Special Chapter XI - Team 42 (part 2)

Night finally falls.

Sounds of flight can be heard coming from the kingdom's direction, and it slowly became louder as the group landed right outside the field.

Arfius and the others have returned to the village again, and they have come to bring me the news. But, when they saw me just sitting alone in the middle of the field, they became confused.

"She… didn't succeed?"

Keira mumbled, but Arfius ignored her. He began walking towards the field, specifically towards my position.

"You couldn't do it?"

Hearing Arfius saying that to me made me pissed, but since I'm too tired to be annoyed, I ended up not replying.

Arfius took a glance around, and noticed that the ground around me was messed up. It's like someone purposely punching and scratching the ground pointlessly.

Or… because they were angry.

"I see. You're in a bad mood."

"Try not to make it worse or you'll lose your head."

"Eeep… Okay."

I let out a little bloodlust in that sentence, making him frightened. Confused, Arfius decided to just sit down next to me.

"Why are you sitting down?"

"To tell you the good news of the day. My dad captured the noble who did this."

"Fantastic. Any word about how he placed the curse?"

"Not yet. But, we should receive that kind of information tomorrow morning."

"I see… They are torturing him tonight."

"I… wouldn't say that."

"Oh, they definitely are. Would your father mind if I'm the one doing the torturing?"

"Dude, what's wrong with you!?"

I chuckled slightly and turned my gaze to the ground next to my feet.

"I tried all day, man. Couldn't do it."

"Aren't you like the world's best healer?"

"Possibly."

"If you couldn't do it, then it's probably not a healer's job."

I gave his words some thought, but then I shook my head.

"No, it is a healer's job. Curse magic is the same as healing magic."

"No, it's not… Don't you see that this is the ground we are talking about? Healing magic doesn't work on inanimate objects."

"That is what you know. But, as a King tier healing mage, I can tell you otherwise."

Arfius immediately remembered what tier my healing magic was, and he shut down like a computer.

"Rrrrrright."

I began getting into thought again. Why did people say that healing magic doesn't work on inanimate objects? Yes it does, there's just no point in doing it.

I used it all the time, like when I was healing other people's sickness that's related with objects such as kidney stones or any other alien objects inside their bodies. I destroyed them using the healing magic, so it should prove why healing magic works on inanimate objects.

But… then why can't I…

I did try multiple attempts on different approaches. I tried healing the ground itself, it didn't work. I tried removing the curse magic, but it also didn't work. So what exactly is the thing I am supposed to be healing?

The ground itself?

Dirt? Stones?

Particles…?

Particles…

Well, damn. Another idea just arrived.

"I'm going to try something."

I said as I slowly stood back up. Arfius knows what I meant, and he got up as well.

"Good luck. We're counting on you."

He patted me in the shoulder and left. I turned my gaze to the others who were waiting at the side of the field. When Arfius told them, they immediately panicked and ran to the village houses.

I chuckled seeing Keira panicking, but then turned my gaze back to the field.

Particles… What is a particle?

The smallest level of object that creates any matter. A particle is so small that not even my enchanted eyes can see it.

Which means… I just have to imagine it.

My assumption is that I will have to heal every single particle on the ground. There's like a thousand trillion particles in a single lump of dirt you can pickup using your hand, so this will take a while.

I tried feeling the ground. Specifically, the ones around my feet. Consisting them, is a bunch of smaller dirt and rocks. And consisting of those dirt and rocks, are a much smaller object that forms a dirt.

Let's try this size first.

I slowly casted healing magic on it. My hand began glowing, and ropes of healing began flowing in the air towards the ground. The ground lights up golden as it is healed, and slowly I can see everything that is happening.

I can see everything. The size of the objects that forms dirt, as well as the purple aura surrounding it.

Can I… go deeper?

I began going even deeper. This is a really high level of traversing, even for me, since I am going incredibly small. I can feel the stress building up on my head, but I ignored it and kept on going.

Finally, I arrived at the smallest I can go. I can already see hundreds of thousands of little rocks that are forming the surface.

Particles.

And, to my surprise, I can finally see a change. Previously, at any level of size, I can only see the purple combining into one, as if they are an entire layer of purple covering a surface.

But now, I can see their edges.

Some of the particles were covered in purple, and some were not. Something tells me that it's a clue for me, but I just couldn't get my head around it.

I tried using my healing magic on the ones covered in purple, and as expected, they became purple again.

Am I… not understanding enough?

Exactly how did those nobles cursed all the way to a particle level…? That's just some godly curse magic there.

I need to understand how they did it. What caused the curse to reach even the particle level, and why.

Hmm… think…

It's impossible to curse the particles one by one. Plus, they did it so stealthily, which means they did not go that far deep into the curse magic.

So how did they do it? A stealthy way to curse something.

From the… plants?

No, if it's the plants, then only the plants will wither. It wouldn't curse into particle level, and it wouldn't even curse the ground.

Then… the fertilizer?

That is possible. But that doesn't explain something. Fertilizers are only placed at certain spots, whereas the curse is literally placed everywhere.

Which means… It can only mean one thing.

Water.

Water consists of incredibly small particles. It can be oxygen, hydrogen, or any other atoms that were combined into it.

It's possible when you curse a water, the curse will simply dissolve into the entire water medium, the same thing that applies to sugar or salt.

And if you spread those water to a ground like dirt, it's very likely that the dirt will absorb those water, which makes the dirt mushy.

Which means… this dirt gained the curse from…

I got it.

I spread my hand open, and more blinding ropes appeared from my hand. The ropes stabbed the ground like a needle, the area of effect from my healing magic kept on going bigger while turning the ground around me brighter.

My target is not the particles of the ground. It's what is inside it.

Just getting to the particle level is already incredibly difficult, and I had to go all the way through. But now, I won't have to go to all of them. I just have to go to the ones being covered by the curse.

The ratio between the ones covered and ones not covered is about five to two, but that's still a huge help. Because now, I won't have to visit every particle.

I went even deeper. With more magic energy, I boosted the senses of my healing magic even deeper until I arrived inside the particles. I entered a single particle on the spot where I previously checked, and found precisely what I guessed.

Water.