Chapter 156 - 158: Gander, The Curse Mage

Words : 1629 Updated : Sep 29th, 2025

The scent of incense lingers in the air, mixing with the sweet aroma of wine. Silk drapes flutter softly in the dim glow of lanterns, casting golden light across the king's vast private chamber. King Rewalt reclines on a mountain of velvet cushions, his tunic half-undone, the glint of sweat on his chest betraying the weight of his recent frustrations. His fingers lazily trace the curve of the woman straddling his lap—one of his favorite concubines, a raven-haired beauty. She leans into him, her lips trailing across his throat, her voice a soft purr. "Let me take the burden from your mind, my king... Just for a while." His hand tightens around her hip. "You always know exactly when I need you," he murmurs, voice low, worn with exhaustion. "These damned monsters... endless reports, council squabbles. Even the wine doesn't taste like it used to." She chuckles, arching her back as her hands slip behind his neck. "Then let me be your escape." Her movements are slow and teasing, her eyes fixed on him as she sways gently. The sounds of pleasure and whispered promises fill the chamber, muffled only by the silk canopy above the bed. Rewalt groans, tension melting from his shoulders as he sinks deeper into the moment. For once, the weight of his crown doesn't feel quite so crushing. Then—a knock. Sharp. Urgent. The king's brow furrows. Again. "Your Majesty! An emergency report—it cannot wait!" comes a voice from the other side of the heavy oak door. Rewalt growls under his breath. "Now?" The concubine stills on his lap, giving him a worried glance. "Shall I send them away?" He exhales deeply, his mood souring. "No. If someone's knocking here... it's serious." He adjusts his robe and motions for her to step aside. She does, quietly wrapping herself in a silk shawl and vanishing behind a privacy curtain. "Enter," Rewalt commands. The doors swing open. A young royal messenger rushes in, breathless, dirt and ash still clinging to his cloak. The boy kneels immediately. "Forgive me, Your Majesty, but I was told to bring this directly to you—without delay." Rewalt steps down from the dais, tying his robe tighter, a storm already brewing in his eyes. "Speak, boy. What is it?" The messenger swallows hard. "Ordeya has fallen, sire. Queen Seraphina... is dead." For a moment, the room itself seems to still—only the distant crackle of the fireplace dares to break the silence. "...What did you say?" he asks, voice low, almost a whisper. The messenger lowers his head further, trembling under the weight of the news. "Marshal Medren was slain in battle. The queen activated their final weapon... but it was nullified. The monsters have taken the capital. Ordeya has... collapsed, Your Majesty." Rewalt's lips part slightly, as if to speak—but no words come. He stares past the boy, eyes unfocused, chest rising and falling with slow, shallow breaths. Rewalt slowly sinks into a chair by the fire, his face pale as the heat of the moment bleeds out of him. He leans forward, elbows on knees, his fingers steepled against his lips. Silence thickens. "...In just one day..." he murmurs. "And Ordeya... all gone." The concubine emerges from behind the curtain, shawl clutched to her chest. "My king?" she whispers, hesitant to approach. Rewalt lifts his head slowly, eyes filled with a rare dread. "Do you know what kind of power Seraphina wielded?" His voice is raw now, tinged with fear. "Ordeya had a trump card that even I feared. A divine weapon left from the first king—Sorrow's End. And it was destroyed. Overpowered." He slams his fist onto the armrest. The crack echoes through the chamber. "What in the gods' names is that monster?" The messenger dares a quiet breath. "The report claims he summoned a shield. Something that absorbed the blast." He mutters, more to himself than to the others, "Should I send word across the sea... ask the other continents for aid?" The concubine kneels beside him, eyes full of concern. "Would they answer, Your Majesty?" A bitter smirk touches Rewalt's lips. "They see us as nothing more than a stubborn old mountain kingdom. They'd laugh at our plea—if they answered at all." Silence stretches. Then Rewalt rises to his feet, his robe falling open slightly as he towers over the firelight. "I won't beg." His voice is cold steel now. "But I won't wait to be next either. Send a raven to the eastern watch. I want every scout watching the border." He turns to the messenger. "Bring me the head of the court mages. Now." The boy bows and bolts from the room. ---- At Blackfall City—the once-proud heart of Ordeya—its grand palace now sits under a new banner. Silk banners bearing the sigil of Alix's kingdom hang from towering pillars. The throne chamber is silent, save for the creak of armor and the occasional shallow breath. Alix sits on the high throne, carved from obsidian and veined with crimson light pulsing like a heartbeat. He leans slightly to one side, one hand resting on the armrest, the other draped casually over his leg. His eyes are half-lidded, but sharp with awareness. Before him, kneeling in a line, are Ordeya's surviving nobles—dukes, barons, aging uncles of Seraphina. The proud bloodline now bowed and trembling. Some dare not even raise their heads. Fear coils through them like smoke, thick and suffocating. Alix speaks. His voice is soft, but it cuts through the silence like a blade. "Raise." The nobles hesitate. Then, slowly, shakily, one by one, they lift their heads and stand, their eyes flicking up to the throne. None dare speak first. Alix studies them in silence for a moment longer, letting the weight of it press down. "You call yourselves the blood of Ordeya," he says, voice calm but charged. "And yet here you are. Kneeling before the very man who shattered your walls." A few flinch. One older noble, perhaps Seraphina's uncle, clenches his jaw, his pride warring with fear. Alix's gaze falls on him. "Speak." The man clears his throat, struggling to steady himself. "W-We did not fight you, Your Majesty. We remained in the capital to protect the people... after Queen Seraphina activated the artifact—" "—And failed," Alix finishes, tone even. Silence. The nobles lower their gazes again. "But I am not here to waste lives," Alix continues. "I am here to build something stronger. And you"—his eyes sweep over them—"you will serve me now. Or you will serve no one." A younger noble, perhaps too naive or too desperate, dares a question. "And... what would you have of us, Your Majesty?" Alix smiles faintly. Not cruel—but cold, resolute. "Loyalty. Obedience." Alix's gaze lingers on the nobles a moment longer. Then, with calm finality, he says a single word: "Gander." A ripple of unease passes through the nobles as the heavy silence is broken by the soft scrape of metal-tipped claws against polished stone. From the shadows near the side of the throne, a figure emerges—tall, hunched, draped in layers of tattered black and violet robes stitched with bone fragments and dried sinew. His long limbs move with deliberate, unnatural grace. The flickering lantern light reveals pale, papery skin stretched over a wiry frame, bones pressing visibly beneath. Gander's head is a grotesque mask of patchwork flesh, sewn together with black thread. A rusted bronze circlet floats just above his bald scalp, not touching him, suspended by some unseen force. Where his eyes should be, two small orbs of glowing green mist hover in empty sockets, flickering and pulsing like trapped souls. In his gnarled hand, he clutches a tall staff—its shaft twisted like charred wood, topped by a bleached human skull whose jaw occasionally twitches as if it remembers how to scream. Faint whispers hiss from the skull as Gander moves, in a language no living noble understands. [Status Window – Gander] Race: Unknown Class: Curse Mage Level: 625 Tier: 6 Title: Whisper of Decay Affinity: Necrosis, Binding Rites, Soulbrand The nobles instinctively shrink back as Gander steps into view, the air around him growing colder, heavier. Even the torches dim slightly. Alix gestures lazily toward the nobles without rising. "This is Gander," he says. "One of my most loyal subordinates. He specializes in curses—old, binding ones. The kind that ignore walls, bloodlines, and prayers." Gander stops at the center of the hall. He turns his eyeless gaze toward the nobles, who now stand stiff as statues, sweat beading down their necks. Alix continues, voice smooth as silk drawn over a blade. "Each of you will be marked. It is not pain that comes first—no. Pain comes later. At first, you'll feel nothing. Perhaps a tug when you lie. A chill when you think of treason. But if you act against me—" He pauses, then finishes coolly. "You'll die. Swiftly. Horribly. In front of everyone you've ever loved." One noble lets out a quiet gasp. Another mutters a prayer under his breath. None dare move. Gander raises his staff, and the skull at its tip groans, its eye sockets alight with malevolent green. "I bind thee," Gander intones, voice rasping like dry leaves dragging across stone. "Soul to oath. Flesh to will. Mind... to consequence." Dark runes flicker to life beneath each noble's feet, pulsing and climbing up their bodies in jagged, ethereal trails before vanishing beneath the skin. One noble cries out as the curse sears into his flesh—but Gander does not pause. When the final sigil fades, Gander lowers his staff. Silence falls again. Alix's voice is calm. "There. Now we understand each other."

Chapter 156 - 158: Gander, The Curse Mage

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