Free Web NovelChapter 85: Old Memories
The magic circle used by Mari Dundragon was useless for actually identifying curses, because curses were practically undetectable if they didn’t have clear symptoms, so some curses were able to grow slowly like tumors.
If the only way to identify a curse was to know its effects in order to be able to act effectively against it, Victor Shieldman was screwed, because he couldn’t say out loud that he was capable of returning from death.
For this reason, Mari decided to use a magic circle to infiltrate Victor’s soul and memories. Using this method, she could see from his perspective the effects of the curse that afflicted him.
However, when Mari actually entered Victor’s mind, she realized that his soul was like a great storm. Multiple visions unfolded before Mari’s eyes, transporting her to different moments in the hero’s past, important moments within his memories, and at the same time she felt like she was falling over and over again.
"If I keep falling like this, I feel like I’m going to stay in this loop here forever!" She said to herself.
Mari then crossed her fingers and then spread them apart, creating a small tear in that storm of memories with her magic.
"Yes, it worked!"
Without hesitation, she jumped into the tear she had created and suddenly found herself at the edge of a courtyard. As she stood up, she slapped her hands on her pants, instinctively cleaning them, and then heard voices.
"Go on, get him!"
"Are you guys taking it easy by any chance?"
She then looked in the direction of the voices, across the courtyard, and saw a young black-haired boy, carrying only a wooden sword, in front of three adult clerics.
"Who is..." She was about to ask, but stopped herself. "Of course it’s Victor, it can only be him. These are his memories."
Mari was right, that was Victor at the age of fifteen. He was wearing white training clothes, like those of a Church of the Dawn acolyte.
At fifteen, Victor was at the height of his puberty, so he was tall and his muscles were bigger.
Mari even blushed at the sight of this young man, but not because of his appearance, she wasn’t someone who cared about that. Victor had incredible dexterity with his sword, moving with agility and precision against the clerics’ light magic attacks.
"Damn, he’s faster than I expected." A cleric said, after having several of his attacks dodged.
"It doesn’t matter how fast he is, otherwise he can touch us!" One of Victor’s opponents said and with his staff made multiple blocks of light appear over the young man’s head.
Victor immediately jumped back and once again showed his tremendous agility, using multiple pirouettes to dodge the three heavy blocks that fell in succession.
"He’s improving fast..." The third cleric gritted his teeth and admitted.
Fighting three clerics at the same time without being able to use magic was quite a challenge for Victor, but the serious look on the young man’s face reflected his total concentration on the fight.
The cleric mages were no less impressive. They could all cast holy spells of at least Advanced level, if not higher. The thunderous sound of their spells echoed through the courtyard, but they were no nuisance.
Mari watched all this with fascination and concern. She saw the fierce determination in Victor’s eyes, the burning desire to prove his strength and skill against powerful opponents. However, she could also see the exhaustion building up in his young body, the muscles beginning to show signs of fatigue under the constant pressure of the spells.
"Victor, you need to protect yourself more!" Mari shouted as loudly as she could, putting her hands to her mouth to help her voice reach him.
"He can’t hear you," said a thick voice from behind her.
When Mari turned around, she saw old Victor, the same one who was with her in the lab. Mari frowned, understanding the explanation, but still feeling tempted to motivate him, because it all seemed so real. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
"I know... It’s just a memory, right?" She looked once more at the young version of Victor, who continued to fight the clerics with fervor, and finally turned her gaze back to the old Victor. "So, something tells me this isn’t where we’ll find the traces of your curse, how do we get out of here?"
Victor stretched his hand forward briefly and, in that simple gesture, an invisible doorknob formed in his hand, as if carved from the very mist of memories. He turned the knob and a door materialized in the air, revealing a dark and unknown corridor beyond it.
"Come on, we’re a long way from the memories we need to find," said old Victor, indicating the door. ƒгeewebnovёl.com
Mari agreed and was about to go through the door first when suddenly the sound of laughter echoed loudly across the courtyard.
"Who’s laughing?" She asked, turning around.
Old Victor raised an eyebrow, indicating that he was also listening to the distant laughter. "They’re voices from the past, it doesn’t matter, let’s go. They’re not real, not anymore."
Despite what Victor said, Mari looked back and saw two people at the edge of the fight yard, joining the other cheering spectators. These two were Philipe and Aria, laughing amongst themselves as they watched Victor try to fight the clerics.
"He’s still trying to pass this test after failing it three times?" commented Philipe, crossing his arms. "There’s no point in that."
The blonde-haired girl next to him, Aria, laughed, agreeing with her friend. "He should be more considerate of other people’s time. The clerics need to maintain the barrier around this temple. He can’t keep calling them out every day to try to do this test."
"Those are the heroes Philipe and Aria, aren’t they? Why are they being such... assholes?"
Old Victor sighed, his gaze lost for a moment. "We didn’t get along... Anyway, they’re just memories, Mari. It doesn’t matter anymore, we have work to do."
With no time to lose, Victor stepped through the ethereal door in front of them.
Mari, even though she wanted to see how this memory she was in would unfold, didn’t want to be left behind, so she followed Victor into the door.
When they were both through, the door behind them closed and they found themselves inside a dark forest.
"Where are we now?" Mari asked.
"I don’t know. I’ve been in a lot of forests at night," said Victor seriously. "Apparently, I can’t control where we’re going."
"Look, there’s a light up ahead." she suggested, pointing to an orange light in the middle of the night forest. "Should we check it out?"
Victor agreed and they moved cautiously towards the source of the light. When they finally reached where the light was, they were in for a bit of a surprise.
A small fire was producing the light and, around this fire, a man with very white hair and also a girl with pointed ears and shoulder-length blonde hair were sitting. They were quiet, but seemed content as they looked at some fish roasting on the edge of the fire.
This man was a slightly younger version of Victor and the girl was his daughter, Wanda, when she was just ten years old.
"Dad, when are you finally going to teach me how to play the guitar?" Wanda asked, pointing to the wooden instrument near the bags.
"When you’re big enough to hold one. You’re still too small." Victor replied jokingly.
"Oh, that’s not fair. You let me come goblin hunting with you, but you won’t let me play a guitar? What kind of father are you?"
"Hmm. Maybe you’re right. All right, come over here by my side."
The younger Victor, in his forties, picked up the guitar, rested the larger part, which was called the body, on one of his thighs and the thinner end, which was the neck, he held with his left hand.
Victor then began strumming the guitar strings, producing a soft, familiar melody while explaining a few notes.
Mari noticed an expression of pure joy on Wanda’s face, as her bright, curious eyes watched her father’s every move intently, focused on learning. Finally, Mari looked at the older Victor beside her and saw how this was a clear memory of his happiness, an instant of innocence lost only to the inevitable passage of time.
