The Saving Curse

We were the exiled, the outcast, the public enemy.
We were dark sorcerers, in cahoots with demons and creatures of unknown origins.
Commoners feared us like we were some disease, nobles mocked us and the elite saw us as bugs.
We were researching magic, and areas which others were simply too afraid to look into.
We weren’t homicidal maniacs, at least the majority wasn’t.
We rarely experimented on the innocent, as most of our spells, our craft, was done on demons and outer entities or ores and other materials.
Yet, everybody feared us.
Simply because we dealt with the unknown, and our methods were as many as the grains of sand in the desert, and as changing as time itself.
Our methods weren’t simple like the elemental ones, nor like the path ones, as they were rather focusing on the possibilities, rather than facts and essences.
Even if we studied fire or water, just like other mages did, the outcome often differed.
Sometimes we even learnt about wind, space or time, by simply studying earth or metal…
We were but a few, all scattered across the universe, since nobody truly trusted us.
Not even the underworld organizations dared to work with us too often, lest they will be tainted by our curses or our researches…
Sigh…
Such was our life, before…
Before everything changed.
One day, as I was busy researching the true nature of the 893 layers of Hell our kind has documented, and as I was busy heckling with a Duke about some tomes on curses, everything…paled.
The universe itself shrieked, and we, its children felt its pain a thousandfold…
It’s good I was used to pain, as the backlash of a curse was anything but pleasant…
And then, I walked out of my wooden cabin and into the forest.
The trees…were shaking, and the animals are whimpered…even the beasts were unwell.
I sighed.
“An invasion…”
I muttered…
Indeed, someone shattered the boundaries of our universe from outside, and entered it.
This meant usually an outsider invasion, and this time…it was the same.
Countless bug-like entities entered from the hole in our universe’s defense, and they started to devour everything.
They didn’t enslave, nor did they take treasures or resources…
They devoured everything, animate or inanimate it didn’t matter.
And thus, war ensued.
All races of our universe banded together to fight the invaders…
But…
But the insects were unstoppable…
They were greater in number, they reproduced quickly, and after eating one of their fellow clansmen’s corpse, the new batch of insects would be tougher against the attacks that killed the previous ones…
Basically, if we killed someone with a sword strike, the insects would eat its corpse, and the next generation would have a carapace strong enough to withstand the sword strike…
That’s when we came in…the dark sorcerers…
Our methods were unlimited, so the bugs couldn’t adapt to our tactics…
And our minds hell-bent on researching, were a gift when it came to analyzing the insects themselves…
But it was still useless…
We lost, again and again, simply because they were way too many…
And then, I made the breakthrough…
I finally succeeded in gaining insight into the curses of all of the hells we’ve established contact with…
And I smiled wryly…
At the main battlefield, I started chanting…
It was a curse, a curse that was supposed to be used on my own companions…
Suddenly, they felt a wave rush through them, and they all knew of the curse.
A black spot, a golden spot, and a red spot appeared on their bodies.
The curse had three components, death, greed and wrath were the one’s fuelling it.
And then, all our warriors, except me had their skins become grey, their hair became white…
And thus the counterattack started…
No matter how much the insects bit, chewed…
Our warriors always revived, and continued to fight…
The warriors of the main battlefield were not only the elites, but also the most numerous..
They never died, couldn’t die actually, couldn’t tire, and their attacks always remained at their peak…
We won the battle at the main battlefield and swept across the universe slowly, but surely eradicating the invaders…
I was hidden by that time…
Nobody wanted to know that a curse saved the universe…
Saving curse…
Sadly, after the invaders were beaten back…
Everyone had its fate fulfilled…
Sigh…
That’s how curses are, equivalent exchange is a law that makes up their very essence.
But all of the souls that were freed from the curse smiled, because they did it willingly…
For their homeland…for their families…
Thus, I started a new research…this time, I studied reincarnation…