Sulfurous Spite

Victory came to us, but I still found myself looking around. The demon was nowhere in sight. We had a certainty that it would be down in the cave. Everything pointed to it. The curse we traced led us here and yet it was just a minion. I had to assume that this was placed or lured by the demon to protect the curse.

But while I was trying to answer the mystery, everyone else started to recover from the fight. Though I had imagined she was the worst of everyone, Denica was already walking towards me. She extended a hand out to me. Pulling me off the wall, she smiled and gave me a heavy slap on the back. “You’ve got a good head for battle, but what little trick did you pull there at the end?” My body still ached from whatever repeated damage I took, making her hand sting even more.

The others started to gather around to confirm everyone’s condition. “It was my version of an emergency heal. Thanks to the Markets’ supplies I got my hands on some rare materials that I hadn’t seen giving me some new options. Of them, I made a potion that doubles the potency of your next attack and one that lets me redirect passives. It's a one time use, but I was able to for one action let Ferin have my Exchange so he was healing you with his attack rather than me. So when he unleashed the large attack it generated a huge heal and moved that to you. Very risky and can’t really do it but once, but for an emergency it’s the best answer I have right now.”

“Can’t say I appreciate having my life toyed with.”

“I didn’t plan to—“

“Relax, kid! You did good. Can’t say I’ve seen anyone play with potions like that, but not like I keep the company of heroes either, eh?” She slapped me again and pushed me forward. “Go check on the girl. I’ll see to my team.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I staggered a bit forward. All the tension finally left me leaving a wet noodle. But I dragged myself over to Eri’Sol. I knew from a health bar stand point she was good, but that didn’t mean anything for the body. “Anything broken?” Even not being a main tank, she took a heavy beating like the rest of us.

“Minoru!” Eri’Sol tried to catch her breath. “Nothing that’ll stop me!” She smiled to assure me.

“That’s not an answer, Eri. After this we’re probably returning, but if there’s something, tell me.”

There was a sideways glance away from me. What was she trying to hide? But I just pressed my concern again. She relented at last. “I think my dominant arm is broken a little…it’s hide or whatever it was before you got Renold to weaken it was really tough. I might have been swinging too hard.”

“We’ll see if Derik has anything for it, but thanks.” I helped her put the sword away, though I think she still carried most of the weight. The thing was absurdly heavy. Afterwards, I walked over with her to Derik as he was tending a little to Denica, who had to have nearly every bone broken and wasn’t acting like it at all.

While mending the injured were tended to I stepped away to look over the magical array that laid at the center of the chamber with Renold. “Any ideas what it is?” The ground had no carvings, it just glowed from some magical presence. But floating two meters above in the center was a bright yellow-orange rod of some sort. It was a little strange, but it had a wooden handle and a flat metal head. Particles of mana bled off it. If I had to guess this kept whatever the array was alive.

Renold looked around. He stared a long time at the ground. If there was a logic or language to the magic arrays I didn’t understand it. But once he looked at me, he didn’t seem any closer to an answer. “I’ve a few ideas, but I was hoping you would give me an answer.”

“Answer? To what?”

“Passers can read the words of history that have been recorded in the Elkashia Archives.” I had to blink in confusion. If this was a trait of heroes I was unaware of it. He pointed at the rod in the center. “You can see its name, right?”

He meant the item description. I guess there was a historical grounding to everything that the system provided us access to then. Which made me wonder if the system access was the cheat skill all us heroes obtained. The ability to see the world more transparently than everyone else. It would back everything that’s been explained to me about how we differ.

But he was right, the rod might tell us some answers. Though I did have some concerns about grabbing some glowing magical item guarded by a raid boss. “I guess knock me out or whatever if it does something weird to me.” He stood ready. Neither of us knew what to expect, but I took a deep breath. I prayed this wasn’t a bad idea.

I tentatively stretched out my hand half closing my eyes as I went over it. The pulsing magic from it bounced and rolled over my skin like tumbling balls of yarn. That disgusting odor that hung in the cave like death doubled in strength nearly knocking me out. I wasn’t expecting it to feel so tangible. But I kept going until my fingers brushed the wood handle. The sudden change almost made me yelp, but then I clamped down on it. All the air sucked out of me as I paused. Nothing. It was safe?

Focusing my eyes down on the rod, it still radiated strong power, but there was no immediate effect on me. I went to find the details so I could get rid of it.

‘Cursed Palette Knife – The former possession of the House Etaron. Lost when the mansion was burned down in the revolt against the Baron Geroth Etaron when he refused to join in the war against the Kingdom of Ranth.

A twisted curse is now etched deep within the essence corrupting the once noble and proud tool to bring forth cursed transfiguration to any weakened by its dark miasma.’

I jumped back away from it after reading it. Released it returned to its floating position at the center. “This is the cause of the curse! We need to destroy or reverse, however these things work!”

“Hey, Denica, what the boss say about this?”

This was supposed to be a recon mission, but we had the source right in front of us. We should destroy it and save anyone else from suffering the same fates as Miss Welinna and the other townspeople. She looked over at us silently picking up on things. “Ferin, this sort of curse, would destroying it be enough or do we need a counterspell to break it?”

“From what I can tell, it’s using the tool as a focus to channel the curse beyond the reach of the circle. Destroying it would cut off the projection. It would just be in the cave. We’d need to send an expert in to despell the curse array.”

“You heard him, Renold!”

“My pleasure!” With a glow in his dagger, Renoid wound up and arced his blade through the air sharply. It cut cleanly through without resistance. The glow surrounding it faded as it fell down. Finally, the overpowering odor of sulfur and rotting fruit began to fade. The previously battling smell of cinnamon started to take over. In a way both were suffocating, but one didn’t give me a morning hangover.

Renold leaned down and rolled out some straps of leather, rolling it up and tucking it away.

The intensity of the magic faded, though the array remained as Ferin explained. If he was correct in the assessment, we were clear from the worst of it. This was a job for someone else now. I looked around the chamber to see if there were any signs of the demon. The caves went off from the chamber in a few directions, but I didn’t think we could keep searching.

Just as I was about to turn away, I found some skeletons on the floor. Looking down closer, there were three sets from what I could tell along with very old armor and robes. They looked mostly faded with earth staining them. I wonder if they were from the town in some past time. “Hey, there’s some dead over here. Think any of this should be returned to families?”

“What did you say?” Denica shouted, nearly sounding panicked by my words. I pointed out what I found and she rushed over quickly. With no further words, she motioned to get Renold over. He hurriedly picked everything up. “That could have been bad. Thanks for spotting that, Minoru. You might have saved us from another demon being born.” Another demon being born, what did that mean?