CHAPTER 64.

Did I hear that right…?

Amber blinked. “Did you just say you’ll revive the monster, and wife?”

“That is correct,” Ian, the necromancer nodded. “She was in a rampage, after my nation tried to control her she broke free and was unleashed onto the world. Even though I was the one that… transformed her I couldn’t control her actions after.”

He sounded pained and his voice carried deep regret, but at the same time Amber couldn’t help but frown. She only had one interpretation of what she was just told, and it was not a very pleasant one.

“So, you killed your wife and turned her into this thing?” She gestured.

“I didn’t kill her!” he bellowed angrily. “She died saving my life!”

He stepped towards Amber as he pointed his finger.

“Two years ago, we both met a powerful mage and he fucking killed her! He was searching in the Great Desert for leads to Primordial Spirits, and for some reason he believed that my wife possessed information in regards to that!”

Amber blinked⁠— that sounded familiar⁠—

“And she sacrificed herself so I could escape, since he wanted to kill me as well!”

He held his head in frustration, pulling his hair. She could see the anger in his face when speaking, and to some extent Amber felt bad that that had happened to him⁠— especially if Dargon had been the one to kill his wife. But…

“I can’t let you revive your wife, the plague is just going to come back,” Amber said. “The whole point of why I came here is to stop that.”

“And that won’t happen,” the necromancer said. “Now she will be under my control, there will be no plague, and even if she is in this form…”

He looked towards the mass of tentacles, gritting his teeth.

“That is still very much my wife, even if the damn nation of Ofris lied to me. Even if they deceived me to create a war weapon rather than revive her, I will stop at nothing to bring her back. Not in this form, but as her, and getting her back now is the first step.”

He raised his staff and Amber’s vision trembled and a moment later she vomited blood. The venom was still spreading throughout her body and it was bad, every one of her muscles was trembling in pain; it felt as if she had sandpaper coursing through her veins. But at the same time, she couldn’t allow this.

“You should go back before it’s too late,” he said.

Amber shook her head and chugged a potion from her ring. Meanwhile the man’s staff began to shine as the tentacles on the ground began to mend together and connect. It was as if watching a puppet be animated, slowly rising from the ground and gaining motion, but instead of watching Amber walked forward and⁠—

Punched.

Amber felt a crack as the mage’s jaw was dislocated. He groaned in pain as he hit the ground hard. And with that, the tentacles fell right onto the ground once more, stopping the process even if momentarily. While she felt bad about attacking the same person she had just fought along, it was something she had to do.

The necromancer spat blood on the ground, before cracking his jaw back into place. “Are you getting in the way of me reuniting with my wife just like those bastards of Ofril?”

Amber shook her head. “If you want to reunite with her so damn bad, why not die instead? Go to heaven and all⁠, but if you insist on reuniting this way then I’ll get in your damn way.”

“Heaven?” he asked. “How do I visit this place you call ‘Heaven’?”

She nearly rolled her eyes at that. Of course, she didn’t blame the man for not knowing what heaven out of all things was as a concept, but the thing that bothered her was how obsessed the man was with his wife. A wife that had long died and was now a tendril monster.

She shook her head. “That doesn’t matter, you have to move on, accept that she’s dead⁠— even if you bring her back, will she still be herself or some puppet?”

The necromancer gritted his teeth. When Amber met him, he looked like a well-put together person; in fact he remained that way until about five minutes ago. But now, his hair was disheveled and his glasses were bent, and he was looking at her with nothing but anger.

“Do you have any idea of how many times I’ve heard that?” he spat. “Way too many!”

Finally, he stood up properly and pointed his staff at her, biting his lips.

“Amber, I’ve refused to attack you up until this point, do you know why?” he asked rhetorically before continuing. “Because you’ve helped me, you helped me put a stop to the problem caused by Ofril, and you helped me reunite with her. However, my patience is about to run out. I do not want to kill you, so do not force my hand.”

Amber frowned at his warning. She could feel the venom once more beginning to take effect, her vision was slightly blurry, and her senses were dulled. There was also the pain that made her grit her teeth. But even then, she had to do something. And while she would’ve liked to smack some sense into the man, she was way too weak for that. Unfortunately, right now her only choice was to talk.

“How many people have died to the plague?” she asked. “Think about that⁠— that’s how many more people you’ll be killing if you revive your wife!”

“No, that won’t be happening,” he snapped back. “The main reason that the plague even began was due to the fact that my nation, my birthplace, took advantage of me and tried to take complete control over her. And with that, the plague began. It began as soon as she escaped and rampaged all around the land, leaving her curse behind for people to infect themselves with!”

After a breath he continued.

“I’m not even responsible for any of this, they are…” his voice trailed off. “All I wanted was to revive her. I acted on my own and gathered the necessary resources, and when they discovered my project they offered help. I was once a high ranking official of Ofril, I thought they were helping, but instead they created a war machine…”

He closed his eyes letting out a deep breath before turning back to the black mass.

“Now that they are out of the picture, that won’t happen anymore.” He raised his staff and glanced back at her. “Discussions are over, leave me alone, Amber the Cursebearer.”

Amber frowned and then, the man tapped his staff on the ground. Numerous shield-bearing undead appeared all around him to protect him, and then he spoke with finality.

“Try anything, and you will die. This is your final warning, heed it,” he hissed.

With those words, he began to resurrect the undead monster.

She raised her sword looking at the undead, and then⁠— she nearly lost balance due to the venom inside her body. It was absolutely ridiculous that this was happening, but somehow⁠— it was. Amber wasn’t confident about fighting the man, and yet she had to stop him. There was no other way⁠—

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[Toxin Resistance has leveled up from 3rd Rank level 5 to 3rd Rank level 6.]

Amber inwardly scoffed at the stupid notification and then chugged a potion. She didn’t want to do this, but she had to act. Even though she wasn’t in any condition to fight, but she had to stop him.

“I suggest you give up,” he stated. “You cannot stop me⁠—

“Explode.”

A voice echoed and both of them were engulfed by a purple light. Amber went flying dozens of meters away, hitting the sand. She felt no damage, and even felt the venom be pushed back by quite a lot from the blast⁠— meaning they had used a curse. However, Amber was still disoriented.

Her blurry vision slowly refocused as she saw two cloaked figures walking towards her, and while at first they looked unassuming, she realized that the two of them had a necklace whose set-piece had the twin moons.

And her eyes widened.

They were from the Arcane Council.

And they were strong.

[Mage. Lvl. ???]

[Mage. Lvl. ???]

“We can either do this the nice way, or the bad way,” the first mage said, his tone casual.

And the other stepped forward, speaking with a husky voice. “Hand over the cube you took, woman, then I’ll consider sparing your life. Tell us where it is.”

Amber frowned. They wanted the Cube of Stars, and at the same time⁠— she felt blood come out of her nose⁠— she couldn’t fight. The venom was slowly eating away at her body, and she was sure she would have long died if it wasn’t for all the self-healing skills that she had.

However, all she had to do was hold on, then the 3rd Rank of Toxin Resistance would kick in. Though, her chances of survival were looking pretty slim.

At least, they don’t know I have the cube on my person. Because if they knew, they most certainly would be attacking her now. And so, Amber retained her expression, which was of confusion and disorientation.

“Cube, what cube?”

The man with the husky voice clicked his tongue. “Here I was hoping to do this without torture.”

“So you’ve chosen the bad way,” the other one said.

Amber frowned as she watched the two men raise their staffs, she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry seeing how direct and to the point they were. But she could do neither, instead what she had to do was fight. And she was going to do so. She readied herself for the perfect moment, waiting for the men to use their spells to attack, and⁠—

A blast of darkness hit them. Amber too was engulfed and she felt her body reinvigorated by the curse, then she heard the necromancer’s voice call; though it sounded pained.

“Amber, buy me time, I’ll revive her and then⁠— you can escape and save your life,” he said. “That will be my final thank you to you.”

Amber felt conflicted about that statement, but as she felt a sudden urge to vomit that she swallowed back down, she realized that it was either that or death. And in the end, she resolved herself to kill the necromancer herself and his wife should further problems arise in the future.

So, she chugged a potion and⁠— the dust was cleared. The two people looked around with a frown, and Amber attacked. She dashed upon the shorter member of the Arcane Council, the man with the husky voice. He gritted his teeth.

“Pest!”

And Amber got out of the way just in time, using the 3rd Rank of Quick Dash, she appeared behind him and swung. A barrier was formed and⁠— broke.

“Impossible!” He stepped back. “Begone!”

This time, Amber let herself be hit by his attack. The explosion of purple engulfed her and she grinned⁠. She passed through the cursed veil and slashed with all the rage she had accumulated, using Cursed Cleave at the same time.

A blade of purple came after the man⁠— his eyes widened and it tore through his shoulder with a splatter of blood. He gritted his teeth and muttered.

“Damn Cursebearer.”

But Amber had no time to savor her victory, instead she was forced to use Quick Dash to move away as an explosion of flames engulfed the spot she had just been standing on. The two members of the Arcane Council turned to her, and the first one to speak was the man with the injured shoulder⁠— though the cut looked superficial at best.

“Zodos, let me be the one to deal with her.”

The man, Zodos shook his head. “Remember our mission: we have to capture her and torture her. Her friend is planning something, so let’s deal with her quick.”

The injured one snorted but raised his staff.

And Amber, swallowed. Her vision was already beginning to turn blurry again, the venom within her body was unrelenting, and she could feel her heart skipping beats at this point⁠— threatening to stop for good. She was in no condition to fight, and yet she was going to try.

She took a deep breath and dashed⁠— then she used Cursed Stomp which went through the mage’s barriers but was essentially brushed off. The men had no reaction to the curse-riddled injuries they had sustained. It was a futile attempt that she followed up with a dash to close the distance, but the one called ‘Zodos’ raised his staff and spoke.

“Repulse.”

Amber was thrown back and he continued.

“Flame.”

Amber barely blocked, hiding behind the Cursewelder to block the deluge of flames that came her way. Maybe it was the fact that she was heavily weakened, but she felt as if she was fighting against an unstoppable force.

However, she couldn’t give up⁠—

And the other man appeared next to her and swung his staff. Amber had no time to block as she was hit across the face⁠— her brain rattled and she felt her jaw crack and then crack into place a moment later. She landed on the ground, coughing blood as the two members approached.

“You are much weaker than I expected,” the man with the husky voice said.

“Apprehend her, Ner,” Zodos commanded.

“Aye, aye⁠—”

And Amber felt the ground quake with an explosion. Her vision was fading but she saw the Arcane Council members stand on their spot for a second before raising their staffs⁠— and a tentacle hit. Their barriers cracked and they were sent flying.

Amber’s eyes widened.

The source of the plague had been revived.

Though, she did hope that Ian the necromancer meant what he said. She tried to stand up but fell to the ground, and just as she was about to get up, Ian rushed in front of her. He knelt and fed her a potion.

“Escape, I don’t know how long I’ll be able to hold them off for.”

Amber recovered and nodded. She immediately got up and rushed away towards the worm-horse that they had arrived in. But on the way there, she couldn’t help but look back and see the necromancer and the monster fighting the Arcane Council. She saw a myriad of spells going off by the second and she heard the monster screeching.

She didn’t believe the monster was that man’s wife, but if him believing in delusions allowed Amber to stay alive then so be it.

With the 3rd Rank of Quick Dash, Amber landed on top of the worm-horse, and while she didn’t know how to exactly drive it, she had seen other people do so. So, she tugged the reins at full strength as the worm immediately sprinted at full speed.

Amber only remembered the general direction to the Grand City of Torl, but that had to be enough, because⁠—

She almost collapsed.

Amber hurriedly grabbed another potion and drank it in a hurry. Alleviating the worsening symptoms of the venom that was coursing through her body. Amber didn’t understand what kind of accursed thing it was, but now it made sense that none of the nations had been able to hunt this thing. 3rd Rank Toxin Resistance was the only thing keeping her alive; and from what she had gathered that wasn’t a particularly common skill to have at such a level⁠—

[Toxin Resistance has leveled up from 3rd Rank level 6 to 3rd Rank level 7.]

“Fuck off,” Amber spat.

She could feel blood in her mouth. Amber had no idea how much time remained for Toxin Resistance to cleanse her, but surely it couldn't be that long⁠—

And an explosion resounded on the distance. Amber glanced back only to see the monster go flying. The sight made her bite her lip and face back to the golden sands of the desert. She had to get as far away from here as possible, and get stronger. With the Arcane Council coming after her it was a necessity.

She tugged at the reins of the worm, urging it to go faster.

Amber constantly felt her vision glowing blurry, but she held on and continued on consuming potions, but not even five minutes in⁠— she ran out.

The effects of the venom in her body got gradually worse until Amber collapsed, leaning forward as she could hardly see the sands of the desert. Then, she began to cough up blood. And then, the horse-worm threw her off as something exploded.

She hit the hot sands of the Great Desert squirming in pain, and all Amber could see in her surroundings were the vast golden sand dunes. There was no civilization in sight, there wasn’t even a person, there was just nothing.

Amber coughed and twisted, and her eyes landed on palm-trees. She saw an oasis in the distance, it was in a different direction to the one she had been looking at. And there, she saw salvation. She didn’t know why, but every part of her body told her to go towards it, to drink its water⁠— that only then would she be cured of the deadly venom afflicting her body.

And just as she tried to move, she heard a voice, one with an ethereal quality that instantly broke her out of her stupor.

“Interesting weapon, don’t you think?”

Amber turned in the direction only to see a white figure emanating a purple light, holding the Cursewelder. Amber’s eyes grew wide. He looked like a man and had the a muscular yet athletic figure. It was the Primordial Spirit of the desert, the Primordial Spirit that had pretended to be Ax’thra and deceived Liz, and the same Primordial Spirit that knew of her.

He smiled.

“We finally meet, Amber.”

And it was the Primordial Spirit that she had to seek in order to learn Essence.