Baron Cullen

Chapter 119 The Vicious Curse

At this moment, the black mist inside Vaughn's chest was spreading at a slow pace, but it had already eroded nearly a third of his body.

Heart, lungs, liver...

Almost all the vital organs have been eroded.

Moreover, the rate of erosion appears to be gradually accelerating over time.

At this rate, Vaughn will probably die in five days at most!

"This is the terror of blood magic..." Just as Karen thought Vaughn had been struck by blood magic, she suddenly saw something familiar. "Wait! This is...?!"

His eyes widened as he vaguely saw a complex runic structure within Vaughn's body.

It was a structure similar to a pentagram.

Each corner connects to a vital supernatural pathway within Vaughn's body, leading to five different parts of his body...

The heart, brain, liver, kidneys, and spine.

Of those five pathways, the two leading to the heart and brain were the most severely eroded.

Moreover, the structure of this rune gave him a sense of déjà vu!

"It's... that fifth-tier spell I saw at the association before!" Karen suddenly remembered.

This complex runic structure is quite similar to the spell attached to the bronze fragment in the association.

Although neither is a form of sorcery, this undoubtedly proves that what caused Vaughn to become like this was not blood magic, but... sorcery!

An extremely vicious and terrifying fifth-order curse!

In other words, Vaughn was actually cursed!

Only wizards can use curses, and there are a large number of wizards in the Arcane Society!

Thinking of this, Karen withdrew her gaze and looked at Lamont: "Vice Commander, I've made a discovery!"

"What discovery?" Lamont looked up abruptly.

"Commander Vaughn must be under an extremely vicious curse!" Karen recounted everything she had seen. "And I discovered that this curse is altering the Commander's physical structure at an accelerating rate!"

"Wait! A change?" Lamont's expression changed. "What does that mean?"

"Vice Commander... I know this is hard to accept, but it's exactly what it sounds like..." Karen's expression was equally grave. "The cursed power within Commander Vaughn is corroding every corner of his body..."

His bone density is increasing, his muscle fibers are reorganizing, and even the function of his internal organs is changing...

If this continues, Commander Vaughn might gradually become... a completely different person!

"Wait! You wouldn't be saying..." Lamont suddenly realized something, his trembling eyes filled with disbelief, "A werewolf!"

"Werewolves?" Karen frowned.

"That's right. According to historical records, the continent was once inhabited not only by heretics like evil spirits and vampires, but also by werewolves," Lamont stated, recounting what he knew. "And it's said that, apart from the first werewolf..."

All werewolves are humans who mutated after being cursed!

Upon hearing this, Karen looked at Vaughn again.

From that peculiar perspective, he could indeed see with absolute clarity the changes taking place throughout the other person's body.

And this change... is indeed evolving towards a being with extremely high physical strength.

Werewolves seem to be such beings!

"Vice Commander..." Karen gave a wry smile, "What you just said... might be true."

The office was deathly silent.

Although Lamont himself said those words, he still couldn't accept the fact after Karen confirmed them.

His voice was even a little dry at this moment: "Doesn't that mean... even if the captain survives, he might... become a monster?"

Karen did not answer.

Because he wasn't sure if Vaughn would survive, or even if he did, whether he could stop the transformation of his body.

"Is there any way to stop it?" Lamont asked unwillingly.

"I don't know," Karen shook her head. "I know too little about curses. Maybe the Mage Guild has some information..."

But before he could finish speaking, Lamont shook his head: "No, the association has no way to solve this."

Yesterday I asked Brandon, the vice president of the Mage Association, to come and take a look, but he couldn't do anything about it.

Karen nodded, somewhat surprised.

He didn't expect that Brandon had already come to see it, and that even a fourth-tier mage who was well-versed in the association's various ancient texts couldn't solve the problem.

Thinking of this, he said, "If that's the case, then based on what I've seen and my understanding, once physical modification begins, it's very difficult to reverse..."

Unless the curse can be completely eradicated before the full mutation occurs.

Lamont seemed to see a glimmer of hope, but the light in his eyes quickly dimmed again.

Remove the curse...

It sounds simple, but it's incredibly difficult to do.

Even the vice president of the Dharma Association was at a loss, so who could he turn to?

Unless there is a wizard with exceptional knowledge of curses.

"The wizard profession..." Thinking this, Lamont abruptly looked up at Karen, "Karen, one of the Order Keepers' vice-leaders..."

"Isn't that Ms. Martha Gillian a fourth-tier wizard?"

However, faced with his hopeful gaze, Karen shook her head with a wry smile: "I'm sorry, Vice Commander..."

I've already considered that possibility and rejected it.

He paused, then recounted how Martha had suffered a backlash while researching the spells in that strange magic book.

He had already used mysterious runes to decipher the spells in that magic book back then…

Although equally terrifying, it pales in comparison to the vicious curse currently emanating from Vaughn's body, which is constantly transforming him into a werewolf.

And how could Martha, who was helpless against the curse, possibly solve the problem inside Vaughn?

He didn't want to keep attacking Lamont, but he had to say what needed to be said.

"Is there really no way?" Lamont pulled out a cigarette and lit it, his face even more haggard than before. "The commander is my benefactor, I... can't let him sacrifice himself like this."

Moreover, once the leader is killed... the chapter will cease to exist.

Karen glanced at Lamont and understood the pain he was feeling.

He looked at Vaughn's body again, his mind racing.

That extremely complex pentagram-like structure…

A hypothesis arose in his mind.

If those five paths could be severed, would it slow the spread of the curse?

No, it's not that simple.

Those pathways are part of Vaughn's body, already fused with many of his meridians; forcibly severing them would only cause irreversible damage.

Since we can't cut it off, how about blocking it temporarily?

Thinking of this, Karen extinguished the mysterious runes and rubbed her aching right eye.

"Vice Commander, I have an idea, but I'm not sure if it will work..." He endured the stinging pain and spoke his conjecture, "The cursed power within Commander Vaughn mainly erodes his body through five pathways."

If we can temporarily block these five pathways, we might be able to slow down Commander Vaughn's transformation and buy more time for treatment.