Deacon stroked his chin in contemplation while Farmer Ed just looked at him. Some of the others gathered closer to hear what he was about to say. As Deacon just stared out of the gap between the boards, they all heard stomping from the staircase. A quick look back showed the mayor had finally left his office. He pointed his sword menacingly at Deacon.

“Get out!” Yelled the Mayor as his sword illuminated his face from beneath with dusky magical energy.

“That’s the plan.” Deacon said as he sprinted into the wall. It felt like running through Jell-O for him until he popped out into the open space that was created by Henry’s arrival. He didn’t slow down at all sprinting right toward the bulky Mulvarian. To Henry’s credit, he stood immediately. The look of shock on his face told Deacon he wasn’t told he was here. In his thoughts between steps he wondered why Ruby wouldn’t mention it to him unless she couldn’t. There must be a downside to this gem power that Deacon was itching to exploit. As he came within range, Henry swung for the fences. Deacon triggered Spectral Dodge and sailed like a pole vaulter right over the mace swing. He reached out with this right hand and clawed at his sensitive Mulvarian nose. This caused Henry to drop his mace and reach up to cover his nose. The mace never reached the ground. Polterheist snatched it and swung it into Henry’s inner right knee with a loud crack. This forced the howling brute to the ground. The gathered crowd was not idle during this brief exchange. They all surged forward to chase after Deacon. Deacon on the other hand never stopped moving. He kept sprinting down the street, mace trailing behind him. He heard a roar of anger at his back and chanced a glance over his shoulder. Henry was chasing after the mace that was floating along behind Deacon. Knowing full well he could outrun the lumbering brute, he poured on the speed. Typhus popped out of a nearby alleyway scrambling after Deacon.

“What in the ten hells are you doing?” Typhus huffed out.

“There is a church of Astrael on the other side of the city. I’m kind of winging it here. Tell me you have good news.” Deacon said slowing just enough that Typhus wasn’t sprinting.

“Tantus thinks he might have a way to cancel the cursed energy. He needs a focusing object that’s attached to the rest of them. That’s the best they could produce on short notice. Armand was planning to Jump the brute when you came barreling out of the Town Hall.” Typhus said.

“Ok buy me time and send Tantus to the church. He was controlling them with this thing, its probably the focus Tantus was talking about.” Deacon said.

“So how did you know to take it away from him?” Typhus asked.

“He made people into a chair for him. He wasn’t going to keep this no matter what.” Deacon said with determination on his face. Just then Armand shoulder tackled Henry from a rooftop. He was fully coated in metal and had his weapons out. Armand dropped down on him shield first forcing both combatants through the window of general goods store.

“My shadow has told the rest of them the plan. Don’t cock this up!” Typhus said as he turned and ran to help Armand. Vegetation started growing all around Deacons route. It looked like Elle was penning in cursed populace to give Deacon an unobstructed path forward.

Deacon started to become accustomed to the rhythmic smacking of his boots during the run. So much so he didn’t notice the bull or its rider bearing down on him. With the crash of splintered wood from barrels rolling on the road emerged a bull with a ruby nose ring and on top was a man holding a pitchfork like a lance. He saluted Deacon with the lance and the bull charged. Deacon didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or scream. He adjusted his course running toward a building while preparing to go through the walls when he remembered he was dragging a very solid object behind him. With a though he poured soul energy int a Nether Beam pointed in a diagonal angle. This coated the ground between them with nether ice. Once the bull hit the patch of ice, it and it's rider slid over the lip of a canal Deacon was aiming for. He followed the canal further across town until he finally could see the steepled church building.

“Finally.” Deacon said before he heard a snort and hoof pawing at the cobblestones. Apparently, the bull and rider were wet but altogether unharmed. That and where the canal split off from the road had an incline easy enough for the bull to walk back up to the road.

Tantus slid around a corner catching himself on a lamp post. His speed had been greatly increased by using his swift feet spell. At the end of this road should be the church he was supposed to meet Deacon at. No sooner did he thing that than he could see Deacon hanging on the front of a charging bull by the horns getting repeatedly stabbed by the rider, with a pitchfork. All three smashed through the doors of the one room church with a ruby mace trailing behind them.

“Not even the strangest thing I’ve seen him do.” Tantus said as he hurried down the street.

“For the love of all things holy stop poking me with that thing!” Deacon said trying to push the bull off of him. They managed to pin him to the altar with the bulls weight. As soon as Deacon got his feet under him, both the bull and the rider started to write and buck. This helped Deacon to free himself as lighting coursed through both of his attackers bodies. Deacon got around the other side of the altar and looked toward the door to see Tantus channeling a lightning bolt from his hands into their bodies.

“Stop, they’ve probably had enough.” Deacon hollered.

“Yes, yes you are probably right.” He said calming himself and heading over to Deacon.

“Why here?” Tantus asked ignoring the smoking bull and rider.

“Well when we freed Amanda it was in a church dedicated to Astrael. I figured with a prayer, a little luck, and whatever you figured out would help us fix this mess.” Deacon said shrugging his shoulders.

“What’s with the mace?” Tantus asked.

“Oh, right. The big Mulvarian was using it to control the citizens. I figured I should take that away from him.” Deacon answered.

“Ok let me see it.” Tantus said as Deacon floated it over to him. Tantus made a pained face when he touched it. He immediately dropped it on the alter and it released reddish black flash of energy.

“What was that?” Deacon asked.

“It bit me.” Tantus said shaking his hand.

“No that flash of energy.” Deacon said looking around.

“No idea. Now I’m going to need a few minutes to set this up. I figured we could counter the curse with Tier three holy energy. Using the earring you gave us we tried a few different spells that didn’t work. Then I remembered the spell I learned from the spirit of the wind. Remember when I was saying it worked differently? Well I tried to use that method and we got a reaction. The earing imploded. I figured if we could channel the right amount of holy energy, it would cancel out the unholy energy inside the object. That should render it inert. But we didn’t want to do that one at a time to everyone here. That’s why I suggested finding a focal source and it seems you’ve had it the whole time. Good job.” Tantus said as an odd droning was coming from the semi cooked inhabitants of the church.

“Hold that thought. Scratch that, start whatever it is you need to do. I’ll take care of this.” Deacon said as he added Tantus to his party shooting off a quick inspect.

Cursed Minotaur- This is an unnatural Minotaur based creature. Unholy energies unleashed by the Ruby Mace of Domination has called a guardian. It consumed both the rider and the bull to create an abomination.

Level 18 Unholy Amalgamation, Cursed/ Monster.

“Work fast buddy.” Deacon as he jumped over the altar and interposed himself between Tantus and the beast. Abomination was an understatement it still had both heads. It was using the humans torso and spine as a right hand and its legs hung uselessly dangling off its back. It bellowed in Deacon’s direction and took one hoof step forward and fell over. It was obvious that it had no balance at all. Then it struck with its back legs. It smashed into Deacon sending him flying into the back wall. He lost thirty percent of his health bar to that one attack. Deciding there would be no saving this thing, he stood up and changed sources of power.

“The soul still burns.”

Deacon’s pupils turned that shade of red with a hint of blue. He got up to his feet and vault over Tantus who was furiously drawing on the altar with a piece of charcoal. Deacon fired off two Infernal Sickles that buried themselves deep into the Minotaur’s side. It howled and turned to face Deacon. It began bucking like it was at a rodeo. Deacon needing to dodge out of the way of continual hoof strikes. When it finally stopped it opened its human mouth and spit a reddish black fluid at Deacon who used a piece of a broken pew to block the spatter. It began eating into the wood. That was a big nope for Deacon. He threw the board at the beast. It just smashed it aside with its bull head but that was distraction enough for Deacon to target Dragon Claw Barrage. He tore into it, chunks of viscera flying in all directions until the ability ended. Normally he would have moved through the space but this time the sheer mass of the creature prevented that. It screamed with the loss of so much of its body and slumped against the wall with a pitiful whine. Didn’t appear to have enough musculature left to move under its own weight. Deacon took a look at his soul energy bar and noticed he only had one hundred and twenty percent left. This has been an expensive day.

“Deacon, if you’re done playing with that, I need you up here.” Tantus called out.

“What is it?” Deacon asked as he yanked the nose ring from the bull head.

“I need a source of holy power. I figured I could channel you though the sigils. You see I can make the objects without a sufficient source of that Tiers power they won’t do anything.” Tantus said.

“You want me to power it?” Deacon said finally reaching the alter.

“If you wouldn’t mind. Put your hand right here and channel your mana.” Tantus said.

“I don’t have any of that.” Deacon replied.

“Right, right. Hang on I need to change the configuration a bit.” Tantus said shooing Deacon to the side and grabbing the coal again.

“Uh. How sure are you about this?” Deacon said remembering Tantus’s track record.

“As sure as a mage who’s had less than two hours to create a ritual that will mass break a curse on the population of a small city could be.” Tantus said not without a little sass in his voice. Deacon checked the body of the monster again. He wanted to make sure there were no last-minute surprises.

“Ok. Place your hand here and channel your soul energy into the ritual diagram. That should start it.” Tantus said taking three big steps back.

“Not encouraging.” Deacon said as he placed his palm on the spot. He felt a soft tugging, then it was like the flood gates opened on a dam. His soul energy poured out of him into the ritual, and it began to light up the room. The Ruby Mace of Domination stood up on its handle and began to rotate in place. Lines of reddish black energy shot out of the mace back toward the Town hall and a few off in different directions altogether. That’s when several strands of energy wound together and were moving as one. The broken entrance to the church started to flood with townsfolk. There faces were scrunched up in rage as they all tried to pour into the small one room chapel. Tantus ran in front of the altar and erected one of his magic barriers, but it wouldn’t last against the press of bodies coming in through the door. Deacon could see his soul energy dropping below twenty percent and he began to panic. Then a perfectly manicured hand lay atop of Deacons. He followed it to the arm, then shoulder, then face of none other than Astrael Goddess of Light and Life who just smiled at him.

“Together.” Was all she said.

White light filled the room and the mace folded in on itself until there was only a hunk of slag that bounced off the alter and onto the ground. The people all started to shudder and fall over. The nose ring Deacon took out of the bull turned to dust. Deacon stepped back from the altar and turned to the Goddess who was just gone.