The Grimoire of Curses [1]

"How did you pass that trial!"

A voice boomed throughout the space beyond Laz's vision snapping Laz back to reality.

Standing there was a tall humanoid figure with black hair and purple eyes, tan skin and an averagely good looking figure, he was shrouded in a black hue.

With a baffled and wary expression he asked, hostility eminent in his eyes, "How did you pass….The Trail of Reminiscence?"

"The Trial of Reminiscence", Laz muttered softly as a smile emerged on his face.

The Trial of Reminiscence, the one and the only of the 13 trials which focused on mental fortitude and perseverance, patience and one's control over its emotions.

And also, it's the only trial which takes over 3 months in real time and 3 years in one's chronological time to complete.

'That means', thinking as much as Laz looked down at his body, moving his arms and legs, turning his waist and bending his torso. He checked himself out.

Mhmm

With a satisfied expression Laz hummed, 'Sure enough I am 3 years older now'

"Answer my question, Human"

The humanoid figure asked again as his tone became harsher and killing intent oozed out his body.

"Aah!"

Laz exclaimed as he remembered something and looked towards the figure and nodded seriously, a grin tugging on his lips.

"I am Lazarus Blackthorn, the former heir to the 5th generation of the Blackthorn family"

The figure opened his mouth with a dangerous expression.

"Y-You dare, a Blackthorn dares to show its face in front of me, do you wish to die so sincerely"

Swoosh!

Suddenly an oppressive aura bore down on Laz.

Cough!

Laz fell on his knees as he coughed up a mouth full of blood, with great difficulty he looked up towards the figure once again.

"You and your wrenched family are all the same, did you think just because that old piece of shit trapped me here I would become scared of his descendents, you fools are too cocky for your own good."

The pressure on Laz's body intensified as he laid down on the ground motionless.

Grrr

Laz grunted in pain as all the air in his lungs were knocked out, all of his joints creaked as his face pressed down on the ground.

The figure spoke once again in a mocking tone.

"Look at you, exclaiming to be a Blackthorn while not being able to use magic"

Soon his tone became even more sadistic as his face distorted and the aura intensified even more.

The figure walked up to Laz and stepped on his face as he continued.

"Pathetic humans, you pests need to be taken care of, if only i had not been a doppelganger, I would have ended that wolf and your ancestor all at the same time, but alas due to the weak demonic energy in the air, i cannot descend on this planet just yet"

Suddenly a grin which spread ear to ear appeared on his face, with his distorted expression he looked very uncanny and disgusting.

"We will soon, end all of your and the other threes miseries" 

"Fret not humans—-"

"That's enough Duke Azeroth"

Suddenly a voice came from Azeroth's feet as he stumbled back.

Clutching his head he looked forward, his expression was one of disbelief and fear.

The voice was coming from none other than Laz himself, as he stood up Laz motioned his hand towards Azeroth.

Looking at Laz Azeroth had a bad premonition, he tried to flee, but as though his feet were planted on the ground he stood still.

Swoosh!

A chain with a collar on its end sprang forward on the ground near Laz's feet, Azeroth's eyes trembled in fear as he screamed.

"N-nooooo, b-but how is this p-possible!"

He exclaimed in shock. 

Clang!

Cling!

With a clinging sound the metallic collar wrapped around Azeroth's neck.

Shhhhh

Pulling Azeroth to his knees, the collar restrained Azeroth's movements and use of magic.

Lazarus was standing tall in front of Azeroth looking down on him with a calculative gaze, soon he opened his mouth and said.

"Give me..."

Once again looking down at Azeroth and then forward, a small smile emerged on his face as he continued, "...The Grimoire of Curses"

***

Years ago when demons were on the verge of deafening humanity and the intruding races, elves, dwarves and human made a truce and allied together, and what came of the allied power was the summoning array, an ancient tier magic spell which was later used to summon the mythical creature, the god slaying wolf 'Fenrir'.

The alliance along with Fenrir almost fended off the demons when a strong, Duke ranked demon who called himself Azeroth came out of the demon realm with a spell or a curse which could defeat Fenrir, and that was the curse of binding, Gleipnir.

Chains which put a stop to the alliance's advances while also killing off Fenrir.

But, the demon named Azeroth wasn't seen after that even once, many presumed him to have gone back, some said that he had died while some suspected him to be alive and staying hidden on purpose, but the truth couldn't be any different.

Indeed Azeroth or i should say the Azeroth which descended on Eternum, yes the Azeroth which killed Fenrir and the real Azeroth are two different yet the same beings…..

Doppelgangers, clones of the real beings while having half their strength.

Azeroth's doppelganger was the one who killed Fenrir, after doing so, the doppelganger had received some very critical injuries which resulted him to be unable to return, he could have just cut off his link with his real self and no harm would have be done, but what if the doppelganger was carrying something worth more than the doppelganger itself.

Some might have thought that Fenrir was far too weak for high ranking demons, but that was not the case the only reason he was defeated was because of Gleipnir, and the one to cat that curse wasn't exactly Azeroth but the Grimoire of Curses, a Grimoire which contains all there's to know about curses, and the means to access curse energy.

Much like magic energy curse energy is a form of fuel used to power Curses.

But what happened to Azeroth is a mystery even to the magic union but not to me, Octavious Blackthorn, the first head and the founder of the Blackthorn family and the subdueder of the Duke ranked demon Azeroth's doppelganger.

Octavious Blackthorn had kidnapped Azeroth, yes kidnapped….while he the demon was injured, and trapped him inside the Infinity Labyrinth, well there's a reason as to why the Labyrinth is called the infinity Labyrinth, it's because if one is unable to clear the trials and tries to escape they would not ever be able to find the exit and will be stuck in a subspace created by the labyrinth which will slowly suck away their life essence using it as fuel and kill them.

And to ensure that the demon doesn't go haywire Octavious has put a blood binding seal on Azeroth, but he was unable to get his hands on the Grimoire of Curses, why?

Azeroth had put a curse on Octavius Blackthorn, the curse just had two very simple terms.

"1: Octavious Blackthorn shall not harm or command Azeroth to harm himself

 2: Octavious Blackthorn shall not take away any of the Azeroth's belongings"

Of course Octavious tried to remove the curse but it didn't work, it apparently was put on his blood, and as a side effect it watered down his blood more and more as the generations passed, and the blood binding seal only worked if the person activating it is a pureblood Blackthorn, and that doesn't exist in this time and age, of course none expect Lazarus.

That's because Lazarus Blackthorn has a bit of a past, regarding his origins and existence that the novel introduced pretty enthusiastically but didn't continue to develop on it, putting Lazarus Blackthorn aside as a side character but in this life Lazarus has vowed to not end up like the Novel's Lazarus, he will become strong and in order to become strong, Lazarus needs something that compliments him, and Magic isn't the thing, the only two other options left are demonic energy and cursed energy.

Of course demonic energy is something that if detected inside a human, the magic union will step up and eradicate said human and his origins.

And so the only viable option left is Cursed energy, once used by the witches which the demon's killed to the point of extinction, and the only thing left of them are their Grimoire and the one most useful and versatile is, The Grimoire of Curses, a Grimoire which is said to be the carbon copy of the first ancient Grimoire, The Magus Craft of Curses.

***

"Y-You, hahahaha"

The demon had a baffled expression on his face before he realised something and started laughing menacingly.

"You think someone like you can order me—-wait how can you use the seal, you shouldn't have the authority, the blood would have watered down, the only possible reason would be—--"

Suddenly as though he found his answer he looked at Lazarus with a shocked expression.

"Y-You you aren't h-hum—-"

Thud!

"You talk too much..."