Isekai Journey Of The Magic Archer

[Eon's POV: ]

"Headmaster?"

We were going back now that the presentation was over, but thanks to his sudden addressing of the entire conference, we stopped in our place.

"You two should stay down for now," He whispered in a low voice and seeing the seriousness in his voice, we did not ask any further questions.

He was one of the organisers so there might be something that he wanted to tell to the rest of them or talk about something, which was not something we needed to be concerned about.

'Still, from how he told us to stay down the stage and not go back to the back of the stage like we should, I could tell whatever he was going to talk about was going to be related to us somehow.'

But we did not have to worry about any of that.

[{ "What's he up to now?" }]

Down on the stage, the helpers prepared a chair for both of us immediately and we sat down at the very least.

Standing all this time and talking had been uncomfortable. Even the chair that Rein was using until now was not anywhere comparable to the chair that the rest of the individuals present were doing.

[{ "I don't know either. He needs to address the rest of them in the closing ceremony, so perhaps this is it." }]

[{ "Then why did he tell us to stay?" }]

Rein did not like him and after this conference, even though he showed us the outside of this place, the primordial redscape, she still did not like him any more than she did before all this.

[{ "I don't know either. Well, this is the headmaster we are talking about." }]

He was one of the organisers of the grand conference, and one of the few that we knew about. The rest were not present here, but they most certainly were looking at everything that was going on around here.

Perhaps Mister Crow was also with them since, from what we know now, he was also one of the people who helped out with the organisation of the conference.

"This grand conference has been quite eventful until now…"

Thinking about it, there were a few good presentations before us as well and some of them were very well made.

Yes the one we presented brought down the mood many times, but the things weren't the same with our presentation.

The rest of them were talking about how something might affect the world, while our presentation was much bigger than that.

It was about a lot of things combined. The past, present, future… We talked about a lot of things. But, that does not mean our presentation was anything special.

'The use of the technology was unique and all, but that was not all there was to these presentations.'

Our work was only as refined as we could make it at this point in time. We did not have hundreds of years of experience with these things like many of them do.

Especially when it comes down to the detail, precision, and validity of the information shared in the presentation.

'Facts might not be valid all the time. That was one of the reasons our presentation that was more focused on speculations and answers instead of 'truths' were not as effective to the conference as many of the other presentations.'

There were many better presentations, one of them was Nova's mother's. They were amazing things that sent shivers down one's spines.

And this conference had a few of them, so as the headmaster said, this conference surely was an eventful one.

"I will not waste much of your time, and start the last presentation of the conference this time around."

"..."

"There was a presentation left?"

The first thought I had was how we were not the last ones to present, and the one that followed immediately after the first one was how the headmaster was the one on the stage right now.

"He's presenting…"

A few gasps reverberated throughout the now silent conference hall.

No one expected the headmaster would present something. Everyone knew how busy he was so according to what I know, he had not presented in a very, very long time.

The last time he presented was when they were facing a great disturbance throughout the world due to increasing child deaths.

"My topic will be short so there is no need to worry about time. It shouldn't even take an hour."

"What…?"

"Headmaster, what does that mean?"

"What topic will you be presenting on, headmaster?"

We did not know anything about this and yet I had a feeling that this would be connected to us in some way.

Still, this was a topic that the headmaster himself was going to present… it should at least take a day for even the smallest topic from his side.

He was the most qualified person to be in the position that he was in. As the headmaster of the grand academy, the kind of knowledge he held was unparalleled.

What more, he was also one of the people that created the laws and regulations that people like us who present in this grand conference follow nowadays.

"My topic…"

He looked in our direction, and then snapped his finger.

-Snap!

An illusionary image appeared before everyone's eyes.

"It is about Kaksha and the holy city of Shrudha."

What we were seeing right now was a recap of all the things that we had found in Kaksha as well as that otherworldly curse, the data that we gathered on it later on, and some more data that the headmaster later on gathered on his own.

We saw all that in a few moments. It was like a movie was being played inside our heads and we were possessed by something that saw everything that was going on at an absurd speed.

[{ "I knew it…" }]

We did not know how much time had passed when we came back to our senses, but one thing was certain.

"What…"

"What's the meaning of this?!"

"Your holiness?!"

All eyes turned to one side of the conference hall and locked on the man in holy clothing sitting among the other individuals that were called people of holiness.

The grand order and the Cardinal that was in charge of the city of Shrudha. Also, one of the few stigma holders that held immense power.

He was sitting among the people that had come from the Temple's side, on a completely opposite side from the Rakshasas. Your adventure continues at empire

He was one of the simple looking people that had not caused any kind of problems in this conference. Apparently, he was also concerned about these evil demonic cultists and had asked a few good questions.

I was looking at him through my third eye so as to not produce any suspicions, and seeing how the 'footage' that the headmaster showed all of us did not have the president, vice president, or either of us, it was clear that he wanted to keep our involvement in this matter hidden.

"I just want to ask you, Cardinal… why are you carrying around an otherworldly curse with enough power to destroy even the divine beings?"

His new revelation that this curse could kill a divine being as well made no sense at all. Yet, coming from him and after seeing all that information, this was not something unbelievable.

"Fragmantin… that is at least what I know that thing as."

-Ooooooooooooooong!

A circle of light manifested around the Cardinal, the old man that was granted power directly by what people call a 'god' in this period, and locked him in his place.

But the man continued looking downwards.

"Cardinal? What is it that made you endanger the entire city that you were supposed to protect?"

The headmaster did not show us how the curse could manifest into a creature that could kill an Okagi and destroy a city in moments.

But, there was a simulation showcasing the power level of this parasitic 'curse'. A simulation that put a single cursed body at its full potential on the same threat scale as a Catastrophe.

"Cardinal?"

The ring of light that was wrapped around him took the old man to the stage, and placed it before the headmaster.

"You can speak-."

"What do you want to hear?!"

-Ooooooong!

A strange dark power that did not seem like holy or divine power exploded from the Cardinal.

As everyone saw, his eyes turned black in an instant, his skin turned pale and he started resembling the rakshasas that were sitting on the opposite side.

{ "What is there to say…?!" }

The sudden burst of powerful energy was so intense that just feeling it with the protective shields from the organisers blocking the impact was enough to give a sample of its power.

{ "I merely followed what my teachings have taught me!" }

This power was not the power of the believers, it was not a power belonging to the gods, and it was also not a power belonging to the Fragmantin that were still dormant inside of him.

"Corruption…"

The demonic contractors were the first ones to recognize this power, and following them, the people of the temple as well as some of the older individuals who had heard or seen this phenomenon directly recognised it.

"How did I not notice a corrupt being…?"

The Sword Saint's voice that reverberated throughout the hall sounded unnaturally angry.

{ "What did I do?! Why are you doing this to me?!" }

The ring around him was blocking all of his impure powers.

The power of [Corruption] was different from any other kind of power. It was even worse than the demonic energy that was, at one point, could be considered a pure kind of power.

But this certain power in particular was the opposite of all the positive and pure powers in the world.

Unlike demonic powers that were negative and pure, this one was negative and impure… something that is only possible when someone who holds a certain degree of powers 'falls from the grace' of nature.

{ "Release me this instant!" }

The Cardinal was trying to free himself from the ring around him, but neither could he use any of his strength, nor could he cast any spells.

This ring… it wasn't magic.

Nor was it a power belonging to the headmaster.

"We were right, everyone."

The headmaster looked up at the ceiling above, and the rest of us followed his gaze…

"Holy… shit…"

"What's that…?"

But, what we saw above us with our unique eyes that not everyone saw, shocked us much more than the fact that we were in the presence of a corrupted being at the moment.