Replicus turned aghast at the sight.
The figure trapped within the crystal, was humanoid, spotting sandy skin. It seemed to be an Ardent Curse indeed, but with six arms instead of four, and three mouths instead of two – two above and one below – evidenced by the dense lines on its face.
It was adorned in a cloak, much like Thrill, Dander and Musing, but it's own was made of the three colours. Blue, gold and silver.
As if any of these features, signals rather, weren't foreboding enough, Replicus could see that this trapped figure had not one, but SIX wands, each hand it had wielding one with a firm grip.
If it weren't for the fact that the Curse was frozen while seated on a gorgeous chair larger than its own body, the Penetrator would have thought this figure was frozen while in the midst of battle because of the how its arms seemed to aim in different directions.
'Is that the Cluster General? Are they trying to set it free?' Replicus thought.
The cords of white sprung from the wands rallied towards the large crystal and were absorbed into it immediately.
Those who could see grew more nervous than before.
What now?
Would that treacherous being suddenly break the crystalline casing and emerge with its full strength, invulnerable and invincible like its kin?
The moment the cords made contact, the large crystal... grew by at least 1.5 times before groaning, as though it had solidified further than before. A pulse of energy shot from it, announcing the completion of a milestone unknown to the non-natives.
'What?' Replicus could have frowned deeply if he could.
The Ardent Curses sensed the pulse of energy and an unmistakable look, and sound of relief registered from each of them.
Thrill gave a nod, and Musing punched the air.
The Faction members and leaders were confused.
Scattered as they were, some hadn't even gotten the slightest idea as to what was going on.
BOOOOF!
A loud noise stole the attention away.
A massive ship had materialised within the ravine and fallen to diamond river below which held its weight well.
Upon its bowsprit, Eaniss emerged, still decked in her peach-coloured, flaming armour. Aurolio stood behind her.
She looked up at the Curses who had curiously reached the edge of the ravine to look down.
"You're a crafty bunch, but I reckon you don't know the value of this place in our world's terms," she called with a smirk. "Or perhaps you do. How much did the masked man tell you?"
...!
Thrill grinned doubly at her words while those who hadn't realised from the tidbit hint he had thrown in his declaration moments ago, scowled.
'Of course,' Replicus thought darkly.
Of course the masked man would have put them up to this and shared some information with them, but...
'How in the world did he have the time? There's no way he's more than a few hours ahead of us. Did he patiently stop to talk to them... No. Damn, it's obvious. He just sent an undead. The Curses probably tried to pull the same trick they did on us on him too and took the chance to set a greater trap for us...'
Thrill cackled.
"Ah, he told us more than we needed to capture his pursuers. Your Auras, your Genuine Incarnations, your potions, your compulsion, your Territories. We have a lot in common, yet there is also an equal measure of things you have that would certainly prove effective against us. Thankfully, we prepared adequately."
"I see..."
It wasn't Eaniss who spoke this time.
It was a man with a circular jewel of black and white around his neck. He and his crew stood on the opposite side of the ravine, away from the Curses, much like the others.
"If the masked man sent you, he might be content with merely buying himself time. He isn't underestimating us as I initially thought..." the man said with a cold look at Thrill who laughed and pointed his wand at him.
"Some of you are still delusional enough to believe that you have the upper hand, it seems. This is our home ground. You are yet to feel it perhaps, but there is a reason we evolved to replaced our eyes."
The man with black and white jewel wore a smirk.
"Upper hand? Why, we have more than that. Not only are we finally free to use space as we wish, you've just shown us a weakness of yours."
Thrill frowned deeply. He immediately read what the Faction leader meant.
"You must truly be terrified of that thing you've locked up in there," the man pointed vaguely the direction of the gazebo with his thumb. "You store emotions with your wands – from everything you attack – and use them offensively... or feed them to that entrapment, right? Is that also the real reason you killed the rest of your kind?"
A portion of the colour in Thrill's face drained quite a bit and his frown... frowns, turned deeper. Dander looked particularly red at the moment while Musing chucked nervously.
Their reaction confirmed the bejewelled Faction leader's words, which caused no small stir among the other Factions.
"They collect emotions?" Allora said with unease.
"I was kind of buying that previous story, but with what we've seen now..." Grim said with his red eyes constricting to focus on the crystal far away through his helmet, "...it makes a lot of sense."
Replicus merely pondered silently.
"HA! Friendly fire! They did friendly fire!" the Mad Bishop, who hadn't made a loud, senseless comment in a while screamed with joy while being held back by her heavily masculine guards.
"SO WHAT?!" Dander raged furiously, his voice echoing over the gold. "You're going to try and free HIM? Don't make me laugh! Have you any idea how much effort it took to create the Inviolable Crystalline Prison? Not even all of us combined could break it at this point!"
Musing laughed nervously.
"We may be enemies, but trust us, you don't want to free HIM. He's a devil. He could destroy your world in a heartbeat," he advised.
The man with the jewel chortled.
"We specialise in killing world-ending devils," he said before turning to the crystal. "And we have yet to meet something we couldn't break."
Despite the confidence Dander had expressed in the integrity of what he called the Inviolable Crystalline Prison, the Faction leader's words shook him.
He, much like the rest of his kind, then felt an immense sense of foreboding when two men – one with a fine robe and the other, a smirking beefcake – beside the Faction leader reached in close, grabbed his shoulder... and warped away from the spot.
"Kill them!" Thrill shrieked for the second time in the last few minutes, causing the Ardent Curses to desperately start shooting off jets of multi-coloured energies everywhere!
They were frantic.
They were panicking.
If... if these madmen actually managed to free that... that....THING, then it was all over.
They had to harvest their prey's emotions and then kill them before it was too late.
Dander shockingly soared through the air, attaining the power of flight after waving his wand, behind him dozens of his fellow Curses who shared the same desperate motive.
Musing headed instead for the rest of the Factions, most of whom shot long ranged attacks at him to not avail.
Thrill leapt down into the ravine to face Eaniss.
Chaos ensued tremendously.
Bits of gold were blown apart every millisecond.
The precious minerals slowly lost their allure in the squinting eyes of the Severed Union participants. The threat of the Curses was too immense to handle with a half-hearted stance.
Replicus and his group were not spared this time.
The Curses that could fly hurtled towards them with malevolent intent, aiming to steal their emotions as well!
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