Cursed Soul: Ch.16

“Hymn of Aegis!” The air in front of me rippled before numerous hexagons made out of purple light formed and connected with each other, Dylan grunting as his claws scratched against the barrier.

“Hymn of Hydra!” The barrier rippled as it turned a dark green, Danny ceasing his attack as he jumped back and to the side right as the screen shattered, unleashing a wave of neurotoxin at him.

The man's eyes widened as he quickly dashed around me, making me frown as I saw his speed creating a weak wind funnel that kept the toxin inside before smirking as I snapped my fingers.

The twelve screens in front of me rotated before settling on one with a tornado, the air around me shifting as I stomped down on the ground.

“Hymn of Zephyr.” With a burst of ethernano, the weak tornado turned into a strong one that also sucked up the poisonous gas, Danny quickly jumping back as I twisted the top of the tornado and pushed the wind at him.

“Take-Over: Partial Werewolf!” He growled and I watched as his silver sideburns grew out on top of his ears turning pointy, the man growling as he crouched before dashing in headfirst towards me.

“Hymn of Poseidon! Hymn of Khione!” I chanted and the Archive screen spun rapidly before settling on the image of a wave.

The second it did, the air around me turned into a surge of water before the screen spun once again and landed on the image of a snowflake, the water freezing solid and turning the ground into an ice rink.

Danny stumbled for a brief moment before he rolled to all fours, digging his claws into the ground and dashing away as I sent a blast of cold ice at him.

'Damn, he's as quick as ever.' Spinning the screens once more, it settled on a screen with a 'Forge' sigil before a wave of intense heat rippled in all directions.

'Okay, now where are you?' A frown adorned my face as the heat had melt the ice and turned it to steam within mere seconds, squinting to see where he was before I quickly slammed a palm onto the ground.

“Hymn of Aegis!” The screen with a 'Shield' sigil glowed before creating a barrier out of smaller hexagonal shapes around me, Danny grunting as he barged shoulder first into it before I smirked as I shattered the barrier while leaping high.

“Hymn of Siren.” This time, the spinning screens settled on one that had a smiling mermaid on it before a soft, melodic voice began to sing and Danny blinked before shaking his head and glaring at me.

I just smirked as I began to back step, dodging his attacks while fuelling more ethernano into the spell as I watched Danny stumbling around and shaking his head to try and get his footing before he fell to the floor as the neurotoxin began to work its magic.

“You concede?” I asked as I walked closer, still making sure to keep my distance as he glared at me before looking up and down with his eyes.

“And with that, Eric wins…for the first time. Huh, never expected that to happen.” Alya spoke with a hum as we walked over, Danny looking as if he wanted to gag when the 'Hydra' screen glowed and slowly pulled the poison gas from his system.

“Urgh, that never gets good enough to look at.” Alex spoke with a slightly disgusted look and I rolled my eyes as Danny slowly stood up, stumbling a bit and letting us help him up before he stretched with a groan.

“What…the hell…is in that poison?”

“Just a mixture of neurotoxins and muscle relaxers. It's most definitely not the most potent mix, but it definitely gets the job done when I want to capture a prisoner.”

“ 'Gets the job done' is an understatement. It took all I had to move my eyes and I still can't feel my lips or toes despite the fact that I am using my ethernano to boost my healing.”

“Uh, I guess it's a bit more potent than I was expecting.” I spoke with a sheepish smile and he rolled his eyes before I looked at Alya as she spoke up.

“So, I see you've gotten better at casting your…Hymn Magic?” She sounded unsure at the term before giving a pleased smile as I hummed and shrugged.

“Calling it my Jutsushiki Archive Magic isn't a good name and my spells are made of hymns so Hymn Magic is a good name.”

“Great! Well, I can still say that you've gotten very good at using your Hymn Magic over the past two weeks.”

“Well, with the new promotion, I'm not sent out on missions on a weekly basis anymore which means a lot of free time to do as I want.”

“Right, still salty about that part.” Alex spoke with a grumble and I rolled my eyes as Alya flicked her brother's arm.

“Should you be proud of your friend?”

“I am, but I am also a bit pissed. A guy can be both things.” He answered with a shrug and his sister rolled her eyes while I chuckled before turning to the door right as Liam entered.

“You don't look so good.” I said with a smile as he sat down the moment he closed the door behind him and Liam just grumbled as he laid down while letting out a loud groan.

“Urrggghh~ The Colonel has had me do nothing but escort missions for the entire time since the fight.”

“Did you do something again?”

“No, not at all! …Wait, does putting hot peppers into the cream soup count as doing something?”

“The soup that the Colonel reveres above all else?” I asked and he blinked before giving a sheepish smile.

“Okay~ So I may have done something.”

“Of course, you did. Honestly, you're gonna have to get better in keeping yourself under control if you ever want that payment.”

“Urgh, I know, but I don't want to at the same time. Being a menace to society sounds far too much fun for me.” He spoke with a shrug and we rolled our eyes before I turned as I heard the door open once again.

The sight of the ever-so-stoic Erica Danvers walking through the door was as a surprising sight for me as it was for the others, but I smiled and waved as she nodded towards us.

“Everyone.”

“Erica?…Is everyone else seeing Erica or am I as high as a kite?” Alex asked and Erica just gave an exasperated roll of her eyes before turning to me as I stretched.

“Lieutenant Maverick wishes to speak to you.”

“Oh, damn~” Liam whispered while I froze and slowly turned to Erica, looking for some sign of it being a lie only to give a nervous smile as she just looked at me with a stoic gaze.

“Uh, any chance you could tell her that you could not find me? From Captain to Captain?”

“No, now follow.” She demanded more than said it as she turned and walked away, leaving me to let out a groan as I slowly shuffled after her.

“If anything happens, let us know!” I just gave Alex a middle finger before following after Erica, a bit mesmerized by her blonde hair and juggling curves before shaking my head as I focused on the more important matters at hand.

That matter being…just how the hell am I to prepare for this?

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“Sparda! A surprise to see you here!” Sparda frowned as he turned his gaze, watching as two of his fellow generals entered the meeting room in the Crocus Rune Knights' Headquarters.

“General Michael, General Jack. Pleasure to see that you two are still alive.”

“Come on, General Sparda. How can I die from weaklings like that, huh?” Jack asked with a smirk and Sparda just gave a slight smirk as the three of them sat down while Michael scoffed.

“General Jack speaks the truth as crude as he is. It's going to take far more than a simple invasion to make us put us out of commission.”

“Were your sectors also attacked?” Sparda asked and both men nodded before turning as three more pairs of footsteps entered.

“Why am I not surprised? Not even a minute here and he's already begun the meeting. As diligent as ever, eh Sparda?” The rugged man known as Matthew spoke with a smirk as he sat down, Lahar nodding at everyone while Raphael simply sat down with a slight grunt.

“I simply wish to know if their attackers were the same as the ones that attacked our sector of the border.”

“Black cloaks with Bosco's golden crescent moons embroidered on their backs and having an accent that belongs to Bellum? Yeah, it was hard to miss.” Raphael spoke with a frown and the other generals hummed at that before the last three walked in.

“Huh, did someone die or something? What's with the doom and gloom, people?” Rill asked with a raised eyebrow while patting the hilts of his blades, to which the older captains sighed as Jack smirked and Lahar shook his head.

“We are simply thinking of the recent attacks.”

“Right, you guys get the fun borders while we're stuck guarding the sea.” Rill grumbled as he sat down and Natalia couldn't help her amused smile as Fate patted the youngest General's back.

“Don't worry, I'm sure a sea serpent or two will attack your base soon.”

“Fate, I like fighting, but not to the extent of wanting to fight a sea serpent in its natural habitat. Those things would be a pain to fight.” Rill grumbled as he sat down and Fate just giggled as she sat down besides him.

“What about you, Natalia? The Grey Lightning is situated the closest to the border between Fiore and the small island of Ramorra between Fiore and Bosco.” Sparda spoke and Natalia hummed before shaking her head.

“No. I've received one or two calls about some group of soldiers trying to start something, but they were mostly disgruntled Rune Knights that wanted the war to continue.”

“Did they give names?”

“None that we could use for this mission.” A new, deep voice spoke up and the Generals stood in unison as a figure slowly walked out of the darkness.

Dressed in full plate armour with a dark red Cherry Blossom sigil on the chest area of it with a red fur-collared cape attached to his shoulders, the man's wavy hair stood up straight as his curved and pointed beard joined with his prominent sideburns.

“Commander Arcadios, sir.” The Generals greeted with a salute and the man gave a smile before nodding.

“Be seated.” He spoke and they all sat down, each waiting patiently as Arcadious looked between them all before speaking.

“It has been five years since we last convened on a matter like this, the last matter being that of Fiore's greatest guild being vanquished by a great unknown power. Now, I must call forth the help of the 9 Rune Knight Battalions once again to help defend our country against a powerful threat.”

“You need only point out the threat against our country and we shall do the rest, Lord Commander.” Fate spoke with a smile and Arcadios watched as the other Generals nodded before giving a soft smile as he nodded and placed a hand against the table.

The next, everyone paid attention as lacrima lit up inside of the circular table and projected a large array of holographic screens in front of them.

“Two days ago, one of the spies we had sent to Bosco to infiltrate its rank made it back alive. The other twenty did not.”

“Ah, the needless loss of life is always a tragic event no matter which side.” Raphael said softly and Arcadios nodded before continuing.

“It is indeed. However, this grave loss to us was also seen as a success as we found that he had also brought important information with him. Firstly, we found that the Bosco royal family are not in control. Instead, they are kept under a powerful hypnosis spell while the kingdom is actually being run…by none other than this man.”

“…Pietro Lilli.” Sparda muttered with a frown as he stared at the man in front of him, drawing the attention of the other generals as Arcadios nodded with a sigh.

“It is as you say. For you that don't know, this is Pietro Lilli, a former high-ranking officer of the Bellum Empire and an avid hater of the country Fiore before they lost against us in the skirmish wars thirty years ago. After that, as a part of the peace treaty, he was kicked out of Bellum and banished, never to return to his country of origin again.”

“And he's blaming us for that, isn't he?” Natalia muttered with a sigh as Arcadios gave a smile before nodding.

“He is, but that's not all. Our spy has also found images of not only our Rune Knights Patrol routes as well as…this.” As the screens spun around, the Generals frowned as they saw the planned routes they had for the next week before Rill jumped to his feet with wide eyes when he saw the next image.

“That's…that's a Book of Zeref.” He muttered and the other captains looked surprised as they turned to Arcadios who gave a grave nod.

“Not just a Book of Zeref, but we believe it contains a demon like Lullaby, Deliora and his many other demons. There are not many records of Zeref's demons so we don't know its names, abilities or strength, but we're treating it to be on the same level of strength as the aforementioned ones.”

“Wait, sir. You said that Pietro is keeping the family under a hypnosis spell, yes?”

“That is the what we believe, yes.” Arcadios agreed and Sparda frowned before shaking his head.

“It may be a speculation of mine, but Pietro himself admitted to me during our battle that he has no talent or love for the mind arts so perhaps the hypnosis may be the work of the demon itself.”

“That…is a probably theory. We'll make note of it.”

“I assume you didn't just call us to tell us all this information, did you Lord Commander?” Matthew asked with a smirk and Arcadios smiled before shaking his head.

“With this new information, we have also learned that they are going to try and invade Fiore in the coming months to try and get us to bend the knee to them like they did to us, which is why the King has given us full authorization. In two weeks's time, we are to invade Bosco, rescue the royal family and take out both Pietro and his demon in one fell swoop.”

“This could cause an international incident, sir.” Michael spoke with a frown and the Lord Commander nodded with a sigh.

“The king is aware of it, but the potential danger against Fiore is far too much for the King to simply ignore it.”

“Don't worry then, Commander. In two weeks, we'll come out of Bosco with the royal family reinstated and Pietro Lilli in chains.” Jack spoke with a grin and the Commander chuckled as he stood up.

“I will await this good news then. Remember that being discreet when moving into enemy territory is your number one priority, but once you are given free reign, nothing is true…” The Commander trailed off and smirked as the Generals finished his sentence in unison.

“And everything is permitted.”

“See you all in two weeks. Make sure to train your armies until the time comes. Dismissed.”

A/N: And the chapter ends~!! Eric has been training with new tactics, he goes off to talk to Leah, which I will add in the next chapter and the Generals meet up.

Next chapter: A two to three chapter arc of Fiore against Bosco? Who will win? We'll have to wait and see~

As always, read, enjoy, review and until the next one…

Ba-Bye~!!