Celia's Perspective:

I was back now, back in the real world.

Kaiser lay heavy against my back, his unconscious body pressing into me like a painful reminder of everything that had happened, of everything I had lost. The forest around us burned with an eerie glow, flickering shades of orange and crimson that painted the night sky. Embers floated like dying stars, carried by the wind, whispering of destruction and betrayal.

And yet, I stood.

I was no longer the weak girl who had to depend on others, who had to run and cower behind the strength of someone else. I could feel a fierce, cursed energy pulsing within me, a testament to every scar, every tear, every moment of fear that had once bound me. I was no longer nameless. No longer powerless.

I was myself. Celia. A name that belonged to me alone—a name that carried the weight of my past, the strength of my present, and the power to carve my own future.

I clenched my fists as my vision sharpened, the world before me peeling away to reveal the battlefield in its purest form. Levi, a blur of motion even when still, crackled with untamed speed.

As I glanced back at Ronan, he was already charging up a wave of hellfire, its molten glow illuminating the twisted grin on his face. Kiel, no different, stood with his arms crossed, his cursed magic seeping into the earth. From the ground, tendrils of vines erupted, writhing like living serpents, ready to ensnare me.

For a split second, the air shifted. A rustle of wind, almost imperceptible—Levi. His shadowy aura flickered for the briefest moment before vanishing entirely. The world itself hadn't realized he had already left, moving faster than perception could track. He was already in motion—to kill.

Then they moved.

As if fate itself had conspired against me, they all launched their attacks at once. Every second counted. I held my breath, my mind racing back to the power I had awakened. My reawakening was my last hope, my only chance to stand. For me. For Kaiser—who had risked everything to protect me.

"With this power, I summon the cursed race—rise, and drag my enemies to their knees."

My voice cut through the air like a blade of ice, my words laced with a quiet, inescapable doom. It was not a plea, not a desperate call for strength—it was a command, absolute and merciless.

A chilling wind howled through the battlefield for a moment, as if the world itself recoiled at the authority in my voice. The air thickened, pulsing with an unseen malice, a force far beyond mortal comprehension stirring at my will.

From the darkness, they answered.

"As fate would have it, you will die here, Queen of Curses."

The Silent Executioner’s voice, hollow and unwavering, carried no doubt. "My lord’s foresight is unbreakable. He saw this moment long before it came to pass. Your awakening, your struggle—everything has already been written in the pages of fate."

But then… his thoughts stilled, a single flaw etching itself into the certainty he had always known.

“…But who is that?”

His gaze locked onto the unconscious figure draped over my back—black hair, a still body with injuries, and eyes he had yet to see open.

Him.

"My lord told me everything—every face that would be present tonight, every outcome." His mind raced, calculations snapping together with chilling precision. "Yet… this one… this person... was never mentioned."

Something was wrong.

"As if he doesn’t exist… yet is present in this world."

And then, their attacks flew across the sky, about to land.

A massive explosion ripped through the forest, sending shockwaves through the air. Smoke and debris spiraled upward in a violent cascade, a blinding surge of light piercing the sky.

The sheer force of the impact howled through the battlefield, an ear-splitting resonance that shattered the very foundation of the land. Trees snapped like brittle twigs, the ground split apart, and the sky trembled beneath the weight of destruction.

And yet, in the silence that followed, they all stood still. Watching. Waiting.

They had won. It was over. The Queen of Curses had finally perished from the world.

Or so they thought.

"Now that it's over, I will return to my lord."

The Silent Executioner remained composed, stepping back as the smoke slowly began to thin. "He was kind enough to grant me a glimpse—one page of the future. And I was given a single order to follow after the Queen of Curses’ death."

Reaching into his cloak, his gloved fingers pulled out the prophecy that dictated this night’s end. The sight of it was meant to confirm his triumph. A formality. Nothing more.

Yet, the moment his eyes fell upon the inked words on the page, his entire body tensed.

"???"

His pulse slowed. His breath hitched.

Impossible.

That was not what it had said before.

"No… The prophecy stated 'The Queen of Curses will die.'"

This wasn’t a contradiction. It was a correction. The future had shifted somehow.

His grip tightened on the page, his mind spiraling into disarray. "How? The future cannot change. My lord’s foresight is absolute."

But as he watched—his own hands trembling—the ink bled, shifting, reforming before his very eyes.

"What…? How is the page changing?"

"Reawakening Conquest Beings." This was the new fate written on the page.

His stomach twisted with something foreign. A creeping, suffocating realization.

"How is fate being rewritten?"

For the first time in his existence, The Silent Executioner felt it.

Doubt.

As the smoke cleared, the battlefield fell into an eerie silence. The moment their eyes adjusted, shock gripped them all.

A massive sphere of chains loomed in the center, its form shifting and tightening with a slow, ominous creak. The interwoven links, jagged and unforgiving, curled tighter and tighter, fortifying the prison that had encased me and Kaiser. Each movement sent sharp metal fragments grinding against one another, the spikes along its surface gleaming with a merciless edge.

Gasps echoed through the air. Disbelief painted their faces.

Before they could even react, the chains shuddered—then slithered away. One by one, they coiled back like serpents, retreating toward the sky. Their ascent was slow, deliberate, as if drawn by an unseen force. And at the center of it all, beneath the unraveling mass of steel—stood me.

I stood there, my eyes burning with a crimson glow, my breath steady, unwavering. The cold bite of power coiled around me like a second skin. Kaiser remained behind my back, his presence grounding me, but not shielding me.

I took a step forward.

Unlike before, fear no longer gnawed at the edges of my mind. It didn’t drip into my veins, didn’t claw at my resolve. I wasn’t running. I wasn’t cowering.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

I was nervous—this power was unfamiliar, raw, and untamed. But my instincts? They murmured in the depths of my mind, low and unwavering. They didn't waver. They didn't doubt.

They would fight. They would tear through anything in my way.

And they would win.

My voice rang clear through the battlefield, slicing through the suffocating air like a dagger.

“You said my death was fate?”

The Silent Executioner remained motionless. Words evaded him. The cracks in his certainty were minute—subtle—but they were there.

I stepped forward again, the weight of my presence pressing against the silence.

“Then let me tell you this—” my voice dropped for the first time, a cold whisper laced with the promise of defiance.

“Fate will not stop me. It never could. I will curse it. I will rip it apart. And I will be the one to rewrite it with my own hands.”

"Watch closely, as I carve my own future."

image [https://i.imgur.com/JqHID22.png]

The page of the future still trembled in his grasp, the ink shifting, betraying his lord’s will.

Even then, even as the foundation of his certainty cracked beneath his feet, The Silent Executioner met my glare with a response just as cold. He spoke—slow, deliberate, each word dragging the weight of inevitable death.

"Curse fate? Rip it apart? Rewrite it?" A low chuckle, empty of mirth, like bones scraping against stone. "You’re nothing but a powerless child, clinging to the illusion of strength, thinking you can tear apart destiny with the remnants of a past you can’t control."

His head tilted slightly, the movement eerily unnatural. "Rewrite fate all you wish... but even if the ink fades, even if the paper burns, every story has an end."

Then, softer, almost a whisper—one final nail in the coffin.

"Your hands will write nothing but your own death. Your own end."

Unshaken. Confident.

But beneath it all—a sliver of doubt gnawed at him.

The chains that were coiling around me then rushed ahead, slowly dividing to target each one of them. The noise and the air grew thick as their speeds increased.

Kiel's head then turned to his right unconsciously, and he leaped ahead of the Silent Executioner to go right in front of him. As my chains were about to attack, Kiel used earth magic to manipulate the ground, creating a quick wall in front.

My cursed chains hit it directly, creating a harsh clash sound. Instinctively, they moved to the side, rushing from all directions. But the Silent Executioner saw it coming and pulled Kiel's string, forcing him to create another wall around them, even covering the top.

Moments later, the sky darkened as fire rained down. Instinctively, I pulled some of my chains back, forming a barrier above me with tight layers of them, but the ones surrounding Kiel and the Silent Executioner couldn't tighten fast enough and began to weaken.

The fire slowly ate away at the chains’ thickness, and out of nowhere, Levi rushed in between the flames using God-Speed. His sword glowed with shadows, leaving behind faint, shimmering cuts in the air as he moved. He sliced through the chains, flawlessly dodging even the raining fire.

Ronan made the sky rain with fire using his elemental magic while Levi used his speed and shadow manipulation to break the weaker chains.

The Silent Executioner used Kiel as a shield while commanding Ronan and Levi to attack and guard in perfect synchronization. Every second mattered. I was up against something beyond human, something with experience carved into its every move.

I didn’t want to admit it, but I was losing in strategy. What else could I do?

As I struggled to think, Ronan and Levi rushed forward. Levi blocked and deflected my chains while Ronan shot fire from his hands like a flamethrower, burning and weakening them for Levi to cut through.

Slowly, they were closing in, their attacks perfectly coordinated.

I didn’t have control over these cursed chains. They moved on their own, reacting to my instincts. But that wasn’t enough.

Ronan’s voice echoed through my ears, sharp and arrogant.

"Burn, break, incinerate—turn all to ash! Infernal Sovereign!"

Flames roared to life, twisting into monstrous forms, their heat warping the air itself. The fire coiled around his arm before exploding outward, a wave of destruction aiming to consume everything in its path.

At the same time, Levi’s voice came, cold and playful.

"Step between light and shadow, sever all bonds—Void Stride!"

His body blurred, vanishing and reappearing in fractured movements. Shadows stretched unnaturally, his sword humming with dark energy as he shot toward me like a ghost of death.

But the chains... they understood.

A single thread lashed out, splitting into dozens, weaving through the fire like it had memorized its pattern. The moment the flames should have struck, the chains coiled tightly, suffocating the oxygen around them, snuffing the fire out before it could breathe.

Another chain shot upward, its movement so precise that it met Levi’s blade mid-strike. The impact should have severed it, but instead, the chain twisted, bending his sword’s angle just slightly—just enough for him to miss. His expression flickered, just for a moment.

These cursed chains weren’t just reacting. They were predicting and adapting.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The cursed chains… they were changing. I thought they had already reached their limit, that they were nothing more than desperate extensions of my survival instincts. But now… now they moved differently. Not just reacting—no, they were thinking. Calculating.

A shiver crawled up my spine. This wasn’t just instinct anymore. This was something else. Something far more terrifying.

And yet… as the weight of that realization settled in, I felt it. A clarity cutting through the fear. If this was what I had become—if this was the power I now held—then I would use it. They weren't just moving by my survival instincts... or maybe rather my murderous instincts...

These chains—my chains—were alive with it.

My mind was in chaos of doubt and resolve. There were choices—limited, but present. I could keep defending, waiting for an opening, but that meant prolonging the fight, wearing myself down against three monsters and a ghost pulling their strings. I could go all in, throw everything into overwhelming them, but that would leave me defenseless if I failed. Or… I could—

No... That’s my only option now. I have to do it.

It's time for him to return.

The earth walls surrounding the Silent Executioner crumbled, and Kiel, finally freed, joined the other two. Three monsters aiming at my throat. Their combined presence made the air suffocating.

They spoke in unison.

Ronan stretched his hand outward, flames swirling like a sun about to go supernova. His voice was arrogant, amused.

"Ignis Ultionis, Raze the Sky and Earth; Let the Inferno Consume All in its Path."

A black inferno erupted, its shape morphing into a fanged maw, screaming as it lunged forward, intending to swallow me whole.

Levi blurred, his presence flickering between reality and shadows.

“Godspeed awakening, Befall Shadow Eclipse—No Light Shall Reach You.”

The entire battlefield darkened as countless shadow blades materialized midair, twisting unnaturally, forming a spiraling death trap. He was already gone from sight, the only hint of his movement the faint distortion of space where he passed.

Kiel extended his arm, a nervous smirk barely hiding the arrogance in his eyes.

“Unholy Shackles, Bind and Drain the Soul. Bestow me the greatest curse to engulf my enemy!”

The air cracked. The ground beneath my feet shattered. Countless ethereal hands of decay sprouted from the floor, reaching for me, their touch corroding even my chains.

The attack was unlike before. Their synergy had sharpened into something lethal. They weren’t just fighting—they were erasing anything in their path.

And it worked.

For the first time, my chains struggled. The infernal heat melted their edges, shadows cut through their defenses like paper, and cursed hands disrupted their structure. They couldn’t deflect, couldn’t counter fast enough. My instincts fought viciously, twisting the chains in ways beyond comprehension, but even they could barely keep up.

The Silent Executioner watched in silence, his cold, distant eyes observing from behind the thinning veil of destruction. His thoughts echoed in the abyss of his mind.

It’s over.

The Queen of Curses has fallen.

He glanced back at the page of fate that never lied.

It had previously declared: “Reawakening Conquest Beings.”

But now?

The ink bled. The letters warped. And then—

“???”

The Silent Executioner’s eyes narrowed. That was impossible. The page didn’t display uncertainty. It recorded truth. The direct, inescapable path of fate.

Yet now, fate hesitated.

His gaze darted back to the battle. And for the first time, a feeling foreign to him slithered into his core—

Fear.

Not because the chains were failing.

Not because the Queen of Curses was cornered.

But because of what she was doing amidst the chaos.

My trembling hand rested against Kaiser’s chest, my eyes shut tight as I willed myself to be more than fear. More than doubt. My breath came in shaky bursts, but my resolve remained unyielding. The cursed energy—the same that turned those chains into nightmares—now surged into him, not to destroy, but to rebuild.

His wounds began to close, the jagged flesh knitting itself together, slowly at first, then more rapidly. His missing arm reformed—bone, muscle, and flesh returning in a seamless, agonizing display.

A cold chill ran down her spine, the Silent Executioner’s presence stirring like a storm on the horizon.

She’s the one.

She’s the one changing fate.

Her pulse quickened, and yet, the darkness she embraced only grew colder, her cursed magic swirling with determination. The world held its breath as the impossible unfolded before her.

That shouldn’t be possible. His Lord had spoken of fate as law. No human, no existence, could alter its course. No force in the world could rewrite its script.

And yet, as he turned to Levi, Ronan, and Kiel—three calamities moments away from executing her—the book still displayed, “???”

They were seconds from striking her down.

Levi’s shadows wove into a spear, aiming straight for her throat. Ronan’s fire transformed into a serpent, ready to coil and burn her alive. Kiel’s cursed hands converged, reaching to tear her soul from her body.

Celia pressed her hand harder against Kaiser’s chest, pouring her heart into her instinct-driven cursed healing.

Then—

Kaiser’s eyes snapped open, glowing with a cold, blue aura. His hand slowly rose to his mouth, a faint, calculating smile spreading across his face as the last remnants of blood from his wounds began to heal.

image [https://i.imgur.com/uXG5jVE.png]

The world stopped.

The Silent Executioner felt something shift, an invisible tremor shaking reality itself. His gaze fell to the book in his hands, eyes narrowing as the weight of the moment pressed down on him. He exhaled slowly, as if to steady the rising unease that crawled up his spine.

It was wrong.

The ink, once hesitant, now flowed with a purpose—unwavering and final. There was no doubt in its stroke, no second-guessing.

It had written its final decree.

“Your corpse will rot here.”

The words echoed through the stillness, their chilling finality hanging in the air like a death sentence.

His heart stopped beating almost.

The Silent Executioner trembled, the page slipping from his grasp, his fingers twitching with a sense of fear he hadn’t known in centuries. The future he once knew, the future he shaped with ease, was no longer his to read.

He wasn't the one who decided.

It was her.

The future had already shifted, and he... he was the one who was going to die.