The Serpent Staff could multiply the effects of healing magic, but treating hundreds of people at once was undoubtedly an enormous burden on the caster.
While healing them, Vincent strode swiftly toward the Christmas tree in the square.
The lights hanging from it were flickering rapidly and continuously, clearly disrupted by magic.
As he approached the Christmas tree, a heart-wrenching childish cry caught his attention.
It was a little girl who looked no older than five or six. Wearing a reindeer-antler headband, she knelt beside a man curled up on the ground.
She kept shaking his arm desperately, her face filled with tears and fear. "Dad... what's wrong with you? Wake up... Santa Claus is coming... Dad... get up..."
Vincent quickened his pace. The girl was right beneath the Christmas tree, the suspected source of the curse. Her dad had already been tortured unconscious, yet she showed no signs of being eroded by the curse.
He quickly surveyed several children nearby. Their situations were similar: adults had collapsed everywhere, while the children merely seemed frightened, showing none of the symptoms of being cursed.
What was this? The last shred of conscience from a sadistic antisocial maniac?
Vincent crouched beside the girl. His appearance startled her, and through tear-blurred eyes, she looked at this suddenly appearing older brother holding a glowing stick.
"Don't be afraid." His voice was soft, though his expression remained stern. "I'm here to help your dad. He's sick, with a very unusual illness, but I can cure him."
He took out a handkerchief from the Flamel Ring and gently wiped the tears from the girl's face.
Perhaps the gentle white light radiating from the Serpent Staff had driven away her fear, because the girl finally stopped crying.
"Big brother, can you really cure Dad?"
Vincent gently stroked