Ruthven's entire body drops into the ground, leaving a crater, and turning his head, he looks at all of his men with their bodies pushed into the ground, before raising his head up towards Dragoste, whose foot lands right on his face.
Rubbing the bottom of his shoe on Ruthven's face, Dragoste says, "Blestadrac, the clan of those who have had their curses altered by Alucard. Your curse allows you to drink blood to rapidly enhance your physical body and manipulate any blood that comes in contact with your for great effect. Though the true secret of this power lies in the fact that there is no limit to the amount of blood you can store in your bodies by drinking it, allowing for near infinite power gain. The average combat-ready member has enough blood in them to fill a house, while you probably have enough in you to fill this castle. Someone like Stelara and Orlok has enough blood to fill this entire city, and Alucard had enough blood in him to fill the entire country. A truly terrifying combat ability, but there are many abilities like this."
Holding up a circular amulet, Dragoste says, "Here is a special cursed item that increases the weight of any target proportional to their age, so for old fart's like you, I am sure you realise how impossible it is for you to stop me."
"So what? Even if we are caught in its radius now, the moment you move to that door, we will kill you from afar."
"Oh, that's impossible. Since there is no range limit for this."
"That can't be, curses are physical abilities; they all have some kind of measurably physical limitation to their activations. The limitation of that is obviously being within a certain sphere of i-." Freezing for a moment, Ruthven says, "How are you not affected?"
Putting his finger against his cheek, Dragoste says, "Argh, what was his name again? Oh yes, Buline. He had the mutant ability to make the pain inflicted on one person be shared by anyone who he had eaten a certain part of. You see, I combined his corpse with the item you see in my hand to get this effect."
"Nonsense! That goes beyond simply using two curses at the same time. It would mean you have taken only a certain aspect of one curse and combined it with another."
"How smart of you Ruthven, you're catching on. I have essentially made an entirely new cursed ability. It seems my research into Nightmares' bodies has paid off after all, and now I ask you another question. Is there any person with a modicum of power I won't be able to get the blood from?"
Ruthven's eyes open wide, and Dragoste holds his cursed items tighter as he walks off. "Bye now, Ruthven, you can enjoy the show that's about to take place."
Gritting his teeth, Ruthven yells, "THEY BE ASHAMED OF YOU!"
Dragoste stops for a moment, and then from his back a series of bones rushes outwards.
Location: Soarele Blestemat, Balaur's Voice
Φ Stiprais, scratching his head, says, "Says you're telling me Dragoste has been working with Blamator all of this time."
Orb says, "During the time I visited his house, I heard an echoing sound, which was the same sound I heard from the tunnels underneath the Fallen Pirates Bay, and I heard them another time just recently; Balaur's bones.
I think he might have connected the bones to the underground and hollowed them out, allowing members of Blamator to sneak up on us, which we would have never expected, given that they had no way to our knowledge to sneak up on us. He used the gaps in our knowledge and trust in him to set up this situation."
Vėja says, "But how do you know all of this Orb?"
"I have had my suspicions ever since I heard the sound of the tunnels at the battlefield, it's why I ran off to investigate them in the first place. But I had no proof, and Stelara said she would be handling it, so I stopped thinking about it until I learned the Dragoste family controls Balaur."
Stelara says, "You were right to be cautious, especially since saying one of the ministers supports Blamator out loud could've cost us issues, but what matters right now is fighting back."
Throughout the streets below in the main city, explosions go off one after another, and Veekeeris says, "There shouldn't be this many members of Blamator to the point where they should be able to do this?"
Vėja says, "Dragoste was the one who gathered the numbers on Blamator overall. He probably seriously undercounted the number of their soldiers so he could launch this surprise attack. We need to deal with them and then deal with the invaders of the castle.
Stelara turns her body around to face the members of Perfecțiune, the guests and all of Orb's allies, then she says, "My soldiers I need you to splift up into three teams, the 1st team will get all of the guests to safety, the 2nd team will go down their and hold the forth until the rest of the armies reform, and the 3rd team shall follow me to reclaim the castle an protect the Queen."
Veekeeris says, "We shall join you."
Orb with black hair says, "Let me fight as well."
"The Ministers can go down to support the people. Right now, gathering morale and keeping everyone's emotions calm is the most important thing. Orb, you and the rest of your friends are guests and will be treated as such. Evacuate."
"What do you mean? I have a legacy, I have power, I can fight!"
"NOO!" Stelara yells, shaking everyone around. "Orb, Suzuka, and Cyrus must leave this area immediately. I will not be taking in any answers; get them out of here, my soldiers."
Confuses moves across the faces of every single person around her, yet seeing this, Avram walks forward and says, "Orb, we should get going."
"No, I can't just leave."
Grabbing Orb, she shouts, "THE LEGACIES OF LUX CANNOT BE HERE IF THAT THING GETS RELEASED, YOU MUST LEAVE NOW!"
"Lux? Do you mean Mable Lux? The one who saved Setanta. Why do you even know her name? What are you hiding from us!"
"She never gets like this, Orb, right now we should listen to he-."
"ENOUGH! Perfecțiune RESTRAIN THEM!"
Grabbing Orb and all his friends, the Blestadrac grabs and holds each of them, with the exception of Cyrus, Dumnorix and Suzuka. Dumnorix and Cyrus, bringing out their blades, move them towards Stelara's neck, yet she quickly grabs them both by the face and smashes them into the ground.
"CYRUS, DUMNORIX!" Orb screams.
Suzuka, seeing this, wraps her tails around her arms and legs, causing Avram to shout, "Stelara, you're being too extreme, what is going on with you!"
Veekeeris says, "I love violence as much as anyone, yet you are taking this a step to fa-."
Vėja says, "If you continue this, we will have to stop you and the Cursed Heart Army."
Stiprais says, "Do not forget who holds the power now."
Glaring at the three of them, she says, "In a wartime situation, Orlok and I outrank you three. Right now, all three of you don't even know how dire it is."
"THEN TELL US!" Avram shouts! "Did I not tell you to stop overworking yourself and handling everything on your own. We have strength, and we will fight with you!"
Looking at Avram, Stelara relaxes for a moment, and Suzuka tenses up her body.
Φ If I move right now, I will be able to strike her. So why won't they move? Why won't they follow my commands? It's like I know to instinctively not attack her; it's like my body knows only defeat can lie before it if I charge at her. Is this really the power of a human?
Φ Stelara eyes gleam all around herself, but as another explosion goes off, she turns around and gets in position to lung towards the castle.
Yet moments before she takes off, the ministers and the rest of the Cursed Heart Army fall right to the ground, and in that moment, Orb and all his friends stand up.
Avram and Orb rush over to Stelara, who has risen up to her knees. "What the hell is going on with me? My body is too heavy. Is this some sort of curse attack?"
Touching her back, Avram says, "It must be some kind of attack to keep you all restrained. Dragoste probably knew this would happen. I think he plans to keep you all out of commission."
Struggling, she rises to her feet, and with heavy step she says, "What an idiot. Does he really think this is enough to restrain me?"
"Stop being an idiot, Stelara, you definitely cannot fight in such shape!"
"Then stop me if you ca-."
Orb, Dumnorix and Iancu smash their fists right into her face, knocking her down towards the ground, and placing their feet against her body, they stare down at her.
"It seems like the rickety old hag can't move!" Iancu says.
"Any good warrior should know to use their brains, especially in wartime scenarios," Dumnorix says.
"You haggled me about being reckless, yet you do this!" Orb says.
"You idiots, get off me! I need to go handle this!"
Orb, sitting on top of her, slams his forehead into her own, and says, "STOP THAT! The reason this country is in this situation in the first place is that you all took on too much by yourselves. No human can do that alone, so allow us to help. Right now, we are the only ones you can rely on, or are the lives of all of the citizens in this country so worthless that you'd throw them away?"
Stelara grits her teeth, and Avram grabs her cheeks and tilts her face towards himself. "You said there is no greater gift than being able to see the faces of all the citizens grow up, didn't you?"
Sighing, she says, "Okay. But you must follow my instructions!"
"Right!"
"First, you need to find whatever curse or person is doing this and go stop them. If me and the rest of the soldiers get liberated, we win. Second, I need support to be sent to those fighting below. We don't know how many others have been taken out of commission like us, and finally, we need a convoy to bring myself and the Ministers to the Queen's chambers. At this rate, we don't know if Orlok can move either."
Orb nods his head and says, "Dumnorix, Abbán, Maple, and Iancu, please go down and support everyone. Cyrus, Suzuka, Willow, Avram, Elia, and the three idiots will escort you to the castle, while I will go after Dragoste."
Suzuka, walking forward, says, "Why am I not part of the combat team!"
"Do you hear the chaos down there? Your brain would break at a moment's notice!"
"But who else would be able to locate which person's curse is currently in use?"
Orb grits his teeth, and Maple, walking up behind, knocks the back of his legs, making him collapse to his knees, and then places her wrist on her head before saying, "It seems the girl wants to go, so let her go. Suzuka has already proven herself to be strong-minded."
More explosions go off throughout the area, and Orb says, "Alright, but please leave if anything goes wrong happens okay!"
"Right!"
Iancu says, "What about you, Orb? Handling Dragoste on your own will be tough. I heard the Ministers are all combatants?"
Stiprais says, "That isn't true for Dragoste; he only has his role as a temporary Minister. All his skills come from adventures he went on with his father when little. With Advent, you should be able to defeat him, especially if you were able to defeat Dobitoc without it."
Orb smiles and says, "Don't worry, guys, I will win. But before that!"
Orb runs around and grabs everyone before putting them in a giant hug and saying, "I WILL MAKE SURE TO INFUSE YOU ALL WITH ME LOVE! COME BACK SAFE!"
A wide range of emotions fills the faces from everyone, ranging from disgust to happiness, yet one thing is clear in their minds, they each intend to fulfil those words.