CHAPTER 1156: VESSEL OF THE CURSE

Ultimately, under Orion’s watchful gaze, Elara opened her mouth and chomped down on the egg with all her might.

Once again, she failed.

"Daddy," she said with a theatrical sigh of defeat, "I guess I’ll just hatch it instead." The look on her face was one of pure, reluctant concession.

"Alright, then. It’s all yours!"

There was just one problem. Elara had no way of accepting the gift. With life now stirring inside, the dragon egg could no longer be stored in a standard dimensional space. She hugged the egg, which was bigger than her entire body, and looked up at Orion with a helpless, pleading expression that completely melted his heart.

Orion took the egg back and placed it gently on his throne. "I’ll keep it here for you," he said softly. "You can come visit it whenever you have time, how does that sound?"

"Yay!"

She scrambled onto his shoulder and planted a loud, happy kiss on his cheek.

And so, the two of them sat there on the throne, father and daughter, each holding their own dragon egg, lost in thought and quiet affection. Orion never would have guessed that the problem of hatching the eggs, which had plagued him for so long, would be solved the moment Elara ascended to the Legendary level. Feeling the steady, rhythmic beat of the heart within the shell, he estimated that his World Dragon avatar would emerge in a year or two at most.

Cradling the luminous egg, Orion once more let his consciousness drift into a deep, meditative slumber.

***

Valkorath Realm, Soraya City.

Within the Purification Tower, the eyes of Orion’s mirrored avatar slowly opened.

Elara’s breakthrough, followed by the activation of the World Dragon incubation, had sent his mind racing down new, uncharted paths. He focused his senses inward, on the Bloodline Curse Cocoon that lay sealed within him.

Purifying it... what a waste of potential.

Ever since Orion had consumed the bloodline seed, the giant’s bloodline in both his true body and his mirrored avatars had begun to weaken. The process was slow, the changes not yet noticeable, but it was happening. A new thought struck him: what if the bloodline seed could consume the Curse Cocoon as well?

He wasn’t sure, but it gave birth to another idea. A wild, borderline insane idea.

He would hijack the Bloodline Curse Cocoon. He would use it as a vessel, a chrysalis from which he would cultivate a brand-new avatar.

The idea was sparked by a skill he had long considered useless: the Scroll of the Devouring Avatar. It was an ability that allowed him to consume the fledgling form of a creature and claim it as his own. If the target was unconscious or had no will of its own, the success rate was one hundred percent. If it was conscious, the odds plummeted to thirty percent at best. He’d never found a suitable target, so the skill had collected dust.

But the unexpected hatching of the dragon egg had brought the Curse Cocoon to mind.

With the bloodline seed steadily consuming his innate power, Orion was facing an inevitable period of weakness. The need for a new, powerful avatar was no longer a luxury—it was a necessity. The Curse Cocoon inside his mirrored avatar was the perfect target. It was a masterpiece of a god’s making; if he succeeded, its potential would be off the charts.

"Let’s do this," Orion muttered, steeling himself. Even if the attempt failed, he reasoned, being inside the Purification Tower should shield him from any catastrophic backlash.

He closed his eyes, his consciousness diving deep within his own body. Empowered by the Scroll of the Devouring Avatar, his will twisted and reshaped itself into that of a starving beast. It locked onto its prey—the Curse Cocoon—and lunged without hesitation.

ROAR!

Within the inner world of his bloodline space, something inside the cocoon was violently awakened by the intrusion, letting out a terrifying, soul-shaking bellow. But that roar was immediately answered by another—the roar of a Titan god.

In Orion’s perception, the phantom of a colossal tower materialized, slamming down on the Curse Cocoon and pinning it in place, quelling its violent thrashing. It was the phantom of the Purification Tower itself.

Bolstered by the aid of the Titan god and the Tower, Orion’s confidence surged. He plunged his consciousness directly into the heart of the curse.

A cacophony of psychic whispers flooded his mind.

"Consume... consume... consume..."

"Curse... curse... curse..."

"I will not yield... not yield..."

"No... no... no..."

"Stay away... away from... the Abyss..."

The sounds were a chaotic storm. At first, it was the gnawing and tearing of some unknown horror devouring its prey. Then, it shifted to the indignant roar of a being cursing its enemies. That was followed by a voice filled with absolute terror, a desperate, broken confession of some unforgiveable mistake.

After that, the sounds of slaughter and consumption began to alternate, a deeply unsettling rhythm of violence.

When Orion’s consciousness finally stabilized amid the psychic noise, he found himself staring at a monster.

It was a giant, but one hunched over on all fours like a beast, with long, sharp tusks jutting from its jaw. Its back was a grotesque mass of spines, each one etched with sickening, pulsating runes. It looked like a monstrous fusion of giant and porcupine.

As Orion watched, the glowing runes on the spines seemed to writhe, and the spines themselves split open, revealing distorted, screaming faces—the faces of other giants.

They wept, they laughed, they shrieked, they raged. He saw every negative emotion imaginable reflected in those trapped faces: jealousy, wrath, greed, gluttony, cruelty, savagery...

What in the hell is this thing?

"You’ve come," a familiar voice echoed in his mind. "I didn’t think you would have the courage to enter this place."

It was the voice of the Titan god, the same one he had heard on the Cult of Four’s Dais of Judgment during his battle with the Abyssal Devourer.

"This is the monster of the Bloodline Curse."

As if sensing Orion’s confusion, the god explained. "They were once giants, like you. But they were corrupted. Now, they have become the curse itself, and in this form, they wage war against us from within our own blood."

They?

As the thought crossed Orion’s mind, the crimson mist before him parted. Behind the first monster stood another. And another. And another, stretching back into a countless, writhing horde of identical abominations.

"The fact that you are here means you have a purpose," the Titan god’s voice boomed. "Whatever that purpose may be, prepare yourself for battle, my unknown descendant!"