Looking at the grotesque eyes on the serpentine body of the curseling, Ace’s mind flashed back to the wicker vase he had set aside on the terrace since Emi’s talisman couldn’t store a living Curseling, which he had completely forgotten about in the chaos.
Delores exhaled, watching as the monstrous body tumbled earthward, sighing, "There’s nothing we can do."
Ace gritted his teeth. Realizing that once it hit the ground, the sheer impact alone would flatten everything within at least a mile. Not to mention the shockwaves and tremors that would soon follow. Worse, they could only watch it happen.
"Hurry! Charge it with all the lightning you can summon," Ace said, summoning the rail rifle and shoving it into Delores’s hands.
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"Fuck it—I can’t have Elinor kill a Void-tier before me," Delores muttered, gripping the rifle with a new resolve.
She refused to be outdone by her niece, especially when the girl probably didn’t even realize what she might have pulled off.
Delores was stunned, realizing that in the current younger generation of the McSuile family, it wasn’t Crimson Eyes who would be the first to take down a Void-tier, but it was going to be Elinor.
Even after watching the Curseling get brought down by Elinor’s signature curse spell, Delores still found it hard to believe. ’That clumsy, scatterbrained girl? The same one even her own father couldn’t tolerate—so much so that he dumped her in the C.I.B. like an unsalvageable wreck?’
And yet, here she was watching Elinor’s signature curse spell be the key to the fall of a Void-tier curseling.
Even in the C.I.B., they hadn’t assigned Elinor to any major division; they stuck her in surveillance, the least demanding department possible. And somehow, she had still managed to fuck that up.
Yet this girl, the same one everyone had written off as difficult to work with, now had a Void-tier Curseling’s life at her mercy.
And worst of all? Elinor probably didn’t even know what she had accomplished. Delores exhaled sharply, gripping the rail rifle tighter. This really had her reconsidering her whole damn life.
If it had been Crimson Eyes, she could have accepted it. That would have made sense. But Elinor? It almost felt like her entire life had been a waste.
Despite Delores’s thoughts, she wasn’t underestimating Elinor. In fact, she had been one of the few people who actually encouraged and supported her decision to focus on Curse Spells when her own father had dismissed her. Even when it meant putting herself at odds with a scary Void-tier and the second prince of the McSuile family himself.
Elinor’s innate curse tool abilities and her talent in curse arts made her perfectly suited for executing Curse Spells. In fact, she was so well-suited that she decided to pause her development in other areas and dedicate herself entirely to mastering them. Explore stories on freewebnovel
But because Curse Spells had almost no practical application in combat—especially solo combat—her father and many of the McSuile family’s elders strongly opposed her decision. They urged her to focus on other curse arts to make up for her obvious shortcomings while she was still young.
Elinor ignored all of them.
Even when they threatened to disown her, she stubbornly stuck to her decision, not letting anyone dictate her life.
In the end, that threat came half true.
Her father threw her out of the house, telling her that if she wanted to live life on her own terms, then she could find her own damn roof to do it under.
For someone who had never set foot beyond the walls of McSuile Castle, the outside world was a harsh awakening. The only real option she had—the only way to survive and maintain the lifestyle she was used to—was joining the C.I.B.
At the time, Elinor told herself she had chosen the C.I.B. to prove she could live independently, without relying on the McSuile family. She even rejected the traditional codenames assigned to the McSuile bloodline and picked her own.
But the truth?
Her father had pushed her into it. That fool didn’t even realize that even today.
Delores couldn’t be prouder of Elinor’s achievements, but at the same time, she hated the idea that Elinor might actually be stronger than she was now. Sure, it was only in the field of Curse Spells—but still, it was a rude awakening for someone like Delores, who had been stuck at Ocean-tier for far too long.
"Done," Delores said, charging the rail rifle with all the lightning her board could summon from the strongest storm it could generate. But instead of passing it to Ace, she aimed the rifle herself, warning him, "Stay still and hold tight. I’m taking this son of a bitch down."
"What?!" Ace’s eyes widened in shock in light of Delores’s betrayal. He shook his head, thinking, ’Even the best of us have a price.’
"Make sure you’re extremely steady when you fire," Ace advised, believing as long as he had a share in the Void Tier curse core the Curseling dropped it didn’t matter who brought down that damn thing. "Even the tiniest deviation—like, a decimal point off—can throw the shot way off and make you miss your target completely."
"Shut up—I’m focusing here." Delores did not appreciate his unsolicited advice. When she first held a gun, Ace’s grandmother was still in her mother’s womb. She didn’t need some kid lecturing her on how to pull a damn trigger.
Calculating the speed of the curseling’s fall, Delores timed her shot—BOOM!
To her shock and Ace’s amusement, she epically missed by an entire foot.
To make matters worse, the insane kickback from the rail rifle sent them both spinning through the air. They spiraled out of control, flipping wildly until Delores’s innate curse tool finally stabilized itself.
Fortunately, the Mischief Bullet shot straight into space due to the angle of elevation. If it hadn’t? Delores might have ended up causing another disaster while trying to prevent one.
Before she could process her failure, a figure suddenly appeared in the sky next to the plummeting curseling.
In one swift motion, the man decapitated the beast—then vanished, taking its curse core with him.