Chapter 219: The Curse Has Rules (1)

Ethan had successfully predicted what was coming, allowing the hunters to prepare themselves in advance for the silver knights’ siege.

But the cursed hunter now found himself facing an entirely different dilemma.

The Apostle of Balance assigned to watch over him could do more than merely change her appearance. She could also erase herself from other people’s memories, an ability that far exceeded her level of power.

In fact, such a feat should only have been possible for the monsters standing at the very pinnacle of the world.

In other words... the Night Lords.

To understand just how dangerous the Apostle named Schierke truly was, one only had to consider a simple possibility.

She could kill anyone close to Ethan and assume their appearance. Unless she chose to reveal herself, discovering the deception would be nearly impossible.

It was almost as though she could steal the memories of the people whose appearances she assumed.

An incredibly troublesome ability.

’I’ll have to stay on guard at all times. I have no idea where the next attack might come from...’

The curse and everything surrounding it weighed heavily on Ethan’s mind.

It felt as though he were walking a tightrope, knowing that a single misstep could send him plunging into the abyss.

"Hey! Stop moving!"

A soft, irritated voice from behind finally dragged him back to reality, pulling him out of his wandering thoughts.

"Sorry, sorry... My mind wandered for a moment..."

Ethan immediately apologized, turning his eyes toward Luna, who was standing behind him and using her magic on him.

The back of his neck was exposed, where a glowing magic circle surrounded the ominous Bloody Eclipse tattoo.

Real blood seeped from the mark.

As usual, Luna was renewing the seal to prevent those sinister voices from returning and robbing him of any chance at a normal life.

"You’ve got a difficult life, kid. What would you do if there was no one around to seal your curse?"

Leaning against the cold wall, Asterion commented from the sidelines as he watched the sealing process.

The other hunters who had survived Old Ashvarn were gathered nearby, with the sole exception of Jackson, who had disappeared from sight.

They were being held in Ashvarn’s prison, a place normally reserved for criminals and outlaws.

It was hardly somewhere hunters belonged, especially the Uncrowned Emperor, one of the greatest hunters in the history of the Heart Clan.

Yet fate had brought him here, forcing him to set foot inside the prison and be treated as a prisoner himself.

Even so, they weren’t subjected to the same harsh treatment as ordinary inmates.

They were afforded a certain degree of consideration, allowed to remain together in a spacious chamber and provided with all the clothing and essential supplies they requested.

Turning toward the old man, Ethan finally answered his earlier question.

"I don’t know... I’d probably lose my mind. Without the seal, I’d constantly hear the voices of the dead while monsters and all kinds of other horrors hunted me down..."

Ethan lowered his head, remembering those dreadful voices that stabbed into his mind like daggers whenever night fell.

One of the reasons Ethan couldn’t simply escape on his own, even disregarding the Blood Curse, was his Bloody Eclipse curse.

He needed to keep it sealed at all times.

And since he couldn’t maintain the seal himself, having Luna or another mage with similar abilities nearby was essential to his survival.

"I’m finished. You can put your clothes back on."

Luna let out a relieved sigh before moving away to sit down.

Ethan had been shirtless throughout the sealing process, exposing the upper half of his body and the deformity of his left arm, where the dark Legion Arm had been attached.

Apart from the deformity and his missing hand, Ethan possessed practically perfect genetics for a young man his age.

His skin was exceptional, and his well-defined muscles were proportioned almost perfectly.

One look at him was enough to understand why Lucille had treated him like a sex toy...

Before he lost his arm, of course.

Another interesting detail was that the old scars he’d accumulated in the past had completely disappeared, as though they’d never existed.

His Demonic Body truly worked in remarkable ways.

As Ethan pulled his shirt back on, someone nearby spoke up, raising an important question.

"What’s going to happen to us now?"

The question came from Raiden, who was sitting close to Ethan.

"We’ve already been examined, and they confirmed we’re still human. But they’re keeping us locked up anyway... I don’t understand what’s going on."

Earlier, immediately after their arrest, Ethan and the others had been escorted before a group of priests, most of whom had come from the Holy Throne, the dominant religious institution across the continent and the world at large.

Ethan had been particularly nervous at the time because of his Demonic Body.

Miracles didn’t work on him, and that alone would have been sufficient grounds to accuse him of heresy.

Fortunately, the examination didn’t involve casting miracles on them.

Instead, it measured the extent to which each of them had been affected by the curse.

Once everyone had been tested, the results confirmed that they were all still human, although their levels of exposure to the curse varied considerably.

Luna had the lowest level of corruption, measuring less than 5%.

She was followed by the other members of the Third Hunting Squad, excluding Ethan, whose readings were all below 10%.

Asterion, on the other hand, received a terrifying result.

His corruption level was the highest among them, reaching an estimated 47%.

To understand just how dangerous that number was, one needed to know what happened when the curse’s influence within a human body exceeded 50%.

Once that threshold was crossed, the individual would gradually begin losing their humanity until they eventually transformed into a bloodthirsty monster.

Asterion had come dangerously close to that point.

But the real surprise...

Was Ethan’s result.

He was still a young man at the very beginning of his career as a hunter, having barely participated in a handful of hunting expeditions.

Yet his examination revealed an alarming corruption level of 40%.