Chapter 294: The Curse

"Are you insane?" Ortenrosse turned pale.

The reason he hadn't guarded against this artifact was twofold: firstly, it wasn't a weapon, making it unsuitable for close combat; secondly, the thunder it carried, though powerful, was indiscriminate and difficult to control. Using it at such close range would mean neither side could escape unscathed.

Shinji still didn't speak. He answered Ortenrosse through his actions.

A mysterious crimson light flowed from his right hand into the golden artifact.

A sudden clap of thunder, the divine thunder of Indra.

In an instant, thunder and lightning manifested, and dark clouds swirled.

Although it was just a small cloud covering the two of them, its momentum was no less than a summer thunderstorm.

Thunder roared and lightning entwined, as if the god Indra himself was shouting in anger.

Ortenrosse looked around. Bolts of lightning sliced through the clouds like golden snakes slithering through the sky. Even a mere graze from one of them caused him a sharp pain.

This was the maximum output of the B+ rank Noble Phantasm, Indra's Thunder, a level of destructive power modern magecraft could hardly reach.

Faced with such a terrifying attack, even the powerful King of Dead Apostles felt a tremendous threat, a mix of shock and anger.

"Do you want to perish together with me?"

Perish together?

Behind his cracked mask, Shinji revealed a disdainful smirk.

Impossible! If he truly intended that, he would have done it long ago. Why wait until now? Since he dared to do this, he naturally had the confidence to survive the heavenly thunder.

Shinji's confidence came from the Command Seals.

These miraculous crystallizations of magical power could not only strengthen the body but also achieve self-healing, and even spatial transfer miracles that only magic could accomplish. Of course, the latter could only be borne by spiritual bodies like Servants and not humans; otherwise, he wouldn't be in such a dire state.

This time, Shinji used two strokes of his Command Seals. The first was to forcibly activate Indra's Thunder when magic power was insufficient. The second was to enhance Indra's Thunder's power and focus all the lightning on Ortenrosse. The reason he held Ortenrosse so closely was to prevent him from escaping. The Command Seal's enhancement was ultimately not causality reversal and lacked hit certainty. If Ortenrosse managed to escape, all his painstaking calculations would be in vain, and Shinji wouldn't have time to cry over it.

In the black cloud, the golden snakes grew more numerous and thicker, like a reservoir about to release its floodwaters.

Feeling an escalating sense of crisis, Ortenrosse abandoned his original plan to strip Shinji of his ability to resist and turn him into a servant. Concerned for his own life, he unleashed the power accumulated over a millennium in an instant.

The Vajra's Left Arm enhanced by the relic could no longer suppress the right hand of Ortenrosse, who broke free. At the same time, Ortenrosse's free left hand and legs launched a series of attacks. While the left hand attacking Shinji's head and shoulders missed as usual, the kicks landed on his body. The faint sound of cracking bones did not escape Ortenrosse's ears.

The King of Dead Apostles, invigorated, delivered another kick, sending Shinji flying like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily to the ground dozens of meters away. Ortenrosse did too. To escape the terrifying divine thunder, the ancient Dead Apostle King used all his strength. The recoil from kicking Shinji, the flapping of his wings, and his special movement techniques made his speed even faster than Shinji's, almost reaching his limit.

However, this did not resolve the Dead Apostle King's crisis. To his astonishment, the black cloud brewing the divine thunder suddenly expanded and engulfed him again—such was the marvelous effect of the Command Seal's enhancement.

Before the Dead Apostle King could make another move, the crisis descended.

Golden thunder poured down like a waterfall—falling from the sky to the earth, or perhaps ascending from the earth to the sky.

"——!!"

The lightning utterly ravaged the land, unleashing its terrifying destructive power on everything it touched. This force was so overwhelming that even heroes revered by later generations would struggle to survive such an attack.

The final BOSS that heroes had to face, the White Wing Lord, could not either!

The pure white attire, whose material was unknown, turned to ashes under the thunderous attack. The body, as perfect as Michelangelo's David, was now blackened and mottled, oozing foul liquid and vapors. The angelic wings had lost their sanctity and splendor, leaving only bare branches behind.

He could no longer be called the White Wing Lord; a more fitting name would be Bald Wind Lord or Roasted Winged Lord—though this was just a jest and did not change the fact that Trhvmn Ortenrosse had endured the divine punishment of thunder.

It should be over now, right? This must have been the last counterattack from that troublesome magus. Thinking this, the King of Dead Apostles looked in the direction where Shinji had been sent flying.

In the extended line of his sight, there was only a dirt pit about one meter in radius, and nothing else.

Damn, the magus had escaped!

The King of Dead Apostles, whose emotions had not yet settled, felt even more frustrated. Ignoring his severely damaged body, he walked to the edge of the dirt pit that seemed to have been left by Shinji, grabbed a handful of soil, and sniffed it at his nose. He then looked up at the ever-flowing Po River not far away and let out a heavy snort.

"Do you think hiding in the river and evaporating the bloodstains will let you escape? You have truly underestimated me, Trhvmn Ortenrosse."

Without any visible action from him, a mist darker than the night itself suddenly emerged at the edge of the pit destroyed by Shinji's fire magecraft. This mist, unaffected by the night wind, gathered into a long line, one end held by Ortenrosse and the other extending outward, finally flowing into the water.

Almost simultaneously, a black line appeared on Shinji's right wrist as he walked in the middle of the river, relying on Rune Magic.

Sensing something amiss, Shinji hastily pulled up his sleeve, only to see the black line extending up his arm at a visible pace. Wherever it passed, his already swollen, bruised arm began to decay and rot at an observable speed.

"Not good, it's a curse."

Shinji had seen this condition described in the materials Lorelei had left him. It was one of Ortenrosse's abilities, which he had used against several ancestors of the Barthomeloi family.

This was a malevolent curse specifically targeting magus. The black line absorbed the magus' mana, growing stronger while gradually destroying the magus' magic circuits and inflicting physical pain—a dual blow to both mind and body.

In the mere seconds it took to inspect the curse, Shinji could already feel his mana spiraling out of control.

Watching as the black line crept past his elbow, nearing his shoulder, Shinji gritted his teeth and drew the Divine GunBlade, ready to cut it off. According to records, the only conclusion the Barthomeloi family had drawn from studying the sacrificed ancestors' bodies was that severing the black line's connection with the body in time was the only way to halt the curse's spread.

The blade flashed.