The Primal Hunter

Temlat undoubtedly had one person he hated more than anyone. An individual that represented everything he despised above all else. Despised how she was just sitting up on her floating island, staring down with mockery at the average folk beneath. She had been such a shitty person Temlat had even awakened his innate curse affinity due to how much he hated her.

This hate was felt throughout a huge part of the planet as Temlat descended upon the cloud island. The others infected by the cursed plague, even the C-grades, backed away instinctively when they saw the cloaked figure approach. Be it because they sensed the dangerous energies he emanated or simply his power, Jake didn’t know.

Landing on the floating island, Temlat began levitating forward. A few times, he reached out and made a guard or servant erupt in black cursed flames, rapidly consuming them. Jake made the educated guess these were servants of the mansion he hadn’t been a big fan of.

Following along, Jake remained true to his promise as he only observed. In his sphere, he saw the woman Temlat was aiming for, hiding with two others inside a room with heavy magical seals on it. A safe room of some kind, it appeared.

Considering the state of the mansion, a large metal box buried toward the middle stood out quite a bit, and Temlat approached it at a steady pace, not rushing at all but keeping a calm demeanor. One side of this metal box was partly transparent, allowing the people inside to look out but no one to look in – outside of people like Jake who had high enough Perception to entirely ignore the one-way glass. Temlat clearly knew they could see out as he floated down in front of the box, and his voice echoed out from beneath the hood, showing the Cursed Plague Remnant had gotten a better hold of his new form, even capable of transmitting sound now.

”I hear you’ve been looking for me… well, here I am.”

Promptly, the one-way glass became two-way, revealing to Temlat the three within. Standing at the glass was the woman who had originally hired Jake to ”retrieve her pet.”

The woman who had set everything that was happening into motion. She looked through the glass at Temlat, clearly unsure what she was looking at.

”My dear? What happe-”

A huge blast of black flames shot at the metal box, making it rumble, and the magical formations crackle from the sheer energy.

”Do not call me that!”

”I… why are you doing this? No, it cannot be; my sweet little one isn’t like this,” the woman said in denial as she leaned onto the side of the wall, looking scared. However, some-fucking-how, she gathered herself and took on an adversarial stance. ”You are from those dirty slums, aren’t you!? I’ll tell you, when the security forces arrive, you’ll be in big trouble! Are you also the one who hurt my dear little one and stole its gentle visage?”

Temlat looked at her, seemingly lost for words for a moment before he just started laughing. The cloud of curse energy around him ebbed and flowed as Jake found not a single trace of happiness or humor in his voice.

”It. You keep calling me an ”it.” Tell me… what is the name of your former dear little pet? Do you even know it?”

The woman just stared as she seemed offended. ”My dear was always called my dear; it didn’t have a name.”

The response was swift and decisive. A massive inferno of black flames erupted all around the metal box, burning away at it incredibly rapidly. Curse energy and plagues both sucked against magic formations like this, but the sheer energy output was enough to rapidly overwhelm the defenses. One crackle after another sounded out as the magic formations broke, and the metal itself began to break apart.

”Then allow me to remind you. Let my name be the last word you ever hear and your final memory: Temlat.”

With that, the metal box broke apart. The two other women in the box died instantly as nothing more than collateral damage as the flames enveloped the source of Temlat’s hatred. She didn’t share the same quick death as they suffered. Her screams began to echo as the Cursed Plague Remnant floated in front of her, controlling the black curse flame.

thing Jake heard was the woman’s screams, with only the faint echoes of battle in the background. Temlat was not in a hurry, as he did what he could

he finally sighed and used One Step, appearing right beside Temlat, standing firmly within the cloud of

”It’s enough,” Jake said.

for eternity, and it would never be enough! She deserves more than I could ever do to her!” Temlat’s enraged voice echoed out as his curse energy rumbled like a thundercloud. Jake absorbed the pure

voice. ”To end her Path is the ultimate revenge. To sever her impact on the world and allow her Records to fade into obscurity. That

a pulse of power. The flames intensified, and after a final scream of pain, the woman’s entire body disappeared, not even leaving ash

anyway. Not just because he believed that Temlat was doing something senseless but because

his time to take responsibility as a teacher. To see if Temlat truly realized

would never be satisfied and never reach their goal. Jake’s Eternal Hunger would always demand more, always be a glutton, to the level where it would try to consume Jake if it got too famished. In the same way, Temlat would always need an outlet for his Sin Curse of Wrath. Sin Curses were based on emotions that couldn’t be killed simply by fulfilling them. Wrath was something internal. What you yourself felt, regardless of what you direct your wrath at. You would always find a new target to hate, always find a new outlet. Not feeding the curse would only result in an internal collapse as the hatred turned toward

would begin to hate life itself, hate the entire world. This often resulted in someone infected by

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and if they began to lose control because the curse grew too powerful for them, they sealed it away. A bit similar to what Villy had proposed Jake could do with Eternal Hunger if the weapon ever got too much. He could ”sever” it from himself and have it sealed away and drained of energy until the weapon just became an inert object many, many years later. It seemed like a waste, but it was better than Eternal Hunger getting hungry enough to just outright eat Jake, even if

curse. He was the

be a Cursed Plague Remnant until the day he died. He was to spread the Sin Curse of Wrath, with the only reprieve coming when the curse also took his own mind… or if

Jake asked after

right away as he just stood there, looking at where the source of his hatred had died. Where he had killed her. Jake felt that a

She was a symptom of a disease… one

nodded, understanding what Temlat would

watch as promised… and once you’re done, let us speak

a bit of color to it. He nodded decisively as he

city, there were more dense areas than others. Temlat had resided in the second-to-most dense area, with

with him, as the central government was the main focus of the outrage of many. A full-on war was happening as the soldiers tried to defend their stations, but killing only served to turn them to

but they were in the minority. Mages and those with high Willpower, more often than not, managed to stay clear-headed even as the cursed plague infected them, but their calmness only made them targets of the irrational rage

wrath. No longer was it merely those in power… it became

infected. From there, the slaughter truly began. Those who had been fighting side by side before began to butt heads, and the D-grades turned toward the C-grades, while the

an entire week to infect the planet also turned out to be off by two days. Five days was all it took for the cursed plague to infect practically every single person on the entire planet. Due to

brought to the ground, viewed as

building remained standing as the

and witnessed Temlat carrying out his Path. He nearly stepped in many times, but at every instance, he stopped himself upon confirmation that Temlat remained lucid and in control despite everything.

expected possible for a newly evolved C-grade… but he had also seen how it hadn’t increased in a day, communicating he had hit a

of

the planet, meaning none remained. Jake released a Pulse of Perception and did see some survivors. Not many, but there were some hidden beneath. E-grades, children, the weak and oppressed who had

above where the governmental head office had once been. Now, it was only a huge black crater as Temlat had burned away even the debris to erase information about