Curse Removed

Raigh felt a pressure that generated to him a legendary feeling of nervousness.

Simply, he cursed having to work with such primitive objects as tools to deal with a problem inside a part of the body that, in theory, would require years of study to be even able to comprehend how it did work.

If having wait for the bodies of his "patients" to recover the blood they had lost after each extraction of that damn fluid had been stressful, having to extract black magic from the brain was simply torture.

He hadn't had an option though, freeing the heart from black magic was important; yes, but if he removed too much blood in a single attempt... he might as well kill them by accident.

The human body required, or at least that's what he remembered, at least seventy percent of the blood it usually contained to survive after all.

It was amazing how simple it was to "break" something and how challenging it was to repair it properly.

And, unfortunately, he couldn't do his job starting through the area of the neck... because in that part the dark energy flow was no longer within the fluid...

And he also could not access the brain with such tools without having to make cuts that would inevitably cause damage to the cerebral cortex itself...

And that's why he had given up on getting the dark magic out and without any possible secondary effects...

At least for the first patient... if he, after having the dark magic controlling the brain inside the vessels and out of the subject, could replicate the curse with some lab rats, better known as prisoners, then he might be capable of extracting the thing safely...

In theory...

At the moment, he could only hope to minimize the damage he would cause to the mind's origin organ.

"As soon as I'm done making an extraction, use your magic in the area." Raigh rubbed his face in frustration as he grabbed the utensils from the table and began cutting across the front of her head. In particular, his idea was to try to reach that artery that crossed the entire upper part of the brain, which would be, as far as he knew, a good idea not to cause so much damage.

"Y-Yes ..." The cleric Clara failed miserably at trying not to denote that she was uncomfortable with the situation... if the current appearance of the woman who was about to be healed was already partially terrifying... seeing head tissue being cut was much worse because it made her imagine herself in that situation and… evidently, that was quite terrifying. She doubted that anyone could remain stoic while seeing something like this... with the exception of black mages, apparently...

Raigh, for his part, could only hope that the healing magic had some effect on the cerebral cortex...

When Raigh began to insert the tube, Clara had to close her eyes for a moment to avoid passing out because of the horror.


Robin had to admit that, in a way, it felt great to be in command of the entire army again. Even if this would only be a temporary thing, she had already gotten used to this and therefore it felt really good.

Well, technically there was also Anna ... but she was only in charge of the finances of the Order. She was reading a new report regarding the progress of the war. It certainly was amazing how this magical translator allowed her to read these files as if the language were Altean.

It seemed that Askr had finally recovered all the territory that originally belonged to them before the conflict began and now the counter-invasion was beginning. The main army, led by the grandmaster, was located near the mountainous border and they were defending it successfully, the other two armies were further east and they were invading the section of the peninsula... section where another of the portals was located.

Which name? she wasn't sure. She was curious though, she could only guess it would be named after something special just like her world had been named after the ritual of Naga.

There were still many things she had to learn about these continents, but so far the Order of Heroes had not received orders to begin liberating any world. Although she supposed she would only have to wait a week.

What surprised her the most was that, on the map, the capital of Embla; named Brasinum, was located on an island within a fairly big lake. This meant that, although the town was not too far from the mountains that marked the border between Askr and Embla, it was quite well defended... after all, trying to access it through the bridges built by the Emblians would simply be a suicidal idea... and building a fleet for an assault would not only take too much time, but it would be necessary to consider that Embla would probably already have a considerable fleet guarding the city... after all, the lake had an exit in direction to the sea through a large river. That, or good defenses against ships... or even both!

It would certainly not be an easy job to conquer the city, and winning by leaving them without resources did not seem viable either given the scale of the territory that would have to be controlled to achieve it and the size of the island.

She simply finished signing the report to verify that the ORDER was aware of what happened. Once she closed the doors of the office, she proceeded to search for one of her friends to spend some time with them.


"Has her condition improved?" the boy gulped as he looked, sitting on a bed in silence, at one of the women they had rescued from the world of Blazing.

Rebecca was brazing her legs as she sighed sometimes... she wasn't as "broken" as she used to be inside that cell but... you couldn't expect a smile coming from her anytime soon.

Lissa simply rubbed her left shoulder with her right hand. "She is calmer." And she continued by sighing. "Still, she won't be able to fully overcome the trauma if she doesn't deal with the situation ... even so, trying to force that would backfire a lot."

Lugh gulped. "Is there anything I can do?" The female cleric shook her head. "Your help certainly is appreciated… but I'm afraid there isn't much to do at the moment. If you want, you can come to visit her more often, but if I'm honest... in this type of trauma, the help of a woman is more likely to be effective..."

Lugh reflected that she had probably only been willing to speak to him the first time due to the thrill of happiness due to being released ... "I understand... I guess I'll visit her later.." and with that, he decided to depart.

He really felt bad for not being able to help... he knew that technically it wasn't his responsibility, but... this made him feel kinda useless...

As he walked through the corridors, the mage remembered something else... yes... there was something else that was worrying him a lot right now...

He rubbed his forehead as he considered the fact that… he hadn't seen the local version of his mother in the world of Blazing… which was supposed to be the past of his world…

What had happened to that other version of his mother?...

At least he hadn't gotten confirmation that she had been...

According to what little he knew, another possibility is that the Nino of that world was forming part of the main Emblian army as a puppet...

Part of his concerns was the idea that history would repeat itself regarding the issue that his mother would have to abandon his and his brother's younger versions again, but... it was unlikely that the circumstances that led to their birth could be fulfilled in that timeline given the alterations provoked by Embla... perhaps... regarding that detail, he could feel "calm"... even if the idea of not coming into existence at all, even if it was not exactly "him", was disturbing in itself.

Noticing that it was time for training, Lugh decided to head to the magician training room.


A Pegasus was flying at a moderate speed of 44 kilometers per hour through the skies of the Askarian capital, called Lífthra, because, at that moment, the training flight of a future Pegasus mage knight was taking place.

"Very good... now, start to slow down and descend." Florina, holding the girl who was handling the animal in question, ordered that action.

"Don't fall, don't fall..." Nino gulped as she did what she asked to do. The animal, already more accustomed to allowing more than one person to ride it, was not bothered at all by the extreme nervousness of the person who was controlling it.

Even if something could go wrong, Shanna was flying closer and lower, watching the whole situation from below. "You can do it!" The blue-haired girl wasn't sure if Nino could hear her, but she would cheer her up anyway.

The young wizard, seeing the ground getting closer and closer; especially the castle walls, almost suffered a panic attack... but she shook her head and concentrated as much as she could.

It was time to do her best!

The pegasus had placed its wings in glide mode for a while and began to take slower steps "in the air"

When the hooves made contact with the ground and gradually the animal stopped trotting to start walking at simple speed, Nino sighed in relief...

"I understand what you feel." Florina gave her a nervous sympathetic smile.

Lilina approached her mother and possible godmother at the same time that Shanna began to land, although in her case, it was a vertical landing.

"There's still some training left to do, but the progress made is quite acceptable as I remember it." Not that the fire mage was in a position to declare herself a full Pegasus knight, but she certainly already had some experience of her own.

Nino got off the animal carefully. "T-Thank you..."

Shanna approached. "Just relax," she said it with a smile. "I still remember when my experience level was simply that of a mercenary. Now, look at me!"

"Thank you all very much." Nino smiled beautifully.

"Do not mention it." Lilina nodded.

"I think I should go to start preparing dinner for my children." Nino placed her finger on her cheek as she noted the position of the sun. It was getting late.

"We don't want you to miss your cooking classes," Lilina commented. "I think I'll go to the kitchen too, it would be a good time to spend more quality time with my mother."

Florina nodded. "That would be nice after training."

Unbeknownst to them, someone was watching them from afar.

"No... I shouldn't be doing this ..." the red-haired and red-robed boy shook his head.

He had already screwed up once, he had tried to interact with this Lilina by trying to make her feel better... but truth be told, he had done it more because of the fact that he missed his wife...

Which made him wonder if... if maybe he should ask permission to return to his world for a while...

His main motivation in this campaign was to confront Veronica for what she did to his father and he was sure that the order had more than enough powerful heroes to resist without problems...

No one would complain that he had that personal need... in theory...

In fact…

He thought more in detail that... it had already been some time since he was fighting... maybe his world was already in better condition...

Maybe...


Seliph wasn't sure what to think about what he had discovered.

That explained why he was sitting alone in the room the Order had granted him.

On one hand, he felt somewhat more confident about what he would face once he returned.

On the other hand, he had learned that his mother had been murdered some time ago by his half-brother...

Although he never had much hope of getting her back, knowing that it would ultimately not be possible was a heavy blow.

It seems that Julius had turned out to be just like his father... or even worse, if what Prince Alfonse told him was true.

Although what bothered him the most was the purpose for which she had been captured... they had used her as a method to give birth to a human capable of becoming the perfect vessel for Loptous...

They had used her like any other animal for reproductive purposes!

He was usually calm... but he was perfectly able to sense the blood burning under his skin.

And then... there was the fact he also had a half-sister...

And this was what made him have conflicted feelings the most.

In theory, she would help him defeat the evil dragon... but he wasn't entirely sure if he wanted to have her near either...

Although he later reflected that he probably felt this way since he still didn't know her in person. She was supposed to be amnesic when the time came... and amnesic people were innocent... he mustn't let his present feelings regarding her affect how he would react at a time still quite far in the future... or in the past?...

The idea that he was at a point in the time where he was technically a legend and his actions were events in the distant past was still confusing.

I mean, he perhaps could visit his own tomb for the love of Naga!

His future was in the past ... the future and past were relative to the observer, apparently.

Whatever the case, he shouldn't hesitate at all at fighting either Arvis or Julius... and he should certainly prevent someone from capturing Julia in the first place...

The fact that they had been foolish enough to only brainwash the only person who could use the magic sealed in Naga's tome instead of killing her was a very incredible moment of luck... but there was a possibility that in his timeline the events might go in another direction.

It was better not to take any risks.

And that's why he got up and left the room to go to practice one more time.

The stronger he returned, the better.

And to ensure that he would return in the first place, he had to avoid dying in this future... in order to save the past...

Naga, his brain hurt.


Zacharías, or better known as Prince Bruno, did not have to be a genius to understand that there would be at least four ninjas watching him even at night, so he just spent the day in the library when he wasn't having tea parties with his sister.

He knew it was unlikely that by "showing" a non-treacherous attitude the nobles would trust him again, but there was simply no other way he could get closer to his sister and study better what he could do.

These stupid books hadn't allowed him to advance much... the curses mildly similar to what he was trying to cure that were described there always seemed to be the product of black magic...

So why couldn't he perceive the flow of it coming from his or his sister's mind?

What kind of demon had cast this thing at them?

Bruno was certainly beginning to lose some of his patience with each passing day in which he couldn't find the cure.

What was he doing wrong?... what was he failing at? What was it that he hadn't realized that could be so important in solving his problem?...

Or maybe… this curse had no cure?

He doubted a lot that killing the cause of the problem would make this go away… in real life, just because the cause disappeared it didn't necessarily mean the product would disappear as well. And even if this was a possibility... he had no idea who had done this to them... again, he could not find the trace of black magic no matter how much he looked for it...

Knowing that if he stayed in one place doing something specific they would accuse him of planning something... although the truth was that the nobles would want to use anything, no matter how minimal it could be, to incriminate him... the prince of Embla got up from his chair and departed from the place.

He also had another tea party with his sister anyway.

He ignored various guards who gave him suspicious looks, he had no time to waste with them.

When he got to the door he was supposed to cross, he came across something that hadn't been there the first time...

probably because Veronica had expressly asked for complete privacy… but now it was different.

The greater amount of gold on their uniforms denoted that they were members of the royal guard... the problem is that, as far as he knew, the current royal guard consisted mainly of heroes that his sister controlled as puppets...

One of them was a young woman wielding a spear. She had blue hair, as blue as her eyes.

The other was a man with black hair and purple eyes who was an ambidextrous swordsman.

Were they as strong as the strongest heroes the empire had enslaved?...

Although they also denoted his contempt, they did not prevent him from passing.

Even so, once they were sure that neither Bruno nor Veronica would hear them, they both began to talk.

"I can't believe that traitor is back." The woman rolled her eyes in frustration.

"My father says they will get rid of him as soon as possible." The swordsman placed his cheek on his fist. "There is no forgiveness for his kind."

"His mere presence here is an insult to our nation." She nodded.

"Anyway, it does not matter. Rather than worrying about him, it should make us nervous that Askr is reclaiming the territory we have conquered."

"The fact that they have started recruiting heroes into their ranks only complicates the situation…" The woman guessed that the generals had underestimated Askr too much after easy victories and had lowered their guard.

She understood that celebrating the glory gained for the empire was important, but in her opinion, it would have been wiser not to celebrate prematurely.

"And none of the professional assassins they have hired have managed to steal the holy relic ... or assassinate their targets, truth to be told." The man could only think that, for being "professionals", they were nothing less of a bunch of useless. He could do a better job if they just let him.

"Changing the subject, hopefully there's gonna be something decent for lunch." The woman relaxed as she dreamed of her favorite food.

"Let's hope for that, yeah."


As the self-awareness of the mind just freed from the influx of black magic began to reactivate normally after a long time, it was just natural that she had trouble understanding what was going on around her... especially considering that she was not only in a totally different place from Lycia... but that she was even in another timeline.

Her senses were slowly working again… but she felt too… exhausted? Without encouragement? Sleepy?... she wasn't sure...

"Are you okay?... can you understand me?" she heard a male voice... she did not remember...

"Eh?... eh... uh..." Her head was spinning slowly ...

"She... she does not look very good..." commented a female voice...

The boy seemed to growl. "Well, I knew this would happen... I guess I shouldn't tell Florina that her counterpart now... uh... I still don't know how to describe what her condition is right now."

This Florina, in theory, should have reacted in some way to that last sentence… and yet she seemed... lost, unable to properly interact with reality.

Although whether this was something that would be permanent or was only the result of awakening from the curse that turned her into a puppet after such a long exposure was a quite valid question... for the same reasons, it was worrying.

It took her almost two minutes to try to speak. "W-Who… are… you?"

"I am Raigh, a black mage." He crossed his arms as he tried to analyze the situation and at the same time looked at the vessels that contained all the dark energy that he had extracted from the brain.

It seemed that the girl had to process each word in a slow way as it took her almost 10 seconds to start responding… that, or she was reflecting on what she heard. "A... black... mage..."

"I doubt that I can adequately explain to her what has happened to her right now ..." Raigh sighed in frustration.

"Could you take her to a place where you can observe her condition better?... not to mention that way she doesn't have to see these when she wakes up again?" Raigh, with a bored expression, pointed at the other puppets also present in the lab.

Clara simply nodded, remembering that they weren't the only ones there… and honestly, that was pretty scary in a way.

Once "alone", Raigh sighed again. Although he had technically managed to free this woman from the curse, this did not feel like a victory at all.

Although he wanted to start replicating the curse, he didn't feel very psychologically good to do so right now.

He then pulled the Breidablik out from his pocket and… decided that maybe it was time for summoning.


Once he and Alfonse had made some new orbs and reached the secluded spot in the garden where the prince and his "stepfather" used to summon, Raigh aimed the gun just as he had been instructed to… and he pulled the trigger.

The portal ended up expelling a young man with brown hair and eyes, he wore a white armor which had a design generally used on the Jugdral continent.

Raigh, knowing nothing of the people he might summon, decided to move aside and allow the prince to solve the situation.

The man, of course, was about to try to get up on his own when he saw someone offering him a hand.

"Are you Leif Faris from Leonstar?" It was not difficult for the Prince of Askr to identify the person he was seeing.

Leif blinked several times and accepted the help. Once he was standing again, he preceded to speak. "That's my name ... I'm afraid I don't remember you. Have we met before?"

"No, this is the first time you have seen me. I am Alfonse Asthr. It is an honor to meet you. "

They both shook hands. After that, Alfonse proceeded to explain to Leíf everything about Askr, the situation of the war and why he had been summoned.

"Now, in case you are wondering, the summoning ritual will return you to the same moment that you left. It will be as if you didn't leave in the first place."

Leif crossed his arms as he considered that possibility. "The truth I was about to respectfully reject the offer. As much as this keeps me away from those who are trying to capture Finn and me... someday I will have to take the initiative, and of course, I can't just disappear without Finn and Nanna exploding in panic... but if when I return it will be like never I left in the first place… and I can spend as long as I want here… it would be a good place to train."

Alfonse smiled as he was feeling deja-vu. "Prince Seliph had the same idea."

"Seliph… like Seliph the son of Lord Sigurd?" Leif blinked again.

"In fact, we're talking about the same Seliph here." Alfonse nodded before placing his finger on his chin. "You guys are cousins... right?" The confirmation that Seliph was also here had made Leíf take a moment to respond... or rather, he simply nodded slowly as his mouth and eyes were slightly opened in surprise.

"Since he arrived he has been training very hard. I suppose you want to join him. " Alfonse guessed.

"Well, I guess so." The prince of Askr instructed Leíf to wait a bit while Raigh and he finished the summoning.

Raigh simply gave to the Prince of Leonstar a slight glance before loading a new orb into the weapon and proceeding to fire.

Now, while the Order was already getting used to the idea that they had the bad luck of summoning several rookie heroes... and even a young girl version of a heroine... the principal concerning point had always been that maybe one day they would summon a civilian with no combat experience… and Alfonse could only guess that was the case when he saw a young girl that… he surely did not recognize.

The girl, confused, began to look to both her left and right, which obviously indicated that she was trying to determine where she was... and when she turned to see them...

"AAAAAh!"

She covered her face with her hands... before wanting to run in the opposite direction.

Again, Alfonse had some kind of deja vu...

The difference is that last time Azurita had run in the direction of the castle… now, that young girl with purple hair ran into a wall.

"NOOOO!" for a moment it was as if she had wanted to climb.

Raigh, who had watched the entire scene with some disbelief and frustration, narrowed his eyes even more as that shrill voice was, relatively speaking, annoying. "Hey!"

"AH!" the girl then turned around, still leaning on the wall. "Please don't hurt me!"

Raigh came closer. "Eh, it's not my intent-"

"Please!" she then knelt down. "My father will give you all the money you want, just..." she then burst into tears as she knelt.

Raigh clenched his teeth and growled. "Dang it!"

The thing that could stress him more than anything was the woman's crying.

"I'm not interested in your father's money..." he tried to kneel and hold out a hand...

Which proved to be a mistake...

"W-what?... then-then..." the girl's eyes widened in horror and she proceeded to place her hands protectively over the area of ... "NO! If I lose my virginity he will kill me! he will throw me at the streets!"

Raigh had to punch himself on the face and rub it very hard. "I DON'T WANT TO TOUCH YOU, COÑO! (DAMMIT!)"

"Aaaaah!"

With that last cry, the girl ran off to the left.

"HEY!" Raigh, despite yelling, stared for a moment that as he could hardly believe what he was seeing... before running after her. "I'LL BE BACK!"

"Definitively, this is partially a deja vu." Alfonse grimaced.

"Things like that happen all the time?" Leíf scratched his hair.

"Not really, but let's just say that today's summoning session is somewhat similar to one from time ago."


Bernadetta didn't know how she ended up there, she just wanted to go back to the comfy safety of her room and never go out again!

"W-where's the exit?! where?!" she kept running in a parallel direction to the wall in order to look for a possible door.

"HEY! GET BACK HERE!"

Bernadetta turned slightly to panic when she saw that guy with green hair chasing her.

"AAAH!"

Raigh, quite stressed and fed up, started running as fast as he could and then managed to tackle the girl.

"AAAAAAH!"

Raigh wasn't stupid, he knew that if any guard or hero saw the position they had on the ground at that moment, they would get a pretty wrong idea... so he had to silence the girl first.

Using a non-lethal method!

Raigh, once his hand was covering the girl's mouth... who was making a great effort to escape from his claws... which sounded even worse than the situation truly was, spook to her.

"Okay, you keep quiet and I speak... do you understand?..."

Bernadetta looked at him with her eyes wide open in panic and trying to scream.

"Do. You. Understand?!" he tried not to yell so loud... because of two reasons... do not get unwanted attention and avoid frightening her even more.

Bernadetta then nodded several times and sobbed.

"Excellent, progress!" Raigh shook his head before continuing. "Very good, first of all. If what I wanted is to "play" with you that way, first of all, you would not be in a garden... you would be locked inside a room; second, I wouldn't waste my time asking you to listen to me, I would just destroy your clothes... "Raigh frowned... this conversation was making him sick… he then forced the girl to stand up. He still had her leaning against a wall though.

"Third, if I wanted to hurt, I would have been doing it for a long time. I am a black magician after all." he clarified.

At least the girl was struggling less...

And that still sounded really bad out of context...

"Now… will you allow me to reveal the reason you're here in the first place?"

Bernadetta, still feeling very terrified, avoided looking Raigh eyes to eyes.

In order to reassure her, Raigh decided to use his hand that wasn't keeping her from crying out loud for help... to stroke this girl's hair as gently as possible. "I'm not going to hurt you..." likewise, he relaxed his expression more...

When she seemed to stop moving, Raigh removed his other hand from her, allowing her to speak… but at the same time stroking her shoulder.

"Trust me…"


I'm gonna tell you the reason why I hadn't released a new chapter for a while... tests... that and the fact my sister decided to give to me as a present for my birthday a Nintendo Switch and... since my brother lent to me his account... I was able to play all his games... not only Zelda Breath Of The Wild (I finally completed all the shrines)...

I also discovered Mario Super Sluggers (A Mario Baseball game for Wii) is incredibly fun to play...

Anyway.

Those two guards of Embla... if you're thinking the lancer girl is the representation of that memetic overpowered unit of the training levels, then you're right. I decided to give her a partner... and, as you can guess given the fact they have much more dialogue than your typical random Emblian soldier, they're gonna be important. The smartest ones may have already a theory to determine why...

I'm not sure if I had already given a last name to Alfonse... if that's the case, can somebody please tell me where to fix the mistake?

Seriously, that last scene is more... bad than what I imagined it would be lol.

In case you wonder, in this story the dragon Embla is not the cause of the "curse" Veronica and Bruno suffer... I mean, if that damn thing is related to the "blood" they share with the dragon... and that is as ancient as the nation itself... IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR IT TO BE KEPT A SECRET THAT MUCH TIME!

I mean, historical records would tell almost every member of the Emblian royal family has gone insane and it should be painfully obvious to Askr that something isn't right with the head of their neighbors... not to mention any noble with the desire of taking the throne would use this fact to their advantage.

Anyway... I think I have nothing else to say so... ah, yes! one last thing! you should go to read The Near-Sighted Summoner of Askr! it's another good fanfic!

Okay, that's it! see you next time!