The Demon Kings Cowardly Vessel - Chapter 327

With Luca’s help, the boys arrived at the Purple Flower Mountain faster than expected. However, even so, the sun had almost settled down by the time they touched shore. The purple flower petals that were growing all over the island in abundance could be seen clearly from the boat. The boys looked at the petals that were floating on the seawater as they slowly got closer to the beach.

“Careful…” Juin warned when Cyrus tried to touch one of the floating petals.

They had heard of how these flowers were poisonous to everyone except the natives and those who lived in the sea around the island, such as the Acronians. And during their time with Crown Prince Warrick, they also learned of the huge fire that was set upon this island a long time ago. The burnt remains of houses and pagodas that were near the beach could still be seen from the shoreline even though countless years had passed.

“It’s beautiful…” Wolfe murmured as he jumped down from the ship and pulled it closer to shore. While dragging his feet across the water, a small purple flower, which was complete with three petals, floated past him, and he wondered out loud, “Where have I seen these before?”

When he got closer, his step stopped for a second mid-ar, as if he were hesitating about something, but he quickly dismissed the feeling and continued to move forward.

Meanwhile, Cyrus, who was standing at the bow, narrowed his eyes and c.o.c.ked his head as he stared deep into the thick unexplored purplish forest ahead of them. His nose twitched slightly after he landed on the white sand.

As he walked towards Wolfe, his eyes landed on a purple flower, and he watched until a gust of wind took the flower deeper into the island.

“What are you waiting for?” Luca called out at Juin, who was the only one left on the boat. He was halfway between Wolfe and Cyrus and Juin when he realized that he could not hear any sound from behind him. When he turned around, Juin was still standing on the boat, seemingly frozen in place. “Hey, do you need an invitation?”

“Do you feel something weird?” Cyrus nudged and whispered to Wolfe.

Wolfe nodded. He glanced around at the flowers that were laying around and shivered involuntarily. He took a sniff and murmured while pushing a purple petal with his shoe, “There’s something lingering in the air…”

“Death…” Cyrus wrinkled his nose before rubbing it with the back of his hand. “It’s nauseating…”

He growled as he looked towards the purple flowers that were scattered all over the island. He did not realize it earlier, but the closer he was to the flowers, the more it bothered him. “I don’t like this feeling…”

“Lucifer…” Juin gulped as he looked toward where the others were standing, but his eyes seemed unfocused. He could see Luca’s annoyed expression, yet it was as if Luca wasn’t really in his eyesight. “C-Can you see them?”

He glanced at Lucifer, who was floating next to the boat, and affirmed it for himself. Lucifer definitely saw those things as well. It was clear from the tense expression on his face.

“What are those…?” Juin asked as he clenched his fists to stop them from shaking.

All over the island, from what he could see, there were thousands of black semi-translucent shadow-like figures that were moving slowly towards the edge of the island, cramming closer and closer until they formed a layer thick enough to prevent Juin from seeing through them.

These shadow-like figures stopped at the edge of the island, seemingly unable to step onto the water.

“They are–” Lucifer was about to say something when he realized that something was wrong. Juin’s breathing seemed to have quickened all of a sudden, and when he glanced over, he saw Juin holding his c.h.e.s.t with a pained expression. “Are you alright?”

“I… don’t know…” Juin said as a drop of tear rolled down his cheeks. “I just… I feel devastated all of a sudden… and a deep sadness that penetrates through every bone… and pain and longing and separation and fear…”

It was so strong, like being pricked by thousands of needles all over his body, like having something eerie walking past you, like an ominous feeling that made you want to escape into your mother’s warm embrace!

At that moment, Juin felt like a kindergartener again. He wanted to hug himself and hide in a corner and wait for Ashton.

“What’s this, Lucifer?” Juin asked as he slapped his c.h.e.s.t. “Please make it stop…”

Looking at his vessel that was trembling uncontrollably, Lucifer sighed. “Juin… Those are… spirits…”

“Spirits?”

“Like the ghosts that you used to see. These are the spirits of those who were persecuted over the years…” Lucifer said as he stared at the shadowy figures. These spirits weren’t strong, and they did not intend to harm Juin. While used interchangeably, to Lucifer, spirits were just the harmless version of ghosts.

While they were unlike ghosts that could be unpredictable, the emotions that they last felt when they took their last breath were taken to death with them. Ghosts were turned from spirits who either lingered on Earth long after their death, such as the child ghosts that Jim Mack killed and King Tomas, or had lost complete control of their emotions, such as the ghosts who tried to attack Juin when he was young.

A main difference between these two was their intention.

Especially this huge group of spirits, who were undoubtedly killed during the persecution. In fact, Lucifer was surprised that they did not turn into malevolent ghosts, or worse, poltergeist.

“Try to take a deep breath…” Lucifer said as he tried to calm Juin down. He floated to Juin’s front and said softly while looking into his eyes, “Those aren’t real. You need to learn to control… Try and build a barrier in your heart and mind.”

“I…” Juin gulped as he wiped his tears. “I… It’s hard…”

He looked towards a direction, where he saw a group of smaller-sized shadowy figures. In fact, this group was quite huge.

“Children…” he murmured and nearly vomited as the memories of these child spirits bombarded onto him. No, memory would be wrong. What he felt was a sense of these memories; their emotions. “So many of them…”

“Many of their warriors would have been sent out during the war… Those that remained on the island must have been the weak ones…” Lucifer said as he looked at the child spirits. He then looked at the purple flowers that were all over the island. “Those flowers…”

Those flowers were supposed to be poisonous to people who did not have the purple markings. “What if…” Lucifer mumbled to himself, “these flowers actually hold the abilities to retain someone’s memories… or blessings? If I remember correctly, these flowers are harmless to those with the purple markings… What if their ancestors’ d.e.s.i.r.e to protect them was so strong that it entered into these flowers and poisoned those who tried to harm their descendants? Because of that, these spirits didn’t turn into ghosts?”