The Bones of the Ancient God

Chapter 9: The Secret Behind the Morgue Warehouse

As they stepped into the main hall of the warehouse, the air suddenly felt completely different.

The temperature dropped abruptly. It was not the cold of an AC, but a cold that pierced the bones. A musty smell mixed with a strange scent filled Kaelan's nose.

“Boss, why does it feel so hard to breathe?” Brad whispered.

Kaelan did not answer. He felt it too. His chest felt tight, as if a huge stone were pressing down on his lungs. His head began to throb painfully.

‘This reaction again,’ Kaelan thought. ‘My head hurts.”

The pressure in the room grew stronger. For ordinary humans, this was pure fear. But for Kaelan's body, which contained the Ancient God Bone, even though its owner was unaware of it, this dirty energy pressure was a provocation.

Suddenly, Kaelan's vision blurred.

He did not do anything. He did not chant any spells. But his body reacted on its own to reject the pressure. His spine felt burning hot. His heartbeat raced wildly.

THUD.

The world around Kaelan spun.

The dark and dusty warehouse disappeared. Kaelan no longer saw the moss-covered walls.

He was forcibly dragged into an illusion, or more precisely, a memory, stored within the walls of that place.

Suddenly, the room was brightly lit by torchlight. Kaelan looked around in confusion. He saw dozens of people, local residents wearing ragged clothes from the colonial era, chained to wooden posts. Their bodies were thin and emaciated, covered in whip wounds. Their faces were filled with extreme fear.

“Where is this?” Kaelan muttered in panic. He turned toward Brad, but Brad was not there. He was alone in this memory dimension.

In the middle of the room, there was a black stone altar. A vicious-looking man wearing a white colonial-style suit stood there, holding a gleaming dagger. In front of him, there was a small child crying and begging for mercy.

“Blood for the Ruler, eternal wealth for me!”

Kaelan wanted to scream, wanted to stop the man. But he realized he was only a spectator. He could not touch them.

However, the pain in his heart felt so real.

Kaelan saw the small child being dragged onto the altar. He heard the screams of the other prisoners begging for mercy. He felt their despair. Their hunger, their pain, and the injustice they experienced before they died. They were sacrificed only for the greed of one person.

Empathy.

The feeling exploded in Kaelan's chest. It was not a feeling he had learned at school, nor was it a memory he recognized. It was a pure instinct. Kaelan, despite having lost his memory, still possessed the heart of a leader who could not accept seeing such cruel oppression.

“Stop,” Kaelan hissed, tears falling down his cheeks without him realizing it. “STOP!”

As his pity and anger reached their peak, the seal within his body reacted. The Ancient God Bone responded to Kaelan's strong desire to protect the victims.

Kaelan's body in the real world emitted a dazzling golden light.

BOOOM!

A wave of pure energy exploded from Kaelan's body, sweeping in every direction. It was an automatic defense mechanism. The energy struck the remnants of the evil energy that had settled in the warehouse for decades.

Inside Kaelan's vision, he saw golden flames burning the shadow of the cruel Landlord until it turned to ash. The chains binding the victims broke. The painful faces of the victims turned into peaceful smiles, before they finally faded into particles of light, freed from the curse of that place.

“Boss? BOSS!!”

Kaelan jolted violently.

His breathing was hurried. He blinked repeatedly.

The scene of torches and torture disappeared. He was back inside the old warehouse, dark, musty, and full of cobwebs. Brad was shaking his shoulders with a panicked expression.

“Boss! What's wrong with you?! You suddenly went quiet and then cried! Were you possessed?!” Brad shouted in fear.

Kaelan touched his cheek. It was wet. He had really been crying. His chest still felt tight from the lingering sadness of the vision earlier. But at the same time, the cold and oppressive atmosphere in the warehouse had completely disappeared. The room now felt empty and light, as if a heavy burden had just been lifted from it.

“I, I'm fine,” Kaelan answered in a hoarse voice. He quickly wiped away his tears. “I just got dust in my eyes. There is so much dust here.”

“Dust in your eyes made you shake like that, Boss. Then there was a really strong wind that came out of your body just now. I swear, I'm not lying! It even messed up my hair!” Brad was still shocked.

Kaelan fell silent. He stared at both of his palms.

‘Wind? Light?’ Kaelan thought in confusion. ‘So it's true, my body reacts on its own. When I became angry after seeing the cruelty in that vision, that thing came out again. What is actually happening to me?’

Kaelan tried to calm himself. He looked around. The warehouse was now truly nothing more than a pile of garbage. However, his memory of the vision was still very clear.

He stared at a point in the middle of the room. In his vision, that was where the stone altar was located, the place where the vicious man had placed the blood-collecting cup.

In the real world, that place was only a dirt floor covered by a mound of hardened mud and wild mushrooms.

Kaelan walked closer. His instinct told him that something had been left behind.

“Boss, what are you doing? That's just dirty ground,” Brad warned.

Kaelan crouched down. He picked up a broken roof tile and began scraping the mound of hardened soil. The soil had hardened like stone, merging with the object inside it for decades.

Crack. Crack.

The layer of soil broke apart. A dull yellow color appeared.

Kaelan continued scraping until the shape of the object became visible. It was a medium-sized cup, about the size of a bowl of meatball soup. The object was dented on one side, covered in black crust and dirt, looking extremely disgusting to an ordinary person.

Kaelan lifted it. It was heavy. Much heavier than iron or brass.

“Here it is,” Kaelan muttered. This was the cup he had seen in the vision earlier. The object that had silently witnessed the cruelty of the past. But now, its evil energy was gone.

“Ugh, what's that, Boss? A horse's drinking cup? It's so filthy,” Brad commented in disgust.

Kaelan weighed the object in his hand. His genius brain, which somehow knew about the density of metals, immediately sent a signal.

‘This is pure gold. It's only covered in soil and decades of oxidation,’ he thought.

Kaelan put the dirty object into his school bag.

“This isn't a drinking cup, Brad. Just consider it a souvenir because we were brave enough to come in here,” Kaelan said.

“A trash souvenir? You're really weird, Boss. We'd be better off looking for scrap metal like at the workshop yesterday,” Brad grumbled.

Kaelan stood up. He felt extremely tired, as if all his energy had been drained after what had happened earlier.

“Let's go home, Brad. This place is clean now. There's nothing to be afraid of anymore.”

They walked out of the warehouse. The afternoon sun welcomed them. Kaelan felt relieved to see sunlight again after witnessing the darkness of the past that had been so deep.

As he walked home, Kaelan's thoughts wandered. He looked at the back of his own hand.

‘Mama said I had an accident and lost my memory,’ Kaelan thought doubtfully. ‘But, could an accident really make someone have a power like this?’

Kaelan slowly shook his head. There were too many questions, and no answers.

After walking far enough that the shadow of the Dead Warehouse could no longer be seen, Kaelan stopped at a village crossroads. He turned toward Brad.

“Brad, you have the money, right?” Kaelan asked.

Brad proudly patted his pants pocket. “Safe, Boss. Protected in body and soul.”

“Take out twenty dollars. I have one last task for you today,” Kaelan ordered. Then he stared sharply at Brad, “Take out another fifteen dollars in cash. Give it to me now, and no debate about this fifteen dollars.”

Brad reached into his pocket, took out a slightly crumpled twenty-dollar bill. Then he handed the fifteen dollars to Kaelan.

Brad looked at the money in his hand. “What for, Boss? Are we going to rent a taxi? It's close to home.”

“No,” Kaelan pointed toward the grocery store at the end of the road. “Stop by that store. Buy baking soda, a small bottle of kitchen vinegar, and the cheapest toothbrush.”

Brad gaped, looking at the money in his hand and then at Kaelan with an extremely confused expression.

“Baking soda? Vinegar? Boss, are you making a cake or something? We just finished collecting scrap metal, why are we shopping like housewives who are going to cook?” Brad protested. His limited brain could not connect rusty metal with baking ingredients.

“Ask too many questions and you'll grow old quickly,” Kaelan cut him off casually. “This thing has thick dirt on it, like years of accumulated grime. If we scrub it too hard or sand it, the surface will get scratched. If it gets scratched, its price will drop, and it won't sell.”

“A horse's drinking cup is being treated like treasure, weird,” Brad muttered softly.

Kaelan stared intently at Brad, making sure the boy understood his simple order.

“This thing needs to be bathed slowly so the grime falls off by itself. That's why we need vinegar and baking soda. Understand?”

Brad nodded repeatedly, although his expression still looked half-understanding and half-confused. “Ooh, so it's like soaking dirty clothes, Boss?”

“Yes, just consider it that way,” Kaelan answered, too lazy to explain in more detail. “Go, buy them. Just take the rest for yourself to buy burgers and French fries.”

Brad's eyes immediately lit up when he heard the word 'rest'.

“Now this is the Boss I like! Ready to execute! Leftover money is the bodyguard's human right!” Brad shouted happily.

Without any more complaints, Brad immediately jogged toward the grocery store, full of enthusiasm for the free snacks.

Not long after, Brad returned and handed the groceries to Kaelan.