Vance threw his head back and laughed—wild, unhinged, triumphant.

"HAHAHHAHA! I FEEEEEEEL SOOOOOO ALIIIIIVVVAAAAAA!!!"

The sound bounced off the fractured dining hall walls like a chorus of devils howling in glee.

"IN MY HEART, IN MY BODY, IN MY SOUL, I CAN FEEEELL IIIT!!"

His voice reverberated through the air, charged with something darker, more primal. Hair tousled and unbound, strands flowing like a black waterfall caught in a thunderstorm, his body exuded a manic energy.

"IT'S SOOO GOOOOOOD! IT'S SOOO GOOOOOOD!!!"

Crimson veins of glowing power slithered beneath his skin like cursed lightning bolts, and his irises shimmered with a brilliant, sickly gold.

"You—" he gasped between ragged bursts of laughter, eyes locking onto Vonjo with a fevered glint, "you should be proud of yourself, big brother. My big big half brother! You've… you've awakened something in me! Something deep inside of me!"

The girls in the bullet comments were turned one.

[Sunshine_ofyour_Morning]: AHHH, me too! I'm so jealous! I want to be in between the two of them! Aaah! Blow it to me too! Blow it inside me! I want to awaken something inside me as well!

[BatGirl_Basket]: I'm so jealous! I wish I could feel it too! I want it as well!

[QueenofUnderworld]: AH!! VONJOOO SANN! VONJO SAMAAAAA!!!

As the girls were enjoying the show too much, Vonjo wouldn't react. No, it's more like he couldn't.

Vance raised both arms skyward like a messianic prophet gone mad.

A sudden gust of cursed wind billowed from his body, throwing debris, shattered plates, and lingering embers around him.

Shadows writhed like serpents at his feet.

"Yes, yes, YES! I've seen it, Vonjo! That veil between our human flesh and what once was divine! Before they were cast down, before they were twisted into Fallen—before they bled their divinity into this cursed land, gifting us what your pathetic tutors could never teach!" His voice cracked with ecstatic fury. "Fallen Curse Energy! The source! The origin! And now I can use it. I can call it. I can let it flow through me—forever!"

The entire room felt it. Even those not attuned to magic could feel the unnatural heat in the air, the vibration beneath their feet, the hum of power leaking from the mad boy's body like a dam on the verge of rupture.

Behind Vonjo, Eugene's eyes widened in disbelief, his breath catching in his throat. "He's like… Teacher Lorthran…?" he whispered, hands trembling. "He can use that?" The realization passed over him like a cold wind across his soul. This wasn't just any power—this was legendary, classified, secretive power.

Something that only a few in the entire human sorcerer had ever wielded.

Bullet comments flooded Vonjo's vision again like a storm of glass, shattering what composure he had left.

ShxckZilla: BRO WTH DID I JUST WATCH????

DarkSaber_17: Ain't no way this kid just unlocked fallen curse regen... that's a deathless build!

Ghost.exe: That's not a sorcerer anymore, that's a walking calamity. Sutterfouse genes GOATED!

BloodBurn: How do you beat that?? He can just HEAL FOREVER!?

L1L_XoxoDagger: Oh fuck. Oh fuck. We just witnessed a monster being born...

ArsenicCrow: RIP Vonjo lol you DONE BRO

Vonjo stood frozen, his breath caught somewhere between disbelief and rising dread. His bow lowered, his grip slackened.

That laughter—that damn laughter—was drilling into the space behind his ears like nails being driven through bone.

Then Vance spoke again, voice calmer now, but colder… infinitely colder this time.

"You know what, older brother?" Vance said, his words slicing through the still air like a surgeon's scalpel, "I was angry. Furious, really. Not at you—no, you were just the tool—but at our other brother. Your full brother. My… other half. My competition."

His eyes narrowed, lips curling into a sneer as he took a step forward, each movement graceful yet soaked in menace. "Last week, he awakened a second Doom. Can you believe that? Two. Crimson Doom and Cerulean Doom. Two Dooms—two legendary abilities passed down from the House of Sutterfouse. And what happened next?"

He laughed bitterly. "Oh, the changes in treatment were so fast. Everyone—everyone—turned to him. Father had him placed at the right side of the family banquet, Grandmother gave him the heirloom ring, even the old dog Ser Ruthor swore allegiance to him again. All those years I spent clawing for recognition—gone, like smoke."

He looked down at his hands, then clenched them tightly. "All the scribes wrote about him, all the guests sang his praises. The servants whispered his name like a prayer, and even Mother… my very own mother kissed his forehead."

Vance looked up again, eyes burning. "I was pissed! No, beyond pissed! And you know what I wanted to do? I wanted to kill you. You—Vonjo—the 'trash,' the unremarkable one, the brother everyone mocks. I wanted to end you, to make myself feel stronger, to relieve my stress over the fact that my rival was now above my level—far above my level. So I planned it. I planned to end your life, right here! Right now!"

"But then…" His lips parted into a madman's grin, teeth glinting under the cursed light. "Then you shot me. You—you gave me what none of them could. You awakened me. And in return… I got this."

He raised his hands again, and his body flared with an eerie dark light, healing completely before their eyes. The hole in his stomach sealed up, and the crimson trails vanished without a trace.

"Fallen Cure: Reverse Blessing." The words rolled off his tongue like a sacred hymn of damnation. "It matches our brother's Dooms. It counters them? Maybe. Comparable? Absolutely! You gave me a new purpose. You gave me… immortality."

Bullet comments continued to rage in Vonjo's eyes, each one more overwhelming than the last.

VoidTears: I can't—this is PEAK FAMILY DRAMA.

RedDeath1995: That's two monsters in one family... Sutterfouse lineage is BUSTED

SnooterKilla: Vonjo should just pack up and go home. He's a bug next to this.

Betrayal69: This is a real anime villain origin speech, I'm SHAKINGGGG

Piercing_Karma: What can Vonjo do now?? He's got NOTHING.

Vonjo's chest was tight. His mouth dry. He couldn't even feel the pressure of his bowstring as he raised it again.

And yet… he fired.

The arrow screamed through the air, spinning with righteous fury.

It struck Vance again in the chest, exploding upon impact with force enough to send another shockwave through the ruined hall, cracking support beams and hurling flames upward like a volcano.

But Vance only laughed again, louder than before, the fire around him curling back into his body as the wound closed before it could even bleed.

Vonjo grit his teeth and fired another shot—then another—his hands trembling, his mind spinning with panic and disbelief.

The third arrow blew out another section of the marble flooring and sent another guard flying. But again… Vance stood unscathed.

"I have to admit, older brother…" Vance said, slowly approaching, a twisted smile pulling at his face. "Your resolve… amuses me. You've sent four of them now."

He tilted his head. "You only have one left."

Vonjo's fingers froze on the string. His breath hitched.

The final arrow.

The last hope.

And his monstrous little brother—no, not little, not anymore—was walking toward him like Death in human form, cloaked in shadows and holy corruption, blessed by the curse of the heavens themselves.