1073: Phyllius's Reasons

「I’m done for… Cough.」

Flut vomited a pool of blood as he fell to the ground on his side. Bune’s manifestation had already been canceled, yet the knife remained stuck in his back.

「Flut! Maximum Heal!」

Fran cast a spell to heal Flut, but it barely had any effect on his wound. The curse flowing into Flut from the knife seems to prevent healing.

Still, Fran refused to stop trying. She cast Maximum Heal again and again.

「It won’t work… Fran.」

「It will work!」

Flut looked remarkably calm despite his life force and mana diminishing at a frightening rate.

My appraisal revealed that Flut was in a state of “Curse Contamination”. This is my first time seeing such a thing, but that doesn’t sound good. The knife apparently had the “Demon Slayer” property, so maybe it was designed to counter the demon summoners of Phyllius.

We tried anticurse and antidote spells, but neither had any effect. Those infused with the divine attribute worked slightly, but not enough to actually lift the curse. We only managed to slow down the pace at which the curse advanced.

Flut’s life force and mana levels continued declining.

Either way, this “Demon Slayer” thing must be what is eating away at him.

「Maximum Heal!」

「Fran, listen to me.」

「No, don’t talk!」

「Please… I want you to hear this.」

「…Nn.」

Flut began explaining his situation in spite of his condition. While still in intense pain, Flut seemingly had every intention of continuing until the bitter end. Fran didn’t try to stop him again.

And from his story, we found out that Raydoss had struck at Phyllius as well.

However, Raydoss targeted them with a large-scale ritual curse instead of direct invasion by military force. They made use of the mana flows running deep underground known as leylines, covering a specific region in a curse that drains the vitality from everything living there.

Not only had their citizens lost their vitality, but their fields started going barren. The damage was apparently substantial despite still being in the early stages. If left unchecked, the country was in danger of complete collapse.

「And the root cause lies in this village…」

「Root?」

「Yeah… that…」

Flut barely managed to move his trembling arm, pointing to the center of the square. A huge magic stone had been planted there.

「That is… what maintains the accursed spell… killing our people…」

I thought Flut was the one who installed it there, but it was actually Raydoss!

In other words, Raydoss conquered the village first and activated the curse using the villagers as living mana batteries. However, Phyllius somehow managed to trace the curse back to its source, then stole possession of the village.

Though they initially thought the curse was Kranzel’s doing, they eventually realized it was Raydoss-made after analyzing the magic stone. That explains why Rayus attacked us when he heard we were from Kranzel. He still believed Kranzel was the enemy.

In addition, I think the presence of Flut and Satia played a role in why Rayus wanted to eliminate Fran. Regardless of their reasons, a foreign nation’s royalty was violating Kranzel’s borders. They wanted to conceal this fact as much as possible.

Erasing a single adventurer is a small price to protect the reputation of his nation. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was his line of thinking.

「Fran, you need to run.」

「?」

While still gasping for breath, Flut grabbed Fran’s hand and gave her a warning.

「The curse will soon… reach full activation.」

「What happens then?」

「I can’t say for sure… Only that it will be something very bad… for both my nation and this village…」

It seems Flut and his companions had attempted to destroy the magic stone with their demonic powers, and prevent the curse from reaching full activation. But in the end, they could not even scratch the surface with the full extent of their strength.

Moreover, the villagers had a magical connection to the stone. The flow of mana wouldn’t stop even if they were separated from it.

The fact that they were gathered in the square and restrained to prevent them from escaping suggests that keeping them closer makes things more efficient. However, it seems simply taking them out of the village isn’t enough to escape this connection to the magic stone.

Judging by what we heard from Flut, the activation was drawing near. I doubt we have enough time to try running with the villagers at this point.

（Master.）

『I knew you would stay.』

Of course, Fran refused to run by herself.

She walked to the magic stone and held her right hand in front of it. Nothing happened.

「Mm?」

『Pretty much expected, it won’t be as easy as storing it.』

We attempted to use dimensional storage to isolate the magic stone, but that didn’t work.

「Hmph!」

『Doryaaaah!』

「…Won’t budge.」

『Yeah.』

Fran and I tried to lift the stone, but again it refused to move. Rather than a matter of the stone’s weight, it seemed to have a magical effect fixating its location.

「In that case… Hah!」

Fran slammed the magic stone with an overhead slash, a very powerful blow. Yet the stone withstood it without a single scratch. It seems to have incredibly high defense against both magical and physical attacks.

Actually, I remember a similar feeling from before.

『Remember the magic stone weapons Zelyse installed at the lake to revive the Great Beast?』

（Nn. Those were tough.）

『I think this one is pretty close. At the very least, it seems to be enhanced in a incredibly similar manner.』

The flow of mana matched too, as well as the smell. Not that I have a nose, but my gut was telling me both these tools shared the same creator.

I don’t have any proof, but this means Zelyse might be involved here. Well, I can’t say for sure if Sword Zelyse made it, or the human one did it before he died.

Either way, destroying it will be very difficult via any ordinary means. If it wasn’t for us, that is.

After all, we’ve already successfully destroyed them before.

（I won’t let Raydoss have its way.）

『Yeah! Not with me, the natural predator of magic stones, on the job!』

「Nn!」

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