Lady of Curses

The party stopped what they were doing and took a glance at the mist cocoon. It wasn't every day you could see one of Aella's kind reach the next stage. Usually, Safury advances in their home plain, as it is safer than here, and the environment is more comfortable for them in their home plane. But other than that it doesn't change much if they choose to advance here or in their home.

Although there is practically no difference where they advance it still is a rare sight to behold in the mortal realm. For June as a mage, this is a fascinating moment, although, for the others in her party, the moment is as magical as it is to her, the mages and especially summoners this moment is viewed in high regard.

So June was concentrating on this spectacle using her mana sight to see what was happening in this process. June got so immersed in Aella's advancement that she totally forgot what was happening around her. 

Looking at the cacoon she saw what was happening inside. She saw Aella slowly going from her previous position to fetal while at the same time Aella started to levitate in the middle of the cacoon. For a little while it stayed like that, Aella just levitated in the middle of this cacoon in a fetal position. 

After that calm moment past the mana in Aella started to shine brightly and expand. June wasn't fully sure what she was seeing but even then she kept her full attention on the cacoon. The mana expanded and at one point started to go wild as it raged inside Aella's body. From June's point of view, it looked like the mana was trying to break free from Aella's body.

The mana got wilder and wilder until Aella's body exploded. Seeing this June's eyes went wide, she didn't know if this was normal, but she decided to just continue looking and see what happens. But even then it was somewhat of a shock to her.

While the mana got free from Aella's body it still couldn't go anywhere because the mist cacoon was acting like a container. After the mana got outside the body it calmed down, and at the moment was just slowly spinning in the cacoon. 

June looked at the cacoon and marveled at the sight. Slowly the mana started to spin faster and faster. Then something started to form in the middle of the mana cyclon. It started as a small ball the size of a normal human eyeball. The blond elf mage saw how the mana was getting cucked into this ball.

Slowly it got bigger and bigger until it finally absorbed all the mana in the cacoon. The spherical object levitated in the center for a bit, and then it started to take a different shape. June saw how the sphere collapsed and expanded while taking this other form. June saw with her own blue eyes how it all happened, at first she didn't know what happening now, but the more time went by the more June started to understand what was the end shape. 

So June just watched until it finally stopped and took its desired shape. June guessed it right, it was a body.  The body was in a fetal position and was levitating in the middle of the cacoon. June couldn't see fully how the body had changed, because all she could see was mana, and although it could clearly show her the shapes, she couldn't see the same things, like color, that her normal eyes could see.

But even without fully seeing the body, she still could see some changes here and there. For example, the body looked taller, it had longer hair, the curves on this body were more defined and a few more things here and there.

Finally, the process ended with Aella's new body slowly returning to the sitting position she was in before this all started. After she was back in her previous position the cocoon of mist slowly dissipated revealing the now transformed Aella, with her eyes closed. 

June could see Aella's body in full display because when the advancement happened the cloak and the monster's core fell to the ground. June could still tell it was Aella, but she looked a little bit older and more mature, and there were some changes that she couldn't see when Aella was still in her cocoon. But those changes weren't much, just her hair being darker than before and the dark eyeshadows.

While June was looking at Aella, the others one by one took a look too, while at the same time waiting for Aella to open her eyes and make some movement, because until now she has just sat there unmoving like a statue. 

After waiting for a minute or two, Aella finally opened her eyes. Aella slowly opened her eyes, although there wasn't a lot of light in this place Aella still took her time opening her eyes. 

Her dark eye lingered, for a moment, in June's own eyes. But after that moment Aella turned her gaze away from the elf's blue eyes, and instead, looked at her surroundings. After exploring the surroundings with her eyes, Aella looked at her body. 

With her gaze now on her body, Aella started to move her body, so that she could get used to it. First, she moved her hands, then her shoulders, then her hips, and then finally she stood up. 

After she was up on her feet she started to explore more thoroughly her body and see what changed. It didn't take long before she figured out how her body had physically changed, and she was happy with the change. After all, she liked being taller with more curves, unfortunately, there weren't any reflecting surfaces here so she couldn't check her face, but that could wait, she was in no hurry.

After she had finally checked all she wanted, she stretched a little bit before starting to look for something. Aella looked around before her dark eyes reflected the item she was looking for, the monster's core. 

The core was near her so she didn't need to walk anywhere, she just needed to pick it off the floor. ''It should be enough.'' Looking at the core Aella reckoned that it should have enough mana to help her do what she wanted.

By now the core was somewhat duller in color than when she first dug it out of the monster's body, but it was expected because most of its mana went to cursing all those screaming monsters that were surrounding the living cage they were in, and then more mana was spent for her advancement.

Grabbing the core in one hand and pushing up the other hand, similar to how when she first cursed these screaming creatures. 

June watched from the sidelines, as the naked Aella stretched her hand up, and then said. ''Curse of madness.'' The moment those words left Aella's mouth dark crimson smoke tendrils left her outstretched palm, while simultaneously the core she was holding lost its color turning as it turned gray.

The smokey tendrils weren't as numerous as the ones that were created when Aella used [Curse of weakness] but there were still plenty of these crimson-collared tendrils.

With her blue eyes, June saw how those tendrils charged at some of those creatures. When they made contact the creature stopped for a moment, before it went mad. June saw how the Drekavaces that got affected by the curse started to attack their own. 

The chaos started slowly. First were the ones who got cursed, they started to kill their own without a care in the world, and even when they got injured they reacted as if they had no injuries, but the mad ones were disposed of fast as they were just drop in the bucked when it came to the numbers. Then it got more chaotic when those who didn't get cursed attacked one another by accident, and the attacked party retaliated, making a cycle, involving more and more monsters.

June saw right before her eyes how the group of monsters went from trying to kill her and her party to slaughtering one another. Guts and blood started to fall all around them. 

June looked at Aella, the reason for this chaos. The elf saw Aella just standing there looking around at how these creatures killed each other with a huge grin on her face, it looked like she was enjoying this. That smile sent a chill down the blond elf's spine.