Curse

Outside the iron cage.

Lucien's eyes had turned into bottomless black vortexes— the Eye of Magic Sight were operating at full power.

At this moment, his vision directly revealed the Magic Circuit within the giant serpent's body.

Those magical channels that should have stretched out, branched out, and operated in an orderly manner like a large tree have been completely distorted.

It's not a simple misalignment or blockage, but a complete, structural Transfiguration —like someone forcibly twisting the branches of a tree into the shape of a vine.

While observing Nagini's Magic Circuit, Lucien's mind also quickly flashed through the knowledge of Dark Magic curses he had been "cramming" on during this period.

In simple terms, the corruption of the curse has three dimensions: the physical body, the Magic Circuit, and the soul.

Physical curses are the most obvious and relatively easy to deal with.

For Maledictus, whose curses flow in their blood from birth, there is bound to be some degree of erosion on the body, though the manifestations vary greatly. Nagini Transfiguration into beasts, while some cursed individuals experience accelerated aging or become physically weak and prone to illness...

Magic-type curses are much more troublesome.

This often leads to unpredictable "magical complications," such as the power of certain spells increasing or decreasing, unpredictable magical outbursts, or even allergies to magic itself...

These types of curses mostly reside in the Magic Circuit of the cursed person, using their own magic to maintain their own operation.

This means that the stronger the wizard's magic, the more stubborn the curse becomes.

Every spell cast, every flow of magic, is like "feeding" the curse.

The most insidious of all is the curse of the soul.

It erodes a person's self—memories, emotions, personality, and consciousness.

It's also the most difficult to deal with because the soul is so fragile.

If too much force is applied, the cursed person will become an idiot or a madman; if too little force is applied, the roots of the curse that have been entrenched for many years will not be shaken.

Lucien's gaze swept over the twisted Magic Circuit within Nagini's body.

Compared to normal wizards, this is a completely different species.

It didn't match any of the Magic Circuit the Magical Creatures he had recorded so far—it wasn't a snake, not a bird, not any creature he had ever seen.

It is a deformed circuit forcibly twisted by a curse.

The black vortex in his pupils slowly dissipated.

Lucien didn't stop; he raised his hand and gently wiped his eyes with his finger.

The interplay of silver and emerald light seeped into my eyes, transforming into complex symbols that slowly swelled and contracted deep within my iris.

"Soul-Sight"

This is magic obtained from the Slytherin in the Chamber of Secrets, specifically used for observing souls.

The field of vision shifted again.

The outline of the giant snake in the iron cage became translucent, and a wisp of gray-black mist could be vaguely seen coiled where its head should have been.

The fog was so thick it couldn't be dispersed, like years of accumulated grime, like decaying mold, burying something deep within it.

Lucien examined it carefully.

The fog is incomplete.

In that deep, grayish-black expanse, a faint glimmer of light occasionally flashes by.

Like starlight obscured by thick clouds, like a candle flame about to go out, flickering and struggling, unwilling to completely succumb.

Lucien let out a soft breath.

The soul was indeed corrupted by the curse, and quite severely so.

But fortunately, it hasn't been completely devoured yet.

This is consistent with the confusion Nagini displayed when communicating with Liuguang earlier; she is not a complete, bloodthirsty beast.

Those chaotic reactions, sometimes pleading, sometimes screaming, are the struggle of the soul under the corrosive influence of the curse.

It's been decades.

Nagini's ability to resist the erosion of the curse and prevent his soul from completely succumbing to it must have been an incredibly difficult journey over those decades.

Lucien rubbed his temples.

Why is it so difficult to break Dark Magic curse?

Because what one often faces is not a purely malevolent curse left by a caster, but a "symbiotic entity" that has become one with the cursed one.

A curse that uses the cursed person's own magic to maintain itself is a terrible vicious cycle.

The curse can also "retaliate" actively. When faced with external forces attempting to dispel it, it will shrink, Transfiguration, or even detonate some of the curse's energy to harm the cursed person, resulting in mutual destruction.

The longer it goes on, the deeper the curse becomes. At first, it's just on the surface, like a poster pasted on a wall; slowly it seeps in, like a relief carved into the wall; eventually, it becomes the wall itself, impossible to peel off.

Moreover, the three-dimensional curses not only torment the cursed person but also intertwine with each other, gradually increasing the difficulty of treatment.

It's like defusing a bomb; the complex and intertwined wiring can only be disarmed by finding the correct sequence, otherwise—

Boom!

The complex runes in Lucien's eyes slowly faded.

I have some ideas about the physical body and Magic Circuit, but not about the soul...

Perhaps we should go back to the Chamber of Secrets again.