"A cursed womb that is already as powerful as a Second grade curse? How is this even possible?" Kaiser quizzed worriedly, unable to hide some of his emotions. Compared to the Sentinels, he was quite inexperienced in areas like this.
He was only respected this much because of his level of power and cool-headedness. But, in that moment, he felt really disoriented.
"Given the number of bodies and mana it has fed on, it's not too far-fetched," Flynn answered rather calmly as he continued to wave his rusted trinket over the spot of outflowing Mana. It was roughly a four by four square-meter piece of land that was completely unaffected by all the fighting that had been going on.
The monstrosity of a curse was already on its two feet, towering at a height of almost ten metres as it continued to absorb the threads of Mana, even at that distance.
"We have to sever its connection before it's fully formed," Kaiser said with darkened eyes. The lingering darkness around him took form and rushed towards his right hand. The darkness swirled before solidifying into a double-edged sword.
Brandishing the sword of darkness, he strode forward and said, "Flynn, prepare to sever the connection."
Henry Sage creased his brows as he spotted the faint outline of a buzzing cube around the effusing threads of mana.
"It has a barrier around it!" he quickly warned as the prince raised his sword on high.
With an apathetic gaze and tone, Kaiser sighed, "I know."
"Mystical darkness..." he whispered solemnly and swiftly brought down the sword.
The blade of darkness flared with a purple hue that funnelled around it like a whirlpool. Both the blade and the mist of darkness struck the seemingly invisible barrier cube. The cube glitches to reality for a split second before shattering into corrupted flakes of mana.
The flakes of mana suddenly got attracted to the curse that was now approaching its place of birth.
Kaiser held onto the wrist that wielded the sword of darkness, beads of sweat dotting his forehead as Mana usurped him speedily. With a terse grunt, he displaced the sword into the surrounding darkness—its original form.
'I seriously need to practice more on this and stabilise my Mana output,' he noted inwardly, a little disappointed in himself.
He had gotten so used to his shadows doing most of the heavy lifting for him, that he never thought a day like this would come so soon.
"I thought you were a Shadow and Wind Mage," Aldous muttered with creased brows, impressed and somewhat confused.
The ground shook as the curse got in proximity, the spikes around its body growing thicker and longer. Its hollow eyes now had an inferno of corruption brewing within them.
Bertram Beaumont took a leap from his position and landed about ten houses away from the Curse. Flynn White uncoupled the rusted trinket from his wrist and walked toward the Curse's spawn point.
Fixing his eyes on the approaching curse, Kaiser answered, "Everyone in the Obscure Mage Path can control darkness to some extent, but only a select few can actually bend it to their will. I am one of the few, but it's still hard to manipulate such a primordial concept. I chose to stick to small scale spells—my shadows. But now I have no choice but to get out of my comfort zone."
"But at this rate, you'll be out of Mana before we can even exorcise the curse," Henry warned, observing the aura around the prince with glowing blue eyes.
"I know. That's why we have to end this as soon as possible," Kaiser said, his eyes still transfixed on the curse that now engaged in another bout of combat with Bertram.
Putting his hand forward and raising the trinket vertically, Flynn White shut his eyes as he began to pray in a foreign tongue.
Some called it the language of the goddess of light, Aethera, since only her believers—who were mostly priests—could understand and speak in the said language. If they were to teach a nonbeliever, the latter would never be able to comprehend it.
And there were no false believers. The goddess only acknowledges those that have a pure and unshaken faith in her.
In a resplendent spectacle, Flynn's golden mana wisped out of him like threads, swirling around him in a constant flux.
The rust around the trinket eroded to nothing, revealing the ornament's true golden nature. A tiny carving of Aethera also became visible. It began to absorb the swirling Mana, radiating in a bright golden light. The light beamed upward for over thirty metres before fading.
In Flynn's grasp was a golden sword of purity and holiness. The golden trinket was ingrained into its hilt, the carving of Aethera's eyes shining radiantly in pure whiteness.
Still saying the prayer with closed eyes, Flynn went on one knee and plunged the sword into the earth.
Instantaneously, the surrounding earth quaked as though an earthquake had ensued. Loud, painful shrieks emanated from the corrupted spawn point, the threads of mana reacting erratically like worms to salt. The ground was soon upheaved as multiple hands bored out of it, clawing at the ground as they tried to flee from the influence of the sword's cleansing.
But then, the threads snapped, severing their connection to the giant curse. The hands froze with cracks emanating around them. They soon faded into nothingness. The rioting threads of Mana got cleansed from corruption and dissociated into the atmosphere as natural Mana.
Cracks began to show around the barrier that spread over the village.
Staggering to his feet and finally opening his eyes, Flynn White lumbered over to the edge of the crater that the hands burst out from earlier.
The golden sword in his hand soon lost form and the rust around the trinket returned, partially covering Aethera's face.
Flynn's eyes dilated as he looked down at the ten-metre-deep and four-metre-wide crater. All the Curse's victims had indeed been buried here. He could even see the infamous Sentinel emblems scattered at the bottom of the crater.
Making a cross sign on his forehead and kissing his trinket, Flynn whispered, "May the goddess Aethera receive your souls and lead you to Paradise."
He was soon distracted by a boom that came out of nowhere. As he raised his head to trace its source, a mighty gust of wind blew against him, almost throwing him off his feet.
He adjusted his centre of gravity with a hand over his brows as he waited for the wind to blow by. As it ceased, he looked ahead to see that Bertram and the Curse had met blow to blow.
"But of course," Flynn muttered as he and Henry ran for cover.
The ground beneath Bertram cracked erratically as he pushed his fist firmly against the curse's gigantic hand. The curse also pressed down against the Sentinel, making the latter bare its cumbersome weight.
It had cracks emanating around its legs.
The cracks emanating from the two of them soon connected, and the first layer of earth burst open, unable to carry their pressurising weight.
Feeling his stamina waver as milliseconds flitted by, Bertram made to retract his hand and jump back to gain some distance and recuperate.
However, the skins and muscles that formed the Curse's hand suddenly swallowed Bertram's fist, locking it in place. Bertram gritted his teeth as he felt the bones in his hand get crushed. He struggled to pull himself away, but his hand was trapped tight.
Then, lines of corruption began to crawl up his wrist to his forearm, eating away at his skin, muscles and bones like locusts.
All his years of training prompted him to act swiftly on instinct. He flattened his free palm and allowed Mana to flow around it. Then he sharpened the mana like a blade and sliced his own arm, from the elbow downward.
He had barely done this when the Curse's other hand rammed into his body with a belligerent force, birthing a mild boom as the Sentinel was blasted away for a mile or so. He wouldn't have stopped if it wasn't for the cracked barrier around the village.
He struck the dome like a squashed fly, creating more cracks in it. Gravity soon pushed him down to a free fall.
Watching his comrade plummet from the sky about a mile away, Aldous Benedict could only light another cigar and sigh, the smoke swirling around his body.
"Bertram might be out of commission for a while. It's now up to us, Prince Kaiser," he said, passing a small ring to the prince.
Prince Kaiser collected it and his hand ignited in white flames. He flicked the ring away in quick reflex. The flames died down immediately, leaving a slight burn on his hand.
Shaking his hand to mitigate the pain, Kaiser clicked his teeth, "Do you wish to burn me alive?"
Aldous creased his brows, "That wasn't supposed to happen."