As expected, the following weeks were really ‘fun’.
Michael was beaten black and blue dozens of times every single day for more than a month. How was that possible? It was pretty simple.
Sacred Constitution and River of Vigor worked well in unison. They worked together too well. Michael’s stamina remained relatively high at all times. Simultaneously, River of Vigor’s other passive effect aided his natural regeneration drastically. Most of his broken bones and bruises healed while fighting Selena. It was disgusting how powerful River of Vigor was, especially with Sacred Constitution improving his natural regeneration as well.
Sacred Constitution toughened his body in every possible way and improved his natural regeneration, only for River of Vigor to elevate his natural regeneration to another level.
Michael would have loved his natural regeneration and the toughness of his body under normal circumstances, but that wasn’t fun while dealing with Selena. If anything, Michael suffered so much that he considered jumping into the Spring of Abundant Life to escape Selena’s fists and kicks.
The biggest problem with Selena was that she didn’t give him any breaks. The only ‘breaks’ Michael was granted were when she knocked him out. That didn’t happen often, but it was usually enough to give him some well-needed rest.
Another good, yet not so great, point was that the World Serpent granted him access to more power than usual. The World Serpent’s Seals were active at all times, and the curse power replenished instantaneously thanks to the massive amount of curse power infused into every inch of surroundings. Therefore, Michael’s body was even tougher than usual. He also regenerated faster, giving Selena more leeway to beat up Michael.
It wasn’t fun, but Michael would have to lie if he said Selena’s beating was useless. At this point, a massive, black-scaled serpent tail grew out of his tailbone. It drained a considerable amount of curse power, but Michael wasn’t lacking any curse power. Even without the surrounding curse power, Michael would have had enough to maintain the serpent tail for a long time.
Controlling the Serpent Tail had been difficult initially, but the World Serpent helped him. It didn’t want to grant Michael access to too much power, but Michael’s constant losses were miserable. Since it was part of Michael, every loss against the Nest Leader indicated that the World Serpent and the Wolf Curse also lost against Selena. At first, that was fine. Michael was merely a Lowest Tier-4 powerhouse, after all.
However, as Michael’s losses increased, the World Serpent’s patience dwindled. The World Serpent aided Michael more and more until he learned how to control the Serpent Tail. His mastery over the Serpent Tail was not high enough to consider it part of his body, but Michael was good enough to last against Selena for a few more seconds. The duration he could last against her increased again when he used the Curse Transformation Arts alongside the World Serpent’s Major Seal.
The Curse Transformation Arts had to connect to a specific number of active seals to manifest parts of the Curse and merge them with the Curse User’s body. The Serpent Seals were enough to either conjure a thin scale armor, or a portion of the World Serpent’s tail – weakened of course.
However, Michael managed to release more power by connecting the Major Seal to the Curse Transformation Arts. Darkish-green, almost black, scales grew from Michael’s skin. They emerged all over his body, acted as a second layer of protection, and distributed the impacting force evenly. That allowed Michael to last even longer against Selena, who fought him unarmed.
She didn’t use a trace of energy or curse power and didn’t bother retrieving a weapon either. That would be an overkill. Selena was a Divine Lifeform, her punches and kicks were enough to kill Michael with one hit. It was only fortunate that Selena could hold back enough not to kill Michael. That would have been bad. Real bad.
Michael didn’t want to die just yet. Nonetheless, Selena didn’t spare him from anything other than death. She increased the intensity of her attacks when it was apparent that Michael was getting used to her movement sequence. 𝚏𝚛ee𝐰n𝐨𝘃l.𝐜𝐨m
Michael was overjoyed when he succeeded in connecting the Major Seal to the Curse Transformation Arts without any issues. The biggest problem was probably that the World Serpent allowed him to use the Curse Transformation Arts. It had yet to block his access. That meant Michael was having an easy time right now. He didn’t know how the situation would change once they left this place – the stomach of a fully-grown Curse – a loner who’d transcended the ages that killed countless God-like existences.
Michael tried to avoid that topic, but the World Serpent told him about this place. It was…not so nice.
He hoped his brother would finish forming his vessel soon and that they could leave as soon as possible. However, to leave, Michael had to link both Major Seals to the Curse Transformation Arts and successfully control the World Serpent and Wolf Curse as their body parts manifested all over his body and merged with him.
He was done working on the Curse Transformation with the World Serpent. His strength skyrocketed just enough to evade a few punches. His tail shot forward and swept Selena’s food away. Michael arrived before her, ready to punch the Nest Leader in the gut, when he saw her smile vibrantly. Her eyes stared intently into his as she reached the ground with her left hand. A light push against the ground propelled her back into the air.
Selena kicked Michael before he could punch her. Forced to change his tactic, Michael blocked the incoming kick with his scale-covered arms. The scales cracked, but they didn’t break under the tremendous force.
He was pushed back and required a quarter of a second to regain his foothold properly. Michael thought that the situation had changed in his favor, but it was evident that the Nest Leader was not yet satisfied.
Therefore, Michael started activating the Cursed Seals. He activated them one after another and connected them to the Curse Transformation Arts.
The Wolf Curse was not as helpful as the World Serpent. It didn’t want to grant him access to parts of its body and resisted a little. However, the World Serpent helped Michael. It hissed at the Wolf Curse and engaged in a fierce mental battle…in Michael’s mind.
Michael was having bad headaches whenever his Curses did something like that. It wasn’t very pleasant, but the result was better than expected. The Wolf Curse ended up complying. It allowed Michael to transform a little bit, at least.
Michael wasn’t having any issues with that since he was already familiar with connecting Seals with the Curse Transformation Arts. The only issue was that the manifested body parts of the World Serpent and the parts of the Wolf Curse that were about to form began clashing. Michael felt like his Curses continued their earlier argument in the physical world.
Fortunately, he was incorrect about that. It was just that the World Serpent and the Wolf Curse weren’t compatible.
That was an issue for another training session.
The scales covering his wrists and hands cracked and burst as his hands broke and deformed. A wave of pain swept through Michael, who was forced to block a few more kicks from the Nest Leader while the Wolf Curse’s metamorphosis was initiated.
His finger transformed into lengthy claws, curved like karambit daggersand sharper than most blades Michael hadever touched. His hands were thicker than before. Sturdier. However, they didn’t feel much different. It was almost like he always had these hands.
As for the serpent scales, they were regrowing, covering his claws just like they covered his hands before.
The metamorphosis of his hands was only the beginning. As more and more Cursed Seals were activated and linked, Michael observed his hair growing. The hair on his head extended and grew until his neck and a small portion of his shoulders were covered.
Something in his mouth cracked and shattered as well. It took Michael a few seconds to realize that the Wolf Curse’s metamorphosis also affected his jaw and teeth.
At last, the Major Seal is linked to the Curse Transformation Arts. His eyes changed. They turned into something more canine-like. Into the eyes of a predator.
The Curse Fusion was about to succeed on Michael’s first attempt.