"Oh, I almost completely forgot that she was enslaved by the dark elves," Myria admitted, though I suspected it was more because she had a grudge against Ardena for the brutal beatdown than any actual memory deficiency. That said, I didn't blame her. I was so focused on the battle that I hadn't kept it in mind myself.
"Yeah, if we free her, she'll rejoin the elves and become a powerful ally. After she recovers, of course."
Long Wang had dealt near lethal damage to her. As much as I wanted her to assist us as soon as possible, that was impractical. She wouldn't be getting back up for a very long time. Not with those injuries. Even if her recovery was sped up by healing spells, it would still take her some time to recover. Ten days, maybe.
What, you thought it would only take her ten minutes? Were you mistaking this for a famous visual novel? It wasn't as if Ardena was Saber Alter, and I certainly wasn't Emiya Shirou.
"But how are you going to break the enslavement curse?" Myria asked, puzzled. "I didn't know you were capable of such things. Are you going to ask Sylvie and Silvia for help?"
The fairy sisters showed up just in time to join us, escorted by Morten and my summoned spirit beasts. I raised a hand and waved at them.
"You did it!" Silvia shouted and pumped a fist into the air. "I knew you guys would defeat Ardena!"
"Are you all right?" Sylvie asked, concerned. "You're not hurt too badly, are you?"
"Not as much as she is." I gestured at Ardena. Morten grimaced.
"Wow, what did you do to her?" Then he looked up at Long Wang, who was still in his enormous dragon form, and shuddered. "Never mind. I think I can imagine."
"Well, it's time to free her of her enslavement curse and return her to the elves." I looked around for Eliza. "We should let them know."
"We can just inform the elves once you're done," Myria said dismissively. "And again, I want to ask how you'll pull it off. I didn't know you can nullify curses."
"Don't you suck at magic, big bro?" Silvia asked bluntly, causing her sister to smack her across the head.
"Silvia! Don't be rude! Jun Wen might not be the best at magic, but he's competent! He knows the basics, at least!"
"Um, big sis, I don't think knowing the basics of magic will allow him to break a curse. Especially one as advanced as this enslavement curse."
"That's true, but I believe in Jun Wen!"
I understood their concern. There was a huge leap from being only proficient in basic spirit arrays to suddenly dismantling an advanced curse such as an enslavement brand. Yet, I could see the flow of mana and how it was arranged in invisible yet glowing runes (to my senses) around Ardena's head. I wondered if I should explain the Eye of Odin to them, but Sylvie continued.
"It's because he's Jun Wen!"
"…huh?"
I tried not to roll my eyes. As much as I appreciated Sylvie's faith in me, sometimes I thought that she worshipped me too much. I had heard of the adage that love was blind, and it seemed to fit Sylvie's character perfectly.
"I will show you." I raised my hand and began dismantling the runes. To be more precise, I was actually disrupting the flow of mana, cutting them off from the sources and breaking up the runes that floated around Ardena's head. That was the main thing about magic and spells. Without a physical, material form, they were actually pretty unstable. Magic was a transient existence that flickered out after a short while, and even though they left permanent effects upon the material world, the spells themselves were temporary. They were like candles, burning brightly and hotly for a few moments before extinguishing, but not after they had already provided light and heat, or even more lasting effects like melted wax, burn marks on a chandelier and smoke.
By disrupting the flow, I began the accelerated process of dismantling the curse. I didn't really have to do much by this point, except sit back and watch as the curse crumbled by itself. it was like removing a piece in Jenga, and then watching the whole structure collapse almost immediately. Or perhaps cutting off power supply by severing the cables with cutters. Once the spell no longer had a source of energy, it would naturally fizzle out.
This wasn't to say that I could replicate the spell (or curse, in this case) with the Eye of Odin. It was infinitely easier to destroy than to create.
For example, I could easily take apart a car engine. All I needed was to cut wires, pull the components apart and scatter them piece by piece. However, putting the engine back together required far more knowledge and expertise…and finesse. I couldn't simply link the cut cables together, for example, which was why I could disrupt the flow of mana, but I couldn't connect it once I had severed the patterns. I was like a kid who was dismantling the computing processing unit of a desktop, only to find that I had no idea how to put everything back together again.
That was the analogy, I supposed.
In any event, I continued to disrupt flows of mana here and there. Like any machine, there were auxiliary power supplies and backups. I had to meticulously track down each path and sever them, causing the energies to leak elsewhere. I would repeat the process until every pipe was split to the point no water could flow into the taps. Or something like that.
My apologies if the explanation didn't make sense. While I worked, I could hear complaints from beyond the fourth dimension about how my logic was nonsense or the analogy was too stupid. Whatever, I give up. Instead, I focused solely on my task, moving my hands through the runes and messing them up. Disjointed and separated, they began to decay into nothingness, leaving little trace of the curse.
"Done."
Finally, I accomplished my objective. Sitting back, I wiped the perspiration from my forehead and studied my handiwork. The curse was gone, having dissipated, and Ardena was free at last. Though I was the only one who could see the mana flow and invisible runes of the curse, the others were able to detect a significant change.
"The demonic energies are gone!" Silvia exclaimed in amazement. "Big bro, you really did it!"
"Yeah, I can sense that the spell used to brainwash and enslave Ardena is gone. There's a noticeable absence of the ominous mana that used to hang over her." Myria stared at me in wonder. "How did you do that?"
"Because he's Jun Wen!" Sylvie repeated, as if it was a given. I sighed and rolled my eyes, wanting to go on a rant.
Fuck it. I might as well rant now.
It wasn't as if I was Rein Shroud. I was not some Mary Sue protagonist who could do whatever the story required me to just because, and then modestly laughed it off as "isn't it normal to be able to do this much?" To the point where it starts to sound mocking rather than funny or modest. I was not some overpowered beast tamer who could do everything even though there was no foreshadowing or any explainable reason beforehand other than because he was Rein Shroud. The only reason why I was capable of breaking the curse was because of the Eye of Odin that I had acquired as a reward from the system upon completing a quest earlier. The mission in Noctwood, to be accurate.
Of course, I didn't say any of that out loud. I wasn't sure if I should even tell them about my Eye of Odin.
"What have you done?"
Eliza and a squad of elves finally made it to our position, looking battered and bruised after all of their battles. They gaped when they saw the fallen Ardena.
"You defeated her!" A male elf armed with a bow and a short sword exclaimed. He looked conflicted, and lowered his head. "Thank you."
"We didn't just defeat her," I said. "We broke the enslavement curse on her. You might want to get a healer here to treat her wounds. She should be free of the dark elves' command now."
"What?" The elves stared at me in disbelief, but Eliza was the first to move forward and place a hand on Ardena's wounded body. her eyes widened and she turned to her brethren.
"Song Jun Wen is right! I no longer sense any trace of demonic energies on Ardena! She seems to be free of the eerie enchantment that was controlling her before!"
"Really?"
"No way!"
Ardena chose that moment to stir. Her eyes briefly flickered open and she looked up, coughing. She gritted her teeth and tried to sit up, her mouth falling open when she caught sight of Eliza. Her blue eyes turned moist as she tried to come to terms with what had just occurred.
"Eliza…is that you?"
"Yeah! Ardena! Are you all right?"
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Ardena closed her eyes and buried her face into Eliza's chest. "I'm so very sorry. I couldn't…I couldn't defeat the dark elves. And I even allowed Lelith Maledictx to enslave me. I fought as long and hard as I could, but I couldn't resist the curse. I couldn't…it's all my fault!"
"It's fine. It's okay now. How are you feeling?"
"Ugh…" Ardena winced and glanced down at her body. "I'm not going to lie. I feel like Helheim."
"Sorry," I apologized. "We couldn't hold back because you were too strong."
"No, it's fine. You saved me. You saved everybody." Ardena shook her head before staring at me in wonder. "Even when enslaved, I still retained a modicum of my consciousness. I was vaguely aware of what happened. You…you broke the curse. Not only did you stop me from murdering more of my fellow elves, you also freed me from the enslavement curse. I can't thank you enough."
"I mean no disrespect," one of the other elves, this time a female who was dressed like a typical ranger, spoke up in an incredulous tone. "But how can a mere human break such an advanced curse?"
"Because he's…"
"Luck," I interrupted Sylvie because she could pull a Beast Tamer and treat me like a Mary Sue like Rein Shroud. "I got lucky."
"Putting that aside, we should leave Ardena to you guys for treatment and move on," Myria said, urgency creeping into her tone. She glanced into the distance where a colossal explosion of fire lit up the night like a second sun. "The war is not going to win itself."
"And it seems like Sigmund has yet to defeat Ricowen," Morten added, looking apprehensive. "We should help him."
"Yeah, agreed." I nodded, but before I could send out the orders to my summoned spirit beasts to continue the advance, Long Wang spoke up.
"My lord, if I may make a suggestion."
"Of course. You know me by now, just speak freely. Don't fret over all those formalities. I trust you."
"Thank you for your kind words, my lord." Long Wang reared up, towering over all of us. The elves were intimidated, despite knowing that he was on our side. I didn't blame them. Anyone who met him for the first time would feel afraid by his sheer power and bulk. "I propose that I pursue the mastermind behind all this."
"You mean Lelith Maledictx?"
"That's correct." Long Wang nodded his enormous head, even as a shiny Charred Drake stopped beside him. "I'll take Xiao Huo Long with me and lead a charge into their fleet of Raiders, and I'll cut off the head of the enemy forces once and for all. With your permission, of course."
"Granted," I replied without any hesitation. I waved at my shiny Charred Drake. "Listen to Long Wang, Xiao Huo Long, and give them hell."
Without wasting a single second, both dragons took off into the skies and charged right into the hovering armada of sleek, black Raiders and their accompanying Growling Griffon and Wind Wyvern escorts. They were followed by an army of Round Owlets, Arrow Owls and a single Grim Owl, all of them determined to liberate their home from the sadistic invaders.
I couldn't help but smile at the inspiring sight. inwardly, I vowed that we would all save Yggdrasil before the arrival of dawn.