Chương 160: 151. Feast for the eyes

A man sat in the only open spot—or rather, what was left of him. It was a withered, mummified corpse in a monk's robes. He was somehow upright, frozen in his last moment. The gray, withered face was still readable, an expression of surprise visible on it. The head was half-turned, looking behind him as if at someone standing at his back. There was also a wide wound going all around his throat.

The front of the robe was stained with a massive dark patch running from his throat down his body, but the tablecloth in front of him was pristine white, looking recently washed and dried just before our arrival.

"So we sit down and eat?" Darius proposed. We all looked at him, ready to stop the brute from charging at the food, but then saw he was smiling like an idiot.

"That might not be a bad idea," I said, looking back at the feast.

"Are you out of your mind?" William snapped at me.

"No—sitting down to eat—that's a bad idea," I said, shaking my head.

"But take the food with us."

"Sounds like a horrible idea," Luna said.

"You might have an abundant supply of food here," I replied, looking at her.

"But we don't. And that's not what I mean. Look closer," I added, pointing at the table. I approached the man and examined his plate. There were smears of food on it, as if he had just eaten something.

"I don't think it's the food that killed him," I said, turning to them.

"He seems to have been surprised in his last moments—most likely fell under the spell and only woke up as the blade cut his throat. Someone killed him from behind. However, he ate before that."

"What if the food summoned the killer?" William said, still skeptical.

"Most likely," I agreed.

"But look at the table and around you. We broke from the spell, and the entire place feels sinister, but the food still looks and feels good. I don't feel it affecting my mind. This whole place looks like a symbol of death and tragedy, but rarely do those come without some echo of heroism or hope. If this food symbolizes that, then it might be useful."

"Or poisoned," Luna said.

"Or poisoned. But this area is around the third to fourth circle—even if it's poisoned, we should be able to live through a small dose."

"And if it symbolizes something else and summons a creature?" I stood there with a sad smile.

"Then we're fucked. We can go on without food for quite a while, but how about mana?" They opened their eyes wider.

"Recharging magic in this place will be a pain—every scrap has to be wrestled from the singularity, and I'm afraid any magic that would leave a crystal will also try to join the place rather than us. I have one spirit-healing potion, one poison, and two more healing ones on me. How about you?"

"Three healing, one spirit, and one saber oil," Ophelia said.

"But they're all for me, so only top of the first circle." The rest also checked, and it didn't look good. Only I, Ophelia, and Luna were paranoid enough to carry potions with us everywhere we went. William was in ceremonial clothes and didn't take any, while Darius usually forgot those. I turned back to the food.

"It feels fulfilling in more ways than one. I say we try taking it and test it once somewhere safe." The rest seemed to look for a reason not to, but they didn't find any. We needed a way to replenish our resources, and this food looked like it could do the trick. We approached the table, with Darius and William at my sides, ready to answer any threat, while I extended my hand toward one of the plates. It held a Sunday roast. Overall, the feast looked like Sunday dinner for a bigger family—nothing too fancy.

I tensed as I laid my fingers on the white plate. Silence. I lifted it off the table and stopped. Still nothing happened.

"Can you move your ass?" Darius whispered.

"Tension's killing me." I took his advice and stored the food in the pouch. The opening was barely wide enough, and I got sauce onto the floor, but there was no retaliation from the house. I then went for another dish and another, until the two jugs—one with juice and one with what I think was wine. I took the wine jug with no problem, but when I went for the juice, that's when I made a mistake.

I lifted it, more sure of my actions now, but it turned out to be sticky with the sweet liquid, and it pulled the tablecloth slightly. The corpse by the table moved. It shifted to the side, almost falling from the chair. Darius reacted quickly. Before any attack came, he slammed his hand into the skull and took distance immediately after. The attack, meant to push the enemy away, instead crushed the skull, turning the corpse into dust and old bones.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. We all readied for a fight, looking toward the remains. I looked for any movement, but none came. We stood there, weapons drawn, spells pre-cast, for a few seconds more.

"I think it just shifted because I pulled on the tablecloth," I whispered. We held our breath for a moment before everyone relaxed.

"Holy fuck, don't scare me like that," sighed Darius.

"Pfff." Luna chuckled at Will.

"You've gotten jumpy recently."

"Yeah—jumpy to jump in front of you. I wish you'd jump in front of me, too." I said, looking to where they stood with a raised eyebrow.

"She's a vampire. She can take more beating than a weak wizard, like me," I added in a fake hurt voice.

"Yeah, but unlike her, you deserve a beating," he groaned, looking at my smile.

"Oh, how could you?" I answered, letting myself relax— —which turned out to be way too soon.

"Why have you disturbed our guest?" Four voices spoke from behind my back. We all looked at them. There the family stood, gazing at us with wide smiles literally carved into their faces. They were all dressed in elegant clothing, all ruined by an array of wounds—from snapped necks to cuts and burns. I noticed Luna, who was facing the direction they'd come from, also looked surprised, as if they'd just appeared there. The family raised weapons—kitchen knives and broken pieces of glass.

"Yeah, I think we're getting the fuck out of here," Darius said, but the family was blocking our way to the kitchen. This didn't seem to bother the dwarf. He turned around and, going for his sword, charged at the wall behind us. We prepped to buy him some time, but then I noticed it. As the robe fell with the corpse to the ground, the things in the pockets became visible, and there was something long and flat in it—like a book.

"The corpse's robe," I shouted as the mana aberrations charged us. They were around the third circle, their movements quick. Thankfully, they seemed to retain civilians' fighting abilities, as their attacks were telegraphed and easy to avoid. Ophelia took a step back towards Darius as William barred the way of one of the people.

"I'll go for the robe!" he shouted and dived forward. The little girl turned to him and swung a pair of scissors at his back. I took a step forward and cast a Shield, blocking the attack as William flew to the front. The boy then attacked, getting between his sister and me. To my surprise, he threw his broken bottle at my head. I ducked and fired Force into him, pushing him into his sister. The moment the spell hit the kid, the parents—previously in the back—moved into action.

William picked up the robe containing mummified remains and jumped toward us. At the same moment, a crash sounded from behind. The parents were quick, though. The mother arrived next to William and attacked him with a kitchen knife. Father went for me. The kitchen knife met William's dagger as the assassin skillfully redirected the powerful blow. I saw William's blade shine as it stabbed forward. The mother dodged, but it was just an illusion—the proper attack cut through her legs a second after.

I didn't have time to see how the fight was going, as I dodged a meat cleaver and answered with Cut into the creature's leg, also mangling it. But as the father fell, all I saw was the kid charging at me from behind his back. Before I could cast anything, the kids' another broken bottle shattered over Ophelia's knife, who closed the distance. Her movement was good, but she didn't anticipate the weapon breaking, and the shards of glass bit into her arm. I saw William finally break free and run behind us.

At the same moment, blood from Ophelia's hand coagulated into a ball and shot into the kid, flinging him away. We used that time to turn and go through the newly made hole in the wall. I cast two Shields into it, blocking the way, and felt something crash into the spell. But the moment it broke, we were already outside the house. Turning back, I saw the family standing in the office we'd broken into. They were all still smiling as they stood together, observing us.

I turned to the front only to see the rest frozen in their spots. To everyone's horror, we were standing face to face with a group of what looked like guards. They had the same uniforms as the men by the gate, but weren't human. There were five of them. They were humanoid only in bodies, while their heads were deformed. The man in front had a massive, elongated skull as long as his torso, with only a low mouth, while the rest of the space was taken by eyes—a column of many eyes, looking in every direction.

The four men in formation behind him were the opposite—their heads were missing from the nose upward, leaving a red, open, flat space as if someone had cut through their heads with a very sharp instrument. We stood in shock as the creature in front slowly walked forward. We couldn't fight them—there was no chance. There was only one way. We bolted to the side, hoping to lose them in a chase. I stayed close to Ophelia, praying to whatever listened in the abyss that we wouldn't have to run farther into the city.

I looked behind to answer any attacks, readying in my mind to go by the house with the evil aura. But there was no chase.

"Wait," I hissed in a half whisper and looked back forward. And when I did, I noticed that Luna was looking behind her back, but not at the guards, but at me. Clearly on edge. The rest also turned around, most likely to scream for me to move, but they saw the same scene. We stopped before the aura of the evil house we passed on our way here could be felt and looked behind. The guard patrol still stood in front of the house as the creature with the column of eyes approached the building.

He then tilted forward, letting his skull weigh him down, and his eyes slammed into the office-room window where the wounded family stood. His entire head moved from left to right as if he was trying to see inside through a foggy window. The open eyes dragged along the glass, leaving wet smears. After a few seconds, the creature straightened back up.

"Nothing to see here," he spoke in a confident, hoarse voice, using Latin.

"Nothing to see here," parroted the men behind him. Then, taking back their formation with the eye-creature in front, they turned around and left, going deeper into the alleys and disappearing around the corner. We all looked at one another.

"What the fuck," Luna spat, to which Ophelia nodded.

"Yeah," I groaned.

"Let's go back. I'm pretty sure this was more than an hour."

"And enough excitement," William added. I took one last look at the house and tried to remember every detail to make sure we didn't repeat that adventure in another house like it. We slowly walked back to the meeting place. It was to the side, away from the larger building and its dark silhouettes, but not directly by any houses. A small crowd was already there. Some were injured, some were sad, a few were crying, but also a few were excited and lifted up. There was a mixture of reactions.

Two groups were still missing, including us, and three of the present were missing a few members. The only constant in the crowd was exhaustion. We all really need a break.