The moon had disappeared.
A thick blanket of black clouds swallowed the night sky, leaving the ancient Black Forest in complete darkness. The only sound was the howling wind weaving through the dead trees. Their twisted branches looked like skeletal hands reaching toward the heavens.
No birds sang.
No insects moved.
Even the wild animals had abandoned the forest long ago.
The villagers believed the forest belonged to the dead.
For over three hundred years, anyone who entered after sunset never returned alive.
Tonight...
The curse had awakened again.
A terrified family ran through the dense forest.
A father held a burning torch while his wife carried their little daughter in her arms.
"Hurry!" the man shouted.
"We're almost out!"
Behind them echoed a terrifying laugh.
"Hehehe..."
The laughter wasn't human.
It was cold.
Empty.
Hungry.
The torch suddenly went out.
Darkness swallowed them.
The woman froze.
"I... I can't see anything."
A whisper drifted past her ear.
"Looking for me?"
She screamed.
A pale woman with impossibly long black hair floated in front of them. Her feet never touched the ground. Her glowing crimson eyes burned like fire beneath the strands of hair covering her face.
Her mouth slowly stretched into an unnatural smile.
Rows of needle-like teeth appeared.
The father stepped in front of his family with a trembling axe.
"Stay away from them!"
The ghost tilted her head.
"You humans never learn."
Without moving...
She appeared directly in front of him.
CRACK!
His axe shattered into hundreds of pieces.
A cold hand wrapped around his throat.
The man's feet lifted off the ground.
His wife cried desperately.
"No! Please!"
The ghost smiled.
"I haven't tasted a human soul for fifty years."
The little girl closed her eyes.
She knew...
They were going to die.
Miles away...
An abandoned temple stood hidden beneath an ancient mountain.
Thousands of black candles burned without fire.
Inside the temple sat a young man wearing a long black coat.
His eyes remained closed.
Around him floated dozens of strange symbols glowing with dark blue light.
Suddenly...
Every candle went out.
The young man's eyes opened.
One eye was silver.
The other was completely black.
A deep voice echoed inside his mind.
"Another innocent soul will die tonight."
He slowly stood.
The strange black mark engraved on his right hand began to glow.
Every supernatural creature across the forest felt it.
Ghosts disappeared into the shadows.
Pishachs stopped hunting.
Even the ancient spirits hidden beneath the earth trembled.
Only one name echoed through the darkness.
Tritya...
The Curse that Monsters Fear.
Back inside the forest...
The ghost tightened her grip.
The father could barely breathe.
His daughter cried helplessly.
"Please don't hurt Daddy..."
The ghost laughed.
"Children always cry before they lose everything."
Just as she opened her mouth to devour his soul...
A calm voice echoed through the darkness.
"Release him."
Silence.
The ghost slowly turned.
A young man stood beneath the trees.
His long black coat moved gently with the wind.
His face showed no fear.
Only cold determination.
The ghost stared at him.
Something felt...
Wrong.
No...
Impossible.
She took one step backward.
"I know that aura..."
Her voice trembled.
"No..."
"It can't be..."
The young man walked closer.
Each step caused the ground beneath him to crack.
Black flames surrounded his right hand.
The villagers watched in complete shock.
The ghost suddenly screamed.
"RUN!"
Instead of attacking...
She tried to escape.
The villagers couldn't understand.
The creature that had slaughtered hundreds...
Was running away.
The young man sighed.
"I warned you."
He raised his cursed hand.
Dark energy exploded across the forest.
BOOOOOOM!!
Trees bent under the pressure.
The sky shook violently.
The ghost was thrown hundreds of meters through the air before crashing into an ancient stone altar hidden deep inside the forest.
She tried to stand.
Her body refused.
Black cracks spread across her skin.
"No..."
"Mercy..."
The young man stood before her.
"My name is Tritya."
"And monsters like you already know what happens next."
With a single snap of his fingers...
The ghost let out one final scream.
Her body dissolved into black ash.
The wind carried the ashes into the darkness.
She no longer existed.
The villagers stood frozen.
One old man slowly fell to his knees.
"So the legends were true..."
"The Third Curse still walks among us."
Tritya looked toward the dark horizon.
His expression suddenly changed.
He sensed something far more terrifying than the ghost he had just destroyed.
Far away...
Two powerful cursed auras had awakened.
His brothers...
Watching him from the shadows.
A freezing silence spread across Black Forest.
The villagers stood motionless, unable to believe what they had witnessed. The terrifying ghost that had haunted the forest for decades had vanished within seconds.
An elderly man slowly approached Tritya.
His hands trembled.
"You... you're really him, aren't you?"
"The Third Curse..."
Tritya didn't answer.
His eyes remained fixed on the dark mountains beyond the forest.
He could still feel them.
Two cursed souls.
The same blood.
The same power.
His brothers.
Thousands of miles away...
Hidden beyond the world of the living stood a fortress known as The Castle of Endless Night.
Its black towers pierced the crimson sky.
Instead of rain...
Blood fell from the clouds.
Inside the throne hall sat two young men.
Both looked exactly like Tritya.
The only difference...
Their eyes glowed completely red.
One wore dark crimson armor.
The other carried a gigantic black sword chained to his back.
Between them floated a pool of black liquid.
Inside it...
They watched Tritya standing in the forest.
The elder brother smiled.
"Our little brother has grown stronger."
The younger laughed.
"He killed a Ghost with one strike."
"How disappointing."
The elder brother rested his chin on his hand.
"No."
"He's becoming exactly what we need."
"The prophecy cannot be fulfilled without him."
The younger brother asked,
"And Mother?"
The elder smiled cruelly.
"She is alive..."
"For now."
"If Tritya wants to see her again..."
"He must open the path to the Sacred Weapon."
Their laughter echoed across the castle.
Deep beneath the fortress...
Chains rattled in the darkness.
A woman covered in ancient seals opened her eyes.
She whispered softly,
"Tritya..."
"My son..."
"Never come here..."
"They're waiting for you."
A tear rolled down her face.
Back in Black Forest...
The villagers surrounded Tritya.
One woman held her little son tightly.
"You saved our lives."
"Please..."
"Come to our village."
"We have nothing to offer except food and shelter."
Before Tritya could answer...
The ground suddenly shook.
BOOOOOM!
A deafening roar echoed across the forest.
Every tree bent violently.
The villagers screamed.
"What was that?"
Tritya's expression turned serious.
"This wasn't a Ghost."
A dark mist began rising from the earth.
Hundreds of glowing red eyes appeared inside it.
One...
Ten...
Fifty...
Hundreds.
The villagers froze.
A terrified old man whispered,
"Pishachs..."
"No..."
"There are too many..."
One after another...
Monstrous creatures crawled out of the ground.
Their bodies were twisted like broken corpses.
Their mouths stretched from ear to ear.
Each creature had four arms and razor-sharp claws.
They smiled together.
"We smell human flesh."
The villagers panicked.
"They're surrounding us!"
Children cried.
Women screamed.
Men picked up useless farming tools.
Everyone knew...
No human could survive against a Pishach Horde.
One enormous Pishach stepped forward.
Its body stood nearly ten feet tall.
Its voice sounded like rocks grinding together.
"We don't fear humans."
"But..."
It looked directly at Tritya.
Its smile disappeared.
"...we fear him."
Every Pishach instantly stepped backward.
Even monsters had heard the legend.
The Third Curse.
The destroyer of darkness.
Tritya slowly removed a black glove from his right hand.
The curse mark glowed brighter than ever before.
Dark flames covered his entire arm.
The wind stopped.
The forest fell silent.
Tritya spoke only one sentence.
"You've chosen the wrong night to hunt."
The giant Pishach roared.
"Kill him!"
Hundreds of monsters charged together.
The earth trembled beneath their feet.
The villagers closed their eyes.
They expected death.
Instead...
A pillar of black lightning erupted from Tritya's cursed hand.
BOOOOOOOOM!
The explosion lit up the entire forest.
Trees were uprooted.
Rocks shattered.
The shockwave threw every monster into the air.
Some burned instantly.
Others turned into ash before touching the ground.
Within seconds...
The battlefield became silent again.
Bodies of hundreds of Pishachs covered the forest floor.
The survivors crawled backward in terror.
"Impossible..."
"No human has this power..."
Tritya looked at them without emotion.
"I am not your enemy."
"You became my enemy the moment you hunted innocent people."
He raised his hand once more.
The remaining monsters screamed and fled into the darkness.
The villagers stared at him with awe.
One child walked toward him.
"Are you... a hero?"
For the first time...
A faint smile appeared on Tritya's face.
"No."
"I'm just someone trying to end this curse."
Suddenly...
A black raven landed on his shoulder.
It carried a scroll sealed with ancient silver wax.
Tritya opened it.
His expression immediately changed.
Only four words were written inside.
"She is still alive."
Below the message...
A strange symbol was drawn.
It was the royal seal of the Castle of Endless Night.
His brothers had finally made their move.
Far away, hidden in the shadows, a mysterious old man watched everything.
Around his neck hung a silver pendant shaped like a broken sword.
He smiled faintly.
"So..."
"The time has finally come."
"The bearer of the Third Curse has awakened."
"But he still doesn't know the truth..."
"The weapon that can kill his brothers does not yet exist."
"To forge it..."
"He must first defeat the Ten Immortal Dayans."
The old man disappeared into the darkness.
High above the forest, thunder roared once again.
Tritya clenched his fist and looked toward the distant mountains where the Castle of Endless Night awaited him.
He made a silent vow.
"No matter how many ghosts, Dayans, Pishachs, or demons stand in my way... I will rescue my mother."
Unseen by him, two crimson eyes watched from the clouds.
The hunt had begun.