No More Pain For This Villain.

Chapter 370 Onto Something

Chapter 370  Onto Something

What the fuck happened?

It wasn't every day that I felt pain like this. My whole body was screaming in tremendous agony, and it wasn't even worth trying to move. After what seemed like an eternity—or maybe just a minute—I slowly managed to open my eyes, only to close them again immediately. Why the fuck is that dude so close? I tried to shift instantly... at least I tried, but it wasn't possible with all this pain. How the hell did this even happen? I channeled mana into Aron, and that was it—it should've been fine. Or shouldn't it? I don't know, because I've never tried it on anyone other than Blaze. Did his body reject the foreign mana? Was it the curse? Curse! I reluctantly opened my eyes. "Back off." There was the muffled sound of something hitting the floor. "I thought you died!" Aron's voice seemed a bit out of breath, with a hint of relief mixed in. "I'm pretty hard to kill." Pushing myself off the hard floor, I somehow managed to stand up. It hurt, but not like being wounded—it was more like exhaustion to the point of nearly dying. "How long was I unconscious—whoa!" I almost lost my balance as my vision settled on the broken prince. He was still broken. I didn't have enough mana to use my mana or elemental vision to confirm, but I could guess that the curse wasn't easy to get rid of. All I managed to do was give him a few seconds of his vitality back. "Fifteen minutes..." Aron stood up. He wasn't in his Archon Form. Well, if I was out for more than a minute, he wouldn't have been able to sustain that form for that long. I looked around. Smokeball was in the corner, saying nothing, just observing. He might have something to add here. *What do you think?* There was no pause before he answered through our mental connection. 'It's a curse, a strong one—cast by a demon.' His grim words echoed in my mind. It didn't make sense, but when did they ever? Normally, I would've questioned how that could be possible. The curse had been with the prince since birth, and demons only appeared not very long ago, so it was impossible by the book. But who knows? There are just too many loopholes, and I'm tired of trying to solve things that don't make sense. It's possible he was cursed by a demon who was in Hestia Kingdom long before all this happened—they're capable of things like that. I saw General Zephyrion in the Blacker Forest a year before their arrival, mapping out transportation circles around Sephra. The same recently happened when Blaze saw them doing it near the outskirts of Eshmera during The Gambit. So, who knows? One of them might have been on this side of the world nearly two decades before all this began. I don't even know how long the demonkind has been planning this whole thing. While I was lost in thought, I forgot to pay attention to Aron, who was standing in front of me. Yeah, this too—I need to apologize for giving him false hope. "I'm sorry—huh?" Before I could finish, he grabbed my hand and looked straight at me. "Thank you!" Am I seeing things, or is this guy on the verge of crying? Aron continued, "I've never felt so great—so complete—in my entire life. I'm so grateful!" That's heavy, I guess. Still, it would've been better to know I'd be left with no mana after this—I would've avoided doing it. Still, it's worth it if it means I can owe one to the prince of a kingdom, even if he's a banished one. Wait, doesn't that defeat the whole point? "It's fine," I said, taking my hand back from him. Aron stared down at the floor. "I'll go now. I have a few things I need to do." We exchanged a few words before I left. He asked me what I did and how I managed to help him access his Archon Form. I explained the basics, like how I can channel ambient mana into the mana core and body, along with a few more details, then asked him to keep it a secret. Aron, on the other hand, seemed to have thrown away all his haughty attitude and genuinely thanked me again. I left the place and returned to my room. Currently, I'm stumped. For some reason, it feels like a lot is going on in my head, but none of it makes sense. I summoned the system panel. ---

[SYSTEM WINDOW] [Player: Ren Chris Hilton] Age: 17 [Level 4: Pyroclasm Elder] [8-Star Mage In Human Terms] Current Progress: Intelligence: 8/10 Strength: 12/100 Mana: 23/100 [Next Level: Phoenix Ascendant] [Total Experience Points: 0/100000] (Level up unavailable!) Elemental Attributes: Fire Advancements of Elements: Lightning Unlock New Advancement: (Open) Contracted Beast: One Spirits: None(!) Skills: [71 skills.] Learn New Skills: [Open] Store: [Open] --- It hasn't been long since I ascended to Pyroclasm Elder. Unlike before, I feel and sense things much better. I recover faster, both in terms of physical damage and mana depletion. My body is far above what a normal human can dream of, but it still feels like there's a lot of potential to grow. It shows here in the system panel—my strength and mana are still too low, with plenty of room for improvement. Blaze and I have yet to kill anything to gain significant blood points or experience, so those bars remain low. I don't want to unlock new elemental advancements yet because I already have my hands full with lightning. It's a good advancement. I can learn skills, that's good, but I can learn them from Blaze too if you ask me—and the ones he teaches are more potent and stronger than anything the system has to offer. The store has a few items, but nothing that's too great. Like, I can get the same mythril sword I always use in times when my hands are enough, but looking ahead, I think it won't be able to keep up with me. There are armors that are weaker than my own augmented skin, one-time-use items, and charms that don't give much of a buff. If I think about it carefully—isn't this system quite useless? Like, all this thing gives me is a fate curse and a question—who the owner is? Who the fuck planted this thing in me and why? Is it because I came from the other world? Well, obviously. But after taking the storyline from my mind, I am of no use. If they really want to keep the story authentic, then why not come and kill me themselves? And what is the meaning of the system? It's something given to me as a tool to help me. Someone who wants to get rid of me wouldn't give me such a power. 'What is the point you're getting to? It's twenty or so days before the day of your storyline death—or to be exact, the duel of Adam and Ren. Death comes a bit later.' Blaze asked. Yeah, Ren didn't die in the fight but killed himself out of shame. Still stupid, no matter how many times I think about it. "I'm saying—how long am I supposed to wait? Till the curse gets strong enough to make everyone hate me? Or keep pondering if the curse is going to disappear after the date of Ren's death passes? What if it doesn't go away and just keeps getting stronger? Am I going to be hated forever?" It's not that being hated is the hardest part—I'm used to it. What if the hate turns so severe that everyone wants me dead? Why are they even hating me if I'm doing no harm to them? For some reason, I was reminded of the girl from the day the illusory path appeared in the Balcker Forest. She ran, and all it took was a single second to reap her life. Freya Redwood—it's hard to forget the name of someone who died such a pitiful death or— 'Yeah, that was pretty uncalled for if you ask me,' Blaze added. It might seem like that to him. "I think I've lost it," I let myself fall into the soft embrace of the mattress. 'Say it, princess.' "We walked back the same path as we did when we entered the forest, but we never saw the corpse of the girl. Even after a few days, there was no investigation like there was when I killed those hooligans—Kale and his gang." It was as if she never existed. Isn't it weird that guild never launched the expedition team to search for her- wouldn't it be more weird if none of her family members tried to find her?

Am I going to crazy and pondering over something so random that happened about a year ago?

Or is it stupid to even apply logic when then whole world is always trying to prove me wrong in everything I think I know!