Rushing outside of the tent, the Court Wizards and spirits followed the soldier closer to the lake shore where the besieged capital was not far off the distance. The soldier was particularly in a rush, certainly spooked by what he had seen and reported. Considering what he said, this was something that had never happened before and it was worrying.
GRRAHH GRRAAHH GRRAHH GRRAAHH
SPLASH BLAST
"Careful! They're casting spirit arts!"
"Back away! Back away!"
"Stay away from them, Droplet! They might turn you too!"
"The hell is that?" William muttered.
Floating above the ice were purple glowing objects. They were spasming in place like crazy, hurling blasts of purple randomly with no targets in particular. It was only because they were jittering uncontrollably that Owen couldn't recognize them at first glance, but the form of their bodies and the water spirit arts stained violet they cast made them clear.
"Are they not water spirits?" Alicia gasped, looking in horror as the purple spirits shot another art at the soldiers trying to get into formation. "What happened to them?"
Amidst the confusion, Owen looked around. While his fellow Court Wizards were understandably confused by this development, he saw one of them adopting a different expression entirely. And if anyone in this world knew what was happening, it was Aqua.
"...No ...impossible," the greater water spirit muttered aghast, her eyes widened in fright, having a bout of PTSD as she was hyperventilating at the sight. "They are dead. There could not be any more of them..."
"A-Aqua, what's wrong with them?" Layla uttered in fear, seeing the state of her fellow water spirits were in.
"S-Scary!" Neptune shivered, backing away inch by inch.
"They are cursed. Cursed by something that we should have never, ever seen again." Aqua said, almost mumbling as she was frozen in place. "The curse of a dragon...!"
"Uhn!? Dragons!?" Rin exclaimed.
"Are you certain, Aqua?" Ronald inquired, his eyes darting to her.
"I am," Aqua nodded her glowing red head. "I could never mistake the aura, the presence of their curse. I have seen it too many times when I still possess my body."
Literally, when they arrived at Spiri Raia, they were given a refresher of its history, how humans and fae fought and defeated the cursed dragons bringing about the current world today. The story said the dragons were all dead, and here Aqua was declaring what happened in front of them was their work, meaning they were still alive. To Owen and company, this was like being told about a nonexistent monster for fun only to find out it was real.
"You!" Aqua appeared before the soldier who brought them here. "When did they appear!?"
"L-Lady Aquarius!?" the soldier yelped in surprise. Though she looked different than before, no human or spirit in this world could ever not recognize the being before them.
All over the camp, the same sentiment was shared among the rebels seeing the red greater water spirit suddenly revealing herself. Of course, it would be a shock to know their land's greater spirit was among them the whole time. There would have been murmurs about it were it not for her overhearing them while in such a furious state.
"Answer me!"
"T-They suddenly appeared from the capital, lady greater spirit!" the soldier yelped. "Vaulted from the walls and came to the shore!"
"From the capital!?" Aqua shrieked as the scared rebel nodded furiously. "Joshua," she turned to Owen's father. "Have you encountered them before!?"
"No," Joshua answered, shaking his head. "It's the first time I've seen them since sieging the capital."
"I see," the greater water spirit calmed down before contemplating. "Come to think of it, I have not heard from the spirits in the capital for years," she muttered floating away from the poor soldier falling on his butt after the short intense interrogation. "Is this what has been happening!?"
GRRAAHH GRRAAHH
"Aqua!" Layla called, snapping Aqua out of it. "They're coming!" She pointed at the feral spirits inching closer to the shore. "What do we do!?"
Seeing the unfortunate state her water spirits were in, Aqua looked conflicted about what to do. The cursed spirits were getting closer and looking like they were about to cause a rampage. Jonathan's rebel soldiers and other pure water spirits were still there, waiting for the greater water spirits to make a decision.
SWIRL SWIRL
"Aqua! They're attacking!"
"Dammit!" Aqua cursed as the cursed spirits began to channel their arts, corrupted as they may be. "Subdue them! We will decide what to do later!"
"And how are we supposed to knock'em out?" Joshua then asked. "They don't have physical bodies."
Stolen story; please report.
"...Expose them to opposing elements and then restrain them," was all Aqua could think of, never having a plan for this.
"Well, damn," Joshua muttered before turning to his rebel soldiers. "Retreat to the camp! We'll handle this!"
"""Y-Yes, sir!"""
CLANK CLANK CLANK
As Jonathan's forces made their retreat, the Court Wizards faced the cursed spirits. Looking at them, there were ten of them: seven water spirits and three intermediate water spirits. Being simultaneously in a state of berserk and pain, Owen could see their faces telling him they were suffering under the dragon's curse and he didn't like that.
Emotion suppression activated.
GRRAAHH
What was the equivalent of a raging toddler rushed headfirst into Owen's location. The cursed spirit had enveloped himself in a watery aura of purple spirit art, intending to plow into the Ice Court Wizard like a missile.
Taking care not to hurt the spirit too much, Owen prepared the Order his father would use, Follow as I order, attach to cursed spirit attacking me, form 3 cm thick layer on entire body except head, repeat last step, repeat last step... lock.
CREME~ CREME~ CREME~
As always, [Ice Layer] worked its charm as ice maneg gradually formed around the spirit's art, thickening at every second. Immediately, the spirit was slowed down, having extra weights added to him. However, despite having 'locked' the formation in place, it did not slow the spirit's charge to a screeching halt as he was still charging at Owen albeit at a slower pace for him to dodge.
GRRAAHH
Encased in ice, the spirit was still insistent on torpedoing himself to Owen's torso, dragging the maneg formation like nothing more than troublesome weights. Owen, on the other hand, simply sidestepped out of the way, letting the spirit pass harmlessly.
Dismiss formation. That said, Owen still needed to subdue the spirit. With the charging spirit in a convenient position, Owen dismissed the ice maneg trapping the spirit while not quite ending the Progressive Order yet and at the same time raised his hand in a chopping motion. Coat right hand 5 cm thick.
SLAM
In quick succession, Owen swung down his hand covered in ice maneg, striking the back of the spirit in a precise motion thanks to the martial arts classes he got into with Alicia. The ice maneg, like the formation previously trapping the spirit, proved effective in hitting the body-less soul where his bare hand would only pass through it and get hurt from the spirit art.
I end my Order.
GRRAAHH
The spirit, having used more strength to overpower the formation trapping him, found himself sliding across the ground, the sudden disappearance of the ice formation, and the chop would do that to him. A huge mound of dirt piled up in front of the spirit's head coming to a full stop not long after. How the spirits' incorporealness worked was still a mystery to Owen.
1 cursed spirit subdued, 9 cursed spirits remain.
Owen glanced at the others doing short work of subduing the cursed spirits. Like father, like son, he first looked at his father and found him doing the same move, trapping a curse intermediate spirit in ice and then summarily chopping the spirit down with a coated hand.
SHATTER
The only difference was that his father opted to plow through his own ice maneg as well. Now Owen really wondered what sort of arm strength would be needed to do that as he watched the spirit plant her face first on the ground and more.
2 cursed spirit subdued, 8 cursed spirits remain.
Owen then turned to see Aqua. From her face, he could already tell her reluctance to harm her water spirits even with her suppression. Cursed or not, she could never be prepared to fight them. As two intermediate cursed spirits went straight for the greater spirit, Aqua couldn't bring herself to act and hesitated.
"Watch out!"
GRRAAHH GRRAAHH
As the two intermediate spirits charged, a thick, red [Barrier] formed between them and Aqua. Looking at the source, Owen saw it was Alicia who erected the loyal maneg formation. While it did break before, Owen was certain the two attacking spirits would not break this one that they were crashing head-on.
BASH BASH
SHIING SHIING
"..?"
As the two spirits recoiled from hitting the barrier, a bright blue light emanated from them. Literally, everyone got distracted by the light, dropping whatever spirit arts and Orders to look at the source. When the lights died down, hazes of purple escaped from them and Owen could've sworn his suppression was broken.
"Ow...!"
"Did I hit my head? Huh? Lady Aquarius?"
Floating above the ground were two intermediate water spirits, a boy and a girl. They were nursing their heads after hitting them against a wall despite having no bodies, just souls that were very much blue. Just previously, they were acting like they had rabies and now they were not.
"...Are they, purified?" Aqua muttered.
GRRAAHH
In the moment of distraction, another cursed spirit took the opportunity to attack Alicia. Just like the others, the spirit was enveloped in the sickly purple aura and intended to tackle Alicia directly. Instinctively, or maybe it was Voice, another [Barrier] appeared to cut it off.
BONK
SHIING
Just like before, blue light shone and purple mist evaporated from the spirit with the curse undone. All that was left was an ordinary water spirit being quite confused as if waking up from a strange dream.
"It happened again..."
The first two spirits were happenstance and coincidence, the third one was most certainly confirmation. Owen could tell Alicia was conversing with Voice to know she had an idea because she clasped her hands together in concentration and looked out at all of the remaining cursed spirits.
CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE
Many [Fireball]s appeared all around her. They were smaller than usual and were inert as well, but it didn't matter as long as her soul reached those suffering spirits. With the power of the Vague Order, Alicia had no fuss locking on the targets.
2 cursed spirit subdued, 3 spirits purified, 5 cursed spirits remain.
WHOOSH WHOOSH
The tiny balls of loyal maneg shot out, the first ones going to the subdued cursed spirits being the closest. As that [Fireball] reached Owen's feet, it made a full stop before gently patting the spirit. Another [Fireball] reached and touched the spirit that Owen's father disabled at the same time.
TAP TAP
SHIING SHIING
5 spirits purified, 5 cursed spirits remain.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH
The remaining five [Fireball]s zoomed past the shoreline, going after the cursed spirits still floating on the ice. Three of them reached their targets first, those cursed spirits were hurling spirit arts Ronald, Rin, and William were dodging or deflecting. Just like before it made a full stop before placing themselves upon their foreheads.
SHIING SHIING SHIING
8 spirits purified, 2 cursed spirits remain.
The last two spirits were at the furthest back and have yet to attack. In fact, they seemed to be spasming in place, not interested in harming anyone but themselves. Regardless, the last of Alicia's Order put a stop to that.
SHIING SHIING
All spirits purified, suppression lifted.
It happened so fast. Just seconds ago, these purified spirits were cursed to go berserk. Now, they were glancing around confusingly as if waking up in a different place than where they slept. The others too, were confused as to what just happened, standing in place trying to process the sight before them. Looking at Alicia, she too wasn't sure what she just did as loyal maneg returned to her
"Lady Alicia..." Layla muttered. "You-"
"Uhn! You did it, big sis Alicia!" Rin exclaimed excitedly, running over to her.
But there was one thing Owen was certain about and it was that everything was fine in the end.