The light flowed in a hidden place that had not been visited for hundreds of years, but the air that had been still for a long time seemed to be still frozen, ignoring the uninvited intruders, as if it were still sleeping in that distant time and space.

Ed sneezed hard, successfully shattering at least half of the mystery and solemnity, in exchange for another angry slap to the back of Naria's head.

The young man, who was naturally sensitive to his nose, rubbed the back of his head aggrievedly, but did not dare to make a sound.

He looked around, and the chamber was much larger than he had imagined—almost half the size of the castle hall. But the first thing that caught his eye was the motionless black shadows.

"It's ...... Stone statues?" Before anyone could stop him, Ed had put his hand on it, the cold, rough hard texture under his fingers telling him that it was indeed stone, but as statues, they looked a little creepy.

Eren slapped his hand away with all his might.

"Don't touch anything!" he warned the young man with many hands and feet and many mouths, glaring at him until he stuck out his tongue and slipped his hands behind his back.

They watched the eerie statues in silence. Six life-size gray stone statues are placed in the center of the chamber without any regularity. A plump young human woman with a slight bend of her knees, leaning forward, as if about to bend down to pick something up, one side of her shawl slipped down to the crook of her arm, curls piled up beside her low cheeks, her eyebrows stretched and her expression calm, a dwarf, without any armor, sitting cross-legged on the ground, holding his beard in both hands, looking up and listening intently, two young men of very similar appearance, probably brother and sister or brother, were talking face to face, the girl was carrying a bow and arrow, and her left hand was intimately resting on the other's right arm holding the hilt of the sword at her waist, smiling brightly, and a tall man with a naked upper body, his beard and hair were joined together like a dwarf, with a long, wide greatsword in one hand and a nose rubbing in the other, a man in a mage's robe with a strange mustache was looking up at something, with a horrified expression on his face.

"These statues are too real to ......," Ed muttered to himself, a little unable to bear the deathly silence around him.

"They're real. Celebryan whispered.

All eyes turned to him.

"These stone statues were once living people. The half-elf repeated calmly.

Before his consciousness could react, Ed's body had already spontaneously rushed to the corner, and Naria couldn't help but take several steps back.

"What?" Ed asked, pale, "You mean, are they still alive?"

"Dead. The moment he turned into a stone statue, he was already dead. ”

Ed looked at the statues again, feeling his chest clog - he couldn't imagine what it would be like to be turned into stone alive. The only consolation is that, apart from the mage, those people don't seem to be aware of the bad luck coming and don't suffer much.

Alan took a deep breath: "I always thought it was just a legend. ”

"There is truth hidden in all legends. The half-elf's staff pointed at the only normal thing in the chamber that belonged to the dead.

A very inconspicuous sarcophagus lies quietly in a corner of the chamber.

"Maybe you should ask your mother, Ed Singer - I guess it's her ancestors who lie in that sarcophagus. Alan's tone was a little heavy, "I guess that's the ghost she's seen." Perhaps she would like to rebury him. ”

“...... May I ask what the legend is, and if it has anything to do with my mother's family, I think I should know about it too?" Ed looked at him inquiringly.

"That's ...... A very old legend, perhaps even your mother has never heard of it. Alan's somewhat tired voice echoed through the chamber, "You know, the history of Chrysers Castle is quite long. Before the founding of this dynasty, the ruler of the previous dynasty was born here......"

Nearly a hundred years before the birth of that king, the owner of the castle was an adventurous young man like Scott. He was lively, smiling, generous, and very well liked. He often traveled, and when he returned, he would always invite all the people from the nearby villages to the castle to listen to his stories and drink one of his favorite sour but powerful mead, the recipe of which came from the barbarians who lived in the northern ice fields, one of whom was his friend.

In retaliation, the young man accidentally killed a priest beloved by the goddess on an outing shortly after his marriage, and in retaliation, the goddess turned his wife and the friends he had ventured with into stone statues of the people who were guests in his castle at the time and caused a fog to cover the entire land from the plains of Collins to the Arkwood Forest. It was a fog that the sun could not penetrate, it was cold and biting, all the flowers withered in the fog, the animals of the forest died, and people were forced to leave their homes.

But the young man could not leave, and could only wander day after day in the lonely fortress in the mist, alone with the stone statues of his wife and friends. When the fog cleared and the people finally returned, Christus still stood where he was, but his owner was nowhere to be found.

Legend has it that Ni'o, the god of water, dispelled the fog and rescued those who had been turned into stone statues, but because of the guilt of the calamity and pain he had caused, the young man swore to become a paladin of the god of water, and left the place, never to return.

To this day, the people of Karnak still make mead - although most people only drink beer. Ed had tried it once, and the amber liquid had a strong honey aroma, but it wasn't usually unpleasant in the mouth.

"Obviously, regardless of whether or not the water god dispelled the fog or something, she didn't turn these stone statues back into humans anyway. Naria said disappointedly.

"For they are dead, and the dead have their dwelling, and the living cannot force it. The half-elf whispered. Ed remembered that he had heard Vala say something similar.

"Not even the gods can bring the dead back into this world. It was a law that no one could disobey, and the necromancers were therefore not accepted by any intelligent race, and could only hide in the darkness, fleeing from a never-ending pursuit - and bringing back not even real life. Alan said, unable to stop those black flames from burning in his mind again, those twisted black shadows and wails that seemed to penetrate the soul were by no means real life.

"If so, what's the matter with that ghost?" Ed's question brought his mind back to reality.

"Nowhere to go...... Or the soul that doesn't want to go anywhere will disappear sooner or later. That soul had too strong emotions to be able to accommodate even the temple of the gods, so it could only be allowed to linger here. The seal on the iron door may have sealed or protected it, but water seeped in...... It won't be long before it disappears on its own. The world is so big that no matter how deep the sorrow is, in the end it will fall like a drop of rain into the sea, and no one will know about it again. The half-elf replied. He rarely said such long words, and it almost made his breathing rapid.

"How do you know?" asked Ed.

"Because I can feel it," the half-elf's voice sounded hollow and tired, "and here it is." ”

Ed looked around in a hurry, and the soft light that filled the room suddenly turned white and blind, and there seemed to be a lot of ghosts around him.

"Can we leave?" asked Naria, pale.

Alan nodded, "We'll tell Madame Singal everything tomorrow and let her decide what to do with it - I'll advise her to seal this place off as originally planned." But if she doesn't want to live on such a tragic legend, I will help her find a suitable place to restore peace to these people. ”

His eyes were fixed on Ed, as if asking for his opinion.

Ed nodded repeatedly, he just wanted to get out of here now, as soon as possible, not that he was particularly scared, but he felt very, very uncomfortable.

As the priest walked up the steps and darkened the greystone, Ed couldn't help but look back at the iron door that had been closed again, imagining what the young man had been in the face of those familiar, intimate faces, the moment when their very lives were frozen and terminated—the catastrophes that had been caused by his mistakes. He imagined the loneliness and despair that would never be redeemed, and he didn't know whether he would end his life in madness if he were replaced, or survive alone for a long time, as a punishment for himself.

"If it were me, I would do everything I could to bring them back to life. I don't care what kind of law the gods have set, that person doesn't deserve this ending!" Naria whispered beside him, her voice shaking.

A hand grabbed her shoulders hard. Alan bowed down to her from above, his eyes filled with unspeakable fear.

"Never, never, never have such thoughts!" he snapped to his daughter, every word seemed to exhaust all his strength, "Forever!"

qidian.

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