I Can Copy Curses

68  68. Fate Core

Orion opened his eyes once again after dying. But this time he found that he didn't appear on the boat but in some magical place, he would say, because all around he could only see the twinkling of stars in the encroaching darkness that surrounded him.

'Where am I?'

He thought to himself as he looked around and found that, as far as his eyes could see, there was only darkness and stars shining all over that darkness.

'Did I finally die? But how? Sam told me we have five chances and I recall I have died four times now so we still have one more chance. Then why am I here?'

He pondered, but at that moment, he heard a familiar voice from behind him.

"You didn't die. Not yet."

He swiftly turned around when he heard that voice and was surprised to see a lady with white hair standing before him.

"Isis? I mean God of Immortality," he fumbled, seeing Isis all of a sudden. "What are you doing here?"

"I am here to help you," she said as she looked at him with pity in her eyes. "I told you you were going to die, and you did die some gruesome deaths."

"Help me?" Orion laughed ruefully. "With your body trapped in that pond, how could you help me?"

Isis didn't reply to that; instead, she asked him a question.

"Do you know what this place is?"

Orion wondered why she suddenly asked him this question, but he still responded to her.

"Isn't this a dungeon?" He said. He had heard Liira tell them that this place was a dungeon, but after seeing the temple of souls, the pond, and the boss monster,. He doubted whether this place was still a dungeon or not. According to Runo's team, the difficulty of this dungeon was too high to fall into the category of a bronze rank dungeon.

Isis shook her head as she looked at the twinkling stars all around her.

"It was supposed to be a dungeon," she said. A tinge of sadness could be seen on her face. "But a long time ago, a group of gods came to this place and changed the very fundamentals of this dungeon and transformed this place into a prison—a prison that had the power to trap a god."

Orion was shocked to hear that, and as he recalled her body being trapped in the embrace of a tree demon, he understood that the god that had been trapped here was no one else but herself.

"You are right," she continued. "It was indeed me that those gods trapped me at that time just because of some stupid prophecy."

However, she also felt amused at the thought that the other gods tried so hard to put her in prison so that she couldn't interfere in the prophecy by any means and here she was talking to the very individual the prophecy was about.

'Even a god can't do anything when it comes to prophecy, it seems.'

She thought as she turned to look at Orion, who looked like wanted to say something.

"What prophecy?" Orion asked.

"Does it matter to you?" She asked in return. "No, it's not. Now let me tell you about the boss monster who has been killing you for fun. He is the gatekeeper of this dungeon, assigned by the gods to have a lookout for me. Most importantly, he is also a god like me."

Orion sighed as he thought that they had been killed by a literal god all this time. He also thought that it was no wonder they didn't stand a chance against him, and he could play with their lives as he saw fit.

"So, how will you help me kill a god?" He asked as he narrowed his eyes. "And why are you willing to help me? Is there something you want from me in return?"

Although he didn't know much about gods, he understood that there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

"You are smart," she smiled. "I indeed need something in return."

"What is it?" He asked with a frown. He didn't understand how he could help a god when he couldn't even help himself.

"I will tell you about that later," she mysteriously said as a stone appeared in her hand.

Orion saw that the stone appeared to be glowing with rainbow colors, and its size appeared to be that of a fist.

"This is called Fate Core," Isis explained. "This core is the rarest thing in the whole universe, and there are only 99 of them. There hasn't been a 100th stone in the past, nor will there be in the future."

Orion felt that the core was way too mysterious, and he also didn't understand how this core would help him in his trouble.

"What is its use?" He asked curiously. "And how would that help me?"

"It's use is something I can't tell," she said, holding the Fate Core and moving it closer to Orion. "But what I can tell you is that it can help you in your case. You just have to crush it." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Orion frowned at her vague answer. Truthfully, he didn't like any mystery around anything, and Isis seemed to be not telling him anything about the stone at all.

"At least tell me how it will help me." He asked, pleading.

Isis pondered for a moment before answering him.

"You see, the name of this core is Fate Core, so its related to the fate of an individual," she said as she looked at him. "If someone were to crush this stone, then the fate of that person would change, resulting in the gathering of his/her luck from their whole life to their present state, causing the person who crushed it to become the most fated and luckiest person in the whole world for a limited period of time. And believe me, with that much luck, even a god won't be able to do anything to you."

"However, be aware," she continued, her face becoming solemn. "If you use all your luck this time, then you will be unlucky for a long period of time until you restore your fate to normal."

Orion was surprised to hear that this Fate Stone could change a person's luck to such a degree. But he also felt hesitation about the unlucky part she mentioned. However, he also understood that he didn't have many options, and this was all he could do at this moment.

"Alright, now take this core and let me tell you what I want," Isis said, throwing the Fate Core to Orion, which he caught.

After that, she tapped at the middle of his eyebrows, and almost instantly, Orion felt an intense headache, but it disappeared as swiftly as it came.

"I have stored what I wanted in your memory," she said. "But that memory can only be unlocked when you reach silver rank. So, become stronger faster."

Orion felt that whatever she needed from him, he could only do when he became strong. The current him seemed useless to her, which was why she stored the information in his memory and could only unlock it when he reached the silver rank.

"Now, crush the core," she said to Orion.

Orion didn't hesitate and crushed the Fate Core in his hands, which turned into power.

Almost instantly, the crushed powder started to glow in a golden-white colour and began to condense around a point to form an exact replica of the Fate Stone he had just crushed, but it appeared to be translucent this time.

And before Orion could react, the replica of the Fate Stone moved forward and entered his stomach. He didn't feel his stomach hurt or anything, but he saw that the replica moved and disappeared when it came into contact with his stomach.

At the same time, his body began to glow in a golden light before he suddenly found himself floating above a battlefield full of corpses and blood.

Bonus Chapters Goals:-

100 ps/30 gt - 1 bonus chapter 200 ps/60 gt - 2 bonus chapter 300 ps/ 100 gt - 3 bonus chapter 

A/N: My friend said it works but I don't believe it.

ShinGotLost

Creator's Thought