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Everything has happened too quickly, but Paul felt rather stressed and, at the same time, relieved. His battle against Asthartez was intense, but he ultimately managed to defeat him. The moment Asthartez’s calcinated body dropped on the floor, the power of the staff started to decrease, and the draconic beast being controlled swiftly lost its energies, falling unconscious over the floor as well.

Noticing that the rest of the orcs had been slain, he ran to see Vlad’s mother after he saw a chat from Chris telling him to go see her immediately. Although he believed that nothing could really impact him inside this game, as he continued playing as Vlad, a character within the world and not just his own custom-made avatar, the memories and emotions of Vlad started coming.

The memories of him being bullied by Asthartez, of his loneliness, and of how much he despaired when he was a crippled child that couldn’t walk properly. Perhaps because of such emotions, he wanted to take down Asthartez by himself, and maybe because of that too, when he saw what was left of Teressa, he broke into tears without realizing it.

Were these his tears? Or were these the tears of his character, Vlad, coming automatically through a game pseudo-cutscene? He didn’t know, but it was something that deeply moved him. To lose her, Vlad’s mother, after so long since the young vampire had the time to talk with her, it greatly impacted him more than he imagined.

Her death would impact and change everything surrounding Vlad, and things might only become worse as well. But he didn’t feel sad, nor did he ever consider the losses gameplaywise. He was simply sad that a person was dying—someone who showed him the love of a mother.

Someone who also reminded him of his own mother...

“My mother wasn’t the best mom out there either. Many times she left me alone at home, and many times she ignored me too. Maybe it was because she wanted to work and support me, but that loneliness... I can understand why Vlad would feel this way when he finally has the opportunity to spend time with his mom, only for her to be taken away from his life so abruptly.”

“Ugh, fine! I’ll heal her; just stand there!”

FLASH!

However, Chris didn’t let that happen. Using his Trait’s powers to quickly transform, he unleashed all his healing power into Teressa. The deadly curse that inhibited her regeneration started shaking, releasing purple and black sparks of electricity. It was trying to fight back.

“What the hell is this damn curse?!”

Using his power techniques through his transformation as a Heavenly Emperor, which allowed Chris to wield the incredibly powerful Heavenly Ki Essence, capable of healing any wound no matter what, Chris quickly decided that the curse itself could not be easily destroyed.

But it could be moved!

Wielding the divine, glistening powers of blinding golden and white light from his hands in his angelic form, Chris quickly pulled back all the black and purple lightning out of Teressa’s dying body.

Until something happened, to the dismay and surprise of Vlad and Camilla, this curse started walking and taking upon a monstrous form, resembling a small, black and purple-colored octopus with many red eyes that constantly released black and purple lightning!

“GRYOOOHHH!”

“Dammit! Help me out! Please destroy those things!”

“You’re kidding me! Just how powerful is this curse to be an actual monster?!”

“Uwaaah!”

Camilla panicked a bit, stepping back behind her brother, as Vlad rapidly swung his two swords—his magic blade and another made from a Blazing Doppelganger—slashing and burning through the small octopus’ creatures.

“This is ridiculous!”

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

His attacks slashed against the octopus’ creatures as he combined his flames with the light spells his equipment was engraved into, using both his control over Arcana and his Alchemy to combine them.

SLASH!

“Gryyeegh!”

SLASH!

“Gryaaerugh!”

SLASH!

“Shyaagh…!”

As the monstrosities continued dying, Camilla who was behind her brother, noticed a few of them rapidly sneaking around Teressa and then moving towards Alitheus, who was too concentrated on healing.

“Y-You ugly things! Stop annoying us! Leave mom alone!”

With all her anger concentrated within her powers, her Arcana surged, fusing with Camilla’s psychic powers, as invisible waves of Telekinetic energies impacted the octopus-like cursed creatures, crushing them and splattering them into smithereens.

BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!

“Nnngghh…! A-Almost… almost there!”

Alitheus was gritting his teeth as he continued pulling out the deadly Curse within Teressa; once all the small fry was dealt with as Vlad and Camilla slashed and crushed it, something larger emerged.

“There it is! This is the last one... Agh, it’s enormous!”

RUMBLE!

Vlad, Camilla, and Alitheus eyes widened as they saw a monstrous tentacled abomination emerge from the dying, charred body of Teressa, a creature that was almost ten meters tall, made of black tentacles, red eyes, and purple appendages oozing with miasmic slime.

“GRUUUEEEEEGGGHHH!”

“W-What is this thing?! It’s so hideous!” Camilla cried, suddenly feeling dizzy and entering into a panic state. “My head hurts! Uuaahhhh!”

Vlad and Alitheus, who had natural resistance against status effects, immediately realized that this Cursed Creature generated a powerful Aura of Fear!

“It’s causing Fear and Panic status effects! Camilla don’t look at it! Close your eyes and stay behind me!” Vlad roared, glaring at the creature. “Just how did Asthartez and his mom gain such power? Is this normal around here?!”

[The {Desecrated Shadow King} glares at you.]

[The sacrifices of the damned shall bring forth the deepest of curses!]

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Ugh?!”

Suddenly, Vlad felt an intense headache as the countless crimson eyes of the monstrosity set their sight upon the young vampire king. His already paralyzed and crippled body felt weakened out of nowhere.

He was being cursed!

“Paul?! Hey!”

Alitheus panicked as the monstrosity swung its giant tentacles towards him, imbued with black and purple lightning. They were more than capable of killing him with one blow.

“GRUOOHHH!”

BAAAM!

“Ah!”

CLASH!

However, what the Cursed Monstrosity ended up hitting instead was a copy of Vlad, created from his own Armor, made of darkness and phantasmal energies.

The [Cursed Ghost Clone] that Vlad had summoned a couple of minutes ago had not died, but was recovering its body and energies.

Due to the long cooldown of the ability, Vlad instead decided to “save” the clone while it was damaged, and let it absorb his Arcana to fully regenerate.

“SHAAAH!”

The furious Cursed Monstrosity quickly attacked several times at once after that, yet the [Cursed Ghost Clone], which was actually stronger than Vlad without including his armor, unleashed a barrage of powerful physical blows.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

Using its bare fists, it destroyed the electric pulses sent at it, and because it was already a cursed ghost being, any curse was completely ineffective against it, making it a terrible match for the Cursed Monstrosity.

Not only that, but it also used all of his other Skills seamlessly, conjuring Blood and shaping it into spiraling, cursed spears, piercing through the monster’s body several times. Meanwhile, it summoned a group of Blazing Doppelgangers, adding up to the group Vlad summoned as well.

“GRAAAGH?!”

The Cursed Monstrosity found itself surrounded by ten summoned beings from Vlad alone! Its many eyes were widening as the flames of the Blazing Doppelgangers easily burned and charred through its soft and slimy flesh.

“Don’t think that… Ugh, that I am defenseless, bastard!”

Vlad smiled, suddenly noticing a message.

[The {Desecrated Shadow King} is surprised to find traces of {The Unending Crimson} within your abilities.]

“Are you acquaintances? Well, I couldn’t give more of a fuck anyway! Chris, summon your dogs too!”

“Y-Yeah!”

Chris was rapidly beginning to finally heal Teressa’s body, stabilizing her slightly as his gloves shone brightly. Two wolves emerged from within them, made out of Heavenly Ki, which was the element of his choice this time.

“AWOOO!”

The two Heavenly Ki wolves jumped towards the Cursed Monstrosity, biting through its flesh and burning its fleshy body. The creature gave a loud cry of pain, growing more tentacles while trying to electrocute the wolves.

However, their heavenly ki body made them very resistant against the cursed attacks; their biting attacks rapidly dealt more and more damage as they fired small beams of light.

The giant, ten-meter-tall creature started struggling, constantly trying to attack Vlad or Alitheus to stop them, only for the Blazing Doppelgangers to quickly blow away its attacks and constantly burn its fleshy body.

It was obvious the beast was growing desperate and anxious, and at the same time, it was filled with disbelief that it was being overwhelmed out of nowhere!

“Keep attacking; don’t let it take a break!” Vlad roared, quickly eating a restorative pill and then running right behind his Cursed Ghost Clone and the Blazing Doppelgangers.

“GRUOOOHHH!”

[The {Desecrated Shadow King} says that your struggle is futile.]

As the beast roared furiously and started firing more and more cursed bolts, the Blazing Doppelgangers used themselves as shields, defending Vlad from the attacks, their bodies instantly exploding one after another.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

As they exploded, flames encompassed the monstrosity, burning through its flesh more and more. Its regeneration was rapidly being halted as the flames that Vlad wielded were becoming more and more deadly.

“Now!”

He jumped into the skies, growing wings made of blood and pushing himself down with their force, as if swimming down across the empty air. With his sword in hand, he imbued it with thousands of Arcana worth of light spells, making the blade grow twice as big, completely made of blinding light and flames.

“{Dual Blazing Blade Arts}: {Single Blade Style: Holy Blazing Execution}!”

CLAAASH!

His sword pierced the monstrosity while it was being distracted from all his summoned familiars. Once the sword submerged deep into the Cursed Monstrosity, a loud scream of agony reverberated.

“GRYYYEEEGGGHHH!”

Its tentacles started hitting Vlad constantly, rapidly beginning to lower his armor’s durability at the same time as cursed Miasma tried to seep into his body.

[The {Desecrated Shadow King} sighs.]

[The curse of the damned shall follow you until the end of times.]

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

Vlad and Paul’s minds and memories synchronized. As Paul continued seeing visions of Vlad’s memories, he suddenly started to share his emotions, the wrath he felt for what happened to his mother, and his endless desire to fight against the injustices of this unfair world.

“I won’t let you take my mother, YOU BASTARD!”

With a furious and vampiric roar, Vlad’s Soul Aura erupted, resembling golden flames encompassing his entire body. His sword grew several times larger, constantly burning the Cursed Monstrosity’s insides.

“I won’t let you take her away…!”

“Not after she finally woke up, not after everything!”

“My mother… is the only family I have aside from Camilla!”

“These are… Vlad’s thoughts?”

Paul heard Vlad’s inner thoughts; it was as if he was rapidly becoming him, and maybe even vice versa.

And this was…

Full Synchronization!

A phenomenon where a Player and their Avatar’s emotions, thoughts, and senses are synchronized at 100%.

Paul felt as if his very being merged with Vlad; he became him, and Vlad became him too.

His control over magic was enhanced, and so was his ability over all skills and techniques.

And even more, over the movement of his body.

“It’s now or never, Paul!”

And then he heard him.

“That’s…! Yeah!”

Paul didn’t dare hesitate anymore; Vlad’s will passed towards his; his powers combined together as his sword continued to grow larger and larger.

As Vlad’s eyes grew redder, they suddenly turned gold for a moment.

And a strange, golden essence coursed through him in this very decisive moment!

It was… strange!

As if for a couple of seconds, all of his inhibitions were gone, and his body became stronger.

[“You’ve done well, my pathetic reincarnation. Do you feel it now? That energy?”]

The Heavenly Demon himself was amused, stepping in despite Vlad not even activating his Trait.

[“That’s the power of Ki!”]

“Ki?!”

Paul was shocked; he thought he couldn’t control such energy with his crippled body.

Yet once he reached Full Synchronization, it was as if such things changed.

Even if for a couple of seconds, things became different!

“GRYYYEEGGH!”

The monstrosity kept struggling, attacking back, but its body continued burning into ashes; however, cursed bolts continued hitting Vlad constantly.

“Unnggh…! Just… die… ALREADY!”

The voices of Vlad, Paul, and the Heavenly Demon combined together, their wills, souls, and dreams embodying this ultimate power.

“{Heavenly Dragon’s Blazing Dance}!”

By combining all their techniques together, Vlad, for a split second, reached a new height.

His entire body felt as light as a feather, and his movements were perfect and precise.

The thing is, Full Synchronization also affected the Heavenly Demon, giving Vlad his own advanced senses and abilities in the process.

SLAAASH!

With a spinning slash, his Soul Aura emerged like a ferocious golden dragon, roaring and devouring the Cursed Monstrosity.

[The {Desecrated Shadow King} finds this unbelievable!]

[The curse of shadows shall not rest until everything is engulfed by their eternal darkness!]

BOOOM!

Until nothing but ashes remained!

“Hahh… Hahhh… Hahhh…”

Vlad fell to his knees, gasping for air, looking at his mother with a calm smile.

The monster was finally gone, and its ashes slowly fell from the sky.

At the same time, Alitheus finished healing her, dropping her almost dead on the floor.

And Teressa slowly woke up, opening her eyes again.

“Mom!”

“Mother!”

Vlad and Camilla immediately ran to hug her, happy she was finally back.

“I-I… didn’t die?”

Teressa looked in front of her, noticing Alitheus in angelic form, exhausted and gasping for air.

“Hahhh… Hahhh… I did it… Agh, I did it…”

And then she looked at the skies, at the three moons.

There was now something within her, something related to her visions.

“Did I really see the Goddesses?”

She touched her chest, feeling three sparkles of silver, red, and green light.

And then she recalled their words before she woke up.

“We shall give you the power to protect your children and make up for the curses that those malefic evil gods have left on them.”

What she had within her was…

Their Divine Protection.

“This is… I can’t... believe it…”

It has been thousands of years since the Moon Goddess ever granted divine protection to someone.

And this only meant one thing...

Teressa was chosen as their Saint.

She smiled, crying as she hugged her children and kissed them.

No longer did she shy away from showing affection to them.

Rules of vampires or whatever, none of that mattered anymore.

And as she did, she looked at the skies again.

The three moons, for a split second, shone brightly at the same time.

[The {Desecrated Shadow King}’s presence has disappeared.]

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