NOVPUBBecause Aiwass had no wind attribute mana, Liz couldn’t take Aiwass with her to elementalize.
But even just flying close to the ground, they quickly found the direction to Alderwood Town.
After all, when they first arrived at Eagle Cape Village, the Mrs. Gryphons had already taken them past Alderwood Town. If it hadn’t looked so unlike Eagle Cape Village, they might have landed there.
Once they could see Alderwood Town, Sherlock, who was on the back of the Gryphon, subconsciously looked back.
He found that Eagle Cape Village had not disappeared just because he had left it. A round village was neatly situated at the bottom of the valley. Even from this angle, he could see that the edge of the village was a perfect circle.
He immediately tapped Aiwass on the back and shared this observation with him.
Aiwass also looked back, and then seemed thoughtful.
"So it is..."
Once you’ve been to Eagle Cape Village, will you no longer be mislead by the barrier?
Or were there other conditions... such as having one’s name remembered by the locals, or sleeping there?
That being said, Daiya... the Phantom Demon Egg, which is the Incubus, might also have been to Eagle Cape Village.
Is she still at that inn now?
She probably isn’t.
The Incubus is a genuine Superior Phantom, usually living in the Dream Realm.
Without a contract from the Demon Scholar, it’s difficult for an Upper-Level Demon to stay in the present world for long. Unless the Demon Scholar summons her again, she should be in the Fantasy Territory of the Path of Beauty most of the time.
...Then the Earthbound Spirit here must be quite lonely.
She might have thought that, being an Incubus adept at manipulating illusions and dreams, she would stay and keep her company. But she hadn’t anticipated that the other party was a working big sister who merely stopped by briefly before returning to her job...
As the Gryphon cried out, it began to slowly lower its altitude.
"It seems that the chaotic timeline wasn’t attached to us, our sense of time returned to normal as soon as we left Eagle Cape Village," said Aiwass.
Aiwass first looked up at The Sun, moved by the moments that no longer jumped abruptly.
Then he lowered his gaze to see the road sign up ahead clearly.
It was a crooked old metal sign.
It was facing the direction of Alderwood Town, standing at a crossroads.
On the left, a red arrow contained the warning message "This place is dangerous, do not proceed, violators will be subject to the death penalty"; on the right was a black arrow saying "To Flute Town," with another black arrow above it "To Alderwood Town."
It was now tilted forty-five degrees to the left as if blown by the wind. It was dirty with moist soil that had turned into grime, as well as plenty of dried, spotty mud stains.
Clearly, few people came here. Because on the somewhat wet road, aside from the footprints left by Liz upon landing, there were no other footprints or wheel tracks.
Sherlock suddenly furrowed his brows, looking around and pondering.
He suddenly flipped off the Gryphon, ran behind the road sign to take a look, then immediately came back and patted Aiwass on the arm.
"Aiwass, purify this sign," Sherlock said.
"Hmm."
Aiwass’s mouth turned up slightly, and without even asking "why," he simply waved his hand releasing a Flame Butterfly that carried the fire of purification.
It leisurely flew to the sign and then exploded into a burst of flame.
In the flames, the sign did not burn but underwent a strange transformation—the writing on it suddenly changed fonts.
The arrow that originally pointed up was now pointing down, and the text on the left and right sides also flipped. The arrow pointing left for danger became the one pointing right.
"As I thought," Sherlock sneered, "I felt that the sign was either placed backwards or had been blown reversely by a storm. Otherwise, there was some sort of illusion that flipped its front and back.
"The road signs of Avalon’s three-way intersections point down when facing a one-way road, not up. Only when the sign’s back is to that road does it point up—just like how ’up’ on a crossroad sign means to move forward."
"This means the Earthbound Spirit’s power is not as weak as we imagined."
"From such a distance... she’s been able to create illusions that affect areas far away," said Aiwass softly.
"Alice... is that right?"
Sherlock muttered.
Previously, Aiwass had recounted to him the experiences and encounters during the ascension ritual, which of course included the unfortunate girl named Alice, who was buried in the foundation. She was the Earthbound Spirit of that haunted hotel, and also the source that attracted the Incubus Egg Daiya, which then led to a series of calamities.
Generally speaking, Earthbound Spirits create illusions or dreamlands to slaughter passersby, absorbing their souls to strengthen themselves.
And if the Earthbound Spirit had become much stronger than it was sixty years ago...
That might mean she had consumed many people already.
"... It could be a fierce battle."
Sherlock solemnly warned, "She is no longer the innocent girl who had just become an Earthbound Spirit sixty years ago."
"Not necessarily."
Aiwass shook his head, "I tend to lean towards another possibility..."
"What?" Sherlock was somewhat puzzled.
"No, let’s talk about it later."
Aiwass didn’t reply.
Because it was just a guess, with no evidence. To speak of it now would seem a little too presumptuous.
As they mounted the Gryphon again and flew in the correct direction,
the sky quickly darkened.
As if the tape was fast-forwarded—the dark clouds in the sky seemed to grow and pile up at a visible speed, perhaps because the Gryphon they were riding was too fast.
They had just caught sight of the hotel from afar, and the sky that could only be considered cloudy had already turned densely covered with dark clouds.
As a flash of lightning streaked across,
a chilling wind howled past, with thunder rumbling in the background.
Then, without any warning, a downpour started pouring down!
"—Again?"
Sherlock furrowed his brow, "It’s an illusion, right?"
"I can’t dispel this one."
Aiwass chuckled lightly, just shielding his eyes with his hand, looking unconcerned as he gazed at the rapidly approaching hotel.
By the time they arrived at the hotel entrance, Sherlock’s newsboy coat was completely soaked.
He scowled, his eyebrows tightly knit. He looked as if he were contemplating how much compensation to demand.
And yet the hotel didn’t seem to hold many illusions.
Its sign had been roughly taken down, leaving only the white traces of glue. The building clearly showed signs of age from the outside, a layer of white dust visible to the naked eye like a computer fan that hadn’t been cleaned in over a year, thickly accumulated in the crevices of the structure.
"Is anybody there?"
Aiwass dismounted the Gryphon, calling out as he pushed open the hotel’s main door.
The result was an old hotel lobby that seemed as if it belonged to the last century, empty and echoing. Enjoy new tales from freewebnovel
In the dim hotel, there was only a young front desk clerk.
He seemed frail, wearing out-of-season thin clothing, with his arms crossed like a student, dozing off at the desk.
But with Aiwass’s vision as a third Energy Level Priest, he could easily see that the outline of the clerk’s body was semi-transparent.
Aiwass’s lips lifted slightly as he walked up boldly in front of the front desk.
"Yo, long time no see, buddy."
He greeted with a beaming smile.
