The prince wasn't particularly perturbed by this, not until he felt a lukewarm liquid drool out of his right ear. He poked a finger into it and placed it before him. His index finger was smeared in a thick, dark crimson liquid.
"Blood...?" He muttered in puzzlement.
"It's growing stronger," Aldous said as they entered the village too. In their case, blood drooled out of both ears, safe for Flynn, who whispered a short prayer. He remained unharmed.
Wiping his ear with a white handkerchief, Prince Kaiser turned to look at the Sentinels, who shuddered under the influence of whatever curse had befallen the village. Flynn remained an exemption though. It was as though he was immune to curses.
"Wait, you entered the village prior to now?" Kaiser asked as he processed Aldous's words.
Henry nodded, "Yes. Only for a quick survey. We know no one comes out alive, but Flynn is a Priest. He has a great resistance to curses."
"I see..." Kaiser hummed, sizing up the blue-eyed Flynn in a new light. "Well, that's a good thing. We should be able to locate the curse easily, and if we're successful in exorcising it, the intruder will be left vulnerable, and much easier to track, since he'd be in panic, losing control over his concealment. Albeit, that is if the intruder isn't a part of the curse itself."
"Let's hope not. That's our only source of information at the moment. Losing him will plunge us deeper in the dark," Bertram said warily.
"Still, let's be careful. We don't know for exact what kind of curse this is. No low level curse can cause the disappearance of over two hundred people in the span of a night," Kaiser warned as he advanced into the village.
The four Sentinels reluctantly followed. They had their doubts. Two Sentinel squads had been posted here before them, but they never returned and their Mana aura mysteriously vanished. One of the squads also had a Priest with them, but they didn't make it out of the village.
More so, the two squads constituted of Master Mages. The current squad only had one Master Mage, the Priest, Flynn White. The rest were Psyons. Though they were quite skilled to be Master Mages, it hadn't been made official yet.
So what hope did they have against such an enigmatic curse?
The only confidence they had at the moment was Prince Kaiser's presence. But even he was inexperienced at dealing with curses.
Aldous Benedict flicked his right thumb beneath his cigar, creating a few sparks and lighting the cigar. Its base burned bright red as he took a deep puff.
He exhaled softly, allowing the smoke to wisp around his face.
"May Aethera guide our steps and protect us from evil," he whispered, briefly closing his eyes.
Flynn took a puzzled glance at him, smiling tersely as he asked, "Since when did you become a believer in the Goddess?"
"You suddenly hear the various whispers of the damned, and you begin to set your priorities straight," Aldous answered with a shrug, referring to himself in second person.
"With that big cigar in your mouth? Yeah, right," Henry commented, scoffing along with the other two.
Taking another puff and exhaling slowly, Aldous shrugged once more, "It has to do with my Mage Path. She'll understand."
They walked further into the village, taking stops at every odd sight or substance. They entered a few houses that emanated a toxic aura.
Flynn would cleanse it with a prayer before they walked in. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, at least not yet.
Hunting curses or fishing out curses always took time, as curses could be literally anything that one could think or not think of. A curse could be a simple food bowl, or a piece of thread. Their origins varied, but most of them were related to dark magic—Remnants of the Parade of the Dark Druids.
Sometimes it took hours, sometimes the curse reveals itself in haste. It was mainly dependent on the type of curse and what they fed on. All curses fed on mana, but there were other supplements that each curse needed to grow stronger.
Prince Kaiser narrowed his eyes as he spotted a particular tree he had seen twice earlier. It was void of leaves and its branches were very dry. It also had some scratches on its bark, as though an animal had tried to climb it.
"Am I the only one that has seen this exact same tree a few houses behind?" Kaiser asked, reducing his pace as they got closer to the tree.
Henry sighed in relief, "Phew... I thought I had started hallucinating."
"We've passed it twice now. This'll be the third time," Aldous added.
"It's weird enough that a tree this big was planted within such a small space, but encountering it three times in a row? Something is definitely off," Bertram chipped in.
"Allow me, fellas," Flynn said proudly as he walked up to the mysterious tree.
"Don't let your Priesthood get to your head. That could be the curse for all we know," Aldous warned, his body heating up as he released some of his Mana.
Flynn scoffed and placed a hand on the tree's scarred bark, feeling the tree's soul by channelling his Mana through his palm, "You worry too much. And even if it was the curse--"
He was immediately silenced by a loud shriek that emanated from the tall tree. Its structure distorted into a semi-liquid state, vibrating chaotically as though multiple hands were trying to punch their way out of it.
It had only been one second since Flynn touched it. As he tried to take his hand back in panic, a hand of darkness and corruption jutted out of the tree and caught him by the neck.