Rise of the Lustful Evil Monarch (Re)-Chapter 517: Journey Across Continents (15)

Third Person’s POV

Altheria observed the curse carefully for a few moments, and after she confirmed something in her mind, she gave a slow nod.

Then, raising her gaze, she met Nyx’s golden eyes directly before beginning to speak.

"About a few hundred years ago," she said calmly, her voice steady but carrying a hint of old memory,

"I came across an ancient parchment in a small pawn shop located in the capital city of the Empire of Abyssal Dominion."

She paused briefly, as if recalling the strange coincidence.

"I had just gone for a random stroll in the demon region after I had become too bored in my castle, and it was nothing more than a complete accident that I obtained it.

At the time, it had looked ordinary—aged, blank, and almost worthless, though at that time, I had had an instinct that it was something unordinary.

Yet to tell you the truth, its true nature... was only revealed to me today."

The statement made both Nyx and Isha react immediately as faint flashes of shock flashed across their faces.

However, before either of them could question her further, Altheria lifted one hand and retrieved an old parchment from her storage space.

The parchment appeared blank at first glance, but the moment she allowed it to hover beside Ethan’s body, something strange happened as thin dark lines began to appear across the paper on their own.

The markings formed slowly, as though invisible ink were surfacing from beneath the surface.

Stroke after stroke emerged until an entire set of characters filled the parchment.

Looking at it, the three women didn’t have to struggle to decipher the script as it was written in the ancient magical Aegaryn script.

It was a language that everyone who was a well studied mage could read, recognize, and use its divine and mysterious power along with elemental mana to manifest their spells in reality.

As the last lines manifested, the parchment began to emit a faint yet unmistakably foul aura.

The atmosphere in the room changed subtly as they could feel that the aura was eerily similar to the dark curse etched across Ethan’s body.

However, there was something even more unsettling about it.

The energy radiating from the parchment clearly belonged to the element of darkness, yet it didn’t contain the essence of pure darkness.

It seemed twisted and contaminated by another force—an unknown element that none of them had encountered before in their long lives.

The unfamiliarity of that energy made the air feel colder.

"That day when I obtained this scroll," Altheria continued, her tone reflective,

"I only suspected that it might be special in some way as on that day, something about it had felt unusual to me."

Her fingers brushed the floating parchment lightly as she spoke.

"But I never discovered what that ’something’ was."

She shook her head faintly.

"I investigated it through every method available to me at the time.

I searched for references, examined the material, tried to decode its magical traces, even consulted several archives."

Her crimson eyes narrowed slightly.

"And yet I found absolutely nothing."

With a soft exhale, she continued.

"Eventually, I stored it away inside my spatial storage as a mysterious addition in my collection and forgot about it completely."

Her gaze then shifted toward Ethan.

"But today... after the battle ended, and after you chased Dajjal into the Shadow Realm, I sensed a sudden disturbance from the scroll after I started examining his body myself and came in contact with this foul curse energy."

The memory was still fresh in her mind.

"It reacted."

Her voice lowered slightly.

"And it was then that I realized that the parchment had finally revealed its purpose.

Still, I had waited until you returned before examining it properly."

As she spoke, Altheria guided the parchment with her mana.

The scroll slowly unfurled itself in midair and floated in front of the three of them.

The moment the parchment fully unfolded before them, the air in the room seemed to grow colder.

The foul aura radiating from it intensified slightly, and the dark lines written in the ancient Aegaryn script glimmered faintly as if the text itself was alive.

Alongside the text were numerous intricate diagrams.

They depicted various creatures, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, and other crawling insects, with each of them being drawn with unsettling precision.

Their bodies were elongated, twisted, and unnaturally detailed.

Yet what made the images particularly disturbing was how they were positioned.

In every single diagram, the insects wrapped themselves tightly around the same central figure that was a shadowy humanoid silhouette.

Its form was barely defined, but the meaning of the illustrations was unmistakable.

The insects clung to the figure’s body like parasitic guardians, their limbs coiling around its arms, torso, and head as though feeding upon it and parasitizing it.

The resemblance to the curse on Ethan’s body was impossible to ignore.

Seeing their reactions, Nyx’s golden eyes narrowed slightly while Isha leaned a little closer to the hovering parchment.

Her cerulean gaze moved slowly across the symbols and diagrams inscribed upon it, studying each line with growing seriousness.

Altheria observed the two dragonesses quietly for a moment before raising her hand and pointing toward the upper portion of the floating scroll.

"This scroll," she began slowly in a measured tone, "as you both can clearly see, seems to call itself the Abyssal Curse Codex."

Her crimson eyes flickered faintly as she spoke, reflecting the dim glow of the parchment.

"Interestingly enough, it does not appear to contain the curse spell itself... nor does it provide any technique or instruction describing how one might learn, practice, or actively use the curse."

She paused briefly, her gaze sweeping across the text once more.

"Instead, it resembles something else entirely, i.e more like a record."

Her voice lowered slightly as the implication of that statement settled in the room.

"A record of the innate divine curses carried within the royal bloodline of the Abyssal Dominion Empire."

The parchment rustled faintly in the air as dark runic lines continued to shimmer across its surface.