Cursed Magus Returns!

'W-what?' Sol thought, confused about where the sudden voice came from.

"Oh wait... you're still alive?" The random, oddly deep voice retorted.

'Alive?' Sol was utterly puzzled.

"Fine, I guess I have no choice then."

At that moment, Sol heard a clicking noise in his brain. Before he knew it, he was able to open his eyes.

Weirdly enough, he wasn't laying down, but standing straight up instead.

His surroundings were also completely different. All he could see around him was nothing but darkness.

Then, a figure materialized in front of his eyes. A figure who seemed awfully familiar yet still unrecognizable.

A tall man with a chiseled jawline and a perfect body stood before him. His developed muscles could be seen through his torn and battered robes and garments.

This figure stared at Sol with deep crimson eyes--a cunning look on his face.

At that moment, Sol came to a sudden realization. He had seen this person before.

"Y-you're... Atlas Vain Wysrial. From my dreams." Sol stated, puzzled about what was happening.

"Sol Von Cillion. You lost your will to live, and for that reason, my Ultimate Technique: Curse Of Undying, allowed me to take your body as my own." Atlas said with a profound tone.

Then, Atlas turned to the side and began speaking to himself, "I didn't know this was what was supposed to happen. Then again, I've never used the Curse Of Undying. I thought when the Curse Of Undying got activated, I would just take over the body of whoever the spell has been lying inside of from their birth."

After a long pause, Sol depressingly exclaimed, "So... I will die?" With no emotion behind his eyes.

Atlas looked at him with furrowed brows. "Yes."

At that moment, a small smile began to slowly appear on Sol's face. His eyelids neared each other as he grinned.

"Good... my wish has been heard by the heavens. I can finally rest in peace."

These words were supposed to be good news for Atlas, who was about to take over Sol's body.

However, something about it ticked him off slightly.

'Does he not care to ask who I am? The person he has been dreaming of for 13 years? He values death so highly...' Atlas thought to himself before speaking.

"Death isn't freedom nor peace. Death is nothing more than failure." Atlas retorted with an indifferent tone and a cold look behind his gaze.

"W-what?" Sol felt like he was forcefully pulled out of his blissful state of mind at that moment.

"Who cares. Just die... you've already given up." Atlas said, suddenly appearing in front of Sol before flicking his forehead.

That was enough to shatter Sol's body into a thousand pieces. The fragments of his body turned into small orbs of light.

In a beautiful scene, these twinkles of light slowly faded into nothingness.

However, Atlas wasn't very particular about somber moments. He couldn't care less about them.

Instead, a wide grin stretched across his face. "I'm back." He exclaimed, as his eyelids suddenly flew open in real life.

A nurse beside his stretch had been calmly applying a wet towel on his forehead.

As he awoke, however, she shrieked in surprise and jumped backward before falling onto her rear. "Ouch!"

"Hahaha! That was far easier than expected." Sol proudly said, suddenly sitting up on his bed.

At that moment, Sol turned to face the frightened nurse on the ground.

"Hmm? Why are you on the ground?" He innocently questioned.

"A-" The nurse stammered before screaming at the top of her lungs, "AN UNDEAD!!"

She quickly stood up and ran out of the room, nearly tripping on her way out.

"Undead huh? Well... I guess she isn't completely wrong." Sol smirked to himself.

At that moment, a searing pain burned his facial region.

"Oh?" He said, closing his eyes and exhaling a deep breath.

At once, he was able to examine his entire body in a state of intense concentration.

"Several skull fractures..." With this, he decided to check the condition of the rest of his body.

"A below-average body, as to be expected. However, this is odd. I don't feel that this body doesn't have an affinity to Ether Energy. It should be able to use it. But, I can't seem to access it for some reason."

He felt an unexpected sensation within his body.

"What's this?"

It was as though a glowing red imperfection pointed itself in the core of his abdomen.

"A curse? I see... so the reason why this body was never able to use Ether Energy was due to a curse in the Ether Core that restricted the flow of Ether to enter it."

With this realization, he crossed his legs and entered a lotus position of sitting.

With another few deep breaths, he had completely eradicated all curses within his body.

It felt as though a cage binding his Ether Core was torn open. The red imperfection in the center of his abdomen was no more.

All living creatures had a small amount of Ether Energy in their bodies, as it was the building element of reality and life itself.

So, Sol took this Ether Energy that he had and compacted it all to his face.

After a minute or so, his injury from before had completely healed up as well.

"Looks like I can still break curses in this world by simply configuring how they work and undoing them from the inside out. But... the Curse Of Undying has sapped most of my other techniques and abilities."

These were slightly unenthusiastic words, but still not a very big deal.

"No matter. What matters most is that I am still alive. As long as I still have my life, I can become just as strong as I was before,

and even stronger. However... it does seem that I've retained at least a few abilities."

At that moment a series of quick and hurried footsteps approached Sol's room.

The door was left wide open by the nurse who had fled earlier. Through this opening soon entered a man wearing a long and thin white coat.

Atop the ridge of his nose was a pair of glasses which this doctor used to peer at Sol closely.

Behind him returned the nurse from before. She was still seemingly scared, trying to hide behind the doctor.

"Sol... have you awoken?" The doctor questioned, walking beside Sol's bed.

Sol faced the man and immediately asked, "How long have I been asleep?"

"W-what? Why?"

"Isn't it obvious? I have finals coming up." Sol spoke in a demanding tone, which threw the doctor off slightly.

'The first thing that happened after I woke up was the transfer of memories. It wasn't nearly as overwhelming as I imagined.' Sol mused inwardly.

'I've known this boy for years. Does he usually speak like this?' The doctor confusedly thought to himself before quickly shrugging off this thought and answering Sol's initial question,

"Well... you've been in a coma for three days now. Tomorrow is the final day of the school year, and also the day of the final exit exams."