Chapter 3

As Maruki's life up until now flashes before his eyes, Teru's chanting comes to a stop, pauses and looks at Maruki for a minute in awkward silence. He reaches into his bag and pulled out a thick and tattered book, fumbling through the multiple pages, muttering to himself, Maruki and Nakano looked in confusion as to what just happened. His running fingers come to a halt, as he clears his throat, he says :

"By holy name, Curse Dispel"

A ray of ominous purple light emits out of Maruki followed by a gleaming glow of golden holy light.

"What" Maruki and Nakano said in unison.

"All right let's put that aside and continue the ritual" said by Teru, as he begins to chant again.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" exclaimed the two, interrupting the chant.

"You had a curse, it was irritating not to remove it, consider this a promotion gift" Teru replies as he sighs.

"Even so, I feel... fine. Better yet.. I feel wonderful?!" Maruki ecstatically states. As he slides his legs and steps out of bed, unparalleled joy bestowed upon him as he gained the ability to walk again.

"Of course, it was a mana poisoning curse after all, it looks like you've been cursed around.. I'd say.. 6 almost 7 months ago" Teru claimed.

"But that shouldn't be possible, that's when Maruki was still travelling with the 'Hero Party', Sister Niara would've noticed" claimed Nakano.

"The curse itself wasn't a problem, but the magic scripting was too detailed to be written by some shaman, as if it was man-made" Teru replied.

"Also anyone who had a decently high enough magic affinity would notice it of course, except the victim"

A wave of mixed feelings washed over. The idol-like figure of Sora he had crumbled apart, all due respect he ever had for him, diminished. Maruki steps outside the cottage, the sweet smell of osamanthus flowers and the sensation of rough grass under his bare feet looking into the distance.

Maruki looks up into the sky, as mutters to himself "I guess I'm really starting back from square one.." He stretches both his arm into the air.

As he slowly transitions raising his voice into a shout, he declares his revenge "JUST YOU WAIT SORA, I'LL CATCH UP TO YOU IN NO TIME AND KICK YOUR ASS!!"