"Hey, how are you... What's wrong with your body?" Akira tried to hold her but it went through.
Umi wiped her tears and she spoke the truth about her.
She told Akira what she was...
And she revealed...
She was a ghost.
Akira stood in shock upon hearing about her true self.
She was in a deep depression and worried that this could go on forever until she found hope.
She wanted to meet her family, but she was stuck in this form, exploring the area in a lonely and quiet place.
Her head started getting delusional as days went by, as she could hear the voices of her family and the people of her home.
It turned out that it was her hallucination.
One could not be free once the crystal was shattered.
When she tried to exit the dungeon, the barrier denied her the ability to do so. A barrier was formed by the crystal's magic. It had such a great amount of mana contained in the crystal that once shattered, the barrier would die. That was also why the dungeon trembled.
"So, tell me... What's the true story behind this?" Akira wondered, asking questions that he wanted to know.
"We'll talk later, we still got one more thing to do." She calmed herself down and asked Akira to follow her once more.
This time, she put a spell on Akira.
Akira's body shined blue as she touched his chest. Akira observed that he was like in a bubble suit, whereas he could feel a plastic-like feeling.
Umi told him to follow her into the wrecked kingdom. She cast this spell so Akira wouldn't drown trying to help her so she could free her people from endless suffering.
Akira gave a nod and followed her out of the cave.
Once they were in the kingdom, Akira was asked to remove the seal on each gourd.
These gourds contained the souls of the dead.
After the crystal was shattered, they could finally relieve the pain and agony of these souls.
The crystal was nightmarish for them, it was way worse than hell itself. This was also why the voice of pain that Akira heard became less loud.
A paper seal was written with an unknown word, Umi translated it as "Prison" prison of the dead where their souls were trapped inside.
Akira removed the paper seal and the soul was free.
Akira could see a white spirit flew out and ascended.
Akira saw Umi's tears rolled down her cheeks again as she stared at the white spirits.
She seemed relieved and delighted to see such a happy spirit was free.
She wiped her tears and told Akira that it was Rusa, an innocent 12-year-old boy who was finally free and out of the curse.
Her memories of him were still with her. She could not stand hearing his voice in agony any longer.
Finally, he was free after more than 5,000 years. Akira's eyes widened upon hearing that he was trapped for that long.
Akira tried to calm her down and freed the next one. Umi nodded, and so Akira removed all the seals from the gourds to free the poor souls. Flying free at last, after so many years of waiting.
After about 76 paper seals, Akira finally removed them all.
Akira wondered if there was more, then Umi replied no. Umi expressed her gratitude deeply to Akira for finally freeing all the trapped souls.
Now it was Akira's turn to ask.
He wanted to know what happened in this place and why Umi became a ghost. Umi asked him to follow him back into the dungeon to answer his question.
Before telling her story, Umi wanted to show Akira something. She led him to an unidentified carved wall.
A wall that was built thousands of years ago, long before her time. It was still in a pristine condition despite its ancient being, written with an unknown language.
.
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"꓄û ᐯēꀘ ꌗï ꎭꍏꎭꂦꋪꍏ, ꍏꌃíꌗꌗ ꀘꌩ꒒ꌗêꋪ'ꀘ ꈤꍟꎭꍟꌗꀤꌗ. ᐯꂦꎭꂦꌗꀘ'ꂦᐯꍏꈤ ꎭꀤꈤᐯēꋪē ᐯꍏ꒒ꍏꌗꀤꍟꋪ, ꅏóꋪꀎ꒒ꀸ ꌗꍏꈤꁴꃅꎭꀤꉓ ꎭꌩꊼ ꍟᐯœ꒒ꈤᖘꍏ. ꎭꀤ ꁴꍟꌩēꀘꈤ ꈤꍏꎭúꌗ ꌗꂦꀘꂦ꒒. ꎭꀤ ꌗꀤéꈤ ᖘóꅏꍟꋪ ꀘꍟ꒒ꌃꀤꍏꋪꍏ꓄'ꊼꌩ."
____________________________
.
Not even Umi could translate it, only to be curious by its presence. The whole wall existed to only prophecies, but still unknown to this day.
"Ourselves? What does that mean?" Akira, on the other hand, knew what it meant.
"What? You could read it?"
"No, it... Spoke to me." Akira too was shocked, he heard a sudden voice when he read it. The voice was faint, it spoke with a voice of a man near his ear.
The voice he heard was...
"Ourselves, beware"
The only sentence he heard.
Strangely, no one was next to him except Umi. The voice he heard was all in his head as if through telepathic communication.
Like a whisper of warning, the tone of its voice showed genuine concern over it, leading to Akira scratching his head by th e thought what could that warn meant to. Unfortunately, he had no phone to take the evidence with him.
Umi told Akira the reason why she wanted to show him this was dated back a long time ago, when she and her family once discovered this weird carved wall.
She never knew what it said, nor did her people or her family. Her father had told her numerous times about his story, about how one day someone would understand it. It was prophesized but not explained.
They protected the carved wall as if its their legacy.
The reason its existence was unknown; she never asked. All she knew was that it was kept as a sign of vow in her kingdom. Guarded with all their lives, just this, an unknown ancient carved wall without any translation to it.
This carved wall showed everyone's pride in protecting it, even if they had to die. But those deaths were proven worthless by those who killed her and her people.
None could even translate what it meant.
Even if they were threatened, no one would understand it. Umi didn't understand why she protected it. She thought of it as a promise for her family and her kingdom. Thankfully, they didn't destroy the carved wall.
She protected it until her last breath, the same as her kingdom. As a result of it, the kingdom was destroyed and all of them were punished through tortuous and relentless pain.
Umi clenched her fist into a tight ball as she bit her lips. She sought vengeance to the slaughterer for slaughtering her family and ended them by trapping their souls and torturing them, not even the merciful touch of death could save them.
With a deep exhale, she calmed herself down, and finally time she told Akira the context behind her trapping.
"Now, where should I begin..."