The Armor of the Soul
By Dixxy
Chapter Fifty-Five: Ghosts
(Rona)
"Glad we're outta there," said Ria, looking up at the castle. The fortress, from our position on the ground, was REALLY big and easily dwarfed Magna Wretch. "Okay, so where's the entrance?"
"Over here," said Anubis, leading us to a pair of brown, wooden doors. He slammed his fist over some sort of a lock, breaking it. "These doors lead to one of the old ballrooms that's never used anymore."
"They have ballrooms in Trulpa's fortress?" I asked. "But I thought it was mostly torture chambers and laboratories. Why would they have a ballroom in the Dynasty if everyone's so bent on evil?"
"Yes, there are such places. You do realize that there could be many, many people in that fortress at once, so there has to be entertainment, rooms, and facilities provided," said Anubis. "Talpa did the same thing. There were all sorts of game rooms, swimming pools, bars, and wardrobes that it was enough to drive a man crazy, but we'd been given immortality and had time to investigate. Well, me and the other Warlords, that is. Back to the ball room. Anytime there was a major victory, there would be a ball at either Talpa or Trulpa's castle back when they were allied. Or for birthdays, Christmas parties, or anything they felt was qualified. At victory balls, they usually executed any surviving prisoners of wars, a Ronin or two occasionally mixed in. The Hardrocks from the generation of Halos that hid the Jewel of Death were killed at such a ball. The other pairings were killed at other times, but those two were saved for a special occasion."
"Creepy," I said. "Let's just get in and bust everyone out." The three of us pushed on the doors and they creaked open. We cautiously stepped inside, a cloud of dust greeting us. Most of us coughed.
The ball room was in ruins. Curtains were shredded and dangling off of broken rods. Tables were smashed and long spoiled food was sprawled across the floor. The chandelier was broken in several places, a few of the crystalline shards on the floor. Two skeletons lay motionless in shackles on the wall adjacent to the grand banquet table.
"Those are definitely the remains of the two Hardrocks," said Anubis. "Satoshi and Kasumi. They were engaged to be married, I believe." Ria and I both felt cold shivers creep up our spines. This was too real. Something about this room was so eerily real, crawling up our spines like a slithering snake or some other hideous creepy-crawly.
"What's that light?" asked Ria. She was looking at a strange orange hue near the door that would probably be our exit. She started to walk towards it, Anubis and I following her. We didn't know what that was! What if it was a trap? Ria could get hurt! Before we got close enough to see what it was, the chandelier crashed the floor behind us. Ria and I screamed and Anubis yelled at us to shut up.
"That, that light saved us," said Ria. Her bright green eyes were bewildered as she stared at the chandelier, now in thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of pieces on the floor.
"Oh, it was probably the light playing tricks on you," I said. "I mean, crystals like in the chandelier have a tendency to reflect the spectrum. Maybe that type of crystal reflected an orange beam.
"But there isn't enough light in here for a crystal to do that!" said Anubis. "And if my memory serves me correctly, those crystals shone skulls when hit with illumination. They most certainly didn't create orange glows."
I gulped. VERY creepy. "Let's get going." We left the ballroom in a hurry and continued down some pretty drab and dreary hallways. These hallways were very dark and cold. The stone walls made it look scary and most of the rooms were either prisoner cells or torture chambers. One room was an old possession room, which I couldn't get away from fast enough. I still have nightmares about my possession.
But that wasn't the important thing. Now it was my turn to experience the freaky. I heard two voices singing down the hallway. Getting curious, I started to pick up the pace as we passed by some empty and blood-stained torture chambers. Ria and Anubis ran to catch up with me. We all narrowly avoided several blades that had fallen from the ceiling. Sheets like they use in magic shows, daggers, swords, battles axes, you name it, it attacked us.
"Booby traps!" said Anubis. We stopped and looked at the destruction behind us. Anubis tipped up the "rice bowl hat" and analyzed the destruction. "Amazing that they worked so well after years of not being inspected. Rona, what the hell were you doing?!"
"I, I heard voices, but they're gone now," I said. "Maybe I'm going crazy."
"No, Keisha heard a voice and it turned out to be Kento. But still, this is different. This is getting really creepy. How much farther do we have to go before we get to Trulpa? Because fighting her is starting to sound really appealing," said Ria.
"I think the ghosts of past Ronins are helping us," said Anubis.
"GHOSTS!?" Rona and I leapt into Anubis' arms, shuddering and whimpering.
"The ghosts of the past RONINS. They're HELPING us," he said. We laughed sheepishly, then got down off of him. Anubis stared at a room with a huge, sharp machine that looked like it would hurt. "That was where the Stratas of that generation, Kiona and Takeshi, were killed during an interrogation. Anubra and I were administering the questioning."
I went white at the comment. I could almost hear the screams in the back of my mind. Memories that my armor carried. "So, you're saying that the people who died in a certain area of a castle are helping us?" said Ria.
"Yes. It's likely the Hardrocks were the orange light we saw, and the Stratas were likely the voices Rona heard," said Anubis. "That would explain a lot, actually. They probably want revenge on Trulpa, and perhaps they believe by helping us they can finally rest in peace."
Suddenly a buzzing pale blue hue whipped by my head. I heard a young girl's laughter as a slightly older one of a young boy joined her. They both stopped in front of Anubis, as if they were investigating him. "Miyoko and Rimiko. The children Ronins," said Anubis.
"The children Ronins?" asked Ria and I in perfect unison. We both looked at each other with wide eyes and nearly laughed at the ironic happening. Ria bounced back more quickly with the jinx, though, and I owed her a soda.
"They were nine and twelve when they accepted their armors," said Anubis. The two nodded and then rammed into a vase, knocking it over. "Looks like they've become some form of poltergeist."
"What were their armors?" I asked.
"Torrents. Same generation as I spoke of before."
The young girl's ghost giggled and shot down a hallway, the other following her. We followed them, trusting the pair of young ghosts. They led us past traps, around hazards, and through long hallways. All through the way, we passed by some hallways that were worse for wear. Curtains ripped, lamps and vases broken, tables smashed, and mirrors shattered. Yet, most of the damage looked recent. There was very little dust in the area. I briefly thought some sort of a monster lived down in this wing, but then I remembered it was haunted by two very playful poltergeists.
We finally came to the edge of our fifth secret passage (which was through a slashed painting of Trulpa) and the two spirits took the form of two children. Sure enough, they were only about nine and twelve. The girl had bright, puffy pigtails and the boy had long, shoulder length hair. Both had large eyes and looked fairly happy. They said something in Japanese, which Anubis responded to.
"What did they say?" I asked.
"They said that even though I was a stupid, ugly poop-head, they forgive me for what I did and that we'll run into the ghosts of Sakkaki and Miyamoto, the Wildfires of that generation- HEY!" said Anubis. The ghosts snickered, sticking their tongues out at him. Anubis growled dangerously. The two ghosts thought this was hysterical and fell to the floor in fits of hysterical laughter.
"Thank you," I said. The two giggled, turned back into balls of light, and sped off. We heard a lamp break and a curtain being ripped up. "Sheesh, the ghosts of the other Ronins must have a ball taking care of those two."
"They might be the reason this wing has been left alone for so long. Those two came back to haunt Trulpa as poltergeists," said Anubis. He raised an eyebrow. "Of course! This is near the place where they died! Of course they're going to trash it!"
"How did they die?" asked Ria.
"I believe that Sehkment and Vanessa poisoned them and may have molested them as they died," said Anubis. He shuddered. "My stomach turns when I think that I once participated in similar activities."
"It must be hard to live with what you've done," I said.
Anubis nodded. "You have no idea how much I regret what I have done. It's not easy to live with at all, and while I know there's no way I can truly make up for my past crimes, I will spend the rest of my life doing as much of that as I can."
"That's good to know," I said.
"Miyamoto," Ria said softly. During out conversation, the ghost of the past Wildfire woman had appeared. She had long, raven black hair and almond shaped eyes. She simply turned around and began to lead us down more hallways, these ones not it such horrible disarray. Obviously the children Ronins hadn't gotten their poltergeist paws on the vases and lamps in this hallway. It was lined with dust (Ria sneezed a lot) and looked undisturbed.
At the end of the hallway stood the transparent form of Sakkaki, who nodded to his partner in arms and signaled Ria to come closer. He was standing next to a heavily boarded up oak door, which he pointed to. "What does he want?" I asked.
"Burn," he said to Ria in a ghostly echo.
"I understand," said Ria, nodding. She raised her hands and concentrated. The door burst into flames and our path was cleared into hallway that was in much better condition. Ria nodded and bowed to her predecessors and led us into the main hallway. Anubis orally thanked the spirits as we continued on our way.