Chapter 1043: A New Challenge


    Trantor: TransN Editor: TransN


    "A curse?" Rnd repeated the word in an ominous tone.


    "Pleasee with me." Pasha turned around and led everyone into an adjacent cave, where the Taqu witches stored books and scrolls. They had gouged many grooves in the walls of the cave, and it seemed that this library cave had even more volumes than the Secret Temple’s library. "Celine, His Majesty is here."


    "I’ming." Celine’s voice rang in everyone’s head before she came out. The next moment, her main tentacle stuck out from the depths of the cave, knocking lots of books off before quickly shrinking back into the darkness.


    Before it retreated, it greeted Rnd by giving him a nod.


    "Ahem— I’m sorry, Your Majesty. Every time she spots a new study object, she’ll get totally absorbed in the research like this," Pasha exined with a slight embarrassment. "The demon seemed to use a curse on Lightning, but she wasn’t inflicted with any serious injury. That’s indeed a rare thing."


    "What’s she going to do?" The moment Rnd heard the phrase, "study object", he thought of mice used in experiments, who would suffer various unfair treatments inbs.


    "Please rest assured. Observing and recording are the principal study methods we use in magic power research. With the help of the magic core, Celine can clearly capture the movement of Lightning’s magic power," said Pasha while picking up the books that fell on the ground. She opened a book and showed it to everyone. "Look at this here... and here."


    Rnd reckoned that this book was probably an ancient book passed down from the Taqu age, since most of its pages had already turned yellow with age. It was written in the witch’s ancientnguage. Next to the two parts pointed out by Parsha, there was a note tucked inside the book, which exined the content of the ancient writings. Apparently, Celine had already tranted these two parts for them.


    He took a closer look and found that it was about two battles.


    "In a siege battle in the Land of Dawn, eight wounded witches were rescued by the reinforcements, but in the end, none of them recovered from their injuries. Their wounds just could not heal no matter what. All treatments were ineffective on them. As time went by, they became weaker from loss of blood and their wounds got infected. They suffered a lot before death, and two of them even chose tomit suicide," Parsha said slowly. "This battle happened so long ago that even the writer of the book did not know many details about it, except that this was an incredible incident. The phrase ’the demon’s magic curse’ first appeared in this story."


    "The other part where the magic curse is mentioned was in the records of a battle that happened not that long ago. A Senior Demon fought a fierce battle against the witches’ army in Lakes City, which was situated on the edge of the Fertile ins. It could attach its magic power to ck stone spears. Once a witch was wounded by such a spear, she would be feeble and wither up. The Union called this cruel monster Dementor." Pasha paused a moment before adding, "It killed three Extraordinaries, and within all three Extraordinaries, the Quest Society found a strange magic power."


    "And the strange magic power came from the demon, right?" Rnd blurted out.


    "Yes," Pasha nodded her main tentacle. "We think these abilities are of the same type. The strange magic power can somehow remain inside the target and cause continuous damage, which can’t be cured by any conventional medical treatment. And it’s also hard to eliminate the strange magic power."


    "That’s why you call it a curse," said Wendy, sadly. "It’s terrible..."


    Nightingale understood Pasha’s implication and asked, "You said it’s hard to eliminate it. Do you mean... there’s still a way to erase it?"


    Pasha turned to the next page and answered, "Yes, if what we’ve inferred from these records is correct."


    Rnd skimmed through the rest of the story. "When Lakes City was at stake, a witch named Samantha stood out to fight Dementor. In this battle, she went through a high awakening and became a Transcendent. After she cleaved the demon in half, the curse on her somehow disappeared and she miraculously survived. Samantha tried her best to defend Lakes City, but one yearter, the city still fell, since the Red Mist was already too close to the city. Fortunately, she gained enough time for the people to withdraw from the city. After that, Samantha forced a radical change in the Union and sessfully built the Three Chiefs system. She herself was among the first batch of Three Chiefs."


    Now, Rnd understood what Pasha meant.


    If Lightning was really affected by the magic curse, the only way to save her was probably killing the demon who exerted this effect on her. It was not an easy thing. The previous battles in the snow mountain camp and in the Northbound Slope had already proven that Senior Demons were exceptionally difficult opponents. If they went head to head with the First Army, human beings would have a better chance of winning the battle. However, if they deliberately avoided head-on confrontations, it would be very difficult and risky to chase and fight them.


    And this was virtually impossible for the witches in the Taqu age.


    Senior Demons usually acted together with their armies. As military leaders, they were often surrounded by many demon soldiers. Back then, it had been extremely difficult for the Taqu witches to win a battle against the demons, let alonepletely annihting the enemy soldiers and getting close to the Senior Demons.


    Rnd could not help thinking of the unknown witch and herst words in her letter to Natalia.


    She probably also died from this kind of magic curse.


    Since she had been able to write directly to one of the Three Chiefs, she must have been at the upper levels of the Union. But even she had not been able to do anything about the curse except epting the final oue of it.


    To save such a cursed witch, the Union would have to find and kill the Senior Demon who had inflicted the curse upon her from amongst the numerous demons. During this process, they had to sacrifice even more witches. Apparently, for the Union, saving a cursed witch was not worth the risks and sacrifices.


    Nightingale gradually clenched her hands into fists while weighing the gains against the losses.


    After a moment of contemting, Rnd said, "Indeed, it’s difficult to kill the demon, but I’ll never give up any chance to cure Lightning."


    "..." Pasha remained speechless for a moment. "If this is what you want."


    "Before we take action, I need to sort some things out. The Senior Demon Lightning encountered has the ability toy a curse upon anyone without direct contact. If it curses amon person, what will happen to that person?"


    "The oue will be even worse." Celine suddenly interrupted. "The magic power gives witches better immunity and greater healing abilities, so we won’t be affected by the demonic gue, which was bacterial infections mentioned in your book. As formon people, they’ll quickly die from the infections since their wounds can’t heal up."


    "Can God’s Stones of Retaliation protect them from the curse?"


    "Of course, they can. If Dementor hadn’t been a match for an Extraordinary in strength, it would’ve never caused such huge losses to the Union. However—" Celine paused a moment before continuing, "Based on Lightning’s description, we cannot rule out the possibility that the demon she met is a Magic yer. If it is, wearing God’s Stones of Retaliation won’t be very helpful."


    The more powerful a demon was, the more it would resemble a human being. This rule was verified by the Union in the previous two Battles of Divine Will.


    Rnd took a deep breath.


    He had to agree with Celine on this point. ording to Lightning’s description, this Senior Demon might be stronger than all the enemies they have encountered in the past.


    Given that, to kill the Senior Demon, he would have to n the expedition to Taqu very carefully.