“Hey, Ivy!” Kyle called out from the training yard. “Can I see your claws for a sec?”

“Uh, sure?” I responded, slightly confused.

I held my hand out like I did earlier, and right as the claws came out, he said, “Snikt.”

I stared at him and sighed. “Looks like someone’s calling for a mauling.”

He just snickered and scampered off to where his fight was going to take place. Yrro had gone off to gather opponents for them, leaving Kyle with a spare moment to be an idiot.

The three opponents for the mock battle arrived, and my two friends arranged themselves in the yard against them. With no warning, Yrro announced, “Begin!”

The opponents were people who obviously had higher capacities as well as good training and teamwork.

I had thought that my friends would scramble to get ready in time, but instead, they instantly shifted into fight mode without any problems or confusion.

I guess losing me pushed them to train harder… I remember it taking them half a year to get up to around 6 or 7 capacity. Since then, they’ve multiplied that number by several times. Ugh, I want to hug them right now, but they’re busy.

One of the people testing them blew dirt into my friends’ eyes, but they deflected with wind. Another tried to disrupt their footing by changing the ground below them, but they moved their feet appropriately while also countering with their own earth magic.

Now, the five of them were clashing with their weapons. My friends were working fluidly together, and it was amazing to watch.

Their opponents were much the same, however. They never let up and were using magic to not only enhance their bodies, but also to fling disrupting attacks at each other.

Spikes of ice and earth flew at them. Fire was blasted at them. Someone shot off a small bolt of lightning. The worst part of all this was that a lot of them hit.

It was obvious that the three attackers had more power and experience, and if I had to guess, this whole test was to see how well they could endure a relentless onslaught of pain and stress while still fighting and working together.

People here have to be able to endure these things, or else they’ll be thrown off-balance from just a single strike from a Cursed One. While most Cursed Ones don’t use any magic at all, there are a fair amount of species out there who have some sort of innate magic ability, meaning their Cursed counterparts also have them.

“Stop!” Yrro shouted. “You pass. Come with me. The three who performed the test, thank you.”

My friends were bruised, battered and panting heavily. The relief they were feeling now that it was over was palpable. They began healing themselves, and I walked over and cast healing and water spells for both of them. It was unnecessary but appreciated.

Our group of five then followed Yrro into a private room with a conference table in the center. The walls were lined with shelves containing several books, files and miscellaneous items.

“You two have gotten a lot better since I last saw you,” I said to them.

“Yeah…” Izzy began. “After we thought you… We kind of felt like there wasn’t anything else to do but work and train, really.”

I squeezed her hand. She squeezed back and smiled at me.

“What capacity did you begin with?” Yrro asked. “And judging by your appearance, Ivy, you were the same species?”

“Zero. We were summoned about a year and a half ago, I think,” Kyle replied.

He nodded. “That’s pretty good for that amount of time. Ivy?”

“Yeah, I’m a human like these two. Or… was,” I decided to switch topics before anyone could get a chance to try comforting me. “Coming from a peaceful place with no magic or monsters to here… It’s all been a huge adjustment.”

“I would imagine so. From your description of the nanites, it seems that people still find a way to make impressive technology, even without access to magic. It’s fascinating.”

Just then, two people walked in. A man with scales and large eyes and a woman with small feathers everywhere in a striped pattern of black and gray.

“Ah, there you two are,” Yrro greeted them. He then explained the situation, and I once again had to remove my illusion for people.

The man was Onsetk, and the woman was Wriannte. They were surprised, and Onsetk readily volunteered himself for the curse test once he fully comprehended everything.

I awkwardly sat across the table from him with my claws out, while he had his arm in front of me and Wriannte held a long blade to his arm, ready to remove it. Rhem stood behind him with a knife to his throat in case he became cursed.

This is way too intense.

“Do it,” Onsetk said. I tried really hard to not think about how he could possibly die if things went poorly.

I grimaced and stabbed my claws into the back of his hand. He flinched slightly but didn’t move.

“I don’t feel that coldness, only the claws,” he said after several seconds. We waited a whole minute, but nothing happened and his arm wasn’t turning white.

“You can stop now,” Yrro said.

I quickly removed my claws and washed them with a cloth and water magic while Onsetk healed his wounds. Everyone relaxed and stared at me in wonder. It was really odd.

“So it really is completely gone,” I said, looking at my hands. “I was scared that it might somehow still happen…”

“Your reaction to blood isn’t that of a Cursed One’s, either,” Yrro said. “Only your appearance is the same now. This is truly phenomenal.

“Anyway, the seven of you at this table are going to be heading to Moriste. I’ll gather the remaining three, so please wait here. It shouldn’t take very long.”

Yrro got up and left, leaving us to talk. Both of them grew up in this world, so it was mostly us talking about Earth and comparing a few things.

After about 20 minutes, a guy with pink skin and huge, curly horns came in, and we explained everything to him. He’d already been given a brief overview by Yrro, but the bulk of the explaining had been left to us.

Ten minutes after that, two more people came in followed by Yrro. They looked like the physical embodiments of strength and speed.

We went through the explanation one final time, then began a planning session. The route we should take, the supplies we would need, things like that. Izzy and Kyle, as the weakest of the ten who would be going, were going to be put on a training plan.

Everyone else would continue their training as they traveled as well, but my friends were going to have to work quite hard. Yrro had vouched for them, however, and they didn’t look perturbed in the slightest by the thought of rigorous combat training on top of all their other duties.

The biggest and strangest thing was that Yrro wanted to tell the whole city about me and have me stand in front of a crowd. The idea was that if people saw a Cursed One who no longer had their curse and was heading for Moriste, it could greatly increase hope and morale.

After Asallte fell and the population spiked overnight when the survivors arrived, the mood of the city had fallen quite a bit.

The idea was terrifying. I look like the personification of death, and standing in front of everyone is supposed to bring their mood up somehow.

But I still agreed to do it. Everyone left to begin preparing for the trip, leaving just me and my friends left.

“So you turned out to be the summoned hero…” Kyle said.

“I swear to god, Kyle,” I said exasperatedly.

“That is what summoned heroes typically do, isn’t it?”

I chose not to respond because I knew I would only make it worse.

“You’re sure about revealing yourself?” Izzy asked.

“Not really, but I’ve already decided to do it. It’s too late to back out, anyway.”

“Whatever happens, we’ll be there.”

I smiled at her. “Thanks.”

After a minute or so of contemplating our situation, I said, “I’m kind of surprised that neither of you has made any jokes about my name or how I’m a white person now.”

“We wouldn’t do that to you!”

“It feels kind of weird that you haven’t, but I appreciate that.”

“So how did you choose your name, anyway?”

“I couldn’t think of anything, so I thought, ‘I’m completely white now, so an ivory joke would be obvious,’ but I didn’t want that as a name, so I chose something that sounded like it.”

“And you’re okay with that as a name? For that reason?”

I shrugged. “I do like it as a name, and only humans would even be able to make the connection, anyway.”

Kyle shook his head, “Turning your own name into a joke… That’s such a white person thing to do.”

I laughed, “Thanks, Kyle.”

Other humans…

“How many humans are left, anyway?” I asked, having become serious. There had been 100 or so others during that day in Asallte.

“Most of us are still around. Despite the large group of people who came to this city being a good target, we were protected enough that there weren’t too many casualties.

“Though some more of us have died since arriving here. They were cocky because they’d raised their capacity higher than the rest of us. According to others, peaceful places always have cocky people like that.”

“That makes sense, I think,” I said sadly. “Well, let’s start getting ready.”

———

Several hours of gathering travel gear later, Yrro found us.

“There you are,” he said. “The announcement will be in two hours in the plaza. Also, I have something to give you.”

He then pulled out an object with a familiar shape.

“A gun…?” I questioned. “I thought these were a lost technology!”

He nodded. “They are. Gathering the resources necessary to make them became virtually impossible decades ago, and without those resources, the people and places that could make them spent their time on more useful things. The knowledge still exists in books and such, but with the current state of things, it’s not worth anyone’s time.”

“So how is this one still around, then?”

“I spent resources of my own to replace parts and repair it, then made sure to always maintain it. Without the proper ammo, it isn’t as good as it could be, but you can still make projectiles by tightly packing soil with earth magic.”

He then went on to explain how to make the ammo and take care of it. By forming soil around a small mana gem and letting it rest inside the cylinder, enchantments within that cylinder would then harden it until it was strong enough to withstand being fired and could cause some damage. More enchantments also acted as an alternative to some sort of explosion.

It could only hold five bullets, and those bullets would become worthless if removed because the gun’s enchantments are what kept them in good enough condition to be used. All the bullets and enchantments also had to be charged up beforehand, so it was best to only use it when I really had to and to be very conservative with my shots.

He spent an hour with me in the training yard showing me how to aim and fire, and I was able to get the gist of it. There wouldn’t be time for me to properly practice before leaving, but he still wanted me to have another option for defending myself. At least it’s nowhere near as loud as an Earth gun.

———

I was standing on a platform looking out at the huge crowd in front of me. Beside me were my best friends, my two new friends and the five others who would be traveling with us.

The ten of us were all standing in a row behind Yrro, who had been giving a short speech to the audience. They had all gathered because word had spread about an announcement with good news.

“A potential way for us to eliminate the curse arrived yesterday!” he announced. “During the attack on Asallte, there was one person there who had become cursed, but their mind remained intact.”

The crowd began talking quietly to each other.

“Her body was transformed, but the unique constitution she possessed prevented her mind from succumbing to the curse. It completely eliminated the curse from her body, something we confirmed with tests done just this morning. However, despite being free of the curse, she yet retains the appearance of one who is cursed.

“Because of her situation at the time, she fled into the forest and has since spent all these months making it back to us.

“Ivy, if you would?”

He turned toward me and held his hand in my direction. Izzy gave my hand a quick squeeze, and I very jerkily walked forward to stand beside Yrro.

“This woman beside me is Ivy, a human of Earth! Please, do not be alarmed when she drops her illusion.”

There was a brief moment of euphoria because of being called a woman. It was then followed by frustration because there was no one named Ivy among the humans, and that was sure to cause me some trouble. Then my previous nervousness about what I was doing came back.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

Just get it over with. Whatever happens, happens.

I let go. Gasps, shouts, then… cheers?

I opened my eyes to see the crowd of so many different kinds of beings cheering for me, or at least the potential my existence brought.

What the hell?

Yrro gave everyone a couple minutes, then held his hand out to get everyone to quiet down.

“With what she can bring to this world, we are sending her to the medical research facility in Moriste! The nine people behind us will be her escorts.”

Yrro said some closing words, and we all stepped down so people could talk to us. I was extremely surprised by how many people actually approached me, but not being feral and drenched in blood made it easy for them to see me as an actual person. Many even shook my hand.

Then, a group of humans approached, concern visible in their expressions.

“So who are you really?” someone I recognized as Mark asked.

“I’m going by Ivy now,” I responded nervously. “But Izzy and Kyle here are my best friends.”

They all clearly remembered who I was from that.

“That’s such a drastic change!” a girl named Anna exclaimed. “Why wouldn’t you just keep your name the same, though? It’s not like you chose this?”

“Well… after I became like this, I realized I’m trans. Wish I’d realized it through an easier method, though.”

She stared at me with her mouth open, then sighed and turned her gaze to the ground. “Back on Earth, I probably would’ve hated you for that. But this place has made me realize just how petty and pointless caring about stuff like that really is.”

“Um… Thank you? I think?”

“Uh, yeah. Sorry. I’m glad you’re happier, but I made things super awkward just now, so I’m going to bail. Good luck.”

After she left, one of the other guys asked me, “Yrro mentioned that you have a unique constitution. What’s that about? I know the rest of us wouldn’t have survived that. Some of us already didn’t…”

“About six years ago, I had a terminal illness. Some people came with an experimental treatment to see if they could cure it. I agreed.

“That treatment turned out to be nanites that could fight off diseases and repair the body. It worked, and afterward, the nanites remained within me and continued working. When the curse began trying to affect my mind, they learned how to get rid of it.

“Also, remember when we all got sick after being in this world for a couple weeks and everyone commented on how quickly I recovered? The nanites are why.”

Just like Yrro had done in his speech, I chose not to mention that I spent several months running wildly through the forest, feral and naked.

“Nanites? Really? That’s some real science fiction shit.”

Someone else chimed in with, “I just know that only rich assholes are going to have access to things like that.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Word about me will spread to the rest of the humans, I’m sure, so could you tell them who I am and why I’m still here? All the humans here will probably have concerns about someone they don’t remember claiming to be one of them.”

“Yeah, can do.” He looked mass of people behind him. “Looks like you’ve still got a lot of people to talk to, so I’m going to go. Nice seeing you again, despite the circumstances.”

“Yeah, you too.”

Many more people came up to talk to me and the rest of the group. They wished me well, thanked me, apologized for what I had to go through, all sorts of things.

Eventually, everyone got back to work, and the city’s mood was significantly improved compared to earlier.

It really worked… Amazing.

I went back to bed with Izzy, not hiding myself this time.

“Being the center of attention like that was probably one of the most exhausting things I’ve ever done,” I told her.

“I wasn’t even the focus of it, and it was still a lot,” she replied.

“We should probably try to get proper sleep tonight. We were up late last night, after all.”

“Yeah, we should. Ready to go save the world tomorrow?”

I chuckled. “Yeah. Are you?”

“Uh-huh. As long as you’re with me, I can do it.”

“Cheesy.”

“No you.”

We got under the covers and turned off the bedside light. We shifted into the same position we'd been in last night, with me being the big spoon. My wings would make being the little spoon awkward, even if I weren’t so tall.

I’d noticed, though, that as long as I wasn’t bending them to an extreme degree, I could sleep just fine on my back or even have Izzy on top of them without causing me pain. Having magic just made your body more durable like that.

“Ivy?” she asked me.

“Yeah?”

“Would you mind if we shared a tent as we travel? I’ve missed having physical contact.”

“Sure.”

“Thanks. Goodnight.”

“’Night.”

I hugged her tight and smiled, the contact with her feeling different than it did in the past.