Chapter 279 The Conqueror Conquered

Everything began to slow around him. The sounds of the curse entering his body and infecting him grew quiet.

'This is it?' Lee Seng scoffed. 'I can't believe this is how I'll die… I die trying to do something I got roped into… Does any of this really concern me?' His face was vacant. 'I fought so hard to be myself. I fought hard to belong in my own spotlight and now I'm just gonna die? And for what? For who?' His face turned to anger.

A ball of shadows flew straight into him. He could feel the curse spreading. His doubts and fears were growing with each hit.

'I-I did this at the beginning because I was curious.' Lee Seng reminded himself. 'I was curious why he picked me. Why are Keng and I different from them? I have so many questions. More than what I started out with and now… Now I won't get any of those answered…' Lee Seng closed his eyes. He wanted to accept the death, but he found it hard to let the curse energy continue to barrage him. His eyes flew open and time picked up. Curses flew straight for him.

"Fuck this." Lee Seng shouted. Golden light poured out of his body, burning away the darkness around him. "I'm not going to accept my death. Even if I do die, I'll come back and haunt all of those who did me wrong!" He could feel his tails pulling into the suit. The white accented parts of the suit moved into their places. The gold accented parts of his suit pulsed brighter.

Conqueror flew around him. It hissed at him. It wanted him dead, but he followed the largest condensed energy with his eyes.

"You!" He angrily pointed at the shadow. "Why am I even scared of you? I could just devour your energy!" The dark energy flew into him. He could feel his energy growing. "I'm purifying you and then I'm going home!" Lee Seng leapt at the largest part of the condensed energy. The energy whipped away from him, burning as he got too close. It screamed as it continued to evade him.

Lee Seng swept his foot and took his stance. He grabbed the sword and gave a sly smile.

"Burn to ashes!" Lee Seng whipped his katana out, slashing at the black air. A golden slash of energy flew out at the condensed energy. The energy began to move as Lee Seng slashed again and again. He continued to slash, ignoring his slashes and focusing all of his attention onto the condensed energy.

Golden flames covered the area, revealing Lee Seng inside of the core itself. He chased after the Conqueror energy, slashing at it as it tried to dodge the attacks and the flames. Lee Seng slashed, watching it pin itself in a corner. Lee Seng leapt forward, the burst of energy growing within him. The curse split in two. It was going to dodge him while also getting a blow in as well.

"Tch." Lee Seng's tongue clicked. Dark Matter rumbled off of his suit as he switched the strike to his left.

'Protect and harm it at the same time.' Lee Seng thought as he spun around. Dark Matter covered him as loud scraping noises grew loud. The Conqueror curse was fighting back now. 'So it does know it's cornered.' A flick of his wrist made the Dark Matter around him fire into bladed tendrils. The bladed tendrils flew out in all directions, narrowly missing the curse as it collided back together in the middle of the core.

The sounds of flames grew loud as Lee Seng pulled the Dark Matter back. The DM bladed tendrils hovered around him. They swayed like his tails as the Conqueror curse hovered in the middle of the core.

"You're gonna fight now?" Lee Seng asked. The curse started to shape itself.

[NOTICE: EXCESS ENERGY INCOMING]

"Excess energy?" Lee Seng whispered. The condensed Conqueror energy took the shape of a humanoid. It's purple eyes stared directly at Lee Seng.

[NOTICE: Due to Irregular Keng not being able to sustain the extra load of energy, it shall be poured into you.]

Energy poured into his body like a dam releasing water. He could feel his wounds disappearing in an instant.

'What the hell did Keng do?' Lee Seng wondered. He lifted his arm up. He could see silver ink growing all over him. 'Suns?' His aura grew bigger. The humanoid Conqueror curse shrank. It was cowering in his sudden burst of power. 'It's scared of me now? Hmph.'

"Should've been scared from the start, pal." Lee Seng shot forward at the curse. The curse barely moved by the time Lee Seng swung his blade straight for its neck. Flames and gravity erupted out of the blade as he connected the katana with the curse's neck. He sliced it clean off, listening to the sudden roar of everything around him. Lee Seng quickly pulled the sword backwards, stabbing it straight into the curse's stomach.

"ARGH!" The curse shrieked. Golden energy poured out of Lee Seng. The Conqueror curse quickly turned to gold. Lee Seng watched as the core began to glow bright gold. A pure golden light burst out of the core and out of the golem.

"Did he do it?" Halys slid backwards. A growing light was pouring out of the golem. "Everyone! Get back now!" The shrieks of the curse and golem grew to an all-time high. Sigils of suns started to off the golem.

"Sir, those sigils!" Ysa pointed.

"Ysa, you're gonna get blinded!" Vedi turned her.

"Is the kid okay?!?"

"Now's not the time to worry about that! We need to get into shelter!" Halys shouted. Halys began to box in all of his allies. The smaller monsters burst into golden light. Dark Matter wrapped around the light and quickly pulled straight into the golem as the boxes closed.

[NOTICE: Souls accumulated have grown from 15 to 476.]

Sun sigils burned themselves into everything around Lee Seng. He could feel them in the air.

'What am I gonna do with all of this energy?' Lee seng wondered. He grunted as he continued to pour energy into the curse. It's black and purple humanoid shape was now pure gold. He could feel the energy wasn't hostile anymore. 'Do I purify everything now?' He shut his eyes. He imagined light spreading from where he was, out in all directions.

"Even if I… got myself in this predicament…" Lee SEng grunted between his teeth. He pulled at the katana. He could feel the excess light starting to pour out of the katana and his body. "And I don't like it… There's going to be… A lot of people who aren't going to… Like a half-assed job!" The katana flew out. The humanoid shape of pure light exploded. Lee Seng felt himself being pushed back. He flew out of the core, shattering it as the golem began to crumble.

'Where's the rest of the bodies though?' Lee Seng wondered. He slammed into one of the loose boulders, releasing it from its spot and started to fall with the boulder.Golden light poured off the unmoving golem. A small light in the distance to Lee Seng's left started to light up, too. Lee Seng reached out for the light. He didn't know why he was doing it, but his body was burning with too much leftover energy.

The energy flew out of him and the golem, shooting itself in the direction of the other light. He could see the arc from above as he continued to fall. He spun himself in the air, imagining a gravity bubble. Gravity exploded out of him, forming a very large bubble. The golem's boulders caught within the bubble as Lee Seng came to an abrupt stop.

He watched the golden light arc and connected with the other one. As they both touched, golden and silver light began to rapidly spread across the forest. Lee Seng watched as the purple landscape pulled away. The life of the forest started to grow. The colorful forest grew around him as he watched.

"The tree leaves are multi-colored?!?" Lee Seng was in awe. Daros was definitely a place where if you wanted to see color in nature, you could definitely see it. Green grass scattered all across as the curse began to purify all around them.

Lee Seng spun around, watching the light spread beyond what he could see. He couldn't believe they actually managed to do it. He shouted with joy as the gravity bubble started to shift himself downwards.

The pure light died down as Lee Seng landed on the ground. The rock boxes pulled away, revealing all of his allies. They all looked around, in awe of the colorful forest.

"We did it." A fox spoke.

"We did it!" They all began to cheer. They all took in the cursed forest's true form. The multi-colored leaves were something to behold.