Chapter 605: Led by the soul of the dead
Chapter 605: Led by the soul of the dead
Hope grunted, but to think about it again… the demon wouldn't let her die under the hands of her underlings, right? For instance, the demon wolves perhaps, or the troll?
Hope was unsure.
However, there was no harm in trying, or maybe there was?
"Whatever," Hope hissed as she took off her cloak and folded it beside her.Now, all that she could do was to wait, whether this would work or not.
When Hope folded the cloak, her fingers brushed against something hard inside the pocket, only then she remembered about the candle.
Hope took it out and stared at the blue flames. "Really…" she sighed in frustration. "I don't know what I should do with you." Since there was no one to talk to, Hope had a monologue to herself. "Why didn't the Candlemaiden make it easier? She could just give me something more useful, or something that can tell me directly where the priestess is, not a candle which I don't even know what it does."
Hope blew out the candle, but like what had happened, the fire still didn't go out.Then she lifted the candle in her hands at eye level, and pondered what she could do with it when the corner of her eyes caught something.
At first, it was just one flickering thing, but then there were two, three, and five—and in a minute, the whole place was filled with them.
The fireflies.
Hope was dumbstruck by the amount of the fireflies around her, this was twice the number of fireflies she had last seen and they were utterly beautiful.
Hope had seen them since the first time Kace and she parted ways with the centaur, but because their number was not significant, she didn't say anything about it and just thought it was only an ordinary thing.
Then Hope remembered the last thing she saw before she fell asleep, and before she was captured by the demon woman, she saw those fireflies too.
"What is this?" Hope whispered and asked no one in particular.
Some of the fireflies perched gently on the branches trees as the wind stirred them gently and some of it flickered around Hope.
"How beautiful…" her voice was a soft whisper. However, the thing that made her gasped loudly was when her eyes caught the blue flames in her candle turned into the color of red.
It could only mean one thing; the priestess was near.
But where?!
Hope whipped her head from left to right, trying to see if there was someone there. She stood up and stepped on a big rock near the pond that was made because of the waterfall.
Hope craned her neck and sharpened her sight and hearing, yet there was nothing.She was still alone there. The priestess didn't suddenly appear from the bushes or out of thin air, neither from the pond.
Hope clicked her tongue, annoyed. The last thing that she wanted now was another riddle. She jumped down from the rock and picked up her cloak.
When the beautiful fireflies flickered away right in front of her face, Hope realized the movement from them.
The fireflies that were previously scattered around Hope, now gathered in one direction. Hope tilted her head as she put the pieces together, and with hesitant steps, she followed the firefly in the same direction she had taken before.
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Just like what she thought, the fireflies wanted her to follow them, yet Hope was unsure where they were taking her, as she kept walking to the different part of the mountain.
But, one thing made her mood better, the fact that she was no longer circling the same area. This told her that her decision was right.
Hope didn't wear her cloak on purpose, maybe this way, Kace could find her faster before other supernatural creatures did.
And one more thing that Hope noticed was the more she followed the fireflies the more their number increased, and their light under the sun rays were akin to such a beautiful speck of dust that was glimmering, floating in the air.
"What are those fireflies?" Hope mumbled to herself as she quickened her steps to keep up with them.
She remembered a past chat with Ethan about the fireflies when Hope had just gotten a dream about Kace's beast.He said that based on ancient stories about the supernatural creatures, those fireflies were symbols of spirit, the soul of the dead.
Hope didn't know what he meant until she entered a cave where the fireflies led her to.
She was standing at the cave mouth when the wind shrieked through the hollows and gaps of the cave like banshees haunting a graveyard.
"Is there a ghost inside?" Hope hesitated to take another step, but then she shook her head vigorously, after seeing the demon itself, and surrounded by supernatural creatures, and had a life and death experience, a ghost wouldn't scare her anymore, compared to what she had been through. Hope was at the point where she would befriend with the ghost just so that she wouldn't feel alone.
Bracing her heart, she took a decisive step into the cave. The cave was built of the muddy brown rock of the cliff, the stone that was guarding the entrance, was jagged and uneven, arranged in such a way that it would be difficult for passerby to spot. If it was not for the fireflies that led her, she would miss this place entirely.
Inside, only the flickering of the fireflies that illuminated the dark place.
Hope moved around by following the damp wall of the cave with her hands, when all of a sudden, flaming torches sparked to life, lighting up the tunnel ahead and bathing the entire cavern in a flickering orange glow.
And the fireflies vanished…
Hope frowned when her guide disappeared, yet when she saw there was an open area ahead of her, she kept moving forward.
Only then, she understood what Ethan meant with the fireflies were symbols of the death.Because right before her eyes, there were thousands of carcasses scattered on the cave's ground.