Curse

Hoping that the voice's willingness to help him would continue, Rethys recounted every detail of his arrival at this place. He told her of everything that had happened during the past few hours, or however long that lasted, as well as his reason for coming here, what it entailed, and how to perform it.

He kept his explanations vague however since, in retrospect, despite the grandness of what the Origin entity showed him, his lack of knowledge prevented him from truly understanding anything. This especially showed with his usage of his newfound powers, where even though he knew how to control them, as per the knowledge given to him by the entity, he knew little of how any of it worked.

"Fascinating. So the Origin element's domain is not only that of the ether itself, but also the soul. And all those bearing its power are subject to a higher entity's dominion over it." The voice mused.

Leaving the voice to ponder whatever magical knowledge she discovered, Rethys took a moment to look around the room and think back to the time he spent under the Origin entity's control.

Though he was not fully himself, he still remembered what he had done and what he had seen. Thinking back to the horrifying creatures he had to fight made his stomach churn, but he comforted himself with the thought that he defeated them himself, even if he was under something else's beck and call. And if he did it once, he could do it again, even if the memory of some of these creatures made his blood run cold.

What scared him most however was returning under that thing's control, and the fact that even now, the link binding him to it has not been fully severed, rather momentarily blocked. He could even still feel its presence in the back of his mind, unnerving him to no end.

"Will I go back to being under mind control if I leave this room?" Realizing that whatever the voice did to help him was only temporary, prompted him to speak up, snapping the voice out of her reverie.

"I would assume so." She answered.

"Any way to solve this?" Rethys asked.

"I am not sure. Any possible solution to that problem of yours would probably be temporary if it is as you describe it. You would need a powerful Mind mage to constantly block the foreign influence on your mind. Even then, I doubt you could find one mighty enough to match that entity's power." The voice explained.

"But you could do it." Rethys pointed out, his eyes gleaming with hope.

"No. No, I cannot do it. Know that all I did was simply activate some of the enchantments of this room that isolate it from the outside world using those nullstones embedded in the ceiling. You cannot call this a solution by any stretch of the imagination, unless you plan on spending your whole life here." The voice clarified.

As Rethys' heart sank and despair began to set in, the voice continued to shatter any hope he had.

"Even if it were possible, I would not be able to do it. Weakened as I am, with no way of recovering my power. The only thing I could perhaps do to help you would be to use a powerful curse. But such a curse would be a permanent commitment, you might have to live with it for the rest of your life..."

"I'll take it! Please! Anything but going back!" Rethys begged. He was damned either way and figured choosing the lesser evil would be better.

"Are you certain, boy?" Asked the ancient mage. "Though your circumstances excuse such eagerness, I was only speaking of hypotheticals, not truly suggesting a solution."

"Yes, I'm sure, anything is better than going back. And you said it yourself, if you can't help me then the moment I step out of this room, It's over for me." Rethys was more than just sure that once back under its control, the Origin entity would have him take precautions to not lose that control over him ever again.

"Very well, if you have the resolve for it, I suppose." Sighed the voice before extending from its sword a long, thin tendril of blood towards him, making him recoil away. "Calm yourself, I am going to inscribe upon your body the curse, or do you wish to do it yourself?"

Seeing the stream of semi-solid blood undulating in front of him, Rethys once again began to question his decision to trust an ancient soul trapped within a demonic blade. A moment later, however, he resigned to accepting her aid, remembering that he was the one that asked her for help.

'That and... she could probably kill me with just a thought if she really wanted.' He sighed despondently in his mind.

"Alright." Rethys said as he gulped hard. "Go ahead."

"Undress yourself and show me your back. I will inscribe the curse there" The voice instructed.

Doing as the voice asked, he removed his blood-caked coat and shirt. As he saw his naked body, he realized just how badly his attempt at Infusion magic ended.

His chest and back were riddled with strange, pale spots that felt completely numb to his touch, as well as swells that conversely hurt like hell at the slightest nudge. And though his ability to sense ether dulled considerably since regaining control of himself, he could tell that ether had trouble flowing through his now magically mutilated muscles.

"You have my pity, as you will bear these scars of your failings for the rest of your life. Such is the consequence of such misuse of the arts." The voice commented.

"It's fine." Rethys said, that was the least of his worries now. He didn't even know if he'd have the rest of his life to regret his mistake.

'I was under mind control damn it. Should blame Master Fulgrith for making it look so easy.'

His eyes veiled with tears at the memory of his master, but he quickly shook his head to disperse those thoughts.

'It's not the time for this now.' He scolded himself.

"Very well then. Hold on dearly to that resolve you have shown, for this will hurt, a lot."

Before Rethys could process what the voice said, a searing pain ran through his body as magic runes were inscribed on his naked back. He tried to move, to flinch back in response, to squirm at the agony he was enduring, but his body felt limp as a rock. He couldn't even scream as the ancient mage did her work.

He began to panic, seized by the irrational fear that he would lose control of himself again.

"I apologize for this, but I could not let your writhe and flail about as you please, it would ruin the engravings, and your pain would be for nothing. Take solace however, in the fact that a curse such as this, engraved upon willing flesh, would no doubt function excellently."

As minutes passed by in agony, Rethys got to experience how it was like for someone to violently force into his body something completely different and alien from it, and that would then in turn force his soul and mind to act differently to how they were supposed to.

Eventually, however, the pain strangely began to lessen, slowly going from mind-shattering agony to comparably tolerable pain. Yet throughout it all, Rethys remained incapable of moving, instead only feeling movements on his back.

"If you managed to make it thus far and could still hear my voice, I congratulate you. The pain will however become many times greater as the curse fully takes shape." The voice explained.

Yet by the time the ancient mage finished her explanation, Rethys could barely feel any pain whatsoever. Now it felt more akin to having someone softly scribble with an ink pen on his skin, feeling only somewhat unpleasant.

Eventually, the inscribing of the curse was done, and Rethys could feel an intensely hot sensation spreading through his whole body, and then to his very soul. He then felt his body regaining the ability to move again.

"It is done. Are you still with me, boy?" The voice asked.

"Yeah." Rethys replied with a haggard voice.

"...Impressive." The voice seemed stunned for a moment. "I thought you would fill my chamber with loud bawling the moment I undid your paralysis, if you were conscious to begin with."

"It was bad, but I got used to it." Rethys revealed.

"Generous pain tolerance is a valuable boon for any mage." Said the ancient mage, reaching a misunderstanding that Rethys decided not to correct.

"So how do we know if it works?" He asked, receiving his answer instantly as he felt the barrier surrounding the room fading away.