Chapter 235: 41st Floor: Breaking the Curse
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 235: 41st Floor: Breaking the Curse
It was a night with a round, full moon.
In the middle of the forest, a pink-haired, large-breasted woman was bustling about.
‘It’s not like I’m performing actual surgery, so I can be a little casual about this, right?’
I took out several large, white hotel-style towels and spread them on the stone ground. These also counted as clothing, so I could store them in my Illusionary Garment, and I'd packed plenty.
I carefully had Shota sit on top of them, then opened the Divine Elixir.
With a soft pop, the elixir was unsealed. I could feel a divine power that was slightly different from my own.
‘Goddess Yustia? That was her name, right?’
“Drink this and lie down. I’ll take care of the rest.”
This was a private space, just the two of us. There was no need to maintain the whole older-sister-younger-brother act.
“Nu-Noona… you can just speak comfortably now.”
But it seemed Shota had taken a liking to the dynamic and wanted to continue it.
Of course, I agreed. Switching between formal and informal speech was more of a hassle anyway, and I’d even slip up sometimes.
“Alright… let’s do that. Just lie down, and when it’s all over, the curse will be gone. You can handle a little pain, can’t you?”
“Of course! I’m better at enduring pain than anyone!”
They say the curse itself causes pain in various parts of the body just by being there. He must have lived in constant agony for as long as he could remember.
But as of today, that was all coming to an end.
Gulp… Gulp…!
“Ah… ugh…! My body…”
After drinking the elixir, Shota’s face scrunched up as if in pain.
“Shota, hurry and lie down.”
I removed Shota’s shirt and placed my hand over his heart as he lay on his back.
‘I can feel it. The elixir’s energy is fighting the Curse of the Evil God.’
I had spoken to Shota with confidence, but in truth, I wasn’t sure.
‘Should I infuse my power? Now? Will it be okay? Is this the right thing to do?’
If I messed up, I could turn Shota’s body into a bomb and make him explode.
But I couldn’t let this chance slip away.
‘Right. If not now, I don’t know when I’ll get another chance to save Shota.’
My hand trembled with tension.
Slowly, I began to infuse my power.
The energy used in the elixir was fundamentally the same divine power, but one was mine, Lee Do-hee’s, and the other was the Goddess Yustia’s.
‘Please, let nothing go wrong!!’
Fwoosh!
Contrary to my great fears, the two divine powers slowly and gently mixed. Thankfully, there was no repulsion.
‘Phew… this feels like I’m removing landmines one by one.’
Of course, I hadn’t even really started yet.
The front line.
With a trembling hand, I sent my power toward his heart, where the elixir’s energy was battling the curse.
‘So this is the Curse of the Evil God etched onto his heart… It’s truly hideous.’
A magical sigil of the curse was etched onto his heart, sticky like tar. Every time blood passed through it, it became contaminated, spreading the curse throughout his entire body.
‘What should I do? All at once?’
No.
Slowly. I have plenty of divine power and plenty of time. Isn’t that why I came here?
First, I slowly mixed the elixir’s energy with my own.
Now, I could perceive how the elixir’s energy moved, just like my own divine power.
It moved differently from my own divine power, which simply destroyed curses with brute force. Instead of clashing with the curse, it attached itself to the curse’s outer wall, peeling it away piece by piece rather than trying to destroy it all at once.
Like detergent lifting a stubborn stain from fabric, it would grab a piece, pull it off, and drag it into an area full of divine power to be slowly disintegrated.
It was a far more delicate technique than my usual brute-force approach. But even so, the curse remained thick and resilient.
The curse was multiplying and regenerating faster than the elixir could eliminate it.
‘Bigger… I need to tear off bigger chunks.’
The elixir’s method was better and more efficient than mine, but it lacked power.
‘It’s my turn to step in.’
I had a rough idea of how to dispel it now.
First, I raised my Agility. Volume was important, but this time, technique was more crucial.
I stacked the Haste buff 30 times.
Agility: 1971.7 → 4071.7
As my Agility rose, my control over my divine power naturally increased with it.
‘Let’s go. I’m the one performing this surgery now.’
To start, I slowly channeled in my divine power, which was close to five thousand.
Fwaaah!!
The surroundings lit up with a pink glow, which then seeped into Shota’s body.
‘I’ll mimic the elixir’s movements.’
Not breaking, not crushing with force, but peeling and removing.
The sticky clumps of cursed energy attached to his heart were sucked toward my divine power and began to disintegrate.
“Knghhh…!”
Shota’s face twisted in pain, but I couldn’t stop.
Thickly condensed divine power formed a sphere around his heart, devouring the curse as if tearing it to shreds.
I repeated this process over and over.
If anyone who knew how to wield magic had seen this, they would have been horrified.
Normally, dispelling a high-level curse involves divine power moving according to the highly intricate and complex algorithms of a magic circle. But here I was, manually executing those automated movements by minutely controlling my power.
It was like solving a complex geometry problem—one that required difficult formulas—by simply drawing it out until it filled the entire test paper.
I was overcoming the laws and formulas of magical engineering, theology, and alchemy that humanity had built up over ages, purely through my control over divine power.
‘This feels similar to the Fifth Form of the Moon God Spear Manual, Half Moon.’
Half Moon. A technique where you hone your energy until it's thin enough to slice things at an atomic, even molecular, level.
I had practiced honing my energy to a razor’s edge with that technique.
If I hadn’t practiced it beforehand, this might have been a little more difficult.
The curse on his heart continued to be relentlessly torn away.
If I had just mindlessly poured in my divine power, his heart might have truly exploded before the curse was gone.
But since I was slowly peeling it away instead of crushing it, Shota seemed to be holding up okay for now.
I could feel sweat trickling down my body.
I couldn’t make a mistake.
At first, I thought it would be fine since I had healing spells, but…
‘Damn it, healing doesn’t work here…’
The area where the main body of the Evil God’s curse was attached was completely resistant to healing. If I had tried to cure him by blindly hammering it with divine power, there was a high chance Shota would have died before I could do anything.
I closed my eyes and slowly eliminated the curse clinging to the area around his heart.
Sweat pooled in my leather clothes, making my butt damp.
Even so, I didn’t lose focus.
How much time had passed?
I succeeded in completely removing all the curse from the surface of his heart.
‘Success…?’
But something felt off.
‘What? Why is there still a curse left?’
I briefly spread my senses and found…
‘It’s stuck all over the inside of his heart, too. Dammit!’
It wasn’t over.
A stickier, more disgusting mass of the Evil God's curse was swarming inside his heart!
The method of slowly peeling it off from the outside would no longer work.
‘What do I do? Should I make a thin hole, fill it with divine power, and then gently scrape it from the inner wall?’
I tried to infiltrate my power between the cells of Shota’s heart.
But it was instantly surrounded by the cursed energy, and I lost control.
“Kuk…”
I barely managed to retrieve it before it exploded.
‘I can’t peel this off from the outside. I need another way…’
If I can’t peel it off…
Then I’ll press it inward and gather it in the center.
Making a mental note to learn a proper curse-dispelling divine spell next time, I created a dense barrier of divine power and infiltrated it into his heart.
Not from one spot, but by enveloping the entire heart and seeping in between the cells.
The immense concentration was making my head spin.
Is this what they mean when they say a weak mind makes the body suffer?
It felt like trying to cross an ocean by swimming because I didn't have the skill to build a boat.
Still, with my extreme control over divine power, I could do it!
Crrrack…!
I pushed all the cursed energy clinging between the cells of his heart inward.
“Guaaaaaaaah!!”
‘Damn it, I need to learn anesthesia magic, too!’
Shota’s body trembled violently from the pain of his heart being torn apart.
He had endured it so well until now, but this time the pain must have been too great, as he lost consciousness.
Still, I had separated all the cursed energy from his heart.
Now able to use my healing spells, I cast them repeatedly while further compressing the remaining cursed energy.
All the sticky cursed energy was pushed back by my divine power, gathering into a single point in the center of his heart.
‘I have to annihilate it here.’
If even a little bit leaked out, it would start multiplying again.
I gathered it more and more.
I kept compressing the cursed energy, disintegrating it with my divine power.
The immense repulsion caused some of the energy to burst out in all directions, scarring Shota’s body as it passed.
A violent backlash of energy erupted, as if a big bang had occurred in Shota’s heart.
‘Shit… here comes the big one!’
The area once again lit up with a brilliant pink light.
Wooooong…! THUMP!!!
I blocked the explosion of divine power by surrounding it with yet more divine power. If I hadn’t blocked it, his body might have been turned to dust. Then I wouldn’t have been able to save him.
Not just Shota’s heart, but his entire body was repeatedly shattered and reconstructed by my healing. I pumped blood to his brain myself, using my divine power to circulate it directly.
Like containing a nuclear fusion plasma sphere with a magnetic field, I enveloped the cursed energy in layer after layer of divine power.
My whole body was drenched in sweat.
I focused solely on maintaining extreme control over my divine power.
Failure was not an option.
I had to perfectly control the vast, compressed amount of nearly five thousand divine power, even as the cursed energy fought back.
‘I can do this. Just hold on a little longer, Shota!’
*
A moment later.
Ssshhh…
It was a brief instant.
As almost all of the rebelling cursed energy was annihilated, my divine power overwhelmed it and crushed it completely.
All the cursed energy crumbled away like ash, leaving only divine power behind. Shota’s body was now overflowing with it.
“Hoo… is it… a success?”
I scanned his entire body and found it perfectly clean.
It was a success.
I did it!!!
“Haa… fuck, no matter how I look at it, this isn’t how you’re supposed to break a curse…”
Completely exhausted, I collapsed onto the ground.
As I slowly released my divine power, the area shimmered with a pink aura.
‘Sigh, whatever. Let them watch if they want…’
Someone else might just cast a divine spell with a snap of their fingers, but I had to manually control over five thousand units of power to get rid of the curse.
It was a challenging attempt, but it was also proof that my control over divine power was becoming strong enough to reach its very fundamentals.
And then,
“Ah… ugh…!”
Shota awoke with an instinctual sense of liberation.
His eyes shot open, sensing that something had changed.
He touched the spot over his heart.
“It’s, it’s gone… Really…! It’s gone!!!!” he shouted, overcome with excitement upon realizing the curse had vanished.
His physique was still the same, but I could see a slight change in his appearance.
His crossed eyes had returned to normal, and his once-droopy eyes were now bright and clear. This was only the beginning; everything would return to normal now.
“Finally, this curse… sob…”
“You did well, Shota.”
I wordlessly hugged the emotional boy.
“Huuuuuk…! Waaaaaah!!”
The curse that had tormented him for over twenty years was gone.
A life where he could barely walk on his own, where he might have died in a single day without someone to care for him.
Pain had been his constant companion, and he could only watch helplessly as his loved ones were brutally raped before his eyes.
But now, he too could enjoy the same freedom as everyone else.
He could walk on his own two feet, and he could run.
With a clear head, studying would be easier, and he would no longer have to live in fear of sudden death.
Most importantly,
Now, he could become strong. He could move forward and dream of a future.
“Thank you, thank you so much, Noona…”
“No, thank you for enduring it so well.”
We held each other in the middle of the sparkling, glowing pink aura.
Buried in my chest, Shota cried and laughed at the same time.
*
A short while later, the pink aura surrounding us faded, and the dark night returned.
“Haaa… Let’s just sleep here for tonight.”
I had brought a Camping All-in-One Kit in my inventory for just such an occasion.
I summoned it, and with the press of a single button, a tent large enough for about three people automatically unfolded.
“Hnngh…”
On trembling legs, I hugged Shota and entered the tent.
He felt a little heavier for some reason… but that’s probably just because I’m tired, right?
I was drenched in sweat, but I was too lazy to wash up.
Besides, for some strange reason, even my sweat smells fragrant. Sometimes I even enjoy the scent as I drift off to sleep.
Plop.
I changed into comfortable clothes and immediately lay down.
Shota was in my arms again today.
Just as I was about to fall asleep,
“Noona… I’m hungry…”
“Eh…”
Growl…
As if his body was burning through calories, Shota was complaining of hunger.
“Noona’s… can I have some?”
“Huh? Uh…”
While I hesitated, Shota boldly lifted my clothes, took out one of my large breasts, and held it with both hands.
Then, he skillfully kneaded my boob and gently rubbed the nipple.
“Ngh…!”
My pathetic breast, at the slightest touch, hardened its nipple and began leaking breast milk. Shota latched onto my nipple and began to suckle eagerly.
“Shota… wa-wait… Shota… Hnng…!”
For a moment, I wondered if he was up to something perverted, but surprisingly, he seemed genuinely hungry and just drank the milk quietly.
It felt like he was just a purely hungry baby, sucking on a bottle.
“Ahem… O-okay, eat as much as you want.”
I felt a little embarrassed, like I’d completely jumped to conclusions…
“Hnngh… Nu-Noona’s going to sleep, Shota. Eat your fill and go to sleep soon, okay?”
Had I ever used such a high level of concentration before?
Especially at the end, when the divine power was about to explode inside Shota’s heart, I was so drenched in sweat that even my butt and pussy were soaked.
Feeling Shota happily suckling on my breast, I slowly drifted off to sleep.
*
The next day.
Schlorp…! Slurp, slurp…
The sensation of my breast being sucked on gently woke me.
‘The little guy… must be hungry first thing in the morning.’
But, something feels different.
My eyes snapped open.
“Mmm?”
“Who are you… no, don’t tell me?”
A man who looked like Shota was stealing a meal from my baby’s milk jugs