The truth of the situation was not complex. Bastian had Kenshin cloak himself in flames. These flames were not ordinary. They were infused with Kenshin's curse.

Over the past few months, Bastian had questioned Kenshin on his past and the 'Blind Disaster' affliction. Unfortunately, Bastian didn't get any information.

'Normally I keep information I deem too high tier for you, but I shall be forthright here. I honestly do not understand my curse, all I know is that it is a poison-type curse, and a powerful one at that. One that was planted within me as I was still a fetus. The poison grew up with me, gaining spiritual intelligence along with me. To the point that it's now almost an integral part of me, and now you, I guess.'

Kenshin's words stunned Bastian. The latter wasn't even aware that it was possible to curse a fetus in the first place. Spells of all sorts existed from summoning, curses, blessings, enchantments, runes, mudras, seals etc. There were simply far too many methods of using and applying mana. But curses were without a doubt the most feared.

Mage specialists referred to as Witches and Warlocks were the best at using curses. This was because they were the best at magic involving the soul. There were exceptions of course such as necromancers and the like but they were rare vocations that fell under the witchcraft category.

What made curses unique was that they were conditional and used the host as an energy source. They were essentially the parasites of spells. Kenshin's curse was a particularly frightening one because it was a curse that targeted the soul.

'That means the person who applied the spell was a powerful user of witchcraft. Man, this is beyond my league.'

Bastian started to research the curse as best as he could despite his weakness in regards to knowledge of curses.

'At the end of a day, a spell is a spell. It needs a matrix.'

Bastian remembered how much he struggled to remove what he assumed was a poison. Bastian's control of his Soul Force was just too poor at the time and it still wasn't impressive. A continuous cycle of searching and failing had thrown Bastian into a hopeless state of mind in that cell. After about ten minutes or so in contact with Kenshin, Bastian found himself in a pickle. His Soul Force would find the spirit of the poison, only to discover that the spirit would be in its troublesome form. The spirit of the poison was like thousands of tiny needles.

Bastian's Soul Force was thick and heavy, which made it quite useful for defence and simple attacks. But for such a delicate operation it was a serious disadvantage. Due to the fact that the poison spirit was needle-like in structure, it could split up into thousands of parts and run rampant across the white-haired boy's body.

Bastian did not have enough Soul Force, to allow him to go through the entire boy's body. He learned that if he stretched his Soul Force thin like that, then the somewhat sentient spirit would concentrate on one area and attack, forcing Bastian to concentrate his Soul Force on that area.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

At that moment, the spirit would once more split up and run away. Even if some needles were destroyed, the remaining ones would propagate, creating new ones. It was a never-ending cycle that had drained Bastian's mental faculties.

Bastian was grateful for that experience as it taught him how to change the shape of his Soul Force and apply shape manipulation in spell matrix construction. This was how Bastian had been able to convert himself into a walking human wand. By engraving many compounded matrices all over his body using Soul Force.

Yet despite this, nothing was more valuable than Minister Li's advice

…

"The spirit of this poison is one that relies on upsetting the balance of Soul Energy in one's body. To create this energy, one has to have quite the achievements in the Supreme Dao of the Taiji and the Supreme Dao of Spirit. Your Soul is incredibly powerful, so as far as the Spirit side is concerned you are good to go.

The Tyrian Double-Headed Storm Dragon was a primordial beast that had sovereignty over the Supreme Dao of the Taiji. In other words, balance. Your body has some control over the laws of balance, and you subconsciously seek balance.

If the poison attempts to attack your soul whilst it is within your own body, then your bloodline will interfere due to the imbalanced nature of the poison, thereby assisting in nullifying the poison.

You may not realize this yourself, but part of the reason you are so interested in this boy is because your bloodline makes you want to fix imbalances. The stronger the imbalance, the more you are enticed to act."

Bastian had been given lots of knowledge on basic soul magic and bloodline knowledge. From the Soul Force application to how to access and use the Soul Site.

Bastian remembered what it was like to be hit by the curse. A darkness that encompassed everything, all that was there were sounds, smells and feelings from touch. Not only was there darkness, but emotions also came with it, anger, resentment, loneliness and fear. All of the emotions were negative, and very powerful, especially the fear.

Bastian basked in this fear, as it was impossible to avoid. Never had Bastian felt such dread. The fear had rendered him speechless. Bastian remembered losing control of his own body and collapsing. His eyes were open but he could not see. His ears could not hear anything. He could not feel anything. It was as if he had been cut off from the rest of the world. For Bastian, this was the worst feeling he had ever experienced, ever since coming to the Sovereign Continent.

In this state, time and space felt like irrelevant concepts. Bastian's self-awareness was at an all-time low. It took all of his willpower to keep himself from getting lost in the darkness. By the time he had finally gotten back his senses, the torrent of negative emotions had faded.

'That was only a moment for me, but for Kenshin it was normal. How long has he had to suffer that encroaching fear?'

Thus Bastian collected all he knew and understood, with one objective. Take part of the spirit of the curse, which was within him, and use it as fuel!

'The curse feeds on Kenshin, so we shall feed off it as well!'

Bastian was intending to use the case as the basis for a new type of spell matrix, one that allowed for curse interaction. Allowing him to turn the relationship he and Kenshin had with the curse from being one-sided to being symbiotic!