Hitman with a Badass System
chapter-868

[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Fusion stage, level 6 orc. The reward is 500,000 experience points as well as 20000 Badass points]

[The Soul Eater has absorbed the soul of the orc. The host has received 300,000 Experience points]

Michael received eight hundred thousand experience points in total because of the Soul Eater. If he had simply killed the orc, he would have only received half a million experience points. The Soul eater awarded extra experience points based on how evil the absorbed soul was. Since Michael received three hundred thousand, he could tell the orc led a pretty evil life on contrary to his fellow orc kind. It was an extremely rare occurrence to see an evil orc in the world as the orcs lived peacefully, studying and mastering rune mastery.

After shocking everyone by absorbing the orc's soul, Michael felt stronger. He threw the orc's body to the ground and strolled toward Ethan.

"The curse won't let us take him outside this hall. So you might want to take a good look at your house," said Michael.

"Wait," Noah asked Michael to wait. He then turned his gaze toward Sabrina and Diana.

"Mother, Sabi, you two should go to the shelter and stay there," Noah said. Among everyone in the hall, Sabrina and Diana were the weaker, or at least that's what everyone thought. Little did Noah know his mother was a Fusion Stage level 10 cultivator, pretending to be at the Body Strengthening stage. Although Michael sensed something amiss with Diana's energy radiation, he couldn't see through her cultivation. The mark put on by the mysterious oracle was strong enough to keep Diana safe from even the eyes of Skyhall.

"Sabi, do as your brother says," Diana said, but she didn't seem to be moving an inch away.

"No. I want to be at his side," Sabrina shook her head. She looked at Michael for his support, but he stayed away from their family quarrel.

"It's going to be dangerous, Sabi. We cannot focus on protecting you once something happens," Noah tried to reason with Sabrina, only to see her ignore his words.

"I can fight too," Sabrina bluntly said.

Michael noticed Sabrina taking steps toward Sabrina without uttering a word.

"Rowena, tell them I can-" Sabrina's words were abruptly cut short when Sabrina grabbed her shoulder and teleported her to the shelter. In a blink of an eye, Sabrina vanished into thin air.

"You know she hates that," Noah sighed.

"This is no time to argue," Rowena coldly said.

"What about her?" Michael asked, looking at Diana. At Least Sabrina was at the Soul Refining stage. Compared to Sabrina, Diana was weak as a newborn baby. So even if the curse didn't mutate the orc's body and stayed at the Fusion stage, Diana wouldn't even be able to survive the battle, let alone fight. According to the system, there was a ninety-eight percent chance for the curse to make the vessel stronger. Asking Diana to hit the shelter was the sensible thing to do, but it was Rowena and Noah's task, not his. As much as he cared for Lady Diana, he wasn't going to argue with her. If she wanted to stay and become collateral, it was her fate, and she couldn't blame anyone but herself.

"Don't even think about it," Rowena took a step forward toward Diana when Michael heard Diana coldly warn Rowena. For the first time, Michael noticed the sudden change in Diana's demeanor. Gaya also noticed this change and could tell this woman might not be what she seemed to be.

"Mother, you can't be here," said Rowena. In front of her mother, Roowena lost her coldness and turned into a caring child.

"I will, and there is nothing you can do about it," Diana raised her one hand and refused to leave the hall. Then she turned her gaze at Michael.

"Ghost, you can begin," Diana said.

Noah and Rowena looked at each other as they could tell there was no point in arguing with their mother. To be honest, they hadn't seen her like this forever. As much as they liked Diana to leave the hall, they had no way of making her leave except by force. However, they couldn't bring themselves to forcefully teleport her mother like Rowena did to Sabrina.

"Wait," Rowena stopped Michael once again.

"Time is running out," Michael creased his brows. He hated this kind of family drama. Since Michael had no idea how strong Diana was, he thought it was stupid of Diana to stay in the hall. If he was in Noah's place, he would have teleported Diana by force without giving a second thought. After all, it was better to suffer Diana's wrath afterward than cry beside her dead body. Unfortunately, Noah and Rowena respected Diana to the point they didn't even dare to raise a finger against her word. In Michael's eyes, it was pretty stupid.

"Do not let her out of your sight," Rowena warned Noah as she finally accepted that Diana was not going to leave the hall.

"Here we go," Michael mumbled as he placed his hand on Ethan's chest.

"System, start the process," Michael ordered the system. Xanali and Gaya strolled toward Ethan and stood beside their lovers. They all stood around Ethan in a circle and completely ignored Bai Ning. None of them batted an eye as they stared at Michael's hand on Ethan's chest. Soon, they heard a strange otherworldly whistling noise as Ethan groaned in pain. The whistling sound gradually turned into a scream, an angered scream.

"Prepare yourselves," Michael warned them. The curse resisted the pull and screamed inside his head. The others were fortunate enough not to hear the curse's scream.

Blood trickled down his nostrils due to the curse's resistance, but Michael ignored all the pain and focused on pulling out the curse from Ethan's body. Unfortunately, pulling out the curse from Ethan's body was the easiest part.

Judging by the blood coming out of Ghost's nose and the pain in his face showed Noah how difficult it was to remove the curse. Moments like this made Noah question whether the Dark Lord was really the evil Andreas claimed him to be. His mentor always talked about the dark future, where people were stripped of their free will and turned into zombies that worshiped the Dark Lord forever. Suppose the Dark Lord was really that evil, why did he even bother to save his father? It would make more sense if he let Ethan die than save him.

Noah wished Andreas could see everything and give him a proper explanation for the Dark Lord's actions. At that moment, Noah had no other explanation that the Dark Lord had humanity and was grateful enough to save his ally. As the screaming sounded louder and louder, they all saw a ball of red glow coming out of Ethan's chest. The ball of light frantically vibrated under Ghost's hands to get back into Ethan's body. Michael grabbed the ball of light with both his hands and turned his gaze at Noah.

"Lift his body," Michael motioned to Noah to lift the orc's body. Noah immediately picked the orc by his shoulders as Michael looked at Rowena.

"As soon as I send this curse into the orc, teleport Lord Ethan somewhere else. Can you do that?"

"Yes," Rowena bobbed her head up and down. Meanwhile, Noah held the orc straight by his broad shoulders.

"Fuck, it's stronger than I thought," Michael gritted his teeth as he slowly moved the ball of light toward the orc's mouth.

Bai Ning watched the scene with opened mouth. She was completely speechless by the power she felt from the curse. What shocked her more was the power radiation from the curse felt just the same as the power radiation she felt from the mysterious lord she talked to. The old woman was spot on as the curse indeed originated from Andohr, the god of space and time. But although Andohr ordered Skyhall to attempt to assassinate Ethan and created the curse, he didn't intend to curse Ethan. On the contrary, Andohr just wanted an assassin to try to kill Ethan, then blame the Dark Lord for the attempt on Ethan's life and expected Noah to retaliate.

His plan took a turn when someone switched the assassin's blade with the cursed dagger. As a result, the assassin cursed Ethan when he stabbed him with it. Since Ethan cut the assassin with the dagger when he fought back, the assassin got cursed in return. Hence, even if Diana managed to find the assassin, he would be long dead unless Andohr himself appeared to save the assassin.

Despite the curse's counterforce, Michael was strong enough to resist the curse and move it to the orc.

"Cut him open," Michael said to Noah, gritting his teeth. Noah immediately flicked his wrist as the white hilt sword appeared in his hand. Without wasting a second, Noah stabbed the orc from behind and cut his chest open. Michael growled as he pushed the ball of light into the bleeding cut. The moment Michael pushed the ball of light AKA the curse, into the orc's body, Rowena emptied a healing potion down Ethan's mouth and teleported him to the shelter.

As soon as Ethan disappeared from the main hall, a blast of energy shot out of the orc and sent everyone around, flying away. Even Michael couldn't escape from the blast as he hit the wall pretty hard, forming a human-sized hole in the wall.

"ARGHHHH!" A roar of agony echoed through the entire kingdom. The thunderous roar made everyone immediately close their ears. Michael managed to lift his head and look at the orc. He stood where Ethan was, with dark webs running through his body. The orc's eyes literally glowed like someone lit a fire in them. In a few seconds, the orc's jade-green body turned darker with all the webs of cursed energy.

When Michael was about to rise to his feet, the orc let out another roar. The last thing Michael remembered before everything turned black was the house crumbling down. He felt the space around him distort, the feeling similar to activating a teleportation array. Just as he thought, the darkness faded away, revealing a barren red land under a stormy sky.

"Where am I?" Michael asked as he looked around.

"Fire Realm," He heard Rowena's voice from the side.