Chapter 212 The dark rune village.[1]
Later, in the evening, Scarlet who could not stand the boredom of staying indoors to look at yet again more paperwork so she contemplated on the idea of maybe visiting the dark rune village. It possibly couldn't hurt to take a look a look around, right?
So, she went off to the underworld, on her own without Severus who was busy patrolling for soul eaters. It struck her while she was there that nothing ever changed in this realm, nothing that she had noticed anyway. The trees remained the same, always blooming season after season, the reapers dressed the same, the soul registrars retained the same uninterested gaze, the fish in the ponds and streams remained the same kind and size, soul pets chased each other around. Conversations changed, but not much else did.
Scarlet wondered then if the other realms were the same, did they look like this?
"No, they don't." A voice said in her mind. "The realms are shaped according to the will of the deity and the purpose they serve."
"Hello old deity," she said, and she looked around, just in case he was somewhere close to her. "Nice of you to invade my mind, as always." she finished with sarcasm.
"Well, you work for me and I can do whatever I want in my world. Just what did you think the underworld would look lie anyway?"?he replied.
"Dark, with fire everywhere and demons and screaming souls being burned by the eternal flames which will never burn out." she answered.
"This is not the final destination of souls my dear Scarlet, this realm can be equated to__, say a transit point in a long destination. You bring the souls, we send them off elsewhere for punishment, reincarnation or non existence." he explained. "Is there something wrong with the appearance of my realm?"
"No, it's beautiful." she replied. "I was just making comparisons to the changing seasons in the human worlds that do not exist here. I think maybe it's a good thing, souls of the dead do not take breaks because it's raining or snowing."
She was walking across a bridge which provided access to another part of the underworld realm, one she had not been to before. Along the way, she passed by other grim reapers that were heading the same way. More than a few were travelling in pairs, male and female and on their faces, they wore smiles. They loved it here, the underworld was their home for eternity, they were happy to live here unlike her who had yet to settle in and make this her forever home because of her human ties.
"Old deity, can we float or fly?" she asked randomly.
"We can do anything," he replied, then he laughed and added, "Well I can, you on the other hand have to become a high level reaper first."
"I don't__" she was responding when another reaper bumped into her at the end of the bridge which implied that she had reached the village. There was also a big black stone on which words were written, Dark rune village, our immortal home.
"Hey Scarlet," the reaper that bumped into her greeted with so much enthusiasm injected into his voice. "We did not think we would ever see you here before three hundred years in your human world lapsed."
"Hey Hawk," she replied, "I am guessing Ezrah told you about the life expectancy of the humans in my world."
"Yup, a couple of guys have asked her about you so she shared the sad news about your human husband and the question is always followed up by another which is 'how long is he expected to live?', he is probably over thirty so it should be two hundred seventy or sixty years but you will mourn his death for a while which is why I round it up to three hundred. Am I wrong?"
She frowned at him and pushed him aside, "Stop talking nonsense."
She took the first step into the village whose entrance was shrouded in mist which resembled a fluffy white cloud. The mist, when she entered it felt like air, there was no single sound within, it was as if she was standing in the middle of nothing. When she came out on the other end of the mist, she was met with a completely different world, a real world it seemed, an ancient civilization that was built on the peaks of high mountains and an endless ocean.
"Goodness gracious," she gasped.
"Yeah," Hawk showed up next to her and he said, "It's something else, isn't it?"
It was more than beautiful, the houses here were gorgeous crafted from beautiful wood, not concrete or clay but just wood, spiritual wood from the warm feeling she was getting. Some stood as tall as the mountains themselves, others floated on water and many floated above in the skies. Even though they floated, many remained in place just seeming to move enough to create the illusion of travelling. It was no small village, for it extended beyond where her reaper eyes could see, but at this distance, she could see a beautiful blue waterfall coming from the inside of one mountain and spirit pets were leaping from above and falling below, into the water. A few, were hell hounds even which surprised her, apparently they could have fun when they wanted.
Beyond the waterfall, far behind, she saw gardens, planted with many varieties of fruits she had never even seen. The vast gardens were being tended to by grim reapers and spirit monkeys, they were the pets that always stole Lythia's fruits. She always wondered where they came from and she had an answer now.
This village was beautiful, it had the kind of beauty which painters longed to capture and put on a piece of paper to be remembered eternally.
All the roads, foot paths and side walks she could see were lined up with beautiful flowers on the sides. Flowers, of many colors, some red, some yellow and others white.
The occupants of the village walked with smiles on their faces, many of them, using the blink skill to travel, disappearing from the roads in an instant.
Why didn't Severus tell her how beautiful, enchanting and captivating the dark rune village was?
She wanted to look further, and she took two steps in when she was bounced back by an invisible barrier that denied her entry.
"What is this?" she looked at Hawk. She was a grim reaper, this village was a home to grim reapers so why was she being denied entry? "Why can't I get in?"
"Did you not read the instructions."?he asked her.
"What instructions?" she asked him with a very puzzled look on her face for she had seen no instructions that he spoke of.
"Pay," he said, "Residents pay rent or buy a house or space and visitors must also pay an entry fee. Put an energy crystal in the open mouth of each head of the hound." he pointed to a very creepy looking statue of a three headed hell hound with blood red crystal eyes. The mouth of each of it's three heads was wide open, sharp fangs out and ready to bite.?There was something very life like about it, as if it could open those eyes, spring to life and immediately tear her throat out.
But aside from that, she was dismayed by the aspect of having to pay energy crystals to enter the village. The old deity really knew how to make them spit out energy crystals, no wonder he put that bracelet on her hand.
"So ridiculous." she mumbled as she paid the very expensive entry fee. Even the three headed dog was here as a threat, it was extortion.
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