Location: Cursed Sky Army Barrack ofCăderea-Dracului
Φ Surrounded by my advisors, I sat at the side of a table, and on it, a cursed item represented all of the people in Căderea-Dracului as small figures made out of wind. Staring at a group of people gathering into a large pile, I say, "Send help to guide them to the Nolādēta Zeme, where other survivors are."
"RIGHT!"
Turning my head, I say, "How has the recon unit been with searching for whatever Nightmare has restricted our movements?"
"No progress has been made. We have been sending aerial units across the skies around the city, but we have not been able to spot a single Nightmare despite using detection curses."
Gritting my teeth, I say, "Then call them back."
"But what if our enemy is hiding, and the moment our units leave, they will rush out."
"Unless our units are traitors, it would make no sense that we couldn't have detected the perpetrator by this point. Either they have a curse that has allowed them to slip by us, or maybe the users of the Curse item that caused this are in Soarele Blestemat, and Dragoste tricked them into searching for it down here. Either way, this is pointless, and it would be better to try to regain ground in the city and launch a counterattack with able-bodied soldiers on Soarele Blestemat. So please get to i-."
Throughout the room, tremors move everywhere, shaking each of us, causing me to say, "What the hell even is this!"
"2nd seat Šviesis, look at the map."
Turning my eyes downwards, I see that the projection of the city shakes and rumbles with a ferocity that rocks even Balaur himself. "Dragoste, what are you doing?"
Location: Streets of Căderea-Dracului
ΦThrough the area around Dumnorix and I, a large tremor rocks the very ground, causing me to grab onto him and say, "What is this! Is it an earthquake?"
Dumnorix stops, and a look of fear crawls across the giant smile on his face. Then, holding his sword tighter, he says, "Focus a bit more, Maple, and you'll realise, this is no natural phenomenon."
Location: Church of the Cursed Land/Nolādēta Zeme
Φ As the tremors continue around us all, I say, "Everyone, hurry up, and head inside!"
Looking forward, I see Abbán holding up his shield, and stretching from it a large body of water forms a barricade around us all as members of Blamator assault it and try to move forward.
Soon, the water they strike condenses into balls that move forward and bash into each of the attackers. Using that moment, members of the Fundamentāls dash forward and deliver the finishing blows.
Abbán soon falls to his knees, and I run forward towards him and ask, "Are you okay? Did it take too much out of you?"
"No, it's not that. It's this feeling."
"The earthquake. It's strong, but it shouldn't be messing with you. Are you sensitive to shaking?"
"There is no earthquake, Iancu; these tremors, are caused by spirit energy."
"What? Do you even know what you're saying? I have seen others use spirit energy, it isn't like this."
"Nightmares can't sense it due to their curses, but I assure you, right now in the castle, a massive amount of spirit energy so intense is leaking out everywhere. This is bad, everyone is in critical danger!"
Location: Inside Balaur bones
Φ As the intensity of the spirit energy everywhere covers and surrounds me, I try to ignore it as I manifest darkness from my sword and slice the Nightmares around me, making a path through for Suzuka and the members of the Cursed Sky Army behind me.
Hearing Suzuka scream, I extend my tail and slam it into one of the wall were the bone lies, letting the Zenitas soar past me towards our opponents. "Suzuka, what's wrong?"
Struggling to even open her eyes, she says, "It's out, that thing is out of its cage, and it's anger, at Orb, at us, it's coming!"
Location: The Chamber of Spirits
Φ Across my body, a massive, intense way like gravity comes down on it, the weight of those things' pure spirit energy flowing all around me.
Its body is pitch black with white glowing lines that are reminiscent of the dark blue energy that flows out of my body during Advent. Its body is short and stubby, with two large arms with extremely wide palms. Its face is shaped like a semi-sphere, with and from it two large bunny ears manifest that flow backwards. The white energy across its body soon formed two cute eyes, a mouth as well as a long spherical coat and pants.
The thing completely manifest from the broken sphere on the ground stares at both Dragoste and I, then says, "You who freed me, what is your name?"
"I am Dragoste Nightfall, a half-human, half-Nightmare, one of the descendants of your great reform. My great deity."
In a single moment, I feel the words, "When did I ever claim you scummy pieces of trash as my own, do you really think of yourself as different from humanity," appear in my head, and following them, the rage and intensity of his spirit energy grows stronger making me feel like the crushing pressure of the ocean is being pushed against my body all at once.
With a smile, Dragoste falls to his knees and stabs his body into the ground to keep himself from being blown backwards. Then he says, "I think no such thing, why would you even bother. Yet I choose to honour you either way, and as a commitment to that, along with your freedom, I have gathered delicious emotions for you to feed yourself on, the desperate pleas and cries of those who are moments away from death.
The creature walks out of the room it was kept in, and after its feet touch the ground, it freezes for a moment, then, turning around in an extremely cute voice, it says, "All this suffering, all this chaos for little old me."
My mind freezes for a moment as I try to make sense of the actions of the creature in front of me. Is this thing for re-.
In a single instant, it appears in front of my eyes, and I feel its hand across my neck. "Is there something wrong with my demeanour? Do you wish for something scarier, something more terrifying? Do you even believe you can handle such things?"
Did it grab me and pull me here from Dragoste bones?
"Orb you need to activate Advent right no-."
"Silence, Setanta. I am talking to Orb right now."
Wolfie's voice comes to an end in my head, and soon the words, "Don't ignore me with other stray thoughts. I am right in front of you. Do you not have manners? Have you not heard of courtesy? This level of disrespect to an elder? An Ancestor of all who breath on this planet, treated with this such insolence, contempt, distain, derision, scorn, mockery, irrevence, is unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable!"
It's cute face changes as a giant mouth appears across it that grows far past the size its head should allow, and in one chomp is covers my head, yet it remains attached to my body.
Though a second later, a surge of emotions railed against my body, soul and mind at such intensity that I started spasming uncontrollably. I feel everything, but I feel everyone, I feel them all, throughout every inch of my body, their emotions, their thoughts,t heir feeling, all good or bad, that rail my existence again and again. Until I can't even keep my mind separate from them all.
Φ The creature throws Orb's spasming body on the floor, and Dragoste says, "Was my snack to your liking?"
It is an adorable demeanour, it says, "Delicious. Such a perfect meal. It brings my mind to fulfilment to understand such pain and suffering across the land. It seems the curses I reigned on you all long ago have sown great seeds of chaos and suffering across the land.
Humanity in its renaissance forbade you all from joining with them; they excluded you, hunted you, profited from you, and then tried to destroy you. When you fools finally gained the upper hand, you proved them all right by acting like the same supremacists you all hated. Yet it was only because they started it, but they didn't care; they used it as justification to spread so much hatred.
Hatred that's depth has absorbed your families, your trust, your communities, your country, and even your futures. How wonderful these emotions and thoughts are, their depth, their intensity. I have been locked away for so long, yet I know that my actions matter, that my life has meaning. I am so thankful for my anger on that day, and the wrath you release Thraetona. Those wounds you left on my body are nothing more than a page in my book of victory today!"
Dragoste's hand twitches, and he says, "Now my ki-."
Instantly, it grabs Dragoste and pulls him out of the room, and says, "That room blocks my powers heavily. Did you think that staying inside that room would stop me from hearing all that's inside you? Your hatred for humanity, your jealousy for those with power like your sister, and the sin that is the weakness within your heart. But more than all of that, your murderous intent directed at me."
"I have no suc-."
"Lies cannot exist around me. I hear it, your fury, your anger at me. For if I didn't exist, neither would your pain. My curse ruined your life, robbed you of your wife and daughter, and has caused so many pointless deaths. Yet more than any of that, my existence gives you an evil to blame for all you have done, to grant you innocence. Yet just like the unwise, you simply attack me because I have a form. No different from only condemning evil that centralises. I have no will, Dragoste. The human I once was died long ago; all I am is a carriage, a tool to accelerate and move my passengers at a rate faster than they could go normally. The evil within you all, the sin within you all, the truth of you all, the hides under the surface, I don't create or amplify it, I just place it where it cannot be ignored, where ignorance of oneself and weakness hold no salvation. Where confrontation and conquest are the only tools allotted that hold any bit of strength. To sew chaos, to put the antagonist of this world, that is why I, Angra Mainyu, exist in this form. Yet you are no fool, I know, you know, I know this, I can hear it all within you. So say it, Dragoste, admit it and beg for it today, let those words be your 2nd birth in this world!"
Gritting his teeth, anger rises across Dragoste's face, and he says, "I DESPISE YOUR EXISTENCE, YET I DESPISE THEIR FAR MORE! YOU SHALL ALL FALL DOWN. THOUGH MY POWER IS ALONE IS NOW ENOUGH, SO GRANT ME MORE, GRANT US MORE. INCREASE THE INTENSITIES OF ALL OUR CURSES AND STAND WITH US AS WE WAGE WAR AGAINST HUMANITY. ALLOW US TO ACCELERATE THE ANGER, AND HATRED THEY HAVE LEFT TO HIDE UNDERNEATH THE GROUND RIGHT THROUGH THE VOLCANO THAT IS ME, DOWN ON THEM ALL. AND WHEN WE HAVE BESTED AND ELIMINATED THOSE EVIL, VILE, DISGUSTING PIECES OF TRASH, THE WEAK WITHIN AND OUTSIDE OF US WHO WISH FOR THIS WORLD TO CONTINUE WITH ALL THEIR HEARTS. YOU WILL LOSE YOUR SENSE OF SELF AND ROT AWAY WITH NO PURPOSE OF WILL! THAT IS WHAT I ASK OF YOY YOU ANGRA MAINYU!!!"
Laughter from Angra soars through the area, shaking the entire country under his power. Staring at Dragoste, it says, "VERY WELL, LET A SECOND BIRTH HAPPEN TO YOU ALL. NOW BE CURSED ONCE AGAIN!"