Juin blinked and looked at Lucifer. "What happened?" he asked as he rubbed his chest uncertainly, still reliving the memories from years ago. In addition, he felt a little tired, but it was not as bad as he thought. Then again, Lucifer did not really do anything drastic when he took over his body, and the takeover was only for a few minutes.
Otherwise, Juin would have been unable to do more than go unconscious from the complete depletion of strength.
When he was. .h.i.t with those memories that he did not know he had, Juin felt a strange strength coursing through his body, as if he were suddenly blessed with an unknown power. It was as if something were boiling within his body, and he mentioned this to Lucifer.
"As I said before, and I think I can confirm it now, your memories are the keys to finding your true strength," Lucifer said, almost excitedly. The more he found out about his vessel, the more excited he became. "Part of it, at least."
Juin sighed tiredly as he dragged his feet over the gra.s.ses-covered path. Unlike the path to the Smithsons" house, here, long overgrown gra.s.ses covered the uneven ground, and empty beer cans were strewn around.
Based on the conditions of some of the cans, it seemed that some of them were quite new, while others might have been here for a few years.
"The teenagers from the city must have come here for a party," Juin mumbled as he looked at the condition around.
"The owner of the house was a guy who was suspected of an attempt to sacrifice a child… I would say this would make the house a pretty cool place for some games," Lucifer said nonchalantly.
When he was a young demon himself, he used to play stupid dare games with his friends as well, going into places that he shouldn"t and poking the scary captives in his father"s underground dungeon, and he doubted that these humans were any different.
Fear was fun, after all.
After a few minutes, they were almost at Jim Mack"s house, and both of them could feel an uneasiness in the air. When Juin was standing a few steps away from Jim Mack"s house, he murmured, "The air feels heavy here... Like death..."
The house was built in a simple modern style using woods and was a lot smaller and simpler than the Smithsons, and it seemed that without anyone living in them, the house had broken down quickly in the last three years.
Juin looked at the windows on both the first and second floors. All of the windows were broken, and on the second floor, simple blue curtains with holes in them were still, and one of the curtains was dangling oddly, making a narrow tent-like shape.
Juin then glanced at the house in total, and he noticed that the white facade of the house was now replaced with grime and green algae. And on the door, the words "Satanist!" and "Pervert!" were written with black and blue paint.
"This looks totally like a house in a horror movie…" he said before s.h.i.+vering slightly. The whole house gave him the creeps.
Lucifer glanced at him, and after a few seconds, he muttered, "I agreed."
For reasons they couldn"t comprehend, there was an extremely strong stench of death lingering in the air. The closer they were to the house, the stronger the stench and feel were. Almost as if lots of innocent lives had been sacrificed here, and this feeling made them uneasy… At the very least, it made Juin feel somewhat nauseated.
He glanced down at his arms and saw that he was having raised gooseb.u.mps. Rubbing his arms a couple of times, he mumbled, "Please don"t let there be ghosts…"
There were some yellow tapes on the door, like those that the police used at crime scenes. It seemed that someone had tried to enter the place, because some of the yellow tapes were on the floor.
Juin then placed his left hand on the highest yellow tape and pulled down, taking along the rest of the tapes in one swift movement before letting them fall to the ground.
Just as he placed his hand on the dusty doork.n.o.b, he heard Lucifer say, "Hold on…"
When he glanced at Lucifer, the latter said with a grim tone, "Juin, be careful and stay alert. I sense a presence here, and it"s not friendly."
It was a foreign presence, not just in the sense that it was foreign on Earth, but it was also foreign in The Nightmare Rift. Lucifer sensed that it was weak, but unless he looked at it in person, he wouldn"t know for real. After all, there were plenty of demons that could hide their true strength, or like Juin, whose strength was hidden by others for whatever reasons.
"What?" Juin gasped upon hearing Lucifer"s ominous words. "Is it safe for me to be in?"
"I"m here," Lucifer said, "so you"d be fine. But still, just be careful. There is a limit of how long we can merge, so try not to merge with me unless it"s necessary."
Juin nodded. He took a deep breath and placed his hand on the doork.n.o.b, heart racing wildly as he antic.i.p.ated the worst things that could happen to him.
Creaakkk!
When he turned the k.n.o.b, the creaking sound startled him, and he quickly pulled his hand back. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Lucifer facepalming himself, and he didn"t blame the demon king.
He was about to enter the house of a Satanist, who tried to turn him into a sacrificial lamb, yet he got scared from a creaking sound? Even Juin himself wanted to facepalm. No, he wanted to punch himself for being so jumpy!
Taking in a deep breath, Juin tried again, and he turned the k.n.o.b, this time in full, and pushed the door open quickly. His action caused some of the dust in the house to raise high in the air.
"Cough…" Juin covered his nose and lips with his s.h.i.+rt as he walked in. The dust was causing a terrible itch in his nose, and he had an urge to sneeze when he smelled something strong in the air.
A terrible stench caught him not long after he stepped into the house, and it made him retch slightly. "Urgh, what"s that smell?"
He looked around, but he could not pinpoint where the smell came from. "Your Majesty, can I skip this out?" he asked while looking at Lucifer with a pleading gaze. It smelled like death in here!
He wanted to find out more, he really did! But it was getting scarier and scarier… especially when he saw the broken gla.s.ses on the floor, and those dried brown light handprints on the wall.
"No, you"re already here," Lucifer said with a sigh. As he looked at the graffiti of a goat"s head right in front of the door, he said nonchalantly, "Just keep going. If we dally any longer, the sun is going to go down, and you"re definitely going to cry if we are in the house at that time."
For a short moment, Lucifer"s eyes sharpened as he looked up at the second floor.