(first released on scribblehub by author Nanayamichan.

11th July 2021, 11:13 cet)

Chapter 28 - A curse

---Nana's perspective---

"wha.. What happened.. I dreamt you fought a flying man in a bathing room with dark thingies." Yuna mumbles as she rubbed her eyes.

"And then he cut his stomach open and…" Yuna said as she looked around. 

Or well, said and half mumbled very rapidly. 

Then she got a look on her face that said, oh fuck, it's real. 

turned her head, threw up. 

I patted her on her back. 

"Kiwi?" no answer. Like something or someone's blocking her from coming back. 

"it's okay, he disappeared." I said quietly. 

"but, what.. Did he die? His stomach…" she said..

Then made a throw up sound as she covered her mouth, but, I guess her stomach was out of ammo so to speak. 

"He didn't bleed, it just looked like… I'm not sure what it looked like.." I said while patting her on her back, then I paused for a moment.

"But he just dissolved after he cut it open, he didn't look like he was in pain or anything." I said quietly while gazing intensely at one of the pillars that was now broken.. Is it just his weird fucking way of teleporting away? Or is he hiding, watching us? 

Another piece of the ceiling fell in, Yuna jumped up and let out a loud "IiiiiIii" as the piece hit the ground. 

I chuckled a bit as I stood up again. 

"Well.. Right.. I guess we keep looking for Emilia" I said and smiled at her. 

"If anyone's even still left in this place, damn you made some noise Nana.." Yuna said teasingly and smiled back. I took her hand and helped her up. 

There was a door centered at the end of the room which we walked to and went through. 

As we did, quite a few more pieces of the ceiling fell in behind us. Yuna jumped in surprise up into my arms as they hit the ground. I sighed and put her down. 

"C'mon, it's just the ceiling." 

"I know, but it.. I wasn't ready." 

We entered a corridor, similar structure except no windows. 

One door on each end, we were at the right end of this corridor, one door directly to our right as we got outside the room. 

Then to the left at the end of the corridor, which were about 20 meters long maybe, were two doors. One at the end of the corridor and one beside it on the wall that the door we came through, the door leading to the now smashed bathing room, was on. 

And inbetween there were art and some torches. 

"Well, which doo…." I said but I heard something that made me stop talking and just freeze, sending a shiver down my spine. 

A whisper sort of. 

"Soon night end… soon…" 

Then I heard a sound, like it was way off in the distance.

It sounded like bones smashing against each other. Not in a rough way like someone would hit them full force against each other. 

More like someone held a bone in each arm and lightly smacked em together. 

And it sounded like 4 guys did that and tried to make a melody out of it. 

I got goosebumps. 

"that was weird…" I mumbled.

I got a slap in my face. 

"ooh, wha, what!?" I yelled. 

Yuna looked annoyed at me. 

"Hello, I tried to talk to you." she said in an annoyed tone. 

"didn't you hear it?" I said and just, sort of pointed but realised there was nothing to point at so I slowly just lowered my arm. 

"no? You spaced out and just gazed at the wall." she said, looking confused as she crossed her arms. 

"are you alright?" she added and put her hand on my shoulder. 

"it's okay, no worries" I said and smiled at her. 

"good" she patted me on my head. 

I sighed. 

She smiled at me and patted me once more. 

"let's just open here and check, then either way go down and check the doors at the other end." I said and reached for the handle. 

Yuna nodded agreeingly and jumped.

I opened the door to a fat man having sex with someone on the dinner prep area in a kitchen. 

It was a big kitchen, fancy stuff.

4 rows of.. Well, stuff.. Kitchen machines and things you would have in a bigger kitchen, maybe restaurant equipment together with food. 

1 big table that looked like a frying table, like a huge stove, located at the other end of the room by the wall. 

Then a pretty big table for prep work, which he was pretty aggressively humping whoever it was on, in the middle of the room sort of. 

Then a pretty damn expensive cleaning box, one of those that was big enough two people could walk in. 

I guess if they throw some big event, you just throw all the dishes into the slime and, done. 

It was placed up against a wall. 

Aaaand some other stuff, I'm not good at these things. 

"helloooooOoo" I said, sounding pretty uncomfortable I guess. 

"What?! Who are you? Out!" he yelled, but mid sentence I heard a woman's voice. 

"Heeelp me, pleasee.." she said trembling, sounding terrified. 

I aimed my arm at him, pushed him up against the wall at the other end of the room and pinned him to it.

"whaa? Ouch! what you think you doin?! She wanted it" he said, yelling as he hit the wall, then spoke normally-ish again. 

She got up slowly from the table. 

"thank you kind stranger…" she said with a trembling voice.

"Don't mention it.." I said trying to hold back the anger. I had a hard time not just making the guy explode, but I didn't wanna scar this girl more, or Yuna for that matter. 

Yuna stood by the door, just clenching her fists, trembling with rage.

She didn't speak a word. 

"What did.. Is everything okay? Are you hurt?" I asked as I looked her over. 

"It's fine, I can.. Walk home.. Just.." she said, she seemed spaced out. Mighg be in shock, I thought. 

"sit down" I said and summoned a chair behind her, then lightly nudged her so she fell down onto the chair. She stayed put sitting there. 

"Hey, let me down, you can't believe her" the guy yelled angrily. 

I scanned her body for injuries. Damn. Broken bones, ribs. One wrist. Keybone. 

Burned on the breasts somehow with something, there were burnmarks that hadn't healed well at least. 

Some sort of knife wound near the asshole.

And she somehow had barbed wire up there. Not going to think about that one. No wonder she seems lost. That pain must have her completely drained. 

I healed all the wounds using life energy and disintegrated the wire. 

She looked amazed as she realised her body was, well, operating well again. 

Plus I had an idea, something I've heard should be possible so I thought I'd give it a go for her here. 

She looked like she was in her 40s or early 50s maybe. 

I focused on the guy, and i aimed my hand at him. 

Years… 

Years… 

I saw how he grew older as a ray of energy flowed into my hand and formed a sphere. 

Darkness energy circulated around me as the spell was channeled. 

"hey, what" 

"stop" 

"argh what" 

"noo" 

"I'm sorry, please." 

"no. No., sorry sorr.."

He looked 40 when I started, and I kept going until he looked like he should be in a home for the elderly. 

And not just a normal one of those but the ones they put elderly that can't do anything themselves, those for the ones on death's doorstep. 

When I stopped draining him of years, the darkness energy that circulated me flowed into my chest. 

It felt weird, but, it felt good and empowering.. 

I walked up to her, and shoved the sphere into her chest. Merging it with her. 

A flash of light exploded from her with a static sound filling the room, like someone had set of a flashbang, but it wasn't blinding and you didn't go deaf. 

Then you could see how her years were wound back slowly. 

After 20 seconds had passed she looked like she was 18 again when the effect was done. 

"There we go." I said and clapped my hands together, smiling. 

Yuna just stood speechless and had started to gaze, Jaws dropped. 

"I read his mind, sort of. You don't have to say anything" I said to her. I didn't know I could read minds, I guess it was my anger together with dark energy that did it. 

She seemed to be in shock. She just sat there and cried while she looked at her hands, then felt her skin all over. 

I smiled at her and patted her head. 

Then turned around and went back to the door. 

"oh, right…" I said and dropped the guy on the frying table, I'd hit the on button earlier with telekinesis. 

As he fried and screamed out a "fuck you" in pain i looked at the girl. 

"what's you name?" I asked. 

She slowly directed her vision at me. 

"Ch.. Chinch mam." she answered, a bit stuttery. 

She coughed. 

"Chinch Yamagata" she then said with a bit more confidence and reached out her hand. 

I smiled at her and shook her hand. 

"Learn selfdefence dear, the world fucking sucks." I said as I shook her hand. 

"take care Chinch!" I said, then walked towards Yuna and the door. 

She nodded and dried her eyes. 

I grabbed Yuna who still just stood and looked, Jaws dropped, but I saw it was more of a smile on her amazed face as we went out the door. 

"I guess let's check the other side, interesting place so far.." I said and sighed. 

Yuna started laughing gave me a thumbs up and just followed me as she kept laughing halfway to the end of the corridor. 

I froze halfway. 

"I see you.." I heard something whispering around me in a dark demonic voice… 

Like it echoed, impossible to pinpoint..

Which makes sense. it's most likely a curse spell of some kind I thought as I heard that bone smashing sound again. I heard it as if it was in the distance again but this time closer… 

And a face flashed before me. 

A demonic face, like a dead girls face or something. Black and purple. 

And I thought I saw a black figure, only for a second, a very brief moment, at the end of the room. I rubbed my eyes. 

---

A curse type of spell is.. Well, kinda a lost but well known type most people don't know cause most places has it forbidden, outlawed and even punishable by death. 

It's basically a delayed spell that only triggers if a set of conditions are met before a period of time ends or sometimes there's no time limit. 

It's not a type of magic just anyone can learn of course. 

But if you'd devote your life to it I guess it's possible. Or just happen to stumble on the how. 

Cause it's really not as simple as it sounds. 

You basically have got only 3 options. 

 1 - you draw energy from either the death pool or the nether realm and then sort of, create a "living thing". Some theorize you can draw the energy from hell or purgatory, but as far as I know it's only rumors. No one has confirmed those places exist. Something I read about when reading about Daimon, who was known to be able to do it. He never revealed his how, but he claimed both hell and purgatory was real. 

And anyway, Sort of like I created Kiwi, but it's a none intelligent being with one goal that carries it out. 

Often it takes a sacrifice worthy enough to make the being carry out the goal, or it'll just turn on you. Malicious as it is. 

 2 - make a god of some kind or an archdemon carry it out.

Or 3, but this is also just a theory, but it's said masters of shadow can summon forth curse monsters. But the only real real master of shadow was Daimon, and he's long gone. And again, he never revealed his how to do it. 

Or well, maybe mastering it isn't required. It's just rumors anyway since no one has really seen it happen that way. A curse hasn't been seen cast in public since Daimon existed, and no one knows for sure how he did it. 

Anyway, back to it. 

---

"what the.." I mumbled. 

Yuna stopped laughing and dried her eyes. 

"what?" she asked. 

Then she tripped on a fish that someone had dropped on the floor for some reason, I guess accidentally as they were supposed to go to the kitchen. 

I did see a crate of fish in there. 

And it looked like they were prepping for some fish dish, or was, before we. Yeah. 

Oh well. 

I made a cushion out of air magic that she landed on, which would be like falling into a very very soft bed that you just slowly sunk into more and more. 

"wooah" Yuna yelled out, then landed on my air cushion. 

"haha, nice save" she then added and laughed a bit. She held out her hand towards me. 

I shook my head, grabbed her and pulled her up. 

"look where you're going Yuna. I mean, we are in unknown enemy territory after all." I said and laughed a bit as I shook my head again. 

We've been pretty damn careless I guess. 

She nodded. 

"Yeah, sorry, you just distracted me." she blushed a bit. Not sure why. 

We both stopped and put on serious faces as we heard something from the room at the other end adjacent to the kitchen. 

We looked at each other. 

"what was that sound?" I whispered. 

"I.. Think it was an animal.." Yuna whispered, then sniffed in the air. 

"The fish covers it, but there is another animal scent here" she whispered. 

"I'll give us cover." I said, then cast a bubble that circulated me, big enough for Yuna to walk in as well, or big enough to cover her as well.. 

Anyway, it expanded out enough so she could walk with ease inside it with me as it kept circulating with me in the center. I made it with darkness energy. 

It won't allow sound to escape and no one can see us from outside the bubble. Like a small little black hole, or in this case bubble, which I control what gets out of.

We stood by the door, ready to go in. 

I looked at Yuna, she looked at me. 

She stood ready to smash in the door for me. 

Then…

..

"Baaahh"... 

.. 

A sound from inside the room. 

We froze, looked at each other with confused looks.. 

"is that a.." I said.

"should I?" Yuna asked, with A confused expression..

I nodded. 

Yuna smashed the door in with a kick, moved aside, I used a skill, shadow step, which allows me to move a short distance at incredible speeds, to get inside ahead of the doorway ready to blast anything in front of me.. 

And the first thing we laid eyes on was a big damn sheep, standing in a cage at the back of the room. 

The sheep once again made itself heard with a "baaah" as it looked at us both when we came in. 

Then it just turned its head and kept eating. 

I looked around the room quick.. No threats.. Just a sheep.. Would think they'd send something, someone, a guard. Anything.. 

Then I looked at the sheep, then at Yuna who had started Laughing her ass off. 

I also laughed a bit. I felt something weird about the room though.. Ooh.. I looked down. 

Sacrificing runes all over the floor, to a god.

Or well, demon. I guess it depends on how you see it. 

These were for Hades. 

Who isn't a bad guy, but, not a good guy either. 

He reached God level about a hundred years back then disappeared. 

He studied magic like crazy. 

It was, or is, his life to just discover anything new and any new ways any magical school can be used in. But as people claimed they'd seen him use darker things that shouldn't be possible, that made some more crazy nuts worship him. I read something he wrote about abysmal magic. But, he just seems like a scientist of magic. 

And sometimes he helps those he deems worthy, sure. 

But, sacrificing sheep? C'mon. He might actually appear to spit on them I guess. 

Or. It is quite empty. Maybe.

Naaah. 

A shiver went down my spine. 

"stop hiding" I heard a whisper.. 

Then the sound of the bones smashing, even closer than before.

Yuna spanked me on my ass and knocked me out of my thoughts.

I jumped, a bit out of surprise. 

"wha, what?" I stuttered and looked around confused, also looking if the.

What ever had been stalking me and whispering was here.

But, nothing. 

"You just zoned out," she said and laughed. 

I drew a breath of relief. 

"what's the plan, where do we go or what do we do?" she asked and crossed her arms. 

I stood frozen for a moment. 

I caught a glimpse of a gesture that flashed before me for a moment, this time closer. 

I shook my head. 

"Well.." I said and stopped.

"Well what?" Yuna said annoyed. 

"if there is a dungeon, we should head down.." I said, went up to Yuna, hugged her and phased us through the floor. 

We fell down to the other floor, it looked like a normal room for, well, guards. 

There were a few guards who looked at us, probably very surprised to see two girls phase through the roof. 

We phased through that room as well, the guards just gazed at us as we went through, all just following us with their eyes frozen in place. Probably very confused. We phased into what looked like a dungeon, so I stopped us there. 

We landed on the floor in that room. 

"tadaa, the dungeon!" i said and gestured with my arms around the room. 

Shadow energy danced around the room as I did. 

No clue why… 

I coughed. 

"Well. It looks… empty" I said and scratched my head anxiously. 

Yuna slowly walked and looked around the room. 

There were all kinds of devices, cages, iron maidens and stretch benches among other things. 

Lots of Nightmare stuff. 

But Emilia wasn't here, no one was here.

A circle lit up on the ground. 

"oh fuuu-" was all I had time to say. 

A huge flash lit up and we were teleported.