CHAPTER 23.

Amber looked at the man’s staff once more and couldn’t help but ask.

“Are you going to use that staff to summon the Flametouched Demon?”

The man stood straight and smiled at her. “Well you are quite the sharp one, and the answer is yes. However, the actual sacrifice wasn’t meant to be Velda Starkell.”

Liz frowned. “Then why is she on the table like that?”

“To bring the actual sacrifice of course.” The man laughed before his face turned serious. “You, Lissandra Starkell, are the actual sacrifice.”

The mage tensed and Amber frowned, she made sure to nudge Liz for another shock but didn’t peel her eyes off the man as he continued to explain. He didn’t pay any attention to either of them while doing so.

“I was notified as soon as you arrived here, for a moment you had us fooled but after rescuing that woman, not so much. And so, the plan to bait you here was set in motion.” He grinned. “Naturally, I, Noah Risnar, was the one to devise it. Can’t disappoint my parents as the future head of the household after all. So I was put in charge of this plan.”

“So are all of the nobles conspiring to destroy various cities with demons or what?” Amber asked bluntly.

Noah scowled at that, displeasure evident on his face. “Of course not, people aren’t selected because of their status, but because of their power.”

Amber used Identify on the man.

[Mage. Lvl. 71]

“You don’t seem very strong to me,” she observed.

“Power comes in many different ways,” he scoffed. “And I’m not the head of the Risnars, so you should understand. Besides, if this trap working isn’t a display of power then I do not know what is.”

Amber frowned. “So, you did all of this to lure Liz, even though she was like level 30 a week ago?”

She was sure that comment would’ve made Liz quite angry with her, but at the moment nothing of the sort was relevant.

Noah smiled. “Well, I’ll admit that her level is still much lower than we’d prefer, but we can always amend that,” he explained. “Her sister in comparison is level 15, and unfortunately, unlike Lissandra, Velda is terrible at magic in spite of her class so leveling her would take a lot more resources. Also, my plan led to bringing you here, Cursebearer, I’m pleased with that.”

She raised her brow.

“You people are the worst,” Liz growled, shocking Amber at the same time to refresh her skill.

“I prefer to use the term visionaries,” he corrected. “A new era shall be ushered by us in due time. Oracle has found a way to connect with the demons, and through it we plan to reshape the world. You and the Cursebearer will be sacrificed.”

“I keep hearing that but I don’t know what that even means,” Amber sighed.

“It means that you are immune to curses for you are the curse themselves, certain classes present that trait and each is just as rare as the other,” Noah said, annoyed. “By sacrificing you, we can summon quite powerful demons. Also you are quite the chatterbox aren’t you?”

Amber frowned. So having a rare class makes you a human sacrifice?

“Well no matter, it is normal to have questions when you are about to contribute to the greater good, so ask away Cursebearer.” He opened his arms wide. “Because you are trapped here until you are rendered unable to fight.”

Amber almost took that as a challenge but managed to hold herself off. Instead, she began to walk towards the man who smiled at her.

“Coming to surrender yourself?”

“No, to kick your ass,” Amber said, and then she added. “And to free Liz’s sister.”

Noah snorted. “You can have her. Not going to stoop as low as to defeat you by using a hostage as a shield.”

He tapped his staff on the ground and the ropes next to her body became undone. Then, the table was moved by supernatural force in their direction, scraping across the ground. It passed Amber, and arrived directly in front of Liz who hurried to grab her sister.

“I never thought you’d make it easier for me to kick your ass.” Amber smiled as she continued towards him.

The man harrumphed. “I’m quite confident in my abilities, and I also need to prove myself to my family, which is why I’ll deal with you alone, Cursebearer.”

And with that, he raised his staff at her. Amber didn’t expect the battle to start in such an orderly manner but she wasn’t complaining⁠— and a distant boom echoed, the mansion itself shook.

“What?” Noah turned towards the window.

Amber glanced and saw columns of smoke rising from the towers that were the royal castle, she saw an incandescent light slowly pulsating over the different buildings. However, she immediately turned back to the battle and dashed towards the man. The mage’s eyes widened and Amber slashed down using Cursed Cleave. A barrier was erected but it was shattered right through and her sword hit the man’s shoulder.

He screamed as it barely dug, some lacerations opened up within his body as he tapped his staff⁠— an explosion launched her back, sending Amber skidding as she stared at the mage who clutched onto his shoulder.

“And here I thought you were better than to do a surprise attack,” he spat. “I’ll make you regret that.”

That should’ve injured him quite a lot and yet it barely cut him much. Amber frowned, and the man raised his staff.

“Bloom.”

Amber moved herself away in a hurry, feeling mana coalesce where she stood, and a moment later a purple explosion ripped. Her eyes grew wide. That was just like the Server of Chaos. She turned to the man who grinned and moved his staff. Another explosion quickly forming.

Amber dashed away and it exploded behind her. The beautiful ballroom was quickly getting covered in soot.

“I fought a demon that used the same shit, it was quite useless.”

“So you are the Demonkiller of Laria?” he grinned. “Interesting! Chain.”

And Amber felt mana coalesce in multiple spots, she frowned and dashed towards the safest place according to her skill. A moment later, everything exploded and she felt some of her bones crack from the strength. The explosions dissipated and Amber could already feel her skill Recovery of Curses hard at work.

“Quite durable too, and you did it while you were much lower level,” he mused.

And Amber stomped, the cracks reached the man in a split second and he grunted as multiple cuts appeared all over his body. She dashed forward in an instant, trying to touch the man with her hand but he seemed to recover just in time as he tapped his staff on the ground. A translucent barrier appeared and Amber touched that instead.

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“Dangerous.” He stepped back and aimed his staff. “Explode.”

Amber barely managed to get out of the way, the boom still damaging her body. It was beginning to get really annoying. She dashed towards the mage, but he erected a barrier and even though she broke through it, her sword hit empty air. Amber continued chasing after the mage, but he pointed at the ground.

“Bloom.”

And an explosion happened in front of her, causing her to separate herself from the man she was fighting.

“What the fuck are you made out of?” Amber asked, frustrated.

“Well, you see I’m almost fully demonified,” he explained dismissively. “So, my body is quite durable. And it is also because of this that I’ve reached greater heights as a mage. Give up, Cursebearer.”

“You saying that just makes me want to try harder.”

“Then do it!”

And another explosion went off. Amber dodged it with ease and charged at the mage once more. She swung for him but he blocked it with his literal arm. The sword went into the bone and the man let out a long breath.

“That really fucking hurts, explode.”

Amber was forced to back off, as she was sent flying, her body screaming at her in pain. She was durable, but she certainly couldn’t tank three hundred thousand explosions.

She gritted her teeth and continued fighting with the mage, sometimes catching him with Cursed Stomp and other times getting hurt from the man’s attacks. He even began to use projectiles along with his explosions. A few times she had managed to slash into the mage but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference.

The battle raged on, and even though Amber had quite a lot of stamina, her mana was another story. It was getting uncomfortably low. Meanwhile, even though the man was much more injured and bleeding a lot more, seemed practically unbothered. For a moment, Amber doubted she could win, but she resolved herself into putting her everything in one last attempt.

She had Cursed Rage Synergy still on the table, it had maxed out before they even went into the mansion, and she had yet to use its rage.

I don’t even know if I can use it like that but…

She waited for the man to raise his staff, and then he used an explosion. She felt the mana coalescing before her, and Amber timed it and dashed. The explosion ruptured behind and she was propelled flying towards the mage, whose eyes grew wide. He tapped his staff on the ground in a hurry, and she saw panic settle into him.

A barrier appeared but Amber shattered it with the swing of her sword, and then extending her hand she touched the man in the chest⁠— pushing into him as she called.

Curse Battery into⁠— Cursed Rage Synergy.

At that moment, Amber felt the rage leave her body and go into the man before he screamed. A moment later, hundreds⁠— thousands of lacerations spread all across his body in a single burst as blood exploded everywhere. She saw an arm fly across her vision and she just knew that nothing remained of Noah.

Amber landed past the man, panting and injured.

And a moment later, a notification came.

[You have defeated a [Mage. Lvl. 71].]

Amber watched as the barrier surrounding the room began to dissipate, she saw the guards standing right outside and she knew that it wasn’t over yet. She rushed towards Liz and with her left hand she reached to the pouch on her back and grabbed a potion before drinking it. Then Amber hefted Velda over her shoulder and held Liz by the hand as she began to walk.

“We are leaving.”

“How?!” the mage asked in a panic.

“Through the window.”

The barrier dissipated and the guards stormed in. Amber yanked Liz into her embrace and jumped. The window shattered and they fell from the third floor of the mansion as Liz screamed. Amber felt the shock travel through her body as she let Liz down and grabbed the mage’s hand yet again.

“We need to go now.”

Liz nodded and then, they began running towards the safe-house as the guards scrambled to pursue. Amber dragged Liz, overexerting the mage from the get go as they ran through the noble district. They saw city guards running in the direction of the castle, and Amber had to unfortunately run through the stampede of guards even if she was risking being caught.

“What are you girls doing here?!”

“Evacuate!”

“Move!”

Even though they were bloodied, they were ignored, thankfully. However, the guards belonging to the Risnar family, were a different story altogether. They were still chasing. One of them got pushed by the tide of soldiers but the others managed to cross. And Amber knew the plan of returning to the safe-house wasn’t as simple and straightforward as she wished. Instead, she found herself traversing numerous alleys with Liz’s out of breath directions.

The night continued and it seemed like the entirety of the city-guard had been mobilized, Amber wondered what the fuck had happened, she knew the castle had exploded and that something had occurred. But what kind of thing could even happen for the entirety of the city guard to mobilize? She also saw actual soldiers in the mix, people above level 80 rushing.

It was insane to her.

While she ran, she wondered about things and two brief memories entered her mind. The group of three people entering the city, all of them having a necklace that resembled the twin moons, and the other was of those same three people going into the sewers.

Could it be…?

She wasn’t sure, but she decided to stop thinking about that and instead, she put twice the effort in running away from the guards of the Risnar family. She had just killed the heir or whatever, so it made sense that they were putting that much effort into catching her. Liz was panting like there was no tomorrow, but thankfully she had the resolve to continue.

And so, they ran, eventually managing to weave through enough alleys to somewhat lose them and pass by the warehouse. Amber grabbed her armor and threw it in a tarp, almost carrying it like a sack. Liz had done the same with her possessions. While they could have hid inside Liz’s safehouse given it was a private building, once the fact that the heir of the Risnar family was dead got around, getting out of the capital would prove to be impossible.

That’s what Liz had explained between breaths anyway.

Which is why they immediately departed to the sewers. At that point they had fully lost the guards but they carried on. They marched through the sewers in complete darkness, thankfully Amber was able to sense the gaps in between the canals as danger so they navigated through it just fine.

And after an hour, they saw the light of the outside world. A river from within the forest was connected to the tunnels of the canal. Amber herself felt tired, and her wounds hadn’t completely healed but she was glad to be done with all of this.

Liz on the other hand was barely walking but she managed to push herself to make it into the forest, and Amber too finally put Velda down, she had been unconscious the entire time. She was beginning to feel concerned, and Liz was too. The blonde mage was looking at her sister with deep labored breaths, her gaze not leaving her.

Amber let out a long sigh of relief.

“That was… a bit too much…”

Fighting the mage and then having to run for close to two hours was fucking exhausting, even though she had a skill that gave her stamina in the form of Recovery of Curses. Finally, she turned to her notifications.

[Cursed Cleave has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 4 to 2nd Rank level 5.]

[Quick Dash has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 3 to 2nd Rank level 4.]

[General Weapon Mastery has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 3 to 2nd Rank level 4.]

[Cursed Momentum has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 3 to 2nd Rank level 5.]

[Berserker’s Body has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 3 to 2nd Rank level 5.]

[Sharp Instincts has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 1 to 2nd Rank level 2.]

[Cursed Rage Synergy has leveled up from level 4 to 7.]

[Curse Battery has leveled up from level 5 to 6.]

[Curse Aura has leveled up from level 4 to 5.]

[Elemental Resistance has leveled up from level 3 to 4.]

[Magical Resistance has leveled up from level 1 to 4.]

At this point in time, Amber mostly glossed over her skill level ups. However, she was looking forward to Cursed Stomp hitting 2nd Rank, as well as Curse Battery eventually. And Cursed Rage Synergy was exciting too.

Finally, she turned to her level ups.

[You have reached level 64. 5 stat points awarded.]

…

[You have reached level 67. 5 stat points awarded.]

She was promptly offered a new Core Skill, but after seeing it was essentially a better Cursed Fury she lost interest. Curse Aura wasn’t super strong in her opinion, but it leveled just from existing so she intended to keep it around until a very good skill came along. Trading a 2nd Rank level 2 skill for another Cursed Momentum starting at 2nd Rank would be quite a deal.

Maybe even the best deal in the history of all deals.

Well… Considering skills went past the 2nd Rank that definitely wasn’t the case. She however found it quite insane how long skills at the 2nd Rank took to level up.

Will the 3rd and 4th Rank be way worse…?

She dreaded thinking about it, a few moments later she decided to distribute her attribute points given they were now safe from their pursuers. After doing that, she relaxed until⁠— she heard the sound of grass rustling.

Liz tensed as well and they turned to look into the forest where Amber spotted a figure limping and bleeding all over. He wore a tattered robe and had a necklace whose trinket resembled the twin moons, his head was covered by a hood. He was limping with a staff when he saw her.

It was one of the group of three adventurers that had arrived in the capital.

They locked eyes for a moment and the man raised his staff. At that moment, Liz immediately backed off, hurriedly dragging her sister.

“You have been touched by a Primordial Spirit, I can sense it,” he said. “Hand yourself over peacefully, or I’ll be forced to apprehend you in the name of the Arcane Council.”

Amber blinked. The Arcane Council? Her mind blared and Identify told her what she already knew.

[???. Lvl. ???]

She was fucked.