Chapter 81: The Soul-Binding Curse

Chapter 81: The Soul-Binding Curse

Lothe stared directly at the colossal central rune.

His soul trembled violently. The remaining pool of his Soul Energy was plunging toward zero at an alarming rate. He had only a matter of minutes—perhaps seconds.

Yet now, he understood the brutal rule of this ancient trial:

Every second spent hesitating is a second spent dying.

Lothe wiped a smear of blood from the corner of his mouth, his dark eyes igniting with a cold, terrifying resolve.

"Fine," he muttered, forcing his trembling legs to step forward against the crushing gravity. "If you want to consume my soul... then I’ll tear your secrets apart before you can finish me!"

He pushed [Qi Sight] to its absolute limit.

The entire formation came into crystalline focus. Thousands of glyphs, millions of intersecting filaments—an incomprehensibly vast ancient architecture. Yet for the first time, it no longer looked like an insurmountable mystery.

It was a language. And Lothe had finally cracked its grammar.

His gaze locked onto the central node.

Unlike the smaller runes orbiting the perimeter, this glyph was gargantuan. A circular, multi-layered sigil surrounded by jagged inscriptions, pulsing with a deep, malevolent purple glow. Every major energy artery in the chamber converged straight into its core.

"That’s the heart," Lothe whispered.

Tracing one of the incoming refined streams, he watched it pass through the Stabilization Rune before crossing the threshold into the central glyph.

The moment the energy touched the core—

BOOM!

Agony detonated across Lothe’s consciousness!

"ARGHHHHH!"

His vision went white, his thoughts splintering like shattered porcelain. He stumbled, nearly collapsing onto his knees, before catching himself with sheer willpower.

Then, his spiritual vision caught something crucial.

The central glyph hadn’t merely absorbed the refined energy. It had released something in return.

A thin, nearly imperceptible filament of dark-purple energy surged from the core, traveling straight along an invisible line into Lothe’s spiritual foundation!

Lothe’s pupils contracted to pinpricks. "So that’s how you’re doing it..."

He forced his mind into cold, surgical stillness, activating [Qi Sight] to look directly into his own soul.

There it was.

Spreading across his consciousness like hairline fractures across crystal was a dark-purple web. Every time another fracture expanded, his Soul Energy plummeted.

"A curse," Lothe breathed, his expression turning deathly grim.

The Array wasn’t just draining his energy from the outside. It was implanting an active, parasitic curse inside his soul that devoured him from within!

He studied the core glyph again, refusing to touch it with his Qi. He observed its behavior.

The dark energy wasn’t destroying his foundation indiscriminately. It was operating on a calculated loop:

It weakened his Soul Energy.

It pulled that weakened energy into the curse.

The curse devoured it, using the residual power to generate another wave of invasive corruption.

A closed, self-sustaining loop of death.

"A curse that feeds on the soul itself..." Lothe’s breathing turned ragged.

His soul screamed under another pulse of dark energy. His fingers shook violently. His Soul Energy was dropping past thirty percent—dangerously close to complete spiritual collapse.

He didn’t know how much time he had left. Two minutes? One?

Focus!

Lothe forced his eyes back onto the central glyph.

Its outer ring was anchored to the Stabilization Rune. The inner ring took in the refined energy. But the center of the glyph itself had a peculiar structure.

It was shaped with three hooked extensions curving inward, each terminating in a tiny, circular node.

Those weren’t channels.

"They’re anchors," Lothe realized, his eyes widening. "The curse isn’t attacking at random!"

He traced the three anchors: The first latched onto his Soul Energy.

The second hooked into his Consciousness.

The third plunged straight into his Spiritual Foundation!

His face paled as the full horror of the design dawned on him.

Three anchors. Three targets.

The curse didn’t just drain energy—it chained his Soul Energy, his Consciousness, and his Spiritual Foundation into a single locked circuit!

When his Soul Energy was devoured, the shock fractured his Spiritual Foundation. When the Foundation cracked, his Consciousness destabilized.

And whenever his Consciousness struggled to resist the pain... the Array harvested that emotional and spiritual resistance, converting it into fresh fuel for the curse!

"It weaponizes my own resistance against me..." A cold chill swept through Lothe’s spine.

The architect of this array had designed it with pure cruelty. His struggle fed it. His pain fed it. Even his active attempts to examine it were converted into fuel for his own execution!

Lothe stared at the hooked glyph, the final piece falling into place.

"This isn’t an ordinary soul-draining array. It chains the soul, consciousness, and foundation together, then devours the target whole."

A Soul-Binding Devouring Curse.

PING!

[ANCIENT CURSE RUNE ANALYZED!]

[Understanding Confirmed!]

[Recording in Runic Grimoire... Complete]

• Rune #005: [Soul-Binding Devouring Curse Rune]

• Classification: Soul-Type Curse (Devouring / Binding)

• Function: Establishes a three-point spiritual bond between the target’s Soul Energy, Consciousness, and Spiritual Foundation.

• Effect: Continuously devours Soul Energy while eroding the spiritual foundation. Fluctuations in consciousness and active resistance are converted into additional power for the curse.

Lothe’s eyes flared. He had deciphered the core glyph!

BOOOOOOM!!

Without warning, the entire Array surged with violent power!

"ARGHHHHHH!!"

Lothe cried out as the curse accelerated. His Soul Energy began plummeting twice as fast! Deciphering the glyph hadn’t shut the system down—if anything, the array recognized that its mechanism had been exposed and rushed to execute him!

"Damn it!" Lothe gasped, his vision swimming with dark spots.

He surveyed the entire formation: The outer runes gathered energy.

The Convergence Rune combined it.

The Compression Rune densified it.

The Refinement Rune purified it.

The Stabilization Rune maintained balance.

And the Curse Rune consumed the result.

Yet, a glaring contradiction struck his analytical mind.

If the Curse Rune can already devour my soul directly... why does it need all these surrounding runes?

Lothe stared through the blinding light, his pupils contracting.

"No... the refined energy isn’t feeding into the Curse Rune!"

He traced the flow with terrifying precision. The refined energy from the outer array was circulating around the central rune, flowing exclusively into the three hooked extensions.

"The surrounding Array isn’t powering the curse..." Lothe’s breath caught in his throat. "...It’s powering the Anchors!"

The massive outer array wasn’t the weapon. It was merely the support structure, keeping the three spiritual bonds unbreakable!

A ragged, exhausted laugh escaped Lothe’s lips.

"So that’s your game..." His dark eyes turned razor-sharp. "I don’t need to destroy thousands of runes. I don’t need to unravel the whole floor!"

He locked his gaze directly onto the three glowing hooks.

"I only need to sever the right connection."

PING!

[ARRAY ARCHITECTURE FULLY DECONSTRUCTED!]

[Core Mechanism Identified!]

[Updating Array Records... Complete]

[RUNIC GRIMOIRE]

[SECOND PAGE: SOUL-BINDING DEVOURING FORMATION]

• Core Function: Uses layered runic circuits to reinforce and stabilize a three-point Soul Curse.

• Primary Weakness: The central Curse Rune cannot sustain its connection if any of its three spiritual anchors are severed!

Lothe’s lips curved into a cold, confident smirk.

Suddenly, a wave of profound dizziness washed over his mind. His body swayed precariously, his vision flickering like a dying candle.

[Current Soul Essence: 14% ... 11% ...]

His foundation was on the verge of total collapse.

"Not good..." Lothe gritted his teeth, steadying his footing through sheer stubbornness.

He had uncovered the mechanism. He had located the fatal flaw. But his soul was fading by the second.

He had exactly one shot.

Lothe slowly raised his right hand. Deep, swirling purple Void Qi gathered at his fingertips, vibrating with spatial instability.

This time, he didn’t aim at the ground. He didn’t aim at the outer runes.

He aimed straight at the primary spiritual anchor linking the curse to his Consciousness.

His gaze hardened like polished steel.

"Let’s see how you like being dismantled."​