Me and Afal went back to the village. They all saw me without armor and weapons and all beaten up while Afal stood next to me. They knew I was tired and held on to questioning me and laid me to rest in the cabin.
"Sleep for now." Precia closed my eyes.
Zeta then exclaimed, "Explain yourself to us later!"
While the others were agreeing.
I fell into a deep sleep.
I then woke up... Well. I'm not really awake. But... I could see the katana artifact here in my dream.
"Feed us." "Nourish us." "Blood." "Everything." "Give us EVERYTHING!" The voices resonated inside from the Bloodlust katana. It seems it was a curse left by the father of Afal.
I then woke up in the real world hearing loud noises.
"Barrier! Get out of here! Now!" Zeta commanded everyone to retreat.
I saw Bloodlust swinging around itself. "Why is it out of my inventory?" I asked myself. It escaped because it was simply hungry? I then notice Afal in the corner silently sleeping. It seems even though his father was the owner of the sword he can't sense it going berserk.
I ran towards the sword and grabbed it. The hilt of the sword turned again into a flesh eating monster. "Feed us!" The blade shouted in agony.
It seems I can't stop it by any means. "Ah crap. I don't want to this but..."
I raised my sword, flipped it to face me and thrusted it through my stomach.
"Have you gone insane Zieglind!" Greta worriedly shouted.
I then quickly pulled it out. I could see where the blade pierced and it healed instantly. The blade was now covered with floating blood aura. And when I swung it, a projectile of blood emitted from the sword cutting through the house like butter.
"Zeta! Heal Zieglind!" Rize asked.
"Mhm!" Zeta began chanting a heal spell on me. "Huh? He's already at full health."
"What?" All of them exclaimed.
"Hey Afal. Explain what this sword does."
I kicked Afal and he finally woke up. "Hmm? Wait. *Yawn*"
"You know you're pretty ballsy when someone here could've died."
"Is that the Bloodlust? I guess I can't help it."
I asked everyone to leave us for a while. They all understood and went outside.
Afal sat down in a comfortable position and began explaining. "Bloodlust is a one of a kind artifact. Its a blessing and a curse in itself. I only know few of its moves but I can't handle the insanity curse of that sword. First of all, it feeds through blood. Everytime a blood is splatgered through that blade, it gets eaten immediately by the blade. And if a certain amount of blood was accumulated, you could use the Cursed Arts for that blade."
"Cursed arts?" I asked.
"Remember what I did before?"
"I forgot."
"Guegh. I'm just going to show an example. La Da Fa Trey Zi Ta."
A black portal opened up from the ground beside me and a bunch of skeleton emerged from it and began grabbing something.
"This is a cursed art. This is my skill Abyssal Drag. Its an incantation but like your friend Zeta, its different for them. Zeta's healing skill is a continuous incantation. He began reciting words that combine with each other. With cursed arts, a simple set of words can make a new magic. But the consequences are heavy."
"What are the consequences?"
"Cursed arts may go wrong and the effect will backfire on you. Think of it as this. You cast a fireball spell, you mixed up the words so the fireball is now redirected back at you TWICE the damage. Now going back to the Bloodlust, you can feed it blood using your body. Just like what you did before. And Bloodlust will immediately heal it. But it takes away your sanity everytime you use it."
"I have immunity to it so don't worry."
"So did my father... Anyway, learning curse arts is easy. Just remember the words and the way how you say it will change the way you cast the spell. Its a Cursed Word Art. Now the Bloodlust has several cursed arts. But I only knoe two from watching my father use it. Blades are different from word arts. They are named Cursed Blade Arts. You need to remember every part of your body on how they move and the positioning of your limbs. One wrong aspect of this art can damage your body to the point its unrepairable. Cursed Arts are something not to dabble with. But I can teach you some of it."
"Well. I need it. So nowhere to run nor make excuses."
"Excellent. Tell me when you're ready and I'll teach you everything I know."
I put Bloodlust in my inventory and noticed something. Devoratrix is still in my inventory. Despite my rapier, greatshield, dagger, hammer and my armor all gone for that single swing, Devoratrix survived for some reason. Oh well.
Afal and I went outside where everyone was waiting.
I was bombarded by questions from all of them and explained everything. From what the artifacts are, how I met Afal and what happened to my weapons and armor.
I wish I can give this Bloodlust to one of them but they can't handle the curse so I'm going to use this for now.
Tomorrow is where I start training for the incantations.