Chapter 1494: Thirteen Days to Dawn: Breaking an Ancient Curse

Phei had began placing Life Flames upon the other princesses too.

When he greeted them, welcomed them or spent time among them, he quietly let the sacred fire settle within their Souls.

His Genesis Eyes revealed the curse in each, and he watched his flames begin to devour it.

Golden-white radiance had started to spread along the dark strands, its warmth reaching beneath the affliction towards the Bloodline power slumbering within. The curse held fast. Its oppressive depths resisted the sacred fire, but wherever Life Flame touched, those ancient strands slowly thinned. The golden-white tongues remained gentle throughout the struggle, consuming the malediction without the violence its dreadful hold seemed to demand.

Phei could see it yielding but a curse that had endured through generations, binding descendants of Original Progenitors until the Destined Day, would require long to start losing its hold beneath a flame. He knew Life Flame could purge curses even if the greater afflictions demanded longer to cleanse.

A Primal-level Curse, however, stood far beyond an ordinary malediction.

How long would the sacred fire, with its present strength, require to burn it away?

[Duration: 1 week and 6 days!]

He had read half expecting to discover that he had overlooked a few centuries.

One week and six days amounted to thirteen fucking days!

Less than two weeks to purge a curse that had restrained the descendants of seventeen Original Progenitors across generations, and his flames were already burning within them.

His smile had grown so wide that Eira immediately became suspicious.

She knew him well enough to recognize when he was pleased with himself, and he doubted he could have concealed his delight even if he wanted to.

If you think about it, his happiness was well deserved, after all, the families had spent their lives placing their hopes in a distant prophecy, preserving treasures and awaiting their ancestors’ return and yet now, a young man possessed a sacred fire that could free them and awaken before any of it came to pass.

Cassiopeia was already showing him the beginning.

Whatever those sacred energies had loosened, the Life Flame was now burning away the remaining holds, and he could scarcely wait to see what emerged once the last strand vanished.

Nor could he stop thinking about the others. Sierra, Maddie, Yuki, Jade, Amber, Nastya and Gianna each possessed a Bloodline whose true might remained hidden from them.

Some descended from races whose origins reached into the oldest depths of the Realms.

’Soon, they will begin awakening!’

He did not need to search for some elusive means of helping his women awaken before the prophesied day. He had already found it. The Life Flames resting upon their Souls would burn away the curse in less than two weeks, and once it was gone, they would begin awakening as Cassiopeia had.

His gaze returned to Cassiopeia, affection softening his delight.

Whatever crimes might have led to the exile, descendants born generations afterwards had entered the world already bearing its punishment. Some had probably accepted the restraint as an ordinary part of belonging to a Legacy Family; others had never known a curse existed at all.

Now some princesses were being asked to surrender even more.

Their families were preparing sacrifice them for the return of the Original Progenitors, as though being born with the curse had not already cost them enough. Phei tightened his fingers around Cassiopeia’s hand, thinking of how willingly those bastards would take the rest.

Awakening their Bloodlines would not end that danger, though.

Sierra’s circumstances remained troublesome, and the Legacy’s Progenitor plan still threatened several of the other princesses. For that, he had his fist, and there was a certain bastard’s face against which he would be delighted to use it.

He would settle that matter when he got there.

For now, extending Life Flame beyond his own women offered a different pleasure to consider.

What would the seventeen families give for the freedom his flames could grant them?

Their patriarchs, matriarchs and hidden elders possessed treasuries filled across generations. Treasures, loyalty, allegiance against the Heavenchilds and Maxtons; how much would they surrender for something their ancestors had failed to attain?

The Heavenchilds and Maxtons had gathered influence around the promised return of the Original Progenitors, binding the families to preparations for an awakening they had awaited for ages. Until now, no other known path led to the power sealed within their blood.

Phei could offer them the chance to awaken their true Bloodlines and cultivate their might while the Destined Day still lay ahead.

He doubted he would need to demand everything.

These were proud lineages descended from Progenitors, obscenely wealthy, with influence across Earth and resources ordinary cultivators could scarcely imagine.

None of it had freed them.

If the Young Dragon stood before their elders offering to remove the curse from their descendants, how many would willingly refuse? How many would cling to the Heavenchilds’ and Maxtons’ promises when their own children could begin awakening already?

He pictured those families discovering that their remaining time of waiting need no longer be spent deprived of their true Bloodlines. They could put their ancestral arts and treasures to use, cultivate the powers slumbering within their veins and recover something of the advancement the curse had denied them.

Perhaps they would gain years before the Destined Day, perhaps entire lifetimes.

Phei could offer the opportunity; what they attained remained to be seen.

As far as he understood, their Progenitors would still awaken at the appointed hour. The laws governing their reincarnation lay beyond his knowledge, but he had no reason to believe that cleansing their descendants’ Souls would prevent it.

If he was right, the thousandfold blessing would eventually descend upon families who had already begun refining their Bloodline powers.

His smile deepened as he considered what even a few weeks might accomplish.

They could never reclaim all the centuries their ancestors had lost, but some might grow formidable before the blessing arrived. Its power would then magnify the strength they had already cultivated, rather than descend upon descendants only just freed from the curse.

He had yet to see how far they could ascend, and the possibility alone made him eager to find out.

Whoever had imposed the exile would probably despise it.

Imagine condemning seventeen lineages to remain suppressed until their Progenitors returned, only for a seventeen-year-old Dragon upon Earth to burn away the restraint.

Phei would have loved to see the bastard’s expression upon discovering that.

Of course, an enemy capable of such a curse might do rather more than curse his name.

They could descend from whatever Realm they occupied and demand an explanation or, knowing his luck, attempt to kill him outright. He already had more ancient bastards to contend with than he cared for.

The prospect did little to wipe the smile from his face.

"Master?" Cassiopeia studied him with curiosity and quiet amusement, drawing his attention from the heavens. "You look rather pleased with yourself."

"Oh, Cassie. You have absolutely no idea." He laughed softly, tightening his fingers affectionately around hers. Her curiosity grew, though she refrained from pressing him.

He let his gaze linger upon her before his smile gentled. "Just bear with it a little longer, all right? Whatever is stirring inside you, we’ll see it through."

Cassiopeia looked down at their intertwined hands. His confidence eased some of the uncertainty that had accompanied the changes within her Soul, and she nodded.

"Of course, Master."

He raised her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles, lingering against her skin before lowering their joined hands again.

The last amber traces had faded from the horizon, while the city glittered across Hell’s Paradise Island, its distant lights reaching towards the warm brilliance of Infinity Chaos Hotel. Upon the balcony, that golden glow enclosed them, and beyond the doors his family continued celebrating Melissa and the twins.

His women were happy, his unborn children healthy, and Cassiopeia stood beside him with an awakening already stirring within her. Life Flame burned in her Soul and those of the other princesses, slowly consuming the bonds that had restrained their Bloodlines since birth.

According to the System, one week and six days would see those restraints gone.

Phei could hardly wait to discover what they would become.

Should he choose to extend that blessing beyond his own women, the seventeen Legacy Families might discover that the Destined Day was no longer their only hope.

Beneath the island’s evening sky, with Cassiopeia’s hand in his and his family celebrating nearby, Phei had every reason to look forward to it.

Phei had found a way to make the Destined Day irrelevant to all Legacy Family members but only the Progenitors only!