Azhure: Enjoy.
Voice: You’ve been saying that alot!
“Hey, Owen,” William called.
“Yeah?” Owen responded to his friend’s call. “What is it?”
It was late at night on the day before the invasion of the capital. Inside a Bell Conglomerate inn, Owen and William were staying in the same room catching some sleep when William spoke up while staring at the dark ceiling.
“I was wondering,” William started, his eyes still up on the ceiling and his body prone. “The otome game mentions Typhon approached king Van when he’s at the breaking point having to deal with all of the rebellions after conquering all of Aqua’s territory.”
“Yeah, after the original countries taken over by the Fichs switched to being Kirash’s, they took their chances,” Owen recalled, similarly looking up. “Here, it’s every lord of this kingdom revolting after Aqua denounced him. Why bring it up?”
“Exactly that, Van getting internal rebellions is earlier than getting the ones from conquering Fichs in the timeframe,” William explained, turning his head to Owen. “On top of Aqua disapproving of him, he would be stressed out much earlier for Typhon to approach him.”
“Meaning he has more time to prepare,” Owen concluded, closing his eyes. “Even though we are fighting him two years earlier.”
“Yeah,” William nodded. “We better watch out for that.”
GRROARRR GRRAAHHH
Like a horde of the undead, a stream of cursed spirits poured out of the broken gate. They were practically trampling over each other as they funneled into the three bridges connecting to the mainland. A mixture of pain and madness adorned their faces as they pursued the humans and spirits in front of them.
“Uhn! So many!” Rin exclaimed in surprise.
“Damn,” William cursed softly. “So it’s just as I thought.”
“Hm?” Ronald noticed William’s comment. “Is there something you know?”
“Yes, we counted the timeline last night,” William explained. “Typhon might have approached king Van earlier so he had more time to create more cursed spirits.”
“…That doesn’t sound farfetched,” Ronald muttered, rubbing his chin behind his mask. “The great sea does give Typhon an earlier opportunity to meet Van.”
“So even though I’ve launched my rebellion, he still has prepared his tricks up his sleeves!” Joshua growled in frustration. “But what about the cursed talismans then?”
“I don’t think he had an opportunity to send those around,” Ronald figured. “Given how unpopular the Van here was and abroad.”
The otome game explained Typhon had used Van’s agents to spread the cursed talismans capable of cursing a spirit throughout Spiri Raia, causing cursed epidemics across many kingdoms. With the trouble the Van here had because of Aqua denouncing him, that avenue would prove to be more difficult for obvious reasons. The fact that no cursed spirits popped up outside of Aqua’s territory yet leaned to that fact.
“My word!” On the other side, Aqua gasped in disbelief. “Just how far had he reached his bloody claws!?”
“Bastard!” Ignis cursed in anger, flames igniting from his skin.
“Aqua, can she still do it?” Lux asked in slight discomposure.
As the cursed spirits charged closer, a wave of panic ensued among the rebel forces. They were told Alicia would purify them just as they saw during the first encounter, but even the Court Wizards themselves would have doubts seeing this many.
“They’re coming!”
“By the greater spirits! There’s so many of them!”
Despite the cursed spirits being more than expected, the suppression kicked in, allowing Alicia to not panic at the sight. With a determined look, Alicia did not will her loyal maneg to do the same thing she did before to save the cursed spirits. Instead, she forwarded her will to the spirits around her.
“Yes,” Aqua said resolutely.
“In the otome game, having Maria requesting the spirit art is enough for it to purify the spirits,” Aqua explained. “To make it in line with rule eight, you should do the same, Alicia.”
“Oh, water spirits,” Alicia spoke with a firm voice, facing down the horde of cursed spirits, mask off as all the other Court Wizards did for the rebel soldiers with them. “Lend me your aid!”
“All together now!” Aqua ordered the water spirits as they all gathered their power once more.
SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH
Together at the same time, they all sprayed large amounts of water at the incoming horde, aimed to cover as much space as possible. It could be described as a bullet storm of water droplets shot at the cursed spirits.
GRRAAOHH-UH?
SHIING SHIING SHIING
Working its magic, the moment the spirit art touched a cursed spirit, bright light emanated from it as the purple began to evaporate. As more and more cursed spirits touched the water droplets, more and more began to be purified.
SHIING SHIING SHIING SHIING SHIING SHIING SHIING SHIING SHIING SHIING SHIING SHIING
In a rather mesmerizing sight, a sea of purple haze floated up in the air, disappearing after a short while. The cursed spirits below it were cursed no more as their blue glow returned. Most of them looked rather confused not remembering how they got here but were otherwise fine.
“Hah…” Ronald sighed in relief. “I should not have worried for my daughter.”
“You got that right,” Joshua agreed.
Much like the purified spirits, the panicking rebels were panicking no more. If anything, they looked even more invigorated by the prowess shown as if they hadn’t been caught off guard by a nightmare fuel horde coming at them.
“Uoooh! This is the power of the blessed!”
“The greater spirits are with us!”
“Everyone! Charge!”
In the otome game, it was Maria who would have been standing where Alicia was and the rebel army led by Owen’s father should have been the army from the light kingdom. The most striking of the differences was that it was supposed to be just Aqua and Lux aiding the humans, not all of the greater spirits. Regardless, the outcome was the same, even if it happened two years earlier.
“They are all gone!?” Van growled in disbelief, his hands gripping his throne until he could feel it crack.
“Y-Yes, your majesty!” the soldier reported with fright, daring not to look at the furious king as he knelt. “A-As soon as the cursed spirits were released, that girl cast another powerful spirit art and it purified them!”
BLAM
“That wench again!” Van shrieked, slamming his fist on the armrest before showing a terrifying face to the bearer of bad news. “Grr! Get out of my sight!”
“Hii…! Yes, your majesty!” the soldier screamed in terror and fled.
BANG
“Dammit!” Van bashed the armrest once again in frustration. It was something he had done so many times that the gold paint had peeled off. “Why do things not go my way!”
Everything went wrong when that damn duke rejected his dream to conquer Fichs. The old man was too blind to see the opportunity and went so far as to oppose him in favor of his incompetent older brother. Just as he thought it was over after he got rid of him in that fire, it was the greater water spirit herself rebuking him next by erecting the great sea just to spite his ambition.
That was when things turned from bad to worse. Not long after that day, his father passed and he was barely given any respect for his funeral. It was even less so for Van’s coronation as immediately after his ascension to the throne, he had to crush rebellion after rebellion with an army that had little semblance of morale. Granted, they were mostly insignificant nobles or peasants getting uppity as most of the nobility was still under his control, but dealing with one after another still took its toll on him.
“Grr! Typhon!” Van shouted, his fist balling in rage. “Where are you!?”
It was in a situation like this when that man appeared before him. By all means, he should have called the guards but something in his mind told him to entertain the intruder. His decision was right as he was then presented with the weapon he needed to retake what was rightfully his. Sure, it was unnerving to see that spirit violated and twisted like that, but it had awakened something primal in him that made him accept it with glee.
“You called, your majesty?” Typhon said, appearing out of nowhere as he always did. To this day, Van was still startled by how the decrepit old man managed to conceal his presence so perfectly.
It started small, abducting spirits one at a time. Typhon had already created special cages to capture and contain them as he had demonstrated caging the first cursed spirit. So, it was as simple as getting the agents still loyal to Van to go and capture the spirits with the devices.
The captured spirits were then taken to the palace dungeon where Typhon slowly corrupted them, turning them into weapons against the greater spirits. Of course, Typhon had no plans to do the tireless work of amassing the army, so the spirits captured were also used to experiment on talismans that could be used by anyone to corrupt a spirit.
“You said the cursed spirits will crush the rebels,” Van growled with a low tone. “How come their corruption gets undone by a measly girl!?”
Once Typhon got the talismans produced, building the army of cursed spirits began in earnest. Spreading throughout the kingdom, Van’s agents methodically corrupted and caged the spirits to be brought back into the capital. It was still relatively slow as they couldn’t catch the greater spirit’s attention so soon. But over the years, they managed to amass a veritable number of cursed spirits with none the wiser.
The next phase of the plan would have been to go beyond the land of water spirits, spreading the cursed talismans throughout Spiri Raia. It was, however, difficult for Van to send his agents abroad ever since that day so it was shelved for later. But then, another rebellion was launched.
“I am not sure,” Typhon admitted with a frown under his hood. “It is… intriguing.”
Initially, Van dismissed it as yet another attempt to overthrow him by the rabble and just sent his army. But, when he expected the messenger to come back with the news of the rebellion crushed, he was shocked to hear his army was annihilated by the rebels in open battle instead of the other way around. Before he knew it, he received news that his capital was under siege by those same dissidents.
At first, Van tried to think it was the troops he sent being incompetent and the rebels simply landing a surprise attack on them – it wasn’t the first time it happened. However, he was soon forced to acknowledge that the threat before him was more serious than he thought when the leader of the damn rebellion froze the water around the capital with so many ice talismans, rendering the three bridges’ role as choke points useless.
“There is no time for that!” Van growled frustratingly. “All of the cursed spirits released were lost as soon as they got out of the gate!”
After fending off the first few attempts to break into the capital in a hard-fought battle, Van fully realized the scope of this revolt. It had been too quiet when Van built up his army of cursed spirits, he should have known better that someone would have the idea to also amass a rebel force larger than any other in secret in those same years. As Van contemplated how to break the siege best, Typhon approached him and suggested it was time to unleash the fruit of their labor.
So, Van ordered his men to pick up several cursed spirits in their cages and throw them into the rebel encampment to test the waters. As he and Typhon expected the insurgents to be frightened and run like the cowards they were, they were shocked to hear that not only had the attack failed, but the cursed spirits seemed to be purified! When the cursed spirits attacked, they were repelled by a bunch of brown-hooded people using talismans, and when a girl with red hair’s talisman touched the cursed spirits, they were purified.
“Quiet,” Typhon said calmly. “It is indeed a significant setback, nothing more.”
“A setback!” Van snapped, being at the edge of his seat. “The enemy is in the capital and we are facing all of the greater spirits! All of them!”
After the cursed spirits failed though, the rebels didn’t launch another attack, just maintaining their siege. Van knew it was strange for them not to and prepared for the worst. Almost a month into the siege, it was much worse than Van could ever imagine as when the rebels finally mounted another assault, the same girl suddenly requested the most powerful water spirit art Van had ever seen. The resulting spirit art was so massive he could see it from the balcony and the destruction that came with it. Van thought that was the worst of it as the rebels could now storm the capital, but he was wrong. Very wrong.
Immediately after the gates fell, Van heard a voice he hadn’t heard for decades, from one greater water spirit Aquarius. If anything, he had expected to earn her ire again, the act of corrupting the water spirits warranted so. Her same condescending speech said that much about how he colluded with Typhon to create the cursed spirits. But, what he didn’t expect was for every greater spirit to also appear on the rebel’s side.
“True, the plan was to unleash cursed spirits in their territories to keep them separated,” Typhon admitted. “But all of them in one place do serve me just as well.”
“And how do you suppose we fight all of them!?” Van retorted, finding Typhon’s uncaring attitude more and more indignant. “Your cursed spirits turned out to be useless!”
He and Typhon, for their part, had used the time to prepare. As soon as the rebels were about to launch another assault, they would unleash hordes upon hordes of cursed spirits to overwhelm their adversary so that not even that girl could purify them before they slaughtered her and the rest of the brigands.
Even with the gates destroyed and all of the greater spirits revealed, the plan still went ahead only for that wench to dash his hopes by casting a water spirit art of all things that methodically rid all of the cursed spirits. With that, Van was at his wit’s end, trying to turn around this situation while Typhon was standing here as if nothing was wrong.
“It is simple, very simple,” Typhon chuckled darkly. “I merely need to do this myself.”
“…What?”
There was one thing in the back of Van’s mind he finally remembered. When Aqua denounced him once again, she called Typhon a cursed dragon of old. That makes sense in terms of how he was able to create cursed spirits.
Van didn’t have much time to think about it as Typhon grew in size.
Modules
Spiri Raia
- Spiri Raia Dragonmorph (Cursed Dragon) Species Module
Azhure: So, what do you all think of this part? Is it good? Are there any problems with it? Any reviews or feedback is appreciated as long as they’re not plain insults meant to blow off your stress.
Voice: Don’t do that to people! Not even on the internet!
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