The Strongest Curse Master

"Little sister, I'm Elinor McSuile. What's your name?" Elinor asked, snapping out of her initial shock as she adjusted her grip on Bartha's lifeless body. Since the girl had sweetly called her "sister," it only felt right to return the gesture—though it wasn't as if she had any illusions about her actual age.

The little girl straightened up proudly, as if she'd rehearsed this moment a hundred times, answering Elinor, "My name is Lilith Evelyn Willith."

"Lilith, where's your dad?" Elinor asked Lilith, ignoring the man standing beside her corpse throne, believing that no father in his right mind would turn his daughter into a curse salve, let alone bring her to a battlefield and allow her to participate in such gore. But once again, Elinor had underestimated the cruelty of the world. Lilith simply pointed to the man beside her and said, "This is my dad, Lance T. Willith."

Before Elinor could fully process that, Lilith's next words hit her like a punch to the gut, "Sister, does that mean you agree to help Death earn our souls?"

Elinor froze. Her already pale face drained of what little color remained, her expression twisting in horror. She had barely registered those words the first time. But hearing Lilith repeat them—this time with relief, even excitement—made her mind stall, unable to process anything properly.

Sensing the storm brewing inside her, Ace smoothly stepped in. Without a word, he hoisted the wicker jar containing the mutated rust worm onto his back. Small vines extended from his plant armor, wrapping around the jar to hold it securely in place.

"Hey, Lilith," he greeted with a steady voice and continued to introduce himself, "You can call me Apex. If you don't mind, could you tell me why you want Sister Elinor to kill you and your father?"

He made sure not to lie—something told him this little girl was far sharper than she let on.

Lilith stared at Apex Ace for a long moment, her eyes studying him intently. Just as he started to think she wouldn't answer, she finally spoke, inquiring, "Apex, are you a Moon Warrior? Do you know Doctor Druid?"

Ace hesitated for a fraction of a second before deciding to roll with it. "Yes, I do," he said, keeping his voice steady. There was no way in hell he was going to kill a little girl—or force a father to die in front of his daughter. No amount of reasoning could make him cross that moral line.

Lilith's expression darkened. "You're lying. Doctor Druid isn't real. I hate it when adults lie to me." Her voice trembled with frustration, and in an instant, her presence exploded. The air around them turned suffocating, frigid, and unnatural.

Her tier had shot up from Mortal tier to Ocean tier in the blink of an eye.

Apex and Elinor felt it immediately, an oppressive, bone-deep chill that made their instincts scream at them to run. For a moment, it was as if they were being stared at by death itself. No, it wasn't her sudden Ocean-tier strength; the girl herself was the danger.

"No, I didn't lie!" Apex said quickly, forcing himself to suppress the terror clawing at his chest. Acting on impulse, he summoned Doctor Druid. "See? She's right here."

A figure materialized beside him—a green-skinned woman with long, flowing red hair. Her armor, made of leaves and vines, clung to her voluptuous form. Thorny vines wrapped around her eyes like a blindfold, extending upward to form a tiara.

As soon as Lilith saw her, the tension in the air lifted. The crushing presence faded, and both Ace and Elinor let out quiet breaths they hadn't realized they were holding. Neither of them fully understood what had just happened, but one thing was clear—Lilith was not to be underestimated, no matter her age or status as a curse slave.

Lilith's eyes narrowed as she scrutinized Doctor Druid from head to toe. Then, suddenly, she pointed an accusing finger, "She's fat! Doctor Druid isn't fat!"

A beat of silence.

Ace blinked, caught off guard, while Doctor Druid merely arched an elegant brow. She wasn't fat—far from it. Voluptuous? Yes. Curvy? Absolutely. But her waist was trim, and if anything, the subtle eight-pack on her abdomen only added to her striking figure.

Luckily, Doctor Druid didn't seem offended. She simply assumed Lilith's vocabulary was limited. But she did make use of her shape-shifting abilities to reduce her curves to match her original comic depiction that millions loved and admired. Seeing one of the heroes she had admired as a child exist in flesh Lilith's eyes shone brightly. Yes, she no longer saw herself as a child since none of the adults in her life treated her as such. Regardless, she was still a child; she only realized this after witnessing Elinor's breakdown during their conversation. However, her experience taught her not to act like one unless she planned to weaponize it.

"Lilith, did you give your emotions to your father to slow the deterioration of his soul and delay his complete transformation into a Curseling?"

Doctor Druid's words came out of nowhere, just like in the comics—dropping a truth bomb that left both her opponent and the audience stunned. But she was far from finished, she continued adding, "Whatever curse art you're using to transfer your emotions to him… It's turned you into a half-death, putting you in a state of pseudo-death, stunting your growth."

Apex Ace's eyes widened as the realization hit. That was why MindBug's innate curse tool—and even Doctor Druid—had failed to detect Lilith's mental and emotional activity. The little girl had willingly chosen to live as a half-dead, all to preserve what was left of her father.

But something still didn't add up.

If Lilith was feeding all her emotions to her father… then what had they just witnessed? Her relief? Her excitement? Her anger? Where had those emotions come from?

Ace exhaled sharply, shaking his head. There was no way a child could go through something like this and remain unscathed. It was more likely that the only reason they were even able to talk to this version of Lilith was because she was continuously feeding her emotional madness to her father—a mutated rust worm. She was keeping him from completely losing himself, preventing his full transformation from a Curseling with a human soul into a true Curseling.

But why?

Mutated rust worms shouldn't feed on the emotions of their human soul to recover their curse energy unless they were desperate—that too in moderation. Unless they were willing to sacrifice the last shreds of their humanity, they would adhere to it. From the looks of it, Lilith's father appeared to have abused the emotions of his human soul by overfeeding on it on numerous occasions to recover his curse energy. As a result, his soul was now deteriorating and needed to feed on his daughter's emotions to delay the inevitable.

Ace could piece together their present, but the past remained a mystery. Lilith had avoided talking about it earlier, and he doubted she'd open up now.

Lilith, meanwhile, studied Doctor Druid for a moment before her lips curled into a small, impressed smile.

"You figured all that out just by reading my emotions? That is awesome. So you really are Doctor Druid." She hesitated, then added, "Sorry that I called you fat."

Her apology was genuine. Doctor Druid just smirked, unbothered. She wasn't petty enough to hold it against a pitiful little girl. Because of her racial traits, she alone comprehended the sheer madness within Lilith. She struggled to keep it from consuming her; after all, madness was infectious, and the amount the little girl concealed in her heart and mind was enough to burn down the entire country to the ground.