Chapter 115: Curiosity – Part 3

Chapter 115: Curiosity – Part 3

"Curiosity killed the cat, and the human was so saddened by this that they created a safety net so that no other cats would meet the same end," a female voice echoes inside my mind.

Then a female hand grabs mine and pulls me forward, reminding me that I'm still alive and that I have a fight to finish.

I groan in pain and try to open my eyes, but my body refuses to move, so I try to wrestle back control, but I just feel the pain get worse the harder I try.

There's still something inside me, something "foreign," and I know of only one thing that could even have a chance of dealing with that.

I can't control my physical body, but I can still access my spells since they reside within my soul, so I summon ten light-Ciels around my collapsed form and [Equip] Patrono, then I activate its brilliance.

I scream in pain, but now I can actually hear myself and feel my muscles tensing up as I'm cleansed of whatever was inside me, then the pain starts to ease, and I manage to open my eyes.

I discover that everyone has collapsed around me, some of them writhing in pain, trying to crawl away from the divine light, while a few of our Lordsguard and the golems try to make them drink HP potions, and a dozen of our mages chant [Light Magic] spells.

"Elementals, [Heal] them!" I shout and pour all of my mana into Patrono, making it shine so brightly that everyone goes blind from it and my skin even starts to burn because of the heat.

I check on the girls through [Bind] and discover that they're all having nightmares, but the light and the elementals immediately start having an effect on them, and they quickly calm down, so I turn down Patrono's shine.

Hana is the first to wake up, and the moment she opens her eyes, she pounces on me as her skin becomes covered in emerald scales.

"WOLFY!" She roars and pushes me down with one hand, but then she realizes that Patrono isn't in her other hand anymore and stares at it, dumbfounded.

"I'm okay!" I shout back and grab her shoulder, making her turn her head back to face me. I still feel like shit, but at least I'm back to normal, I think.

The room is suddenly filled with groans as everyone starts to wake up from their nightmares, then Hana quickly gets off of me so that she can check on the others. My muscles feel as weak as toothpicks right now, so I stay on the floor until Alissa rushes to my side and pulls me towards her chest as she hugs me tight.

"I'm fine, I think," I try to appease her. Even though she's quiet right now, she's still feeling pretty shaken up about what just happened.

Then Poosh rushes into the room looking quite distraught, and I wave at her with a pained smile so that she knows that the worst has passed.

"Your Highness, what happened?!" She exclaims as she kneels before me and starts inspecting my body.

"An accident during an experiment, but things are fine, now," I explain with a hoarse voice. I decide to cast [Regeneration] on myself since my HP is at-...

What the fuck?!

Wolf Ryder Skill ReportPhysicalSkill NameLevelSkill NameLevelSkill NameLevelSword Use17+11(?)Spear Use??+3Polearm Use13+4Dodge12+8Parry14+6Block7+8Shield Bash4+1Battlefield Perception8+2Muscle Explosion4+1Acrobatics13+2Ekrano Style (creator)5MagicalSkill NameLevelSkill NameLevelSkill NameLevelSense Mana0+6Mana Control??+17Mana Recovery1+0Mana Efficiency8+7Reduced Mana Cost8+7Mana Overuse Resistance5+4Blackout Resistance0+1Fire Magic1+4Earth Magic7+4Water Magic4+1Wind Magic??+4Electric Magic??+14Light Magic2+13Space Magic??+23Summoning Magic18+32Blessing Magic27+23Nature Magic2+18Conjuring Magic1+4Spirit Magic0+3Illusion Magic0+2Golemancy0+10Redirect Mana (creator)6Sense Soul (creator)6Soul Manipulation (creator)10Godly Language30+5Dragon Transformation (innate)7Equipment System5+5MiscellaneousSkill NameLevelSkill NameLevelSkill NameLevelDancing0+1Cooking0+4Andraste Language4+6Dismantling0+4Piloting0+3Massage0+3Sexual Charm0+1Oral Technique0+1Mana Body (innate)5?????InfoNameWolf RyderAge17RaceWeredragonHP100MP289/825(1825)Magic Power780Level58StatsStrength15-2Endurance17-1Dexterity12S15Intelligence22Wisdom20Willpower19-2Charisma17Piety17Perception18Sanity14-1+4OtherStatus Effects'Soul Corruption?'Titles'Nickname "Good Luck", Blessed by the Goddess of Knowledge, Golemancer, Scholar of Rabanara, True Noble, Lord of Escanso, Crown Lord of the Western High Forest, Shapeshifter, Protector of the Last Crown'Affiliations'Helios (Fellowship), Alissa Ryder (Wife), Hanafuria Ryder (Wife), Roxanne Ryder (Wife), Lina Ryder (Wife), Ciel Ryder (Wife), Aoi Ryder (Wife), Yulania Ryder (Wife), Servant Blood Slaves'Companions'Alissa Ryder, Roxanne Ryder, Hanafuria Ryder, Ciel Ryder, Lina Ryder, Aoi Ryder, Yulania Ryder'Crimes'NONE'

"Soul Corruption."

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. I don't like the sound of that shit. Not one bit, nope.

Alissa stares at me wide-eyed, her breath speeding up almost to the point of hyperventilating.

"Find me the best Chimera Alteration mages that we have in town, now!" I exclaim as a hint of terror starts to seep into my tone, then Poosh nods soberly and hurries out of the room.

Once the Officers are back on their feet, I tell the Lordsguard and the court mages to leave the room, then Alissa helps me sit down on a chair.

"What happened?" Sandoro immediately asks as they all sit on their own chairs, forming a circle.

"Something tried to come through the spell. It also either made me lose control of my body or tried to take control over it," I grimly explain.

"Check your 'Stats' and skills, is there anything different?" Ciel asks and they all do so then shake their heads.

"Everything's fine, but I assume someone isn't," Sandoro replies, and everyone stares at me.

I nod and sigh. "Yes, I'm not. Has anyone ever heard of a 'Status Effect' called 'Soul Corruption'? It even has a question mark in its name, as if the system isn't sure what it is."

"The question mark is a sign that you don't know what it is," Ciel clarifies, and I nod in understanding, then our eyes fall on Sai, our expert Spirit mage.

But the halfling woman frowns worriedly and answers, "Soul Surgeries are a bit beyond my skill level, but I've never heard of 'Soul Corruption,' though the temporary damage spells like [Soul Blade] do all fall under 'Soul Damage,' which is easily healed through [Spirit Touch] or just with time."

"Right," Yunia mumbles, then casts [Spirit Touch] and uses it on me. I immediately start to feel better, so we'll just have to wait and see if this spell can fix everything.

"I also have lowered skill levels and 'Stats,'" I continue.

"A lot of spells can lower 'Stats' temporarily, but only [Dark Magic]'s [Atrophic Blade] can lower skill levels, and it's also temporary," Ciel explains again.

"Perhaps your soul was 'jumbled,'" Almaria somberly points out, and we all fall silent as we nod in agreement, then I give Alissa [Sense Soul] and have her scan my soul in search of anything weird.

"That thing that came through..." Silvano hesitantly continues.Cheêck out latest novels at novelhall.com

"It smelled like the undead," Alissa finishes his thought.

"So the undead are alien invaders?" I immediately question, my curiosity temporarily overcoming my dread and tiredness.

"'Alien'?" Almaria asks back with a raised eyebrow.

"Something that came from another Realm or Cycle."

"I don't think so," Lina rejects my idea, then she spends a few seconds recalling everything she has read about the undead. "Every source I've read mentions that the undead are an offshoot of heretic mages trying to recreate the immortality of Ender, The Hand and Child of the God of Destruction.

"Ender's death marked the end of the Age of Oppression and the beginning of the Age of Glory, and during that time, some mages started to research the few remains that Ender left behind and the location where he was slain, but the temple outlawed any research on immortality, so those heretic mages hid in the shadows until the Heresy of the Tower of Decay that created the Deadlands. It was then that the word 'undead' was first used in writings to describe the mages who could regenerate completely from near absolute annihilation of their bodies and absorb any sort of energy to fuel their power."

Then an idea comes to me. "Aren't the undead said to be outside the 'cycle of mana'? Perhaps the smell of undeath is simply the natural result of matter from our Realm interacting with alien matter, which may also cause this 'corruption' that the undead are famous for."

"The mist that thing released made us all fall unconscious, which is something I've never heard of coming from an undead," Ciel points out.

"That thing wasn't undead, it was just incompatible with our Realm," Yunia follows up.

I nod and agree, "It came from a different Cycle, after all."

"It's fortunate that it was vulnerable to [Light Magic]," Almaria quietly remarks.

"I don't believe in coincidences," I state firmly, and everyone goes silent again as they realize the implication.

Also, I bet that the weird dream I had was actually the Goddess of Knowledge giving me a bit of a push.

My body stops hurting, so I look at my "Stats" again and notice that my "Strength" and "Endurance" are back to normal, so either [Regeneration] or [Spirit Touch], or both together, are doing something to fix me up.

"I can't remember what that 'alien' looked like," Alcander shares and frowns as he holds his head in pain. "My head hurts just from thinking about it."

"It came from another Realm, so our eyes and minds aren't prepared to understand what it was," Yunia explains for me since I'm busy guiding Alissa's inspection.

"Are you going to continue experimenting with this spell?" Mimi suddenly speaks out, sounding a bit frightened.

"We have to, Mimi," Hana softly replies with pleading eyes.

And Ciel joins in to help her understand, "This spell most likely killed the person who created the [Summoning Magic] school, so we'll have to replace it with something safer."

Mimi nods meekly and looks down, a bit disheartened. Both she and Hana are strong, determined women, but seeing their loved ones in danger pulls on their heartstrings like nothing else can.

It's honestly a bit scary how easily she can use [Bind]. At most, I get annoyed when Wolfy's stray thoughts start to seep through our connection, but Alissa revels in the noise. It's almost like half her mind belongs to Wolfy with how eagerly she hears his every thought, but what's even more frightening is the fact that she's also always listening to us. It's because of her that it's so hard to hide anything from him.

I sense her trying to suppress her pride when my mind involuntarily likens her to a prison warden, and I'm just glad that Wolfy isn't a tyrant because Alissa would be the perfect right hand to keep us all in line.

She somehow manages to open his "Companions" tab and moves his hand to press on the "adjustment icon" that reduces Roxanne's points in [Alteration Magic]. The fact that she's able to do such a thing is a bit discomforting, but then again, Wolfy does have absolute control over us, so I guess it's fair that Alissa can also control him just the same.

When Roxanne's points reach thirty, she reports that she's fine now, so we move on to the first step of [Alteration Magic], meditation. Since we need to do this very same practice to perform our mana circulation training, she achieves clarity of mind in just a minute.

Then she starts reciting the mantra, "I am the stillness, I am the void, I am the silence. I am without a mind, except for one will."

Her solemn voice echoes through the darkness again, again, and again, the constant repetition almost entrancing us since it's the only sound we can hear for several long minutes. We even have to keep our breaths slow and quiet because the noise could potentially distract her.

The problem with an untrained mage using [Alteration Magic] is that they won't know when they have achieved true clarity until they see the results of their alteration and realize that it didn't come out the way they wanted it to, but with [Bind], we can all watch Roxanne's mind like Hollys and closely observe it as the stray, convoluted thoughts of her internal monologue settle down one by one and join the chorus of her mantra.

Finally, when all we can hear coming from her [Bind] is just the perfectly synchronized chant, we nudge her to move on to the next step.

Now things have to be done quickly before her state of true clarity is disrupted, so she activates [Sense Soul] and immediately locates the "crack," then she pours all of her "Willpower" into the sincere wish to heal Wolfy's soul as she activates [Alteration Magic] and allows the skill do the rest.

Alissa senses Roxanne's "presence" push out of her physical body and spread out as it covers Wolfy's form entirely, then Wolfy's "presence" starts to shift, transitioning into what seems to be a "merging" of his and Roxanne's.

It's just as fascinating as it is frightening. What if Roxanne and Wolfy became fused together forever? That'd be a nightmare scenario if their teasing natures added to each other's, or if their issues of the mind deepened.

But we're all closely watching over both of them, and we sense nothing wrong with what's happening. Or rather, things are going exactly how the Alteration mages said they'd go.

Then an immense amount of Roxanne's mana floods out of her body and fully covers Wolfy's, making us hold our breaths as he glows with magic.

In the blink of an eye, the "cracks" in his soul are gone, and the mana covering him disperses.

I use [Redirect Mana] to clear the room of the spent mana, allowing Roxanne to immediately train her focus on the two "tears" in his soul. The Alteration mages seem to become confused, unaware of the reason for why the air suddenly cleared, but they remain quiet, so we can just explain things to them later, if they even ask.

Roxanne repeats the alteration two more times, and the two tears in his soul disappear without any observable side-effects.

Once it's all done, we let out a collective sigh of relief, then we turn the lights back on, and I cast [Purify Body] on Wolfy until he wakes up.

He immediately sits up and turns his lifeless, cloudy eyes towards us.

"Who are you...?" He asks flatly, and my heart skips a beat, then I probe his mind through our connection and sense him hiding his mirth right beneath the surface of his deception.

"You...!" I grumble as a wave of anger flares up and takes hold, and I slap his shoulder repeatedly while he breaks into a fit of loud, joyful laughter.

Intermission end.

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