Classless Awakening; My Dragon Is Legendary-Chapter 31: A Curse’s Awakening
"Sir, thank goodness you’ve arrived," a villager blurted out, his voice trembling with urgency. "The roots have invaded every corner of our settlement, spreading like a plague beneath our feet."
"We tried to control it, but..." The man went silent, guilt and pain hidden behind his eyes.
"But what, Lancaster?" Royal Knight asked, his voice completely devoid of any emotion.
"The more we attacked, the wider they grew, and they killed most of our people." Lancaster broke down, tears streaming down his eyes.
"Remain calm young man, emotions would only get in the way of the mission." Once again, Royal Knight was stoic.
It seemed like he was present in body but completely absent in mind.
"How can you be so... Inhuman?" Lancaster’s voice croaked.
Royal knight’s indifference towards the slaughter of his people was something he couldn’t comprehend.
Royal Knight was acting like he was being told the weather.
Royal Knight didn’t speak a word, he just walked towards the entrance of the now abandoned village.
Royal Knight activated one of his enchantments, trying to peer into the village, but the thick shadows surrounding it blocked him completely.
From the outside, the village was completely covered in shadows, and there was no sound coming from within.
Even the sounds of farm animals or rustling leaves were completely halted.
Royal Knight took a deep breath, he drew his sword and walked into the village, the shadows completely engulfing him. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
The first thing Royal Knight was hit with was a smell as intense as sulfur.
He activated an enchantment to block the smell, but it didn’t do anything about the crawling sensation all over his skin.
The sand beneath him caught his eye first, it was pure obsidian, almost like it had been replaced with coal.
He ran his hands through the sand, negative energy oozed out, confirming what everyone knew.
"Witchcraft..." Royal Knight’s eyes darted around the village.
If this was witchcraft, then there was a witch nearby.
There were thick roots running through the entire village.
It had completely encased the buildings and streets, destroying everything in sight.
His legs lifted off the ground, ascending to the now pitch black clouds in a matter of seconds.
Royal Knight sighed, not only had the buildings been destroyed, but even the wildlife and the people within.
Everything that once had life inside this place was dead and gone.
Royal Knight’s feet touched the ground once more, his mind going through multiple scenarios.
’The witch must be in hiding,’ Royal Knight deduced.
Considering the fact that he had been inside this place for this long without being attacked.
"Or has the witch already fled?" That was another possibility.
The witch could have already gotten what they wanted from this place and the whole thing was a residual effect of their dark magic.
Royal Knight sent out a pulse of magic, trying to see if there would be any obstacles in its path, but his pulse didn’t even make it far.
The entire place was crawling with dark magic, Royal Knight was getting signals from all around him.
’This place...’ Another realization dawned on Royal Knight.
’It’s draining me of my energy.’ Ever since he stepped in this place, Royal Knight could sense his energy being sapped, at first in small quantities, but it was growing rapidly.
Royal Knight didn’t panic, he just moved into one of the houses, trying to find any clues.
He opened the door and the first thing he was greeted with was the dead body of a woman.
She was lying on the floor with her hand outstretched like she was reaching for the door.
’Hmm.’ Royal Knight bent down to observe, muttered a small chant, and an illusion warped to life.
He could see the woman struggling to get away from the roots and shadows while chanting spells.
With every chant, panic etched deeper and deeper into her face.
Tiny ice shards flew out of her hand, doing nothing to the roots.
The voice of her husband telling her to run mixed with her chants and tears streamed down her eyes.
She gave up on chanting and tried to run, but the roots had already wrapped around her.
Dark, shadowy veins appeared all around her, and her eyes turned white, and the next second, she breathed her last.
’Those shards.’ Royal Knight had noticed something, the panic on the woman’s face, the chants she used, and the shards from her hands, there was something deeply wrong.
The woman was using proficient spells, spells that should have at least created a hailstorm, but all they caused were tiny shards of ice.
There was a possibility she was just an amateur messing with magic above her proficiency.
On the other hand, it was illegal for a person to be taught magic beyond what they could handle to prevent death or worse.
Despite this, there was a decent number of teachers who would teach anyone the right things if they had the money.
For now, Royal Knight couldn’t exactly formulate a conclusion, there were too many contradicting factors, and he needed more information.
A small flame appeared in Royal Knight’s hands, he stared at the body of the woman, a thought lingering in his mind.
She was a human after all, she deserved a proper burial, or a cremation, but he wasn’t sure if it was the logical approach.
Dravania’s scholars could have use for her, and he wasn’t sure if she had family who would be interested in burying her.
Royal Knight nodded, he turned his hand, extinguishing the flames.
He backed away and closed the door, leaving the dead to rest.
He went to the next house, he walked into the door and this time he was greeted with the body of a baby who couldn’t have been more than 5 months old.
"Witchcraft!" Royal Knight said with disgust laced in his voice.
Royal Knight cast the same enchantment from earlier, a brilliant illusion shook to life.
A young father with a strong build and a serious look in his eyes placed the baby inside this room and began to chant.
The man’s chants grew louder, and Royal Knight listened to each and every word, trying to understand the type of magic the man possessed.
"Lock magic?" Royal Knight asked himself.
He had never heard of such magic, but then again, there were infinite types of magic, some were way more common than others, like elemental magic.
While there were some truly rare types of magic, even ones that had never been discovered by anyone.
Most people prayed to the gods to give them a common magic, so they could have teachers who could guide them properly in the use of their abilities.
But, with uncommon types of magic, one could go their entire lifetime without ever meeting anyone like them, and would be forced to learn everything themselves.
Back to the illusion, one of the roots phased through the wall to the shock of the father.
It wrapped around the neck of the father, strangling him.
The father placed his hands around the roots, trying to wrestle himself free but all to no avail.
"That’s impossible, I used high grade magic," The man barely said, before his body was flung out of the window.
The baby burst into cries, it tried to crawl away from the roots, but it was instantly engulfed by shadows.
Royal Knight placed his hand on his chin. He was beginning to notice something, but he couldn’t confirm it without visiting a third house.
The illusion ended, and Royal Knight froze at what he saw.
The shattered remains of a flower vase lay scattered across the floor, its former place on the corner table now empty.
Royal Knight’s eyes darted around the room, and then he froze.
The baby had moved. Not just stirred. Crawled toward the broken glass. Tiny fingers reaching for something glinting among the shards. And its eyes... were they glowing?
A chill ran down Royal Knight’s spine as the grim realization dawned on him, this mission was far more treacherous than he had ever anticipated.
