Chapter 211: The Gift

In less than a single second, his entire body was bound.

Iron serpents surged around him, coiling over every inch of his body until barely his face remained visible.

The chains constricted him with terrifying force, and no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn’t move a single muscle.

"Fuck..."

Sweat poured down Ethan’s face as he found himself completely trapped.

Schierke, meanwhile, approached him slowly, her demeanor unchanged.

Ethan realized that the chains had to be the product of magic. There was no doubt that the woman before him was a witch, but he had never encountered a spell like this before.

’I barely saw anything...’

Even with Wise Raven Insight active, he had been unable to detect the chains as they wrapped around him.

They had appeared out of nowhere and restrained him instantly, almost as though they had been there from the very beginning.

"Am I supposed to take this as a sign that I’ve failed the Ordeal?" Ethan asked nervously, weighing the options still available to him.

In response, Schierke answered in the negative.

"Quite the opposite. You passed with flying colors, although I did have to help you a little. But I’d do anything for my future prince~"

Schierke spoke with a frightening expression that made her look utterly deranged.

"What in heaven’s name are you talking about?"

Looking at the woman standing before him, Ethan felt an ominous sense of dread creep into his heart.

"The Ordeal is far from over. This was merely its first stage... From now on, nightmares will begin raining down upon you. You’ll find yourself forced to give up many things, and you’ll have to make countless sacrifices as well. Then, at the very end, you’ll be faced with a bitter choice."

Schierke spoke with complete freedom, seemingly without a care in the world.

But as Ethan blinked for a fraction of a second, the young woman who had appeared to be around his age was suddenly replaced by an elderly lady.

It was the very same woman he had seen in the Hunters’ Paradise.

The kindly old lady who handed out food, someone no one would ever believe capable of harming another person.

Schierke’s ability to disguise herself was terrifying by any measure. She could conceal her true identity completely behind an impenetrable mask.

Even Asterion, the Uncrowned Emperor, had failed to recognize her despite having her right in front of him.

In fact, if she hadn’t deliberately revealed herself, Ethan would never have recognized her either.

"You’ve noticed, haven’t you? I never bothered hiding myself from you in the first place. If I’d truly wanted to kill you, you wouldn’t even have realized I was there."

Schierke slowly circled Ethan, her appearance changing with every step she took.

At first, she appeared as an elderly lady. Then she became a mature woman with red hair and features resembling those of the Heart Clan.

But she didn’t stop there.

Her entire physique changed, transforming into a broad-shouldered adult man who stood even taller than Ethan himself.

Ethan watched in astonishment.

Even Wise Raven Insight couldn’t see through the woman’s flawless disguises.

That was assuming she could even be called a woman in the first place.

By now, Ethan was beginning to seriously doubt what her true appearance might be.

Schierke changed her appearance several more times, taking the form of a child who looked barely ten years old, then that of a sweet-looking young girl.

"Be careful who you choose to trust, my dear Ethan. The people you know best are often the ones capable of hurting you more than anyone else."

As she spoke those final words, Schierke began assuming the appearances of people Ethan knew intimately.

Circling around him, she first took the form of Moon Heart, the leader of the hunting squad he belonged to.

Then she became Raiden, followed by Chai, Alicia, and Luna.

She even transformed into Asterion, the drunken old man.

Each time, her facial features, gestures, mannerisms, and the way she carried herself were almost perfectly identical to those of the person she was impersonating.

No matter how hard Ethan tried, he couldn’t find a single difference.

This was Schierke’s way of telling him that she could get to him whenever she pleased.

Whether in the past, the present, or even the future.

’If I make a mistake... If I fail the Ordeal... She’ll be the one to finish me off.’

Trapped within the chains, Ethan could do nothing but stare at her with his nerves stretched taut, waiting for the ordeal before him to end.

But something about the situation bothered him deeply.

"Did you really go through the trouble of appearing before me... just for this?"

"Of course not."

Schierke answered immediately, only deepening Ethan’s fears as he realized his suspicions had been correct.

"I came today to deliver His gift to you... A gift from the Demon of Balance. I’m one of His Apostles, and that’s what Apostles do, isn’t it?"

Schierke smiled through Luna’s face.

It was a sharp, almost mocking smile that might have been considered beautiful under ordinary circumstances.

But after she mentioned the name of the malevolent entity that filled Ethan’s heart with terror, that same smile became the stuff of nightmares.

Schierke extended her hand.

Her slender fingers gradually turned from white to black, while strange golden circles began forming across her skin like ancient tattoos.

The patterns were extraordinarily intricate and impossible to comprehend.

Merely looking at them made Ethan’s heartbeat quicken.

And his heart wasn’t the only part of his body reacting to those circles.

The closer that hand came, the hotter the back of his neck became, accompanied by a pain resembling countless needles piercing his flesh.

Blood began dripping from his curse mark, which started reacting to the strange circles inscribed upon Schierke’s arm.

Ethan had a terrible feeling about those patterns.

"Stay right there! Don’t touch me!"

He shouted in panic as he realized Schierke was reaching toward the mark of the Bloody Eclipse.

He tried to stop her, but it was useless.

The chains had completely immobilized him, and none of the abilities or weapons at his disposal could break through their restraints.

"Accept the gift. This is your destiny."

Schierke’s sickening smile widened as her hand finally touched the back of Ethan’s neck.

The instant her blackened hand, covered in golden circles, made contact with the curse mark, Ethan felt as though his entire world had been turned upside down.

It was as if someone had injected searing molten lava directly into his body, as though a deadly poison had spread through every part of him.

The pain was tremendous.

Far, far beyond anything he could bear.

"ARRRGHH... AAAAAAAAH!!!"

Ethan began screaming, unable to hold back his cries beneath the sheer agony tearing through him.

Schierke, meanwhile, laughed delightedly, her eyes fixed upon him with a terrifyingly sadistic gaze.

"You have one of the loveliest screaming voices I’ve ever heard. What a sweet little scream."

The Apostle of Balance was praising his screams of agony, describing them as beautiful.

But Ethan couldn’t hear a single word she said.

His mind was still struggling to comprehend what was happening to him.

His vision blurred, and tears gathered at the corners of his eyes.

He felt an overwhelming urge to cry, like an infant so sensitive that even the slightest thing could bring it to tears.

Fighting back that urge, Ethan struggled to maintain his consciousness as best he could, trying desperately to ignore the sound of wailing rising from somewhere deep within him.

The ominous cries of a newborn echoed through his mind again and again.

Only this time, they were far louder than before.

’That baby’s crying again... What the hell is happening to me? Where is that sound coming from? And who is this damned infant that refuses to stop crying?!’

The crying infant had remained a mystery that troubled Ethan deeply, one for which he had never managed to find an answer.

But there was one thing he now understood with absolute certainty.

’My body is changing... Something is changing inside me. Something... is trying to be born within me...’

It was an ominous sensation, as though his body had become a dark breeding ground filled with evil, and he was nothing more than the vessel containing it.