Novel Full 258 258 Exploration
Wolfe carefully made his way past a few more buildings when the first damaged spell activated due to his presence. An intense [Gravity Field] nearly slammed him to the ground, and Wolfe quickly cast a [Gravity Array] to counteract it, then searched for the spell’s origin to deactivate it.
It appeared to have been inscribed in the bottom of what looked like a staircase, possibly as a mobility aid. Once he found it, he only had to focus on deactivating it, and the spell fell silent again, allowing him to move through the street toward the partially intact building that was his destination.
Despite the destruction, the one thing that Wolfe didn’t see was any bodies. If the complex had been occupied and taken by surprise, he would have expected there to be skeletons everywhere, but he hadn’t detected a single one yet.
That didn’t match the violence that had destroyed this place, but it gave Wolfe hope that the army had at least found the decency to bury the dead before they left.
He could feel the intensity of the Null Stone remnants increasing as he approached the building where the relic was supposed to be, which made Wolfe wonder what made the Witches think that there was something powerfully magic here.
There was no way that you would detect anything magical through all this Null Stone. Unless someone had managed to get close enough that they could actually see it and sense it. Maybe they flew overhead to scout the area once they determined that walking it was too dangerous.
As he rounded the final corner, passing the remnants of a stone garden shed, Wolfe realized why the intensity of the Null Stone was increasing. Someone had collected the majority of it from the area and possibly from even further away and piled it up in mounds around the last remaining partially intact building.
But the piles wouldn’t stop Wolfe. He would only be here for a few minutes, and then he would be on his way again.
He was about to step forward when a sense of foreboding hit him, and it occurred to Wolfe that there was more of a reason than just a barrier that what was inside hadn’t been taken away. He focused on his enhanced senses and turned [Detect Hidden] to the maximum so that he could observe the mana flow in the area.
It was deeply wrong in a way that he had never seen before. There was an incredibly powerful Witch Curse on the location, as well as an Elemental Magic barrier that Wolfe couldn’t identify.
The two were maintaining some sort of balance at the moment, and neither could overcome the other. It was time to wake up Stephanie and see what she thought of the situation.
The cat was still happily asleep in his backpack, oblivious to and uncaring about anything going on around her since Wolfe wasn’t alarmed enough for it to wake her up through their Familiar Bond.
“Time to get up, lazy cat. There is a curse here, and I’m not sure how to break it or what it does.” Wolfe explained as he petted her head to wake her up.
[Fine. Let’s see what… oh mother of the Goddess, what the heck is that?] She exclaimed in his mind.
“Yeah, that was my thought too. What is it, and how do I get past it to get the goodies inside the inner barrier.”
Stephanie’s thoughts were horrified as she looked at the curse. “I’m almost certain that’s a soul trap. Nothing that passes through it can come back out without having its soul stripped from it. No wonder nobody can get the treasure. It would kill anyone who tried.”
“Can we break it?” Wolfe asked.
“I should be able to do it with your help. But what’s the barrier on the inside? Will it become unstable or spread out if we remove the curse?” Stephanie asked.
“I can take care of that. It’s a defensive ward that was placed on the building. I’m not entirely certain what its design is, but it’s definitely there to protect that building.”
“Alright, I will need some mana, but I can break that curse, I think.” She muttered through their link, then began to draw through Wolfe and unravel the curse effect around the building.
The curse seemed to unravel as if it was a blanket, and Stephanie had snagged a corner and pulled. Wolfe could see the wisps of dark magic blowing away into the wind and dispersing until the curse was gone, and a very tired Stephanie climbed back into the top pocket of his backpack and pulled the zipper closed behind her.
“I did my part. Now I’m going back to sleep. Whoever cast that spell was powerful. Like, more powerful than me powerful. Be careful that it doesn’t come back, but I think that I got all of it.” She explained before Wolfe heard her soft snoring from his bag.
The curse seemed to be gone, and the barrier inside it was inactive again now that the threat was gone.
So, he carefully approached the building and then recoiled in horror at what he found there. Dozens of skeletons, still wrapped in elegant cloth robes, were sitting against the walls, each with a cup in their hands.
Whatever was in the cups was long dried and lost to time, but the scene didn’t leave too many questions about what had happened. They had been trapped in the building by the curse, and while the building’s defences were holding and keeping them from having their souls stripped, they lacked the power to leave.
That wasn’t the sort of Magi Relic that he was expecting, but as Wolfe looked over the scene in the ruins, he saw that there was a single large crystal on the table in the middle of the room that looked a lot like the Inheritance Stone at the Lumix Family house. If it served a similar function, it could be exactly what he needed.