As everyone breaks throughout the room, Elia says, "Now would you finally explain why this is happening, Stelara?"
She freezes for a moment, and Vėja says, "I was wondering the very same."
Avoiding eye contact with them, Stelara says, "I don't know what you mean, he is obviously just a human hater?"
Stiprais says, "Dragoste is half human, and spent years taking care of his paternal grandparents. The idea that he suddenly has some deep-seated unexplained hatred for humans is nonsense, considering Anathemised Nightmares tend to get bullied by kids in Blestemate."
Veekeeris says, "But more than that, what is even his plan? He must know that destabilising the country to this extent will lead to an invasion, especially if he plans to kill the Cursed Heart Army and the Queen. Even if he won, he'd soon be conquered by Gevurah in a couple of years. He is brash, but he isn't an idiot."
Elia says, "You said something about the Legacies of Lux? I have a few questions about that. Lux was the last name given to the woman who saved Setanta, and from his soul book, we know he goes by that name. But Cyrus's and Suzuka's legacies Azi and Tama, have different last names, yet you called them the Legacies of Lux? We know there must be some relation, since they all share the soul tattoo, yet we have no idea how without access to their memories. Explain this along with everything else."
The four surround her, bringing the pressure down on her head. She looks around the room, looking for an exit to leave, though before she can escape, Orlok touches her shoulder and says, "The situation is dire, and if Azi Dahaka has shown up here during such a critical moment, it can only be God giving us his blessing."
Sighing, she composes herself and, facing the four, she says, "Dragoste probably has figured out the deepest kept secret of our country and plans on using that forbidden power to turn the tides against any would-be invaders. Something so vile and destructive we have sealed it away in the heart of this castle for our 2000 years."
Feeling the severity of the situation fall on their heads, Veekeeris says, "What is this power that even you two fear?"
"It goes back to when Blestemate first became cursed, you see, back during the end of the 2nd Cycle, the Dark World Dragon Azi Dahaka arrived at the Beast's claw, and cursed the land."
Shock moves through the for, and with her expression breaking a bit, Elia says, "Are you saying, Cyrus's legacy created Blestemate?"
Stelara nods and says, "Yet that is only half true, the 2nd half of that truth lies within this castle."
Location: Soarele Blestemat, Hallways
Φ With Advent flowing through my body, I freeze and burst right through the castle walls. The castle is weaker inside than it is outside, but that still makes it tough enough for me to require advent to get through. I need to create as much ice as possible to make sure that I am throwing off the temperature and effectiveness of the cursed items within the home. They shouldn't be used to freezing to such low temperatures or such intense speeds.
As I move deeper inside the castle, I hear the sounds of Nightmares, screaming, and I break forward through as many walls as possible until the hallway closest to the sounds, and turn freeze it solid before turning off Advent.
My body recoils as all exhaustion falls onto my body. I am barely keeping myself awake after all of that force. I think I managed to get better at handling the output of my powers due to understanding my body better.
I guess Helix Battle Arts really is as amazing as I thought it was. But I still need to move forward.
Hearing screams burst through my ears, I dash forward, and as I move through the hallway, until I reach an intersection, and turn my head right. Looking into the room, I see a large open area with a giant staircase, and in the middle lies Dragoste.
My heart skips for a moment as I see him unharmed, but soon the sights in the rest of the room start to register in my mind. All across the room is blood, and body parts of the Blestadrac are scattered about.
Dragoste stands on top of one of their bodies, drenched in all of their blood, and slowly he turns his head towards me, where I am greeted with the brightest smile I have seen from him.
"Dragoste?"
"Hi Orb, sorry you had to see me in such a state. I am just cleaning up some trash."
"Did you kill those people?"
"You're smart enough to know the answer to tha-."
"ANSWER ME!"
"And if I did Orb, what are you going to do? Are you going to kill the only son of Captivant?"
"I WILL STOP YO-."
"HOW! With your current level of strength, if you think you can defeat me without killing me, you're insane. It's nice to live in your fantasy world, Orb, but I have God's to free, and people to kill."
Gripping my fist, as my hair turns bright red, I say, "People are dying by the hundreds right now all throughout Blestemate, and it's all due to you, Dragoste. You're inflicting pain on so many people, for what? Revenge? Is that going to bring your wife and daughter back?"
All happiness and playfulness in his face fade, and with an aggressive posture, he says, "Who told you?"
"I am not blind. I have found it suspicious that I haven't seen them at all, given how much Captivant said you adore them. When I figured out you were leading Blamator, I could only think of one reason why you'd betray your country."
"I haven't betrayed anyone; instead, I am going to grant the ability to never lose anything ever again to each and every single one of the citizens in this city, then the country!"
"Through their deaths? Captivant would never want this."
"Orb, I am not my father. And this little delusion you have about me due to whatever stories my father fed you is nothing but nonsense Orb. You know nothing about me."
"I know that. I know that 1 day isn't enough to be friends with someone, but I don't plan on quitting anytime soon. I will stop you, Dragoste."
Grabbing his jacket, Dragoste throws it off and says, "Then try Orb, but don't think I will spare you."
From his back, a large number of spiked bones emerge and dash towards me, ripping through the walls and floors all around me. Yet as they all flow towards me, I take a deep breath and face the chaos in front of me.
Φ The swarm of attacks come towards Orb, and he consistently dodges each of them with minimal movements. Then lunges forward, but from the bones, more bones emerge like branches of a tree trunk, pushing Orb back.
Trying to regain control of the situation, Orb jump backwards using the bones move further towards the sky one after another. Until he reaches the roof, where he can't move any further.
Taking advantage of this opening, Dragoste sends more bones to strike at Orb, breaking him right through the roof, making him move higher and higher in the building.
Φ That was close. If I didn't make a shield out of ice and circulate spirit energy through it, I would have been skewed like a pig. Right now, I am in no shape for an elongated confrontation.
The battle earlier today, along with the rampant use of Advent just a bit ago, has me only a few minutes of combat away from breaking down. The only reason I am still standing is that I am using Helix Battle Arts to keep up with him.
The bones pushing against my shield thin the further he sends me, and noticing this, I freeze and break them, landing on the floor of a hallway, yet arising from different sides within the castle are a series of bones coming towards me.
Seeing the brittle nature of each one, I activate my legacy, and using spirit energy across my fists, I smash each of them into nothingness. Yet more continue to come, until the very floor beneath my legs breaks, and all looking down, my eyes are greeted by a large area of the castle completely ripped and destroyed with a giant hole through the floors leading to Dragoste.
As I fall through it all around me, I see bones appear, and then I hear, "Goodbye Orb."
The walls were restricting him, so he got rid of them. I guess this is your image of victory, but you made a mistake if you thought I was still the same.
Φ Orb creates a little platform of ice beneath his feet, which he kicks off of towards one of the many bones coming towards himself, and in the giant jungle of attacks, he slowly dodges and weaves through them.
Each attack is parried and dodged in a rhythmic motion, one after the other. Orb uses the small gaps between each of their reaches to evade, and when they don't exist, he uses his ice to slow some of the bones down long enough to have one.
The minuscule movements build up little, and soon, within his body, enough spiral energy is built up. He makes a platform beneath his legs and says, "Helix battle arts; Spiral Snowboost Passiflora!"
In one instant, he lunges forward and makes a shell of ice, which he uses to bash through the mass of bones appearing in front of Dragoste and punches him in the face, sending the Minister sliding back towards a wall.
Dropping to the floor, Orb takes a moment to regenerate his fist, which shattered on impact, and shouts, "LIKE I SAID, I WILL STOP YOU!"
Holding the wound on his cheek, Dragoste says, "DIE YOU PEST!"
Φ The bones come at me a second time with far more precision and weight than before. I reckoned my body another time despite being so weak, and I couldn't even land the last blow. It seems his mass of bones was and my exhaustion took away the majority of the power I used against Dobitoc.
If I were to try it again, it probably would be weaker, and with how aggressive he is, I won't be able to make it through. Maybe I should just use Advent and hope I can finish this up in time.
But would I be able to restrain him with the power I have left? If I tried that, I would have to kill him. NO! I can't do that, so I need to think, think about a way out of this situation.
You saw it during Setanta's time: warriors who had gained strength through only their own skills and abilities. Use your head Orb, dominate the world without relying on power that isn't your own. You must observe.
Dragoste's curse is a physical ability that allows him to manifest bones from his body that regenerate constantly when attacked. They have the ability to manifest smaller bones from the large ones attached to their body. The bones are strongest when first sent, after which their speed and power will drop dramatically, yet the smaller branch-like bones from the larger ones are strong when first manifested as well, allowing Dragoste to keep up the pressure by constantly manifesting bone and bone, yet they will eventually become too thin to not be snapped in half. Aside from all of that, Dragoste is also able to sense the area around each bone to a certain extent, and it seems to me freezing them doesn't seem to inhibit that ability to any noticeable extent.
But I wonder how he can sense the area around his bones. Maybe it is just magic, but if curses are physical abilities, maybe he has a certain degree of nerves within them for sensory purposes that don't register pain. Wait, that's it! If that's true, I know what to do!