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In a medieval circular plaza. Tens of thousands watched as a rope was tied around a naked, shriveled, and heavily wounded man's neck. His messy, ashen-colored hair covered his dull and emotionless orange eyes that stared at the ground. His body lay bare for all to see, scars and wounds of torture and torment still visible on his malnourished and weak, thin body. This man was named Raven Corvelier.
“BOO!
“BOO!
“DIE, YOU FILTHY ANIMAL!
Around him were countless loud screams filled with absolute disgust and hatred. Looks of hostility stared at him along with looks of mockery and disdain. He couldn't help but be saddened at his current state—he didn't even feel anger or hatred because all he felt was sadness and regret.
In front of him was an obese man wearing luxurious clothes and holding a sheet of paper in his hand. The man was reading something from the sheet. However, Raven couldn't care less as he merely stared at the sky, waiting for his death.
*Coward. A title given to those who are afraid of facing challenges and difficulties—in a world littered with beasts and monsters, being a coward is a taboo that is seen as dishonorable and undeserving of any respect and empathy.
But that is exactly what I am. A coward. All my life I've been running and avoiding challenges and hardships, always opting for easier and safer options. Even when someone's life is at stake, I would always prioritize my own. Although for some, cowardice might be seen as disgusting and shameful. However, for someone like me who has been a coward my whole life, cowardice showcases one's desire to live and see another day.
For what is honor in front of absolute power? What is bravery in the face of death? I have seen brave warriors going to war and never going back. I have seen knights who uphold the code of honor being betrayed by their closest companion. Their desire to ingrain their names in the annals of history led them to their death.
Yet, a coward like me was able to do what they can only dream of—fame, or more specifically, infamy. I, who was titled the “Tyrant Emperor” was a mere puppet to the nobles that desired power. I thought that once I became the emperor, the days of worrying about my life would end, even if I had to become a puppet. But I was wrong.
I did everything that they told me to. I poisoned my father, I ordered my sisters and brothers to be assassinated, and I killed all those who stood against us. Yet here I am. A rope tied around my neck, my naked and wounded body that is dangling a few meters off the ground, hateful stares looking at my disgraceful unclothed body. They betrayed me—they set me up. I'd only been managing the empire for a month when a coup d'état suddenly occurred. How unfair.
It's all my fault. I don't even feel any hatred or desire for revenge against them. After all, this world is inherently unfair.
I wasn't just a coward. I was also an idiot.
“I HEREBY DECLARE RAVEN CORVELIER TO BE GUILTY OF ALL OF HIS CRIMES AND SHALL FACE PUBLIC EXECUTION BY HANGING! ”
As soon as Raven heard the declaration of the obese man, he closed his eyes, awaiting the inevitable. The roaring of the masses filled with joy echoed throughout the plaza as the body of Raven hung lifelessly off the ground.
Yet, this isn't his end. Within the deepest layer of non-existence—a place of infinity, a conceptless domain, a never-ending obscurity filled with nothing but absolute darkness. It wasn't the abyss nor the void. It was deeper—far more deep—within this place, a singular glowing orb lingering, acting as the sole light within the dark.
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Within a dark and gloomy cave, a man with ash-colored hair, his face, although visibly famished, still lingers with beauty, his thin, malnourished body filled with scars covered with a veil of darkness, was fast asleep while sitting at a ruined throne made of polished stone.
As the man’s eyes slowly began to reveal themselves—two dull yet beautiful orange pupils stared at the darkness. Seemingly blessed by the dark, although the cave was devoid of light, the man still could see.
His eyes began to scan his surroundings, his eyebrows furrowed deep as he was utterly confused and disoriented with his current predicament.
*Huh? Where am I?
The man tried to voice a word. However, a sudden strong force stopped him from doing so.
*What's happening?
The man tried to move his body, yet not a single movement occurred. Only his facial features, with the exception of his mouth, were able to move. As for the rest of his body—it was seemingly paralyzed.
*Ah… I suppose this is the punishment for my actions…
The man has already accepted his situation and thought of it as punishment for his past actions. Accepting his current situation as punishment, the man closed his eyes, trying to fall asleep, when he heard an abrupt noise.
*Ting*
As the man’s eyes slowly opened, an ethereal red glow welcomed his view. It was in the shape of an unopened envelope.
*Wha-What? What is this?.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
The man was utterly confused by the sudden appearance of the envelope. His eyebrows once again furrowed, and he looked at the envelope curiously.
*What am I supposed to do? I can't even move my arms, so how should I open it? Am I being mocked or something? Should I try opening it using my thoughts?
*Open!
To his surprise, it worked—the envelope began to unravel itself, and as soon as it fully opened, a long, ethereal letter abruptly appeared in front of him.
[If you're reading this, that would mean that my soul has been fully absorbed—I know you're confused with what is happening and why you're still alive after dying. Let me explain—you've been reincarnated—if your world doesn't have the concept of reincarnation, just think of it as a ghost possessing another person's body—now let's continue with the explanation. Like what I've said, you've been reincarnated, and what you reincarnated into is an accursed body. Before continuing, try and summon your status—you can do it by just saying “status” in your mind.]
The man followed the instructions and did what was instructed.
*Status.
In front of him, an ethereal board appeared.
[Raven]
[Race: Accursed]
[Title: The Tormented One]
[Level: -999,999,999,999,999/100]
[Tier: 0]
[Strength: -∞ <-???>]
[Agility: -∞ <-???>]
[Endurance: -∞ <-???>]
[Intelligence: ??? <-???>]
[Vitality: -∞ <-???>]
[Ability/ies: N/A]
[Status: Curses <5,291,103,281,268>]
*What the hell is this? Is this thing broken? What are those symbols, and why do I have so many curses?
The man now known as Raven returned on reading the letter to figure out what is happening to him and to discover more about this so-called status.
[Now that you've seen your status, let me continue on with my explanation. As for now, I and our previous predecessors still only know a few things about the status—the information isn't yet proven, so treat it as an educated guess rather than the truth. According to our first-ever predecessor, or the original host of this body, status is the manifestation of the soul, which is why it has the ability to showcase our growth and information about us. However, according to another one of our predecessors, who is an expert at souls and the undead, the status lies far deeper than just our souls. He theorized that the status is probably connected to our existence or at least the existence of this body. This was proven after one of our predecessors found out that the souls possessing this body slowly disintegrate within a year and fuse with other previous possessors. Due to this revelation, our predecessors theorized that this body is fusing souls to create a soul compatible enough to house this body along with the countless curses that lingers within, however such thing would be impossible as a single curse would need two or more souls to contain not to mention the curses within this body is amplified by each other and according to my calculation it would need at the very least 20 trillion souls to contain all of the current curses but that isn't the reason why it is impossible—the reason why it is impossible to contain all of the curses within this body is due to the fact that each possessor would create one or two more curses related to their desire and action before they're reincarnated. This means that it is truly impossible, as the number of curses would increase as the number of possessors increases. If you're curious, you're the 3,502,182,282,698th possessor, meaning even if the amount of curses doesn't increase, it still would need more than 16 trillion souls to create a compatible soul—that is, if the theory was indeed correct.]
Having just found out that within the year his soul would be disintegrated and mended with previous souls, the thought of that didn't bother him at all, as he was already ready to be tormented and to suffer from the start.
[As for the symbols within your stats—which represent your physical, mental, physiological, and intellectual capabilities—according to one of our previous predecessors, it is called a lemniscate or a M?bius strip, which represents or is the symbol of infinity, and with our current situation, that would mean that we are infinitely weaker than any being. That's it—even after trillions of years, that was the only information that we were able to gather, as all of your previous predecessors, including me and the original host, were completely clueless and unfamiliar with the status. However, some of our predecessors have some insights after playing what they called RPG games or reading novels, and according to them, these so-called levels and tiers help you get stronger and let you ascend to a higher being—but it was taken as a mere joke and delusion by the other predecessors, while the others took that as a consideration, but as of now, there was no way of proving it. As for the title and race, it itself is very easy to understand. However, how it affects us still remains a mystery. That's it. That's the only information that I could give you. Don't forget to write one for the future predecessors, and don't worry about the fusion of our souls, as it would be painless and unnoticeable—all you have to do is slumber until your soul dissipates. Good luck.]
[By: Belmond Verlianter.]
Having finished reading the letter. Raven was somewhat relieved after getting reassured that his end would be painless and unnoticeable. Just as Raven's eyes began to once again close as he was about to take a rest, another noise abruptly disturbed him.
*Ting*
However, this time it wasn't the status. Raven expected to see the same ethereal envelope in front of him, but instead what he saw was pure darkness all around him except for the glowing orb that was levitating directly before him.
*Where am I now? This is the second time that I got transported to a place that I don't even know where. This can't be a coincidence.
*Maybe this is one of the curses taking effect?
As Raven was pondering, the glowing orb slowly began to move closer, slowly levitating towards his direction. Raven instinctively tried to move but wasn't able to and could only helplessly watch as the orb slowly got closer to him.
*Ah… maybe this was the curse that slowly disintegrates one's soul. This is supposed to be painless, right?
Raven waited until the orb touched his chest. The moment the orb touched his body, its light slowly began to dim until it had been fully extinguished. For a moment Raven felt a euphoric sensation all over his body.
*Oh. This feels ni-
All of a sudden, his body began to shiver uncontrollably, and the once euphoric sensation was replaced by an unimaginable amount of pain and agony that began to spread throughout his whole body. He can feel his body getting shredded in pieces before getting put back together and getting torn apart once more. He can feel his organs slowly melting from intense amounts of heat before being frozen in an instant. Raven began to cry, but even that felt painful, as each tear would dissolve his body like acid. Each part of Raven's body was experiencing agony in the most painful way possible.
As for his mind, images of unknown horrors began to flood his mind before getting replaced by visions of people getting tormented in the most painful and agonizing way. He would see them die in agony, then his memory would be wiped out before re-experiencing it again. However, those people that he saw weren't just humans—he saw countless races face the same fate. Death and agony.
*He lied. He lied. He lied. It wasn't supposed to be painful. Yet. He lied. He lied. He lied. I shouldn't have trusted that damn letter. I'm a fool.
He had no idea how long he had been stuck in the darkness, but he was sure that it had to be already a year or so, but in reality only a few minutes had passed. The only hope that he had was to be disintegrated and to fuse himself with the rest of the souls, though he wasn't sure if that was real, as he had long doubted the words in that letter.
In his mind more than 300 years have passed when in reality a year passed. He waited and waited for the time that his soul would disintegrate. His body has long turned into a blob of rotting flesh, while his mind has been shattered and destroyed, turning him into a mindless husk with no thoughts. The only thing keeping him afloat was his desire to die and cease to exist.
Suddenly, the unbearable pain and mind torture that he was experiencing abruptly stopped. However, the tattered and mindless husk of Raven has been broken beyond any repair, as he doesn't seem to care.
An ethereal board began to materialize in front of the husk of Raven. Unlike before, it was now black decorated with golden linings.
[Interference completed… Proceeding with existence reconstruction… Mental and physiological recovery commence… Authority placed… Transferring starting… Compatible reality found… Curses have been reused for the host’s authority… Completed…]
Within the dark confines of the cave, the blob husk that once was Raven's body entered a rift in realities that suddenly opened out of nowhere. In between the spaces of realities, Raven's body and mind were being reconstructed to imitate their previous state with a few changes.
Raven's body was now 6’3 with a slim yet muscular build. He kept his ashen hair and orange-colored pupils. As for his looks, he became much more handsome, rivaling deities of beauty and beings of desire and seduction. However, some anomalies happened during his reconstruction, as the total number of his teeth was 40, and four of his canine teeth grew sharper and longer than average.
As soon as his body was fully reconstructed, an enormous amount of energy began to seep into him. After that was finished, another rift in space appeared right in front of him—slowly and gently, Raven's body began to float towards the rift. When he entered the rift, his body found itself on the grassy ground in a glade surrounded by tall and lush trees.
The rift that transferred Raven began to patch itself until it ceased to exist.
As Raven lay on the ground, the warm ray of the sun began to shine down at his face, disturbing his slumber. His eyebrows furrowed, and his eyes slowly opened.
Welcomed by the ray of light, Raven covered his eyes with his hand, putting it right in front of his face. As his vision slowly clears, the sight of tall and thick trees surprises him greatly.
“Huh?”
Yet that wasn't the most surprising part, as realizing that he was able to move and speak, he was utterly stunned as memories of torment flooded his mind.
Feeling the heavy burden bottled up inside him, he couldn't help but want to cry—yet he forced himself to not cry as he was afraid to burn his skin. That's when he fully realized.
Looking around his body, his blobby flesh was no more, and the visions of tormented people and images of horrific beings are now gone.
After realizing that he was out of that cursed place, tears began to fall from his eyes. This time the feeling of wetness as the tear slowly dripped from his cheeks without burning his skin off gave Raven the assurance that he needed.
*Sniff*
“Finally. Finally, I'm free.”
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