The closer James got to the curse, the more he was losing his grip on his mind and will. His stomach rumbling with hunger and his mouth watering as the scent grew closer.
Moving the mana inside of him inside his body helped keep him sane as soon as he got closer, one of the arm of the monster swiped at him to grab him.
Fighting against his instincts to fall into the arm that looks like meat, James dropped and rolled to the side at the same time he reinforced his feet with mana lunging forward with his sword raised and with a roar he swung his sword at the opening left from the monster wide swing.
A roar of pain left the monster’s mouth as Jaws began snapping hungrily as it lunged and grabbed hold of James and began stuffing him inside its mouth, James could feel himself being swallowed whole.
James doesn’t even know why he is fighting anymore, he remembered he picked up his knife and courage to save his friend "I wonder if he managed to escape" Was James thought as only his leg was left from being swallowed whole.
"I don’t want to die" James thought to himself as tears rolled off his face as he began inputting all the man he had left into his word which was swallowed with him. The sword was an ordinary weapon and so it could only bear a small amount of mana input before it falls apart or explode.
James was hoping for the latter as his grip on the swords slowly lossend and his consciousness being stripped away. Before James completely lost consciousness the sword exploded inside of the monster stomach tearing it apart from the inside, James wasn’t spared as he had shrapnels from the weapons sticking out of him.
The monster his lord turned into was now rolling on the ground with it’s heavy body as it was bleeding everywhere, Looking at Björn passed out a bit away from him the monster spoke up "I could feel the greatness waiting for me, i was so close but because of you" The monster said with rage filled eyes as it began crawling to James.
Before the monster could make it to james it already lost a lot of blood and so with a last roar it pointed at James and screamed "Curse you"
Right after that the monster fell off dead, Ikenga who has been paying attention this whole time watched as a big cursed spirit floated out of the monster corpse, the cursed spirit was about to escape into the void to look for its next victim when it stopped and hovered above James.
Ikenga watched as the cursed spirit got into James, Ikenga watched with curiosity and anticipation for what was going to happen but no transformation took place on James. Instead at his back appeared a tattoo of a huge tree entwined with a huge snake with wings.
Ikenga sat up from the branch he was laying on "It seems I don’t fully understand how these cursed spirit work yet, This was the first to gain conscience and could talk but it had no time to develop and was killed off but not before cursing someone else"
"My original thought was only if the cursed person could strongly resist the curse, it will then becomes a blessing enhancing them of course there is still a chance if they slip up they will transform into a monster but regardless it will still benefit them"
"I calculated the factor of the cursed monster growing stronger but not the factor of them regaining consciousness the stronger they got. I also didn’t expect the factor of others indirectly affected by the curse"
"The monster said something about greatness, did it know that it could grow stronger and maybe achieve greater things? If so, with the human killing it, its goal was crushed and in turn it cursed the human with its original curse out of spite" Ikenga thought to himself as he walked back and forth on the huge branch.
"I need more observation to confirm my thoughts" Ikenga thought with a smile on his face, he was tempted to find a human with strong will and pit them against a curse to see if a similar situation happens.
Times that he really hates the rule binding them, Laying back down. Ikenga continued looking back down into the mortal world "No need to be in a hurry, I have nothing but time in my hand"
Back at the now destroyed castle, James can be seen lying facing down when all of a sudden he began coughing, slowly he brought himself up as he began looking around, the dead corpse of his lord catching his attention.
"I did it, I survived" James raised his arms to the sky in joy but his expression soon changed as he didn’t see his friend around. He was about to say something when he was hit with a pang of hunger as his stomach began rumbling.
He began looking around everywhere for rations or something he could fill his stomach with but nothing was found. Weirdly he began to see the dead bodies around as appetizing as his mouth began watering.
Shaking his head at the thought, James stumbled his way around the castle in search of food. Soon he found the kitchen where meals were laid out "It was probably for the lord before his transformation" he thought to himself, as with no manner he began going at the food.
Soon the kitchen was cleared of any food around but James still found himself to be hungry, not as much as before but he was still hungry. Everyone had already left the castle and ran to safety so he was the only one left behind.
Climbing the stairs of the castle, he found his lord son’s room and went immediately to the closet to change his torn clothes and clothes melted from being inside the monster’s mouth. As began changing his attention was caught by the mirror behind him showing his back where he saw the new tattoo.
All his attention turned to the tattoo as he began trying to reach it and in response one of the roots on the tattoo extended out to him grabbing his finger and his eyes went blank to be shown the last memory of the monster cursing him.
"Oh no" James with his consciousness back screamed out loud as he fell to the ground staying away from the mirror view "It can’t be, I am going to become a monster" In response to his word his stomach once again began growling.
Looking down at his stomach with a look of horror, James screamed out loud in panic as he began running out of the palace, he kept stumbling and falling like something was chasing him in his sight the who castle was no longer a place to stay.
Down in the underworld, building structures can be seen spanned across distances, with corporal soul-like bodies moving back and forth and going about their day. At the center of its realm was Keles palace who is now on her throne saying her last goodbye to her children.
The two should have gone outside of the realm but Keles had stayed back to watch the war unfold between Björn and the silver kingdom. Her children may be wise but they have been apart from the rest of the world for a while.
Showing them the war was a lesson she had to teach them and to remind them that it could be them fighting a war any other day. She already had them inform the demigods about the process and condition needed for the gods to be summoned.
"Xerosis, once you and your brother settle down. I want you to journey out in search of your uncle Ikenga’s realm" Keles said looking at Keles who looked sad about leaving the realm.
Hearing her mother’s words momentarily brought her out of her sadness as she looked up surprised "Why should I do that mother? Am I required to do something for him?"
"You will know when you see him, for now just focus on creating a foothold back on the mortal world" Keles calmly responded back.
Looking over to the silent Roth, Keles asked "Have you made a choice for your beginning point on the mortal world? Once you leave my realm this time you no longer have access to different part of the world like you do before"
Roth looked at his mother before speaking up "After much deliberation, we decided to put our attention on the southern continent"
Keles raised a brow on that "Do you know what resides in the southern continent?"
"We do, Mother, but the southern continent is the only place without the influence of other gods. Besides no matter how troublesome that demon is it will pose no match with my sister at my side" Roth confidently responded back to his mother.
Keles leaned in with seriousness in her voice "I worry not of your strength but experience, It’s a disgrace to me if my offspring are played like pawns by that demon. A small exposure of the demon and it’s handiwork has shown that it is non confrontational and makes good use of it’s extensive knowledge"