Cursed Lands

Seth motioned for the guard to stand up and waited for him to leave the room before smiling at the queen of the Curse Kingdom.

“A pleasure to finally meet you, Your Highness.” said Seth, ignoring Aleena’s sad expression as they both went and sat down opposite the queen on the sofa.

“Call me Andrea. I would stand up to greet Your Excellency properly, but these old bones of mine no longer move as they used to...”

“No need for that. I’m also not that big on courtesy, and you can also call me Seth. This is Aleena, one of my wives.”

The queen nodded at Aleena before looking back at Seth and sighing softly: “Leora spoke about you so many times… I’m glad I got to meet you at least once... Speaking about it… do you have any news about her now that you’ve returned?”

Seth shook his head. “There’s no way for me to chase after her, so no, I don’t know where she is, but with her speed, I doubt anyone will be able to catch up to her.”

Andrea smiled with a reminiscent look before her eyes focused again, and she said: “Let’s hope so. I wished I could see her again, but I doubt that’s in the cards anymore. Why are you here, Seth? Are you finally hunting the curses plaguing this land?”

“Not yet.” Said Seth with a shake of his head, rubbing Aleena’s hair. “This brat came with that idea so we can get an audience. I’m seeking your protector so I can speak to her.”

“Panther?… I figured something was wrong when she had not visited me in weeks. Is she in any danger?”

“I don’t know. She might be. The horrors had begun acting up lately, and she left her physical body to focus on strengthening the seal. I can’t speculate her condition until I find her.”

Andrea nodded before saying: “I wish I could help you more, but what you’ve seen in the guardhouse is also all I know. I also don’t have the energy to spend on these matters anymore, leaving them to the guards.”

“It’s alright. We mostly came here on a whim. We’re heading for the border with Pain shortly to investigate the sightings there.” Said Seth, standing up and extending a hand toward Aleena. “Let’s go. We’ve already disturbed Her Majesty for too long.”

Aleena stood up without protest and bowed slightly toward the queen. “I apologize for disturbing your rest.”

“It’s fine, sweetie.” replied Andrea with a kind smile. “Your Excellency, when you see Leora again, can you thank her for me again, for everything she’s done for us? I fear I don’t have enough days left to do it myself.”

“I will.” Replied Seth with a nod, breaking space and teleporting away with Aleena.

With his fifth shell source, he needed to break space about three times to reach their destination but first stopped at the edge of the capital and looked at the downcast Aleena.

“You can’t still be pouting about Andrea recognizing me?

“I don’t. I’m just wondering how sister Leora is doing….”

“I’m sure she’s fine. She’s a lot stronger than you might think and probably just roaming the universe as we speak. If anything, you should be jealous instead.”

Aleena smiled and squeezed Seth’s hand. “Then I need to ask her to tell me everything when we get her back.”

Seth chuckled, and the two teleported three more times, reaching the border with the Pain Kingdom.

After reaching their destination, Seth and Aleena found themselves before a giant wall of transparent light, extending along the border with Pain for as far as their eyes could see.

“Is this a seal?” asked Aleena, walking toward the wall and placing a hand over it. “It’s warm..”

“Not just one. There should be multiple seals overlapping.”

“When the horror of Pain broke the core sealing it, the Council had no choice but to carve away all the land its influence was spread upon from the rest of the continent to prevent the horror inside from ever getting out.”

“What about the people inside?” asked Aleena while turning to look back at Seth.

“Probably undergoing constant torture...”

“So they’re the same as me…” muttered Aleena, removing her hand from the seal and lowering her head.

Seth could only sigh and walk forward to grab Aleena’s hand. “Just as you were freed from that fate, so will they, eventually. Let’s go. There’s nothing we can do now for Pain, but the protector of Curse might need our help.”

Aleena nodded and turned around. “So, how do we find her?”

“She’s a demigoddess of earth, so her core is placed deep underneath the earth. We’ll dive inside her domain and search the area for signs of her presence. Just tell me when you feel the energy around refusing to follow your command. That’s our queue that she might be near.”

Seth looked towards the ground and spoke with the system. ‘Can you show me the records of her domain from the former timeline? I doubt they will differ too much.’

<Alright.>

Seth’s vision changed ever so slightly, allowing him to see a massive expanse of tunnels covering the depths of the land. Grabbing onto Aleena’s hand, Seth probed the space to make sure he wouldn’t teleport into the ground before opening a portal and walking with Aleena through it.

After covering Aleena’s eyes with his hand, Seth used his creation energy to light up the tunnel they ended up in and heaved a long sigh. Before he could warn Aleena, she removed his hand from her eyes, and her stomach churned at the state of the tunnel before her.

The tunnel walls were not formed out of earth as she expected, but of flesh with bones sticking out of it. Closing her eyes, Aleena grabbed Seth’s hand and asked: “What is this disgusting place?”

“Sigh… Panther’s core.”

“But this…”

Seth looked at the gruesome sight and started leading Aleena deeper through the tunnel as he said: “At the end of the age of horrors, the continent was split into 14 lands by the Council.”

“The lands of Death in the far north housed the source of death from the spirit well. The consciousness born inside was different than the horrors, so sealing it was impossible, which called for the strongest member of the Council to sacrifice himself to bind the creature from ever leaving the land. Eventually, after forming a contract with Thanatos upon his return from Noth, the lands of Death were turned into the Kingdom of Death, with Thanatos as king.”

“The lands of Love, straight south of Death, were the home of the same member that bound Death in place. They were left untouched by the others as a token of honor for his sacrifice and were named to symbolize his love for the human race.”

“The lands of Light, southwest of the lands of love, housed two horrors, which were killed by Soren using Noth’s strength, leaving the territory free to get taken over by him. Using the allure of eternal life granted by the weak consciousness of the treasure of life, he gathered people to his lands and named it the Kingdom of Life.”

“The lands of Hope, east of the lands of Light, housed the treasure of hope and its guardian. It also bordered the Lands of the Sun to the east, where Aegis, the Knight of the Sun, resided. If Death ever broke free from its constraints, Sun was supposed to use the treasure of Hope to fight it.”

“The lands of Dream, in the far west, housed a treasure with its guardian, as did the lands of Oath, all serving as preparations in case the horrors ever returned to the lands.”

“The lands of Blood housed the weakest and most reasonable of all horrors, the blood race, which was not sealed but warned by the Council to never show their faces above the earth.”

“The lands of Wrath were supposed to house a horror born out of pure destruction, but it broke out of its seal and killed the council member responsible for sealing it. When that happened, Raven hunted it down and eventually sealed it after a long fight inside the lands now carrying the name the horror gave itself, Noth.”

“The lands of Loss house Famine, a horror which is said to have been born out of the world’s chaos, suffering from eternal hunger. A seal in space was made by Worm to contain it.”

“The lands of Sorrow housed two horrors called dream hunters. They are said to feed on positive emotions, making every one of their victims fall into a deep sleep in which they will experience nothing but suffering.”

“The lands of Pain housed a sadistic horror that it’s said to grow stronger the more pain it inflicted. After the Kingdom of Pain was formed, the Council even intervened to make sure the people there would be the happiest on the continent, all so that the horror inside would have nothing to feed on….”

Seth sighed and looked around the walls before continuing: “And that leaves the lands of Horrors. After dividing the whole continent, the council left one of its biggest problems for last. In that age, the lands now known as the Kingdom of Curse were the meeting grounds of 31 of the weaker horrors.”

“While they were all contemplating the best course of action to deal with so many horrors, one of the youngest members of the Council, Panther, proposed they let her seal all those horrors.”

“Of course, no one wanted to agree to that, but after Panther explained that her lifespan was the largest of them all and that her element made her the best option when forming the seal, they had no choice but to agree. The council challenged the horrors occupying the lands of Curse, weakening them while Panther dove deep underground, expanding her core and creating the seal.”

“With the horrors weakened after the fight against the Council, Panther brought all the horrors deep into the earth, sealing them all inside her core.”

“After the seal was formed, the Council used Dream’s power to have people instinctively fear this place, only to stop them from setting up here and feeding the horrors inside.”

“Sadly, their plans didn’t work out forever as a few tribes, shunned from other places, eventually set up home on the lands of Curse and started involuntarily feeding the horrors hidden within.”

“The more power they got, the more they started pushing against the limits of their seal, appearing aboveground and gathering more sacrifices to increase their strength. With that, Panther’s seal, which was the core of her being, was slowly corrupted by the horrors. The horrors ate away at her lifespan and strength, and her core became what you see now.”

Aleena had opened her eyes at some point during Seth’s story, noticing a strange green fog extending from Seth’s feet, consuming the flesh and bones covering the walls.

Recognizing the fog’s origin, she waited for Seth to finish before asking hesitantly: “You brought Caitlin because you want to fight the horrors inside?”

“She’s more like a parasite that I can’t get rid of… And no, we can’t fight the horrors here. As much as I want to relieve Panther of her burden, it’s impossible even if we mobilized the whole of Endora to fight. We can only cleanse some corruption while searching for Panther’s consciousness.”

Grabbing Aleena’s hand, Seth looked straight ahead and said with a severe expression: “The horrors might have already felt our presence here, so whatever you do, never let go of my hand.”

Aleena nodded and even came closer to Seth, focusing on expanding her earth energy in search of Panther.