The Forsaken Ruins of Arachnid part 2

"It seems that you are awake inside yourself, talented young man. A week ago, you could not spread this much aura in a radius close to yourself. " Darian said, while walking into the room and closing the door behind him...

He was slowly walking towards Arthur, searching for a chair to sit down in. He was staring at him and examining him while he was laying down in a coma-like state, unable to move a muscle. "Interesting, I have heard about people who were awake even though they were in a coma. It's actually my first time seeing such a case myself. "Interesting, very interesting." He expressed it while he sat down on his rocking chair made out of massive wood and laid back. He looked at Arthur and started talking.

"I know you can hear me, so answer me. Who are you and what do you want?!" Arthur couldn't answer. "What do you want?! Spreading aura through the whole house. If you try to harm my granddaughters, I will kill you! Do you understand!" He threatened Arthur, yet he did not answer again. The old man got angry at him, and Arthur could tell because of his leveled up aura sense, yet he could not speak. As the man wanted to harm him, he remembered that he should try to use telepathy in order to communicate with him, suspecting something. "Who are you and what do you want?" He asked through telepathy.

A: "Why am I hearing your voice in my head?!" Arthur wondered.

J: "Because I am using telepathy. How come you don't know about it?" Darrian asked, irritated by his reaction.

A: "No, I did not know that something like this was possible. Wait... am I using telepathy too?" Art wondered by himself while lying on his bed and listening to the flickering candle's flame. Arthur could not see any colours or anything like that. All he could see was the outline of everything. Something like a blueprint yet not stationary, but everything that is supposed to move does and is seen by Arthur's aura sense.

J: "No you are not, I am talking inside your brain and you talk to me by thinking. Anyway, I do the questioning and you answer!" Joseph applied tremendous pressure while threatening Art. It was so heavy that Arthur felt like his whole body was being torn apart by every word he said. As if this was not enough, the old man let his killing intent and bloodlust roam freely. Arthur was completely unable to withstand Joseph's pressure any longer, both mentally and physically. "Now do you feel like talking?!" He asked with a threatening voice.

A: "How... if y-you did-n't a...ask any que-stions...?" Arthur could barely combine these words into a sentence.

J: "HAHAHAHA!!!" Joseph started laughing wholeheartedly "Damn brat, I have to admit that you have quite the guts." He stopped putting pressure on Art, who would have gasped for air if he could. "Now, you brat, who sent you and what do you want?!" Joseph interrogated Arthur with his tone, demanding an answer.

A: "I am a mercenary and had a mission to investigate the disappearance of children in an orphanage. I found out the truth about that place and came across a monster, fought and killed it. Then my comerade stabbed me in the back, which revealed that he was not only on their side, but what I found out from him was that he was the mastermind behind all this. After a fierce fight, I killed him, and he used a spell Corpse Explosion. That's what I told myself to blow everything up and take me down with him. But I survived thanks to your granddaughter's. " Arthur explained to the elderly as superficially as possible and as fine as necessary. In order to not leak any important details.

J: "So you fell victim to something like that. Hahahahaaa... Man, you seem really weak. ""Your heart rate stayed stable and you did not lie." Darrian said, while he straightened up and prepared to stand up.

Arthur remained frozen, wondering how he could tell if somebody was lying or not, but before he could finish what he was thinking, the old man put his finger on Arthur's head and a tremendous amount of energy flowed in, followed by the elder pressing a lot of acupoints, which made Art's consciousness fade away.

After a few days, what he found out later on, Arthur woke up from his deep sleep. First thing first, he looked at his body covered in bandages, as if he had been struck by lightning. The pain overtook Arthur, bringing him to his knees, gasping for air. *gasping, gasping...* With one hand, he grabbed his chest, and with the other, he leaned on the bed. His vision is slowly getting blurry and his head feels like it is spinning as well as dizzy.

"Easy, easy. Take it easy, boy!" a cute and worried voice spoke out to him. Arthur lay down, the throbbing and burning pain spreading throughout his body as the old man helped him up and supported him on the bed once more. He felt like he would be ripped apart at any second. To deal with the unbearable pain, he bit his tongue, causing blood to flow out of his mouth sideways. The stinging sensation in his mouth could not be compared to the pain in his body. After he is finally laying down and not moving anymore, the pain fades away slowly... very slowly... but surely. Now that he can keep his composture, he slowly opens his eyes.

[POV Arthur]

Damn this pain. There seems to be no end to it. Now I wish I did not have to wake up. Uff... *opens his eyes slowly* My vision... it's blurry, very blurry and cloudy. I can barely feel my arms and my neck is sore. It seems that my senses are dull too... My vision is slowly getting clearer... "W-what is that?!" Ups- I said it out loud, but what is that anyway? What kind of strange magic spell is this. "What the heck have you done to me?"

I shouted at them, but the looks they gave me, especially the old man, were like they were looking at some crazy brat. The grandchildren were more likely worried about me. Don't you see that above my face, right here!" I pointed my finger at it, but it gave me an even more confused look. He touched it but nothing happened, which brought more question marks in his mind than answers. "What should we see, young man?" The old man asked me, but I could not answer anything. Instead, I examined it, trying to figure out what it was, but as I previously stated, I have more questions than answers.

Another few days passed and I found out nothing about that thing. It has the shape of a square and has a dark blue color, lightly glowing, which is annoying in the night. A lot of time passed by and I did not answer the question. "Will you accept?" and below, "Yes or No, I await your answer." There is nothing else to it, not any kind of information about what I need to accept and about what it is. Oh... it's Kaylee who comes towards me holding a glass in her hand. She doesn't seem to be much younger than me, she should maybe be around twelve years or so, at least I think. Her long blonde hair, which reached down to the half of her back, was blown in the wind. It was truly beautiful. "Here is a herbal tea for your health.

Drink it and get better. My grandfather did it," she said, handing me the glass and eagerly waiting for me to drink it, which I did, but damn, the taste was terrible. I barely glupped it down my throat, I guess it could be seen by the expression I made on my face. "You damn geezer! Are you trying to kill me with poison!" I laughed out loud because of the terrible taste. "Was it really that bad?" she asked while looking at me with her bright and innocent eyes. Man... I am envious of her eyes, which are filled with sincerity and are full of life. I wonder if I had the same eyes when I was still a kid. In the back, I see Harlee. She looks way older, like a middle-aged woman. Her hair was dark grey and had wrinkles all over her face. She looked really old, even older than Darrian. It's indeed really strange. I thought.

"May I ask you something, old man?" "It's Darrian. My name is Joseph, and what's your name?" He shared it with me. "You are called Joseph? In my head, I always called you Darrian: *chuckle* My name is Arthur, Arthur Xavier. May I ask you a question, old man Joseph?" I asked as I waited for the two girls to leave the room.

D: "Go on and ask whatever you want, young man." He said as he leaned forward, making it obvious that he was interested in my question.

A: "Are the two of them really your granddaughters? What I mean is that Kaylee looks really young and Haylee looks like she could be your mother, so that's what I am curious about. " to which he looked obviously upset but sighed in the end.

D: "Hmm... I understand that you are confused, but all that I can tell you is that this is the work of a curse that was placed on both of them. Making one of them younger while the other one is older. Actually, both of them will turn 12 years old this year." He answered with a sad smile and in a disappointed voice, "And I do not know how to break this curse. I do not know any more than this. "

A: "So you have no idea what kind of curse it is?" I asked, trying to find out some information about it but he just shook his head.

D: " I am sorry, I don't know what it is..." He expressed disappointment in himself.

A: "I see... Then how did you find them, if I may ask? Because getting a curse means someone placed it on them or maybe they were captured. " I asked him, full of curiosity.

D: He looked me in the eyes. His gaze slowly sank as he sighed, and then he started telling me the story... "One day, when I left for town to get to the supermarket, I told them that I would be gone for some time and that I would be home pretty late, so they should be careful and not let any strangers inside the house. They agreed with a smile, and I was happy to see their bright and innocent smile, so I left the twins at home and hurried over to the market. Aft-" Haylee suddenly walked into our room and interupted her grandfather while he was speaking to me.

H: "We were told to be careful and not let any strangers inside our house. These were strictly followed by us, because gramps told us so. We stayed inside the house, but as small kids, we could not stay inside for a whole day, so we went outside to play. We knew the forest like the back of our hand, so we were not really worried, and since no stranger had come up here, we went deep into the forest.

After walking and playing and going deeper into the forest, we found a strange boulder in the middle of a forest clearing that was overgrown with plants. It had some mysterious and attracting air around it, so we then went towards it and found an opening which led to an entrence. There were stone stairs which led down, and as kids who wanted to become adventurers and explorers, we wanted to explore them.

The stone stairs that led down and the cold stone walls, the passageways were dimly lit by the light some torches emitted. After we arrived at a big hall, there were a lot of strange items and stuff lying around, so we went around looking here and there. Then we saw a skeleton which was covered in some nice and expensive looking clothes, and in its arms he held a staff, so we went over to it. As we went over trying to take some stuff which was spread on the ground before him, as we stretched out our hands, its eyes started glowing purple, to which we felt dizzy and heard some parts of his sentence which meant:"

*you two greedy brats.. a curse on you... one will never age... the other will never get youth back... suffer and despair, feel agony every day... forever thou shalt hide in darkness... away from people till the day you die...*

She finished saying everything and then she went out of the room, with an extremely tired look on her face, as if she wanted to finally rest...

A: "I understand," I said after laying down on my bed again and closing my eyes, thinking about what she said as the sun was slowly setting and a ray of its light fell on my face. At that moment, I decided to help them out since they saved my life and in order to repay their debt. So I opened my eyes again and looked to the side, seeing that strange window, which I ignored for a long time. With a smile, I said, "Accept! Since when have I been afraid of anything and any danger?!

Then the words on it changed from "Will you accept?" to "Loading... please wait... Analysis and synchronizing is soon over.". As I lay back, the window was in front of me with my picture and saying "New owner recognized, Code Name: Arthur Xavier, m Health and so on." Then a cute woman-like yet strange voice said: "I am the Alpha system and I will help you overcome anything and be on top, undefeated and untouchable!

I am glad to make your acquaintance, New Owner, Arthur Xavier. " After it said these words, I suddenly remembered something. *You know what, ... here's a bonus because I am kind. But you will find out later what it is.* I put my hand on my face and started laughing silently. You know, come at me with everything you got! Then I looked at the sunset and fell asleep while being lost in thought.