Curselock

Chapter 237: Final Night

“Okay,” Leland announced once he returned to his friends. They reacted as they had been doing previously, the passage of time he had been missing was negligible to them. “The Lord of Beasts is a massive buffalo. I feel that is important to note.”

Jude’s eyes lit up at that. “A Guardian Spirit Beast?” he said, interesting the bears as well.

“Yes,” Leland said, removing his grimoire from his Legacy tattoo. “And I secured you a blessing from him as my contract.”

The sound the young berserker made was… not very manly. A gasp, sure, but also a squeal, the kind a teenage girl might make when they eat a particularly good cookie or slice of cake.

Cursed contract of the Lord of Beasts:

Use: As a one time effect, the human “Jude Brown” may receive the Lord of Beasts blessing. To receive such a gift, Jude Brown must pray at a shrine dedicated to the Lord of Beasts.

Return: To enter the world called “Alpha” and wait for one hour or until something happens.

Leland read the page to everyone and pressed his palm into the ink to activate the contract. The book then closed and was promptly placed back in Leland’s tattoo.

“What is ‘something?’” Glenny asked.

“Is she… trustworthy?”

Leland shrugged. “As much as any other good Lord is, I guess. Though she might make things difficult for me in the short term, I think she has only good intentions for me for the future.”

“Are we included in that?”

“Without a doubt. If she did something that resulted in you or Jude getting hurt or killed, I’d… well, I’d make sure her plans for me failed. Every Single time.”

A cold wind blew.

“Huh,” Glenny muttered, now staring at the sky. “She didn’t smite you for saying that.”

Leland gave him a look.

That was when little Gelo noticed something. “Glenny!” she yelped. “Did you change your hair!? It looks great!”

And it did, sort of. Beside the strange coloration of patchy white and red, it was properly styled from a master Legacy of the Braid. Trimmed, steamed, dusted… whatever else hairdressers do was done to the young man. No coin was spared when it came to him fixing his newfound natural color, except, of course, dye. Though the thought had crossed his mind a few times.

Dye was just too much of an upkeep if he was being honest.

“Thank you,” Glenny said back to the cub. “Some people just don’t appreciate white hair or fur.” He greatly nodded toward Floe, emphasizing her icy-white pelt.

“I know right?” Gelo replied. “Mother’s fur is soooo nice! Just look at her!”

And everyone did, though the Guardian Spirit Beast wasn’t so receptive of her newfound scrutiny. Instead, she stared at Leland.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

“You... smell… good.”

Leland moved as if a hot coal was shoved down the back of his shirt. Squirming under her gaze, he looked away. “That’s probably just the Beast Lord’s magic… it was rather potent. Almost killed me with weeds.”

Floe sniffled. “If I am truly smelling a Lord’s magic, then I may have been underestimating these ‘Lords.’”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve not yet met a Lord. I did not undergo a Dream Ceremony. My power comes from my element, nothing else… But to know that a being smells so much like a pure element, I think I’m starting to understand why you three were blind to the natural path to power.”

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Leland didn’t consider her words very carefully. Not that he meant her disrespect or didn’t believe her, it was just that he remembered something important. The whole reason he spoke with the Beast Lord.

“So you think becoming a Lord might interest you?” he asked. “Because I have it under pretty good authority that you have what it takes to become a Lord. Specifically the Lord of Dungeons.”

Silence befell the group as all eyes turned to the great bear. Even her daughter stared at her mom with massive open eyes. And it was those eyes that gave Floe pause.

More than anything, she wanted her daughter to be safe and secure. To have a home, but to not feel tied down to it. Here, in the dungeon, that home could never be. Floe couldn’t leave, and Gelo would always return. That was the way of the little cub. Loyal, loving, she wouldn’t leave her mother behind. Not when the dungeon had taken everything from the pair.

It was times like this that Floe failed to block out the memories of her mate. Her husband. Her other half. The final boss of the dungeon. How long had it been since he died? How many times had the dungeon resurrected him without his memories of their time together?

Floe cursed the warden of her prison every time she was forced to kill him. She cursed the very restraints that locked her in here, the very chains that she couldn’t fully exploit. Yes, she was powerful enough to cause the dungeon plenty of pain. But no, she wasn’t powerful enough to do what actually mattered.

She looked at her daughter’s wide eyes. She didn’t want Gelo to be forced to stay in their cave. She wanted the cub to go out, to live her own life.

And now, an option was available that didn’t require Floe’s death. That was the only way to get the cub to leave, wasn’t it? Either to die, or to walk out into the real world.

Floe almost chuckled to herself. Becoming a Lord was the solution. A solution that might prove even better than originally asked. She could watch over her daughter, she could become fully in control of her dungeon… No, that wasn’t right. All dungeons.

And maybe, just maybe, her mate was still in there somewhere. Maybe she could resurrect him just as the dungeon had resurrected his imposter.

With all of this in mind, Floe answered Leland.

“Maybe. Allow me the night to think it over.”

She and the young man shared a long look, a silent conversation playing out between them. Floe had already made up her mind. Yes, she’d try to become a Lord with his help. She just wanted one more evening to be with her daughter as a mortal.

What the future might hold, she didn’t know. But this night she could predict.

It was going to be one to remember.

A wrinkled crone stood on the air beside the massive figure of the Beast Lord. Her title, the Lord of Curses, didn’t fully encapsulate her position within the heavens. Countless others had been given to her over the years. The Caretaker, the Protector, the Rulesetter.

The Calamity.

Despite all of her titles, there were aspects of the heavens that she didn’t touch or care to learn about. General knowledge of these subjects were, of course, known to her. But her field of expertise was much more niche than the other Lords might believe.

But that didn’t stop her from dipping her toes into messes she had no claim over.

Such as the Tears.

Other Lords, ones more equipped to deal with world-ending problems than her, were handling it. And she had no doubt that their actions would make the transition to a multi-world realm as seamless as possible.

But that didn’t mean she could reap the rewards, right?

“You interfered with my contract,” the Beast Lord said at a normal conversation pace.

The Curse Lord rolled her eyes. She hated it when Lords played tricks like slowspeech or appearing in an obtuse form to mortals. They were Lords! They should have more class.

“Yes I did,” she replied. “And we both know you will be rewarded for Leland’s actions as much as he or I. World Alpha might look like a wasteland right now, but we both know what’s out there.”

The massive beast scoffed, the sound echoing through his domain like thunder. “You know that is false. I do not know what is out there. Might you inform me?”

The old woman rolled her eyes again. “I don’t know either. But we both know how Archons work. Our world and Alpha are compatible and the Archons deemed a better Eden would appear from combining the two. So, yes. We both know that only good things can come out of Alpha. Just look at what the other worlds have brought us already!”

“I care not for a new supply of mana. And I only see war from the other one.”

“And the fourth world?” the Curse Lord asked. “What do you see in that one?”

The Beast Lord watched her carefully. The fourth new world… he didn’t know what to think. Between the rumors floating around the heavens and how little the mortals understood it, there were only so many conclusions that could be drawn.

Still, he felt obliged to answer. “I think the fourth world means there is going to be a new brother or sister among us soon.”

She nodded at his words. “Not to mention when that bear becomes one of us. Two new Lords within the same century! How exciting!”

And it really was. The Beast Lord remembered his own transcendence and how he was the youngest for nearly one-hundred and forty years.

Gah, he hated how the Curse Lord could do that. She always could make others reminisce or celebrate after pulling the wool over their eyes. But no wool would cover his eyes. He hadn’t forgotten her interference. Not that he truly cared. One blessing was nothing to him at this point.

Still, he was curious.

“Why tell your Legacy to wait within Alpha for an hour? What’s going to happen?”

The old woman smiled.

“Something. Something is definitely going to happen.”