Document-level relic, “Charles II’s Beheading Curse.” A mortal king from the previous era who used tyranny was beheaded on the guillotine by his subjects in a coup. His angry and ugly soul, influenced by the bizarre evil god he worshipped in life, transformed into a parasitic curse. The relic itself is a parasite. Once afflicted by its curse, one gains the ability to safely detach their head from their neck. Initially, it’s just head separation, but later, the head will gain powerful abilities such as flight, invisibility, and fire-breathing. These infected creatures feed on the brains of intelligent beings.
Mr. Madison introduced, “But don’t worry, this lady is directly parasitized by the curse; we are just infected. Each time this relic appears, it must grow from a larval form to exert its full power. Currently, the ‘parasite’ is still in its juvenile state. It can curse ordinary people, but because it has parasitized us Four-Ring Warlocks, it consumed too much, leading to malnutrition, so she herself can’t move either.”
Xia De and Doctor Schneider both breathed a sigh of relief, while Princess Margaret Anjou, disguised as “Miss Mary,” was somewhat puzzled:
“According to the containment data provided by the academy, even a juvenile parasite would only suffer from malnutrition to this extent after infecting multiple High-Ring Sorcerers. How did it become so weak after infecting just four of us?”
Xia De and Doctor Schneider were both surprised, both thinking it was due to their own reasons:
“Malnourished?” the Doctor immediately asked.
“Yes, after all, it’s only Document-level. The parasite curse, following its instincts, wants to infect the strongest possible individuals. Fortunately, there are no ordinary people here; otherwise, not only would they instantly become infected and die, but it would even cause the parasite to multiply into two, making things much more troublesome then.”
Hearing the word “death,” Xia De and the Doctor both looked at Mr. Gims, who was sleeping soundly on another table. This gentleman was currently sleeping peacefully; the Doctor’s hypnosis was quite professional.
“What do we do now?” Xia De asked.
“Subdue her.” Mr. Madison pointed at the woman frozen in place, “She only has instincts left now, but she still possesses powerful offensive capabilities. We need to work together to subdue her and then contain her.”
“Is she very strong?” Doctor Schneider asked.
“No, the key is that we cannot attract the attention of ordinary people,” Princess Margaret Anjou said softly. Although her appearance was disguised, her voice was not, so she deliberately lowered her voice, making herself sound like she had a lung injury.
The Doctor nodded, “So, how about we discuss a plan now? I’ll—”
“No, no, since we couldn’t subdue her immediately just now, the situation might be a bit troublesome now,” Mr. Madison said, his speech quickening, “In a moment, I’ll make the first move. When it receives a fatal threat, its head will abandon its body and separate. I’ll stay here to guard the body and prepare containment measures. You two go after the separated head. Once you catch the head, send it back as soon as possible. Be careful, you must not make too much noise.”
“How strong is a single head?” Xia De asked. Mr. Madison shook his head slightly and looked at Miss Margaret Anjou, who said, “It’s equivalent to a Middle-Ring Ring術士, but in its current state, it only has instincts, so there’s almost no wisdom. The only thing to note is that we are also infected by the parasite, and it has the power to remove our heads, so we cannot let the head itself touch our heads.”
“Understood, I think that’s fine.” The Doctor nodded. If it was just Middle-Ring, he thought it was fine, “However, Alan, Xia De and I were accidentally drawn into this. After this is over, you need to pay us.”
“This is an academy commission I accepted. After the matter is over, I can pay each of you twenty pounds,” Princess Margaret Anjou said. Xia De nodded to the Doctor, and the Doctor also thought it was fine.
“Action in three seconds,” Mr. Madison said, slightly nervous, holding a brass metal rod in each hand, the metal surface covered with dense carvings, “3, 2, 1!”
The two metal rods, like flying bullets, instantly pierced the unmoving woman’s shoulders. The metal rods remained inside her body, and coppery Ling Runes surged from the wounds like water, spreading towards her neck area.
The woman’s previously frozen expression immediately came alive, her face full of malice staring at the four people, but the Ring術士s were unmoved. With the fluctuation of the whisper element, just as Mr. Madison had said, the head very eerily flew up from the woman’s neck.
But the four people’s vision blurred, and the one head in the air turned into two, then simultaneously descended, flying rapidly along the floor to different places.
“What?” Doctor Schneider was startled, but he was very experienced, “Xia De, split up.”
Saying that, he quickly went to chase the head flying close to the ground towards the staircase. This scene was extremely eerie, but fortunately, the second floor was already empty, and a head flying close to the ground was even harder to see.
Mr. Madison took off his coat and pounced on the headless woman; this body was also imbued with the relic’s power. Xia De didn’t hesitate either and immediately chased after the other head. Princess Margaret Anjou knew that Doctor Schneider was the team leader and had the highest rank, so she followed behind Xia De.
The speed of that eerie “flying head” was extremely fast. It didn't choose to go upstairs or downstairs but flew directly to an empty wall and then flew out of a high window.
“Chase quickly!” Princess Margaret Anjou hurried from behind Xia De. She found that outside the window was an empty alley, so she held her skirt and jumped down directly.
Because she knew this outing would require combat, Her Royal Highness wore flat shoes. Relying on her strong physical fitness, as she landed steadily in the fog-shrouded alley and straightened up, a large expanse of steam mist had already appeared behind Margaret Anjou.
Steam whistles sounded, and bells boomed. The Four-Ring Warlock’s Destiny Ring appeared behind the Princess in the scorching white dense fog. As the core Ling Rune 【Puppet】 flashed with spiritual light, the Sorceress took a key-chain-like toy doll from her waist. The doll floated in the air. As the Sorceress touched her right and left index and middle fingers and softly chanted a spell, the finger-sized key chain, imbued with spiritual light, continuously grew larger until it became a half-human-sized Boy wearing a black hat.
The wooden structure of the joints was exceptionally obvious, the hat was directly glued to the head, and two button eyes made the doll look even more eerie:
“Killer Jack.” Princess Margaret Anjou uttered the doll’s name. “Killer Jack” bowed to the Princess, then held a dagger, vigilantly preparing to attack.
The fog in the city this afternoon was indeed severe. In the windless, secluded alley of the Lower City, visibility was even less than ten meters.
The Princess sniffed the nauseating, pungent smell in the alley, her feet stepping on unknown mud, and together with her doll, tried to capture the human head hidden in the fog.
Just thinking that a flying human head was peering at her in the fog made Margaret Anjou feel goosebumps rising on her arms. It was this unease that made her more focused, allowing her to capture traces of the relic as much as possible.
“There!” She suddenly pointed to her right, and the “Killer Jack” doll brandished its dagger and rushed over, but found nothing after entering the fog.
Just then, a dark shadow appeared in the dense fog behind the Princess. Margaret Anjou had already guessed that the opponent would ambush her. She pressed her thumb against the sapphire ring on her index finger of her right hand, turned, and aimed the ring behind her:
“Still!” The spell exerted its power, and the dense fog, stirred by air currents, seemed to solidify in her vision. However, the dark shadow in the dense fog was still flying, but its flying speed was extremely slow:
“Killer Jack!” The spiritual light projected by the core Ling Rune became stronger, and at the same time, the Miracle Ling Rune 【Sharp Blade】 also attached spiritual light to the doll. The dagger in the doll’s hand seemed to squirm and lengthen a bit. It rushed into the fog, swinging its blade at the human head, but the metal dagger collided with the skull, actually producing sparks.
“What?” Immediately after, the human head opened its mouth and bit the dagger, biting a chip out of it.
Princess Margaret Anjou frowned slightly, quickly retreated, and tried to reach for another doll hanging from her waist.
But at this moment, new dark shadows appeared again in the dense fog behind her. The Sorceress immediately gave up casting, quickly turned, and gently blew forward.
A cold current blew from her red, lipstick-coated lips, and frost spread into the dense fog, but it only slowed down the second human head and did not stop it from continuing to approach:
“It can even split itself. Which one is the main body?”
Just then—
“Madam, step back!” Brilliant Moonlight split through the fog from above, for a moment almost making her think she saw Moonlight in broad daylight.
The silver Moonlight Anjou broke through the gray fog and struck the woman’s head that was approaching her. The head, which even a dagger could not pierce, actually turned into black mud under that Moonlight and fell to the ground.
In the fog-covered sky, Xia De broke through the fog and descended from the sky. After his feet touched the ground, with almost no cushioning action, his body, propelled by the downward inertia, leaped forward like a leopard pouncing on its prey, rushing towards the first human head that was fighting with the doll.
“Mind Blast!” A punch was thrown, and before the fist even reached the human head, the head exploded into fragments. But no red or white strange liquids flew about; the exploded human head still contained only black mud.
“That head can still split itself!” Princess Margaret Anjou reminded.
“Yes,” Xia De said. He had seen that the situation was not right from above, which was why he jumped down to help.
He grabbed the Princess’s doll, and with the latter’s slight resistance, took it and joined the Princess, then looked at the dense fog in front of them with a serious expression. Princess Margaret Anjou’s eyesight was not as good as Xia De’s, so she was initially curious about what Xia De was looking at.
But then, she saw dense black shadows wriggling closer from the depths of the gray fog. Low whispers connected into a continuous sound, like ghouls groaning in a night cemetery. She felt an instinctive discomfort, and at the same time, the black line on her fair neck was itching.
Xia De stood in front of Princess Margaret Anjou, but the Princess could still clearly see that the dense black shadows gradually approaching were hundreds of human heads. Hair connected into a net in the fog, and grim-faced human heads overlapped one after another, like maggots in decaying food, or insect eggs in a dirty puddle. Those flying heads, like a dense wall of human heads, rushed towards them.
---Outro---
PS: I wonder if everyone has seen the scene at the end of the first part of A Chinese Ghost Story, starring Leslie Cheung, where the Black Mountain Old Demon lifts his robe in the underworld.
This is an extra chapter for the previous Q&A with prizes.
