The chain came from all directions, puncturing Marin and the knight she held in her arms. It was the chain that the Father had prepared just in case, Pillar of Light. Looking at it in the box, it appeared deceptively long, which was apparently because it was actually multiple chains.
I turned towards Edgar and saw him throwing the final chain. The links of light dug into the back of Marin’s head. Her mouth opened and closed, but made no sound. The air began to regain its cleansed ambience.
Edgar heaved a sigh and wiped the sweat from his brow. “Good heavens, I really had to use it. I know I didn’t have much of a choice, but now that they’re stuck in midair, setting up a magic circle won’t be easy. All we can do is leave these two sealed there for now.”
Relieved to see that Marin’s Lament had stopped, Ansem let out a groan of vexation. Leave it to a Relic to restrain something not even the latest layered barrier magic circle could fully handle.
“I wondered what you were doin’ up there, but now I get it! I should’ve known. Way to go!” Gark, evidently blind, praised me.
While being pierced and restrained in midair, Marin maintained her spiteful glare at me.
Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t do anything wrong. Don’t reach for me again, you scared me!
A magic circle was being rapidly put together in the courtyard. Meanwhile, a conference was held in a room where they could keep an eye on Marin’s Lament and the black knight, still in the air and threaded by the chain. In a state of alert, Edgar let out a deep sigh as he looked over the gathered faces.
“We’re grasping at the thinnest straws here,” he said. “That was certainly not the sort of emergency we had accounted for. Who knows what might’ve happened had we not prepared the Relic thanks to Sir Franz’s suggestion.”
“That wasn’t the sort of thing anyone could have seen coming,” Franz replied. “Nothing we could’ve done. Isn’t that right, Thousand Tricks?”
“Huh. Ah. Yeah, uh-huh.”
While I was spacing out, Franz suddenly threw the ball my way, so I quickly nodded my head. I heard audible sighs from Ark, Kris, Lucia, Gark, and more. Who would’ve thought a knight would have emerged from that cross pendant? I was confident that I had seen a good range of things, but it seemed there was still a lot beyond the horizon.
I’ll just keep that to myself. Nobody saw what happened.
“Still, what are the humans of this land doing hiding so much dangerous shit?”
Franz silently directed a lethal glare at me.
Looking at me like that won’t help. Should I just start groveling?
“Nonetheless,” said our good friend Ark, “Marin’s Lament is undoubtedly one of the strongest curses I’ve ever battled. I understand our role was to weaken the curse, but neither mine nor Lucia’s advanced spells served to do anything more than hold off their advance.”
“It seemed to have some effect on the knight, but everything just passed through Marin’s Lament,” Gark said with a scowl. As a former hunter, there was a lot he knew about taking down phantoms and monsters. “It didn’t look like we were entirely ineffectual, but this is something different from a visitant monster.”
He was right. It was hard to think of many monsters that could take Ark’s lightning and Lucia’s Hailstorm head-on and stay active. Ark’s main role wasn’t as a Magus, but Lucia was capable of knocking a dragon out of the sky. I was pretty sure half the reason those pillars broke was because of her, even if everyone was pretending like it wasn’t.
“Indeed,” Edgar said. “It would seem the esoteric techniques of the church are the only way to resolve this. They’re immune to outside interference so long as they’re bound by Pillar of Light. As to how we’ll reattempt the purification...that’s something we’re yet to figure out. The layered barrier magic circle won’t work if they’re in midair, and two curses of that power gathered in one spot is something we’ve never seen before.”
“I see. I guess this matches the Divinarium’s prophecy.”
By the way, Franz, I can’t help but notice the way you keep glancing in my direction.
This didn’t seem like a good time to speak up needlessly. We had a star-studded lineup, and sometimes it’s best just to not say anything.
I folded my arms and nodded without really knowing what I was agreeing with. That was when our thus far inactive members, Starlight, spoke up. I got the impression they had been waiting for this.
“Magic has little effect on curses. The best way to deal with them is with powers of a similar nature.”
“In our forests, this role is given to Nobles who spend years cultivating mental fortitude.”
“They’re Shamans who wield a different sort of power than the rest of us. Sir. Those born to the right bloodlines developed the aptitude over many years! Sir!”
“Because her ire hasn’t at all faded, taking on a curse of this magnitude through direct means won’t be easy.”
The Noble Spirits all spoke up. Calling this bunch even somewhat obliging felt like an exaggeration, but they definitely came in handy at such times.
They’re messing with Kris, aren’t they? She talks like that because she was told to be polite, but why is she the only one doing that weird “sir” thing?
The Father nodded deeply and looked up at Marin with a vaguely pitying gaze. “Her ire hasn’t faded, huh? I guess there’s nothing we can do about that. The origin of Marin’s Lament is a tragic one. She, too, is a victim in a sense.”
I didn’t know what had happened to Marin, but I had trouble seeing it that way after all the mayhem she had caused. As I sank into a fake state of contemplation, Lapis narrowed her eyes and made a surprising suggestion.
“Purifying this will be a heavy burden for the hands of a human. Zebrudia has been kind to us. If necessary, as curses are our domain, we can call a Shaman from our forest...”
“Good heavens, a Noble Shaman?”
Gark looked in shock at Lapis and the Father. For a time, Starlight had been one of the more problematic parties in the imperial capital, so perhaps that had spurred this decision of theirs. I didn’t know them that well, but I thought they had become a little bit more agreeable since joining our clan.
Come to think of it, Kechachakka is a Shaman. Wonder what he’s up to these days. Is he still in Peregrine Lodge?
“However, the Shamans of the forest despise humans,” Lapis said. “Bringing one all this way will require the cooperation of Zebrudia. And, hmph, I imagine the church has its image to maintain.”
“I see. I will admit, if the layered barrier magic circle isn’t sufficient, then I can’t imagine the central church has anything that is. Realistically, Ansem’s the only member of our branch who can purify Marin. But under such conditions, the curse will likely escape.”
Ansem let out a troubled groan. If a curse that radiated hatred and homicidal impulses (and had been released from its shackles) would choose to flee, then I guess it really was possible to be too strong.
“I’ve received orders to make dealing with the prophecy my top priority,” Franz said. “I’ll take responsibility for the procurement of whatever we need. If this is what it takes to stop the prophecy, I’ll consider it a bargain.”
With so many capable people, we had the resources to deal with anything. I felt really out of place.