Chapter 346: Bro, Your Curse Isn't Working Well (Part 3)

Right now.

The giant prince Wolfram is performing a curse ceremony in an open space in a nearby village.

Some human body fragments were scattered everywhere.

They were skinned alive, and now the front of these skins is covered with Aiwass's name, and the backs are written with various crimes and causes of death.

These skins were roughly sewn together, overlapping each other to form a drum skin. Inside the drum were the hearts of the deceased.

The giant prince Wolfram sat cross-legged on the ground with his eyes closed, completely naked.

His hands were rhythmically beating the human skin drum, producing an ominous rhythm.

"This is not a curse. This is an oracle."

He spoke in a deep voice, "I advise the Lord of Sin and Punishment that this man is guilty and deserves punishment. I pray to the oracle with the blood of the demon of punishment, asking for a fair judgment."

There were eight skinned victims and nine hearts.

This is not the sacred number of amber "9", but "8+1".

Because the ninth person only took his heart, while his body was directly devoured by the giant prince, ensuring its complete destruction in the material world. This is to distinguish him from 9.

—When the sacred number is eight, it signifies the Serpent Father.

Because 8 is endless and cyclical, and at the same time it is only slightly short of the ultimate number - because if perfection is reached, there is no need for transcendence or progress, and this is the essence of transcendence.

Yet, eight corpses possess nine hearts, representing "one more than eight." This symbolizes the Fallen Angel, who once rebelled against the Serpent Father. This curse ritual foreshadows the enshrinement of him as a being greater than the Serpent Father, thereby drawing upon the power of the curse to slay other transcendent beings.

"You are Aiwass, you are human. You are Aiwass Moriarty, grandson of Jacob Alexander, son of Julio Alexander, adopted son of James Moriarty. You were a sinner in the past, a transcendent in the present, and a demon in the future.

"The moon waxes and wanes, and men live and die. Crime is insurmountable, and depravity is insurmountable—

"I declare to the Lord of Sin and Punishment with my soul that you have used your own kind as ritual materials, a grave and unforgivable sin. If this is true, the Oracle will cut off half of your soul; if not, please allow the Oracle to keep you..."

Wolfram beat the drum, and the drum roared like thunder.

He was chanting rhythmically in a low voice: "I accuse the Lord of Sin and Punishment with my soul. You have used the coercive power of the contract to force the devil to obey. This is the second greatest sin. If this is true, the oracle will take half of your heart; if not, please ask the oracle to keep you..."

There were gusts of cold wind and dark clouds between heaven and earth - a storm was coming.

The punishment demon who was watching the ceremony suddenly had an idea that lit up.

He clearly saw a black feather slowly falling from the sky.

This meant that the Fallen Angel had heard Wolfram's prayer and had cast his gaze over.

The curse has taken effect!

——As expected of a Master of Mantras.

The Punisher felt terrified, yet happy at the same time.

This should have happened a long time ago!

That weird butterfly-shaped phantom demon is a bit scary...

It had suffered the attack of that butterfly before, and now it was quite afraid of that guy.

The punishment demon knew very well that if he was not careful he would be killed by it.

Being able to kill him before the battle is definitely better than fighting with all your might...

This curse has three aspects: "using the same race as ritual materials", "using the coercive power of the contract on the devil to make it obey", and "killing ordinary people with extraordinary power", which correspond to "cutting off half of the soul", "taking away half of the heart", and "eliminating half of the power" respectively. It will not be returned until the next full moon night.

If none of the three punishments are successfully collected, the Fallen Angels will punish the curser.

For the average demonologist, the first major sin alone is extremely deadly.

The excruciating pain of having one's soul cleaved was enough to render a person defenseless—the second major sin that followed would rip away half of one's heart, resulting in a fatal injury. The third major sin was merely an additional complication, but it was also almost certain to strike.

This curse is so powerful that it is nearly impossible to resist.

——Because it is impossible for a demonologist to have not committed these three major sins!

Without using human materials, half of the demon scholar's abilities would be unusable; without using contracts, the other half would also be unusable.

How could one restrain a demon without a contract? The demon-punishing demon, now a demon himself, knew full well that demons were full of ill will towards demonologists—if anyone dared to summon and contract them, they would surely cause trouble.

But in the next moment.

Wolfram suddenly groaned.

The drum in front of him suddenly shattered, sending bone fragments flying and piercing his body. But these were only minor injuries—his face turned pale, and he suddenly clutched his chest, falling to his knees and vomiting a mouthful of visceral fragments. His entire aura immediately visibly weakened.

——Wait, what’s going on?

The Punishment Demon was shocked: "The curse failed?"

"...It succeeded, but it backfired."

Wolfram gritted his teeth. "How could such a monster exist... Yes, it must have been that bastard Jacob. He warned his grandson about the Great Wizard's methods in advance..."

"Are you okay?!"

The Punisher was a little nervous.

It wasn't that it was worried about the Giant Prince's health, but mainly because it needed him to lure away the King of the Wild Hunt...

Wolfram's usually calm and indifferent eyes now blazed with anger for the first time. "Thankfully, the Fallen Angels showed mercy, only missing half of his heart, so it's not a big deal... Fortunately, I also have the power of the fourth level in the Path of Authority, so just missing half of my heart won't kill me. But I can't use rituals to heal this cursed injury, so this is all I can do..."

"You go to that village first, and I'll try other curses. I must torture him severely—"

"……good."

The Punishment Demon was a little worried and reminded: "Try again. If it doesn't work, come here quickly. The time is almost up."

"I'll try it again. This time without the curse that has side effects."

Wolfram was quite stubborn.

Elsewhere, Aiwass felt the pressure on him gradually dissipate. He looked up and said, "It seems the curse is over."

"What did he curse you with?"

Haina was a little nervous: "I've seen the methods of the curse master, they are simply weird and unpredictable..."

“…I don’t know either.”

Aiwass was also a little confused and didn't understand what was happening: "But I do feel that the curse is over. Maybe he failed."

"He's not very good at his craft. Or, let's just assume he's not very good at his craft."

Sherlock replied bluntly, "But we'd better not gamble - do you have any means of circumventing the curse?"

“——Really.”

Aiwass suddenly had an idea and held out his hand to Sherlock: "Give me the mirror."

Holding the makeup mirror provided by Sherlock, Aiwass sneered.

Perfect disguise, undetectable by any spell, right?

That meant that the giant couldn't have used the spell directed at "Evans Moriarty" on Aiwass. Otherwise, it would have been equivalent to detecting him.

Then let you know what "the target has been lost" means -

Update completed! It's time for me to have lunch, I'm so hungry...

The extra update event has ended successfully, and I'll be back for the second update tomorrow! It's time to take a break~

Thanks to Super Powerful Jet Battle Cat, Black Mass Song, and Czh555 for feeding the Alliance Leader! Thank you! Mr. Key! Just reached Honor Level 3! All Alliance Leaders, please remember to leave a message with Operations Officer Can Can to claim the Alliance Leader's Peripheral Gift Box. It seems it was distributed before the New Year!

(End of this chapter)