Chapter 50: Meeting with Ferros
"You should know that I won't open the door." Walton's voice came from behind the door.
"I understand your concerns, but time is urgent, so I have to apologize to you. We will compensate for your door. Seville, kick the door open." Darien said.
"I'm very sorry, Mr. Walton, please move away from the door now to avoid accidental injury." Sewell stood in front of the door and said first.
Then he kicked the fragile door hard.
With a click, the entire door panel collapsed directly inward like the most fragile thin paper.
Behind the collapsed door, the room was dark.
"I've recently researched a new luminous dust made from fairy dust. If you have any allergies, please tell me immediately." Hawkins took out a handful of powder from a small pocket and sprinkled it directly into the room.
The whole room was sparkling with light. The fairy dust was very light and did not fall to the ground immediately. Instead, it floated in the air, sparkling with bright light, like a dream.
By the light of the dust, they could see the scene in the house clearly.
Darien's heart sank.
He finally understood why Walton insisted on not opening the door for them. It was not only because of the talking rotten skeletons outside, but also because the villagers here themselves had changed.
Walton and his family inside the door almost turned into skeletons, their skin tightly stretched on their skeletons, their flesh and blood almost consumed, they were like living zombies.
"How did you become like this?" Darien asked.
"We..." Before Walton could finish his words, a loud noise came from his throat, as if an invisible hand had strangled his throat, making him unable to speak.
Darien made a quick decision: "Smash it!"
Sewell and Hawkins rushed out from both sides, one running towards the amulet stone hanging on the door, and the other running towards the wooden statue covered with linen.
Grab the tools and smash both items to pieces.
Darien went to check on Walton, who had fallen to the ground and was touching his throat. The rest of the people in the house huddled together in a corner, warily huddling together, not daring to speak to them or move, but just curled up and shivered.
After the stone and the statue were destroyed, Walton stopped twitching, but he looked no better than before the twitching. He seemed to be dying.
Darien took out a suppressant potion, uncorked it and poured it directly into his mouth.
This potion has a strange effect. It can suppress all curses or blessings in the user, and the effect lasts for about three hours.
After drinking the potion, Walton looked much better and was able to sit up and talk to them.
"What are you hiding from us? Is it your god Ferros who made you like this?" asked Darion.
"No... We are just, just taking what we need. As long as we believe in him, he will make our fields fruitful and our bodies no longer infected by diseases..." Walton shook his head, not knowing whether he believed it or not.
"But you look terrible now. This doesn't look like you are blessed by God. You are dying soon, and you won't be able to rest in peace even after death. You will be like the pile of skeletons knocking on the door every night." Darien intended to scare him.
"Please save us! We don't want to die! Walton! We are all damn old guys, but, but the children are still young!" Walton's wife cried.
Walton, who had been silent, wavered. He grinned and said, "Every night at midnight we pray to Fellowes, and he will grant our wishes. But we need to be careful when making wishes. He can only grant small wishes, such as a good harvest, good prey, and even take away physical pain... But we can't make big wishes, or they will disappear."
Hawkins said: "Looking at it this way, isn't this just a demon disguised as a god? Those who want to kill are not good people."
Walton fell silent, as if he agreed with this in his heart.
Darien guessed that the village was unwilling to give up the benefits brought by Fellowes, thinking that if they made a careful wish, nothing would happen, but in fact, Fellowes only slowed down the speed at which it eroded them.
"Make a wish to him tonight at midnight and wish for him to show up," he said to Walton.
"You will protect us, right? I wish he would appear, but he can't hurt us," Walton said.
"I'll try," Darien said.
"We have to wait until midnight. It's still early now," said Hawkins.
"We have a lot of preparation to do, so it's getting late," Darien said. "Come and help us. Ferros is very powerful and we must weaken him. First, we must stop him from drawing more power."
So before midnight, they took Fellowes and knocked on doors from house to house, smashing amulets and idols under the horrified gaze of the villagers, until only the last idol was left in the last villager's house.
"Can you really save us? If we are blamed by the god Ferros..." a voice in the crowd said.
"I can't guarantee that you'll be fully recovered," Darien said. "I can only temporarily guarantee that you won't be plagued by the curse. Sewell, go get a bucket of water, pour the suppression potion in it, and have everyone take a sip."
"You are with the missionary! You are all here to deceive us! We can see clearly that the missionary is a monster in human skin!" someone in the crowd shouted.
The villagers, who had been relatively quiet, immediately became terrified. They were already very uneasy and had almost lost the ability to think. When they were provoked by such words, they almost lost all their sanity.
"You're all deceiving us!"
"I shouldn't have brought you guys back to the village in the first place!"
"It's over, it's all over, we're going to die."
There were all kinds of voices in the chaotic mix, and even low sobs, as if the situation was already irreversible.
"What am I supposed to do with them?" Darien was never very good at this kind of situation.
"You can tie them all together," said Sewell.
"I brought a sleeping bottle," Hawkins said.
"That's a great idea. Let's knock him out first and then tie him up!" said Darien.
Their voices were neither too loud nor too low, just enough for the crowd in front of them to hear clearly. The villagers were silent for a moment, then immediately ran away in all directions.
Darien began to chant a spell as rhythmic as a prelude to a poem, and immediately circles of light appeared under the feet of the running villagers, rising up and making them all trip to the ground.
Hawkins quickly threw the sleeping bottle in his pocket to Sevier. All they had to do was hold their breath and release the mist inside so that the people lying on the ground could sleep until tomorrow morning.
Walton, who was standing next to them, did not run away. Instead, he helped them shout, asking the villagers not to run around. Those who ran away were knocked down unconscious. Only a few people who trusted them more helped move the unconscious villagers to a nearby house.
"Is there anything else we can do?" Walton asked cautiously.
"You come with us, and the rest of you go back to the house. We will draw a protective formation for the place where you are staying, which can temporarily resist the invasion of ghosts or monsters." Darien said.
Although the remaining villagers were a little hesitant, they were much more cooperative than the others who had fainted. They took the tools themselves and repaired the fallen door.
Darian and Hawkins worked together to draw a simple formation for the house that could only last for one night. By the time they finished all this, it was almost midnight.
"In order to ensure your safety, you should also have some sleep. Everything will be over when you wake up." Darien took a sleeping bottle and released it into the house.
Several villagers who were still standing also fainted immediately.
Walton was the only one still standing awake, and Hawkins hung a heavy copper amulet with a pattern of wheat ears and laurel branches around his neck.
"I've never made a wish like that. I don't know if it will come true." Walton let them play with him. His skeleton-like body seemed like it would fall apart if he was pushed a few more times.
"We have to give it a try. If he doesn't show up, then we'll just have to search the ruins again," said Darien.
"It's such a big area, I don't know how long it will take to turn it over." Hawkins looked up and sighed.
Sewell brought a table from the house and placed the last wooden statue on it.
Darien took out a bottle filled with fine, snow-white salt grains.
He walked around the table and Walton, drawing a circle of salt around them. This was the most primitive protective spell, using salt to draw a line between them and evil creatures.
Primitive but useful.
"After you make this wish, stand here and don't step out of this circle," said Darien.
"I see." Walton nodded nervously.
Drawing salt circles alone was not enough. In order to be able to see the trajectory of Ferros's appearance more clearly, Darien took out frankincense and dried rosemary branches, placed them in a colorful spherical container, and lit them together.
The smoke produced by the burning rises straight up, and even if there is wind, it will not interfere with the trajectory of the smoke.
If a monster like a ghost appears, the smoke will closely follow its direction and provide guidance.
At midnight, a cool breeze blew away the gray clouds, revealing the moon behind them.
The white moonlight fell on the small village. Walton, who looked like a human skeleton, closed his eyes and prayed to the blurry human-shaped wooden sculpture.
"Respected God Fellos, the God who protects the village of Fellos, our beloved God, I am your loyal believer, Walton..."
Hawkins' glowing dust had been sprinkled around them, allowing them to immediately notice anything unusual around them. The missionary was directed to another corner far away from them, his hands still tightly tied with a cowhide rope.
Darien also drew a salt circle for him. He could choose not to help, but he absolutely could not cause trouble.
Walton's prayer was very long, and the long part of it was all praise for the god, as if he was really a most loyal believer, and was extremely pious in order to meet the god.
As he prayed, the face of the wooden sculpture in front of him became clearer and clearer, as if flesh and blood were about to break free from it. Fellows was about to come.
Suddenly, the originally straight frankincense smoke twisted.
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