Leland was the last of the boys to wake up. Jude, Glenny, and all the others were sitting around a ring of smoldering embers, eating from a pot of breakfast sausage and beans. Isobel was the only one who noticed him awake, but she quickly ignored him after a superficial glance.

Taking the moment to himself, Leland summoned his grimoire and looked over the changes.

Name: Leland Silver

Legacy: Curses

Archetype: Apprentice of the Curse Lord

Specialization: Pact

Overall Rank: 3

Fracture:

Type: Curse

Rank: 21 (B-)

Call upon the Lord of Bone to shatter those in your way.

For a single target, break a random bone and the bones connected to it.

Crow Massacre:

Type: Curse

Rank: 21 (B)

Call upon the ethereal familiar of the Lord of Curses.

Summon a full murder of 15 ethereal crows to attack targets for up to 2 minutes.

When all crows are present and attacking the same target, their beaks and talons are enhanced.

All resultant damage dealt by the crows bleed the target for an additional amount over 100 seconds.

Promote a single crow to lead the murder. The leader is larger, faster, stronger, and more real. If permitted, the leader can stay summoned for any given length of time.

Abuse of summons will not be permitted.

Curse of Collapse:

Type: Curse

Rank: 21 (B)

Pull the target toward the end, bringing them one step closer to the Lord of Death.

Exhaust the target for up to 3 minutes, decreasing their speed by 50%.

Targets under this curse deal 20% less damage to you.

The Lord of Death smiles on the cursed, increasing your damage to the cursed by 5%.

Harbinger Halo: Pact

Type: Curse (Self)

Rank: 21 (Specialization: S)

Strike a dark accord with a presiding Lord, calling for their aid.

Contracts last up to 30 minutes. If ended early, the cool down period is decreased.

Up to 4 contracts may be acted upon at one time.

Contracts that produce direct spells, curses, abilities, incantations, and/or passive effects that deal with mana may have lifeforce partially supplemented. Effects may vary.

The pact specialization allows the creation of pact-contacts, thus opening new routes of power once deemed unreachable.

Circle of Souls:

Type: Curse

Rank: 21 (A-)

Call upon the souls of the Damned, channeling the power of the Lord of Souls into an area.

Encase the souls of those within 50 yards, siphoning their lifeforce while chaining them to this reality.

Fully consume a soul to increase your magical potency by 15% for 1 minute.

Held lost souls may now be given to a soul of the Damned as payment for a task.

Damage dealt to one target within the circle is duplicated onto all targets inside the circle for 20% effectiveness.

Those trapped within the circle know the fear of those who dabble in soul magic.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Soul Fire:

Type: Curse

Rank: Max

Ignite a lost soul.

Soul Fire’s strength directly correlates to the strength of the soul used. You are the Calamity.

To Leland, Fracture and Curse of Collapse were the simplest of the changes. Extra broken bones and damage amplification. Short, sweet, and always helpful. Circle of Soul’s new fear aura was a bit esoteric to him and more than open ended. Time would tell, in this case.

Crow Massacre’s leader crow was interesting, although Leland didn’t know if he wanted to keep a pet. His life was already hectic enough, yet he could understand the appeal. Having a designated flying scout was one thing, but having someone else able to control the murder of summons? Concentration on multiple things was a talent all mages needed to have, although Leland wasn’t going to say no to relieving that part of his mind while in battle.

Honestly, Leland was a bit disappointed in Harbinger Halo’s changes. For being a specialization change he figured there would be more. Four active contracts was nice, as well as the increased contract duration. But he couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed about pacts. While open ended, the promise of power was something he felt he could do without recently.

He shivered at the thought of Lodestar.

Still, maybe a pact with a Lord he trusted would be worth investigating. The contract with the Lord of Magic was coming to an end soon, maybe he would be interested? Leland shrugged to himself not knowing what a literal Lord would want in return for aspects of power “once deemed unreachable.”

Lastly there was Soul Fire. No changes. Good, he thought.

Looking up from his tome, Leland spotted Isobel stealing a glance at him. Being who she was, Leland thought she was second only to his parents in interest in his Legacy evolution. Too bad for her, she would have to wait for him to get back… not that she would even notice him gone, in fact. First he had something he needed to take care of sooner than later.

“Lord of Souls I humbly wish to create a contract with you.”

Within a second Leland was floating through the endless Void. He took a moment to orient himself, coming to terms with everything the Lord of Curses had told him. From being her only Legacy and Champion, to the assault on the castle and Ivory Reach. He was glad he knew more about the Boneforged Monarch and was relieved to learn Sybil was fine, albeit in a coma.

His stomach fluttered at that thought.

But most importantly, for right now, he needed to know about Lodestar. Unless he wanted to rush into battle with an unknown factor made of ink resting on his back. To him, the best case scenario was that Lodestar would act like any other parasitic weapon for the time being. Worst case, it would release some horrid magic and consume everything Leland ever loved.

Maybe he was exaggerating a bit on that last part, but the thought hadn’t left his head since Lodestar spoke about oblivion.

Arriving in the Lord of Soul’s domain, Leland was greeted by the reek of death. Pungent and sharp, his hand quickly darted to his shirt. He pushed his nose into the fabric, inhaling deeply and trying to salvage the recent memories of breakfast sausage and beans. Death, however, came for all, and despite currently being alive, Leland was no different.

Soon the smell consumed him fully, and he puked last night’s dinner.

“Why!?” he cursed at the air. “You are supposed to be about souls! Not death!”

Having met many Lords by now, Leland fully understood just how… eccentric they could be. But literally living in filth? That was pushing a boundary not between mortal and Lord, but of animal and Lord.

He puked again.

Weary eyed and dripping snot, Leland took in his surroundings. Dark stone. Ruins. Crumbling buildings. Typical, he thought, his mind slowly catching up.

He frowned, canvassing the area. Where were the bodies? Where was the rotting meat and festering corpses? There weren't even any decomposing plants around, just old stone and dilapidated structures.

Where is that smell—

The realization was like the sun on a cloudless day. He wasn’t sick from anything physical. He had smelled death before, and this, now that he thought about it, was not it. This was something else, something he had only experienced to the slightest degree.

The feeling rupturing through his body, making his bones feel like they were made of slate and his muscles made of straw, was soul damage. The same power Lodestar dealt in. He could understand it now, the whole-body pain of Lodestar’s previous dark metal scythe form. Holding the weapon in his hands and all of the zapping that accompanied it.

But here, standing in the Lord’s domain, was many times worse than Lodestar. Now knowing what the “smell” was, Leland grit his teeth and followed the pathway.

It was night time, overcast, and slightly damp. A hint of salt hung on the breeze, enough to tickle the senses but well and far away from being enough to overcome the soul damage.

Oddly enough, a presence guided his steps through the ruin and rubble. Past what was once spire towers and around fractured chapels, through a grassless courtyard and partially under a grand library. Leland almost stopped to check out the scattered books, but the presence continued to pull.

He followed, appearing before an outdoor staircase and monument.

There he found a man sitting one step from the top, hunched over with his face resting between his knees. The man didn’t breathe, he didn’t sway. He sat still, a layer of dust covering his body like found in an unused room of a mansion.

From the distance, Leland couldn’t make out much more about the man, not that he was focused on him. No, Leland had his sights set on Lodestar. Or maybe the original Lodestar.

Behind the man, taking up the monument portion of the monument, was a snow white ring of metal with a center of pure darkness. Stretching taller and wider than most houses, the darkness ate at the sounding air, pulling everything in. What went in, didn’t come out, especially the souls.

Leland hadn’t noticed it until now, but a never-ending line of ethereal beings hurdled through the air at the monument, each being pulled into the darkness. Some screamed, some pleaded, but the call of oblivion was assured.

Movement caught Leland’s eye. The man sitting on the steps stirred, green flourishing from his back.