I am curious right now. I never considered the chance of a demon being behind this curse. Status effects can be for any reason, and demons usually use curses to get the upper advantage in combat. They are different from debuffs, curses last longer and their effects are much more aggressive. Some can last a whole lifetime.
But this is not normally how demons operate.
We move to the inner chamber and get to the internal library, where they have a shit ton of books in different shelves that are older than the priest, I assume.
On a large study table, Lisa drops the book. Meanwhile, Father Kaelen searches for a book.
"It should be around here…" he says.
I look around the area… too many cobwebs, dust. Some books are more covered, others look pretty new. Some of them have names that you could expect.
The trifecta: the offspring of the Creator Entity
Prayers of the old Times
Studies of the Rapture
Origins of the the three Heroes
Those names call my attention. I don't remember ever a Creator Entity being named in the game or the Three Heroes. Bae, the elf from the Movers, mentioned the legend.
"Here it is." The Father says and pulls out another big book.
"What is it with humans always keeping all these books?" Aurelia asks. "I don't get it."
"Why am I not surprised you don't read?" I comment.
"What is the use of it? Where I come from, it is either kill or be killed." She makes her scythe appear, for some reason, maybe to show her point. "I don't have time to think about books or the spirituality when someone might come in and try to kill you."
"Well.. context matters." The Father says, dropping the big book on the table.
It creates a loud noise that echoes through the whole chamber, like a bang while lifting the dust on the wooden table.
"No one cleans this place?" I ask.
"The collection here is old."
I hope that book, which looks to have been written since the beginning of time, has some relevant information to what is happening to me.
"But some of the information is relevant." He opens it and scans the beginning of the book. "Here… what do you know about the origin of the world?"
I believe that question is directed to me? But that is easy to answer for someone like me, who read each passage of the lore.
"The world was created by the trifecta after they saw the empty land, they gave birth to their sons and daughters, creating all that is known." I give the short version of it.
Lisa and the Father looked at each other for a second.
"A-Amber, I don't know what version you have read, but that is not the one we believe in." Lisa comments.
What?
That is the only version of the lore that talks about the creation. It goes on about how the whole world was created and slowly took form from an egg… That is the one the followers of the whole trifecta said. Lisa is a follower of the trifecta itself.
Shouldn't that be her belief?
"Old tales explain about a Creator Entity. An unknown being that came and saw the world in its dreams." The Father explains, reading the book. "This being wanted to make it real, to come into existence. But he needed others to believe in it, to learn about it. But instead of telling them, they showed it to them with its power. It wrote the sacred rules of the world, it defined how magic works, who our deities are, even the System we use, it decided everything… then, it made it come into existence with a wish."
That is so different from the version I know! And it even includes the System? The game does not mention it, thinking about it, it never recognizes it in game as part of the world! What does that mean?
"T-that is not something I have ever heard of…"
"Hah! You had something wrong?!" Aurelia was laughing at me.
"Oh, shut up!"
"Maybe something that you read was misleading you?" Karina proposes.
Maybe? But why would there be such a discrepancy between the version of this game and this one? Now not only some rules were different, the whole creation story was?
"Now… those rules are the important part. Curses move them around and make the rules not work as intended." He points at me. "You should be gaining experience in your stats and skills… you are not gaining them. That is the modification."
"Normally, a priest can remove it thanks to the blessing of a deity." Lisa continues. "But you lost all your levels, and only the Ego weapon in your person can gain it, without counting that you cannot receive the XP, the system is sending it somewhere."
It is sending it to Bloodless.
"There is no time limit to it, it cannot be removed… that sounds like the work of a powerful demon or a powerful deity. Only a high ranking one can make one as such, without giving you a way to get off it."
…
"I was stabbed when I got cursed, and the blade went through the System." I explain. "It did not care about my defenses or resistances."
"Then that item was given to your attacker by a powerful entity." The Father explains, quickly checking his book.
It takes him a while, there is a pause that makes me tense. I see him run through them, like checking every page in a quick look. Then he lands on one, and reads it before returning his attention to me.
"Here." He points to the page.
I swallow saliva and get closer. There is a drawing of different weapons and items, prominent is a dagger with a red blade.
Cursed by a weapon that ignores the System and Magic
Items and weapons obtained only through a deal with a higher being, be it demon or deity. They are said to be items created deep within the strings of creation, made directly with the flowing energy of the sacred writings that give form to our world.
Calling them cursed is an oxymoron. Even when created by a demon, these items are the closest to the creation and less of a blasphemy on itself. They are only made with permission by the forces that made the world come to form.
Therefore, these curses are often considered more of a punishment for a curse and they not only bypass the rules of the universe. They change it for all eternity on those affected by them.