blogombal Page 178
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He stared blankly into the darkness, as if he were witnessing that unforgettable tragedy, his voice filled with bitterness and anguish:
"What I left on him wasn't a blessing at all!!!"
Chapter 254 Mino's Blessing! Kill the Hero!
Lak's words were like pebbles thrown into a dark pond, creating ripples in the silent tower.
The faint morning light seeped in through the windows of the round tower, illuminating Lak's eyes, which seemed to hold a foreign object, giving his words a touch of truth.
"Not protection?"
The Abyss's Will was momentarily stunned, as Lak's research on the Mage's Round Tower, as the chief, was outside his comprehension.
After gazing silently at the inscriptions that had been inlaid on the wall for a long time, Lak finally spoke:
"You were in a state of deep slumber and nourishment during that time and were unaware of it. I had already tried the inscription technique to distort the power of the goddess's resonance during that hero's blessing ceremony."
"Those altered inscriptions caused the resonant power that should have been within the hero's body to no longer provide protection... but instead twisted into—a series of incredibly dark curses."
"Hey! Wait... wait, wait, wait." The air gradually became tense.
The shadow of "darkness" stretched out with the vibrations, and the voice suddenly became somewhat incredulous: "Don't tell me, in that experiment—you succeeded?!"
“It's a success.” Lak's expression was somber, as if he was unwilling to admit the fact.
"The ritual was a complete success. The resonance of the goddess brought down from the round tower, after being twisted by the spell, successfully transformed into a series of hidden curses that were concentrated with the power of dark magic."
"Only I can decipher the effects of those curses, so even Mino himself doesn't know what those thirty-seven layers of 'protection' within him really mean."
"You mean..."
The shadow of “darkness” twisted and contorted: “That human named Mino, the descendant of light, despite enduring thirty-seven layers of dark curses, still became the strongest…hero in human history?!”
Its sound evoked surprise for the first time.
"Did your curses really work?"
At this moment, the will of the abyss desperately hoped to hear a negative answer from Lak, but the latter only shook his head:
"Based on my examination, each curse is effective both subtly and thoroughly—"
Seeing that "Darkness" seemed to still want to question the effectiveness of the curse, Lak glanced at it indifferently and explained in detail:
"At first, the curses in the first few layers also had a weak effect. I remember very clearly that even the fourth layer of curses only had a painless and insignificant effect, like 'slowly causing people to lose their sense of taste'..."
"But by the time you reach the teenth or twentieth floor, an extremely powerful curse has been created that allows you to share the illnesses of those with whom you have close relationships."
"Upon breaking through the thirtieth level, he even contracted a special attack curse that amplified his sensory perception tenfold due to the demonic influence! ... Theoretically, he couldn't withstand the attacks of any great demon! He could be defeated and killed at any moment!!"
The word "darkness" was truly shocking. If Lak wasn't lying, then these thirty-plus layers of curse hadn't even posed the slightest obstacle to the hero?!
It had never understood why, among so many high-ranking warriors in this kingdom, Lak was so sensitive to the hero. Now it seemed that Lak was not sensitive to the hero, but rather to the one who, without receiving any goddess's blessing, still became the strongest hero.
"And what about the thirty-seventh floor?"
With a jolt, "Darkness" quickly realized the crucial point: the curse on the thirtieth level was clearly enough to kill that hero.
That thirty-seventh layer of blessing, which is almost impossible for anyone to reach and represents the limits of human capability... what kind of curse has it been transformed into?!
"The thirty-seventh level, that's the most terrifying one, a curse that would completely cripple even me if I were to be tainted by it..."
Raising his head, memories of the past gradually flooded his mind, and a deep tremor and fear flashed in Lak's eyes!
"The thirty-seventh level is a curse that reduces your strength by one percent every day—"
"What?!" The will of the abyss pounded violently. "This is impossible!"
"According to you, with that curse on him, in less than six months, that hero should have become an ordinary person without any power! Let alone become the strongest hero in human history!!!"
As if finding a loophole in Lark's words, "Darkness" argued vehemently.
The shadow of the round tower fell from above, landing on Lark's face, stirring up the deep-seated trauma he had carried for the past decade: "This is the most terrifying thing about Mino..."
Lak's trembling voice echoed incessantly within the round tower:
"His power is constantly 'growing'... there's no limit to it!"
"—He's an oddball!!!"
……
After echoing through the inner walls of the round tower for a long time, the trembling aftershocks finally subsided in the arena.
Coming to his senses, "Darkness" felt a chill for the first time: "Hey... those curses should still be in effect, right? That hero is still alive!"
Fortunately, this time, Lak nodded.
He pulled a twilight-colored magic crystal from his robes, within which a kind of contractual, illusory energy pulsed, like a beating heart.
"This is the sensing crystal I planted to remotely monitor the thirty-seventh layer of 'protection' within Mino's body. That thirty-seventh layer of curse is engraved on his soul. The crystal can still sense it, and that curse is still firmly rooted in his body."
Darkness breathed a sigh of relief, but couldn't help but secretly observe Lark's expression, trying to gauge the extent of the shadow in his heart.
Lak put the sensing crystal back into his pocket and murmured, "So this time, I absolutely cannot make the same mistake again!"
"Since she's Mino's sister, she shouldn't expect any protection, and she can't even be allowed to leave the Round Tower with a curse on her body..."
His tone was thick with murderous intent, and a sinister veil settled over Lak's eyes:
"She must die during the blessing ceremony!"
"That's great!" The Abyss Will was somewhat excited, giving Lak a thumbs up for his decisive action: "What are you planning to do this time?"
Lak patted the outside of his mage robe, brushing away the dust he had just picked up from the stone wall, and said with a cold look in his eyes:
"I used to think that the idea of twisting and transforming the goddess's resonance into ripples of dark curse was a bit radical... but now it seems that the idea was too conservative."
"Since I can use the dark inscriptions I've researched to secretly transform the goddess's resonance into a 'blessing' power that's harmful to the hero... wouldn't I have a way to go even further and directly nip the hero's threat in the bud at the top of the round tower?"
"what way?"
Stroking the dark runes on the wall, each one a labor of love, a testament to his and his team's hard work, Lak said ominously:
"Use the goddess's resonance directly to kill the hero!"
Chapter 255 Dark Inscriptions - Twisting and Reversal, the Key to Night of the Kingdom!
The process of infusing the goddess's blessing into the hero's body involves three steps:
The first step is to activate the magic circle of the magician's round tower to attract the resonance of the goddess in the high heavens, so that she will fall accurately into the round tower.
The second step involves using the inscriptions arranged inside the round tower to extract the divine power from the prepared magic stones and, together with the resonance of the goddess, to send it into the hero's body—this step usually requires the consumption of magic stones from at least several storage rooms.
It is difficult for the goddess's power to descend directly and interfere with the real world... This is a fact that has been verified by all human scholars, and exploring the reasons behind it has even become a field of study.
Therefore, even the goddess couldn't cook without rice; the magic stone was the best energy source, and then came the third step:
Once the energy of the magic stone is channeled into the hero's body, it can form a corresponding blessing under the guidance of resonance, and then be freely activated by the hero's mark.
Many of these three steps were carried out under the watchful eyes of the general public, making it difficult for Lak to tamper with them. Transforming the energy-extracted, protective inscriptions into cursed inscriptions was a near-miraculous feat in the research of the kingdom's great scholars, yet Lak accomplished it.
His mastery of magic far exceeded anyone's imagination.
Now, he plans to go even further.
"This time, in addition to the 'distortion' effect, the dark runes I created also have a most lethal effect: reversal!"
Looking at his masterpiece, the result of countless days and nights of toil and the loss of his hair, Lak gazed at it as if it were a work of art:
"This inspiration came from the demonic sword Apophis. It is said to have the power to convert magic and holy power. I spent a lot of effort to achieve that power... but unfortunately I still can't convert it without damage like it does. The 'power' of the demon race is truly amazing."
"Hmph! That goes without saying!" When it came to matters outside the inscriptions on the round tower, the Abyss's will finally found a point to discuss. It snorted lightly, saying with a hint of disdain:
"The authority of those Darkborn is a power created by imitating the 'origin' of my great abyss!"
Lak shook his head, already used to the Abyss Will's boasting, and continued nonchalantly:
"Before the blessing ceremony, the paladins would inspect the magic stones in each storage room, but they would never have imagined that the holy power within those magic stones... would be 'reversed' into the purest, most concentrated magic power, comparable to that of a great demon, when it was transmitted to the inscriptions on the round tower!"
"The transformed, dark magic and the distorted resonance of the goddess merged into one. What fell into the hero's body was no longer the goddess's blessing, nor the dark curse, but the most violent, inescapable dark ripples within him!!!"
Lak's lips curled into a cruel smile: "But Shana is different from her brother. Her power attribute is the most violent fire attribute holy power."
"The unstable fire-attribute holy power clashed with the raging dark ripples within the body, and there was only one outcome..."
"Bang!!!" The shadow beneath his feet let out a sinister laugh: "That hero will be blasted into mincemeat by the goddess's resonance and his own power!"
"Hahaha! An evil creation! I love it!!!"
Evil laughter echoed within the round tower. Lak's figure slowly floated down and landed on the ceremony's presiding platform. He looked at a wall covered with markings like a measuring ruler. These markings were used during the blessing ceremony to measure the number of blessing layers the hero was receiving in real time, based on the energy within the hero's body.
Now, this scar that once cast a huge shadow over him has become, in Lak's eyes, the death knell for Shana, the sister of the hero Mino, on the day of her ritual.
A hint of pleasure flashed in Lark's eyes:
"The more layers she endures, the more violent the final explosion will be!!!"
……
The capital city, the imperial palace.
Prince Ota's study.
Before Otto himself even appeared, Astrid, sitting opposite the desk, was already trembling violently.
Her uneasy and nervous eyes darted around, involuntarily falling towards a corner of the study, to that empty glass cabinet. She remembered it had been filled with nothing but demon-made figurines the last time she'd been there! But now, it was gone—
Not a single one left!!!
Astrid's eyes grew increasingly frightened. She remembered the last time she spoke with Prince Ota, the way he looked at those figurines as if they were something extremely important.
But now, those things seem to have lost their value and have been completely cleared out!
Prince Ota... truly a terrifyingly unpredictable fellow!
Astrid became more and more like a restless fawn, sitting in her seat without daring to move.
Just then, with a creaking sound of a door being pushed open behind her, Astrid's neck shrank sharply as she heard the familiar footsteps of the king entering the study. The sound of pulling out a chair was like scraping against glass, making the demon tremble with fear.
“Then, Astrid scholar—” Prince Otta spoke from his desk, his voice like a judge delivering a verdict with the air of sentencing:
"You should know... why I asked you to come here today, right?"
Several images flashed through Astrid's mind: