Blood Soul Curse

Luis struggled desperately, but the guards beside him held him tightly, leaving him unable to move.

The black guillotine was lowered into the middle of the square, and Luis was shoved in front of it.

He looked in terror toward Demps beside him and pleaded, "Lord Demps, you have the wrong man! I was only sick, but I'm better now. I truly haven't fallen. Let me go!"

Demps remained unmoved. He merely watched calmly as Luis was pressed onto the guillotine, his neck fitting neatly into the groove in the middle of the platform, exposing his throat.

"Goddess above, I can prove my innocence. Let me go..."

Luis screamed hoarsely in terror, his face covered in tears and snot.

He turned toward the onlookers and called out the names of several friends and neighbors he had once known well, hoping they would plead for him. But all he saw were cold, indifferent faces. No one spoke.

In despair, Luis looked at Demps again, his eyes filled with hatred. "I was only sick. I was about to recover, yet you dragged me here and said you were going to judge me. You call yourselves followers of the God of Justice. Is this justice?"

"My whole family depends on me to provide for them. If I die, who will support my wife and three children?"

"Do you want to watch them starve to death? Spit!"

"Why are you treating me like this?"

At that point, blood began to flow from Luis's eyes, mixing with his tears and making him look horrifying. He began cursing Demps madly, cursing the Church, and eventually even hating the citizens watching nearby, cursing them all to die miserably.

Across the vast square, only Luis's voice echoed.

Rayne, standing among the crowd, watched everything with mixed feelings.

Yet no one present dared to speak for Luis. It was not indifference, nor was it standing by while someone died. They were simply used to such things.

From Luis's condition, anyone with even a little knowledge could tell that his curse had flared up and that he had fallen.

This curse was called the "Blood Soul Curse." It existed within the soul of every human in this world, an eternal nightmare in everyone's heart!

Legend had it that thousands of years ago—historians had determined it was roughly four thousand years ago, though the exact year could not be confirmed, only that it was near the end of the previous era—humanity somehow angered a terrifying ancient Abyssal Evil God. A curse was cast upon the entire race, and it remained to this day.

This terrifying evil god was named Yuksorn. It came from the Abyss and no one knew how many years it had existed.

Over the long course of civilization, Yuksorn had borne countless names. Many races throughout history had called it the Demon of Demons, The Whisperer, the Source of Fear, the Abyssal Dominator, the Demon of Thousand Throats, the Unnamable God, and more. Humans, however, usually called it the Lord of Darkness!

As the leader of the Four Abyssal Evil Gods, the curse cast by the Lord of Darkness was simply impossible to undo.

The Blood Soul Curse normally lay dormant within human souls and appeared perfectly ordinary.

But when people were weakened, or when setbacks caused them to lose emotional control, the curse seized the opportunity to flare up, causing them to hear an evil whisper.

This terrifying voice seemed to come from the Abyss, gradually driving people mad and robbing them of reason.

Thus, the Blood Soul Curse was also called Whispers of the Lord of Darkness. Anyone tempted by those whispers into falling could no longer be called human. They were Fallen Ones.

Their souls were polluted by Fel Energy from the Abyss. Even if they were killed, their souls would fall into the Abyss and become the servants and minions of the evil gods, never to be redeemed.

When the Blood Soul Curse flared up, it drew out the greatest malice in a person's heart, causing them to commit the most insane and terrifying acts.

To prevent greater harm, there was no choice but to kill Fallen Ones.

Thousands of years ago, humans had been born with great strength and long lifespans, not much inferior to elves or dwarves. They lived in settlements in remote regions. But after being cursed, humans began slaughtering one another. In barely a hundred years, their population plummeted to one-tenth of its original size!

Most terrifying of all, the Blood Soul Curse was passed down through bloodlines to the next generation.

Every infant was already cursed at birth. Babies had weak wills and could easily become Fallen Ones. Even those fortunate enough to grow up had frail bodies.

As the curse continued from generation to generation, human lifespans shrank drastically after only a few generations. Very few people could live beyond seventy.

Furthermore, humans lost their powerful innate gifts. Their bodies rapidly deteriorated, their sensitivity to all kinds of supernatural power dulled, and no matter how hard they worked, they could not compare to other races. Nor did any top-tier powerhouses emerge.

From the end of the previous era until the beginning of the new one, during that millennium-long dark age, humanity had nearly reached the brink of extinction.

During the dark age, humanity tried every possible method to resist the Blood Soul Curse.

Eventually, someone discovered that consuming an herb called Soul Devouring Grass could resist the Blood Soul Curse and reduce the chances of it flaring up.

Soul Devouring Grass itself was a highly poisonous plant. Its toxins acted directly on the soul, and only tiny amounts could be consumed without causing death. Even then, it was agonizing, comparable to torture. Though Soul Devouring Grass could not remove the Blood Soul Curse, it prevented human bodies from continuing to deteriorate until the race was wiped out.

After a thousand years of resistance and struggle, humanity finally endured.

Then, humanity found fortune in misfortune.

Nearly a thousand years of soul-torment gave humans the talent to fuse with other souls, allowing them to gain the special abilities of beasts, strange creatures, magical monsters, insects, and even demons.

Any living thing in the world that possessed a soul could be harnessed by humans and cultivated to grow stronger.

By fusing souls and combining different abilities, humans developed dozens of Transcendent professions.

Around three thousand years ago, the world saw the birth of its first Transcendent: a wizard who cast spells with Soul Power. More than two hundred years later, a group of Sun Knights who believed in the Sun God Gewon founded humanity's first nation, the Ramon Kingdom, on the Blake-Afidran Continent!

From that moment on, the Aerenus World entered a new era belonging to humanity. It had now been 2,528 years.

Even so, no matter how brilliant a civilization humanity created, how many powerful enemies it defeated, or how vast and fertile a territory it ruled, the Blood Soul Curse remained unresolved, impossible to shake off like gangrene in the bone.

No matter which human nation, city, or settlement one visited, people became mad Fallen Ones every day when their curses flared up, causing countless tragedies.

The Blood Soul Curse would forever remain an inescapable nightmare in people's hearts!

Rayne recalled the nightmare he had experienced while unconscious and could not help feeling lingering fear.

At the time, he had been at his weakest. If not for the protection of his phone, he would certainly have gone mad by now.

But Luis was not so fortunate. He said he had merely been sick and had already recovered, but no one would believe him.

Weak patients were the group most likely to suffer a curse flare-up. Nearly half of all Fallen Ones had been patients. Of the other half, sixty percent were elderly people, because the elderly had weak constitutions and frail wills, making it easy for the curse to exploit their weakness.

Thus, there were very few elderly humans, because they could not live to seventy. They fell before then.

"Your wife and children are already dead."

Demps suddenly spoke. His voice carried across the entire square, allowing everyone to hear him.

Luis's curses stopped abruptly. Demps continued, "You killed your wife with your own hands last night. You strangled all three of your children to death too. Do you remember now?"

"I didn't, I..." Luis instinctively denied it, then seemed to recall something terrifying. Regret and agony appeared on his face.

Gradually, his expression twisted. His eyes filled with strange blackness, and a chilling aura spread from him.

"Ha ha ha..."

A burst of mad laughter came from Luis's mouth. The sound made everyone feel terribly uncomfortable, leaving them dizzy and lightheaded.

"Shut up! Demon!"

Demps's voice rang beside everyone's ears. It contained a strange power that jolted their minds awake and immediately restored them to normal.

Luis desperately opened his mouth on the guillotine, yet he could not make a sound, like a drowning man.

A faint black mist suddenly rose from his body. His limbs twisted and swelled unnaturally, while his flesh and bones seemed to knot together into a horrifying mass of rotten sludge, struggling to break free.

A line of strange characters appeared on the silver chains, binding Luis tightly like an invisible cage. Even the black mist on his body was locked down and could not escape.

The people watched the scene in fear and involuntarily backed away several steps.

This was Rayne's first time seeing a Fallen One go mad. Wanting to see more clearly, he had a thought and activated his camera.

The scene in his vision changed, and everything became vividly clear.

Rayne was shocked. He discovered that he could see far more things; this was far more than mere super vision.

In his eyes, the heads of everyone around him became translucent. He could see through their skulls and flesh straight into their interiors, where hazy balls of light floated.

Rayne instinctively guessed, Are these human souls?

His gaze swept across the crowd, and he became certain that his guess was correct. I can actually see souls directly!

Upon closer inspection, Rayne discovered that every person's soul was different.

The most obvious difference was the color of the souls. Red, white, yellow, green, blue—there were all kinds of colors, and they changed constantly, seemingly shifting with people's emotions.

Second, the sizes of souls also differed. Larger souls felt stronger to Rayne, while smaller souls felt weaker.

This was especially clear when looking at the Holy Sword Attendants in the square.

Every Holy Sword Attendant had a soul far stronger than those of the watching citizens, at least half again as large and much more solid. Most citizens' souls were rather weak. A few were even damaged, flickering like candles in the wind as though they might go out at any moment.

Finally, Rayne looked at Demps in the center of the square and was instantly stunned.

Demps's soul was far too powerful. Even compared to the Holy Sword Attendants, it surpassed them by several levels in both size and substance.

As for ordinary people, the gap between them and Demps was like the difference between fireflies and the bright moon.

Demps's soul resembled a mass of white light. Rayne sensed an unshakable will within it, along with the calmness of a lake.

Moreover, Demps's soul possessed an internal structure. Like an onion, it was wrapped layer upon layer. From outside to inside, there were five layers in total, each one more solid than the last, with Soul Power surging within them.

At the deepest core of the innermost soul layer, Rayne saw three strange abstract patterns.

The three patterns were all different, two large and one small, each with its own distinctive form. They resembled different souls, yet the three souls had fused together.

"These should be the elements within a soul. Every element represents an ability."

Rayne felt a sudden understanding, and he was also greatly delighted.

He knew very well what it meant to see souls directly. Especially for humans who gained power by fusing souls, there could be no stronger ability than this.

Then Rayne looked at Luis on the guillotine.

Luis's soul was likewise extraordinary. His entire soul was pitch-black, like smoke, nearly spreading out from his head. Even with the naked eye, one could see the black mist around his body.

The black soul constantly expanded, twisted, and squirmed, extending tangled tentacles that seemed alive. At the center of the soul, a pair of scarlet eyes appeared and disappeared, spinning rapidly in spasms.

Rayne only glanced at Luis's soul, yet he felt a surge of madness and evil, nearly losing control of his mind.

"A Fallen One's soul really is terrifying. Just looking at it is dangerous."

At that moment, under everyone's gaze, Demps stepped forward and drew his sword. The silver blade gleamed coldly, with characters engraved on both sides of its broad edge. His lips moved as if he had recited an incantation, making the characters on the sword shine brighter.

"In Tyrael's name, I, Demps Beer, hereby sentence you to death. May your soul escape the Abyss, redeem itself, and return to the Divine Kingdom."

Demps declared the judgment in a ringing voice, then raised the Silver Sword high above his head.

Rayne had wanted to turn away and avoid watching the bloody scene. Having lived in a peaceful society in his previous life, the impact of witnessing a beheading up close was still too much for him.

Yet he noticed that everyone around him was staring at the guillotine without blinking. Adults and youths, women and children alike all looked somewhat eager, with a trace of fervor in their eyes, as though they were enjoying a splendid play.

The colors of their souls also slowly turned red, signaling emotional excitement.

Rayne suddenly understood. Watching someone else be beheaded was apparently a form of everyday entertainment in this world.

If he turned away, he would seem far too unusual instead.

Rayne could only widen his eyes and watch. Silver light flashed, and Demps's sword came down at a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow.

Luis's head fell to the ground. Blood sprayed out, painting the black guillotine with a fresh patch of red. Yet the headless corpse continued to writhe, finally stopping several seconds later and returning to a mangled mass of flesh. That terrifying aura quickly faded as well.

The watching crowd let out a satisfied sigh. Then they silently shook their heads and slowly dispersed.

Rayne stood there motionless, as though the beheading had frightened him stiff.

He truly had been somewhat startled. A living person had been decapitated right before his eyes. The impact of the scene made him feel a little sick, but also a little intrigued.

However, what truly shocked Rayne was that after Luis's head was cut off, he "saw" a mass of black light fly out from the head on the ground. It should have been Luis's soul.

It had originally floated upward, but suddenly changed direction and shot toward him like a moth flying into flame.

Before he could react, perhaps in the span of a blink, the black light drilled into his eyes and vanished.

Rayne's entire body stiffened, and he nearly died of fright.

Luis was a Fallen One. His soul had been polluted by Fel Energy and was definitely no good thing. By all rights, it should have fallen into the Abyss and become the servant and minion of an Abyssal Evil God. Yet it had entered his head. What would happen now?

What if someone discovered it?

That Holy Swordsman Demps was still here!

Rayne remained terrified for a long time, not daring to make any movement for fear that Demps would notice something unusual and cut him down with a single stroke.

Fortunately, Demps clearly could not see souls. He ordered the guards to burn the corpse, then put away the Silver Sword, which was not stained with a drop of blood, and returned to the church.

Only after more than half the crowd had dispersed did Rayne finally let out a sigh of relief, discovering that his back was already soaked with cold sweat.

He hurriedly checked his body and immediately found something unusual.

On the translucent interface, his phone battery had unexpectedly surged by eight bars, bringing the total charge to 16%. At the same time, a force seemed to fill his body, giving him boundless energy. His whole body felt itchy and swollen, and he desperately wanted to find somewhere to vent this power.

Rayne was both shocked and delighted. He roughly guessed what had happened. Can I absorb other people's souls to charge my phone?