The Strongest Curse Master

"You guys can come out now," I said, walking into an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the city, and added, "I have decided to help you three meet death."

Bidding goodbye to Agent Marcus, I hurried into the back alley, planning to use Specroll exo-armor to fly out of here without anyone watching, but just then I got a feeling like I was being watched.

After I checked the status screen's curse map, I confirmed that I was indeed being watched by not one curse user but three curse users. They were just several feet from me, yet I had failed to notice them. Clearly, these guys were pros. If these guys wanted to harm me, it would be too late before I realized.

I didn't believe any curse criminal would be daring enough to target me right behind the local C.I.B. branch headquarters. So, I assumed that they were C.I.B agents. I wonder if they were here to guard the building after all, both Matthews and Agent Marcus did warn me that the security of the building had been increased after the Sarmasa Cult attack.

Believing that me accessing the garbage-filled, rat pee stained back alley of the C.I.B. branch headquarter building might have appeared suspicious and alerted them, so I decided to leave, pretending to be just passing by using it as a shortcut.

I didn't dare to use my curse energy as the Agent in charge of handing me my curse licence repeatedly warned me about using curse energy in the presence of a mortal or where mortals could be exposed to curse energy with the exception of defending myself.

I ended up hailing a ride to the outskirts of the city as I didn't want to be caught red-handed breaking the rules just a few minutes after I gained my curse licence. However, when checking if I was still being followed and watched, the curse map confirmed that the same three curse users spying on me in the back alley were closely following the cab I was in.

Alerted by the three known pursuers at a red light, I summoned Emi outside of the cab window equipped with her invisible talisman. As such, she managed to slip past the three curse users following me and began to follow them from a safer distance.

The only reason I could be so bold with my counter was that, according to my curse map, all three of my pursuers were of hero-tier, also because I had Dame Wasp help find a safe place in the outskirts of the city during our last visit.

These guys didn't scare me. However, I was still cautious because, according to what I have learned about them so far, they seemed to be pretty good at hiding their presence. I was worried they might be hiding their original tier not to spook me just in case I made them out.

Having taken this into consideration, this time I decided to go with a different strategy than my usual one. I kept Curse Clout for myself and handed the Specroll and my Rail rifle to Emi. With Curse Clout and my newly enhanced curse senses, I was confident I could escape even if my pursuers turned out to be three sky-tiers.

DD, who was sharing my senses right now, did point out that my change of mind about the identity of my pursuers was too drastic, maybe these pursuers were actually agents arranged by someone in the C.I.B. to monitor me. Most likely Matthews. However, I countered, adding that the C.I.B. branch headquarters was a good place for any daring curse criminals to find a mark. And that Matthews couldn't possibly arrange agents to monitor me despite knowing that my estate was protected by a Void-tier curse array formation. Even if I didn't notice them, the array would.

Regardless of who was pursuing me, we had to do something about them. I did think of directly leading them to the void-tier curse array formation protecting my estate but then I didn't want to expose my home and family to my pursuers. It was best if I dealt with them before I headed home.

…

'Master, now you're just outright provoking them,' DD complained as I had hid in the underground of the warehouse by summoning inside of a nearby tree while I called out to my pursuers.

Thanks to the cursed elven staff toy summons she was equipped with, DD could move around in anything wood. Being summoned into the tree DD immediately found a cozy place underground and had the roots of trees surround her in what looked like a protective cocoon made of biologically engineered and enhanced tree roots.

After securing and making herself comfortable underground, DD then began to share her master's senses. This way she will be able to remotely attack her master's pursuers without revealing herself.

Meanwhile, Emi found a perfect vantage point on a nearby abandoned water tower. She was the backup, just in case her master's pursuers turned out to be sky-tiers in disguise. She signaled her master using the status screen,

[ —Status Screen—

Emi: In position. Enemies in sight. Leprechaun scope has locked onto the enemies. Permission to engage.

Ace: Don't engage until their identities are clear. I don't want to end up on the wanted list for killing agents on duty.

Ace: Besides, this is a good opportunity for me to see how far I have come. DD, only engage when it appears that I am about to be seriously injured.

Emi: Hai!

DD: Copy that.]

"Don't make me repeat myself. Just line up or come all at once. Either way is fine with me, but I prefer it if you all came together—that way I can send you all to meet death together and save myself a little time. Hey, every second of mine is precious," I mocked aloud.

As my words hung in the silence, thirty feet away, three figures simply materialized out of thin air. They were utterly silent, cloaked in black cloth wrapping around their entire bodies, their faces obscured by identical, plain white carnival masks.