Edward stood on the Heart Kingdom's Throne, looking at many screens that displayed different locations throughout the kingdom. Lolopechka used the Mana Zone and her water magic to create all these things.
All three of them waited for the Dark Triads' arrival; in the meantime, Undine kept giving him strange glances. So, he made a Psychic Link with her for a secret conversation.
"What's wrong?"
"How could you do all these weird things to me?"
"Did you not enjoy it?"
Undine blushed: "That's not the point."
"It kind of is. Plus, how can a 1200-year-old woman be so inexperienced?"
"I am a spirit, so I do not have any lust like you humans. And, don't talk about my age."
Edward would roll his eyes if he could since the past few days proved otherwise. However, he also wondered whether the thought process of spirit differed from humans and other species.
Sylph, the wind spirit bonded to Yuno, seemed very attracted to him and could even be described as lusting after his body. However, Undine seemed more reserved and noble, while the fire spirit appeared to be a beast with little to no intelligence.
Edward thought it could be interesting to study the behavioral patterns of the spirit race. However, this was not a field that intrigued him that much, so he would leave it to the professionals in the Empire.
"My bad. Do you want to enter my harem?"
"In your dreams," replied Undine out loud, alerting Lolepechka.
"Undine-san, what are you talking about?" she asked.
"No, nothing. Just remembered a terrible dream I had, so don't worry, my little Lolopechka." As she said that, she embraced Lolopechka while secretly glaring at Edward, who just shrugged his shoulder.
"Huh?" he muttered softly as he looked in the distance.
"Is something wrong?"
"Yes. I sense the existence of the Dark Triads outside of the Kingdom but now, they seem to have run away."
"How so?" asked Lolopechka.
"Let me check."
He floated in the air while sitting cross-legged, then his Grimoire also floated in front of him as a few pages flipped over:
Erudite Magic: Soul Magic: Astral Projection.
In the castle of the Spade Kingdom, Lucius and the other Dark Triads walked from a portal, many of them with a dissatisfied look on their faces.
"Why are we running away? I thought we needed to capture the Heart Kingdom Queen?" asked Dante, Lucifero's Devil Host.
"The Wizard King was waiting in the Heart Kingdom," replied Lucius.
"How do you know that?"
"Remember the ancient magical artifact that I have that can predict danger?"
"Yes."
"Well, it went off."
"So, that's how you always managed to run away from me," suddenly said a deep and powerful voice, alerting all four of them. When they looked around, they saw a transparent-looking Wizard King floating in the room with them.
"How did you bypass how our defenses?" asked Lucius; however, Edward ignored him. He finally understood how these people could run away in time every time they did a raid in the Clover Kingdom.
As long as he opened a portal to rush to the borders, the Dark Triads would know and run away. And with the magic item that could hide their presence, they were quite the nuisance.
Edward looked around as he scanned the entire Spade Kingdom.
"A sealing magic that used the power and life of all the people of the kingdom? Is that what you prepared to deal with me? Don't bother, this is just a soul projection; it won't work unless I physically show up."
Lucius involuntarily flinched after hearing this, while Dante smiled: "You must the rumored God of Magic, Edward. My brother has painted you as this unimaginably powerful mage, I wonder if it's true."
Edward looked at him for a moment before flicking his finger. An immense repulsive force suddenly pushed Dante away. He tried to use his Gravity Magic to resist, but it was useless.
So, he broke through the castle walls and flew hundreds of meters away. All the other members became on guard; however, Edward shook his head. He knew that attack did little to no damage to Dante.
'Without a Grimoire, my power is very limited. I need to quickly recreate the Arcane Rune System to remove this limitation.'
"What do you want?" asked Lucius.
"I'm here for Megicula, of course."
"We won't give you our sister," said Zenon. Edward did not say anything more before his Astral Projection disappeared, and along with him was Vanica, Megicula's devil host. The others could not react nor understand what had happened. Only Zenon knew that a very advanced form of spatial magic was used to take their sister away, and that was something he could do with great difficulty.
"So, what do we do now?" asked Zenon.
"There is nothing we can do. Hopefully, she will last long enough until we find another way to summon the devils from the underworld."
"Brother, your necklace," suddenly reminded Zenon, making Lucius rush to check. Immediately, he realized it was gone; this necklace was the magic item that could predict danger.
In the Heart Kingdom, Edward opened his eyes while muttering: "The Mana Zone is truly a wonderful technique." From now on, wherever there is mana, as long as he can sense it from any distance, he can monitor things, project his soul and even use spells.
"How is the situation?" asked Lolopecka.
"They have retreated, and I have captured Vanica."
"Really?"
"Give me a moment." Edward then disappeared before appearing a small dimension he created to store things. He saw Vanica's body that was tied up with magic chains that sealed her mana. She kept grunting and cursing, so Edward waved his hand to seal her mouth as well.
Then, the pages of his Grimoire flipped before using a Summoning Spell to use Vanica's connection to Megicula to bring the devil to this place. He knew her position in the underworld with the curse he had previously placed on her. Unfortunately, his attempt failed.
'This world's space is unusually strong for a weak universe. It appears as if someone or something purposely strengthens the space in the mortal world to prevent devils from breaking through.
'No, the restriction should be only beings with immense mana. So, is the Universe Will responsible or someone else?'
Edward pondered for a moment before placing this discovery under the category of the mystery of this universe that he needs to uncover. Then, with a wave of his hand, a magic circle appeared in this small dimension.
He activated his Grimoire to use Captain Vengeance World Tree Magic. Then, he used Yami's Darkness Magic and combined them to create the Tree of Qliphoth.
With this tree, he created a path straight into the Underworld to the layer that Megicula occupied. Normally, more than 3 people are needed for this ceremony, but he accomplished it with his mana alone.
A Gate appeared in the middle of the magic circle before Megicula appeared. And the moment she set foot in this small dimension, she released a spell.
Curse Magic: Curse of Destruction World.
A dark aura emanated from her body to curse everything in its path–including the space in this small dimension. Vanica, her previous host, did not have a chance and instantly died under that curse.
Unfortunately for her, a bunch of golden roses appeared in the space that instantly purified her curses. Unlike Licht's light magic, which focused more on speed, Edward's light magic has both speed and purification power like a Paladin.
Furthermore, he combined it with Charlotte's Briar Magic and could absorb curses. And he did not have to use Mana Method to reach that level as she did since Light Magic made the gap.
A few seconds later, Megicula's body had many golden roses growing on her, rendering her immobile. She looked at Edward with hatred in her eyes. She is the primogenitor of all curses in the world. And yet, this person placed a curse on her that she could not remove.
This was a great shame to her.
"Do you know what your fate will be?"
Megicula did not answer; she regretted not using Acier's soul as a hostage. Well, she did try, but she could not remove the protection surrounding it.
"I will gather thousands if not millions of curses and inject them on you. With your unique body, magic, and my help, you should quickly adapt to these curses and build "anti-bodies" for them.
"Then, I will turn you into a potion with Curse Resisting Properties before drinking you and acquiring a very high Curse Resisting Immunity. Please do not die or try to kill yourself during the process; it will take me a lot of effort to revive you."
After saying that, he took an orb from her body: Acier's soul.
