Chapter 427: Sealing Curseling: Lockey

The other team members and Nazir looked at their supposed captain like looking at a clown. They clearly did not take his words seriously and waited for him to come to his senses and give them an explanation, but to their surprise he doubled down, demanding, “Didn’t you hear me? Get to it!”

The Nazir, losing his patience, signaled his Curseling. It shot towards the group’s captain at incredible speed. Before the group’s captain could react, the hummingbird-shaped Curseling pecked its slender beak into the nape of his neck and manoeuvred it like a key locking a lock. Soon, the captain fell to the ground face first with an expression of disbelief and realization frozen on his face, just like the rest of the cells in his body.

Seeing this, Banner and David understood that their captain had overestimated his value to his uncle. The Elder sent the Nazir here to ensure his nephew’s safety during the mission and not to help him do as he pleases. Especially not to spout blasphemous words like he didn’t care about their mission.

Unlike them, Egger was not taking pleasure in the turn of events. Instead, he was worried that this might spiral and hurt the Elder’s plan for his nephew. Therefore, he quickly picked up their captain and rested his limp body against the cave wall and did his best to make him comfortable.

Marcus’s eyes and ears, which he strained despite his paralysis to watch and hear the terrorists talk from the back of the cave, finally relaxed a little, learning that this group of curse terrorists weren’t crazy enough to release a plague born from two sky-tier sacrifices in the middle of a country.

Be that as may, he and his partner were still not out of the hot water. They needed to somehow free themselves from their restraints and report everything they learned while waiting for reinforcement. Therefore, he tried to recall everything he learned so far about hummingbird-shaped Curseling.

It took a while, but based on what he observed and experienced so far, Marcus finally deduced that the Hummingbird-shaped curseling’s curse ability allows it to lock and unlock things using its slender and long for its size beak. And that it wasn’t limited to inanimate and animate things, but curse tools and users too. Seeing how it managed to unlock his holster, a space storage-type curse tool, and the four curse suppression cuffs.

If only he could use even a tiny part of his curse energy, Marcus knew hundreds of ways to break free of this simple seal-type curse ability. However, he couldn’t access his curse energy, so he was just helpless as a bed-ridden old man. Despite knowing that he did not give up, he concentrated within his body trying to find a weak spot in the Curseling’s sealing-type curse ability, such that he could use it and free himself and his partner out of this sticky situation.

“Egger, start the ritual. Someone is bound to be suspicious if they don’t report in time,” Banner said, feeling that the Nazir had very limited patience and their captain was a prime example of it.

Egger nodded, leaving their captain’s side. Then, looking at the Nazir, he informed, “I only need one sky-tier sacrifice to complete the mission. We can use the other to complete the young master’s request before we leave.”

The Nazir’s eyes locked with Egger’s and stared deep into them as if uncovering all his secrets until Egger started to feel squirmy and assured, “Trust me, Elder will be happy if we do it my way.”

Listening to these words, the Nazir finally nodded, greenlighting Egger’s plan. But the latter wasn’t satisfied with just getting a go for his plan. Instead, he demanded, “Free the young master. I don’t think he meant any of those words. He just said them in the heat of the moment. I am sure he has learned from his mistake by now.”

This was not Egger trying to suck up to their captain but him doing his best to ensure this incident between the Nazir and their captain wouldn’t harm their Elder’s interest. His position in the organization would be more stable if had more Elders on his side. That way he wouldn’t have to take on risky missions like this one and could just hole up in their base to perfect his craft, further increasing his value in the organization.

The Nazir turned to look into their Elder’s nephew’s eyes, to see beyond the frozen expression on his face. Noticing nothing but fear for his life in those eyes, he signalled his Curseling, which hovered around the captain before sitting on his shoulder and pecking its beak in the nape of his neck before twisting the beak to unlock its curse seal on him.

Once freed, the captain glared at the Nazir before humbly uttering, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have spoken such blasphemous words. It was thoughtless of me. Thank you for leading me back to salvation.”

Seeing Nazir nod, the captain turned to face his team members one by one, starting with Egger, to apologize and thank them for showing him the way.

Meanwhile, Marcus, who failed to find the weak point of the hummingbird-shaped Curseling’s seal on him, intently watched the Curseling’s actions and noticed that it hovered around the curse terrorist group’s captain as if trying to find the right spot before landing on his shoulder and then pecked him exactly where it had pecked him at first to place the seal. It didn’t take long for Marcus to put together that the weak point of the seal was where it pecked, squarely at the back of his neck.

Marcus began concentrating what little mental strength he could summon without the boost from his curse core onto the soreness he was feeling on the back of his neck. Trying to mimic the shape, size, and movements of the Curseling’s beak, in hopes of lock-picking the seal placed on him by it.

Marcus tried and tried but failed to unlock the seal. Still, he didn’t give up. He prayed to the gods, begging for a little more time as he watched Egger head their way to prepare for his ritual. However, to his dismay, the gods did answer his prayer this time, as Egger picked up Berry’s body as sacrifice for his ritual instead of Marcus.

With his prayers answered, Marcus did not rejoice but felt despair as his eyes briefly locked with his partner’s eyes as the curse terrorist carried him away. Berry’s blank eyes appeared to have resigned to his fate, and seemed to express, ‘Goodbye buddy, it was fun while it lasted.’ While Marcus’s firm eyes screamed, ‘Don’t give up until it’s over, buddy!’