“Satou, I brought the others!”
Roro and my party came in. They’d gotten ready in the other room and were all wearing silver armor.
The hamsters had been there, too, and were struggling vainly in Nana’s embrace.
“Oh, good, you’re all right,” Arisa said. “I heard there was a curse involved and got all worried.”
“Heh-heh-heh, thank you. Satou’s absurdity saved the day.” Tia shrugged.
Absurdity? Rude.
“Oopsie-daisyyy?”
“Mr. Crow collapsed, sir!”
Tama’s and Pochi’s cries made me look, and one of the crows in the cage was on the ground. The curse was targeting a different one. Aha, when one of them couldn’t handle it further, the next took over.
“Not dead.”
“The next one has taken over, I surmise.”
Mia and Nana were peering into the cage.
My AR display confirmed the crow was alive but weakened. If each crow could only fight this off for three minutes, that gave us another twelve—but as the number went down, they’d have more trouble fighting, so let’s assume less than ten minutes total.
I moved between the cage and the bed to eliminate any chance the curse would head for Roro when changing targets, watching the curse lines so I could jump in anytime.
Right.
“Mia, do you have any spirits that are good against curses?”
“Mm, light. Rukh.”
Mia began chanting. I guess Rukh was the name of her pseudo-light spirit.
If that could back the crows up, we might earn a bit more leeway.
“But to curse the Great Sorceress’s…apprentice? Who is this clown?”
“Just leave it at Great Sorceress, I already told Roro.”
“Oh?” Arisa asked, and Roro nodded.
“I’ve no clue who it could be. But I’m pretty sure it’s the same one who sent demons in here and meddled with Zanzasansa’s mind.”
“If greater demons were involved, is this the work of demon lord worshippers?”
“I doubt it. If it was, they wouldn’t have done anything as roundabout as manipulating a local necromancer—they’d have just had the greater demon come in swinging. And this time they’re trying to weaken me with a curse—if there are worshippers behind this, I’ve no idea what they’re trying to achieve.”
“Turning the citizens of the city into fodder for a demon lord’s resurrection?”
“Ah, I guess that could be it. While I’m too weak to fight back—wait, a demon just breached the barrier.”
Tia broke off her chat with Arisa.
And a moment later—
There was an explosion in the distance.
I checked my map, and there was a mage adventurer possessed by a demon, rampaging on the edge of town.
There were maybe ten more demons, all with “Stealth” skills.
“Lemme go handle this.”
I was worried about leaving, but I could wipe them out inside of three minutes.
“Wait, Master. You stay here, and we’ll handle the small fries.”
Arisa started barking orders over Tactical Talk.
“Liza, you take Pochi and Tama and wipe out the demons in town. Master will guide you to the locations. Nana, protect the tower door. Lulu, shoot down any demons that try to get close to the balcony. I’ll focus on ‘Locate’ and ‘Destroy.’ Mia, keep that chant going.”
“Got it. Tama, Pochi, with me.”
“Aye-ayeeee!”
“Roger, sir!”
And they were out the door.
“I shall take my leave, I announce.”
“Nana, break a leg.”
“Nana, don’t get hurt.”
“Nana, toodles.”
The hamsters saw her off.
“I’ll be on the balcony, then.”
“Lulu, it’s very windy. Take this.”
Roro handed her a windbreaker.
“Thank you, Roro.”
“Liza, straight on. Pochi, turn right at the next street. Tama—top of the building on your left.”
I was guiding the beast girls over Tactical Talk.
Tama could move without regard for terrain, which made things easy on me.
“You’re amazing. One demon’s already gone,” Tia said, shocked. The detection net she maintained as the Great Sorceress must have made that obvious.
“We can leave that to them. Does this prove demon lord worshippers are involved?”
“It certainly raises the odds, but I still don’t see them using something as underhanded as a curse. Even the fortress city would have taken considerable damage from that greater demon they sent in last time.”
“Do they just think that highly of the Great Sorceress and the Divine Beast Fenrir?”
“One can only hope.”
I’m guessing that treasure Tia mentioned was their primary purpose, which is why they hadn’t just left it up to a greater demon.
That tipped the scales toward stealing this treasure over reviving a demon lord.
“Tia, can I share things with the girls?”
“The treasure they’re after?” Tia nodded, and I caught the others up to speed.
“Interesting. Demon lord worshippers wouldn’t be the only ones interested in a treasure, no.”
“Exactly. At the moment, I’ve got no further clues, so we’ll have to focus on eliminating this demon incursion and completely cutting off the curse,” Tia concluded.
She swayed, still wiped from the curse’s effects—Roro caught her.
“Shore up defenses, or focus on fighting back?”
“Since the curse is coming through the underground vein, there’s not much more we can do to defend.”
“Cut off the vein entirely?”
“Can’t do that. Once it’s cut off, the dungeonmaster will have full control over it.”
The fortress city was preventing the Jungle Labyrinth’s growth, which might be why the DM was helping the culprit here.
“Then we just have to take this fight to them. Can we trace the line they’re sending the curse through and send a curse back at them?”
“I doubt that would accomplish much. They’re a curse master—they’d have measures in place against ‘Reverse Curse.’”
“So no backdraft here, huh?”
Tia was right. I’d reversed the curse while I was peeling it off her, but it had felt like pushing through curtains or hammering nails into sand—no contact at all.
“But we can’t just do nothing.”
KWZAB!
Tia watched as a second crow went down. The curse’s strength was increasing.
At this rate, we didn’t even have five minutes, let alone ten.
“Not great. The demons have split themselves. The girls must have spooked ’em.”
They’d turned into a bunch of level-1 demons, each the size of a mouse.
There were well over a thousand of them.
“Master.”
“No, they’re in the sewers and buildings.”
Taking them out with Remote Arrow was too risky.
I’d have to go there myself and use “Flashrunning” and “Warp” to take them out one at a time, but…
KWZAB!
The third crow went down. Far too fast.
If I left and the last crow went down, there’d be no one to stop the curse.
Should I risk cleansing the demon infestation on the clock, or play it safe and stay where I was? I hesitated.
“We’ll be fine.”
My head came up.
“This is Arcatia, the city of adventure. If they’ve split into low-level scum, we have options.”
Tia was in Great Sorceress mode, and that was very encouraging.
“Rimi!”
“Present.”
She rang a bell, summoning her head apprentice, and she teleported right on in—so much for that nap.
“Emergency request to the guild! Have them hunt the mice-shaped demons all over the city!”
“Right away.”
The apprentice vanished, and I saw her appear in the hall of the central Adventurers Guild.
“Emergency order from the Great Sorceress! All adventurers, there are mice-shaped demons in the city! Exterminate them!”
The announcement from the guild reached all the way here.
She must be using an “Amplification” magic device.
We could see the guild entrance from here, and an avalanche of adventurers was pouring out of it. Nothing was more important than an emergency request from the Great Sorceress herself.
“Can they ID the mouse demons?”
“Ha-ha, who do you think I am? If it’s inside the fortress city, I’m all powerful.”
Tia was looking very smug, clearly forgetting the curse.
“ Targeting Mejirushi.”
Tia’s chant was likely a City Core command word.
“What’d you do?”
“Made it easier to locate the demons.”
I checked with Clairvoyance, and the demon mice were all glowing. Didn’t help with anything underground or hiding inside, I thought—but a moment later, a bearfolk adventurer busted through a wall, smashing a demon mouse with a bone hammer.
Normal weapons wouldn’t work on demons—but the fortress city’s adventurers were awfully likely to have a cursed weapon on them, and that let them exterminate these mice.
“Master, the adventurers are making short work of the shiny demons. Clearly, they can tell where they are,” Arisa said, via Tactical Talk.
What I’d seen was happening all over the city.
“Oui, ouiiiii?”
“Something just tells me they’re through that wall or under the ground, sir!”
“Yes, I’m unsure of the logic—but it’s very useful!”
The beast girls were doing their share of mice demon slaying.
“That should handle the demons. Now we just need time.”
KWZAB!
A fourth crow went down. Only one left.
“…… Create Rukh Kou Jouryou Souzou.”
Mia summoned a pseudo-spirit that looked like a girl made of light.
“Rukh, curse.”
RURURURU
With a noise like wind chimes, a burst of light banished the miasma around us.
“Roro, bright!”
“Roro, eyes hurt!”
“Roro, help!”
The hamsters all threw themselves on Roro.
“Gah, the crows are glowing!”
Rukh seemed to have enchanted them.
Looking closer at the crows, I saw they were covered in tiny magic circles, like chain mail.
These were giving off sparks—negating tentacles each time.
The curse had lost momentum but was still going.
“Mrr, strong.”
Mia sounded disgruntled.
“Thanks, Misanaria. You’ve slowed the curse, and that’s more than enough.”
“Mm.”
KWZAAA!
The glowing crow flapped its wings, as if insisting it was still in the fight.
This might buy us another twenty minutes.
“Satou.”
The relentless tentacle assault withdrew.
“Did…we win?”
“Maybe—”
or not.
“Mia! Have Rukh fight the curse!”
“Roro, over here!”
Even as I yelled, Tia realized the same thing and pulled Roro in.
The hamsters were left behind, so I used Magic Hand to carry them to Lulu on the balcony.
“Mm, Rukh!”
RURURURU!
The light of the spirit was swallowed by a gush of miasma beneath it.
“You are but a sorceress!” a hideous, twisted voice intoned.
“Looks like they ran out of patience.” Tia grinned.
The darkness spread, trying to swallow us all…
“Not happening!”
And Arisa’s Space Magic pushed it back.
“Rukh, try harder.”
RURURURU!
Rukh’s light pushed the darkness back.
“How dare you resist, sorceress scum!”
The villain’s miasma and Rukh’s light clashed, and I saw a swirling Gate through the darkness.