”You got me.”
Standing before me stood the faceless figure. Its face didn’t have any features, neither did it show any reaction aside from the smile of ‘innocence.’
Now, with the gravity pressing on it, the ‘thing’ was unable to escape as it used to. Yet, I knew it no longer had the intention to do it in any case.
“Was that fun?”
I asked, looking at the dark, faceless figure. Though its face didn’t contain any distinct features aside from a mouth, pair of eyes, and nose, I could see that his pupils shook for a second.
“….”
There was no answer for a second, but then it turned to look at me, raising its head.
“I had fun…..But, I still haven’t got my answer.”
It replied, looking at me with its eyes sparkling.
“Do you have the answer to my riddle?”
The voice sounded creepy while somehow its smile seemed ‘innocent.’
This whole idea of a riddle made me sure that what I was facing was a Spirit. Most of them tended to be unique, and in general, they had the tendency to be influenced by fairies, making them mischievous and attention-seeking.
Thus, I initially thought it was an evil earthen spirit, something that eventually mutated from a normal Earthen Spirit.
But then, I realized there were many things contradicting that. First was the lack of deaths. When Carl’s group was attacked first, the spirit had the ability to definitely kill the girl named Becky, according to Carl. He remarked that she was out of vision and Martin had already been affected by the clone for a split second.
Yet, contrary to what one would expect, the spirit didn’t kill Becky, let alone gravely injure her. However, at the same time, there was definitely an intent behind the attacks. According to Carl, he could even sense a remnant of madness inside there.
This was the first contradictory thing, making it somehow unique.
Secondly, the tremors that were created by the earthen spirit somehow lacked destruction.
Sure, the tunnels collapsed, but they somehow collapsed in such a manner that only a handful of people were affected. Though I wasn’t sure of this part, from the direction the seismic wave traveled, I noticed that its direction wasn’t into the mine but to the outer side of it.
This made even less sense; if it was an evil spirit, there was no need for it to hold back. Burying students under the ground, trapping them, and then savoring their souls would be a lot better and the most reasonable act.
Yet, it didn’t do it; it made the tremors so that people who were affected by it mostly fell into another tunnel.
This was the case for Carl and me, and it seemed Carl’s group was precisely targeted. These things made me think of a certain scene in my head, a small hypothesis.
‘The enemy I am facing is a remnant spirit formed in this place. Something had happened in there, maybe an accident. The person died with strong emotions still lingering, making it deflect the death fully. Their soul was still attached to this place because of their feelings.’
I thought. But, for such an assumption, there was an important thing.
‘For a remnant spirit to be formed and control the earth in such a manner, it needs an energy catalyst, and that catalyst is basically something that could be easily found here. That indicates a possible bonanza zone.’
If a place had a dense amount of mana in it, it was possible for the spirit to mutate and acquire the attributes of the mana around. And, under such mine, there was no lack of such locations.
This was the reason why I decided to track this spirit down, since by finding the source, I could basically find the Magic-stone bonanza filled with High-grade Magic Stones.
‘Then, this brings us to another problem. What made this spirit attach this place in such a manner? What is its origins?’
This question wasn’t that important. After all, I could easily deal with this spirit before me by just destroying it. Yet, at the same time, my intuition told me that I shouldn’t act rashly.
‘This spirit acts like a bipolar. It has madness inside it, but it doesn’t completely act with that madness. Does that mean something inside it restricts itself? The man that made it evolve contained a type of madness qualities, making it half-mad, but the inner soul is resisting it?’
This was the thought process that followed.
‘Then, I should act as it wishes, satisfying the inner soul and releasing it from reality. After all, its only attachment to this world as a dead person is its strong emotions. Once that anchor is removed, it can be satisfied, and the spirit will disappear. This is definitely the safest and least dangerous option.’
“….”
The spirit looked at me intently as if it was waiting for my answer. At this point, I had already reached my conclusion.
“Once lost below, now call my name,
In whispers soft, I’m still the same.
I linger on, in echoes thrust.
What am I, in this realm of gloom?
A spirit bound, denied a tomb.
Yet in these depths, my plea I cast,
To those who roam, in shadows vast.
Answer true, and find your way,
Through tunnels dim, where spirits stray.
For in the heart of darkness lies,
The key to break eternal ties.”
I whispered the riddle that was spoken by the ‘creepy’ voice. And then, looking at the faceless spirit, I spoke.
“The answer is ‘Forgotten one,'” I declared, holding the spirit’s gaze if one could call it that. Its reaction was immediate; its form, though featureless, conveyed a sense of shock, an astonishment that rippled through the very air between us. I hadn’t anticipated this answer, perhaps not from me, not at this moment.
“Was that correct?”
“It was.”
It replied.
But I didn’t halt at that revelation. Stepping closer, I saw its form quiver, a shadow amidst shadows, yet now tinged with an aura of vulnerability. “It must have been painful,” I continued my voice a whisper against the stillness of the underground. “Being abandoned in the tunnels as a child. Wasn’t this the real answer to the real riddle?”
The spirit’s reaction was visceral, a tremor that seemed to shake its very essence. It looked up, its face still a blank canvas, yet somehow now etched with an emotion that pierced the veil of its formlessness. “Why did you think so?” It asked, its voice a mixture of curiosity and an almost forgotten pain.
While I was pondering how to satisfy the spirit, I thought about certain things.
“This place,” I began, my eyes scanning the darkness that enveloped us, “is steeped in history and tragedy. Miners, men, and women who came here seeking fortune or maybe just survival had been your companions once. But your presence and your actions don’t speak of malevolence, not entirely. They speak of a longing, a desperation.”
I paused, letting the words hang in the air, heavy with implication. “Firstly, it was those miners. The ones you had conjured once I had entered this tunnel. It was where everything took place, wasn’t it? The place where you have been betrayed by the ones you had worked back-to-back.”
I took a moment to let it sink.
“Their voices were real, as they each were different. Those were the ones you conjured from your memories. From their words, I concluded that they were corrupted by something inside these tunnels. They attacked me, but initially, you were the one who was subjected to that attack.
Once in these tunnels, you were working, trying to make a living for yourself. But then, you found a special Bonanza where many different magic stones were gathered. You wanted to report it to your overseer, the one responsible for you. But maybe because you were a child, you were naïve. You didn’t have many people that you could play with; maybe you didn’t even know what it meant to play. Therefore, you spoke to others about what you had found in there to somehow form connections.”
I knew those feelings well. Especially the Astron of this world knew it a lot more. How it felt to not be understood and not to be able to speak to anyone.
“But then, this resulted in your end. It was because the humans were greedy. The ones that you spoke to wanted to get recognition for themselves since they saw this as an opportunity to fill their quota and leave as early as possible. But then, they decided to ensure you’d never speak of it again. They plotted against you, a child with no malice, only a desire to share, to belong. In their greed, they saw you not as a companion but as a risk to be mitigated, a voice to be silenced.”
I watched the spirit closely, its form now flickering like a candle threatened by a breeze. “They led you deep into the tunnels under the guise of seeing the Bonanza together, but their intentions were as dark as the earth that would soon become your prison. They left you there, alone, abandoned in the darkness. You called for help, your voice echoing off the cold, unyielding stone, but there was no one to hear your cries.”
“The madness of the stones, the Bonanza you found, it was real. It contained energies unknown, ancient, and capable of warping minds and hearts. Those miners, after sealing you away, sought to claim the treasure for themselves. But they were not left untouched. The madness seeped into them, corrupting their minds and turning them against each other in a frenzy of violence and paranoia. They massacred each other, their sanity unraveled by greed and the malignant force of the stones. All the miners here died because of that.”
I paused, letting the tragic narrative sink into the silence between us. “But you, the first to encounter energy and with a soul so strongly attached to this world, were transformed in a way none of them were. In your final moments of desperation and solitude, your essence merged with madness, grief, and the unyielding desire to live. It changed you, mutated you into something more than a mere ghost. You became a spirit, bound to these tunnels, fueled by the anguish and the unresolved torment of your demise.”
I stepped closer, my voice soft but firm. Somehow, regardless of it was logical or not, I wanted to satisfy this soul before me.
Rather than attempting to destroy it, I wanted it to leave this world on its own. To have the salvation that it wished.
‘She probably would do it this way, wouldn’t she?’
Thinking about her somehow made me bitter.
“But I see you now. I understand the depth of your tragedy and the injustice of your fate. Your actions, born of isolation and despair, were never meant to harm but to speak. To tell your story to those who would listen.”
The spirit, slowly started taking its form at the end of my words. Slowly, an outline of a young kid appeared.
The child before me had slightly dark skin, his body skinny, a clear sign of the lack of nourishment he had endured in life. His lips were a bit too large for his small face, but it was his eyes that caught me—the innocence within them, a stark contrast to the tale of betrayal and abandonment he had suffered.
He looked at me, a mischievous smile playing on his lips, and for a moment, I saw a glimmer of the child he once was, free from the burdens of his tragic end. “You’re like one of those detectives my mother told me about,” he said, his voice carrying a lightness it probably hadn’t in centuries. “I always wanted to meet one.” His gratitude was palpable, his small form bowing slightly in a gesture of thanks.
‘It seems his mother taught him how to thank others.’
Before the moment could slip away, I reached out, my hand gently ruffling his curly hair. “You did well, enduring for this long,” I told him while stuffing my voice with emotions if it even existed.
“You’re one of the strongest people I’ve ever seen.” The words felt heavy, laden with more meaning than I intended.
For a fleeting second, his face overlapped with ‘hers,’ the memory sharp, piercing through the veil of time and grief that separated us.
A single tear traced its way down his cheek, falling to the ground with a weight far greater than its size. The child’s smile widened, pure joy radiating from him. It was a smile that reached deep into the heart, touching something primal within.
“Un,” he voiced in agreement, a sound of contentment, of peace finally found. And then, with a softness that filled the cavernous space around us, he disappeared into nothingness, leaving this world behind.
Yet, at the same time, behind the child revealed the Magic Stones that were already mined, as if to give me a present.
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