Curselock

Chapter 40: Praise Be

Leland took one final look at the shivering form of his best friend and accepted his summon’s gift. He touched the soul of the Damned, pulling the lost soul it held into his body. He breathed in, combining his soul with the Witch’s he killed hours ago.

Grimacing, Leland expected his headache to redouble, but nothing of the sort happened. The green mist entered his body and didn’t fight for dominance inside his body. It accepted its new life as a fuel source, giving itself willingly.

The boon pushed Leland’s hand into battle, the implications of his spell not important enough to warrant allowing Jude to fight alone. Inside his Circle of Souls, six cultists stood looking hesitantly at six souls clawing out of the ground.

As the souls’ heads eclipsed the grassy backyard, violet burning eyes shone through their ethereal forms. They locked eyes with their cultist counterparts, summoning forth six whirlpools of lifeforce and mana. Purple fire burst from beneath each intruder before quickly fading into a ghostly outline.

The whirlpools pulled at the cultists’ souls, ripping them from their fleshy husks by way of green mist. Each started leaking green, some more so than others. Their souls pooled around their obscured cowls, under their hoods and from their hollow eye sockets.

Then the screaming started.

One by one the cultists realized something was violently wrong with the situation they found themselves in. They were supposed to invade House Onryo and get out alive. The mansion’s defenders were out and the mansion’s residents were weak.

O’ how they had been led astray.

The words echoed in each of their minds, decompounded and reforged by the skeletal stares of the souls breaching the soft ground. The longer the cultists looked into the eyes of purple flame, the quicker their minds melted away from humanity. It was painless, they found, but nonetheless not what they wanted.

Some chose to fight, rushing the circular pillar of fire around them. They only found pain, the violet flames too much for their sheared souls to pass through. More green spilled, finally taking a first victim. The other cultists didn’t even know his name. They only knew that they were soon to die in the same way.

An ethereal green man appeared from the man’s body, like a magnet had pulled his soul from his skin. A moment later, a soul of the Damned locked eyes with the lost soul, guiding it out of the fire and a few paces away.

The soul reappeared, arms outstretched in offering to its master.

Leland didn’t waste time or worry about his wellbeing, he accepted the lost soul into himself despite the animosity he felt from the green mist. A moment later he stumbled a step, blood trickling from his nose like he had just been kicked in the head.

No more, he told himself. I’ll have to make do with just this.

Power came to his heart and soul, ushering in new magical strength. Ignoring the remaining five cultists being swallowed by his Circle of Souls, Leland found Jude hacking his way through the other red robes.

Powerful swing after powerful swing, the Legacy of the Berserker cut down any and all who stood in his way. His chest and face matched his battle axe, bloodied and deadly. The inexperienced and non-combatant cultists died with ease, Jude finishing them off in droves.

Suddenly Leland and his curses joined the fray, ethereal birds and the sound of bones chipping made their presences known. He kept his crows on the cultists that looked to be actual fighters, having them switch from one to the other every few seconds. This, along with breaking the bones of the cultists who seemed to be spell casters, kept the horde frozen in dull chanting.

Jude didn’t notice, however, the rage building up and taking control. His emotions came in quickly, Leland’s calming blanket failing at the first sigh of Glenny’s agony.

Jude fell into himself, allowing his Legacy to take over. He’d do anything to make the chanting stop.

Something sheared down his shoulder and back. He turned, not even sparing a moment to make sure of his target. Jude’s axe cut the man down before the man could even reset his guard.

Jude roared, the pain along his back going numb. He pushed forward again, finding multiple slowed targets easy pickings. A red crescent of fury lacerated deep into a cultist trying, and failing, to retreat.

He leaped forward, finding a new patch of cultists to decimate. Before he could finish an overhand swing, an invisible force blocked his axe. Jude growled, pushing with all his might to cut down the cultist before him. He lasted less than a heartbeat.

Suddenly Jude found himself hurtling through the air, traveling towards the back property of House Onryo. He landed awkwardly in a set of bushes, his ankle broken but without pain.

Jude huffed, white exhale blasting from his heated lungs. He scanned the fog laden backyard while rushing back, finding his target in silky white robes.

She was dueling Boor, invisible forces blocking the butler’s every attack.

Jude joined in, only seeing red.

He swung, ignorant of his ally’s proximity. Boor grunted with irritation, allowing the young man to take the lead. Together they battled, each aiming to kill.

Suddenly the woman jerked in a skidding motion, her body failing to move to her command. Crows rushed through the foggy air, diving into her. They hit an invisible wall, each ethereal summon popping out of existence with a caw.

She moved an arm, blocking an axe swipe. The steel weapon collided against her magic, muting the attack and sending it off course. Still, pain found her. She groaned, not having felt true pain in many, many years. It was a rib, she knew instantly. Broken, sundered into weakness then forcibly snapped with her movements.

Boor cut into her shoulder.

She screeched, her concentration flaring back alive. Boor and Jude were knocked away, and the woman suddenly had set her eyeless sockets on Leland.

The Legacy of Curses’ eyes went wide as the fog before him split. A force cut through the backyard like a torpedo through dark waters. He threw up his arms in guard, activating his only defensive measure. A bubble of electricity snapped in front of him growing from the necklace he had won from Guild Master Gilbert so long ago. It formed a full aegis, impacting against the hidden threat yet sending him spiraling back.

Colliding with a brick wall, Leland fell to his knees and puked blood. Soon he was surrounded by five souls of the Damned, each with their arms out in offering.

“You keep those safe,” he cursed, finding his feet. “I’ll take them from you soon.”

Magic found his fingertips. “Fracture.”

“Fracture.”

“Fracture.”

The woman in white spared Leland a glance but Boor kept her from attacking. She was on the back foot, finding her body to be sluggish and pain riddled. Jude attacked as well but favoring an ankle only inhibited his power.

“Leland?” a voice from his side called.

He spun, finding Alkin, Mavi, and Lady Onryo. Lady Onryo was now conscious but her eyes spun within her skull. Her gaze drifted from object to object, never focusing on any one thing for more than a moment.

“I-is she okay?” Leland asked.

Mavi answered, “Concussed but yes.”

“Put this on her.” Leland handed over his ring of regeneration.

“B-but you just threw up blood! You need it—”

Leland shook his head. “She needs to help Boor and Jude. I’m spent.”

Alkin hesitated but did as his friend asked. The group fell back into watching the battle unfold, specifically Jude and his fleeting body.

“Come on, mom. Here, take the candle,” Alkin said, shoving the spirit fire artifact into her hands.

Lady Onryo held the item, her vision still spinning. Jude was suddenly sent flying, an invisible punch knocking him far into the fog.

Leland bit his lip, cursed, and rushed after him. He hurdled cultists bodies and ran around blood puddles, eventually finding his friend in a flowerbed unconscious.

That’s for the best, he thought, thinking of Jude’s berserker rage.

Still, Leland dragged his friend out of the thorny bushes, watching for red movement within the fog. While no cultists came for him, something caught his eye. High above the mansion a little dot of flame formed. It slowly grew as the seconds passed and eventually it caused the ground to tremble.

Wind whipped through the backyard, clearing the fog like a leaf blower. It was then Leland saw what the flaming dot was.

A meteor.

It rushed down, like an anvil dropped by the sun, eventually taking up the entirety of the sky above. Leland wanted to scream but found his body too tired to move. He covered Jude the best he could and simply watched.

Boor and the woman in white noticed the certain death from above. The butler moved first, rushing to Alkin and the other Onryos like his life depended on it.

The woman, however, hesitated. She looked from her target to the meteor and back, the clear choice of action overcoming her will to her ‘Lord.’ She held up a broken arm, forming her magic to the fullest. A thin outline enveloped her from behind, consuming her like a box holding an item. Suddenly she disappeared within the outline, her magic doing the same a moment later.

The woman was gone.

Then the meteor disappeared as well, simply poofed out of existence.

Leland’s mouth hung open, his gaze slowly finding a swaying Lady Onryo clutching a blue flame candle. She fell unconscious a moment later, Boor catching her before she hit the ground.

It took a few minutes, but Leland eventually convinced Alkin and Mavi to help him carry Jude inside the mansion. When he did, he froze.

“Where’s Glenny?”

The world crumbled, as did Leland.