the place looked, there didn't seem to be any traps or beasts protecting the place.

Alcione was the most interested in Lucius' differences, something was wrong and he needed to know if it wouldn't put them in danger, but at the same time he was worried about the Inheritance itself, and so he decided to approach Alberto and wait for him to finish his prayer.

Alberto had already been praying for about ten minutes, and the previously excited Lucius, who was looking at all that light with interest, was now rolling his eyes at the things the Father said in his prayer.

*"Please, I didn't do anything wrong for you to torture me like this..."*.

His words caught the attention of everyone who looked at him without reaction, Father Alberto stopped his prayer and looked strangely at Lucius, the light in his body rose all at once and focused on a sphere of white light.

Jenany and Jeffrey started to laugh, but soon fell silent when they saw the annoyed expression of the would-be soldiers looking at the two, so the two looked at each other and swallowed their laughter a second time.

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The sphere of light was above Alberto's head, in a few seconds the sphere took the form of a humanoid of white light, and a pair of small wings came out of his back, the humanoid body looked a bit square in some parts that should have been smooth, and its size was slightly larger than a ten-year-old child.

A small Angel of white light appeared floating in the air and looked indifferently at Father Alberto, and everyone looked strangely at this Angel who looked a little wrong, probably because of Lucius' interruption.

^"Torture? You'll see what torture is when I get the healing studies... I'll use you as a test subject for the studies..."^.

*"It's no use getting nervous with the boy Father Alberto...

... He's right, we're inside an Inheritance, we can't take too long to do what we came to do...

... Here, take this to make up for your loss..."*.

Father Alcione handed over a white medal the size of a coin with the silhouette of an angel in a 'Y' position stamped in the middle, Father Alberto softened his angry expression when he saw the medal and put it in his pocket with great interest.

*"Alright Father Alcione...

... You came to me, so something must be bothering you?"*.

*"Exactly... See...

... Being a healing Inheritance, if it was a White Path Inheritance, I would expect to find some temple or totem, things along those lines...

... If it was a Inheritance of the Crimson Path, I expected to find some wild beasts, or dangerous animals lurking around the place, listen!

Silence, everything is very silent!"*.

Alberto listened to Alcione's argument and paid attention to the place around, and noticed the silence of the place, Lucius next to him felt happy, he got some more information and even if he didn't understand, at least it was still information.

*"Father Alcione, I understand what you mean...

... But you can't say you know all the existing Paths, no matter how studious you are...*".

*"I never claimed to know all the Paths, I'm just worried about possible dangers..."*.

Father Alberto was not convinced that there could be any danger, as strange as the place seems, the place seemed abandoned of any kind of life, maybe some traps may still exist, but nothing to worry about.

*"This is simple to fix..."*.

Both Fathers turned their faces to look at Lucius who was very interested in their conversation, and looking at their faces, he realized he was in trouble.

*"Right boy, you said earlier that you want to enter the church every Monday, I will think carefully about your request if you tell us now what color is the Path of this Inheritance..."*.

^"Screw this! Who wants to go to church with you?"^.

Lucius inadvertently rolled his eyes at Alberto's sympathetic and fake smile, Alcione almost laughed at the situation, but even so, the two Fathers didn't stop looking at him, waiting for an answer.

Lucius tried to think of something that could help him, Father Alcione proved to be someone who understood things, so he couldn't give a clueless answer, but soon he remembered the underground salon, the strange lamp with the gray fire, and the gray fire humanoids, and with that he made a decision.

*"Gray?"*.

The smile on Alcione's face froze and Alberto's eyes widened, they both looked at each other for a few seconds, and then looked at the group's Healer, who was standing and restless beside the other young people.

*"Gray huh... I remember records in old books that said about the Gray Path having healing abilities...

... But honestly there was no useful information..."*.

*"Well, looking at these heretic kids, the Inheritance shouldn't be very high Rank, but still...

... Only the church has healing miracles from the Gray Path...

... If we can bring some more skills or spells to the church to turn them into miracles...

... Rewards and contributions, we may even ascend to the rank of Cardinal..."*.

Alcione sighed as he heard Alberto growing more and more excited about the possibilities of the Inheritance, and Lucius was relieved to give a valid answer, Jenany on the other side didn't understand why the two Fathers looked at her, so she felt scolded and kept quiet.

*"Go, lead the way, lead us to where the studies you said you possessed are!

Angel please light our way..."*.

Alberto ordered Lucius to lead the way and then asked the Angel to help with the lighting, the Angel made of light looked at him and spread his wings as he floated upwards, where the glow of his body intensified and lit up the whole place for dozens meters away with its white light.

Lucius, who was already waiting for the Father's order, had thought of the best way to go, and decided to climb the mountain by the way to the right, his hope was that from above he could see something that he could point down and say was the right place.

Then he pointed to the path on the right, and Father Alberto beckoned the would-be soldiers to spread out to follow the path Lucius had chosen, and so they all prepared to climb the mountain.

*"Does Thomas know this side of the Inheritance?"*.

*"I can't say, I've never entered this side either..."*.

*"How many entries are there?"*.

Maycon asked Sara a question, and Sara was sincere with the answer, Jaffrey wanted to know how many entries there were for the inheritance, but the three were quiet when they realized that Father Alcione was already nearby and listening to their conversations with interest.

*"I heard them saying that you are heretics...

... I don't care about that, but I wanted to know what supernatural things have you guys seen?"*.

*"The girl Jenany is the niece of the Duke of Alle, you three do well to be friends with her..."*.

Beside them, Jenany smiled once more and asked her question very sincerely, it was difficult for the three of them to accept such an innocent and clueless person at the same time, just like Jenany proved to be, but learning that she is the niece of a Duke caused the three of them to be shocked for a few seconds.

*"Sara is the daughter of a Marquis, so we are used to noble people..."*.

*"The point isn't this boy, making friends with her might help you guys avoid the gallows in the near future..."*.

*"Jenany right? I introduced myself before, but in case you forgot my name, I'm Jaffrey...

... Would you be free from suitors?

I may be of humble origins, but I know I'll make a great husband..."*.

Maycon wanted to keep the Father and the Healer away from them once again, but Alcione insisted, declaring that Jenany could help them escape the punishment of the church, and looking at her, Maycon and Sara saw her smile once more.

Afraid of the gallows, Jeffrey thought that maybe the church wouldn't kill the suitor of a Duke's niece, and decided to try to woo her, making the Father laugh out loud at the plight of the young people, while Jenany hid behind him looking at Jeffrey suspiciously.

Maycon's bad mood against the two faded a little, and so the group tried to talk a little more, from afar, Father Alberto watched their interaction and Alcione with contempt, for now he would let things go that way, but later, he would like to deal with them personally.

Soon, almost an hour had passed since the exploration team had followed the mountain road, and from up there, they were able to see a large ancient forest that covered one side of the mountain, and on the other side, to everyone's surprise, a small forest gave way to a large apparently abandoned city that could be seen from where they were.

But far away from them, in the middle of the city, a large castle was the only place with any lighting, as well as the streets in its vicinity, everyone stopped to look at the magnificent scenery.

*"It's not abandoned as we thought...

... It must be the people who taught them."*.

*"And it seems that there are a lot of people there, do you still want to keep moving forward, Father Alberto?

I think we'd better return, if..."*.

*"Please stop it Father Alcione, we're not even close to them...

... And I hope this young man is taking us to where the information and studies on healing are..."*.

Father Alcione showed concern when he saw hundreds of lights in the vicinity of the castle, the place was still strangely quiet, and no animals were seen or heard during the hike up the mountain.

Alberto was determined to find any study on healing, for a moment he hesitated as he saw the multitude of lights in the distance, but with a quick mental calculation he deduced that the distance between the city and the mountain they were on would give them a few hours to explore the site, and he hoped Lucius wasn't circling around to waste time.

Lucius wanted to point to the castle and say that Father Alberto's objective was there, but he heard Father Alcione's concerns and heard Alberto's indirect threat, so he could only smile as he thought about what he could say.

*"We did it, we just need some distraction to try to escape...

... Maycon, Jeffrey... One of you two will take the chance when the time comes..."*.

*"But what about you and Thomas?"*.

*"I'll stay and try to help Thomas escape, don't worry about both of us..."*.

*"You two really don't care about me, right?

I don't even know where I'm supposed to go!"*.

Maycon and Sara started to plot the next steps of the escape plan, somehow Lucius got a good place for them to lose the church men on a possible escape, which was a descent down the mountain between a forest of old trees.

However, Jeffrey had never been to the Inheritance before, and the two took advantage of the two Fathers' stop to explain to Jeffrey where he should go, and who he should talk to.

*"Father Alberto! I found a big house while continuing the way to the mountain!"*.

When Lucius didn't know what to say about the Father's questioning, one of the would-be soldiers who had continued up the mountain to explore possible dangers came running back, excited to have found a big house.

And with that, Father Alberto smiled even more.

*"Come on!!"*.