12. Anyone home~?

“Anyone home~?” Boss’ childish voice echoed through the empty castle sized church.

“Why was the door so loud?” Arthur covered his ears staring at the door Boss pushed through. Barkie can be seen slightly shivering above his head. Silver woke up from Shelly’s arm and didn’t fall back to sleep.

Looking at the broken pieces of metal on the ground Shelly gave Arthur the answer “The door was locked.”

Flabbergasted by the ease it was for Boss to push opened an enormous locked door, Arthur turned and asked Shelly, “That’s not normal right?”

“Definitely not normal, he’d have to be an Orthodox Red hair to have that kind of strength.” Shelly replied. An orthodox is a person who had gone through schooling for the energy manipulation manifested in their hair and eyes.

The majority of the world’s population consist of those who go to either Naturelle or Lumiere to practice and learn how to manipulate physical and mental energy. Only strange people from the third continent East of Zeldova and West of the Tillowisk Empire have their own unorthodox approach to creating their energy users.

“Man, what kind of power does he have?” Arthur thought inwardly. An Exotic that can change his age, hair and eye color, and have the physical strength of a Red. This is the first time he’s ever heard of such a thing.

“Anyone~home~?” Boss repeated himself as he made his way further through. Marveling at the expansive space within the Church capable of filling the entirety of the town right through just front door.

Enormously tall hallways over 7 meters in height and 4 meters wide capable of holding dozens of people to walk through with ease. A staircase at the corner of the Church that follows alongside the wall going up to the upper levels. Boss walked around with a thought in his mind. Why are the hallways so large?

Step by step Boss eventually stumbled upon rows of marble sculptures of Angels with 2, 4, 6 and 8 wings each one progressively becoming larger and more enigmatic than the former. The eight-winged Angel stood nearly 5 meters tall.

Halting in front of the eight-winged Angel, Boss gave it a curious look. It was an enormous handsome Angel with an enchanting smile and straight long hair down to his chest, A thinly veil cloth wrapped around his body covering everything indecent.

Scratching his head, Boss craned his neck to stare at the sculpture before him. I’ve seen this fella somewhere before. However, I don’t remember where.

The two kids quickly caught up to Boss and craned their necks to look up at the eight-winged Angel before them. A mysterious energy suddenly flowed out of it as they approached, it swirled around the two youth, completely ignoring Boss and the pets.

Arthur’s eyes slowly dulled into a trance as the mysterious energy continued to swirl around him.

Shelly’s forehead was filled with a cold sweat as the energy slowly enshrouded her body. A plea for help can be seen on her expression as her eyes too were becoming more listless.

“Shoo, shoo” Boss waved his hands around the energy completely dispersing it, however not before trace amount fell upon the two.

The two youths went out of their trance, a weird sensation enveloped their body as they looked at each other. Arthur’s eyes bulged as he stared at Shelly. “Sh-shelly there’s white lights all around you!

“Same to you!” Shelly replied in disbelief, what is she seeing?

“Wh-what are these lights?” Arthur asked hoping for an answer.

“No idea, I can’t see it.” Boss lied, he continued to walk ahead, shattering Arthur’s hope for an answer.

“W-wait for me” Arthur chased after Boss. Shelly followed suit walking slower and pacing herself as she kept her eyes on Arthur. The white lights around him slowly flowed into his body returning his appearance to normal.

Minutes passed by as the kids continued their exploration of the church. The once smiling expression on the eight-winged Angel morphed, the smile vanished replaced by a look of viciousness as it began to move.

“Hm?” The Pope’s eyes popped open the moment the Angel moved. Holding himself up from the seat with his silver cane, the Pope reached for the Golden Scepter at his side and began to slowly walk. Only the sound of the cane tapping the floor could be heard as he disappeared down the hallway.

“Where are we going? It feels like we’re walking in circles!” Arthur angrily shouted; the entire church was enormous, too enormous that Arthur felt lost.

“Ahaha, I think we are.” Boss said without a hint of worry. Using his spiritual sense, he could navigate around the church with ease, but he didn’t want to cheat. So, he shrunk it to just around him and the kids, enough to respond to any sneak attack.

“Hm, where shall we go? That way?” Boss pointed at a certain direction he believed they haven’t been through before.

“Shelly, please help us, if we follow Boss around, we’ll be stuck here forever.” Arthur begged her. He remembered that she told him her memory was good, she should know where to go.

Shelly glanced at the hallway that was split into various parts like a spiderweb. Her eyes closed as she recalled the directions they’ve taken since entering the Church. Lines and dots formed as pathways were drawn on a map visualized within her head.

A moment later, her eyes open and she took the lead. Two doors down the hallway turn to the right. Three doors down that hallway turn to the left. Three more and another left. Her pace started to quicken as Arthur and Boss followed along at a brisk pace.

Several minutes went by with Shelly continuously moving throughout the Church, Arthur was starting to feel unrest settle in as the back of his mind screamed, we’re lost! However, right after that, Shelly made a right turn and the hallway opened to a whole other place appeared.

An enormous cavernous area similar to the front of the Church for the townspeople’s prayer appeared. Were they back at the front of the door? No. A Spiraling tower up ahead with a chain loosely removed from its handles appeared before their eyes.

“Wow~ look at that tower!” Arthur exclaimed; he wasn’t expecting a cylindrical spiral 12 meters high of a tower within the church.

“Let’s go check it out!” Arthur ran ahead getting closer to the door pausing only in front of it. He didn’t continue forward to open the door, the giant chains loosely around one handle of the door felt ominous.

“Why are there chains around the handle?” Arthur wondered, “Perhaps there’s a monster inside!” he determined, why else would you use a chain instead of a normal lock? Arthur slowly inched backwards before bumping into Boss.

“Hm? Walk forward, why’re you backing up to me?” Boss questioned Arthur’s behavior.

“Th-there’s a m-m-monster up ahead” Arthur pointed at the chains on the handle. “Shh, we gotta get out of here” Arthur was already ready to flee the scene. However, he couldn’t budge as Boss held his shoulder slowly scooting him forward.

Arthur’s struggle was in vain as he was pushed back in front of the door. Quivering in front of the door Arthur was unwilling to touch the handle. Only Shelly’s calm expression beside him calmed him down.

Since Arthur was unwilling to open the door, Boss decided to do it himself. Just like before the moment he pushed it open his voice loudly echoed throughout the area. “Anyone home~?”

Completely caught by surprise from the loud childish voice both Michael and Julie who was crying in his arms turned their head towards the direction of the door. A little youth of 10 years old with purple hair and yellow eyes walked in followed by two familiar faces. One was carrying a silver kitten in her arm while the other had a puppy squat on his scruffy head of hair.

“Arthur? Shelly? What’re you doing here?” Michael was the first to respond.

“Julie!” Arthur ran forward to give her a hug, prompting her to stumble back with him in her embrace. The little boy was up to her chest.

“Arthur? Look at you! You’re so tall now.” She said while wiping away her remaining tears. Two years had gone by since he’d last seen her, he’d hardly grown, but it was enough for her to say so.

“I know, right?” Arthur had a smug look on his face from her compliment. However, upon closer inspection of her face Arthur couldn’t help but frown. “Julie why’re you crying?”

His eyes darted back and forth between the tears dried on Julie’s face and the only culprit in the room, along with remembering the chains he had seen on the handle before. Arthur quickly made his deduction, “Michael you kidnapper! You kidnapped Julie!”

“Y-you take that back! I did no such thing!” Michael was unprepared by Arthur’s accusation he could only stammer.

“Oh yeah, then why is she crying?” Arthur quickly pressed Michael.

“Sh-she’s—”

“And why were there chains outside the door, you locked her in here!” Arthur quickly cornered Michael with accusations, he didn’t know how to refute the evidence.

A sad and depressed look can be seen on Michael’s face causing Julie to come his rescue. “He didn’t kidnap me Arthur, I came here myself.”

“Did he tell you to say that? Blink once for yes, two for no” Arthur didn’t relent on bullying Michael.

Julie’s eyes blinked once on accident the moment Arthur said that, causing him to glare at Michael for being so despicable.

“N-no, I just blinked Arthur, Michael was here to save me” Julie quickly tried to save Michael’s sinking ship.

“Is that true Julie? Then why did you come here?” Arthur relented; Julie wouldn’t be this lively if Michael was her kidnapper.

“I—”

“I brought her here” Michael interrupted seemingly trying to hide something. His abnormal behavior caught the suspicion of Shelly.

“Oh? Then why were you looking for her so hard?” Shelly decided it was better to get the truth instead of having him hide it.

“I—”

“Oh, hi Julie, my name’s Shelly I’m young master Arthur's friend” Shelly introduced herself, she never met Julie before. She’s only heard about her rom Arthur and Michael. Julie returned the greeting before looking at Boss.

“And what’s your name boy?” Julie extended her arm for a handshake.

“Call me Boss.” Boss replied returning the handshake, causing Julie to be at a loss for words.

“Is that your name?”

“Probably, it is for now” Boss replied confusing her even more so.

Arthur pulled Julie down and whispered into her ear “He’s an alien, he fell from the sky” causing Julie to give Boss a look of astonishment. Could he be that thing that fell from the sky?

Julie began to circle around him looking at him all over, from what she’s seen he seems like a normal kid.

“What’re you looking at? Never seen a 10-year-old boy before?” Boss harrumphed at her curious gaze.

Arthur pulled Julie down and whispered in her ear again, “He was a man yesterday, he only made himself look like a kid”. This made Julie’s eyes pop out in wonder as she curiously stared at him.

Noticing everyone’s gazes were now on Boss and not him, Michael couldn’t help but got curious too. He went up to Arthur and whispered to ask him why Julie was so curious about Boss. However, Arthur should’ve been the last person he asked because all he received was Arthur’s tongue sticking out at him.

Instead, Arthur repeated what Shelly had said “Yeah, Michael, why’re you looking for Julie so hard if you’re the one who brought her here?”

All eyes fell upon Michael as he didn’t know what to say. Should he tell them the truth that he didn’t do it? But wouldn’t this make him a liar? So many thoughts were swirling around his head as all he could do was stand with his mouth agape not uttering a single word.

Seeing Michael in a dilemma, Julie decided that she had to tell them the truth or Michael would receive all the blame.

“Kids, Michael didn’t do anything.” Julie paused recollecting her thoughts.

Sigh

She exhaled, her thoughts in order and her calm collected.

“Michael didn’t do anything, I locked myself up here of my own volition”

“He—”

Ruuumble… Ruuumble… Ruuumble… Ruuumble!