The bus conductor, a middle-aged woman named Fah, glanced at the young man—about her son’s age—with concern. But her worry was misplaced. The young man wasn’t there to kill himself. If anything, he looked more like someone who’d kill others.
The bus stopped at a roadside station, and Fethan stepped off. Dressed in a black coat, he walked into the cursed forest cloaked in a magic field.
This magic field ensured outsiders wouldn’t detect anything happening inside. The dark mage who kidnapped Stella had prepared everything in advance, laying an enchantment that blanketed half the forest. Though it seemed like an ordinary grove, walking inside felt like sinking into a trap-ridden bog. The air was still and lifeless, painted in hues of red and black—as if the world itself were cursed by hatred.
Fethan noticed a black orb circling above before descending in front of him. It swayed, guiding him forward. Each step felt like walking on needles, and tension climbed until his face flushed red. Then he saw it: a massive red tree, streaked with black bark and vein-like lines stretching through its branches. From them hung cocoon-like forms, motionless and still.
Beneath the tree sat a man with tattoos sprawling from his face down his arms. He rested in a rotting wooden chair, beside the bound and unconscious body of a young girl.
Fethan’s face darkened to coal. He forced himself to look at the bastard without lunging.
"Give me Stella."
"Where are the book and the map?" the dark mage, Shaman, asked.
Fethan slowly reached under his coat and revealed the items. The mage’s eyes lit up with hunger he could no longer conceal.
"Hand them over. Now."
"Just one question. How did you know I had these?"
"I saw it. Ever since you dealt with the cursed spirit I raised, I’ve been watching you. But I never expected you to be holding two of the Dark Magus’s relics. I was going to kill you yesterday, actually. I sent a cockroach, but you survived. Lucky me—it helped me confirm how valuable your stuff was. You cost me a whole year’s worth of luck." Shaman’s eyes never once left the book and the map.
'Damn it,' Fethan cursed his own carelessness. He knew Gamo’s notes were dangerous and shouldn’t be exposed, but the situation had forced his hand.
He lacked deep knowledge of dark magic. He hadn’t known the Sewer Rat King was a cultivated spirit. If he’d been more informed, he could’ve avoided being surveilled by Shaman. His ignorance of black magic brought this mess upon him.
"Are they really that valuable? I didn’t think they were anything special."
"Tch. You’re just a dumb kid who doesn’t know shit. You’ve got your hands on artifacts every dark mage in the world would kill for, and you don’t even know."
"I get the Gamo journal, but the Map of the Dead only shows spirit names, doesn’t it?"
"That’s why you’re an idiot. You think it’s easy to find powerful cursed spirits? That map shows where they are. Ghost paths. Demon mouths. Perfect ritual sites. Other dark mages’ tracks. Gamo wasn’t a legend because of his power alone. He knew where everything would happen before it did. Memorize that, dumbass."
In Shaman’s eyes, Fethan was a monkey with a smartphone—he stole humanity’s greatest invention and had no clue how to use it.
Fethan had unknowingly come into possession of a relic that could elevate an average dark mage into a Demon Lord. A single page from that map could spark a war that killed thousands.
‘Shit… I just thought it was useful for tracking spirits. I had no idea it could be used in so many terrifying ways. And now it’s in my hands? If he gets it…’
Just imagining it made Fethan’s skin crawl.
"Last question. Do you know anything about the death of Luminus Sterling?"
"Luminus? Oh, you mean that brat who died in the Forgotten City or whatever? Nah, I don’t know and I don’t care."
"I see…"
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Enough questions. Give me the goods and take your useless brat."
Shaman nudged the unconscious Stella with his foot, rolling her through the dirt. Fethan’s red eyes blazed with fury.
"Send the girl first. If you try anything, you won’t even touch a fraction of these."
"Hmph. Fine. But if you try anything, both you and the girl die. I have zero patience for wannabe heroes."
They both walked forward. Shaman tossed Stella to the ground, and Fethan placed the book and map down in return.
The moment Shaman’s hand left Stella completely, Fethan moved.
Timing it perfectly, he lunged for Stella just as Shaman reached for the relics. The mage’s eyes twisted in anger, and he flung a curse bullet from his wand.
‘Open the gate!’
Fethan cast the teleportation spell. The instant his hand touched Stella, the gate to Everland opened—and swallowed them whole.
The curse bullet tore through leaves, missing even a strand of his hair.
Shaman froze.
“…Heh. Hahaha! I’ve been watching him for days and never realized he could teleport. That bastard never intended to trade in the first place. Fine. I’ll wait. He will show himself again.”
He laughed in a low growl, caught off guard but not defeated. His only hope was that Fethan’s spell was dimension-based, not full teleportation—otherwise, the fun would be over.
Fethan reappeared in Everland with Stella in his arms. The moment he materialized, Lumi, the werewolf, Reaper, and Ricky all rushed toward him.
He touched Stella’s cold face, calling out.
"Stella, wake up. It’s me, Fethan."
But there was no response. His honed senses screamed at him. He put a hand under her nose. She was still breathing—but only barely.
"Stella, please wake up. Don’t scare me like this."
He shook her. Even slapped her cheeks.
His face froze. Memories surged. He was terrified. Terrified of repeating the past.
"Fethan, she doesn’t look good…" Lumi’s voice trembled. What she really wanted to say was: ‘She looks like a corpse drained of every drop of blood.’
Stella was still alive, but her body was ice-cold. Her pink skin was turning blue and bruised, like her cells were dying.
"A curse?" Fethan activated the Reaper Eyes.
Nothing. Not a trace.
That meant she wasn’t cursed. But he couldn’t understand what was happening.
The Reaper squeezed past the Hellhounds, eyes wide. After a moment’s observation, it scribbled a message.
{My Lord. The young lady is not cursed. Her soul has been forcibly removed. Her body is now an empty vessel awaiting decay.}
"No soul… But she’s not dead—her soul still left her body?"
{There are many ways to extract a soul. Most likely, the enemy knew the young lady is a Doom Vessel and wants to convert her into a powerful cursed spirit.}
“…I see.”
Fethan looked at her limp form. The girl who’d always brought misfortune to others… was now directly targeted by a dark mage.
‘He’s been watching us for a long time. How else could he know about Stella? He waited for the perfect moment.’
“I should’ve brought her into Everland from the start. This is my fault. I said I trusted her—but I still kept secrets. We just survived one crisis, and now this… It’s all my fault.”
"It’s not your fault. That dark mage never intended to trade in the first place," Lumi said coldly. Looking at the girl being killed by magic, she knew—as a Demon Slayer, she could not let this stand.
“Good thing I told you not to actually give him the relics. I don’t know when he started watching us, but he doesn’t know we can freely enter another dimension. Last time we used the Everland gate outside was against the Rat King. Unless he can see the future, he couldn’t have known.”
Originally, Fethan risked nothing. He got Stella back and kept the relics. But it seemed Shaman had never planned to honor the deal. Worst of all—
‘He meant to kill Fethan too.’
Lumi knew how dark mages thought. Shaman must have seen Fethan use the curse and realized his talent. Casting Fixare successfully on his first try was nearly impossible. No normal person could do it—unless they were born for it. If Shaman wasn’t trying to turn Fethan into a cursed spirit, then he was insane.
"Is there a way to save Stella?"
{If her body is still alive, and you retrieve her soul, then yes. Use Reverse Curse Magic to nullify the spell. But you must act before her body decays beyond repair.}
The Reaper glanced at Stella—she didn’t have long.
Fethan had to steal her soul back from Shaman.
And he needed a powerful and rare art: Reverse Curse Magic.
‘Reverse Curse… One of the few legal dark arts. But it’s not easy.’
He didn’t need to open Gamo’s book—he already knew it. It was even taught in magic academies, considered one of humanity’s most valuable spells.
It reversed enchantments and reset the target to their pre-curse state. If a soul was damaged, it restored it. Gamo had been obsessed—he’d written ten pages on it.
‘Hold on, Stella. I’m coming for you. Big brother is on his way.’
In the graveyard, beneath the gray tree, Shaman waited. In his hand, a vial—made from fine sand and human bone ash. It was a cloudy glass tube, no larger than a test tube, with a glowing violet dot inside.
It looked like a trapped firefly—but it was the soul of a little girl.
‘It hurts… It’s so suffocating…’
Stella huddled inside the vial. Every second made her feel closer to death. She was miserable. All she wanted was to go home to her big brother.
She had just woken early, heard the doorbell, and gone to answer it. Then someone had chloroformed her and stuffed her in a sack. The next thing she knew, she was trapped in this cloudy prison.
‘Mr. Fethan is in danger… It’s all my fault again. I never should’ve been born.’
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
She had watched it all—Fethan confronting the mage, risking everything to get her back.
Her soul screamed: I’m here!
But she also felt relief. He was safe. Maybe he would give up.
‘I should’ve died long ago. I’m useless. All I do is cause trouble. If I die, no one else will get hurt.’
She had given up.
Until a shadow appeared from nowhere.
Shaman smiled wide, the tattoos on his face resembling teeth stretching to his ears.
“I knew you’d come back. So? Want to trade the girl’s soul for the journal?”
“Even now, you think I’d bargain with filth like you? Someone who could hurt a helpless child? I’m going to kill you and take Stella’s soul back!”
Fethan’s voice thundered with wrath. This was the second time a dark mage had taken someone he cared about.
There would not be a third.
Things are heating up! I’m planning to drop a bonus chapter this weekend—what’s the best time to post it, do you think?