Chapter 126: The Second Function
Chittering clicks growled from mouths dripping with profuse, black liquid. Curses oozed from their taut, armoured limbs. Snapping their claws, the crab-esque Heathens clattered into each other as they climbed up the side of The Canary using the help of the crashing waves.
Correct.
Just as I was an existence that relied purely on Curses, Heathens, the damned of The Dark World, rely on Curses to spread their filth.
As a fellow Curse user, I could sense the density of Curses rushing through their bodies.
Defiler.
The First Step, they're all around that level of strength.
Once the first crab hopped onto the deck of the ship, the guttural chitinous screeches pulsed with faint shockwaves as they attempted to intimidate us.
Their eyes shot upwards towards Nemora and Hildekar with vile intrigue; Blessings.
Then, they moved their beady, slimy eyes over to me. Sensing the Cloak of Verdansk with its mixture of Curses and Blessings, they gleamed with glee-
Till they sensed it.
The Curses.
The Profaned.
Me.
I couldn't exactly see what their 'emotions' were like from their faces, but their eyes; they don't like what they're seeing.
That much is obvious.
They don't like my existence.
I'm not sure whether it's because I'm encroaching on their territory as a living and breathing Human, or whether it's because I'm an erronous existence that functions without Blessings, but either way-
"We're under attack on the deck. Chitinous creatures with claws and 6 appendages carrying them, each around the size of an overgrown bush. Strength estimate, First Step. Defiler."
Nemora's declaration came a beat later into my ears; into everyone's ears.
"You fuckers need help?" Vanessa asked.
"None required, Alora and I are enough to handle them. The Cloak of Verdansk can't be broken through by these Heathens. Hildekar, watch out for the stern of the ship; more could come from there."
Then, Nemora stepped past the helm, planted her foot on the rail, and jumped off and down to stand in front of the cabin door.
Taking a couple of steps forward, Nemora came to my side while the Heathens in question continued to screech and release their guttural cries.
It was loud enough to be heard over the cacophonous waves, but not loud enough to rupture our eardrums.
Uh.
Actually.
No normal soundwave is enough to rupture our eardrums anymore; we're at the Third Step, after all.
"Alora and I are enough to deal with these." Nemora muttered under her breath, but that confidence was conveyed to everyone nevertheless.
I had the subtle urge to quip back, stating that I, in fact, sucked at fighting and could barely pull off that movement technique that Hilda tried teaching me all those years ago; I'd almost forgotten just how useless I was at controlling my body...
Clicking my teeth, I decided to come up with another method of combat-
"Clack-! Grauu!!"
-but the clattering, shrieking crabs shot forth at us at surprising speeds. Just about 7 of them, one from almost every angle, darted at us in an attempt to tear us apart.
"Up we go."
And I was given no warning before Nemora picked me up by the collar of my shirt and jumped upwards.
The demented Heathens smashed into each other below us, sending a flourishing wave of air bursting outwards from the impact. Blood and broken, chitinous plates fell apart from the collision, but the creatures didn't seem to mind as they turned their heads upwards at us.
A glob of bubbling black liquid collected itself into their throats; oh, long-range attacks.
Hovering mid-air, Nemora's frosty green eyes crossed over to mine.
Really now?
I had been half-expecting Nemora to take care of the attack, but she...
She's testing me.
And I can't disappoint her now, can I?
Pulling the Book of Heresy into my hand in an instant, the pages swished open rapidly till they parted open to the final page. There, I twisted the book upside down, as though the final page were the first page.
The globs in the crustacean's mouths spat out towards us like darts at the same moment. They contorted into oval shapes as they slithered through the air.
And I-
I wrote.
Not an order.
But a story.
A tale.
[Alora of Light raises a dome of Curses, holding back the petty shots of the pathetic Heathens filling the deck of The Canary below her.]
The true power of the Book of Heresy.
Tales turned into reality.
The Book of Heresy has two functions that I know of.
Orders and Tales.
Orders are that, Orders.
Whereas Tales control me, Alora of Light, like a puppet.
Like a Perfect Cursed Doll.
And, control it did.
The Curses within me flowed out of my control and through my pores; they rushed beneath our feet into a black dome of shrieking souls imprinted on its surface.
Splat! Splat! Splat!
Impacts fired rapidly onto the dome but held little to no effect on its surface as the globs of Curses landed dully, then slipped off back down onto the collection of Heathens littered below us like ants.
And with that:
"Not bad." Nemora gave her approval.
Plucking me higher, so that I was face-to-face with her, Nemora nodded, then turned her eyes downwards. "Remember how I told you that you'd never be able to guess what my Manifestation is?"
Right?
"Oh~ She's doing the thing."
"Stop fucking explaining this bullshit in our ears, just get on with it."
Our in-ear spectators seemed to gush with 'expectation' as I observed Nemora raise her right hand-
"Arcana Manifestation, Type-Speech."
Mumbling, a swarm of Blessings and Curses swirled in front of her hand as she seemed to grip something. The Curses gave me a vague portrayal of its size, but unlike the Cloak of Verdansk, which made it easy to spot its form from the Curses, this Manifestation-
And Arcana?
I wasn't expecting that.
Nemora pulled whatever she was holding in her right hand over to her mouth.
A condensed bead of Blessings and Curses drew itself together in front of her open mouth as she parted her lips and uttered with unrelenting frost-
"Crush."
-Her voice blasted downwards with undulating shockwaves; a crushing, awe-inspiring wave of destruction bellowed downwards.
The crabs screeched as they scuttled backwards over the deck, their chittering limbs clattering together with faint panic.
Alas-
First came the rumble in the air surrounding us.
Then came a domed shockwave of absolute destruction pressing down on the miniature horde of Heathens littered below us.
It pressed down on them with extreme weight, contorting their chitinous armour and splattering their blood and bits of chitin across the deck with it.
Within seconds-!
SPLAT!
Silence.
A ring of silence enveloped the deck, followed by the trickle of mushed flesh and blood bubbling and pooling over the deck; the Heathens, no, the meat paste swayed with the bobbing of The Canary.
But then the sound of the thunderous waves returned, deafening the world once more.
While it might have seemed like it was over with that; Hildekar, they're coming up behind him.
Nemora and I glanced over at the silver-haired man. He had noticed the chitinous clattering and roars pulsing from behind him. The Heathens were climbing onto the quarterdeck relentlessly.
Hildekar didn't twitch.
He didn't turn.
The man ignored them.
Funnily enough, he didn't even bother talking to us or anything; he was focused on controlling the ship's rudder to continue stabilising the out-of-control vessel.
Hildekar was trusting us to take care of it for him.
"Take care of them."
...Or me.
Nemora spun with a graceful movement mid-air, then, clenching the hand holding onto my collar tightly and loosening her limbs, she tossed me.
Violently, carelessly, she threw me towards Hildekar to deal with the remainder of the Heathens sieging the ship.
Well, great.
Beaming through the air down at Hildekar's clueless face, I had to pause my brain for a moment to comprehend the ridiculous situation I was in.
This was meant to be a serious fight against some Heathens, but now...
Now, Nemora turned it into an Alora tossing game.
Shrugging my shoulders, I fluttered my Book of Heresy open instantly, opened the last page upside down, and-
[Alora lands on the quarterdeck of The Canary with a smooth flip, gently absorbing the aftershock of the impact with her Cursed body.]
-my body moved.
My legs, that had been dangling towards the sky, flipped forward as my body fixed itself the right way up.
Seconds later, the Curses within me flowed out methodically through my feet. The transfer of energy came at an unfathomably efficient rate, something that I was incapable of. The Curses rushed out of my boots and wrapped around my legs with blazing Cursed Flames; it's using fire to fight fire.
The methods were interesting. It utilised concepts I hadn't even thought of yet to accomplish what I wanted it to, and it did so using skills that I didn't have.
Just as I was about to collide with the surface of The Canary; I've never attempted two Tales in a row before. The last time I did this, the consequences came immediately. Is the Book of Heresy delaying it until I'm done?
That thought process was interesting, but-
Tap.
-I had landed.
Smoothly, gently, like an acrobat planting their feet upon a spongy mattress that absorbed their landing.
Standing behind Hildekar, I eyed the few Heathens that had made their way onto the quarterdeck. The damned creatures thrust themselves towards me immediately with their plumes of Curses pouring from their putrid bodies, whilst their claws clattered against each other and appendages pressed deep into the floor of The Canary.
My hand clasped the Quill of Heresy as, this time, I wrote my Tale manually.
[Alora reinforces her vessel with tame strength built to deal with Heathens of the First Step. Dashing into the midst of the Heathens, she dispatches them with clean movement.]
Then, I moved.
Not manually, but pulled forth by my Book of Heresy, pulled by the Tales carved into its accursed pages.