Cursed Heir System: Revenge Against the Gods

The tavern groaned under the pressure as Janine and Zoe collided, wooden beams cracking like bones.

Janine smiled sharply, her violet eyes glimmering with wild excitement. She yelled, "Well, not half bad, lady!" and twisted her sword violently, pushing Zoe back with overwhelming strength. The table broke under them, splintering into pieces of wood that fell to the ground.

Janine stomped the floor, and stone spikes erupted, shattering planks and spearing toward Zoe's legs.

Zoe glided over the spikes with ease, flowing like smoke. With a hiss, her black-flame sword cut through the stone, turning shards into ash in the process.

Janine jumped back, her boots grinding into the ground as she raised her hand. Zoe's next blow was stopped when the ground trembled and a solid stone wall exploded from the tavern's floor. The wall was scorched by black flames that blackened it but did not penetrate.

"All right, masked lady!" Janine taunted, as she thrust her sword through the wall, the blade bursting out the other side, inches away from Zoe's chest.

With his heart racing, Alan held Moriko's arm to keep her down as he peered over the side of the overturned table. His eyes narrowed as he thought, "They're on another level. This fight isn't normal."

"Kitty, stay low," he muttered urgently. "We must avoid getting caught with those freaks."

Moriko growled, "Alan, she stole my meatball. I've got a grudge."

With her black-flame sword slicing through the air, Zoe lunged. With her bare hand, Janine caught the swing; the flames touched her skin but weren't leaving any marks.

Janine flashed her teeth as her smile widened. She mocked, saying, "Thought your fire would burn me? My skin hardly sparks at all!"

Janine twisted, her fist crashing into Zoe's chest with a thunderclap. The blow launched her like a cannonball. Zoe flew upward and crashed through the roof of the tavern with a loud crack.

Wood broke apart, and rain poured through the hole, soaking Janine's face. She stood there as her silver-pink hair shone with water as she looked above. Zoe vanished into the stormy night sky.

Alan exhaled as he muttered, "That tanned freak could've flattened her in a few seconds, but she's holding back."

Moriko narrowed her eyes. "Why?"

He looked at Anna, who stood frozen while staring at the hole in the roof. "To avoid hurting that girl in crossfire."

There's something about that girl, something Zoe wants her to die, and Janine's protecting.

Marlene gazed up at the ragged hole while clutching her bloody shoulder, her voice trembling with fear and hope as she whispered, "Has she gone?"

Yulder shook his head and winced. "No way," he rasped. "She seems too stubborn to give up."

Anna's red eyes remained fixed on the hole with suspicion. She whispered, barely audible, "I can't track her presence."

There was a slight crack above them. Zoe dropped through the splintered roof, her black-flame sword descending toward Anna's skull. In an instant, Janine appeared at Anna's side, causing the tavern to gasp. Her greatsword swung up, meeting Zoe's blade, but Zoe's form shimmered and dissolved into black mist; it was a trick.

Janine's eyes widened as she realized the trick—it was too late.

She spun, cursing, but Zoe was already behind her, black flame arcing like a comet. Janine barely lifted her blade to deflect the blow, but the force sent her flying across the tavern.

She crashed through the counter and smashed into a shelf of bottles that shattered in a spray of glass and liquor.

Anna gritted her teeth with anger. "Enough!" she shouted, summoning her mana bow.

A blue arrow glowed, pulsing with mana as she fired at Zoe.

Zoe's masked eyes turned to her as she caught the arrow in mid-flight as it screamed through the air.

Before Zoe could strike back, a fiery whip snapped around her ankle. She looked at her ankle and turned towards Alan, who was grinning just like Janine.

He gave a mocking yank. "I got you!" Zoe fell to the ground with a heavy thud, her blade falling next to her.

Alan took advantage of the situation and slammed his knee into her ribs by jumping on her. Under her mask, her grunt was muffled. He raised his bloodied sword.

He locked his blazing blue eyes into her mask and said, "You've been a real pain in everyone's ass."

Zoe reacted with terrifying speed, her long legs snapping up, wrapping around his neck like a silken trap. Her thighs tightened with bone crushing force and pulled him down.

With a fluid twist, she flipped him and pinned him, straddling his chest with terrifying grace.

Moriko screamed as she jumped at her. "You masked freak, get off him!"

But Zoe snatched Moriko by the throat with uncanny accuracy and hurled her in the direction of Anna, who was preparing another mana arrow.

Anna tried to catch the catgirl, but the force sent them both tumbling to the ground.

Zoe turned back to Alan, expecting fear as she looked at him through her black mask. But she saw he was smiling, his eyes glimmering with reckless confidence. Despite the blade touching his skin, he quipped, "Gotta say, didn't expect to get taken down by a lady's thighs."

For now, she needed Alan and Moriko alive.

Dark mist mana swirled from her fingers as she raised her hand. Alan's eyes widened when he realized the spell was a mind control magic that temporarily cripples enemies by trapping them in nightmares.

"No, no, don't do that," he screamed as Zoe's hand reached for his forehead. It's doesn't matter to her. She'd end this, just like always.

But something went wrong. The tavern disappeared as Zoe's vision became blurry.

—

She stood in a vast, dark void, a pressure like a thousand graves crushing her chest. She looked around and couldn't find anything, like it was nothingness, but she felt someone was there.

"Who's there?" she whispered for the first time with a trembling voice.

"I AM." She heard a cracked voice; she turned around and caught a faint glint. A huge throne of stone stood in the darkness.

Something sat on it, covered in ash, giving off a pressure that twisted everything around it.

With a rough, glitching voice that tore at her mind, the entity slowly rose from the throne. "You think you could get inside my boy's mind, huh?" Like a broken stone, the voice rasped.

Zoe tried to run away as it got closer, but she was immobile, and her limbs felt heavy. "You came to me instead, and it's been a while since I've had guests other than him." Reaching out, the entity removed her mask.

Her youthful face tensed, lips quivering, icy blue eyes stretched wide in terror. The thing tilted its head, looking at her. "Wonderful mask." With a grin that brushed against her sanity, it rasped, "Cuter without it."

"This is a small token of appreciation for stopping by."

It pressed a shadowy finger to her forehead, and a surge of dark energy burned through her.

Her mind sank into a nightmare that tore at her sanity.

—

She stood on a battlefield soaked in blood, the ground sticky with blood, with bodies piled high in twisted heaps everywhere. The silence was broken only by the drip of blood.

She looked around in fear and saw a young man with gray hair sitting atop a pile of corpses like they were his throne, his torn clothes dripping blood, his chest heaving with rough breaths. He lifted his head slowly, and Zoe's heart froze.

It was Alan, but different.

The light seemed to be swallowed by the ferocious, unstoppable killing intent that burned in his empty blue eyes. His gaze locked onto her, and it wasn't just fear that gripped her; it was a deep, primal dread, as if his stare could rip her soul apart.

Something in his face, something not meant for this world, made the ground tremble as he smiled.

—

The tavern's silence was broken like lightning by Zoe's scream, a raw, soul-breaking shriek.

Her scream reverberated off the shattered walls as she came back to reality.

Janine got up from the debris while holding her ears at the raw screams of Zoe.

"What… what was that?" Zoe gasped, her voice raw and trembling as she stumbled to her feet.

Her breathing came in short, broken gasps. Her fingers twitched uncontrollably, trying to reach for her blade, but her limbs didn't obey.

"Get... out..." she whispered to no one, her voice trembling like a lost child. "Get out of my head... get out…"

Every eye in the room—Janine's, Anna's, the guards', the patrons'—was fixed on her with confusion.

Then she ran.

Not a retreat. Not a vanish. She ran, panicked. She bolted. Slipping once, catching herself on the wall, then kicking open the tavern door with such force it broke from its hinges and running into the pouring rain.

Janine, who planned to make a finishing blow, stood frozen, her violet eyes fixed at the open door. "Did she just… lose it?" she muttered as confusion replaced her battle-ready grin.

Moriko's panicked voice broke the silence. "Alan!" She scrambled to his side, shaking his limp body, her golden eyes wide with fear.

"Alan, wake up! Don't do this!"

Tears streaked her face as she turned to Anna, voice breaking. "Please, save him; he's not moving!"

Anna immediately approached and knelt beside Alan, her hands glowing with blue mana as she checked his body. Her crimson eyes widened, her breath catching as she sensed something unusual. Moriko grabbed her arm with a desperate voice. "Why won't he wake up? What's happening to him?!"

Anna's face turned pale, her mana flickering as she met Moriko's pleading gaze. "I… I don't know," she admitted, her voice barely a whisper. "There's something… wrong."