Chapter 58: Death Curse
Tilroghzakh took a tentative step forward, and indeed, another deep wound appeared on his body.
He would be injured just by moving?
The demon suddenly understood. He was a Trickster of the Fallen Path, specializing in Curses and Beast Taming. He didn’t need to get close to the enemy to fight, so this spell wasn’t very useful to him. It was the latter, a spell that could forcibly alter others’ faith tendencies, that made him more uneasy.
Tilroghzakh could feel his craving for light growing stronger. He didn’t know if the Thirst for Light could be dispelled as a curse, but he knew one thing for sure: most persistent spells could be dispelled by killing the caster.
Although he didn’t know why Li Wen hadn’t died from that kind of damage, the demon knew more than one curse of that magnitude.
The demon extended its skeletal hand, a unique trait gained after its promotion to Trickster called “Malice Matrix.” With this trait, it could cast curses without a medium, by consuming Life, and the curses’ power would be significantly enhanced.
“Pain Curse!”
A red lightning bolt flew from the demon’s hand and then struck Li Wen with astonishing speed.
Intense pain immediately spread throughout her body, but apart from that, Li Wen felt no other discomfort. Even her Twilight Erosion had only increased by less than 1%.
Is that all?
The demon’s methods were certainly not limited to this. He intended to use the Pain Curse as a medium and Li Wen’s Life as a sacrifice to summon a vile beast from the shadows.
“Azbolol, my dear pet, go and devour the enemy before me!”
Tilroghzakh’s huge and distorted shadow writhed like a living thing, then rapidly expanded and deformed, as if something was about to emerge from it.
The first thing to appear was a head with three curved horns, no eyes, no nose, and a sharp, elongated mouth, resembling a goat yet also a wolfhound.
It wasn’t tall, not even as tall as the demon himself, but when the entire monster emerged from the shadow, even the blazing church seemed to dim, and the flames trembled as if about to be extinguished.
As soon as the Shadow Beast appeared, it lunged at Li Wen, not biting her body, but her shadow.
However, as Li Wen’s shadow was torn into pieces, her erosion bar surged at an alarming rate, indicating that she had already sustained fatal damage.
Li Wen remained remarkably calm. She made a blade with her hand, attached Spell-less Arc Light, and slashed at the monster.
But the arc light only passed through the beast’s body, striking the wall in the distance.
Intangible?
Li Wen was unhurried. With a light leap, she actually took to the air.
This was a new feature of the Emerald Star Cloak unlocked after Witch Form, “Levitation,” which allowed the wearer to fly by continuously consuming Mana. After entering Witch Form, Li Wen would not consume Mana, so using this ability only increased her Erosion.
Li Wen adjusted to controlling her direction in the air, then flew directly towards the demon.
If she couldn’t fight the pet, she could at least fight the master!
The demon’s expression remained unchanged. He commanded the Shadow Beast to return to his side while chanting a spell to shield himself with a dark magic shield.
Li Wen descended from the sky, but her target was not the demon himself, but the Bone-Corroding Short Sword that he had discarded on the ground.
During this brief period of flight, she had dispelled all the curses on her. The Prayer was only enough to dispel the Pain Curse, not the more advanced one.
However, one of the spoils of war Li Wen obtained from the Fire Mage – the Volatile Fire Ring – had a spell called Flame Healing that could dispel curses of this level.
Once the curse was dispelled, Li Wen picked up the Bone-Corroding Short Sword. This time, she didn’t even release Spell-less Arc Light, all to catch Tilroghzakh off guard.
The sharp short sword ignored the black shield and pierced the demon’s body.
He figured it out?
Tilroghzakh’s pupils contracted. The black shield he had cast could only block magic damage and was ineffective against direct weapon attacks.
He had thought that after being disarmed, Li Wen could only use spells, but now it seemed he had underestimated her.
The time for reflection was only an instant. Before Li Wen could inflict more damage, the Shadow Beast had already returned to the demon’s side.
It burrowed directly into Tilroghzakh’s shadow, causing him to become ethereal.
Li Wen, wielding the short sword, passed through the demon’s body. Having lost the opportunity for follow-up attacks, Li Wen didn’t linger and flew up again.
Less than a minute had passed, and her erosion bar had already exceeded 10%. It seemed that dragging the fight for ten minutes wouldn’t be easy.
Seeing Li Wen fly away, Tilroghzakh re-summoned the Shadow Beast.
He looked at Li Wen angrily and thought to himself that the damned creature was more annoying than a fly.
At this moment, Tilroghzakh felt an urge to leave the darkness, and when he merged with the Shadow Beast, he experienced a feeling of creepy disgust.
He had to end the battle quickly!
The demon took out a piece of white paper covered in blood and used flames to ignite it.
Blood Contract?
Li Wen recognized the name of the item.
It was a magical item commonly found in the Dark Lineage, naturally related to summoning and contracts.
She just didn’t know what Tilroghzakh had contracted with it.
The demon placed his hand on the contract, and the flames ignited by the blood contract became more intense and passionate, even threatening to devour the demon himself.
Tilroghzakh let out a cold snort, and the violent flames immediately weakened. Then, with the sound of colliding chains, a pitch-black spear, completely covered in blood-red incantations and bound by chains, was pulled from the contract.
“Spear of Death Curse…”
The demon softly murmured the name of the spear.
He hadn’t used this weapon since his descent into the mortal world.
And Li Wen, this damned human, would be the first fortunate recipient of the Spear of Death Curse’s blood after many years!
The demon gripped the spear with his skeletal hand and then skillfully hurled it.
Li Wen sensed danger and dodged the spear’s trajectory.
However, the spear didn’t lock onto her. It stopped halfway, and the incantations on it began to shine with a dark light. The chains wrapped around it moved on their own, extending outwards.
The chains pierced through the void and directly entangled Li Wen. She couldn’t even dodge them.
The moment she was entangled, her Twilight Erosion progress bar began to rise at a frantic pace.
Li Wen’s expression changed, and the spear pointed at her.
Tilroghzakh had already looked away. He didn’t need to watch to foresee the outcome.
The Spear of Death Curse, as its name suggested, was inscribed with death incantations.
As long as one was locked onto and struck by the spear, the person who suffered the damage would undoubtedly die, with no escape.
