Chapter 30
The attack didn’t even land properly.
His spirit broke along with the dagger’s blade, and Bilha immediately hoisted Sigrin and ran.
This guy’s running speed is like a turtle, so carrying her is faster.
Whoosh!!
As another branch lunged fiercely at them, Bilha repositioned Sigrin to face backward.
“Sparkly, sparkly shield!”
“Are you crazy?? My looks don’t work on beasts!!”
“…?!”
Still, holding her to face backward let Sigrin warn Bilha of the Sapling’s incoming attacks.
“Bilha, top left! Top left! Top left attack! Aaaagh!!”
Whoooosh!!
The Sapling’s branch flew from the top left. Bilha ducked in the opposite direction, narrowly dodging.
Thankfully, his activated Core boosted his strength and agility significantly.
“Bilha! That way leads to the Stone Golem territory, which is worse! No, not that way either—that’s a dungeon with more Spirit Saplings!! Head back to the cave instead!”
Sigrin shouted, checking a map.
Expending all his energy fleeing, Bilha, the glass cannon, was weakening again.
The cave plants’ aura might obscure his presence again.
They’d put enough distance from the Sapling that they might escape its sight.
The cave’s entrance was blocked by tough, crisscrossing trees, making it hard for the Sapling to enter.
Following Sigrin’s words, Bilha hid inside the empty rock cave again.
They hid, but…
Eeeeeek!!
Bad luck—the cave plants’ aura couldn’t fully mask Bilha’s fading Core.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Spirit Sapling was tearing through the tough trees blocking the cave.
“Last words.”
Bilha set Sigrin down and said a word, looking as calm as someone watching to see what’d happen next.
“Don’t say ominous things. We’re not dying.”
Bilha showed Sigrin the broken dagger.
“Listen, we definitely have the ability to get out of this.”
Bilha showed her the broken dagger again.
…It did look pretty hopeless, but Sigrin pressed on.
“I’m telling you we do! You said you understood what a curse is, right?”
Desperately grasping at straws, Sigrin repeated everything she’d explained to Bilha over and over.
Hoping even a fragment of her words had stuck in his heart.
“The curse’s incantation array makes you strongly believe in the curse’s content. Tsk, in simple terms, the curse’s effects grow stronger when you start believing its content is true.”
“…”
Bilha widened his eyes to stay awake.
“You can’t take back spilled water, just like you can’t take back spoken words. So, there’s no concept of ‘breaking’ a curse. But…”
“…?”
“You can overwrite it with a blessing, the opposite of a curse.”
A blessing.
If a curse is words wishing misfortune on someone, a blessing is words wishing peace and happiness.
Since the curse is ingrained in the blood, you can’t fully escape it. But by believing in a bestowed blessing, you can fight the curse.
A blessing gives you a reason to deny the curse. It overlays a new language onto the cursed being.
“Honestly, since I don’t know the curse’s specifics, it might not have a big effect…”
Sigrin pulled out a parchment scroll she often used from her weapon case. It was inscribed with a blessing incantation array.
Shiiiik!!
The cave’s entrance was half-open.
Sigrin unfurled the scroll in front of Bilha’s face.
‘The curse on Bilha was meant for his serial killer-robber parents. If he feels pain every time he uses his abilities, what was the caster’s intent?’
Damn it, I don’t know.
Improv.
…Bilha’s strength was given to protect people.
Sigrin cautiously spoke.
When using an incantation array, a mystical power infuses the voice, producing a soft, beautiful sound.
As the blessing began, the scroll with the incantation array glowed brightly and started burning.
Light particles from the blessing scroll enveloped Sigrin and Bilha.
As Bilha grows stronger, he’ll help many people…
Bilha couldn’t take his eyes off Sigrin.
The scroll’s light shone around her, making her the only beacon in the dark cave.
The contrast made her glow even more.
…His pain will end, and his life will be filled with peace and happiness.
“…”
The blessing’s words turned into glowing letters, adhering to Bilha’s skin and seeping in.
Bilha stared blankly at Sigrin, then tried to grasp the vanishing light particles.
He watched the glowing letters on his body until they disappeared.
Even after they faded, he lingered, lost in the afterglow.
Then he looked up at Sigrin.
Light fragments from the shattered scroll surrounded her.
Sparkly, sparkly.
She was truly a radiant girl.
“…!”
As the scroll’s light faded, a new belief, contradicting his old one, suddenly etched itself deep in his heart.
An inexplicable resistance and fear welled up to his throat, making him tilt his head.
The sensation in his throat tasted like nauseatingly greasy butter.
Like the time he secretly ate it and got beaten half to death.
Bilha instinctively swallowed, pushing the feeling down.
He knew it was precious, even if it was revolting.
“Phew, looks like the blessing’s content somewhat counters the curse.”
Sigrin checked Bilha’s Core with the Eye of Ether.
A Core the size of a forearm was emitting an immense amount of Ether.
Suppressing such a rampant Core would be tough, but amplifying it wouldn’t be.
Sigrin wrapped Chemforce around Bilha’s broken dagger and threw it toward his Core.
‘Grow, grow, Core.’
Bilha’s Core blazed even stronger.
The overuse of power left a metallic taste of blood in her mouth, but Sigrin swallowed the hot, bitter sensation.
“So, feel like saying your last words now?”
Sigrin took the Etherib from Bilha’s bag, tied it to his town sash at his lower abdomen, and wrapped it tightly.
“…Heh.”
Shhh.
Bilha gripped his bladeless dagger and Sigrin’s dagger. Sand mixed with ash leaked from his sandbags.
“Challenge!”
“Alright, challenge!”