In the capital of Floria Kingdom, everyone was panicking and being scared when massive spheres of destruction suddenly appeared in the sky. They had feared that it was an attack from someone and were scared, making them run around in panic while screaming with fright. The fear of death and losing their loved ones caused some to break down and collapse on the spot.

Fortunately, the sudden attack did not last long and exploded, causing a violent flash of light that nearly blinded everyone. They desperately covered their eyes against this blinding light and uncovered their eyes a few seconds later when the light died down and returned the view back to normal.

“Is it… over…?”

“Are we… safe…?”

Those were some of the questions that the people were asking each other for reassurance as the sudden attack shocked them. They looked around fearfully, waiting for another attack to follow, but as the seconds went by, nothing happened and they finally felt as though it was something random that occurred and assumed it was related to the Phoenix Titan as it came from the direction where the Phoenix Clan was rumored to be located at.

“Just what was that?”

“Seriously, that scared me!”

“They were probably doing something strange.”

That was what they had easily assumed because they had been accustomed to fights occurring outside the kingdom. In the past, the previous Phoenix Emperor, Felix Phoron, had reassured the citizens that any occurrence of an energy release outside the capital was just the Phoenix Clan conducting their regular training exercise. So, they had assumed it to be the same even after his passing and since they believed the Phoenix Titan would warn them if it was anything really bad.

The people on the streets breathed a sigh in relief and were about to resume their business when there was a flash of light before several hooded figures appeared. This surprised them because they knew that a powerful barrier was placed around the capital blocking anyone from teleporting in and out, with the only exception being the Phoenix Clan members.

The group of six hooded figures stood and seemed to be glancing around while their faces were hidden by the cloaks drawn over their faces. At first, the people assumed that these were the Phintex Rajas, the secret group working directly under the Phoenix Titan, but something about them gave them a sense of foreboding.

“What the heck? No damage at all?” They heard one of them ask in a surprised voice.

“Looks like the damage was redirected or something,” said another to better understand the situation.

“Yeah. I don’t sense any of the energies from the Nine Pillars of Power or their compatriots,” another person said ominously.

“Seems like the plan worked. Well, then, time to put the next plan into motion like the boss said.”

As they seemingly nodded at each other in agreement, everyone around them suddenly began to fear the worst. A few, that were quick to react, suddenly pointed at them and began to shout, “Enemy attack! Enemy attack!”

“Shut up,” one of the hooded figures said coldly. He waved his hand at one of the shouting people and said, “Crush.”

A magic circle suddenly appeared beneath the person shouting, and he looked down in shock as chains suddenly appeared out and wrapped themselves around him to keep him from escaping. A moment later, a large box appeared and enclosed around him before shutting its door on him. The people watching in horror as the person inside seemed to try desperately to escape when the box suddenly compressed so quickly that the scream of the person was cut off in an instant while blood began seeping out of the crushed box before forming a pool around it.

The women screamed and several of them fainted on the spot while the men watched in horror before turning to look at the men.

“That was a waste of spell, idiot,” scolded one of them for their comrade’s action.

“Sorry,” he apologized, “but their voices were giving me a headache.”

The others snorted before another person from the hooded figures said, “Alright. Let’s do it.”

Nodding at each other, they raised their hands in union and began to chant some kind of magic words. As they chanted, a magic circle formed beneath them and glowed brightly while the people around them watched in fright. A moment later, once they finished chanting the spell, the hooded figures shouted the spell name out loud at the same time.

“Death Slave.”

As they shouted, they raised their wands into the air and a mysterious purple magic light appeared there. It hovered in mid-air for a second before it split into multiple beams of light that flew through the air and struck random people at different places.

The people hit by the light cried out in alarm and pain as something strange was happening to them because of the spell. A moment later, they began to growl like monsters and their eyes changed and became red glowing eyes like that of monsters. These people, who seemed to have turned into monsters, growled before leaping at their nearest victim and biting them on the neck.

“Ah! No! Let go!” The victims shouted, desperately trying hard to push the monsters away, but their strength was unbelievable.

After finishing with their first prey, the monsters rose to their feet and quickly moved onto its next victim to bite them as well. The previous victims screamed and groaned on the ground before letting out a sudden roar like a monster as they, too, turned into monsters after being infected from getting bitten. They, too, possessed red glowing eyes like that of a monster and mindlessly attacked whoever was next to them that was not bitten yet.

Like this, the capital of Floria Kingdom fell into chaos as the mindless monsters moved around trying to bite those uninfected to turn them into another monster like it. Many of the people trying to escape wherever it was possible for them, but the monsters kept chasing them wherever they went. They were strong enough to break down doors, smash and climb through windows, and even crawl up the side of a wall in order to attack their victims.

In defense, several adventurers and the kingdom guards arrived on the scene to begin fighting these monsters. Despite being mindless monsters, they possessed incredible strength, so much so that they could catch the swing of a knight’s sword, block a powerful punch from a warrior, and even put a dent in the armor worn by the knights. A few of the adventurers and knights were quickly brought down and transformed into monsters, who then followed the rest in attacking.

Like this, a horde of mindless monsters with the sole purpose of biting and turning the victims into one of its own kind.

“Dammit!” Shouted one of the adventurers wearing a pained look on his face, who was fighting against what seemed like an old comrade. “I’m sorry, but I have no choice!”

With that, the man channeled Energy Force into his sword and swung it, chopping off the head of his attacker. The monster’s head flew through the air and its headless body toppled sideways and fell. As the limp body fell, the skin of the monster turned into sand the moment it hit the ground while its clothes lay scattered among it.

“T-This is it!” The man shouted triumphantly as he seemingly killed a monster. He turned to the other fighters and shouted, “Hey, guys! Cut off their heads! It’ll kill them instantly!”

The defenders were surprised by this piece of information, and a few immediately dove into the action by swinging their swords with Energy Force channeled into them. The heads of the monsters flew through the air and fell, only to get crushed by the other mindless monsters as the headless body fell and turned into sand.

They cheered happily at the prospect of a solution, but most were not so keen on following through with it. Chopping off the monsters’ heads effectively kills them and in doing so, they are killing someone that used to be a normal person. It made matters worse when the remaining family members of the attacking monsters begged not to kill them as they hoped there might be a solution to this predicament.

The capital was filled with chaos of monsters screaming as they engaged against the warriors, who shouted back to protect the innocent. While this was happening, many were escaping but all of them were asking each other where the Phoenix Titan was or where the rest of the Nine Pillars of Power were for that matter.

“This sure is becoming chaotic,” said one of the figures that were responsible for starting this mass problem.

“It sure does look lovely,” said another longingly before saying, “I want to join them in killing those things. I don’t think they’d care about who I am since everyone’s too busy dealing with those things.”

“Don’t be stupid,” snapped another of their group coldly. “We have an important task to carry out, remember!”

“I know, I know,” replied his comrade sulkily. “We must destroy the Floria Kingdom and permanently ruin the image of the Phoenix Titan.”

“Yes, and we cannot stop till it happens!” The other person said, and the other five nodded in agreement.

They resumed to watch the chaos slowly increase as fires began to spread in several areas and were pleased by the level of damage happening to the capital. However, they were shocked when they heard a loud carrying voice say a magic technique name that made them feel dread.

“Paralyzing Blades!”

Several magic circles appeared in the sky and a moment later, multiple swords began flying out and they soared through towards the fray. The flying swords pierced firmly into the skins of the mindlessly monsters and seemingly stopped their movement. The defenders were surprised by this, and they all turned to look up to see who their savior was, some even smiling in delight at seeing the familiar face as he floated in the air and looked down at the chaos unfolding.

“Sword Titan!” Shouted both the defenders and the six figures in shock.

Dominic Rutherford smiled a little at being recognized and called out by his title before he replied, “I’m sorry for being late, but leave these monsters to me! Go and see how everyone else is.”

“Are you sure?” Asked a knight as the Sword Titan descended to land on the ground.

“Yeah. I’ve got this covered,” reassured Dominic with a smile.

“Oh. Okay, but just saying; they can easily be killed by slicing their head off,” advised one of the warriors as the defenders withdrew to where everyone else was.

“Wait? Have you guys been killing them?” Dominic asked in alarm.

“We’ve got no choice! These things turn those that they bit into one of their own!” The guard replied, sounding scared.

Sensing his fear, Dominic reassured him with, “I’m not saying what you did wrong, but, damn. There’s not much time.” He looked up and shouted, “Amaranda! Hurry up!”

“I’m coming,” said a telepathic voice from above, and a few seconds later, the Magic Titan descended along with Wolfenstine next to her.

“Oh man…!” Wolfenstine remarked, looking around at the monsters pierced with the Paralyzing Blades of the Sword Titan with a distraught look on his face.

“I am sensing a kind of curse magic that’s turned them into these mindless… things and made them to act this way,” said Amaranda telepathically as she observed a few that were near them.

“A curse?” Dominic asked, looking in wonder. “In that case, can’t we just break the curse so that they revert back to normal?”

To that, she shook her head and replied telepathically, “Curses cannot be cancelled as they are a sort of nature, though twisted and evil. We would need to break the curse at its core.”

“Wait, what? We can’t cancel them, but we can break them? That doesn’t make sense!” He complained while looking confused.

Amaranda sighed and replied telepathically, “It’s not a topic a sword wielder would understand easily, but a curse is like something that mixes in with the natural order of the world and carries out its intended action and that needs to be broken, not cancelled. Anything that is out of order and not natural can easily be cancelled if that nature doesn’t already have a counter-canceller nature to it.”

“I… don’t understand,” said Dominic while still looking confused.

As she sighed wearily, Wolfenstine chuckled and said, “Basically, curses are considered normal and so cannot be cancelled like those unnatural things and we need to break them instead.”

“Oh. I guess I can understand that but it still seems ridiculous,” remarked Dominic in annoyance.

“Don’t complain to me when it’s the laws of magic, otherwise I would’ve broken my curse a long time ago,” she replied with a sigh.

As they were discussing the situation, the six hooded figures were panicking and conversing quickly to one another about what to do next.

“What the hell?! How are they still alive?!”

“Yeah! I was sure they had died according to the boss!”

“That was the plan, right?”

“Dammit!”

“What do we do now?!”

“We’re in a tough situation! First, let’s get out of here and tell the boss about this.”

Just as they silently agreed to one another, they heard a voice in their heads say, “Where do you think you’re going?”

In an instant, magic particles gathered around them before a light screen completely formed around them like a shell. They tried punching and kicking it, but it was useless as the light screen shell did not budge. Then they flew through the air and landed a few seconds later in front of Dominic, Amaranda, and Wolfenstine.

“So, these are the bastards that made this mess?” Dominic asked as he eyed them with great anger.

“I think these are related to the attack on us earlier,” said Wolfenstine, as he eyed them shrewdly.

“We should also get them to answer what else is happening since this seems all too coincidental,” suggested Amaranda telepathically, to which the other two nodded their heads in agreement.

“Dammit!” Shouted one of the hooded figures. “How did you survive such an enormous blast?!”

“Yeah! That explosion should’ve killed all of you!” Exclaimed another in disbelief. “How did you survive it?!”

At the question made by the perpetrators, Dominic, Wolfenstine, and Amaranda looked at each other before Dominic faced them and smiled as he proudly replied, “He’s the Phoenix Titan, that’s how!”