Sabastian exited the car he hired after paying extra for a detour

He discovered that there really was another Capela dos Ossos in Faro, a 2 hour 40 minute drive south of Lisbon

He was curious about what happened to him in Evora but was scared to go back. But now that he found another one, a much smaller one, he hoped to get answers

He entered the main church the Igreja do Carno and from there entered the courtyard where the Bone Chapel was located

It looked smaller than the one in Evora and he built up his confidence before finally entering

The crowd was smaller too with only a few people visiting the place

He had felt the same sense of foreboding as before, but now it sort of felt welcoming, like something was calling him

He entered the entrance and found the same pressure coming over him

But it was more bearable perhaps because of the smaller size

Because he felt that he could bear it, he stumbled forwards towards the altar, suddenly the skulls opened their mouths

"Shit.. it really did happen" he thought

Black smoke shot out of the skull mouths and shot right at Sabastian's face like before

As the black inky smore gathered and shot into his mouth. nostrils and eyes, he fell to his knees this time

This place was smaller being only maybe 20% of the size of the one in Evora and so the number of skulls and the amount of smoke was smaller too

The Capela dos Ossos in Evena had over 5,000 skulls and skeletons while this one had only over 1,000

Thus it didn't take as long for the smoke of all the skulls to enter his face and he fell to his hands and knees

After several minutes, he was finally able to stand

Several people were around and probably assumed he was worshipping the skulls on his hands and knees or something

He got up and stumbled out like a drunk person

A priest shouted at him, but he ignored him to get to his car

He recognized a few words that the priest used in Esperanto, such as "drunkards" and "disgraceful" in Portuguese

Finally arriving at the car, the driver was already waiting as he knew the chapel was small, and that Sabastian wouldn't take very long there

But Sabastian looked in distress

"Are you alright?" the driver asked in good english

The driver was named Luis and was an experienced tour guide and hires his car out regularly for tourists around Portugal and nearby Spain

Luis spoke in fluent English, as well as several languages that he commonly used for visitors like Mandarin, Japanese and Indonesian. Of course he spoke the local languages well such as Portuguese, Spanish and French

When he told Sabastian about the Bone Chapel in Faro, he told him that although Faro was about 2 hours 40 minutes to the south of Lisbon, the trip to Madrid from Faro only took 7 hours as compared to Lisbon-Madrid which would take 6 hours 30 minutes!

This was why Sabastian agreed to take such a detour to satisfy his curiosity

As the car drove off, Sabastian sat silently in the car, now sure that what he saw and felt was not a figment of his imagination

The black smoke was experienced both in the Bone Chapels of both Evora and Faro!

But what did it mean? Why did it only happen to him?

The journey took them to Seville, Spain before heading to Madrid, and Luis took an hour break for lunch and a toilet break, and for them to stretch their legs

As they drove off again to resume their journey, Sabastian asked Luis about the history of the Bone Chapels, hoping to find out more about them

Both bone chapels were created in different times, with the one in Evora created by the Franciscan monks in the 16th Century Counter-Reformation, and the one in Faro by the Carmelite monks in the early 19th Century due to the overcrowded cemetery

Sabastian frowned, not finding a common reason for both chapels, and wished he could find out more

"Hey, there is another place similar to a bone chapel. There is a famous Ossuary in Wambo, Spain. It's only a half hour longer if we take another route from the E308!" he said

Sabastian didn't think twice as it wouldn't effect the journey time too much

Sabastian had been in contact with his friends on his phone since he was in the hospital in Evora, and had been keeping track of where they were on Whatsapp

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They had been sharing their photos and experiences and literally watched the photos of them having fun in Madrid

He happily told them about his discharge and informed them about his trip to meet up with them. Although he couldn't fly, he told them that he had gotten a driver and that it didn't cost that much, although his ticket to Madrid had to be forfeited

"What? Why are you going to Wamba?" Camie asked on their chat

"I want to see something the driver told me about" Sabastian typed

"What?" Jean asked

"I heard about the Medieval Ossuary there" Sabastian said

"What? Are you crazy? Do you like death or something?" Tanya chimed in

"No. I am just interested, that's all" Sabastian said

"Are you trying to prove something? Remember what happened at that Bone Chapel?" Camie asked, seemingly angry

"No. I just want to check something" Sabastian said

"What time are your arriving? We.. I'll meet you there" Camie said

"Oh, someone's in trouble now" Davis chimed in

"The driver said it would take another 2 hours" Sabastian said

"Just you wait" Camie answered

"What the hell is her problem? Although she did save me, she was being too bossy" Sabastian thought to himself

But at least he felt cared for, he smiled

This phenomena with the skulls, he wanted to get to the bottom of. It seemed like it only affected him, but while the first Bone Church overwhelmed him and literally killed him, the subsequent one actually made him feel better

He noticed this during lunch when Luis mentioned that his eyes looked better. He rushed to the bathroom to check and found that not only did his eyes already recover, but his chest no longer hurt too!

What was going on? Not only did he come back from the dead, but he was healing at a supernatural rate too?

What he didn't realize was that he had absorbed the energy of the dead from both Bone Chapels, numbering over 6,000 souls which boasted his vitality, it also had given him special abilities

While he now could absorb dead bodies' death energy, these skeletons had been disturbed by the monks and were disrespected, being turned to mere decorations and becoming a tourist attraction

They apparently were extremely unsatisfied and thus were attracted by the first person of such abilities they could find

Sabastian didn't know why he was such an attraction for the dead, but unknowingly he was possessed to read a tome in the Biblioteca Joanina, the Coimbra University Library!

The tome was ancient, having been in existence even before the founding of Coimbra University in the 13th Century, and had somehow been moved to the new site when the University moved in the 16th Century

This means that it was more ancient than the Capela dos Ossos in Evora that was established in the 16th Century, or even the more recent Capela dos Ossos in Faro which was established only in the 18th Century

The tome belonged to an ancient necromancer who was hunted down and killed by the Catholic Church in the 10th Century, but somehow the Tome survived and was brought to the Coimbra University!

Sabastian had found it behind one of the shelves on the top floor, and found it interesting as it seemed to contain an ancient language

He didn't know why such a tome wasn't under lock and key and tried to decipher it with his Esperanto, which was completely useless

This was when that the tome suddenly lit up, filling his head with ancient knowledge, and caused him to pass out until the librarian woke him

By then, the tome had hidden itself again, and Sabastian had lost all memories of ever finding or even reading the tome

--

"Will you be alright, my friend?" Luis asked as he dropped Sabastian with his backpack, which was his only luggage at the Church of Santa Maria

"I will be fine. My friends are meeting up with me here, and I will follow them back" Sabastian said, paying him double what they had originally agreed

This was because Sabastian had changed the destination and route several times. From Lisbon, Portugal to Madrid, Spain, he had changed the course to Lisbon-Faro, which was an extra 2 hours 40 minutes

Then from there, they were supposed to go from Faro-Madrid which would take 7 hours instead of the original Lisbon-Madrid which would only take 6 1/2 hours.

Then he changed his mind again halfway, going from Faro-Madrid which would take 7 hours to Faro-Wamba which would be 7 1/2 hours which was an addition of 1/2 hours

So instead of just a simple trip of 6 1/2 hours, the trip took 10 hours 10 minutes!

Sabastian felt he deserved the money plus a tip and Luis thanked him for it

It was already late in the evening, near closing time but he had barely made it

He felt the same uneasiness, which warned him of the same phenomenon happening to him, but he walked into the church with a grim face

After entering the church, he found the small door of the Ossuary in one of the cloisters of the church

Above the door was a sign that Sabastian translated using Esperanto

It read "As you see yourself, I saw myself too. As you see me, you will see yourself. Everything ends in this. Think about it and you won't fell into sin"

Instead of feeling dread, Sabastian gave a sly smile

What is it with all these ominous warnings? He had already survived death, so these warnings now meant nothing to him

He walked fearlessly into the ossuary and saw that about 1000 skulls and bones lined the wall in the crypt, all taken from the graves of hundreds of villages from the 12th to the 18th Century

It wasn't as decorated as the bone churches, but they gave the same feeling of awe and dred

He walked up the metal walkway and stopped at the railing where the path ended

Suddenly the mouths of the skulls opened and a black cloud started shooting out of their mouths

"There it is" Sabastian said, bracing himself on the railing and dropping his backpack on the metal floor

He wasn't scared now, knowing that he won't be harmed

1000 or so skulls were roughly the same number as the Bone Church in Faro and he knew he could handle this number

The black cloud swarmed into his orifices as his whole body shook, but he held on tight to the railing, refusing to fall

It took a few minutes, but he had absorbed all the black mist from the skulls

Sabastian stood still, his eyes closed as he felt he needed to "digest" the souls that entered him

He felt recharged, but he didn't move as he felt unsteady from all that had happened

Suddenly, a hand touched him and he unsteadily turned around

"Sabastian?" Tanya asked and hugged him when he stumbled towards her

"Tanya? What are you doing here?" Sabastian let her go and steadied himself on the railing

"We said we were going to meet up, didn't we. The rest are here too but we had split up to look for you as the place was closing for the night" Tanya said as her face seemed to getting nearer and nearer to his

"Oh... " Sabastian said, creating space by bending over and picking up his backpack

Tanya held his hand, her fingers intertwining with his and pulled him towards the exit

"What is it with all these girls. They seemed to be so touchy" Sabastian noted. Camie was different too since coming to Europe

They met up with the rest and Camie scolded Sabastian for coming here

"You didn't have to come here for me. I just wanted to see something and I would have met up with you guys in Madrid" Sabastian said

Camie grunted unhappily and surreptitiously pushed Tanya away and hugged his arm possessively

Theresa didn't seem pleased seeing Tanya holding hands with Sabastian earlier, and was even more unhappy to see Camie holding his arm now

"Alright, alright. Now that we're here, lets look for dinner. We will take a few cabs back to Madrid after" James said, trying to calm the girls down

"Shit! Why is Jean looking at me like that? What did I do?" James wondered to himself