Arkan – Intuition VS System VS A.I

Cursed?

In the castle, before Arkan was born into Eldian, the king was getting bored of ruling a kingdom. All he wanted to do was go on a hunt and maybe find a way to pass this bottleneck that he seemed to not get over.

He had been stuck in the same circle of power for far too long. Even the cultivation method that he had received from his inheritance that made him soar through the circles of power in a record amount of time had said that he would reach this point. Just following the cultivation technique was not going to get him through the next stage from here on.

He set on his throne and drank. It seemed that his wife was about to give birth to his first child. When she came to him, he never knew why he was so taken by her.

She was of a different race and one that they had hunted down in the past and kept as slaves before the new world.

While they still had slaves, unlike other kingdoms, they did not invade others as they were just that far away from civilization and still kept the slaves they had from the past.

Some are taken from villages they raid around the borders of the kingdom. Only power ruled in this world.

The concept of having a child was foreign to him. As ruthless as he was, he took it as just something that might increase his power or help him find what was missing in his understanding of his cultivation method and finally reach the next step.

He heard his second in command telling him that it was about time for the birth.

'Dontas.'

He said his second-in-command's name in his head.

'He is years from reaching my circle of power, but with how much of a prodigy he is, he will surely breakthrough. If I do not break through in the coming years, I might need to kill him. Even if he is loyal.'

He thought.

He stood up and he and Dontas vanished from the royal chamber and appeared in his bed chamber. His wife was screaming.

He looked at her.

He did not know why he loved this woman, but he just did.

As he stood there, his child was born and from the moment he saw him he knew something was wrong. He sensed Dontas's mana flick for a second and he knew that it was not just him, but Dontas too could sense that something was wrong.

"What is this?"

The maids said to one another as they looked at his baby. His sharp eyesight could not miss it and his mana sense could not sense something vital in his child that every human possessed in this world.

His child had some strange symbols written in the black circles that ran around his body. His mana also sensed the impossible as it sensed nothing in his child. It was like he had no mana.

"What is wrong with my child? Why are you all looking at him that way?"

His wife shouted at the maids, her too sensing that something was wrong.

"Show him to me now!"

As weak as she was after giving birth, her voice still held power. After all, his wife was the only one in the same circle of power that he was. He looked at them as they took the towel off his child and showed it to her.

He saw her cry and for some reason, he wondered why he never killed her the day she come into his kingdom. After all, she posed the greater threat to his throne.

To his amusement, Dontas, who in any situation always thought on his feet had sprung into action. Using his skill, he had called the only mana sensor they had in the kingdom. The only person who could sense mana even 60 kilometers away if he concentrated.

He was one of the reasons why the capital was as safe as he could spot a beast before it came near the capital and deal with it.

The old shot man took the baby, then shook his head and confirmed what everyone in that room was thinking. The child had not even a spark of mana.

It could only mean one thing. The child was cursed. The symbols on the black circles proved it.

He did not know how or who had done it, but he did not have to do anything. Knowing the queen, her wrath was going to be felt by the whole kingdom and they were going to find who did this.

What was left was to kill the child before they got cursed too. Since they did not know what kind of a curse it was, the answer to their problem was simple.

As if the old man knew what the king was thinking, he just took the child and went out the door to where they could get read of him. He and Dontas followed him to make sure.

That was when the thing started crying. It was a cry so annoying that even the worst Monster's child could not match it.

This was it. All three of them were now sure of it. This was a curse, not a child.

As they neared the cliff, the thing cried even louder. Even the old man wanted to kill it right there and then but did not want to unleash a curse on the castle grounds and be killed by Dontas.

The old man was more afraid of him than the king for reasons only he knew.

They reached the cliff and the old man took one last look at the symbols on the child as they were some that he had never seen before in his long life.

"Fascinating."

The old man said and was about to let go of the thing in child form when it happened.

Some form of red beam came out of the child's eyes and blow the old man's head clean off.

The king and Dontas were shocked.

The old man's cultivation only improved his mana sense and not his overall strength. That was why he lived in the castle so that he could be protected.

But, as weak as he was, he was still more powerful than any initiate and it was impossible for a child's power, no matter how gifted it was, to pass through the old man's defenses and blow his head off.

Dontas went to the cliff in time to see the child's eyes close and be swallowed by the sea of dark clouds. He did not let the old man's body fall in as he grabbed it before it did.

He had to examine it. He was already thinking past this shocking event while the king was getting annoyed.

In a room that was at the depths of the castle where no one dared to go, the old man's body was on an examining table while Dontas examined it. The table had intricate writings on it that shone in blue.

On the floor next to him five maids copses were laying on the floor, their heads cut clean off.

It was the maids that assisted the queen in giving birth. They were unfortunate to witness Arkan's strange symbols and knew too much of what had gone on that night.

After finishing examining the body the writings on the table stopped glowing and Dontas vanished from the room.

In the throne room, the king was back there, drinking and in deep thought after the night's events. More than anything, he did not want to deal with the queen and what surely she was going to do next.

His thoughts were interrupted by Dontas appearing next to him like before.

"What did you find?"

He asked with an irritated tone.

"There was no mana signature left from the corpse. It is as if that attack used no mana at all."

Dontas replied.

"How is this possible? Is this some new cursed technique that other countries have come up with? Was it directed at me?"

He asked. Dontas was a killer like he was, but he was the smarter one who always thought ahead and of the things that no one else would consider.

"All those are fair assumptions, my lord. By the way that thing was crying one can assume that it wanted either you or Queen Alina to hold it. That is what new parents would have done and then it would have attacked at that moment. Not being able to measure the power behind that attack, though old man Kanna was a weakling, we could say that either you or the queen was a target."

Dontas deduced.

"Well, then. It seems that they have started to take us so lightly or maybe getting rid of one of us was a prelude to an inversion."

The king said as he took another sip of his drink.

"It might be time to show the world how much we Dragerians love the dance of war."

The king declared, making Dontas smile. He had gone bored of castle duties and cultivation was faster when in a constant fight to the death.

Arkan did not know that in a space of an hour since he was born, he had started a war that would consume the whole world as misfortune fell upon each kingdom.