The Strongest Curse Master

"The BBQ smell in the air is mouthwatering. I could devour a few pounds of meat by myself," Lola said, trying to strike a conversation with her first male friend. Only to hear him say, "You go ahead, Lola. I have some work with Dee3."

I was not in the mood, being ninety-nine percent certain that the Curse terrorist group was here to find me. With Dame Wasp being busy, I couldn't figure out who they were or how much actually I had stolen from them to come find me here. That was the least of my concerns because if they can come banging on my town, the next one could come banging on my estate or even my front door.

To ensure that never happens again, I needed a capable curse caster, whom I could trust with my secrets, on my side. Clearly, Elinor wasn't it. I was still worried that the day she was off her suspension and reinstated, she would cuff me for trespassing at a secured facility, let alone confide in her about my other crimes. Fortunately for now, she seemed to be focused on the national asset trails, so I guess I'm in the clear for the foreseeable future.

So, my obvious choice was animating a toy summons capable of peeping into the mysteries of the world. Therefore, my priority now was to meet up with Dee3 and convince her to give up her info on the innate curse tool or core belonging to a curse caster. I know, Dee3 couldn't have been more clear that she would absolutely not share that information with me, but I had to try as I saw no other options.

"Oh," Lola blurted in disappointment, thinking that ever since she became a curse master, the timing between the two of them wasn't perfect.

"See you later," I said, preparing to fly ahead using the acceleration of my exo-armor's jets, but suddenly I had this sense of foreboding and immediately began to fly to and fro in a zig-zag, almost haphazardly.

Meanwhile, I simultaneously used the status screens' curse map to check if someone was targeting me. Only to find a huge mass of curse energy heading my way at incredible speed. I tried to run in opposite direction to it but it was too late.

"Ace! What's wrong?" Lola and Janice asked in unison, noticing me suddenly dance around and then immediately come to a halt before begin to check my body with a grim expression on my face. Unable to find anything, I checked the curse map, only to find that two dots were marked in my location. My expression turned grave as the realization dawned on me, and I blurted to the girls, "I have been cursed!"

"What?" Janice asked in shock, before finally stopped hesitating and took out one of her most prized curse tools, a monocle crafted using a curse caster's eye she found in a curse flea market. Fortunately for her, the shopkeeper had no idea that the damaged Hero-tier curse tool he was selling was actually a curse tool with the ability to allow its user to peep into the mysteries of the world.

Unfortunately, Janice's luck ran out that week. She wasn't able to repair the curse tool back to its heyday. The damage done to it was too severe. It was already a miracle that she could repair it without dropping its tier. Though its ability was gravely compromised, it still allowed her to observe and analyze curse spells. It was not only better than nothing, but still a invaluable curse tool.

"Its just a mere marking and tracking curse spell—" Janice said, using the monocle curse tool to view and analyze the curse spell on me, while Lola did her own thing and cast her curse ability, "Divine intervention!"

Before I could stop her, I saw a huge golden cross enter my body. And soon, I cried out aloud in pain, "Aarrhhhh!" while Emi, who was connected to my senses, immediately used her recovery and silence talisman ‌from her toy space. She managed to mask my cries before the party down below heard it but failed to help with my pain in the slightest.

I felt like my entire body was burning from inside out. I truly felt like my flesh was being BBQ'd and boiling magma was flowing through my veins. When I opened my eyes amidst my heart-wrenching cries, I was shocked to find that I was actually on fire and burning like a little humanoid sun. It reminded me of the night when Sonia and Lola fought.

I couldn't believe Sonia continued to fight Lola for several good minutes despite being under so much pain when I was having trouble focusing my thoughts, they were too distracted and all over the place. I almost lost consciousness, unable to handle the pain.

However, when I closed my eyes, my family photo flashed in front of my eyes. Before I knew it, I saw the photos' edges begin to burn slowly, making their way to the center, swallowing my family members one by one. In my panic, I forgot about the pain and tried to put off the fire engulfing the photo, but I couldn't stop it no matter how hard I tried. In my rage, my pain field cries turned into a battle cry, "Arrrrh!"

As the pain and rage I felt battled for dominance, a moment of clarity washed over me, in that moment I opened my eyes and yelled at EAD Matthews, who arrived next to Lola, with a cracked voice, "Check on Marcus and his partner. Something is seriously wrong!"

"No way," Janice exclaimed, understanding what I was implying. Before she could share it with the rest of the group, EAD Matthews grimly announced, "I cannot reach either of them!"

Just then, the fire burning me inside out suddenly died. I couldn't help but look at Lola for an explanation, who excitedly informed me, "The curse spell on you has been thoroughly purged. But it took a lot less time than I thought it would. This could only mean that the caster canceled the curse spell, or the caster is dead."

"There is no way a caster would cancel a spell—" Janice said, knowing someone wouldn't go through all that trouble to curse another to cancel it immediately. Therefore, it had to be the latter, but before she could say it, EAD Matthews cut in, yelling, "They are still alive and fighting! Evil Eyes, Delores…"

"Say no more. Let us just hurry along the route they took. I bet we are bound to run into them somewhere if they were still fighting—" Delores readily agreed to help Matthews, but she was interrupted by a huge explosion in one of the hills surrounding the town.

"They are nearby, let us hurry!" Evil Eyes said, surprised by the curse terrorist group's continued brazen style of doing things.