Labyrinth of Shadows (3)

*Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!*

The hero's sword was surprisingly sharp and cut the ghouls down easily. 

I had no combat experience, but with a weapon like this? I slayed all the creatures present and became an actual hero of the town. 

The townsfolk looked at me with a shocked gaze and one of them pointed at me and shouted,

"The hero! The hero is here!"

Following him, like sheep, the entire crowd began chanting the same. They rushed at me and picked me up, throwing me in the air. 

I watched the scene with a calm gaze, not letting it get to my head. 

I was heeding the advice given by the old man from before:

"See nothing but the truth that hides, hear nothing but the silence that lies, speak nothing but the words unsaid."

I wasn't going to drown myself in useless vanity and kept a sane mind, capturing everything happening. 

The townsfolk seemed happy and eventually carried me to a tavern for drinks and celebrations. 

The mood was suspiciously jolly despite many people suffering in the hall the nuns were at. E

I was offered drinks but I did not have it. 

The people sang, danced, gossiped and had a lovely time, but I silently stayed at my table and tried to pass time without eating or drinking anything I was offered. 

As the sun went down and the stars began to reveal themselves on the vast canvas of space, I began noticing something suspicious.

The shadows.

It was the shadows of the people in the tavern that flickered and did not match their movements. 

With the sun going down, the people slowly left the tavern and went home, leaving me alone with a final few who were drunk and napping on the table. 

I looked at them, then their shadows, and found nothing wrong. This bunch was probably the unaffected one.

Walking outside, I saw a group of men laughing and chattering while holding drinks. Their shadows were flickering, and finding this suspicious, I followed them. 

All the way towards a dark alley they went and stopped right in the middle of it. 

I watched from a distance with my sword clutched firmly in my hands. 

"Haaah… it's getting hot…" A man said and tried to take off his tunic. 

"It is…" Another said and did the same action. 

Their shadows flickered intensely and in a moment, ghostly figures erupted out and vanished into the bodies of these men.

They turned lifeless and began acting like zombies. Slowly, they moved away from the alley and walked in a certain direction. 

I stealthily followed them.

Through the winding streets they went and to the outskirts they reached. Along the way, many more humans walking like zombies joined them. 

They continued to walk until they reached an abandoned, crumbling church stand. 

Many ghostly figures congregated there, their hollow eyes fixed on a large, ominous altar at the center. 

The altar was stained with dark patches pulsating with a life of their own. 

When I tried to take a closer look, all the figures stopped circling the air. 

'Uhh…'

Something wasn't right. 

All the figures slowly turned their heads and looked in my direction. More specifically… at me. 

Oh this wasn't right. This was definitely not right!

"Boy…" 

A chilling voice from behind made my hair stand on their ends. 

Like a startled kitten, I swung my sword immediately at whatever was behind me but hit nothing. 

I turned around again to see the ghostly figures and…

"Ahhh!"

A pair of hollow eyes stood a step away, gazing at me. 

I was startled once again and swung my sword, beheading the figure. 

[Ding!]

[You have killed a townsman!]

'What the—'

This was bad news. The person I killed was an actual person of the town and not a ghoul or a zombie. 

The moment the person in front died, a shadowy something leaped out of his body and traversed around me. 

"Boy…"

I heard the same chilly voice again.

Before I could run away, I found myself surrounded by more zombie-like townspeople with hollow eyes. 

The only way to get out of this entrapment was to kill them. But doing so would cause something shadowy to revolve around me. 

I hesitated, and in a moment's hesitation, I was surrounded by more of them. 

'Fuck it! It's either they live or I live!'

I swung my sharp sword and dashed out of the group, running back towards the town. 

[You have killed a townsman!]

[You have killed a townsman!]

I heard the notifications as the figures died. But I did not give it any care and made my way back towards the tavern. 

Along the way, many more shadowy things appeared beside me and swirling around in a ghostly, oppressive manner, speaking in fragmented, eerie whispers. 

The voices were hollow and echoing, filled with despair and bitterness. They made my spine tingle as danger bells gonged in my head. 

-Boy… you've sealed your fate… but it was never your choice… none of this was…

From their whispers, I heard something strange. 

-The shadows… they deceive… but so do the faces you trust…

Okay, the things revolving around me were saying something. However, although the messages were heard, I felt something wrong. 

My vision was slowly getting hazy and darker. 

I reached the tavern and found myself around people again, but they didn't feel anything wrong with me. 

I had a feeling that I was in the wrong place and maybe going to the hall I was in the morning would be much better. 

Thus, I dashed and ran straight towards the hall.

-We were once… like you… but we… succumbed to the curse… the labyrinth… it twists minds… bodies… souls…

-The light… follow the light… but beware… the light burns… the truth burns…

I had almost reached the hall. I was about to go inside, but then I stopped. 

Why was I going here anyway? Did I think the nuns could help me?

"See nothing but the truth that hides, hear nothing but the silence that lies, speak nothing but the words unsaid."

This phrase rang in my mind as I thought of getting help. There was no way I was going to be helped by the nuns with how everything was. 

Thus, I stopped and sat down at a nearby curb on the streets, listening to what the things around me were saying. 

-We were once… like you… but we… succumbed to the curse… the labyrinth… it twists minds… bodies… souls…

They repeated the same thing many times, but eventually, I heard everything that they were saying and tried to make sense out of it. The things they had said in cryptic voices were:

-Boy… you've sealed your fate… but it was never your choice… none of this was…

-The shadows… they deceive… but so do the faces you trust…

-We were once… like you… but we… succumbed to the curse… the labyrinth… it twists minds… bodies… souls…

-The light… follow the light… but beware… the light burns… the truth burns…

-The plague… it isn't just death… it's rebirth… in shadow… in darkness… we're all trapped… even in death…

-The exit… it hides in plain sight… but it's guarded… by our worst fears… your worst fears…

-We are bound… to this town… to this torment… until someone… breaks the cycle… only then… will we be free…

-Your path… it's not straight… the labyrinth… it shifts… your mind… it will betray you… trust nothing… trust no one…

-The shadows… they are alive… they hunger… they feast… on fear… on hope… on souls…

-To survive… to escape… you must embrace the darkness… become one… with the shadow…

My vision was getting hazier as I stopped, listened, and watched the empty space in front of me. 

If my vision previously was 4K, it was now 1080p and slowly making its way towards 720p. 

I had to make sense out of the cryptic message. 

Every clue was out there, all I had to do was use my brain and think.

Think. What could it be? Think. Think. Think.

Think!

THINK!

THINNNNKKKK—oh, wait a minute….