Chapter 297.

Injecting vast amounts of mana into the Holy Sword caused it to form a massive blade, and I used this blade to cut down the weakened curse. Originally, no matter how tangible it was, it was impossible to cut down an insubstantial curse. However, the divine power of the Holy Sword contradicted the curse, changing the impossible to possible.

Breaking through the curse to approach the Curse Specialist, I cut him with the Holy Sword. "Tch, is it a double trap?!"

The bisected Curse Specialist turned into a blackish liquid that tried to swallow me.

"Enlightenment! Lotus flowers bloom!" I blew away the curse by shooting sword auras made of divine power in all directions. Then, I looked for the Curse Specialist. Alas, I couldn’t see him.

"What are you looking at?!”

The Space Specialist tried to teleport something through my body, but as soon as I sensed the magic, I quickly moved away from the target area. Daggers appeared where I stood just before and fell to the ground.

"An attack suited for the Space Specialist,” I said.

"Right?" The Space Specialist laughed jokingly, and a warp gate opened over my head, dropping more weapons.

I was casually moving to the side to dodge the weapons when a dagger flew toward me from my blindspot. I twisted my body to avoid it, but one after another, weapons continuously shot at my blind spots.

The Space Specialist shouted confidently, "Now! Keep trying to dodge it!"

Even if I raised a barrier, he would teleport them inside, and when I interfered with his teleportation, he created dozens of warp gates simultaneously. I had no choice but to avoid the unblockable weapons charging toward me from all sides.

The Space Specialist was predicting my movements and shooting weapons at me while blocking the attacks of the magicians I was controlling. His computational abilities were quite admirable.

"Manipulating space means it’s not blockable or avoidable, so how do you keep dodging them? Are you some kind of mollusk?" The Space Specialist freaked out as he saw me avoiding all the weapons.

"This is a given when you train under my father!" I had the magicians continue to attack the Space Specialist as I avoided the weapons.

"Stardust of the Falling Star!”

The light of destruction falling from the atmosphere fell straight down toward the Space Specialist. The Space Specialist swung his magic wand and distorted the space just before it reached him, changing its direction.

"Keuk! What kind of mana!" Yet, bending the magic made from every controlled magician’s mana seemed to even tire a great madosa.

"Aiming for this gap! Dragon Breath! Thunder that Races Across the Sky! Flame Constellation! Thunder Spear!”

I fired great magic one after another. The Space Specialist urgently chanted as great magic suddenly rained down on him. "Exit gate!"

"I already told you I’ve figured out your pattern!"

I had the madosas wait and launch a great magic toward the area where I predicted he’d show up. The Space Specialist skillfully distorted the space and immediately blocked the attack, not hindered by his teleportation just now. However, despite being a great madosa, it seemed the exertion was too much as his nose suddenly began to bleed.

"Hey! Are you almost done, Curse Specialist!"

At the Space Specialist’s cry, the Curse Specialist revealed himself from hiding. "I just finished it."

Finished? Finished what? Before I finished my thought, the Curse Specialist flicked his finger, and the energy of curses raged from all sides.

"Damn! He got me!"

The curse was not aimed at me. The Curse Specialist’s curse was not for me, but the terminals- I mean, the magicians I controlled. The magicians hit by the curse fell to the ground as their mana circuit was paralyzed.

"Gravity reduction!" The Space Specialist cast magic so that the magicians falling on the ground would fall slowly and not get hurt.

"Ahahaha! How is it?! To get done in!"

Rather than targeting me directly, the two chose to reduce the number of magicians who were bolstering my strength to weaken me. The Space Specialist’s role was just to divert my attention.

I didn’t expect them to solve my DDoS attack by breaking my terminals instead of reverse hacking. I was speechless. No, I rather admired the Curse Specialist’s magic that resolved the situation by simply paralyzing the mana circuit.

"Puhahahaha! I admit! I got done in!” I laughed cheerfully and clapped.

As the magicians began to fall, I tried to have them block the curse as much as possible, but out of 10,000 magicians, no more than 1,000 of them managed to block the Curse Specialist’s curse. I truly got beaten quite well.

"But it looks like you both are having a hard time, too."

I wasn’t too tired since I was using the mana and computational power from the magicians under my control. However, the Space Specialist and Curse Specialist were attacked not only by me but also by the hacked magicians. In particular, the Space Specialist was on the verge of having his mana depleted after getting attacked to attract my attention.

"Yes. I’ll probably fall after one more magic." The Space Specialist nodded, agreeing with me. Then he put the last remaining mana in his magic wand and raised it high. "But that one time is enough! Space and space shine on each other! Mirror Dimension!”

Using the last of his mana, the Space Specialist smiled and fell to the ground. "Beat that crazy guy, Communication Disorder!"

"Of course I will, Bit*h."

The Space Specialist’s last magic revealed mana-like glass fragments that surrounded the Curse Specialist and me. I tried to attack the Curse Specialist using the magicians left in my control, but I was blocked by the Space Specialist’s magic.

"A barrier?” I murmured.

It was a space where only me and the curses existed, but there was no problem using mana and computational power because my mana connection wasn’t cut off.

The Curse Specialist smirked and denied it. "No, it’s worse than that."

"Worse?"

The Curse Specialist made a small curse that looked like a dragon with three heads in his hands and let it fly into the air.

"Go, Azhi Dahaka."

I raised the Holy Sword, wary of the Curse Specialist’s incomprehensible behavior. Sure enough, a curse shaped like a giant dragon suddenly appeared behind me and opened its mouth as it flew toward me.

- Kyaaaaaaa!

I swung the Holy Sword and split the curse in half, and the dragon disappeared, leaving black smoke as if it were an illusion. As the black smoke scattered, the world turned upside down.

I drew as much mana as I could from the magicians outside and cast magic at the Curse Specialist. "Thunder that Races Across the Sky, multiple shots!"

Dozens of Thunder that Races Across the Sky flew toward him, but the Curse Specialist remained still. The Thunder that Races Across the Sky collided with the glass fragment-like mana left by the Space Specialist around the Curse Specialist, and its power dropped to that of a magic bullet.

"This amplifies the magic of allies and weakens my magic?” I inquired.

"Yes. It’s pretty vicious.”

"In addition, spatial distortion is there as the base. It must not be magic that lasts long.”

If the magician were intact, it would have lasted a little longer, but the Space Specialist had already fallen to the ground from mana depletion, and his domain was starting to collapse.

At my prediction, the Curse Specialist nodded. "But it’s plenty of time for me to beat you. Because you’re already under my curse."

At the same time, an unprecedented power within my body began to swell.

"Keuk!"

Gradually, black smoke began to surround me.

"As you said, I’m slowly reaching my limit as well. If you catch the evil dragon, you win. If you fail, you’ll suffer for a few days."

From what I could see through the gaps in the black smoke, the Space Specialist’s magic was breaking into pieces and disappearing. When the black smoke completely surrounded me, a colossal dragon with three heads appeared in front of me. Amplified by the magic of the Space Specialist, the dragon fired a Dragon Breath, and I flew high to avoid it.

"Wow, this won’t be easy."

It’s been a while since I hunted a dragon.

* * *

The Curse Specialist exhaled a deep breath after locking up Den. No matter how much support he was getting from the power of the magic-amplifying domain, he was already exhausted. In addition, considering that Den was extracting mana from a thousand magicians, the difficulty of the curse rose sharply.

"Alpha." The Curse Specialist called his disciple. This particular one was the first he saved from Den’s magic by paralyzing his mana circuit.

"Yes, Teacher-nim." After lifting the curse that paralyzed his mana circuit, Alpha was able to move around freely, and there was no sign of being controlled again.

"Take care of it."

The main point was omitted, but Alpha nodded as if he was used to it and paralyzed the mana circuits of the magicians who were still being controlled. A mana circuit was an essential element in using magic and was equivalent to a magician’s life. So, Alpha carefully paralyzed their mana circuits in a cold sweat.

"You’re amazing, Teacher-nim. It’s hard to neutralize each mana circuit one by one, but you neutralized 9,000 people at a time."

To Alpha’s admiration, the Curse Specialist responded as if it were nothing, pointing to the black sphere that trapped Den. "Him controlling the magicians is of higher difficulty. After all, he used their mana circuits as if they were his without anyone being able to resist."

Alpha swallowed dryly at his teacher’s words. He knew how delicately Den controlled the mana circuit because he had personally experienced it.

"We’ve already lost the war."

The sight under the feet of the Curse Specialist was terrible. In the land that used to be a lush mountain, not even a single blade of grass could be found. The piles of dirt, which used to be mountains, were half-extinguished or appeared hollow and were riddled with holes. In addition, hundreds of thousands of Kingdom troops were destroyed in the aftermath of the three great madosas’ clash. The only thing that remained intact on the ground was Shellen Fortress.

"Interesting. What did you change the core of that fortress to for it to still maintain its shape?”

Alpha smiled as the Curse Specialist looked at the fortress. "Thanks to you, the disciples seem to be safe. Will you go down?"

Before the Curse Specialist could answer Alpha’s question, he felt unusual mana from the black sphere.

Crack!

The black sphere cracked, and a golden flash of light was emitted. "Die, lizard!"

Boom!

Sword auras filled with divine power flew everywhere as the black sphere shattered.

"It’s dangerous, Teacher-nim!" Alpha tried to protect the Curse Specialist by using his own body as a shield, but the Curse Specialist pulled him by the neck and protected his disciple instead.

* * *

I cut off the third head that was persistently spewing poison while swinging the Holy Sword with all my might.

"Die, lizard!"

As the three-headed dragon was defeated and shattered, at the same time, the black smoke surrounding me was also shattered.

Boom!

"Uah! I’ve never had such a hard time since I caught a dragon when I was 12! F**k, he just won’t die easily!"

I exhaled heavily in exhaustion. I would have been in big trouble if the damn dragon and the Holy Sword did not have opposite attributes.

"Teacher-nim!"

"It’s okay. Don’t make a fuss."

I looked towards the familiar voice and greeted. “Hi, it’s been a while. You’ve been waiting for me? How many days has it been since I was trapped?"

When I asked the hunched-over Curse Specialist a question, he straightened up and answered, "It’s been three minutes."

"What? Really? I thought three days would have passed".

"That’s what the original curse is like." The Curse Specialist indifferently wiped the blood flowing from his forehead.

"Huh...?"

Without his mask, the Curse Specialist’s face not only appeared young but even younger than I. When his bare face was revealed, I felt an incredibly intense curse from the Curse Specialist.

"Curse of aging?"

But then, it was strange that his face was young. The Curse Specialist shook his head at my murmur. "No. It is a curse of immortality made by twisting the curse of aging in reverse. It’s a myth-class curse."

The Curse Specialist sighed and said, "It’s your victory since you defeated Azhi Dahaka. It seems I can’t call you kid anymore.”

At the Curse Specialist’s surrender, I looked around.