Chapter 152

As we walked towards the emperor’s palace, we surveyed our surroundings. The scenery was bizarre, but so far, nothing dangerous had occurred.

Carlothian stayed close behind me.

“Just in case, stick close.”

“You’re not worried about me at all.”

The Crown Prince, who might soon become the most esteemed person in the empire, said this. Carlothian didn’t even scoff.

“Your Highness, you should take care of yourself.”

“That’s disrespectful.”

“Yes, Your Majesty, the next emperor.”

As I chuckled and spoke, the Crown Prince frowned deeply. It seemed he was reminded that we were on our way to kill his father.

“You said we might be able to purify him?”

“Even if we can, do you think you can take the emperor’s position?”

At my words, he quietly closed his mouth. Luciano, you look your best when you’re not talking.

The palace was vast. It was astonishing how large the dome had become. The cursed objects weren’t this big.

The thought that it could grow even larger was frightening. Is it really going to swallow the entire empire?

So, Carlothian was in front of me, and Luciano was behind me as we walked. It felt like a train game.

The two men were busy watching for any dangers around us. As for me, everything around me was black and red, so I couldn’t see much.

‘The red is the sky, and the black is the ground.’

The mountains were mountains, and the water was water. While I blankly walked, holding onto Carlothian’s collar.

I paused.

Thud.

“Ouch.”

Carlothian suddenly stopped, and I bumped my forehead against his back.

Wow, is this body or stone? I already knew that, but I had forgotten since I hadn’t touched him recently.

“What’s wrong? Is there a problem?”

When I asked, Carlothian frowned and said,

“There’s something over there.”

“What is it?”

I cast my gaze far away. It was still black and red, so everything looked the same. It meant I couldn’t distinguish anything.

“Where?”

“Step back.”

But Carlothian really seemed to have seen something, as he urged me to move back a bit more.

The Crown Prince, Luciano, also narrowed his eyes, not understanding exactly like I did.

“Oh, Carlothian!”

Before either of us could accurately identify what it was, Carlothian lunged forward.

I reached out, but I couldn’t even grab the hem of his clothes. He had jumped far away and drew his sword. A strange black smoke was rising from the sword he drew.

‘What is that?’

I frowned. At that moment, something began to rise from the ground, which had only appeared black before.

“Ah!”

My eyes widened in shock.

That is a curse. The thing that rose up, looking like a body that had rotted black, seemed to be four times the size of Carlothian and was dripping a foul black liquid from its entire body.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince!”

What are you doing here while my man is fighting over there!

“I’m going!”

The Crown Prince drew his sword. His sword radiated light.

Oh, I carefully examined the two swords. Carlothian’s sword emitted darkness, while the Crown Prince’s sword shone with white light.

‘Come to think of it, it was said that only with those two swords could one defeat a demon.’

Such phenomena weren’t visible outside the dome, but once inside, they became apparent.

It seemed that they could have some effect on the demon.

I watched the two men fighting the Black Curse from a distance.

The curse, with its abnormally large hands compared to its body, was literally a ‘monster.’

Carlothian and Luciano dodged the swings of the curse’s hands, then leaped off the ground and dove into its massive body.

Thud, crack!

The sound of leather and bone being sliced echoed. As Carlothian’s sword inflicted a deep wound and he retreated, the curse slammed its large hand down onto the ground again with a bang!

Swoosh!

The hand came crashing down where Carlothian had been, but he had already moved back. As the large hand pressed against the ground, Luciano swung his sword, radiating light.

Clang!

With the sound of bones grinding, that enormous arm was severed and fell to the ground with a thud. Carlothian, pushing off with his heels, leaped once more and slashed at the curse’s neck.

Splash!

Black liquid, neither blood nor anything else, splattered as the curse’s body fell. They stood back, wary of the suspicious black liquid.

“Is it all done?”

When I asked, the two men nodded. I rushed over to check on Carlothian.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“No.”

“I haven’t seen this in other domes, but it’s here. It seems that the demon is indeed present.”

At those words, Luciano’s face darkened. Of course, that was not something I needed to worry about. After confirming that Carlothian was unharmed, I looked at the body of the curse.

The curse melted away and disappeared after being defeated. It seemed to be sucked into the ground.

“I wonder how many more of these there are.”

“…Given that we’re in the demon’s palm, it wouldn’t be strange if more appeared.”

As I said that, the two men nodded.

Hmm, this might turn out to be a more arduous journey than I expected.

☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓

Crack, smash!

I couldn’t even count how many curses we had defeated. There were more curses than we expected, and the two men were getting busy.

“Damn it. What are we going to do about this?”

I hid in the bushes and watched the two men fight.

I could sing to weaken the curses, but it was better for me to stay out of the way if I wanted Carlothian to fight freely.

If I got caught up in a curse and got hurt, he wouldn’t be able to focus on the battle.

‘I was planning to step in if they looked like they were struggling…’

Right now, they were fighting a total of five curses.

“Look at them flying around, just flying around.”

Carlothian was in charge of four of them, while Luciano was handling the remaining one.

“Hey, hey. Aren’t you going to do anything?”

Even the one Luciano was assigned to was trying to turn its head towards Carlothian.

“This is strange.”

I felt something odd. The curses seemed particularly drawn to Carlothian.

Seeing Luciano struggling to keep one of them from turning its head only strengthened that thought.

‘It’s as if they have a grudge against Carlothian.’

I narrowed my eyes. Could it be that the Emperor’s will is mixed in? He certainly seemed to harbor a strong hatred for Carlothian and his father, Atrapha.

I had never pondered where the Emperor’s hatred came from. To be honest, I wasn’t even curious.

‘After all, he’s someone I’m going to kill anyway.’

I thought coldly. Just as Luciano barely managed to defeat one, Carlothian was already moving on to the second curse.

I peeked out from the bushes. As the remaining two swung their tails, Carlothian leaped high and landed on their body.

He raised his sword and deeply stabbed the back of the curse’s neck. With a thud, the curse shook and then collapsed.

Thud!

Carlothian safely landed on the ground and stood up, while Luciano wiped his forehead, seemingly exhausted.

I dashed out from the bushes to check on Carlothian. Fortunately, he wasn’t hurt this time either.

“Will there be more of this as we go?”

“Well, we’ll be at the Emperor’s palace soon.”

I looked up. The Emperor’s palace was visible nearby. Just a little further, and we would be able to enter.

“I’m not much help at all.”

“It’s better that you don’t have to help.”

I nodded. It was certainly best not to have any healing to do.

We continued toward the Emperor’s palace.

“Ah, over there!”

Then we encountered a few more curses. Fortunately, the number was still manageable.

‘Why is that?’

This place is inside a dome. It’s within the demon’s territory. So why aren’t they sending out curses that could take us down all at once?

Thinking back to the time of Yermondi, it was even more puzzling. She summoned quite a number of curses at once.

If the demon’s power reached that far, it should be exerting an even greater force inside the dome.

‘Are we being lured in?’

It was obvious that we had entered the dome to eliminate the Emperor. The demon surely knew this.

‘Even if we are being lured, there’s nowhere else for us to go.’

It felt like crawling into a trap that was clearly set. But I shook my head. After all, it was the Emperor we had to face. Hesitating here would only make the dome larger.

“We’re almost there.”

I said, looking up at the Emperor’s palace. The palace, seemingly made of gold, greeted us with its strange appearance.