I ascend to the throne of God with arcane magic.

Chapter 852 [The Curse of the Red Dragon Alvarez]

Pearl Sea
Rune's final blow caught Li Si completely off guard.

Or rather, this curse, which is almost based on the rules of cause and effect, was something that Li Si couldn't do even after he realized it.

These hideous, blood-red curses, like branding irons tempered by flames, were deeply engraved beneath Li Si's skin.

It was not a static pattern, but a living thing surging with thick hatred, each bloodline gleaming with a dark red luster, as if soaked in the blood of millions of vengeful spirits.

It had already seeped into Li's blood, surging through his veins with every heartbeat. When the blood flowed through his muscles, those blood vessels were like living vines, tightly wrapping around the muscle fibers, causing each muscle to feel a tearing pain; when the blood seeped into his bones, a needle-like pricking pain came from deep within the bone marrow, as if countless ice picks were piercing upwards along the bone marrow cavity.

This curse is like a bottomless black hole, slowly devouring Li Si's life force, like a greedy vampire parasitizing Li Si.

Li Si's brows furrowed, his knuckles turning white from the excessive force, but the curse seemed to have a life of its own, tightening its grip the more he struggled.

When Li Si tried to stare at the curse, his eyes stung, as if countless tiny needles were crawling on his eyeballs.

It was as if the curse was directly burning into Li Si's mind, with the roar of a giant dragon constantly emanating from the depths of the curse.

The sound was not the deep roar of an ordinary dragon, but a shrill scream mixed with pain and madness, as if millions of giant dragons were trapped in a cursed cage, tearing with their claws and gnawing with their fangs, trying to break free from this invisible shackle.

Each roar was like a heavy hammer blow to Li Si's soul, slightly affecting his thinking.

He felt as if he were on a battlefield where dragons were fighting, seeing countless dragon wings that blotted out the sky and the dragon breath that scorched the earth.

Sometimes it felt as if I were enveloped by the gaping maw of a giant dragon, its stench assaulting my face, its sharp teeth about to pierce my throat.

"trouble!"

Li Si shook his right hand, which was now entangled in the curse, with a headache and a somewhat solemn expression.

It can only be said that Rune's frantic counterattack before his death was indeed a tough challenge for Li Si.

This red dragon curse is not actually Rune's own power, nor is the target of the curse Li Si.

In order to defeat Li Si, Rune paid an exorbitant price, forcibly killing an extremely powerful legendary red dragon and offering it as a sacrifice to Mara, the god of the hunt.

However, what Rune didn't expect was that this legendary red dragon named Alvarez was not simple.

He was one of Tiamat's many favorites.

Because of this identity, this legendary red dragon also possesses some of the power bestowed upon it by Tiamat, the mother of the five-colored dragons.

Generally speaking, Rune has no need to provoke such an existence.

But Rune had no other choice.

The sacrificial rituals to Mara, the god of the hunt, and other evil gods were essentially the same: the more powerful the object of the sacrifice, the more power was bestowed upon it.

It was precisely because of the sacrifice of Alvarez, a legendary red dragon with a special and powerful identity, that Rune was able to rise to a rank close to that of a demigod.

Of course, this legendary red dragon was just an appetizer; the ultimate goal of Rune's sacrificial ritual to the God of Hunting and the Endless Abyss was Li Si.

His strength was able to increase so much because Rune had given him a portion of the blessing in advance.

Of course, if Rune really succeeds in sacrificing the World Tree's chosen one, Li Si, to the God of Hunting and the Endless Abyss, then he will not only be able to make up for his previous debts, but also receive even greater power.

But now, the result of failure is that everything comes to nothing.

However, before his complete death, Rune left Li Si with a big "surprise".

The killing and sacrifice of the legendary red dragon Alvarez was not without cost for Rune.

That red dragon curse is the price Rune has to pay.

Before his death, Alvarez used all his strength to curse Rune.

Curse Rune: [Your soul will suffer our wrath, your life will be devoured by us!]

As the son of the god of the hunt, Rune had previously killed many five-colored dragons, and the resentment and anger of these dragons had been haunting him ever since.

Of course, normally this kind of resentment wouldn't affect even a legendary rune, let alone an ordinary extraordinary professional.

However, guided by the legendary red dragon Alvarez, these resentments transformed into the deepest curse power, entangling Rune.

For Rune, this was naturally a rather troublesome and tricky matter.

With the influence of Tiamat, the mother of the five-colored dragons, and the combined power of the remnants of those dragons, this has already surpassed the level of legendary power.

At least, Rune has no way to break the curse.

However, having embarked on this path, Rune had no other choice; if he could not kill Li Si, death awaited him.

Under these circumstances, Rune no longer cared about the curse.

If he successfully kills Li Si, he can pray to Mara, the god of the hunt, for help in lifting the curse.

If he fails to kill Li Si, then death awaits him.

The person is dead, so what effect can this curse have?
However, this curse has now become the best way for Rune to take revenge on Li Si.

Generally speaking, this Red Dragon Curse is the dragon Alvarez's revenge against Rune.

Rune is dead, so the curse will naturally dissipate.

But in the end, Rune exhausted his remaining soul and power, giving it all away to Li Si without any compensation.

The death of the dragon Alvarez was part of a rune sacrifice ritual.

The target of this sacrificial ceremony was Li Si, and in a sense, Li Si was also a participant in this sacrificial ceremony.

Rune offered himself as a sacrifice, bestowing power through a hunting ritual, thus briefly connecting Li Si with himself.

At this moment, the Red Dragon Curse mistakenly believes that Li Si is also a "Rune", and thus transfers into Li Si's body.

Li Si looked at the spot where Rune had completely disappeared, shook his head, and sighed:

"What a ruthless person!" It was precisely because of Rune's method that Li Si was able to glimpse Rune's fragmented soul memories and understand everything he had done.

You must understand that by making this choice, Rune has truly disappeared completely.

Forget about entering the kingdom of Mara, the god of the hunt; they didn't even have the chance to descend into the endless abyss.

Such a resolute decision clearly demonstrates the intensity of Rune's resentment towards him!

Li Si sighed, realizing that Rune's attack was something he hadn't anticipated.

Moreover, it did indeed pose a considerable threat to him.

If Rune hadn't ultimately chosen to attack Li Si's soul, dealing with him would have been even more troublesome.

But in reality, there are no "what ifs." The one standing on this vast ocean now is Li Si, not Rune.

After adjusting his own condition and clearing away the abyssal power in the sea caused by Rune, Li Si summoned the system panel.
-
Ding~
[You have entered combat mode!]
[Limited-time challenge mission triggered!]
[Objective: Defeat the legendary hunter Rune!]
[Reward: Determined based on task completion]
[Through fierce battle, you defeated the legendary hunter Rune, completing the limited-time challenge!]
[Starting mission reward assessment!]
[Judgment: Solo challenge. Successful judgment, reward slightly increased!]
[Judgment: All-out effort. Judgment failed, reward slightly reduced!]
[Task completed, 110% completion, reward being distributed]
[You have gained 22 billion experience points!]
[You have gained the "Hunting Instinct" perk!]
[You have achieved the milestone "The Fall of the Hunting God Child"!]
[You have gained the skill [Gale Triple Shot]!]
Hey~
[Due to special circumstances, you have gained the special ability [Runic Gift]!]
[Due to special circumstances, you are affected by the negative status effect [Curse of the Red Dragon Alvarez]!]
[Due to the effect of your Chaotic Faith Power, your susceptibility to the negative status effect [Curse of the Red Dragon Alvarez] has been reduced!]
[Feat [Hunting Instinct]: Increases the damage you deal to targets that initiate your hunt by 15% and improves your target tracking efficiency.]
[Milestone [The Fall of the Hunting God]: Mara, the Hunting God, fell in the Pearl Sea. As the one who defeated him, you will be known to more people by standing on his back! Reward: World Legendary Points +1]
[Skill [Triple Shot in the Gale]: Fires three arrows rapidly in quick succession, dealing Anemo damage and slightly increasing the chance of hitting critical hits.]
[Special Ability [Gift of Runes]: A gift of power from the legacy of runes, granting you +1000 Strength, +500 Intelligence, +2000 Agility, +100 Charisma, +500 Arcane, and +1000 Stamina]
[Negative Status [Curse of the Red Dragon Alvarez]: The final curse inflicted by the legendary red dragon Alvarez before his death due to the influence of some special force! You lose one percent of your maximum health every minute, and the dragon's dying resentment will haunt your soul! (Effect reduced)]
Looking at the prompt on the system panel, Li Si didn't pay much attention to it.

For him, the rewards for this limited-time challenge were rather mediocre.

That's normal, though. After all, Rune's strength isn't that much stronger than his, so being able to trigger a limited-time challenge mission is already quite lucky.

Although Rune's strength has improved, it has not been fully utilized due to various factors.

Therefore, the completion rate of this limited-time challenge mission was not very high.

The [Hunting Instinct] feat should be one of Rune's core feats, and the improvement is quite significant.

The milestone [The Fall of the Hunting God] was unexpected for Li Si, as it directly granted him some World Legendary status.

The skill [Gale Triple Shot] is a god-tier skill for low-level hunters, but it doesn't have much meaning for Li Si now.

The special ability [Rune's Gift] is a gift given to Li Si by Rune in his final sacrifice of his own power in order to transfer the curse.

The effect is simple and direct: it increases Li Si's attribute points.

Although the improvement is not significant for Li Si's current terrifying attribute points, it is still the most practical enhancement.

The effects of the "Curse of the Red Dragon Alvarez" on Li Si were even more pronounced afterward.

However, due to the influence of the Chaos Faith Power, a super-level power, the effect of this negative state on Li Si has been mitigated.

Reducing maximum health by one percent per minute is something Li Si can tolerate.

After all, Li Si currently possesses a multitude of perks that increase health regeneration, so this negative effect is relatively easy for him to overcome.

However, if this effect is not resolved in the long run, it will likely reduce Li Si's maximum health, which would be quite annoying.

However, a subsequent effect proved to be rather troublesome for Li Si.

That was the influence of the dragon's remnant soul on Li Si's soul.

This is nothing to Rune.

While it may make Rune more extreme and irritable, and more prone to losing control, it will not significantly affect Rune's performance.

But for Li Si, the impact was even greater.

With Li Si's strong spirit and soul, these remnants of dragon souls would not cause him much harm, but they would affect his thinking.

This feeling is like having someone constantly shouting and yelling in your head, like you're having a party.

This was a very annoying thing for Li Si, who needed to concentrate on his arcane research.

It's important to know that if a legendary mage conducting arcane research is disturbed, the consequences of a failed magical experiment can be quite terrifying.

Even if Li Si could bear it, the loss of experimental materials would still break his heart.

If Rune knew what Li Si was thinking right now, he would probably grit his teeth and hate him to death.

This was his last ounce of strength, and the result was only that Li Si was annoyed by the loss of some materials.

However, Li Si was also well aware of this.

In the coming period, he will devote a great deal of energy to the research of the Divine Ascension Technique.

The influence of the "Curse of the Red Dragon Alvarez" will significantly slow down his research progress.

This problem must be resolved as soon as possible!
However, given Li Si's current situation, it would be extremely difficult for him to resolve this curse on his own.

Li Si had already tried it; the [Curse of the Red Dragon Alvarez] was of a very high rank, and many of Li Si's feats that granted immunity to certain effects were ineffective against it.

Besides this method, the best approach is to ask the gods for help.

The World Tree Yggdrasil is currently unable to respond to Li Si's request in real time, and the World Tree's condition is not good either. Li Si does not want to affect Him because of this matter.

Asking the elven gods or the god of dawn for help would be a more appropriate approach.

But Li Si did not intend to ask for help directly.

He had another idea.

If he remembered correctly, the gathering place of the metal dragons on the continent of Fanor, called Dragon Island, was located in the Pearl Sea.

He is suffering from a curse originating from the red dragon, which the metal dragon race should be able to resolve.

Li Si had previously considered visiting this "Dragon Island".

Dragon language magic, one of the earliest forms of magic, is also a power that Li Si is very curious about.

If Dragon Island cannot resolve this curse, it is still not too late to request the help of the Elf Gods or the God of Dawn.

(End of this chapter)