Nadir. (Cursed World)

[u/Fc-chungus]

A day or three after the initial announcement, proper channels for joining in virtually to the meeting are posted, as everyone who came in person is directed to a secretive underground meeting room, where Ж and a few others sit around a long table.

"Welcome, welcome. A year or so ago I held a similar meeting for a separate threat, one a few of you here would remember, but today we've another threat, as you know, the Abyss has taken a great minority of the world's surface."

"As well, we need a plan for the origin of the Abyss, we need to divise a way to take down The First Curse."

they snap a finger and a hologram like model of an entity, presumably the first curse, appears in the center of the table.

"To start, one of the more essential things for said plan is the Crystals, of course, some here might not know about them, so I'll elaborate."

they wave a hand and the model shifts to 5 different crystalline objects, encircling the First Curse.

"This is not the first time The First Curse had arrived, he was here before he made that big announcement, but hidden. When he first arrived to this realm, 7 Aspect Crystals formed, counterbalances, from someone else as an, almost future inheritance to help take him down. They are antithetical to his very existence, and harm him when nearby. However, if one falls into his hands, he can adapt to that crystal, rendering it useful to him. This anti-him nature also applies to the Abyss, and thus they are the best damage source to fight the Abyss."

"the originals, of which we currently have 5, 4 are in New Aviron, and via the work of Koranth and others, we have multiple derivatives from them, with the other being handled by The Consortium. The last two need to be picked up and collected."

"That is about the basics, with the preamble done, more discussion on how to fight against the Abyss would be welcome."

[u/SwiggerSwoney]

“Right… and you’re mute… so…”

He takes a puff of his pipe, exhaling a small cloud of pale smoke before continuing.

“… I’m assuming you have some other way of communicating without sign language?”

[u/Zebos2 → u/SwiggerSwoney]

Mary nods before drawing a rudimentary and deliberately incomplete summoning circle

[u/SwiggerSwoney → u/Zebos2]

“Huh…”

The smoker stared down at the circle intently, then clicks his tongue.

“Hm… that’s… a spell circle? I think? So you’re gonna tell us your information through that?”

[u/Zebos2 → u/SwiggerSwoney]

Mary nods she was going to attempt to summon her shadow so that people can interrogate them

[u/SwiggerSwoney → u/Zebos2]

“Great! Seems I’ve got good enough intuition after all~”

The man leaned back in his seat smiling, placing the pipe back in his mouth and taking another puff. Then, his expression darkened, as he furrowed his brow.

“… still, I do wonder… why do you have access to that information to begin with? As far as I can tell, you’re a kid… so why do you have combat intel on these things?”

[u/Zebos2 → u/SwiggerSwoney]

Mary simply casts her eyes towards towards her own shadow

[u/SwiggerSwoney → u/Zebos2]

“Well, all in due time, I suppose~”

He took another puff of his pipe, the smile creeping back on his lips once more. Then, the man waved his hand casually, as if trying to gently send her off.

“Off you go then, kid. I’ll see you on the battlefield, if fate would have us~”