The demon shot toward the three assailants—
—and in the blink of an eye, three headless bodies stood side by side before collapsing to the ground.
There was no fight.
Only a massacre.
Shadow couldn't even react before the demon appeared in front of him. In one swift motion, its hand pierced straight through his heart.
"Argh—!"
Shadow gasped, but no air came.
For a moment, he truly believed—this was the end.
"Yeah… this is definitely the end. 0/10 experience, would not recommend."
"Thump… Thump…"
In the silence, both he and the demon heard it.
A loud, heavy heartbeat.
Shadow felt it—his heart pounding with something new… something unfamiliar.
"This is… mana…" he whispered.
The condition for the curse… it's the demon.
Realization struck.
"Wait… so I had to get stabbed to unlock this? That's bad game design."
"Of course. Of course my body only works when I'm dying. Typical."
In a heartbeat, his consciousness began to fade.
At first, dark energy seeped out of his body—slow, unnatural—
Then it erupted.
It pulsed violently, like something alive. Thick tendrils of darkness spread across the ground, crawling through the air itself. A faint whisper echoed within it, as if countless voices were trapped inside—begging… or warning.
The demon sensed the danger and tried to pull away—
—but it couldn't.
"What… what is this?!" panic spread across its face.
The dark energy held it in place.
"Relax, I'm as surprised as you are." Shadow said.
Then—
its life force began to drain.
"Aaaaargh!!"
Screams of agony tore through the air as its essence was forcefully pulled into Shadow.
In seconds, the demon went still.
Its eyes remained wide open—but empty.
Its body withered, reduced to bones wrapped in dry, reddish skin.
Half-conscious, Shadow lifted his hand and pushed the corpse away, letting it fall to the ground.
Shadow wasn't fully consumed by the curse like other cursed beings.
Because he had been manaless, the curse couldn't completely take over.
That was why—
he suddenly turned toward the direction of the Stormgard household.
He could feel it.
Powerful presences were approaching.
His instincts and the curse merged into one.
Without control, he tore space itself apart.
A dark fissure opened before him.
He stepped in.
—and vanished.
Seconds later, multiple figures appeared at the scene.
Each radiated overwhelming power.
Yet… all of them felt it.
The lingering mana in the air made their hearts tremble.
Selene, Elena, Thorn, Marcus—and many of the individuals that were present at the Stormgard's household —had arrived.
They had sensed the surge.
And it screamed danger.
Elena's eyes fell upon the scene—
the destroyed carriage, the corpses, the demon—
Her heart skipped.
While others examined the battlefield especially the corpse of the demon, she rushed toward the burned remains.
"This is not true—"
Her voice broke.
She searched frantically among the charred bodies—but they were nothing more than fused flesh.
Then—
she saw it.
A half-broken black mask.
Shadow's mask.
As a magical item, it shouldn't have been easily destroyed.
Seeing it among the remains…
confirmed everything.
"No… no… please… no… my child… my baby… no…" Elena collapsed, clutching the mask as her cries broke into muffled sobs.
Thorn knelt beside her, wrapping his arms around her as silent grief consumed them both.
Selene stood still.
Watching.
Helpless.
.
.
.
.
Elsewhere…
On a distant continent, deep within a dark cave—
A nine-year-old boy lay unconscious.
His body was covered in blood. His clothes were torn in different areas.
And the black vein on his face pulsed more violently than ever before.
Slowly, Shadow opened his eyes.
Darkness.
Nothing but darkness.
He tried to stand—but stopped as memories flooded his mind.
The demon.
The hand through his heart.
The energy.
The absorption.
"The curse…" he whispered.
"It activated…"
His thoughts began to stabilize.
"I couldn't trigger it before… because my body had no mana. But when the demon pierced my heart… its mana entered my body and forced it to circulate."
He paused.
"I can feel residual mana inside me… but not outside."
Then—
his eyes sharpened.
"That should be enough."
"If I carve rune symbols inside my body… the remaining mana should activate them."
He began feeling around the cave floor.
"Found it."
A sharp rock.
"…Now comes the hard part."
He removed his clothes—
—and drove the rock into his own abdomen.
"Argh—! Argh—!! F-fuck—!!"
"Future me better be grateful for this."
He gritted his teeth as he cut into his own flesh.
Not clean.
Messy.
Crude.
But deep enough.
"My hypothesis… better work…"
With trembling hands, he began carving ancient runes—
inside his own body.
Shadow had reached a terrifying conclusion long ago.
Mana existed everywhere.
But the human body limited how much could enter.
Over time, people's body start adapt and increase their capacity through training and expenditure of mana regularly and that's how they normally get stronger.
But cursed individuals…
were different.
"They don't store mana…"
"They connect to it."
The curse acted as a bridge—linking internal mana to the infinite external flow.
That's why cursed beings could unleash overwhelming power despite them not being on that level before the transformation.
That's why—
they were feared.
Shadow's solution?
Control it.
He designed an internal rune array—a system inside his body.
A living mechanism.
A fusion of mind and curse.
An artificial system— that lets his mind be separated into two entities but linked together.
Based on his studies, normal humans used only 10% of their brain when conscious but ehat if he could link his unconscious self with his conscious to be able to use 100%.
It sure looked good on paper but it was impossible for the body to be able to accept that in one go, that's why he created a progressive system to bypass human limits.
Hours passed.
Five… maybe more.
The final rune was complete.
And then—
his body became a vacuum.
Mana surged toward him from all directions.
His wounds began healing rapidly.
His body… changing.
"So I was right… which is concerning, because I guessed while bleeding."
Seeing the changes happen to his body , Shadow commented before xhaustion finally claimed him.
He fell into darkness.
.
.
.
One week later
Light filtered through cracks in the cave ceiling, falling gently across his face.
The black vein…
was gone.
As if it had never existed.
And if anyone were to see him now—
they would only think one thing:
This was the most handsome nine-year-old they had ever seen.