"Rose, are you sure no one's within a mile radius?" Ace asked, leaning over the cliff edge. Sitting on his bike, he rested his elbows on his helmet, which was perched on the gas tank, as he gazed down at the winery nestled at the foot of the mountain.
After leaving Harper's garage with his new bike along with freebie helmet and smart phone holder, Ace followed Dame Wasp's directions through the woods to the winery. Thanks to his enhanced stats, he easily navigated steep slopes and crossed creeks, even carrying the bike when necessary. What should have been a two-hour road trip took him less than an hour.
Instead of heading straight into the winery, Ace stopped on the hill above it, choosing a vantage point where he could safely enter his Apex persona and store the bike in Emi's storage talisman. This time, hiding wasn't an option—the curse exorcism request made it clear the curseling was hiding somewhere in the winery. With the property spanning thousands of acres, Ace would have to search on-site to track it down. His plan was simple: pose as a guest and explore the premises to locate the target.
'Yes, master. My cybernetics confirm it,' Dame Wasp replied, she double-checked their surroundings using her cybernetics systems through Ace's senses.
Satisfied, Ace donned his helmet and started the bike, turning into the woods under the cover of tall pine trees. After stopping in a secluded spot, he summoned his third toy summon and instructed as he began undressing, "Emi, store this bike and take out the other set of clothes."
Emi stepped forward, her movements fluid as she retrieved a neatly folded outfit and polished boots from her storage talisman. "Master, should I use the scavenger spirit to absorb the curse energy attached to the bike?" she asked, glancing at the vehicle.
The clothes she handed him were slightly dated—Dan's old clothes and boots. While still in good condition, they'd fallen out of rotation once Dan had grown his beer gut. They'd fit Ace's Apex persona well enough, even if the style wasn't ideal.
"No," Ace replied, shaking his head as he slipped into the fresh clothes. "If possible, turn it into a cursed item. Next time we visit a cursed mall, let's buy a curse core suitable for making it into either a cursed tool."
As he tied his boot laces, Ace cast a quick glance at the bike, already envisioning its potential. It wasn't just convenient transportation—it was fun to ride.
The moment Ace walked to the back of Harper's garage to her uncle's container office, Dame Wasp had informed him that she sensed curse energy in his surroundings. That was how he noticed the Stark VR1 plugged in for charging beside the container. He stopped, narrowing his eyes as he examined it. At first, he was surprised to find that the bike carried curse energy, as the townsfolk had claimed. But upon closer inspection, he realized it wasn't a cursed item—it simply had curse energy lingering on it.
The realization clicked: the bike had recently been in the company of a strong curseling. This could only mean the previous owner had encountered a curseling on the mountain near the town while testing the bike. Ace pieced it together—the owner's death hadn't been an accident but rather the work of a curseling or curse slave using their curseling partner. The lingering energy on the bike was a chilling trace of that encounter.
"Rose, did you dig up anything about the bike's accident or its previous owner?" Ace asked, recalling Emi with a thought after she promptly stored the bike and its helmet in her talisman.
'Yes, Master,' Dame Wasp replied. 'There's nothing remarkable about the previous owner himself. But the location of his accident caught my attention. That spot has been linked to four other accidental deaths in the past year. Before that, there were no incidents.'
Ace frowned, listening intently.
'The circumstances of each death were different—they were all doing unrelated activities—but every incident occurred exactly three months apart. I doubt it's a simple curseling. My analysis suggests it's likely a curse slave—a human acting as an mastermind. They could be a serial killer feeding human souls to their curseling partner,' Dame Wasp speculated, her tone firm.
Ace's clenched his jaw tightly. "A curse slave," he muttered, a flicker of anger in his eyes. The pattern, the calculated timing, and the grisly implications painted a dark truth that there was a curse slave hiding in the town or its surroundings.
He exhaled sharply, refocusing. "Good work, Rose. Keep digging. I need everything—past incidents, the first reporters, known witness, anything unusual about that mountain. We're not letting this thing run loose."
'Understood, Master,' Dame Wasp affirmed. Before diving back into her data streams, she arranged for a cab to pick him up from the bus stop on the highway near the mountain. After all, walking straight to the winery would be odd and suspicious.
'Master, I've booked a cab,' she informed him.
"Good," Ace replied, adjusting his pace as he descended the mountain toward the bus stop. "Can you pull up the info on the phantom paint again?"
'Right away, Master,' Dame Wasp responded, sharing the details seamlessly onto his status screen.
Info: The Phantom Paint typically appears as a dark and eerie silhouette but is essentially curse energy manifested in the form of paint and a curse core. It haunts paintings of any style or genre, though it has a marked preference for renowned portraits. The Phantom Paint can adopt the colors and textures of the paintings or murals it inhabits.
It thrives on the fear of those near the haunted artwork, using its abilities to invoke dread in observers. For example, when haunting a portrait, it may make the eyes in the painting move, follow the observer around the room, or give the impression that the painting is watching them.
If a mortal catches the Phantom Paint in the act, it can drag them into the painting it inhabits and devour them entirely.
i) Dimensional Shift:
The Phantom Paint can alternate between two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms when possessing a painting.
Its liquid paint-like body renders physical attacks largely ineffective.
The Phantom Paint can blend seamlessly with its surroundings by altering its color, effectively camouflaging both its form and curse energy.
iv) Dimensional Stomach:
It possesses a dimensional stomach that allows it to access and digest three-dimensional food even while in a two-dimensional form.
Paint Domain: Utilizing its skills 'Dimension Shift' and 'Dimensional Stomach,' the curseling can transform the painting it possesses into an actual, separate dimension. This dimension mirrors the artwork depicted within the painting. Within in it's Paint Domain, the curseling has complete dominion making it near impossible to kill it from with in its Paint Domain. If the curseling is killed, anything trapped within its Paint Domain will be expelled into the real dimension.
i) Source: C.I.B. archives, S.S.S. archives
ii) This data is created for human convenience by humans. Curselings don't assess to this.]