Seok's body was covered in blood and tattoos of varying shapes on his fluids as he looked coldly at Tao and his followers.
"What's going on? How can a child with this power exist?" the leader of the followers' squad spoke, looking at the newborn, surrounded by a dark, sooty aura.
Several minutes passed in complete silence. No one felt the passage of time at all. A newborn child emanating some kind of cursed aura was believable.
Usually, curses are born from the accumulation of negative emotions, not from a natural birth. Moreover, both of Seok's parents were pure humans. How could Seok be born half-cursed? These questions swirled in the minds of the followers. Tao, unlike Seok's parents and the nurse, didn't understand what was happening around them at all.
Seok reached for the squad leader and began to rise as his bones shattered and his internal organs deformed. A cold sweat broke out, causing the rest of his body to swell. "Ughh ... Shin-hye stared for a few seconds at the spot where Tao and his followers stood before turning her gaze back to her bloodied child.
Something was wrong. All of Kyung's injuries had been treated, and the pain at the birthing site was gone. It felt as if she hadn't given birth at all.
Her gaze shifted to her son, who was clutching her tattered clothes tightly. She smiled warmly. "Did you do all this on your day, Seok, you little rascal?"
Shin-hye felt no animosity toward her son. Her maternal instincts were stronger than any other emotion—fear, sadness at having given birth to a hybrid child.
Even Kyung hadn't said anything. After all, a human couldn't give birth to a cursed being, since curses from immaterial entities were inherently sinister. Therefore, the idea of betrayal was completely illogical.
Several hours later, at 3:13 AM, Shin-hye's bedroom was cleaned of blood, and all traces of the people had been erased thanks to Seok, who had wiped them out completely, leaving no trace. A grain of bone or clothes
At Shihei's, she was gently patting the stomach of the sleeping Seok, who was cradling her, smiling faintly, trying to hide her shock. "How could you, just hours ago, be a terrifying being created to be an instrument of death, and now you're just a baby who can't leave his mother's embrace?"
Seok grasped his mother Shihei's arm, placing it against his chest.
Both of Seok's hands were gripping his mother's arm, refusing to let go, which made her laugh at his strange behavior, as his facial expression held a hint of slight annoyance.
"I wish you a happy life, my son Seok," her voice was warm, full of love and genuine fear for her son, who had only ever seen death and blood.
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In Shibuya City, Japan, there lived an 18-year-old boy with light white hair With blue eyes, dressed in the garb of an academy student, they fought curses.
The Imam was a curse resembling Seok, with short black hair and crimson eyes instead of black. He wore a Japanese-style fighting outfit and had several light tattoos in the form of lines on his face.
Both fighters were seriously injured. Seok's gaze held a hint of mockery as he looked at the young man with a smug smile. "A special-grade curse dying at the hands of a human. Truly pathetic, Gojo."
Gojo, who was seriously injured, looked at Seok while thinking to himself, "A special-grade curse, afflicted by a seal curse and unable to use his power, yet incredibly strong. I'm truly excited to fight a worthy opponent."
"But he can't use his domain because he's imperfect. Ahhhhh, I have to become stronger. At the end of my life, I'm still only 18. Hahaha. Those scum are forcing a child to fight for them. Scum."
A wave of energy began to form around Gojo's body. It was a sacred blue aura carrying a great deal of... Positive energy, unlike Seok's negative energy and the other entities of that world.
Seok's eyes narrowed as he looked towards Gojo, and a dark, ominous aura emanated from him.
They both charged at each other, exchanging powerful punches and kicks, their faces beaming with arrogant smiles.
Seok took a few steps back from Gojo, unleashing a concentrated energy attack, which Gojo blocked with his pure energy.
Seok's eyes narrowed as he looked at him. "His entire body is made of pure energy, to the point that his white body hair has turned pale. Something's not right. He's not human, he's half-human. But why?"
"Have the Nortai family sunk to such a level of depravity that they would bring a girl from another world to marry their son? It's truly pathetic. There's something deeper than that, but I don't know."
Seok blocked Gojo's attack, his arrogant smile never fading.
Gojo spoke, landing several punches, his energy amplified. "What? Are you planning an impossible escape?" "The strongest curse in 2000 years decides to escape from an 18-year-old boy, really?"
Seok stared at him for several seconds before bursting into loud laughter, his energy doubling. "Hahahaha, you're so arrogant, Gojo Norte! But remember, you're just an immature, arrogant fool. I know my death is near, but remember my words: who are you? I don't see Gojo Norte; I see just an empty shell. You don't know who you are!"
A look of shock crossed Gojo's face as he listened to Seok's words. He took several steps back, adopting an offensive posture.
"You're not the first person to say this to me, and you won't be the last. However, it doesn't matter who I am.""Why would I be a hybrid human or something bigger? My name is Gojo Nortai. My mother named me after a famous character called Gojo Satoru."
Seok stared at him for a few seconds, then decided to throw a punch, which Gojo dodged while speaking. "And you? Just a curse resulting from other people's traumas, aren't you, Seok?"
Seok looked at him for a few seconds before replying, "Actually, I wasn't always a curse. I was just an ordinary human living a normal life, but I died from the many traumas and tragedies I went through, becoming a curse representing psychological trauma. Hahaha, I was quite something back then. My mother died trying to stop me from being kidnapped when I was born, only for my sister to be kidnapped by my father's second wife. He died while I was away from home. After that, my friend died, and I found his mutilated body next to a tree trunk when we were at war."
"Why are you telling me this?" Gojo's tone held a hint of sarcasm.
"......."
Seok remained silent, a faint smile appearing on his face as He watched his body disappear into the distance as Gojo's energy and the seal slowly destroyed it. "I think I wanted everyone to remember me, to remain in someone's memory. Don't worry."
Gojo's expression changed, becoming unreadable, as he plunged his hand into Seok's core, destroying it. "I won't forget you, Mr. Seok," Gojo's voice sounded somewhat gentle, or so Seok heard, before he turned to gray dust, scattering into the distant horizon.
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Seok opened his eyes to find himself in a beautiful, Japanese-style garden. He looked at his reflection, puzzled, noticing he was wearing something different: black trousers and a matching jacket, but a style that didn't suit his time.
His eyes were crimson, and his face, covered in tattoos, was the most striking feature, but he didn't pay much attention.
Seok sighed deeply as he sat on a bench by a lake, a bench that could seat three.
He raised his head, gazing at the sky. With a blank stare, after reliving his memories, he was lost in the bitterness of his past, a life of chaos and a curse of a special kind.
It made him feel empty, like someone who didn't know himself, drowning in a psychological void of confusion. It was difficult to forget who he was, to live with this for 15 whole years.
To suddenly discover, without any warning, his origins, that he had lived a pathetic life, only to become a curse and then die a meaningless death. It was something difficult to bear or comprehend.
Seok was half curse and half human, half of this world and half of another, two worlds different in almost every way.
"Seok, hahaha, I feel strange. A name that followed me like a curse at every stage, from ordinary human to curse to a hybrid between human and curse, hahaha," Seok said with cold sarcasm while looking at a lake.
He noticed someone sitting next to him, the same curse that had fought that person, named Gojo Nortai.
He didn't feel Seok was preoccupied with something else entirely. In the end, he was sitting with himself, contemplating the darkest aspect of his own being.
Both Seok and his other half gazed at the lake without saying a word for several minutes before Seok the Curse broke the silence. "So, you know who you are? Just a fool who lived in humiliation and died in humiliation, living in blood and killing like a curse for two thousand years, then dying in humiliation only to be reborn as a hybrid—a curse and a human—to live in humiliation again, killing people and forgetting that he ever did it."
Seok remained silent, offering no counter-argument to his cursed double's words. His entire life, summed up in 43 words, was a harsh reality.
The cursed double then stood up, gesturing for Seok to follow. They wandered for a while before leaving, exploring a small village with structures that had existed in Seok the Curse's time.
"Do you know where Seok is from?" "These are my friends' graves," Seok Curse spoke, breaking the silence as he looked at a bouquet of roses beside two graves.
Seok Curse stared blankly at the two graves before speaking in a quiet tone, "They belong to my parents, and we're in the city where we were first born, the place where our life story began. Insignificant."
Seok Curse continued to look at the two graves without saying anything, agreeing with Seok's words, as this was their life and he was forced to endure its upheavals.
A faint smile appeared on Seok Curse's face as he looked at Seok. "Even so, your life was better. Your mother is alive, your sister is alive for your son... Your father died months ago."
Seok Curse's calm gaze surprised Seok Curse, causing a faint smile to appear on his face as he looked at his own version of Seok Curse. "Have you forgotten the promise of Roichi de Molière? They have healers and magic capable of resurrecting the dead. Why should I be sad? The time the deceased spent on paid leave from a cruel life will be over. Isn't that right?"
The gazes Seok Curse held a certain surprise, for Seok had lost the ability to shock, even though he was a cursed psychic. Strange, it seemed I had become more dangerous than I had been.
These thoughts swirled in Seok Curse's mind as he looked towards Seok, who rose from his place and headed towards a grave a few steps away, inscribed with Seok's name.
Seok Curse looked at the grave mockingly, then at the original grave, the one that had been Seok's when he was a pure human. Seok Curse, the complete curse, embodied the tragedies of Seok's future, a mixture of origin and tragedy, half-human and half-curse in one body.
A connection between two worlds, the world of the Curse Masters and the world of the original. Perhaps Seok was more special than he seemed. A mere compass character possessing this ability was something difficult for anyone who had broken the fourth wall or any reader to predict.
"I have completed my work..." Seok Curse looked at his disappearing hand as he spoke, "So in the end, I was the embodiment of the side of you that you never wanted others to see, but you "In the end, you accepted it, making it a part of you."
Seok watched as it vanished into the horizon like black dust, turning to charcoal. Seok hugged himself with a warm smile. "Yes, I wanted you not to appear, but in the end, you are a part of me, the part I've always been."
"You're a twilight-inducing sight, Seok," he said sarcastically, before disappearing completely. It was merely the embodiment of his dark side, its mission complete. Seok looked around with a faint smile. "It seems that expanding my domain in the end was a tragedy for Earth."
Seok's body began to disappear immediately afterward, a small smile on his face. He had finally learned who he was, and this was his greatest achievement.From what new power or ability?
Seok opened his scarlet eyes as he looked at the courtyard, which was filled with students, professors, and Shadow Scorpion and Light, who were looking in his direction indifferently, yet he didn't move from his spot.
For several reasons. First, he had a strange feeling that commanded him not to, and his intuition, honed by hundreds of battles, didn't lie.
Second, he was aware that there were several figures capable of defeating him, including Yuta Jiya, thanks to the Pavilion of the Pool, and a few others hiding among the students.
Third, Reinhart, with the support he had provided an hour before the start of the war, had remained observing the events and letting the students and professors die, knowing they could be easily revived since they were currently undergoing a revival process at the academy.
"It's time to leave," Shadow Scorpion and Light said as they disappeared.
Ruichi felt annoyed by Shadow Scorpion and Light's escape and turned his gaze once again towards Seok, who was in the sky.
At Seok's gaze, a reddish-black ball of energy began to appear, filling the space with a powerful light that surprised everyone.
Seok felt a surge of joy, for he had regained his essence after a full 15 years, and it began to enter his body.
A powerful pillar of energy erupted in the center of the ground, unleashing a fierce wind that hurled everyone several meters, except for a few people.
"What's happening? Didn't he end the war with just two attacks? It was shocking, but what can he do?"
"Is he evolving again? He's breaking through to the rank of Saint. Being a curse, he killed a large number of people in a very short time, and regaining his essence, being half-cursed, made it logical that he would break through," Tom said, his gaze sharp towards the pillar of energy. In one of his lives, he had been in the world of the Curse Masters gh7586886887, so it was logical that he would know such things.
Curses increase in power through killing humans, and regaining essence gives them a powerful boost of strength, so burning was a very natural occurrence.
After several minutes, a pillar of energy began to diminish, revealing Seok, who had changed somewhat. His body was covered in tattoos that symbolized the sins he had committed: theft, deception, forgery, and several others.
"He broke through and achieved the Hidden Rank simultaneously as Armin, the Saint Fighter," Lucy said, looking at Seok as he descended to the ground.
There were several Hidden Ranks at all levels of the Legendary Rulers, from the Master Ruler to the Most Legendary Ruler. Among them was Worthy, which Armin obtained after surpassing the Heavenly Grant, and Fighter, which Seok earned by struggling to reach this rank after battling his own inner demons and accepting the part of himself he had always wanted to disappear. There were also Persevering, Gambler, and Legendary.
Reaching the Hidden Rank was extremely difficult, almost impossible, as it raised the power of the one who attained it to a level that allowed them to fight those stronger than them at the Full Rank. Moreover, the very conditions of desire to reach it prevented one from attaining it, as it required purity. In addition to the fact that each person unlocks only one Hidden Rank, except in exceptional circumstances.
A faint smile played on Seok's face as he moved through the crowd, who parted to avoid the overwhelming, reddish-black aura surrounding him.
Several months ago, he had still been at the SSS rank, thanks to Ki, which he had used as his primary power system for years due to its ease of development and the lack of resources required.
However, on the second quarter day of May 28, 675, he had reached the Saint rank and, moreover, unlocked the Hidden Rank of Fighter. Seok had progressed significantly, advancing three ranks in just four months.
This meant one thing: the amount of resources he was granted as an elite student. A level 7-8 polishing pill made from rare, flawless resources was enough to make a pig fly.
If we consider everything Seok had accomplished in the past ten hours, we could say that his greatest achievement was simply being an elite student at the academy. Verselkin would receive 90% of the benefits he currently enjoys or will receive in the future simply because he was in that class.
As Seok wandered through the crowd, his gaze met that of Yuta Kaseral, who was wiping blood from his sword. Seok's eyes flickered slightly as he looked at him.
"He's so powerful that even the Shadow and Light Scorpion seems like an insect," Seok thought to himself. Having lived for two thousand years, he possessed unerring eyesight.
That's why he was so confident in his statement. The aura surrounding Yuta's body was even stronger than that of the Shadow and Light Scorpion. He then continued on his way, trying to find a place to rest.
Both his Datien Roots and Mana Nucleus were in a state of agitation after reaching the Hidden Rank, as his body wasn't used to such an unreasonable height.
A person's body holds a certain amount of energy that it can absorb upon penetration, as the Datien Roots and Mana Nucleus evolve to accommodate that energy.
But upon reaching the Hidden Rank, the power increases beyond its previous limit. His body was designed to accommodate him, and the same applied to Armin, whose body was in chaos due to the twin manifestation and the activation of the Hidden Rank.
That's why Yuta rendered him unconscious to prevent him from exploding and killing everyone present. The energy within him was capable of completely erasing the fantasy world, even though it was sealed within his body for a reason Yuta himself still didn't understand.
The students returned to camp to rest from the leader's war. Their faces were filled with weariness and exhaustion.
"Great, the war's over. I feel relieved."
"Ugh, that was a tough phase. I don't want to go through anything like it anytime soon."
"My body aches so much. I'm tired."
"When is that damn academy coming? I want to go back to my apartment and sleep for a few days straight."
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The students spoke as they headed towards their temporary camp, their faces a mix of expressions: some annoyed, some tired, and some cursing without a care. To those around him
Upon the students' arrival, they found several professors and healers waiting for them, led by Reinhardt, who looked at them calmly.
"All the students who are still alive will proceed to the final exam. As for those who died during the time when the followers of the organization attacked the Soho student, who was betrayed while performing his duty of healing injured students and professors so they could fight in the war, they will be expelled from the academy."
"And there is something else: students Yuta Caseral, Roici de Molière, and Grie de Molière, and Beatrice.Azwassen, Tom Fragelsen, Armin Siegmurt, Bervika Al-Aslhan, Hua Jian Yi, Christian Jorgam, Nicholas Jorgam, Kazuhiro Kenziel. Leon Britten, Inuyasha Britten, Seok, Soho from the elite class, Gia Guilford, Louis Galhalid from the Legendary class, Cloud Ulguid, and Peter Buster from the Ordinary class will be students in the new class called the Masters Class, which will be above the Legendary class starting March 1, 676.
Shock was evident on the faces of the students in the new class above the Legendary class, with higher and better privileges, and the possibility of resurrection for those who died. These were the two most important things understood by the students and inhabitants of the five continents who witnessed Reinhardt's announcement.
However, signs of jealousy appeared on the faces of many students as they looked towards Seok. He was now alone, without any support, and had become one of the most prominent students.
Yet, no one dared approach him because he was dangerous. Killing 195 with a wave of his hand was something impossible to ignore. Moreover, even the Vrsalkin Academy itself
was trying to appease him by placing Soho next to him under the pretext of... He was betrayed while performing his duty of treating injured students and professors so they could fight in the war.
It was a cheap and obvious excuse for all the students and inhabitants of the five continents without exception, but no one dared to object.
Trying to make an enemy of Reinhardt de Molière, the strongest person in the world, and making an enemy of the Verselkin Academy by accusing it of bias was something no one would do unless they were a madman who wanted death.
That's why he swallowed his pride and headed through the gates leading to the Verselkin Academy.
Some left with significant benefits and achievements, some came to enjoy themselves, and some gained a deeper understanding of themselves.
One war, one crisis, one person participated in all of them, but each person emerged with different results.
However, the world is restless and will not allow anyone peace. Jeju Island was only the beginning of what was to come. Three years and seven months passed, during which many things happened, some good and some bad, but one thing remained. One participant will emerge with the greatest benefits.