Blood dripped from the side of his head. From the look of things, he was being physically abused, violently so.
It felt like the two of them were trying to kill him before he could kill himself.
He held a sword in one hand and a ball of flas in the other.
They were not faring much better. Their hair was disheveled, and Sylvia had a deep cut across her shoulder.
"You two are not serious about this. Look, I am not even pissed that you are trying to stop . In fact, I think it is perfectly reasonable. But—"
He paused as the flas condensed, crystallizing into frost. A chilling cold spread in the air.
Frost dominate
"I cannot let you do that."
Ice shot forward, coiling and freezing everything in its path. Its hard cracking sounds echoed out.
Lilith waved her hand, slicing the ice apart effortlessly. She glanced at him.
"You are right. One thing I had to admit to myself is this. You have grown, Damon. You are stronger than before. If I fought you alone, I would lose. Even if I fought fair, I would still lose."
Damon frowned. He knew he had grown stronger, but the look on Lilith’s face filled him with unease.
"That is why I never planned to."
She glanced at Sylvia, who was staring at the Unknown God’s Journey book.
"If we stop you today, can we stop you tomorrow."
Her voice was calm.
"It would be exhausting. So we chose another option."
Damon did not feel his danger sense flare, but his intuition scread that sothing had gone terribly wrong.
The ntal apparition in the back of his mind wore a tense expression.
As soon as Lilith finished speaking, Damon took a deep breath.
"Oh shit."
His movent halted.
A magic circle spread beneath his feet, spanning the entire room. It glowed white, etched with countless runes he had never seen before. At its center, directly beneath him, was the symbol of the Unknown God.
Damon stepped forward.
The center of the circle moved with him.
"Hm. What is this? A spell."
Sylvia finally spoke, shaking her head as she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.
"No. It is a curse."
Damon raised his eyebrows. He felt no pain. The magic did not burn or crush him.
It felt as though it had locked onto him.
"A curse. How so."
Sylvia knew he was buying ti. They were doing the sa.
"It is a curse that harms you. It creates an artificial desire to live within your heart and forces you to take actions to preserve your life. The curse will only break when you learn how to truly live."
A grim realization settled over Damon.
"So this is an actual death sentence. No. Worse. It is a ticket to misery."
His voice was calm, analytical.
"A curse depends on its target. If you curse a fat man to be fat, it ans nothing. But curse a muscular man to beco fat, and that becos suffering."
His eyes lifted.
"It is only a curse if it imposes misery on the one it targets. And this is truly a dire curse for ."
He raised his head and laughed, madness spilling freely.
"Spectacular. Truly spectacular. You went out of your way to make suffer. This is a magnificent curse."
He was not angry. With his crown cast aside, he was already mad.
This curse was lethal to Damon because of his Deathless skill.
Skill: [Deathless]
The more you desire your own death, the more improbable events occur to prevent it. Death will co only when you least desire it.
The skill had made Damon practically immortal. No matter how reckless he beca, fate bent itself to keep him alive.
Because Damon wanted to die.
If the curse took effect, his desire would invert.
He would want to live.
And Deathless would stop protecting him.
Instead, it would hurl every improbable fatal event directly at him.
Living would beco hell mode.
No. Worse.
He could slip on a banana peel, tumble down a staircase, collide with a maid carrying a vat of acid, fall into it, survive, only for the building to collapse, ignite, flood, and sweep him into the ocean, where a leviathan would swallow him whole. After a week inside its stomach, it would fail to digest him and expel him into the sea, directly into a mana anomaly.
He cut the thought off.
The fact remained.
If this curse worked, his life would beco one prolonged attempt to kill him.
Damon looked at Sylvia and smiled softly.
"What price did you pay for this curse?"
She t his gaze, sorrow etched deep into her expression.
"If you are asking how much I paid for the spell, you will be glad to know the Unknown God gave it to for free."
Damon nodded slowly.
"I see. He must really want alive for whatever plan he has."
He turned to Lilith.
"But he never gives anything for free. Casting this must have a cost."
Lilith nodded as she and Sylvia began channeling the spell.
"It requires the deaths of thousands, which you so conveniently provided with the war outside. The life of one god. And half of our lifespans."
She looked at him coldly.
"Congratulations, Damon. Your survival is expensive. Now you know how much your life is worth."
Damon nodded. He understood the structure of the curse.
It was not complete yet.
Seraph Null still had to die.
No wonder the Unknown God had engineered this nightmare. He needed a god as fuel.
Damon smiled faintly.
"That is all well and good. But the curse is not finished. As long as I kill myself before you complete it, I win."
He vanished, teleporting toward the spear.
Lilith waved her hand, and the spear disappeared, reappearing in her grasp.
It was the only weapon capable of killing him.
He could try other thods.
But Deathless would ensure he survived.
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