The journey to Venus took 4 days on foot and they were on their third day. It was rather peaceful apart from the occasional trouble from wild animals nothing that Aldrian couldn't take care of. The landscape was beautiful and Nigel quietly took it all in with a small smile on his face, the lush forests and the beautiful sounds of nature were all he was focused on currently
"If only you were here with me mom." He thought, surprisingly both hope and aldrian did not speak much on their journey which was a good thing for him since he was not used to socializing with people, from a distant he could hear sounds of people talking, ever since the storm his hearing was extremely sharp and despite the cold weather he did not feel the cold at all, his resistant to the cold had increased. And it was not the only thing that had improved, he could now perfect predict the weather with perfect accuracy and since they were near the end of summer it was raining a lot, but that did not matter since in denta it was always raining. So it felt like a stretch to say it was weather predicting when the weather pattern never changed, they would always stop by rivers or lakes in order to bath and both of males would keep watch when hope was the one bathing.
"Do you guys hear that?" Nigel stopped and asked, hope and aldrian exchanged gazes before simultaneously shaking their heads
"What do you hear?" Aldrian asked his eyes scanning their surroundings, Nigel hesitated thinking he must be hearing things but then he could almost make out the conversation he was hearing, but instead he replied with "Nothing, let's continue moving."
After an hour of walking a small village came into view, but it seemed abandoned, the streets were now overgrown with weeds and wildflowers. The houses, built from stone and timber, stood like ghosts of their former selves, their roofs sagging and windows broken, with wooden shutters hanging askew.
The heart of the village, the market square, lay empty. The stone fountain stood dry and cracked. Wooden stalls, where merchants had once displayed their wares, were now empty, some toppled over and others covered in a thick layer of dust. The square, once filled with the sounds of the villagers was now filled by the whispers of the wind.
Nigel's gaze fell upon the inn, "The Silver Stag." Its sign hung precariously from one hinge, creaking in the breeze. The windows were boarded up, and the door stood slightly ajar, swaying slightly in the wind produce a creaked as it swayed.
The communal structures stood as solemn, The Church of the Seven, with its bell tower reaching towards the sky, had fallen into disrepair. The stained glass windows were shattered, and the doors were off their hinges. Behind the church, the graveyard was overgrown, the headstones barely visible amidst the tangle of weeds and ivy. The group of three silently took in the village's appearance with different thoughts running in their minds, but Nigel could still hear voices and they seemed louder now that he was here, he could also here heavy running water.
"The are people by the river, should we go to them" Nigel asked,
"How can there be people by the river when this village seems to have been abandoned for months now?" Aldrian asked doubting Nigel's words but hope suggested they go look for the river.
With Nigel's sharp hearing they found the river in no time and they were all surprised at the scene before them, about a hundred people all dancing weirdly by the river seemingly in a trance, they seemed to be initiating a ritual there were standing in blood drawn circles, dancing with their arms held high, surrounding a woman who seemed to be dancing the hardest amongst them, her movements had a strange erratic charm to it that for a moment the group of three were almost mesmerized until aldrian cleared his throat
"This?" Àldrian frowned looking at the scene
"These must be the villagers." Nigel spoke slowly his eyes still focused on the scene before them
"What are they doing?" Hope's question was also the very same thing Nigel wanted to ask, both turning to look at aldrian who still had his eyes on the scene, feeling their gazes on him he sighed slowly
"I have encountered something similar to this a while ago, what they wre currently doing is call spirit channeling, by performing that dance they believe to be calling down their god and that said god will speak through the one I'm the middle dancing the hardest they call that one, Sharma. The Church forbids this and it is labeled as evil rituals and those who conduct such are punished to death by fire." Aldrian explained, Nigel and Hope stared at each but just then the "Sharma." Pointed towards them and she stopped dancing, the rest all turned to look at them and Nigel could hear hope swallowing hard.
"Lost children, come join us, our goddess invites you to praise her." The Sharma moved and spoke in a weird manner, her eyes seemed a little bit dazed, she resembled a drunk person, her nails were overgrown and her mouth was covered in dried blood. Observing the others Nigel noticed that they all seemed to have dried blood on their faces and hands
"I'm sorry but we are going to have to pass on that, we were just passing through." Aldrian responded turning around to leave but the Sharma screamed
"NO!!! Our goddess invites you to praise her,lost children." Looking back the Sharma had stepped out of her circle , the sky above darkened and a small wind kicked up.
Nigel's intuition told him something was wrong, the air around them thickened and aldrian slowly took out his dagger from its Sheath, hope took some several steps back and Nigel gripped his cane harder
"I said we are just passing through." Aldrian spoke through gritted teeth
"Since you have refused to show praise you will be sacrificed, food for the believers." Right infront of them, a third eye appeared on the sharma's forehead, the and the eyes of the villagers glowed with a crimson light, the eye on the Sharma's forehead started bleeding. Nigel, hope and aldrian all stared at the scene in shock and fear, Nigel's grip on his cane loosened and his knees became weak.
Fear had engrossed him, the scene before him went against everything he has ever known. The more he looked at the Sharma the more she seemed to get more and more terrifying her fingers transformed into horrifying claws her skin wrinkled up in mere seconds, her mouth transformed Into a maw with razor sharp fangs, the rest of the villagers had transformed into one eyed horrifying creatures covered in bloody hairs, looking at aldrian the man was frozen in fear, hope on the other hand had passed out right. The sky darkened and the wind howled louder, his knees became weak and his grip on his cane was almost undone but then a fleeting voice passed by his ears again
"Veiled in lies." The voice left as if it never came leaving Nigel feeling much confused, how was it that he was veiled in lies where as he could still clearly see the Sharma slowly approaching him in her unsightly form, the transformed villagers coping her movements from behind. How could this be an illusion? Taking a few weak steps back he tried to observe everything from a different angle but still nothing changed the Sharma was still coming for them, feeling lost and starting to believe that the fleeting voice must be him losing his mind because of fear but whilst in his doubt the voice spoke again
"Do not use your mortal eyes, use the storm's." With that the voice disappeared again looking around he saw no one else beside the three of them and the approaching monstrosities, Nigel's mind racing, he tried to make sense of the voice's words "use the storm's eyes?"what did that even mean but then he noticed how the wind seemed to have picked up even more and the sky darkened, looking up he was somehow reminded of the storm that ..... opening his eyes realization suddenly hit, apart from a healthier body he had gained some other things from the storm. The strange visions he saw, the strange inscriptions on his body, and that secret. But those were not the only things he got from the storm, he also remembered when the storm handed him a dark cloud that flew into his eye. Touching his eye he silently wondered if this was what the voice was referenced to, looking back at the Sharma she was now so close to him, closing his eyes in silent prayer [please work, please work] Nigel thought before his mind completed concentrated on the subject at hand, "unnveil the lies." His voice came out as a whisper but then
"BOOM!!!" thunder roared and immediately it began raining, black lightning arcs danced around his body and pure black inscriptions started appearing from the base of his neck covering his the left side of his face, opening his eyes slowly deep blue left eye had transformed into reflecting the darkened sky above, if one looked closely they could see lightning flash in his eye.
The scene infront of him shook him to the core "Oh my" his voice wss as low as a whisper but it failed to hide the shock and discomfort he felt looking infront of him.