"PREY SLAUGHTERED."
The Ember Hunter fell .. the relentless boss who had driven the Heart warriors to the brink.
In the end, he was never the hunter... but the prey.
That towering body shattered apart, and thousands of pitiful souls fled from it .. the souls of those who had died by his hand.
Among those countless faint spirits, one shone far brighter than the rest... the boss’s own soul.
What the Hearts had achieved was no small feat. Creatures like the Ember Hunter were rarely brought down.
Yet they did not celebrate.
At first, they were all stunned — it took several seconds before the truth reached them: they had survived.
Only a moment later, their senses returned... and every gaze rolled toward a single figure.
"Ethan..." Moon Heart whispered, exhausted, her beautiful face smeared with ash.
Immediately, everyone rushed to him .. collapsed, unconscious, a horrific cavity torn through his abdomen.
Despite the flask he had drunk, the bleeding had not stopped.
Among them all, Alicia was the most shaken. She sat there, staring blankly into empty space.
Ethan had taken the attack in her place. His blood had exploded across her face.
With a trembling hand, she touched her cheek .. and found her palm drenched in red.
His blood.
Unable to hold herself together, Alicia lowered her head as nausea overtook her so violently she nearly vomited.
The sight of that man .. his stomach pierced open, his insides exposed was no simple wound.
It was a nightmare.
At first, she reached out to touch his face... but her shaking hand froze midair. Her eyes burst into tears, and she began sobbing helplessly like a child who no longer knew what to do.
Unlike her, Raiden and Moon moved instantly, grabbing Ethan, trying to save what could still be saved.
Raiden lifted him .. his hands instantly soaked in blood.
His face twisted.
"Damn it... the injury’s critical." The human tank clenched his teeth as Moon looked around frantically.
"Quick! Who still has a flask?!" she demanded, panic evident.
Alicia didn’t respond. Raiden shook his head.
"I already gave him my last one."
"I used everything during the fight..." Moon bit her nails, feeling trapped.
But their panic made them forget someone — a figure sprinting toward them from afar.
"I still have some!!"
It was Chai Heart .. the archer who had never once been forced into close combat.
"I didn’t take any damage, so I still have all my flasks!"
He pulled out five golden flasks. The moment Moon and Raiden saw them, hope flickered.
Raiden grabbed them and poured the contents into Ethan’s stomach one after another.
The flask — the Water of Life that healed the Hearts — forged from their ashes and mixed with the Maiden’s blood.
Nothing else could save one of them.
And yet... even after using it, fear remained etched across their faces.
The fear of losing him again .
Eventually, every drop was gone.
But Ethan’s eyes did not open.
"...It’s no use. A human can’t survive injuries like this." Raiden spoke aloud what they all feared.
Moon was the exception — what saved her was her Phoenix Blessing, a power capable of healing and even resurrecting her by igniting her ashes.
"Ethan doesn’t have something like that..." Raiden continued, deepening the despair.
What they didn’t know...
The Ethan they knew .. and the one before them were completely different people.
His body was not human.
It was demonic.
Chai Heart was the first to notice.
"Guys... look!" he pointed at Ethan’s abdomen.
"The wound... it’s regenerating?"
"What?!"
They leaned closer .. and realized he was right.
Even Ethan’s skin was gradually regaining color. His breathing stabilized.
"What exactly is happening...? I don’t understand." Moon whispered, and everyone shared her confusion.
The heat of battle and adrenaline had made them ignore it before .. but now their minds were clear again.
"Ethan... was acting strange," Raiden muttered.
"He knew the Ember Hunter’s moves beforehand... found its weak points... and then there’s this..."
He lifted Ethan’s single arm.
"How did he steal the boss’s weapon... and how is he still alive?"
Looking at his closest friend, Raiden felt as if the man in his arms was someone else entirely.
Everyone felt the same.
Everyone... except Alicia, still lost in shock, unable to process a word they said.
Then suddenly, Raiden remembered something important.
"Earlier... he didn’t recognize me."
"What do you mean?" Moon frowned.
"He was calling us by our names during the battle."
Raiden shook his head.
"No... those eyes... those were the eyes of a man seeing me for the first time in his life. I think he improvised after hearing us call each other."
"...Are you saying he lost his memory?"
Raiden nodded.
"The chances are very high."
Amnesia...
For some reason, Moon Heart seemed more affected by this news than anything else.
A deep frown overtook her usually cold expression.
"But... that still doesn’t explain what he did, nor how he survived," little Chai pointed out an important detail.
Memory loss explained nothing. Yet, thanks to his frightening sharpness of observation, Chai had noticed something else entirely—something the others had missed.
Pointing to the back of Ethan’s neck, he spoke with a trembling voice.
"Th-this... is that... a curse?"
"Where?" Raiden asked, hurriedly turning Ethan’s body.
Then he froze.
"That... that’s a cursed mark..."
On the back of Ethan’s neck, a dark symbol had appeared .. an eclipse dripping with blood, radiating an ominous aura.
This only deepened everyone’s confusion. Ethan had never borne such a curse before.
"Does anyone know what kind of curse this is?" Raiden asked.
Chai shook his head.
"I don’t... classification of curses is the domain of mages..." the young archer replied, making Raiden recall something important.
"Mages... Moon is a Prisoner. She might have an idea."
Prisoner .. an exceedingly rare class, a hybrid by nature.
Those belonging to this class could fight like knights while wielding magic at the same time, becoming spell-knights known as Prisoners.
Moon, it seemed, belonged to this class. Earlier she hadn’t used magic at all because the Ember Hunter possessed high resistance against it .. forcing her to fight at literally half her strength.
But since she was as much a mage as a knight, Raiden was certain she knew something about curses. So he turned to her.
The moment he and Chai looked her way... their faces gradually darkened.
The reason was simple.
Moon was staring at the cursed mark, and fear was written across her face—true fear they had never seen her show.
"Moon... how bad is it?" Raiden asked hesitantly, swallowing.
Moon took a few seconds before answering in a trembling voice.
"The cursed mark... has levels..."
"First level: the Scorching Sun — a red sun-shaped tattoo.
Second: the Crescent — a moon partially covering the sun.
Third: Half Eclipse — half the sun devoured by the moon.
Fourth: Total Eclipse — no trace of the sun remains.
Fifth... which I have never seen in my life, spoken of only in legend... the Blood Eclipse."
Ethan... bore the last one.
"This isn’t an ordinary curse. It’s something far beyond our level," Moon said, unease clear in her voice.
"The effect of this curse is immense! Only the Lords of Night can cast it!"
"What?!" Raiden exploded, everything suddenly sounding absurd.
"We’re still in the first region! How could a curse of that level appear here?!"
Only the Dark Lord and the Lords of Night could unleash such a curse...
And that only deepened the Hearts’ mystery.
What they didn’t know... was that Ethan had indeed met one of the Lords of Night.
The Night Baron... the Devil of Balance.
"How would I know?! I’m as shocked as you are!" Moon snapped back at Raiden.
To the point Chai had to step between them to calm things down.
Their nerves had reached their limit.
And at that exact moment...
He opened his eyes.
"I open my eyes, and the first thing I see is people arguing because of me..." Ethan chuckled lightly, lifting his upper body.
His sudden rise caught them completely off guard.