The full moon glowed brightly accompanied by the numerous stars that were scattered evenly throughout the dark sky.
As the wind howled, what was supposedly a cold night felt warmer than usual, followed by a fire that brightened the Andromeda's palace.
Multiple fallen dry leaves were instantly caught on fire as a result of being grazed by a burning slash of a sword.
"Stop right there!!"
A man looked out of breath as his eyes stared at the older human figure before him with rage blazing in his eyes, his hand tightly gripping a sword covered in fires. He gritted his teeth as he jumped onto the roof of the palace and intercepted the person who angered him.
The older man however only responded with a faint smile as he said, "Orion, you are the King of the Andromeda. Don't you have anything more urgent than to chase after me?"
Orion's irises turned red as he took off the royal cloak saying, "Father, enough! If you want this throne, I can give it to you. But please, leave my family out of this!!"
A haughty smile immediately framed the old man's face. "You're wrong, Orion. I, Deimos, never wanted your throne. Never."
Orion was stunned upon hearing it. "Then why are you doing this!? Why are you trying to destroy the kingdom?!"
"I just need to take one of my grandsons to garner strength and power," Deimos said, his smile getting even wider. "Don't worry, I'm just borrowing his body as a vessel for my weapon."
Hearing that, the anger in Orion's heart grew even more violent. He gripped his flaming sword tighter as his pure element of fire casted on the sword and ordered with suppressed emotions. "Get out of here immediately, while I still respect you as my father."
A loud laughter rang out instantly. Deimos shook his head. "You won't be able to become a great king if you're still shackled by your feelings, Orion." He said, then sighed. "If you don't want to give one of them to me, then I'll take him myself!"
Deimos suddenly jumped from the roof, whereupon he flew to the palace. In his eyes, three boys were trying to run away from him with their mother.
A swirl of black smoke could be seen gathering in his hand, and the next instant, he directed the black magic at one of the children. However, the youngest child seemed to have realized it as he placed himself in front of the rest of his siblings, using his body as a living shield.
"Brother, watch out!"
A fierce explosion occurred. The black magic seeped into his pure body, bringing about white light that was accompanied by black smoke coming out of his body. Then, he was thrown to the floor.
"Lil' Brother!"
"Sirius!"
Queen Arabella quickly hugged her youngest son, while the boy's two older brothers also surrounded him with worry etched on their faces. Sirius's body, who was only 5 years old, wasn't strong enough to handle such powerful magic. His golden irises constricted because of the extreme pain.
Satisfied laughter sounded throughout the place. "Good. The pure body of a child will be the best vessel for my weapon."
Deimos grinned widely when he saw a large red dragon-shaped mark slowly appear along Sirius' chest to abdomen. "Right, grow with hatred in your heart and become a figure that is hated by the people around you, because that way, the power I get will be even more powerful. Live well. At the age of 17, I will pick you up soon." He laughed even louder.
"Get out of here!!!"
Deimos jolted and quickly turned around. At that moment, the tip of Orion's Combustion Sword immediately pierced his body. Deimos' body immediately caught on fire and turned into ashes that were carried by the wind. And---
~
HONK!! HONK!!
The deafening sound of car sirens rang through the air, followed by angry screams.
"Hey! Use your eyes when you walk!"
"Chibai!!!! You give me a shock!! Hit me if you dare!! Hit me!!"
"You!! Crazy punk!!"
A middle-aged man who was the car driver snorted indignantly. He cast his sharp gaze at a young man who had just crossed the street carelessly without paying attention to the traffic signs. If he was one second too late to stomp on the brake, maybe the young man's body would be lying in the middle of the road by this time.
The middle-aged man threw numerous curse words at the young man, but he swallowed them back as the young man continued to argue even though he knew he was the one at fault. Giving up, the middle-aged man returned to his driving wheel and cursed at the young man inwardly as he drove away.
Xavier's heart jolted for a brief moment. He stared at the departure of the middle-aged man while stroking his own chest.
"What a fortune ... It's my lucky day..." He hissed breathlessly. "It seems heaven is not willing to accept me today." He smiled in relief.
After a few seconds, his expression suddenly changed again. He glanced at the screen of the phone in his hand. "This cursed prince's story also seems to bring a curse to his readers," Xavier cursed vengefully. "I almost died because of this trash story!"
The young man grumbled incessantly, berating a story he had on his phone, even though the reality in his own eyes couldn't be separated from the writing he was reading. "How did a mainstream story like this explode in popularity and get millions of readers?! Ha!?"
He was so engrossed in insulting the story that he didn't pay attention to the people who were also crossing on the sidewalk. They all looked at him with strange looks, as if looking at a crazed madman for no apparent reason.
"Pure element?! What is a pure element?! The author also even uses strange words! Why don't you just use the word affinity?! At least it's more common!"
"A cursed prince? Fighting demons, and then he failed? The darkness element overpowered him? Feeling depressed and ending up killing himself? What's the point of this story?!" For some reason he felt furious with the storyline. He didn't clearly understand the plot, even though he had just explained it in detail through his own mouth.
The story that Xavier cursed on was a Webnovel entitled 'The Ruler of the Wicked Forces' written by 'Purely recreational'. This story was currently booming on a platform and got millions of readers. According to the author's statement, he wrote the story because it was inspired by a painting from the renaissance era entitled 'Ten Years.'
Actually, Xavier knew about this novel because he was enticed by his own curiosity. There happened to be an antique freak who was willing to pay him handsomely if he was willing to steal the painting 'Ten Years', which was the inspiration for the novel from the national museum.
"Hah, even my client this time was also fooled into spending money just because of a trash fictional story full of plotholes like this!"
But, you also received money thanks to his stupidity, right?
"Don't they think that Vinson Bonaventure is actually just making up stories so that his paintings can become legendary? And perhaps this trash author is his descendant who also wants to continue the lies of his ancestors so that his work can also become famous." Xavier shook his head as he clicked his tongue in annoyance.
Drrtt ... Drrtt...
The phone in Xavier's hand suddenly vibrated. He could see an incoming call on the screen with the contact name [Ben]. The young man immediately slapped his forehead because he just remembered something. "Shit! Because of this barbaric novel, I forgot to deliver my goods!"
He slowly pressed the green button on his phone screen, while mentally preparing himself to listen to all kinds of swearing from the person on the other end of the phone.
"You son of a bitch!"
The young man immediately closed his eyes as he took a deep breath; He was right!
Xavier immediately took large strides, heading for his initial destination. "I'm still on my way. Don't worry, I'll be at the location soon—"
"What do you mean by 'don't worry'?! Now the police are after you! Can you still calm down in this situation?!"
Ben's words succeeded in making Xavier stop moving. The young man immediately froze in place. From the expression on his face, it was clear that he was shocked. "What do you mean?"
"Listen, now you-"
"Stay where you are!!! Do not move!!!"
Xavier stiffened as he choked on the spot. He turned his head across the street from where the voice was coming from. His breath was getting heavy, while his heartbeat was forced to work harder. Seeing the mob of police pointing their guns at him made his brain jumble up.
There was no other thought that crossed Xavier's mind besides the word 'Run'!
Xavier completely ignored the warning of the police who ordered him to stop and even threatened him with a gun. He kept running as fast as he could, without paying attention to anything else.
"No way the police dare to release a shot in the middle of this crowd!"
Hundreds of people, highways, even alleys full of rats, he passed them all using his agile body in order to free himself from the police pursuit.
However, because of all the chaos he makes, he heard a screaming lady and a baby cart running down the highway, while a truck came dashing toward it.
Xavier grew up without care for anything in his life, so he didn't know what came to him at that time as he decided to rush and tried to save the baby inside only to see the cart was empty.
"Fuck!!"
BAMM!!!!
He was crushed and thrown into the air for a moment before being smashed onto the asphalt viciously.
What followed was the screams of people who seemed to witness a horrendous scene echoed in his ears.
"Call an ambulance!"
"What happened?!"
"Is that person dead?"
"He's still alive, right?"
The pain gradually tormented Xavier, and it was followed by the foul smell of blood that pierced his sense of smell. The last thing on his mind was, "Why did that lady scream so loudly if there was no baby in the cart? ...Why?"
It appears he really was cursed…
Seconds after, his body stopped moving.
The seal of his soul was cracked; So, was his soul really going to fly away?
Xavier could sense that his body suddenly felt very light, like a feather floating in the air.
Very light ... Very light ... Until he finally closed his eyes.
"Shit! Why did my life end tragically like the ending of a novel...? This is even worse than the ending of that cursed prince…"
"...If only I could change that..."
"Hey, are you okay?" A young man's voice was heard. That person seemed to be trying to snap Xavier awake by shaking his body. He then said something strange. "Eve! Activate the system now!"
And at that critical moment, a voice suddenly sounded in Xavier's head.
System: [ Activation Code: "Cursed prince. Changing the ending of the story." Order executed ]
[System has been activated successfully!]