The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 292: The holy stone

All of the women in the room looked at the voice’s origin, but there was no one there. They looked around again, but they still saw nothing. Was that voice a hallucination?

No, it wasn’t!

The women gasped as the walls around them slowly began to get dim and crackle. The air itself seemed to be freezing. The light bulb dangling from the ceiling began to slightly flicker and swing as if it was being haunted. It only shook a little at first, but it didn’t take it long to start moving and rotating to form strange patterns of light, casting harsh shifting shadows around the room.

The old priestess and Candy looked at each other and then began to slowly walk toward the door. They stopped moments later… Where was the f*cking door?

“D…Demon begone!” the teenage girl, Rea, suddenly yelled, surprising the others. She was forming a strange seal with her fingers.

There was a flash of light and a bang.

The light bulb shattered turning the room dark. The only light sources were now the full moon shining through the window and two flickering red eyes that had been hidden until now.

The Priestess and Candy gasped in surprise, but before they could speak, the demon that was seemingly still alive did.

“IF I WERE SOMEONE ELSE, THAT WOULD HAVE REALLY HURT, YOU KNOW…” The cold sound said solemnly as the three women began to feel cold, freezing cold as they looked into his eyes.

Now, they could see the demon at last. It crawled from the darkest corner of the kitchen, where they usually keep the garlic.

It was a tall demon with white flowing silky hair and two long horns. It stepped lightly on the wooden floor tiles without making a sound as if it was floating in midair. It looked at the women coldly as the already dim room turned dimmer.

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA……..” Candy screamed seconds later and then passed out after wetting herself. She dared to look him straight in the eyes!

“De… Demon, w… wha…what b..b..b…brings you… here…?” the middle-aged priestess asked, stuttering as she shook in fear. She was scared shitless.

“ARE YOU THE SHRINE’S MAIDEN?” the demon asked.

“No it’s her!” the priestess said, pointing to Rea. She didn’t even hesitate to sell out the teenage girl.

“THEN WHY ARE YOU STILL AWAKE?” the demon asked. The priestess didn’t reply, she just gasped in shock before passing out and falling into the newly formed ‘pool’ on the ground.

The demon turned and looked at Rea, who was trying hard and failing not to shake in fear. She was more composed than the other two… not by a lot though.

“TAKE ME TO THE STONE, GIRL!” the demon ordered.

“...” She expected him to say that, but she was not sure what to do.

“DO YOU REALLY WANT TO MAKE THE NUTCRACKER REPEAT ITSELF?” the Nutcracker asked.

Rea frowned… This would be risky!

“F..follow…me…” she said carefully as she bit her rosy lip then turned around without caring for the demons and reached out for the door in the dark… It was there as she expected.

Demons couldn’t alter the physical world this easily after all. Despite her lack of experience, she had the knowledge.

She had long realized that it was an illusion. She just needed to find the demon's real body.

“LEAD THE WAY… IF YOU DARE PLAY ANY TRICKS, EVERYONE IN THE VILLAGE WILL DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH… THE NUTCRACKER DEATH…” The demon said as the light bulb turned alive again making Rea carefully look back. The demon had disappeared.

Looking at the two collapsed women, Rea made sure that they were breathing before clenching her fist and walking out. She would be made to clean their disgusting mess if she survived this.

Walking out, she felt that no one followed her, but she was not a fool to believe that he was gone. She knew a lot more than anyone else in the temple did. The old shrine maiden who raised her taught her well and explained many secrets to her.

Although she had seen no demons before She knew that they existed. In the secret chamber where she spent most of her time, there were a few demons' remains kept with old books and parchment that she studied in her spare time. A shrine maiden didn’t have anything to do, to begin with… Other than cleaning the temple, that is. It was not her job, but that stinky priestess told her that if she wanted to eat, she needed to work.

According to the old maiden whom Rea inherited, this place has an extremely ancient history. She told Rea that no demon was sighted for the last 11700 years. The last demon in the records was a strange three-horned creature that tried to attack the temple to steal the sacred rock, but it was shattered to oblivion by the shrine maiden who used the same attack she did earlier.

After that, demons who were a very common sight in the mountains, completely disappeared!

According to the old records, a mighty god used grand magic to burn all the demons in the world so that humans can live in peace. After that, even if a demon managed to sneak into this world, it would not be able to use its powers or it would face the god’s wrath!

Not in her wildest imagination, did Rea believe that she would meet a demon in this day and age!

The one question she had now was what kind of demons was this? The fact that it escaped her attack easily and didn’t kill anyone until now was proof that it was not a low ranking one, but probably a very high-ranking demon who disdained to eat human flesh… This was troublesome, but as the shrine maiden, she had a duty to guard the stone.

“A…Are you… Are you to take the stone and use.. use it to do harm….” Rea asked sneakily, trying to figure out the demon’s purpose.

“... HARM WOULD BE DONE, BUT ONLY TO THOSE WHO EARN IT WITH HARD WORK...” The Nutcracker answered, its voice was as ethereal and rootless as ever as it spouted some nonsense.

Rea, who left the temple’s building and was walking toward a small hill to the side was surprised… he answered. What should she do now? Would he fall for the trap prepared by her predecessors?

She had no choice but to try and lure him there. Maybe she might try to get more info out of it… what if there were others?

“Are you alone here?”

“...” it didn’t answer.

“How were you able to avoid being burnt by the ‘God's wrath’?” she asked again, not expecting an answer.

“... I WILL ANSWER THAT… IT IS NOT THE GOD’S WRATH THAT BURNS DEMONS, BUT THE WORLD WILL..” He explained. “THERE ARE THREE METHODS TO ENTER THIS WORLD, THEY REPRESENT THE THREE FABRIC ELEMENTS! ANYONE WHO ENTERS WITH ANOTHER METHOD WILL BE ERASED!"

"Three elements?"

"THE FIRST IS SPACE, ENTERING BY FORCIBLY CROSSING THE WORLD BARRIER, THIS WAY WAS OPENED BY AN ACCIDENT A LONG TIME AGO, AND FROM IT MANY HAD ENTERED THIS WORLD. BUT IT WAS CLOSED AFTER THAT, LOCKING THEM IN… NOW ONLY DUNGEONS AND DEATH AWAIT THE INTRUDERS!” The demon said.

“This way is the one closed by the gods?”

"THOSE IDIOTS WERE ONLY VERY STRONG PLAYERS WHO WERE AT THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME. THEY TOOK ALL THE CREDIT… THE WORLD'S BOUNDARIES CLOSED NATURALLY!”

"Players?" Rea didn't really get it. but the Nutcracker continued regardless.

“THE SECOND WAY IS THE SOUL WAY, THROUGH THE ETHEREAL PLANE. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO CLOSE, YET NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO CROSS,” It said, “MANY HAD ALREADY CAME HERE USING IT BUT THE PRICE THEY PAID WAS STEEP. THEY SACRIFICED THEIR PHYSICAL BODIES AND NOW THEY EXIST AS DEMONIC SOULS POSSESSING INNOCENTS AS THEY LAY DORMANT IN THE DARK… WAITING…” he continued as if it was a teacher giving her a lesson.

“Waiting for what?”

“FOR THE LAST… THE LAST WAY, THE WAY OF TIME….IT IS FIRMLY GUARDED, BUT IS ABOUT TO BE OPENED ON TIME… THE RECKONING IS COMING...” he said, “THE DEMONS WILL FLOOD THIS WORLD AND FEAST ON HUMAN FLESH…”

“What? When?”

There was no answer.

The nutcracker remained silent, it didn’t answer any questions after that.

It took them 3 Minutes to reach an old rough stone built room that had a barred metal door. On the door, many old colorful pieces of fabric were tied, they were prayers offered to the stone inside.

Rea hesitated then took a key from a string around her neck and unlocked the door. She looked back, but there was no one there…

She bit her lip and slowly opened the gate while keeping her vigilance… Nothing moved around her.

“It… It is inside…” she said.

“THEN WHY ARE YOU STANDING THERE?” the nutcracker asked. His voice was still impossible to track.

“I…”

“GO IN!” the demon said, not falling for her trick.

Rea cursed inwardly and slowly walked inside the small room, where an opal-colored, fist-sized shiny round stone was placed on a velveted pedestal. It had a strange shimmering green light around it and was carved with intricate ancient symbols.

Rea just walked and stood next to it, swallowing as she secretly made a certain shape with her hand just as a black shadow slowly materialized in one corner of the room.

BANG

A blue bolt of lightning suddenly formed above the stone and hit the shadow causing it to vanish, but nothing else happened.

Rea didn’t care as she kept her fingers crossed and a barrage of more than 100 bolts of red lightning began to flash around the room. This was the protection array arranged by her ancestors thousands of years ago. Every shrine maiden had to learn to perfectly control it to protect this place.

The artificial thunderstorm stopped 15 minutes later, leaving a room full of smoke and the smell of burnt meat.

She could see it now, the demon's shared skeleton that fell from the roof a few minutes ago, it was like a small arm-sized snake with three eyes.

"A shadow snake?" she said as she approached it carefully, but seconds later the snake came to life, it jumped at Rea making her flinch and release a bolt of lightning, but the snake dodged as it passed Rea and reached for the stone.

Rea smiled inwardly then cursed as the snake didn't fall for the fake stone, but made a strange movement switching direction and heading down, it drilled into the ground under the pedestal.

“Sh*t!”

Rea gasped and ran toward the wooden pedestal. She flipped it, knocking the fake stone away to reveal the hidden ancient stairway underneath.

Rea quickly descended downstairs, nearly jumping over the stone steps that she crossed hundreds of times to reach an iron gate at the bottom. As expected, it had a small hole freshly drilled into it. That thing was already in!

She quickly placed her hand on the gate. It shone with purple light and then swung open.

The room inside was intact… The real sacred stone, shaped like a glass cube prism was still in its place.

"... Sh*t" Rea cursed again as she realized that she was fooled. She didn’t hesitate as she pushed the gate behind her to close and then activated her ultimate attack. She would surely die now, as there were no safe spots in the formation here. But the stone must never fall into the hands of demons or many people would die!

She was dead anyway if the stone got taken, as she would perish the moment she got 10 miles away from the stone!

Rea expected an explosion, but nothing happened…

Rea activated the formation again.

Still nothing!

Did she lose her powers?

"YOU ARE INTERESTING..." The demon said in his cold voice.

Turning around, she saw him behind her, looking at her with his burning eyes. He was back to his large demonic shape. The sacred rock was in his hand. His purplish blood shone on its surface.

"THANKS FOR GUIDING ME HERE….." he began to speak but was interrupted as Rea took out a dagger and attacked him aiming for his heart then shifting her target and slashing at his throat. She had realized why she lost her powers, that thing has gotten the stone! Her powers came from the stone as she was its servant after all!

The sound of metal hitting metal could be heard after that as sparks flew everywhere… The 'holy' dagger was barely scratching the demon's neck.

"INTERESTING… " he said.

Rea attacked again and again, aiming at every part of the demon's body from his eyes to his butthole, but no matter where she struck, it was as if there was a thin film guarding his body.

"IT'S GETTING BORING NOW…" he said, "LET'S MAKE IT MORE INTERESTING!" He added as he jumped on her intending to... It paused and looked toward the door.

BANG!

The demon exploded!

It was hit by a ball of black fire that came from the gate. It was slightly open as a young man stood there. He was wearing simple clothes and had short disheveled hair. Yet the heroic air around him was undeniable!

"It's you!" Rea said. It was the young man who came this afternoon to pray at the temple. “You can shoot fire? Are you a demon too?”

"I am perfectly human! And I already told you to call me, Rain," he said, sneakily reminding her of his name. "Think of me like a wizard! Are you ok?"

"Yes… Why did you return?" she didn’t fully believe him.

"You told me that you never tasted cupcakes before, so I brought you some..." he said, raising a plastic bag in his hand as he slowly approached her while keeping his vigilance.

"Watch out… The demon! It can use illusions… It may still be alive," Rea warned as she stepped back, she was still alert.

"I know… I can still feel it's presence… But it was badly hurt!" The young man said with a smug smile as he took out three talismans and activated them. A screeching sound filled the room, making Rea put her hands on her ears as she felt them hurt… the pain was temporary as rain quickly put a talisman on her back, making her stop hearing that sound.

Rea wanted to thank Rain, but stopped and focused on the corner of the room where a shadow began to form… It was the NUTCRACKER, It was standing with difficulty and from the look in it's eyes, she knew that it was not pleased with them at all.