While the sound of the wind cut through the silence of the desolate cemetery, Adrian and Lucia approached the grave. The stillness swallowed the place, and there was nothing in the night but the cold breaths of the wind.
Adrian looked at the grave, then gestured to Lucia with his hand and said calmly, "Begin…"
A moment of silence passed before Lucia looked at him in confusion. Adrian sighed and clarified his meaning: "I mean… dig up the grave using your magic."
Lucia froze, her eyes widening in shock. "Hah?! You want me to dig up a grave like a dog?! A—and using my refined magic for digging?! Have you lost your mi—"
She suddenly stopped when she realized what she had said in a burst of anger. She coughed lightly and tried to recover. "Hehe… I mean… I'm the one who lost my mind for a moment. I'll do it right away."
She stood before the grave while Adrian remained silent, cold-faced, watching. She thought to herself, "I need to calculate the distance carefully… I don't want to damage the body."
She extended her hand toward the grave, and a precise magical energy burst forth. The soil scattered, and the decayed corpse was slowly revealed.
Adrian stepped closer and motioned for her to step back. "From now on… I'll handle it. Don't come near the body no matter what happens. You might be afflicted by the curse as well."
Her eyes widened in worry. "And what about you?"
He gave a faint sideways smile. "Curses don't affect demons… right?"
Lucia's heart clenched for a moment, then she said with painful seriousness, "Your Highness… you are not a demon. Don't say that about yourself."
He did not respond. He lifted the corpse in silence and said, "Let's go to an empty place."
Lucia followed him without a word, despite the heavy feeling lodged in her chest… a mixture of pity and sorrow.
After walking for some time, they arrived at an empty stretch of land far from the district. Adrian threw the corpse onto the ground and took a matchbox from his pocket, then said, "Give me the fuel canister we brought earlier."
Lucia handed him the canister as she asked, "But it's small… will it be enough?"
Adrian replied calmly, as if explaining something obvious: "Lucia… decayed bodies lose most of their moisture, and what remains of organic matter is enough to ignite."
He slowly poured the fuel over the corpse before continuing: "And with the remnants of the curse clinging to every cell… all it needs is a single spark."
He struck a match and let it fall onto the body. "And it will ignite for sure."
The corpse burst into flames, the fire spreading around it, trying to devour what remained. After a few minutes, the flames began to weaken little by little until they went out completely—but the corpse did not burn; its decomposition merely accelerated.
Lucia moved as if to step forward, but Adrian's hand suddenly rose in front of her. "Don't come closer!"
She stopped, worry coloring her features. "Did it not work?"
Adrian's gaze narrowed with quiet disappointment. "It seems this curse cannot be dispelled by ordinary means."
Lucia cried out, "Then… what will we do?"
He fell silent for a moment, as if listening to the pulse of the air, then said, "Perhaps magic cannot be undone… except by another spell."
Lucia lowered her head, a tense sigh escaping her. "If only we could reverse the curse… everything would be easier."
Adrian's eyes widened, as though a brilliant spark of an idea ignited within him, and then he smiled. "Let's return to the old woman's house. I will try the Death Curse myself."
Lucia's expression trembled between shock and fear. "What are you saying, Your Highness? You know how dangerous that spell is!"
He continued walking in silence, Lucia following behind him, her tension growing with every step. They returned to the house and closed the door behind them. Adrian headed straight for the room containing the magic circle.
"Your Highness, are you listening to me?" she said sharply, her anger reaching its peak.
"Yes," he finally replied, in his usual cold tone.
He knelt down and wiped the old circle with a handkerchief, then brought ink from the book room and began drawing a new one.
He drew the triangle first, then surrounded it with a wide circle.
Lucia raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Your Highness… you're drawing it incorrectly. The triangle should be inside the circle, not the other way around."
He continued drawing and inscribing the symbols without lifting his head.
"Lucia… you said earlier that everything would be fine if the curse could be reversed."
She crossed her arms indifferently.
"That's right… I said that."
He finished writing the final symbol, and a faint smile formed on his lips.
"So I thought… what if we reverse the spell itself?"
Lucia let out an irritated breath.
"Then it definitely won't work. The spell must be performed exactly as it was written."
Adrian laughed softly.
"Exactly. And that's why… if we want the opposite to work, then it must also be performed exactly as it was written."
He then looked at the magic circle and read:
"The original Death Curse spell says:
'When the sun sets and the moon appears, I shall delight in drinking pure blood, and I shall give what I cherish most to the Great Lord of Magic.'"
He raised his eyes toward her.
"But when reversed, it becomes:
'When the moon sets and the sun rises, I shall offer tainted blood, and take what the Great Lord of Magic cherishes most.'"
Lucia's expression turned serious.
"But… even so, isn't it still a curse?"
He turned to her, his tone steadier than ever before.
"When we reverse everything… we obtain the complete opposite. Instead of a curse of death… we will obtain a blessing of life."
Lucia felt a faint sense of relief as she said,
"I understand now… so nothing bad will happen to you when you perform it, right?"
Adrian closed his eyes for a moment before answering: "The sun will rise soon… when I begin, do not enter the room no matter what happens."
Her worry deepened, and she took a small step toward him: "Will you do it alone?"
He replied in a calm, steady tone: "Don't worry… everything will be fine."
Then a faint smile formed on his lips, barely visible: "So… leave now. And close the door behind you."
Lucia clenched her hand nervously, bowed in respect, then slowly left and closed the door… as if sealing the entire world away from him.
As the sun began to rise, Adrian gripped his dagger and cut the palm of his hand, then passed it over the spell, letting drops of his blood fall onto it.
One drop… two… several drops spilled onto the magic circle, and the words began to glow slowly, before a white beam exploded and engulfed the entire room. Black magical sparks emerged from the heart of the circle, gathering and twisting violently to summon the Great Lord of Magic. Deafening sounds echoed, as if the air itself were being crushed under immense pressure.
The sparks converged, then— The pressure exploded!
Adrian was hurled back with tremendous force until he slammed into the wall behind him. He coughed up blood and collapsed to the ground. His bones trembled as he struggled to cling to consciousness under the crushing pressure. He tried to rise again… but Lucia's voice piercing through the door broke his focus for a second.
"Your Highness!! Are you okay?! What are all these sounds?!" Lucia was pounding on the door in terror.
Adrian forced himself up, wiped the blood from his mouth, and shouted sharply: "Get away from here! Do not come any closer!"
Suddenly… a deep, mocking laugh thundered through the room, tainted with pure malice: "Hahahaha… who dared to reverse my spell? You will pay a heavy price… you fool."
The black magic gathered again and attacked Adrian with force, making him feel as if his bones would shatter. He gasped in pain, placing his hand on his chest, trying to catch his labored breath—his heart nearly exploding from the rapid pounding, his eyes about to close under the overwhelming aura of the Master of Magic.
He thought bitterly to himself:
"I didn't expect it to act this way… the curse!"
But suddenly… the aura gradually calmed.
The shadows began to take on a human shape until the summoning was complete.
The Master of Magic looked at him with an eerily calm smile… calm to a frightening degree.
He said,
"You… resemble Naraka a lot. He also had delicious blood… yet he didn't let me have a single drop. He was cruel."
Adrian furrowed his brow in confusion and stood leaning against the wall.
"Who is this Naraka?"
The Master of Magic laughed a sickly, evil laugh:
"You don't need to know. He was a real scoundrel… but the strange thing is you resemble him this much."
Then he glanced around, examining the walls and the air itself:
"This is definitely the human world… so why is a demon like you here?"
Adrian said sharply,
"I'm not a demon! I'm human!"
The Master of Magic blinked with provocative innocence:
"Heh? Human? Strange… I thought you were a demon."
Adrian turned his gaze away in annoyance:
"I hear that a lot. What's the problem with a human having red eyes?"
The Master of Magic replied,
"No, it's not your appearance… anyway, why did you summon me?"
Adrian adjusted his stance despite the pain and stepped forward steadily until he stood close to the Master of Magic.
He raised his head, looked him in the eye sharply, and said in a low but firm voice:
"You must fix what you have ruined…"