Chapter 325. Why Of All Things (3)

After reading the whole message, Chi-Woo spoke.

“It’s an acrostic.”

“An acro…bat?”

There was a slight error in the translation, and Yunael tilted their head, confused.

“Look at the first letters of each sentence, connect them, and read it aloud.”

“D…O…N…T… O…P…E…N?” Yunael’s eyes widened. “Ah, that’s why!” They clutched their head in realization and scowled.

“Besides this, is there nothing else about the ritual?” Chi-Woo asked. Yunael’s eyes rolled around once before they answered.

“Ah…yes. The mission of this expedition was just to get the fire pit. I was also curious about that and asked, but I didn’t pay that much attention.”

“Could you at least tell me what you recall? I’m curious what kind of ritual it is.”

“Hm, how should I describe it? It was simpler than I expected it to be. Ah, it starts when a person arrives at the destination and burns incense. Then you have to put the preparations you brought upside down on the center of the altar, put a stake on top, rotate it three times to the right, and chant three times, ‘I am a sacrifice for you.’ Then you rotate the stake three times to the right again…”

Chi-Woo’s brows furrowed deeper the longer he heard Yunael’s explanation.

“…Then you push the stake hard onto the ground, clap three times, bow three times, declare yourself an offering, and pluck out the incense you burned in the beginning and stick it to the ground upside down—”

“What are the preparations?” Chi-Woo mentioned.

“Sorry?”

“You said one of the steps was to ‘put the preparations you brought upside down’.”

“Well…” Yunael pursed their lips. They sounded a little anxious when they spoke up again because of Chi-Woo’s narrowed eyes. “Why do you ask?”

“Hm…I just thought it was a bit strange.”

“W-What is strange?”

“It might be menial…but the steps of this ritual are strange—at least according to the standard from my world,” Chi-Woo replied. In ceremonies for paying respects to gods or dead ancestors, alcohol and incense held great significance. Alcohol signified the earth’s energy, while incense or scent signified the sky’s energy. There existed an order to things as determined by the heavens. The four seasons were one such example—winter came after autumn, and summer came after spring. And if one designated the different seasons to the four cardinal directions, the left side was spring.

Thus, when one conducted a ceremony of this kind, one had to rotate the drinking glass clockwise. It was believed that only then would the one holding the ritual be able to call upon their ancestor’s energy from the heavens and cleanse the alcohol. But according to what Yunael said, everything was the opposite. It was as if the ritual was meant to defy the heavens and turn the earth upside down. There was no way something like that would be done without a sinister purpose.

“What if perhaps…the Kobalos tribe has some other motive and is trying to make us their sacrifices…?” Yunael asked.

“I don’t think that’s the case. They told us that they would take care of finishing the ritual, and we only need to retrieve the fire pit,” Chi-Woo said.

Given strange things had been happening one after another since they entered this place, it was understandable that Yunael would have such doubts; but Chi-Woo disagreed. Nevertheless, he did feel bothered by the messages and the steps of the ritual. He thought something had been off from the very beginning, which was why he was more sensitive than usual. Nevertheless, he couldn’t come to any hasty conclusions yet since this was Liber and not Earth. Still, Chi-Woo got an inkling of what he should do from here on out.

“Then…what are we going to do?” Yunael asked warily.

“Let’s try—” Chi-Woo arched his neck and interlocked his fingers to stretch his shoulders. “—Going in first.”

“What? I mean, of course we should go in, but—”

“Let’s go then. There’s no need to waste any more time,” Chi-Woo said. Yunael stared intently at him as Chi-Woo stomped towards the door. They thought Chi-Woo would’ve at least shared the messages with everyone and given a warning or two. How could he just go in so brashly? It was as if he was acting like…them? Yunael turned to look back at one person instinctively and saw Dulia also looking at Chi-Woo in surprise and turning to them. The two’s eyes met then. They were about to say something, but quickly closed their mouths to follow Chi-Woo when they heard Chi-Woo open the door.

“Captain, shouldn’t I be at the front?” Dulia asked Chi-Woo.

“It’s fine.”

“But still, I’m the head.”

“You must know from experience that this is no ordinary space. Thus, I will take the lead.”

Dulia looked slightly dissatisfied by Chi-Woo’s decision, but heeded it in the end. As Chi-Woo said, this was the strangest place in the basement. Though they felt worried, they decided to believe in the leader of Seven Stars and what Chi-Woo had shown until now. Thus, the expedition team entered the deepest part of the basement.

There was a passageway as soon as they entered. Not long afterwards, they found paintings on both sides.

“Don’t meet any of their eyes,” Yunael said to Chi-Woo when he didn’t say anything. “Keep your head down and only look at the ground. Don’t look up at the paintings.” After a while, Yunael came to a halt when their head collided with something. They looked up to see Chi-Woo standing still before them.

“Why—” Yunael asked in a whisper and looked horrified. Chi-Woo was examining a painting he had taken off the wall.

“W-W-W-What!?”

“Hm, ah, you’re talking about this?” As Yunael failed to finish their sentence while pointing at the painting, Chi-Woo turned the painting to them.

“It’s a portrait.” As Chi-Woo said, it was a realistic portrait that looked like it was drawn with pastels, and in the picture, there was a graceful-looking lady with ocean-blue hair and a faint smile.

“The eyes!” Yunael gasped in shock. “I just saw the eyes…! The eyes…!” They couldn’t even speak properly. They had clearly witnessed the lady glance up at Chi-Woo and look down again.

“Did they move?” Chi-Woo turned the painting back to his direction and stared at it. Yunael couldn’t understand his carefree attitude.

“Hmph.” Chi-Woo raised his thumb and middle finger in a v-shape and pierced through the portrait lady’s eyes. Yunael became speechless.

“How about this? Now you wouldn’t care whether you meet eyes with her.”

It wasn’t just Yunael. All the expedition team members looked too stunned to speak at Chi-Woo’s bright smile. For some reason, Chi-Woo felt like a whole other person. It didn’t seem completely far-fetched to suspect that Chi-Woo was perhaps possessed.

“W-Wait,” Yunael stammered. “There’s blood…!” Tears of blood were flowing down the portrait lady’s pierced eye holes; besides that, her faint smile was stretching wider and becoming distorted. With these changes, the lady’s demeanor changed 180 degrees, and she now looked furious.

“Look at this,” Chi-Woo snorted and said in an amiable voice, “A pretty face became ugly. Why? Should I paint you a new one?” Bam! Chi-Woo smashed the painting and began to push it harshly across the wall.

Kkeck…kek…

Perhaps they were imagining it, but Yunael thought they heard strange groans coming out of the painting. The expedition team watched frozen as Chi-Woo continued his abuse. Even Emmanuel looked baffled. But indifferent to their reactions, Chi-Woo kept at it and flipped the painting over again. The portrait lady’s face was a complete mess then. There were gashes and scratches everywhere after being rubbed all over.

“How is it? Do you like it better now?” Chi-Woo smirked at Yunael, and Yunael felt chills running down their spine.

“W-Why are you acting like this?” Yunael gathered the courage to ask.

“What do you mean?” Chi-Woo asked after slapping the lady in the portrait.

“You are acting differently all of a sudden. Your attitude….”

“…My attitude?” Chi-Woo’s eyes opened slightly wider. Then he spoke while tapping on the portrait with his index finger, “You should only consider that when dealing with people who are alive. Is there really a need to have the right attitude when dealing with things like these?”

Rip! Chi-Woo ripped the portrait in two. At that moment, Yunael felt a pressure they couldn’t put into words. For people who didn’t know what Chi-Woo had seen and experienced since birth, or what feelings he had harbored because of such beings, Chi-Woo might suddenly feel very unfamiliar to them.

“By the way, it seems like the spiritual energy is really strong here because it’s so deep underground,” Chi-Woo said after shredding the portrait into tiny pieces. Then he picked up his charred club. “Let’s go. Don’t worry about your surroundings.”

Chi-Woo moved without any hesitation while stepping over the small pieces of canvas. Despite the tense atmosphere, the expedition team followed Chi-Woo wordlessly. Yunael also sighed and decided to just go with the flow of things. While following Chi-Woo, they looked around and wondered what had happened.

‘…Huh?’ It was then Yunael realized that all the portraits were looking in the same direction. It was as if they were all trying their hardest to not meet eyes with a particular man by looking far off into the distance. And in the end, the team safely went through the first passageway. Though they had definitely met eyes with the portraits, nothing happened, and no one disappeared. It was the same for the second and third passageways, and none of the things the messages mentioned happened.

For example, the messages stated that something whitish appeared in the second passageway. There, Chi-Woo said, ‘Did they say we mustn’t keep our eyes off them? Then maybe they will come to us if I close my eyes’. He proceeded to walk with his eyes closed. Astonishingly, the whitish figures quickly ran away and disappeared rather than approaching them. The situation was similar in the third passageway. Before they entered, Chi-Woo declared loudly that he would crush everyone inside to death the moment he heard a single cry, and they didn’t hear even the tiniest yelp while walking through the passageway.

It was only at the fourth passageway that the expedition team had to stop momentarily. The structure of the passageway was different from the others. Though they saw a door leading to the front, there were several tightly sealed iron doors on the sides. Chi-Woo looked at the doors on the sides and moved without hesitation. Yunael followed, but soon came to a stop.

—Help…

It was because they heard a faint voice from inside one of the doors.

“What’s wrong? Are you all right?” Abis asked. Yunael looked pale.

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—Save me…

—Open…

Covering their ears didn’t muffle the voices at all. Their head seemed to be ringing from the inside. Yunael opened their eyes wide and clenched their fists. Then they closed their eyes and let out the breath they had been holding. After inhaling and exhaling deeply, they looked back and forth between Dulia and the male hero who used to be part of their expedition team.

“Am I the only one hearing their voices?” Yunael asked. The two stared blankly at them and nodded. ‘That was what I thought,’ Yunael murmured to themselves and chewed on their lower lip.

Noting their hesitance, Chi-Woo walked back to Yunael and asked. “What is it?”

“I heard voices,” Yunael said while trying to maintain their utmost calm, “Voices belonging to my two missing companions.” Yunael’s voice shook slightly for a moment. “They asked me to save them. Help them and open the door to let them out…”

“You know it’s a trap, right?” Chi-Woo said.

Yunael sighed instead of answering. They knew that there was a high possibility of this being a trap.

“But it looks like you still want to try your chances.”

Yunael flinched.

“Can you tell me your reason?” Chi-Woo asked for the reason Yunael must open the door even while knowing that it was likely a trap.

“…This is the place.”

“I need more than that.”

“This is the place where the two disappeared.”

Chi-Woo looked a bit surprised then. This meant that Yunael’s team had managed to reach this far.

“How did they disappear?”

“Well…” Yunael hesitated, and Dulia snorted. This was what happened: after reaching this passageway, Yunael got angry that there was so much noise coming from the doors on the side. So in a fit of anger, they kicked the door like kicking a ball and opened it.

“Then what happened?” Chi-Woo asked.

“You know from the messages that this passageway isn’t one you can just go past.” This was true. The record said that before travelers could finish crossing the passageway, the door automatically opened, and they heard mysterious screams. “Thus, I thought it could be a…strategy to open each door beforehand and check what’s inside,” Yunael quickly explained because Chi-Woo was smirking at them.

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

“Why are you smiling?” Yunael asked.

“No, it’s nothing.”

Yunael was no idiot. They must have also realized after passing the third passageway that they wouldn’t encounter much trouble if they just went through it. Yet Yunael was hesitating to do that here for one reason: their two missing companions.

—What are you going to do about the remaining two!

If Yunael didn’t care about their companions at all, they would’ve quietly gone to the next passageway; yet they didn’t do that. Chi-Woo was happy to realize that Yunael had been sincere before when they said they were continuing the expedition to look for their missing companions.

“Which door is it?”

“Sorry?”

“Which one is the door you are hearing the voices from?” Chi-Woo asked again. After a pause, Yunael was about to point at a door, but stopped.

“No, I will open it. Please support me from behind.”

“?”

“I know that there’s something special about you,” Yunael said while raising their spear. “But that doesn’t mean you should take all the risks by yourself. I’m also a hero and a member of this rescue team. Moreover, it’s right for me to take responsibility for this matter since it was my fault these two disappeared.”

‘Oh, I guess they have pride matching their attitude,’ Chi-Woo murmured to himself and took a step back. After receiving his permission, Yunael boldly walked up to the iron door. They inhaled deeply and opened the door wide without hesitation.