Curselock

Chapter 259: Travels

The rhythmic bumps of a wagon on a dirt road went completely ignored as Leland focused internally. With his eyes draped in the telltale signs of magic – a side effect of powerful spells or cantrips – memories were forged and replayed. Walker had stated that looking at one’s core-Heart properly required an eye technique. But Leland didn’t have one nor knew how to train in one, though he figured his memory cantrip worked well enough.

Collecting dust and shoving it into the hole inside his Heart was like gathering wheat without a pitchfork; slow, tedious, and for some reason, satisfying. Maybe it was the idea of having a bountiful crop or maybe it was the idea of uncovering the mystery of power that drew Leland to aimlessly move dust.

When he thought about it, he’d always been like that, right? Power to help others while getting out of his parents’ shadows. Two reasons for leaving home, two reasons that drove him to where he was today – on the back of a wagon heading through the countryside.

There was also the mystery aspect of it all. The Lord of Curses had interfered several times already, limiting the knowledge mentors and Lords could offer. There was more to it than “one must make their own path,” he knew. It was a tingle on the back of his neck, that one day soon he would find the key to all of this. The puzzle would be blown wide open, the reason his Lord was keeping things hidden would be known, and most importantly—

Well, he was getting too far ahead of himself. First, he had to get to that point.

But as he checked on his Heart-core through a series of memory recalls, he couldn’t spare himself from the excitement in his gut. Learning was fun! Wasn’t it?

A particularly deep bump yanked Leland from his mind, his eyes flickering open and all magic draining from his system. He sighed, hearing the wagon driver apologize.

“Welcome back to the living!” Jude announced, seeing that his friend was finally up.

“Yeah, yeah. Are we there yet?”

Leland glared while producing his birthday gift, flicking open the protective cover and thrusting the watch face at his friend. “Can you even read this?”

Jude studied the two hands, making long, exaggerated “hmms” and “hrrrms.” Eventually the berserker sat back and said, “Yeah, another hour.”

Ignoring him, Leland searched around the back of the wagon. Gelo was asleep, her furred body taking up most of the sittable real estate. She, unfortunately, had a rough last few days. From the constant changes to her open-ended Legacy and sleepless nights talking to her mother, little progress had been made on her goals – to create Iceheart.

Unfortunately, a similar issue had cropped up with everyone other than Leland. Jude’s goals of Musicheart hadn’t even started, the young man doing zilch toward becoming one with music.

Glenny wanting to perfect his Void aspect fell on deaf ears as he needed a proper training partner, someone he could actually fight at full strength without worry of killing them or them going berserk and killing him. Truthfully, and he’d be hard-pressed to admit it to the others, he wanted Isobel to be around. She could take a laceration to the gut and still give that horridly bored expression of hers.

And lastly, Gelo. Between spatial magic and ice, her time training had been spent mainly figuring out how they worked together. In battle against the parasite, her ice lance growth spell had worked exactly as planned and had nearly severed that monster’s leg. But almost wasn’t good enough in her eyes. If her mother had done the same spell combination, that leg would have been removed in a split second.

So in the end, Leland had progressed the furthest in his set goal… though he did have plenty of contracts to work on, most of which he was putting off.

Cursed contract of the Lord of Magic (Renewed):

Use: Gain access to the spell Dual Mind Resonance.

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Dual Mind Resonance: While active, your brain splits in two, offering dual thought processes.

Spell’s duration is limited by proficiency and base contract duration.

Return: Contact the Lord of Prismatic Evolution, the Lord of the First Druid, and the Lord of the Zephyr. Speak with them and attempt to end all of their Legacies’ inquiry into the mana being released by the worldly Tear. Specifically, put a stop to the raids on the Lord of Magic’s Legacies.

Staring at the page, he sighed. “I’ll be right back,” he muttered to Jude, not that it would matter with how fast he would reappear.

“Lord of Prismatic Evolution, I humbly wish to strike a contract with you.”

“No,” the Lord said plainly, multicolored tentacles drifting through the air like they were those strange floaty-eye things you got after not blinking for a few minutes, “I do not wish to make a contract with you.”

Leland tried not to stare or flinch when one of the tentacles came near. The Prismatic Evolution Lord was an octopus the size of a city, her rainbow skin and house-sized suckers had more than evolved. He stood at the base of her nest, coral and other water-plants acting as a throne cushion.

“But…” she continued, “a pact may suffice. How about my blessing for a few simple requests?”

Leland internally frowned. Pacts, contracts that dealt in life and death. Contracts that gavepromising power but if broken, he or the Lord would die.

“Such as?” he asked.

“The oceans. They need a protector! Someone to live in the depths—” Leland raising his hand slightly stopped the giant Guardian Spirit Beast turned Lord. “What is it?”

He gritted his teeth and said, “I’m not looking to move nor hold such responsibilities. The protector of the oceans? I’m only twenty…”

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The Lord stared down at him, her massive eyes taking up the skyline. “Then we’ve come to an impasse.”

“Yeah… truthfully I didn’t come to talk to you today because of contracts.”

“But the Lord of Dungeons says you speak to our kind with respect to growing your own power. Rather greedy of you if I do say so myself.”

Leland sighed. “No, I was coming today because of the Lord of Magic and the raids your Legacies are committing against his Legacies. Over new mana, no less.”

“Oh. I see.” Tentacles shifted across the sky, each taking on the color of the deep ocean. “Do you know why my Legacies are doing such a thing?”

“Uh, no?”

“Because of the new possibilities. Evolution! The grand principle of intelligence!”

“Mhmm. And do these evolutions have to happen today? Or even this year? As I understand it, people are dying for this.”

The Lord stared him down, he stood tall and did the same. “My Legacies have a right to evolve—”

“Right… but does evolution need to happen right now? And isn’t it better for others to research this new mana first? Imagine if this new mana actually is harming us or makes you devolve. That would be bad.”

Her tentacles went still. “Do not try and lecture me about evolution, child!”

And as the last word was spit, Leland found himself back in the Void, kicked from yet another Lord’s domain. He sighed, finding the wagon still bumping along.

“Lord of the First Druid, I humbly wish to strike a contract with you.”

“Do you know why I am petitioning the Lord of Magic for his proposed sanctions ?” the Lord of the First Druid asked, the wolf pelt on his head snarling a bit.

Leland liked this Lord, so far. The man, an older gentleman with muscles upon muscles and no shirt to hide them, spoke calmly and clearly. There were no tricks, no Lordly love taps that felt as though Leland was about to die, no waiting for their divine theatrical arrival. The man was waiting for him, sitting on a log as if it was the most comfortable couch in the world.

“No,” he answered.

“Because the inhabitants of the other world need their mana. Not us.”

“But wouldn’t some of our mana replace theirs? As I understand the leading theory behind mana mechanics, mana is like water.”

“That it is. But, you see, that world’s mana already has an aspect. In fact, that is one of the reasons the Lord of Magic wants to study it so much. Because it is special. That world’s mana is primarily nature in tuned.”

Leland’s brows furled. “Are you sure? Because I was told that it is not special mana.”

“I know for a fact it is. I have spoken to the equivalent of a Lord from that world and had it confirmed.”

There was not a hint of emotion on the First Druid Lord’s face, though the not could be said about Leland’s. “W-what? That world has Lords?”

“Indeed. They are called Arbors. Big sentient trees. As I understand it, once a person is ready to become an Arbor, they shed their mortal skin and become of wood.”

“Fascinating… but that doesn’t matter right now. Mana is like water, so regardless of the Lord of Magic’s influence, it will come to this world until both worlds are equalized. Like a dam filling a pond.”

“Again, you are correct.”

“Then why set up raids against the Legacies of Magic?”

This time a beat of guilt showed across the stoic man’s face. Even his wolf pelt seemed to look dower. “That is an ill effect of a statement my former Champion created. She has since been removed from her position. The raids have ended.”

Leland couldn’t keep the surprise away. “Oh, okay… That’s all I wished to talk about today… however if you don’t mind me possibly— Wait. Apologies, I do not mean to come off as amateurish, I’ve had too much on my mind lately.”

The Lord smiled. “From creating a new Lord to rescuing the last surviving person of another world, I’d say so.”

“And fighting off a transcended parasite.”

“Ah. Yes, but actually no. That parasite was nothing of the sort.”

“What?”

“For a parasite to transcend, consuming their host is one step of many.” The Lord shifted on his log. “If that parasite returns to kill you, be prepared for a more significant battle. While it is off licking its wounds, it also is gathering any and all mana it comes into contact with.”

Leland connected the dots, saying, “When it returns, it will be stronger.”

“Far stronger.”

“Great… do you, perhaps, want to make a contract with me? I need spells to deal with this parasite. My usual arsenal doesn’t work.”

“Perhaps…” The Lord of the First Druid turned to the side and said, “Ah, there she is.” Branches and twigs raised from the ground, creating a viewing window into the home of some woman. “This is a Legacy of mine. She is currently at the end of your path – at the next Tear you are heading toward.”

The viewing window shifted, showing the surroundings of the “house,” if it could be called that. Made of branches and leaves, the house sat askew on a backdrop of familiar dark sand. Just beyond the home was another just like it, then another, and another. A dozen of these shacks lined the area, each surrounding a middling fort similar to Sand Castle.

But Leland didn’t focus on any of those, instead looking off into the distance where the Tear was situated. There, like ants across a forest bed, monsters roamed in droves. Hundreds, thousands even, of monsters, all various breeds, species, and sizes. Some fought one another, others prowled as kings.

Lines of humans fought from the not-Sand Castle, blasting spells and raining arrows across the land. Monsters died, but many more quickly took their place.

“What is this?” Leland asked.

“That,” the picture shifted again showing different angles as the Lord spoke, “is a Tear to world Alpha. Granted, this one is in a much worse state than the one you just left.”

“Why is it—”

“Human nature. Specifically a nature that wants to destroy rather than adapt.”

Leland paused. “You are saying humans did this?” He gestured at the viewing pane.

“Indeed. Individuals at first, but groups emerged. Murderer, Witches, thieves. Anyone and everyone who felt the need to take rather than harmonize, integrate.” The Lord closed his eyes. “How many deaths will it take for them to understand that these Tears are our new way of life. A familiar life, even. There are not many changes coming from these Tears.”

“Not yet,” Leland surmised. “New races of people? New mana? Things are changing.”

“Yes, I suppose you are right. But for me, they are not. I am immortal, Leland Silver, I work on a different time scale than you. The world has changed before. This is just one of many to come.”

Staring at the wave of monsters and defenders, Leland felt his stomach grow hollow. A melee sword user was gored by a monster made of pin needles and lightning.

“What do you want me to do?” he asked.

“For a spell to combat a parasite?” the Lord mused. “Protect my Legacy, Elin, and kill the Witch who controls the monsters.”

“Controls how?”

“A rogue Legacy of Nature. She grew sources of food for the monsters, imbuing the food with her corrupted magic thus taking over their minds.”

“Where’s the Witch?” Leland asked.

The Lord gestured to the window, the world-view shifting across the dark sands until— “Oh. The Witch is dead.” A picture appeared of a dead woman lying cast in shadows. Monsters partially laid across her mangled withered body, crossbow bolts jutting from her skin.

“No matter. Protect Elin then—”

“Wait!” Leland screeched. “Can you look for the Witch’s killer? I think— I think I know her!”

The Lord raised an eyebrow, mumbling something to the branches and twigs that made up the viewing window. The deceased Witch abruptly appeared standing, moving backward through the sand as if time was reversing. Bolts of green peeled from her skin, flying off into the distance. The First Druid Lord followed the trajectory, finding a woman assassin with a centipede crossbow as a weapon.

“Hah,” Leland laughed. “That’s where she’s been all this time!”