Chapter 56 : Ah, something like this

Usher exhaled heavily.

In doing so, he was able to completely relax his body.

After Melvin, and now Judith, there was nothing more he could do.

He slumped and leaned against Bersia.

Then, Bersia looked down at him with a twisted expression.

Usher chuckled and whispered.

“A crisis… yeah, it wasn’t a big one. Not even now. My body, still hasn’t recovered…”

Thinking he should reassure her, Usher rubbed the back of Bersia’s hand.

Hot breath escaped from her.

In that moment.

“What the hell did you do to end up like this? You have to be more careful.”

Judith approached and scolded him.

Her gaze then turned to Bersia.

“Why couldn’t you protect him better?”

“…Sorry.”

“So, you know you’re sorry?”
Judith mocked him and sucked on her pipe.

Her gaze became sharp.

Bang, bang, bang, Melvin collided head-on with the witch, and an explosion rang out.

In reality, the place where they collided had no object maintaining a circular shape.

Judith exhaled a puff of smoke and muttered.

“Ah, something like this.”

She stepped forward.

The smoke she exhaled began to take form.

“Rest for now. I’ll finish it.”

After the sound of clicking heels echoed, Judith swung her pipe as if commanding it.

Clang!

The smoke ignited into magical circles.

Divine energy seeped into the circles, and they began to glow.

And then, Drip—

Judith shed tears of blood.

Her lips twisted into a crooked smile.

“This is fun.”

The essence began to manifest.

Mira clenched her teeth.

She had sacrificed to summon Ashanta’s body, but the resistance was stronger than expected.

Above all, the knight’s state as a ‘half spirit’ meant natural immunity to several curses, leading to waste.

Physical curses, like decay or weakening, wouldn’t work.

She wasn’t affected by traps like changes or seals either.

It was literally the wind shaped into human form.

The body wasn’t restricted by physical limits.

For a moment, Mira was thrown off.

But then, she found a way.

“If physical curses won’t work…!”

She decided to focus on more spiritual curses.

As she waved her hand, Ashanta’s hand also moved with hers.

Thus, nearly a hundred curses were formed, the language that captured souls.

Curses that strike the soul and mind.

The knight, perhaps noticing this, stopped attacking and instinctively entered an evasion stance.

Of course, it was too late.

“Dieee!!!”

The curse was completed faster than the wind, and the curse, like a wave, shot toward the knight.

But, “I’ll handle it.”

With a clang! sound, the curse collapsed instantly.

Mira’s eyes widened in shock.

She looked at the source of this interruption

—Judith.

For a brief moment of confusion, but quick understanding, Mira realized that the dozens of magical circles behind Judith were reversing and disassembling the curse.

Veins popped on her forehead as she extended her own curse toward Judith.

This curse was a physical one, the kind she couldn’t use on Melvin.

“Don’t interfere!!! Get lost!”

But something truly out of the ordinary happened right after.

Clang, clang, clang!

Before the curse could even touch, in the blink of an eye, Judith reversed every curse that came at her.

It was unreal.

Curses are a set of rules that form the world.

Just understanding one curse enough to reverse it involves an intricate and complicated process of studying the curse’s rules, calculating, and then counteracting it.

Mira never imagined it was possible to erase a curse upon seeing it.

“How…?”

A voice full of despair escaped her lips.

In that moment, Judith answered through tears of blood.

“On drugs.”

The smoke from her pipe was sucked into her mouth.

Her pupils began to loosen.

With the pipe still in her mouth, Judith whispered.

“Melvin, kill her.”

A sharp gust of smoke shot out like a blade, heading toward Mira.

Mira felt a sense of dread running down her spine as she struggled.

“No, no! I can’t let it end like this!”

The ugly life was running toward its end.

The curse began to shatter.

She struggled and struggled, but the odds continued to shift against her.

Now, Judith was showing a miraculous ability to undo curses before they were even completed.

The combination of the divine energy-enchanted magical circles, the acceleration from the awakening potion, and her innate interpretive skills made this possible.

Soon, Ashanta’s hand began to dry out.
The energy Mira had paid was almost exhausted.

Mira was filled with terror.

And rage.

Resentment shot out.

‘You said I could do this…!’

Who was she blaming?

That part was unclear.

It wasn’t that she didn’t know the target, but the memories of that person were erased from her mind.

The face, the voice, none of them were clear.
When it happened wasn’t even clear.

All Mira knew was this:

There had been a woman who approached her, someone who had lived her life at the bottom of the brothel and now begged for scraps.

She had said something to her.

“I’ll make you stand above others. Now it’s your turn to throw away others.”

She grabbed the hand she extended.

When she came to her senses, the old body had been restored to a younger form.

Mira gained the ability to wield nearly omnipotent power.

She thought she could live like this forever.

After all, she had been trampled on her entire life, so she thought it was time for her to trample on others.

That thought did not change.

However, it was only this situation where she could no longer act that filled her with frustration.

Kwaaaang—!

“Ahhhh!!!”

Melvin’s storm ripped off one of Mira’s arms.

Black blood spilled down in thick drops.

It hurt.

The resentment against the enemies in front of her who sought to harm her surged.
‘Where to start?’

Life burns brightest just before it fades away.

Mira’s last spark was fueled by resentment, burning intensely.

She searched for the one who wanted to trample her once again, the one who was the beginning of this entire tragedy.

Then, she saw something.

Divine favoritism.

A woman receiving treatment in the knight’s arms, with sky-blue hair flowing down.

‘Because of you…!’

If she hadn’t hidden her identity, Mira thought.

The logical flaw didn’t matter.

The misdirection of the resentment didn’t matter either.

What was important in a curse was only the emotion of malice and the price that could be paid for it.

Mira gave up on life.

She thought of only one thing—she wanted to destroy the thing the god she despised cherished the most.

Thus, she cast the most tempting price she could offer for the curse.

“I’ll give you my soul. So…”

Crack, as she extended her arm, moisture drained from her entire body.

She writhed in pain, laughing grotesquely.

“Make her miserable! Make her regret being alive!”

Crack, she clenched her fist.

At that moment, Mira’s breath stopped with a click.

Judith’s eyes widened in shock.

This was a curse she hadn’t prepared for, as it wasn’t aimed at her.

Moreover, the coercion created by sacrificing her soul had exceeded the range Judith had anticipated.

Yet, there was one thing Judith knew:
She knew exactly what this curse was.

“Desire…?”

The Curse of Desire.

The despair that destroyed the first, sacred nation.

Bersia mocked it as the ‘curse of a female’ but it was a curse too vicious to be viewed so lightly.

A dark violet thorn shot out.

It was too fast for Judith to react.

She reached out, but it was already too late.

Thud!

The curse, which had passed by her unnoticed, pierced into Bersia’s chest.

It…

Seeped in.

Judith froze.

“Eh…?”

Bersia muttered as she looked down at her chest.

Usher, who was supporting her, also looked pale with fear and pulled Bersia into a tighter embrace.

“Ah, no….”

Thud—

Bersia stirred.

A powerful energy began to sweep through her body.

Judith shouted.

“Get away from her! She’s being affected by the curse!!!”

But Usher only held Bersia even tighter.

His words were slurred, as if he had lost his mind.

“No, no.”
Those words squeezed out between the loud sounds.

Bersia’s body began to tremble.

Her head fell to one side.

Heek, heek, she gasped for breath.

The energy was spreading violently.

Ah, it’s too late to turn back now.

Despair gripped Judith.

Then, all the energy flowed into Bersia’s body, and her chest rose dramatically.

Judith’s eyes clenched tightly.

“…Hatch!”

Bersia sneezed.

Judith reacted.

‘…Wait, a sneeze?’

Judith squinted, then opened her eyes.

What she saw shocked her.

“Heh, hatch…! Hatch!”

Bersia was sneezing.

Her nose wrinkled, and her shoulders shook repeatedly.

The atmosphere froze.

More precisely, it turned cold with disbelief.

It happened immediately.

“Sniff…”
Bersia swallowed her snot and blinked.

Tears clung to the ends of her eyes, but it was obvious it was from the sneeze.

At that moment, Nersia felt no abnormality.
“…….
“……”

The surroundings became silent.

Bersia glanced around as if checking the reactions.

Perhaps she was embarrassed. She rubbed her chest with her hand and furrowed her brow, speaking seriously.

“…Is this… the Curse of a Cold?”

It was the Curse of Desire.

…Maybe.