Chapter 57: The Temple

Ishiki woke up with his head throbbing from pain.

He opened his eyes reluctantly, and stared at the wooden ceiling of the room he had inhabited for months now. Familiar grain patterns and cracks.

He slowly pushed himself up and yawned.

Yesterday had been a wild night. Who could have thought those dumbasses would actually open the gates to the temple?

’Those fools.’

Ishiki shrugged, not like anything weird happened. He had been somewhat paranoid about opening the temple doors and had spent weeks convinced that something profoundly ominous hid behind those sealed barriers. Something that shouldn’t be disturbed.

But as it turned out, there was nothing of that sorts. The seal had broken yesterday somehow, and the gates were opened.

With a dejected sigh, Ishiki stood up and walked to the bathroom to undergo his daily necessities. The people that lived here had a very intelligent waste management system.

’Let’s not think about such trivial things.’

After some time, Ishiki left his barracks and walked out, feeling the same cold wind assault him and the darkness greeted him like old companion.

He’d long since acclimated to the constant dark. The starless sky and the crimson or silver moons providing only minimal illumination that made shadows deeper rather than lighting anything properly.

He nodded and continued to the clearing’s center. There he could already see, a cluster of people standing.

’Crowd again… damn it.

’

As he approached closer, Alex and Filch noticed him and broke away from the group, walking toward him with expressions of concern.

“Ishiki, How are you feeling?” Alex asked in a haste.

Filch reached them too and smiled. “Let the man breathe first.”

Ishiki passed the smile back and replied in a composed manner. “I am feeling alright, thanks for asking. Both of you.”

’Totally fine. Why wouldn’t I be? I only got slammed into ancient temple doors by some powerful humans and then launched backward by mysterious explosion.’

Just then, he saw the princess move away from the group and towards him.

Her long, unkempt pink hair had lost most of its shine by now—two months in the Crimson Canopy without proper care had taken inevitable toll. Battle and survival weren’t conducive to maintaining hairs.

And still, her face remained as flawless as ever. Perfect features untouched by hardship that marked everyone else.

’Some people are just built different.’

The Princess stopped at respectful distance and offered smile that made something in Ishiki’s chest do uncomfortable gymnastics.

And then she spoke in a very lovely voice. “I apologize on behalf of the people who caused you problems last night.”

Ishiki froze for a second, looking at her smile. She looked… gorgeous in her armor suite. Like a battle ready warrioress, as opposed to a delicate princess.

’How… how can someone be so perfect?’

The thought arrived unbidden, accompanied by warmth spreading through his chest that had nothing to do with ambient temperature.

“Uh… Cough, Cough.”

Filch’s deliberate coughing brought Ishiki crashing back to reality with embarrassing force.

He looked around in confusion and mortification, feeling his face glow red as he tried desperately to look anywhere except at the Princess.

“I… Uh, Thanks. I mean no problem. I was in the wrong too.”

’Great. Definitely didn’t sound like brain-damaged idiot. ’

The Princess’s expression lightened, smile widening with apparent amusement at his flustered response.

“That’s very kind of you.”

The things went smoothly after that, the five guys who had fought with Ishiki last night all apologized to him. But he never acknowledged that.

His gaze sharpened as he looked at the five players. ’Only one of them would be problem. I can kill the rest with ease.’

Then blinked few times, catching himself mid-calculation.

’What am I thinking? I should know better than to let violent impulses control me.’

’This is how people become monsters.’

He sighed and walked to the front, behind the princess and the players who were going to explore the temple.

They had left the temple untouched because they didn’t have any thing to use as torch.

As if they were ever going to find something like that, at the end. A piece of wood was taken from a house and burned to use as a makeshift torch.

Ishiki and tree more people—The princess, Nina and Swirk, stood alongside with him at the wooden doors of the temple. The princess held the burning wood that would be their torch.

Nina was going in because of her unique skill that allows her to translate anything. They would need it inside to read the runes, if there would be any.

’Lucky me. Gets to explore creepy temple.’

“Nina… Listen here.”

Ishiki whispered, calling Nina closer. He leaned toward her ear, voice dropping to a dangerously low volume.

“What do those symbols mean? Is that actual writing or just random scribbling?”

He pointed toward the marks carved into wooden gates—symbols that had bothered him since first seeing them weeks ago.

Nina narrowed her eyes, studying the markings closely as the group pushed doors open with combined effort.

Hot wind escaped as gates parted—air that had been trapped inside for unknown duration rushing out like breath from sealed tomb, revealing the dark interior of the ancient temple. It smelled of… decay, rot and dust.

’This thing really is centuries old. Doesn’t look from outside for some reason.’

As they passed from external darkness into interior gloom—the torchlight pushed back darkness that had claimed this space for longer than any of them had been alive and created dancing shadows in the area illuminated in bright circle of dancing flames.

The air inside was thick and heavy, it made all of them cough up as soon they entered. Ishiki felt a weird sensation as if he was being watched by something.

And yeah he was constantly being watched by the admins. Speaking of admins…. Ishiki opened the window and focused on the Admin chat.

[Admin 72 – This place seems quite old]

[Admin 77- Looks ominous]

[Admin 292 – Nothing much is visible so far]

[Admin 185 – What was that written on the door]

seeing the last message, Ishiki was reminded of his own question too. He closed the window and leaned closer to the young girl and whispered.

“So? What did you find?”

Nina stayed silent for a while as if measuring her words with a dark and confused expression. After several seconds that felt exponentially longer, she strained to whisper—voice barely audible even in the oppressive quiet:

“Gods, Corrupted.”

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