Chapter 1340: Chapter 1340

"I'll handle the curses myself. I don't need your concern."

Jenkins stood in the downpour, his sword pointed at the Corpse Gentleman. Raindrops fell from above, touching the blade only to be split in two.

"Mr. Candle, we have no conflict of interest..."

the Corpse Gentleman said, coughing.

"No. You created the curse thirteen years ago, and now you've threatened my life and the lives of my friends through the 'Story within a Story.' That is our conflict. Now, it's time for you to die."

He swung his sword. A gleaming white arc cut through the air, but it was blocked by a shield of black water.

The water splashed in all directions, its spray forming phantom images that failed to deceive Jenkins.

Riding his unicorn, he circled the Corpse Gentleman as one black shadow after another shot from behind him. Dark sparks exploded in the sky. The Corpse Gentleman, at the center of the blasts, barely managed to block the assault. With a flick of his wrist, a column of black light shot straight for Jenkins's face, but the unicorn dodged it with ease.

The beam of light grazed the roof of a distant clock tower, instantly vaporizing half of its lightning rod.

The lightning vaporized more than half of the black water defending the Corpse Gentleman, revealing a gaunt face with sunken eyes. He was on his last legs; Jenkins was essentially fighting a critically wounded man.

"Once I die here, all the curses contained within my body will erupt and flood the city below. I don't know if the Titan told you what I am, but I am the embodiment of this land's concept of 'Darkness'—a separate consciousness formed from centuries of human fear. In a way, I too am a Cursed Item, but I am the most terrifying kind." Latest content publıshed on novel•fire.net

"I don't care what you are,"

Jenkins retorted, though deep down, he was worried. Everything the man had said was true.

"If you truly wish to kill me, with no regard for the city below, then go ahead. Mr. Candle, I know you are a good man. You would never do something so reckless."

As he spoke, the Corpse Gentleman dropped his defenses completely, exposing his shriveled, corpse-like body. Jenkins stood with his sword raised, hesitating to act. The curses already plaguing the city were difficult enough to handle. If the ones inside the Corpse Gentleman were also released, he would truly be powerless to stop them.

came a soft sound from Jenkins's shoulder. The cat perched there was soaked from the downpour. It gently rubbed against Jenkins's cheek, its eyes narrowed as if lost in thought.

The Corpse Gentleman's eyes fell upon the cat, and an unpleasant memory immediately flooded his mind. Fearing the silence might lead Jenkins to make an irrational choice, he quickly spoke up:

"Mr. Candle, I know you are formidable, and your cat is..."

A soft pop interrupted the Corpse Gentleman's words. Jenkins looked up in surprise to see a bright yellow moon faintly appear on the horizon. But he was certain he was in the material world; the city below, though chaotic, was undoubtedly the normal Nolan.

"Is the Doomsday Illusion overlapping with reality? Has it gotten this severe? No, I have to ask that old man in the clock tower next time."

That thought flashed through his mind, but he was unaware that the sight of three moons hanging in the sky was visible only to him and the Corpse Gentleman.

The yellow moon joined the red and blue ones, forming a triangle in the sky. They were captivating, mysterious, and alluring. As Jenkins pondered, he gazed up at them, his eyes gradually losing focus.

It was a long moment before he suddenly shook himself back to his senses. Wiping the rain from his face, he scanned the sky again. Raindrops fell in sheets toward the city below, but there was no trace of the Corpse Gentleman.

"What just happened?"

He felt disoriented. Looking up again, he saw the moons had all vanished—after all, despite the dark sky, it was still daytime.

"It seems someone else intervened and killed the Corpse Gentleman. But why didn't the curses erupt... Did that mysterious person suppress them? What in the world is going on? Is it just... over?"

He had the unicorn land on the ground and spent half an hour searching the area in the downpour before finally finding the Corpse Gentleman's remains atop a pile of trash in an alley. He was undoubtedly dead, his body riddled with thousands of holes as if pierced by sharp swords. A black fluid stained the garbage and the ground.

Looking at the wounds, Jenkins could almost see a faint memory of the yellow moon's light and how it had killed the creature.

"What on earth happened?"

The cat silently swallowed its yellow orb and pretended to know nothing.

But even with the Titan and the Corpse Gentleman dead, the day's events were far from over. He checked his pocket watch. It was two in the afternoon; he'd missed lunch without even realizing it. Jenkins had the unicorn carry him back into the dark sky, and once above the city, he removed the charm Alexia had given him to shield him from the curses.

Instantly, the four curses lingering in the city sensed the final curse within Jenkins. Four streams of black smoke, visible to the naked eye, flew from the four corners of the city. Unable to pull the final curse out of Jenkins's body, they could only circle the unicorn in the sky. To the people below, it looked as if a strange, low-hanging dark cloud had appeared—a cloud that gave them a headache if they stared too long.

After a brief standoff, unable to draw out the final piece, the curses plunged into Jenkins's body one after another. The nauseating sensation of the foul energy entering him made Jenkins clutch his chest, then his forehead.

He fought to stay conscious, swatting away his cat's tail as it kept brushing against the back of his head. The cat let out a meow of protest.

A faint golden brilliance flickered around Jenkins's body. This was his divine essence clashing with the immense power of the curses. The curses invaded his flesh to affect his soul, forcing his soul's power to instinctively retaliate. Even though Jenkins currently possessed no divinity, his soul was undeniably that of a god with two domains.

A golden sphere of light exploded in the sky, so bright it tore a hole in the black clouds, causing a commotion among the people on the ground. But the light faded just as quickly as it appeared. An invisible ripple spread from the blast, dispersing the clouds layer by layer.

By the time the golden light was no longer visible to the naked eye, the sudden downpour had subsided to a gentle drizzle. Sunlight broke through, shining down on the rain-washed city of Nolan, illuminating the faces of everyone looking up at the sky, but Jenkins, along with the Corpse Gentleman's body, had already vanished.