While all of this was happening, in a distant place within the same temple where a certain bald woman resided, a man wandered through a forbidden library, exploring its contents away from everyone's eyes.
"Nothing again… damn it, none of these can grant my wish!"
The man was beginning to grow frustrated at not finding what he sought, even after going through the oldest and most profane books in the library.
Just as his hope was about to fade, he noticed a book on a separate shelf, bound by heavy chains and surrounded by strange sigils.
"I haven't tried this one yet, right?"
The man looked around carefully and, seeing no one nearby, approached one of the books that very few besides the Ancient One herself were allowed to read.
'The Book of Cagliostro'
Using a basic spell, the man easily undid the lock around the book, took it into his hands, and began flipping through its pages.
Rituals, spells, methods to summon unseen gods, and even fragments explaining how to use the Eye of Agamotto.
While reading through the pages about the most powerful dimensional entities, one page in particular caught his attention.
Dormammu, the Lord of the Dark Dimension.
The moment he read the name, his instincts told him that perhaps this entity could grant what he desired.
The man was about to tear out the pages about Dormammu when he noticed another entity described on the page behind it.
"What? Why doesn't this god have a name?"
An ancient page recorded a strange nameless entity described as a child brought from outside reality itself.
The child had been brought with promises of salvation and peace, but upon witnessing the truth of humanity—pain, suffering, and negative emotions—it decided to help.
But it made a mistake.
The child took all the emotions of humanity and absorbed them to free mankind from suffering.
Yet because it was only a child, it accidentally created something profane from everything it wished to remove from humanity.
Due to the overwhelming concentration of negative emotions, the child's body became corrupted into a grotesque form with two mouths, four arms, and four eyes, possessing immense physical strength.
The unsatisfied emotions corrupted the purest form of innocence and fused with the child, granting it a cursed power…
"What the hell kind of story is this? It's so confusing. Who's this kid even supposed to be? Why would he do this for humanity? Damn it…"
Confused by the story, the man wondered whether continuing was even worth it.
The entity didn't seem particularly powerful, nor did it appear to make contracts.
Still, driven by morbid curiosity, he kept reading.
The power granted to the child was the ability to control the energy generated from the emotions of both the living and the dead who kneel before it.
A curse no child should ever bear.
Pain and hatred eternally followed it due to the immense concentration of energy drawn from the agony and suffering of both the living and the dead.
Those who observed it from afar named this power "Cursed Energy."
As expected, the child's father eventually returned and saw the child trapped by the blessing it had given humanity.
Yet instead of anger, the being smiled and comforted the child.
It granted the child the power to never be alone again and gave it authority over the very curses it had created for humanity.
Little is known about this god.
It is called by many names:
The Father of Curses.
The Creator of Evils.
The King of Curses.
There has never once been a record of this being possessing an apostle or disciple.
Nor is there any proof this entity truly exists, or that the story above is even real.
I only recorded this because there is a way to contact the being.
But although one may enter its domain…
It appears… empty.
"What? An empty dimensional domain? And why the hell is contacting it so absurdly easy?"
When the man read what was necessary to contact the entity, he became even more confused.
Other entities required immense concentration, the blood of a child, or things even more grotesque—land touched by death, dozens of virgin corpses, and worse.
But this one?
All that was required was offering one's negative emotions to the god and declaring the desire to bear the curse.
It wasn't even a matter of concentration.
One simply had to open their heart to the entity, and contact would be established instantly.
It was the first time the man had ever heard of such a method to communicate with a godlike being.
But now his curiosity surged violently.
Carefully looking around, the man tore out the page containing the information about the nameless entity.
"I'll save this for when I run out of every other option."
__________________________________
Back with Alex, he was currently dealing with a massive problem involving Tyon.
Because only a few hours earlier, Alex had given Tyon an extremely simple mission…
And somehow, he had completely ruined it.
A few hours earlier.
Alex stood in front of the barrier protecting the base, looking at Tyon with a relaxed expression while Tyon continued playing with the Rubik's Cube he had stolen from Jack's hideout.
"Alright, Tyon. Did you understand what I asked?"
Tyon, fully focused on the cube, looked startled when Alex called him and turned toward him with a confused expression, as if he hadn't heard a single word Alex had said.
"Sigh… okay, listen carefully. Your mission is to recruit people who have the potential to use cursed energy. I don't care who they are, just try to convince them to come. And most importantly—don't force anyone to join us."
Finally understanding, Tyon straightened up like a soldier and immediately headed toward the city.
Watching Tyon walk away while still holding the Rubik's Cube made Alex feel like the curse hadn't listened to a single thing he said and probably wouldn't follow his instructions at all.
Still, Alex honestly didn't mind.
Even if Tyon failed to bring results, Alex could search for candidates himself later.
It wasn't like he had anything impressive to offer them right now anyway.
Without thinking too much about it, Alex returned to the base and started trying to improve the place.
But he quickly realized it was impossible.
The location had once been used as a warehouse, meaning there was practically no furniture inside.
Making the place look decent was nearly impossible.
After reaching a dead end, Alex considered going back to training, but then remembered that there actually was furniture available.
He just had to take it from Jack's hideout.
And just like that, he'd have furniture to decorate the abandoned place.
So, without caring about how inconvenient the trip was, Alex began making repeated journeys, bringing furniture from Jack's hideout little by little while staying as hidden as possible.
Of course, he had to leave behind the sofa—the thing he wanted most from the hideout.
But Alex still managed to take folding tables, chairs, and a few strange decorations that had been scattered around Jack's base.
In the end, Alex managed to decorate the place at least a little.
The only thing truly missing was a sofa, because Alex's situation with chairs was pretty similar to Jack's—neither of them could properly sit in normal chairs due to their size.
In fact, Alex was desperately searching for a large sofa or armchair he could use once the new members of the group arrived.
If they even arrived at all.
Because honestly, it wouldn't be easy for Ray to find other mutants willing to join them.
Still, Alex wanted a sofa simply so he could rest every now and then, and once he had someone capable of properly using the mountains of money he possessed, he planned to install a few video games around the base to relax occasionally.
And speaking of money, Alex remembered the cash he had taken from Jack's safe and started counting it together with the pile of money already tossed into one corner of the room like a stack of paper.
"Damn… I never expected to see this much money. If my mother could've… never mind."
Alex suddenly lost all motivation to keep counting and just finished the process mechanically.
In the end, the total reached six million dollars combined with the money they already had before.
Seeing the amount, Alex began thinking about how to spend it.
Then an idea suddenly crossed his mind.
He could make the cursed energy users he recruited become part of a legitimate company on the surface while secretly operating as mercenaries or something similar.
"This is gonna be interesting."
Alex was starting to get excited when suddenly the barrier informed him that Tyon was bringing people inside.
Without even thinking, Alex allowed them to enter immediately.
"Wow… Tyon found someone capable of using cursed energy pretty fast."
Without thinking too much about it, Alex waited for Tyon to enter the warehouse and quickly struck an imposing pose, trying to appear more majestic and leader-like.
But the moment he saw who entered through the warehouse gate…
He froze.
"So uncle, this is where I'll finally be happy?"
"Yep! My dad is really strong and a pretty cool guy."
Tyon walked into the warehouse holding hands with a little girl dressed in rags, bruises covering parts of her body along with scars spread almost everywhere.
The moment Alex saw the situation, the first thing that came to his mind was screaming at Tyon.
But seeing the child nearby, he forced himself to stay quiet and walked toward them instead.
Once Alex got close enough, Tyon smiled brightly and waved at him while introducing the girl.
"Hey dad, I found someone who can use cursed energy. Her name's Elizabeth and she's really nice. She also has a lot of cursed energy."
Tyon said it like he was proudly presenting a new toy and listing its features, which only made Alex even more irritated at the fact that Tyon had apparently kidnapped a child.
Still…
Tyon wasn't wrong.
The girl really did possess an enormous amount of cursed energy—more than Ray, actually—which genuinely surprised Alex.
But that didn't change the fact that Tyon had brought a child into a place like this where she could easily get hurt.
Already feeling a headache coming, Alex rubbed his temples before gently pulling Tyon to the side and lowering his voice.
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!? A CHILD!? I SAID RECRUIT PEOPLE, NOT CHILDREN! TAKE HER BACK WHERE YOU FOUND HER!"
Being scolded, Tyon looked confused.
From his perspective, he had done exactly what Alex asked.
He found someone capable of seeing him and using cursed energy.
Noticing the confusion on Tyon's face, Alex covered part of his face with his hand and decided to let it go for now.
More than anything, this wasn't the moment.
Turning around, Alex looked at the little girl, who appeared to be around seven years old, and sighed.
"Hey, Elizabeth. That's a beautiful name. So… my friend here is kind of an airhead and accidentally mistook you for someone else. Come on, I'll help you get back home."
Alex knelt down and tried speaking softly and calmly so he wouldn't seem threatening.
Unfortunately for him, there was simply no way for Alex to look harmless.
His entire existence practically screamed violence.
But contrary to expectations, the child didn't react with fear.
Instead, she simply glanced toward Tyon with visible hesitation.
"Can't I stay with you?"
Elizabeth spoke quietly while looking at the "leader" Tyon had told her about when inviting her to join the group.
Hearing the child's request, Alex looked confused for a moment before finally paying attention to her condition.
Torn clothes.
Heavy bruises.
Burn marks on her arm.
Alex didn't need to be a genius to understand why she wanted to stay.
Tyon looked at his father, whose face had twisted into a conflicted expression, completely misunderstanding the situation before stepping in.
"Dad, don't worry. I'll take care of her and even train her. Please let her stay."
"Tyon… stop talking about her like she's a dog before I hit you."
Hearing that, Alex became irritated by the way Tyon referred to Elizabeth, making Tyon flinch slightly at the tone in Alex's voice before lowering his head nervously.
Seeing Tyon's reaction, Alex calmed down a little and looked back at the girl, who still stood there timidly.
He let out another sigh.
"Let's hear your story first. Then I'll decide what to do with you."
The moment they heard that, both Tyon and Elizabeth nearly shouted in happiness
___________________________
Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed it, and I really hope you did because this is one of my coolest chapters so far. I've been waiting for a long time to finally write about this, since it's a very important part of future development that I've been keeping in my pocket for a while now. So I truly hope you liked it.
Oh, and I'm also hoping that in a few days I'll be able to do something really cool for you guys, but I still need to see if I can make it happen. I'll do my best, I promise.
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And if you have any constructive criticism or anything that could help me improve, don't hesitate to say it, I always read everything.
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Good night.
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