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For a moment, Huohuo narrowed her fox-like eyes suspiciously.
She examined Tail more carefully. For some reason, a strange impression had appeared out of nowhere in her mind, yet she couldn't quite describe what exactly was different.
"Is it an illusion?"
She shook her small head, then realized that this feeling only appeared when she was looking at Tail.
Then it definitely wasn't an illusion.
"Huh? Where is this place?"
As his body gradually recovered into its flame form, Tail opened his eyes in a dazed state and floated back up.
"Oh, it's the trash can shop." After glancing around, his memories were also awakened.
And along with them, the fear that had caused him to pass out surged back into his heart.
"Ahem, Huohuo." He spoke in a gentleness he had never shown before. "The Joyseeker… THEY aren't too angry, right?"
After saying that, he looked up and noticed that Huohuo's expression suddenly turned shocked, then quickly shifted into one of suppressed laughter.
Huohuo finally understood where her sense of wrongness came from.
As Tail gradually woke up, the Heliobus flame began to pulse rhythmically, but this rhythm was extremely unusual.
The flames twisted and crookedly formed two characters on his body—Fool!
"Hawa." Huohuo covered her mouth and snickered.
Her whole body trembled with laughter, cheerful sounds leaking through the gaps between her fingers.
Mr. Giovanni was far too wicked, actually writing those two words on someone's body.
She gathered all her strength just to answer Tail's question in broken sentences.
"N-no, it's fine. That was just… the Joyseeker's avatar. Hah-huh, THEY already agreed to let us conduct experiments, ha…"
After speaking, she secretly glanced toward Aha's avatar resting in the lounge area.
This fully humanoid Joyseeker was someone Tail had never seen before, but THEY also didn't seem to have mentioned anything about revenge. It should be fine, right?
But then again, why did Mr. Giovanni tease Tail? Tail didn't seem to have offended him.
"Huh? Is what I said that funny?"
Tail was completely confused. He only assumed that he had said something stupid about Aha and was being mocked, leaving him unable to refute it.
"Eh? What's this?" When Tail looked up at Huohuo, he finally noticed the extra clown mask on his head.
Something of unknown origin naturally required careful inspection.
He condensed a flame hand and reached up to pull it off. The moment the mask left his head, he suddenly felt his entire body go weak, so severe that he couldn't even maintain floating.
With a slap, he crashed straight onto the floor again.
"Ah, Tail! What's wrong with you?"
Seeing his sudden collapse, Huohuo's laughter was instantly replaced by panic. She immediately picked up Tail and hurriedly asked about his condition.
But in her rush, she also noticed that the words on Tail's body seemed to have disappeared.
"I-I… what's happening to me?"
Tail strained with all his might, trying to activate his power.
But no matter how hard he tried, it was completely useless.
Not to mention Path power—even the ability to float was gone.
With Tail's experience, there was only one possible explanation.
And although this explanation was simple, it was incomparably cruel.
"D-d-don't tell me… I-I've been cursed?"
The terrifying consequences of losing his power made the usually fearless Tail stutter in terror, his flame-formed body trembling nonstop.
Once upon a time, even when sealed inside Huohuo's body, facing judges stronger than himself, he never held back his sharp tongue.
Because his power was still there. As long as he had power, he had the capital to be arrogant.
But now, he was truly afraid. In his current frail state, even with a Heliobus body, he was nothing more than a small flame, always on the verge of being snuffed out!
"Calm down first. The mask—this should be the mask's effect. Deep breaths. Relax, relax."
Huohuo didn't know the real cause, but seeing Tail become this weak the moment he removed the mask, it was obviously related to that item.
"Hu-chi, hu-chi, hu-chi."
With his emotions in turmoil, Tail panted heavily. Combined with his wolf head appearance, he looked somewhat like a small dog sticking out its tongue to cool off.
Huohuo placed the mask back onto Tail's head.
Sure enough, Tail revived on the spot and immediately began flying around again.
He continuously tested his various abilities. After confirming everything was normal, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Phew~ Luckily, I'm still the same powerful me."
But surviving the ordeal didn't bring much joy—only lingering fear.
He raised his eyes to stare at the mask on his head, his face drooping longer than a donkey's.
Clearly, his power had been sealed by this lousy mask.
Tail smacked his lips and muttered quietly, "Even an Aeon can be this narrow-minded. I only said a couple of things casually."
"Ugh, don't tell me I'll have to spend the rest of my life with this mask?"
Seeing his restless state, what Huohuo didn't dare to tell him was that it wasn't just the mask.
'Fool' will accompany you for life too.
And it's written on your face.Literally.
"Don't be nervous. You're fine, you'll just suffer a bit."
Sylvester had already completely seen through the mask's abilities using the [Eye of Truesight].
He smiled and said: "And this can also be considered an opportunity."
Hearing this, Tail's spirits immediately lifted. With a whoosh, he flew in front of Sylvester.
"Huh? What do you mean? You're saying the Joyseeker left something else for me?"
The rough-mannered Heliobus instantly became emotionally intelligent.
He manifested a pair of hands, pressed them together above his head, and bowed toward Aha somewhere far away.
"Joyseeker is generous, Joyseeker is awesome, Joyseeker is eternally undying."
There was no choice—having just suffered a loss, he had learned his lesson.
Sylvester blinked at him as he transformed from a dog head into a complete lapdog.
Wasn't he just complaining about "narrow-mindedness" earlier?
"Ahem, let me finish."
"This mask requires you to wear it continuously for forty-nine days and nights, without removing it even once. When the time is up, it will feed back into you, doubling your current strength."
"But it must be continuous. No interruptions. And you can't hide it inside Huohuo's tail either."
Hearing this, the piety on Tail's face turned into overwhelming joy.
His faith became even more sincere: "Joyseeker is generous! Joyseeker—"
"But!"
Sylvester paused heavily, a trace of sympathy rising in his heart for Tail.
Poor little flame, celebrating too early.
He spoke solemnly: "It also has a side effect. Look."
He opened the camera function on his phone and switched to the front-facing camera.
Finally, Tail clearly saw his own current condition.
Those two words were glaringly eye-catching.
[STUPID IDIOT] :)
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