Omniscient Necromancer POV

"A slight discomfort in the knee..." I repeated what Rosella said, almost laughing.

Rosella made it seem as if she had just tripped on a random step.

"Sometimes it's easier to let go than to hold on so tightly," she replied, adjusting the sword's sheath as if it were really just another detail.

"Easy to say... If I had let go up there, I would have turned into jelly. You know that, don't you?"

She raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly, almost provocatively. "Maybe. Or maybe not. Sometimes the fall is just part of the journey." She was clearly joking.

I was about to respond, but at that moment a chill ran up my spine so suddenly that it took my breath away. It was as if an invisible hand had grabbed the back of my neck, cold, forcing me to stay alert. Rosella noticed it right away too. The smile disappeared, and her expression twisted in surprise.

Slowly, I turned around and saw the core of the curse, that eyeball-shaped monster rooted to the ground, its eyelid open. Its pupil was dilated, spinning like a liquid spiral in a violet hue. The greenish glow that had previously illuminated the place had changed. Now, mixed with the green, a violet energy also pulsed, vibrating in waves that escaped from the monster's veins. Each vine that formed the floor and walls seemed to tremble, as if responding to this awakening.

"Damn... It woke up."

Rosella, unlike me, took a step forward. Her hand went straight to the hilt of the dagger she carried strapped to her hip. Her posture had changed completely: no irony, no relaxed calm. Just pure focus.

"It senses our presence," she said quietly. "And now it won't let us leave."

Rosella instinctively jumped back, almost tripping. "We don't even have room to run!"

"We don't need to run. We need to finish it off."

The eye blinked slowly, and each time the eyelid closed and opened, waves of pink energy spread through the air, distorting the environment. The roots crackled, grew, and intertwined in grotesque shapes. It was as if the entire boss room was the inside of this creature's body.

One of the vines rose up in front of me, thick as a tree, and came down on me with violence.

Instinctively, I crossed my swords and blocked it, but the impact was so strong that my arms trembled.

The blade cut part of the vine, but not enough to stop it; I had to roll to the side, feeling the ground open up into thorns where I had been a second before.

"Rosella!" I shouted, looking for her amid the chaos.

She was already in motion, leaping between the vines as if she had trained her whole life for this. Every time she touched the ground, that same sparkling light appeared at her feet, cushioning impacts and giving her speed. Her sword sparkled as she cut through vines that tried to grab her.

"Don't take your eyes off him! The root is in the globe. If we destroy the core, all of this will stop!" I exclaimed.

The impact still reverberated in my arms as I rose from the roll, but I felt my muscles responding faster than ever before. It was as if every fiber had been tuned to react in perfect sync. It was strange... and addictive.

The vine that had almost crushed me rose again in a grotesque spasm, and I advanced without thinking. At another time, I would have hesitated, tried to calculate the necessary force, or even resorted to my Summons. But now? Now my body moved on its own, as if it knew what to do even before I decided.

I transformed the two blades into a broad sword with an instinctive twist. The feeling was incredible: a lightness that allowed me explosive movements.

I cut diagonally, tearing through the vine as if it were butter. Its dark energy scattered in sparks, dissolving into the air.

"Yes!" I couldn't contain my laughter, even though the situation was dangerous.

Rosella's footsteps left sparkling trails, as if she were dancing between death and survival. She was agile in a way I could never be—but at the same time, I realized that my strength now allowed me to not have to avoid the impact, I could master the impact.

Another vine came, this time from the ceiling, descending like a spear. I didn't dodge. I transformed the broadsword into two blades again and thrust them against it, driving the blades into the fibrous fabric. The weight pushed me back, dragging my boots across the root-covered ground, but instead of losing ground, I spun my body, used the force to my advantage, and threw the vine against the wall. Dozens of thorns came loose from the impact.

I laughed again. It was like when you finally learn the perfect timing of a boss in an insanely difficult game, except I didn't know this monster's pattern. I just... reacted. Every blow, every crease of the creature seemed to be written before my eyes even before it happened. My reflexes were so fast it seemed like cheating.

But it wasn't cheating. It was me. It was my attributes.

"Can you keep up this pace?" Rosella shouted, spinning in the air and cutting three vines at once.

"Of course!" I replied between laughs, dodging a thorn that pierced the floor like a spear.

I didn't think about invocations, strategies, or anything other than the next move. The world had been reduced to me, my swords, and the giant eye staring at us.

The problem was that, no matter how many vines and thorns we cut, the core remained distant. Every step toward it was punished with even more roots, even more walls of vegetation appearing out of nowhere, blocking any advance.

"It's stalling!" Rosella shouted, pausing for a moment to assess the situation. "It's trying to wear us down."

"Then let's speed things up," I replied, without taking my eyes off the globe.

As I advanced, a wall of thick vines rose in my path as if the creature had heard my challenge. I planted my feet firmly on the ground and transformed the swords back into a single broad blade.

With a shout, I spun my entire body, unleashing all my accumulated strength. The cut sliced through the barrier as if it were paper. Roots flew, thorns fell, and for an instant I saw the exposed eye, its pupil pulsing in violet-pink spasms.

Rosella ran across the open space, fast as lightning. The vines immediately tried to close in on her again, but I advanced behind her, cutting down anything that dared to get in the way.

The space ahead finally opened up, and Rosella was the first to reach the core.

Her blade described a perfect arc, plunging straight into the eyeball. I followed close behind, adding my strength to hers: a violent, accurate blow, piercing the pupil that pulsed with insane colors. The explosion was not just light or sound—it was as if an invisible pressure had shattered every bone in my body from within.

A green and violet flash dominated the room, expanding in waves that tore pieces from the ceiling, shattered roots, and threw me backward like a rag doll.

For a few seconds, there was nothing but echoes and the metallic taste of blood in my mouth, but the core was no longer intact. The giant eye lay destroyed, twisted into pieces of fibrous flesh that evaporated like ashes in the wind.

"It's over... We did it..." I heard Rosella sigh, relieved. Her eyes were slightly narrowed, leaning on the sword stuck in the ground.

However, no notification popped up... It wasn't over yet.

"No..." I muttered, standing up straight again.

Rosella turned her head, confused. "What do you mean 'no'? The core—"

"It's not over yet."

I approached and cut off some pieces of the eye with my sword to reach the inside of that core. Among the remains of the globe, a crack opened, and inside I found a small human form.

Rosella approached and frowned in disbelief when she saw that inside the core of the curse was a child. A boy of perhaps seven or eight years old. His skin was pale green, almost translucent, and half of his face was covered by a dark shadow that spread like living cracks. The right side had a violet eye, identical to that of the core. The left, however, displayed a serene green like that of the creatures and people we encountered.

This boy yawned. He simply yawned, as if he had just awakened from a deep sleep. Then he rubbed his eyes with his fists with a sleepy, innocent expression.

Rosella's eyes widened. "What... is that?"

The boy blinked at us with a confused smile, as if he didn't understand the gravity of the situation.

"You... who are you?" he asked in a sweet voice.

Rosella took a step forward. "Wait. Is the curse really a child...?"

My whole body screamed that this was not innocence. I felt the same invisible pressure as before, hidden beneath the childish mask. It was a sham. I raised my left hand without thinking, and a sphere of incandescent fire grew before my palm, illuminating the child's face with orange reflections.

"Wait!" Rosella cried, frightened. "You're going to—"

The boy stopped smiling. For a moment, I saw the truth revealed beneath that green skin. His violet eye trembled, dilating into a deep hatred, an endless void. The dark side of his face expanded, as if it were going to swallow him whole.

He wasn't a child. He never had been. This was just the most convenient form.

"Monster..." I whispered and threw the fireball.

The small body was incinerated in a deafening flash. The creature screamed—not a childish cry, but a demonic roar, laden with hatred and frustration.

"AAAAARGHHHHH!"