CHAPTER 426: C.I.B. AGENTS: MARCUS AND BERRY

Marcus and his partner Berry watched the back of the figure that broke their fall and carried them separately on either of his shoulders to god knows where, while the blood-red hummingbird-shaped Curseling followed him, with a grim light in their eyes knowing that they had fallen for the enemy’s ambush.

The worst part was their enemy was a curse charmer. Seeing how the hummingbird-shaped Curseling obediently followed him, it had to be. Or else there were more than one hostile, and they were being carried to their nearby base. Not letting the fear of the dark future that awaited them after being captured by their enemy conquer his mind, paralysed Marcus tried to observe the hummingbird-shaped Curseling whenever it entered his field of vision.

He couldn’t think of a Curseling with powerful stealth ability and paralysis-type curse ability capable of sneaking on two Sky-tier curse masters and paralysing them to where they couldn’t move their eyeballs along with their body’s curse circuit. Making it difficult for them to circulate curse energy from their curse core into their body. Not being able to circulate curse energy meant he couldn’t use his innate curse tool, let alone use his curse abilities and skills.

’Is it a regional Curseling specifically found in their country?’ Marcus wondered, unable to figure out the identity of the Curseling, but soon he shook his head rejecting that thought believing, ’No, that shouldn’t be the case because if it were a regional Curseling specifically found in another country they would have added it to the watch list and I would have heard of it.

’This means it is from the depths of the ’World of Curses’ or bred by the Curse Charmer. A sky-tier curse caster and a sky-tier curse charmer along with three sky-tier curse masters, who the heck are these guys? Who do they work for? Why attack a heavily guarded but insignificant town of all the important places in the country?’

Marcus’s mind was a mess realizing that they seriously underestimated the curse terrorists. They should have guessed that considering how brazenly the curse terrorists took over the small town despite the presence of both the C.I.B. and the local tyrant, the McSuile family, they must have had a backup plan in place.

However, that thought never crossed their minds because they didn’t think the curse terrorists would be this prepared within their country. In the past or in their recent encounter, the curse terrorists never showed any sign of retreat and always fought till death unless their mission was complete. So, the question of the curse terrorists having a backup plan was never considered after they captured them alive.

’Well, there is always a first for everything, I guess,’ Marcus thought to sooth himself, not letting the guilt from this mistake weigh him down right now of all times because he couldn’t afford it. For his and his partner’s sakes, he had to be at his hundred percent. He could whine all he wanted to after they made it out of here alive.

Also, Marcus did not blame EAD Matthews for this oversight because prisoner transport was his job. He should have considered the possibility of an ambush lying in wait and requested additional personnel. He had completed such transport jobs multiple times without any hiccup but today his mistake might cost him two lives.

Marcus awakened from his thoughts, seeing their captor descend into a hill and enter a narrow cave. Soon, they were thrown on the ground, giving Marcus a glance at their captor’s face from the corner of his eyes as the captor bent over to pat down Berry, searching him thoroughly. However, his mouth and head were wrapped in a black scarf, except for his beady brown eyes he got nothing worth noting.

Marcus then looked around the cave in the darkness he couldn’t make out much, but he confirmed that his assumption was right. The curse charmer was working alone, but that didn’t help increase their odds because a sky-tier curse charmer alone was equal to a small army of curse users.

Not finding what he was searching for on Berry, the captor began to pat Marcus down until he found an empty gun holster hanging by his armpit under his windbreaker. As their captor grabbed it, Marcus’s eyes turned stern. If he could, he would do everything in his power to keep it from their captor, but he was helpless.

Taking the empty holster, the captor’s eyes twinkled with joy as he signalled the hummingbird-shaped Curseling. It flew over and pecked its slender but long beak into the holster and manoeuvred its beak as if picking a lock. Seeing this, Marcus’s heart jumped into his throat, fearing the worst.

Soon a loud clicking was heard, and with that the empty holster began to spit out objects of various shapes and sizes. The crystal orb containing the curse terrorists was among them. Picking up the orb the captor freed the curse terrorists out of it.

Appearing in the cave, the captain of the curse terrorist group immediately ordered, "Nazir, remove these cuffs. I will die if I go without curse energy for one more second."

Nazir nodded and signalled his hummingbird-shaped Curseling, which hopped on one curse suppression cuff to another after picking their lock like it did with Marcus’s empty holster.

"Finally! It felt like an eternity in there," the curse terrorist group’s captain exclaimed aloud, rubbing his wrist as he walked out of the cave, stretching his legs.

"Nazir, what are you doing out here?" Banner asked suspiciously as only their team of four were assigned to this task. Not to mention, Nazirs were to watch over ‌their respective bases, not roam in a foreign country.

"Did the Elder send you to protect his nephew?" Egger guessed, knowing the true identity of their captain wasn’t as simple as the nephew of one of their organization’s elders. This was why he didn’t dare to stand up to their captain despite him testing his never on numerous occasions. If it were some other power-mad ash-hole, he would have cursed him to shit from his mouth for the rest of his life.

As a Sky-tier curse caster, Egger was valued in their organization. Even someone in an elder position wouldn’t offend him without a proper reason. The elder was doing his best to help his nephew climb their organisation’s ranks in order to tie the interest of his nephew’s family to their organization. Egger believed that the other elders and higher up knew this but acted ignorant to avoid blame if things went south.

The Nazir did not answer either of their questions, instead eyed Egger and pointed at his captives, the two Sky-tier C.I.B. agents, Marcus and Berry.

Feeling Nazir’s eyes grow colder with every passing second, waiting for his response, Egger hurriedly assured him, "I will use them as a sacrifice to complete the mission, ensure all credit will go to our captain, and nobody will know you were here."

Egger was loud and detailed so that Banner and David knew what they had to do.

Listening to Egger, the Nazir nodded but showed no sign of leaving. Just then, their captain rushed in yelling, "No, you are going to use them to curse that damn town and all of the curse users in it with a heart-wrenching plague. For what they put me through, I want to hear their cries of agony and pain from here, up this hill. I don’t give a damn if we failed this mission. I just want that entire town to suffer like I did."

"Didn’t you hear me? Get to it!" the curse terrorist group’s captain yelled, pointing at Egger. The pain and agony he suffered as his curse energy burned within his body’s curse circuit was still fresh in his mind, and right now all he cared about was getting even. Their cause be damned. If he could he would personally massacre the entire damn town but he couldn’t so he can only order Egger and the Nazir to do it on his behalf.