The Night Hunters had vanished. Except for one Huntress. She walked alongside the Cursed through the grim castle. The servants lay dead against the walls.
"How strange!" she said, peering into the hostile darkness of the castle with worry and tension. "The enemies are destroyed, yet the castle is still alive. As if someone new and ancient has entered it."
"What time is it now?" asked the Cursed.
"Already past midnight." She looked at him intently, as if she had known all along and understood that he was full of surprises. Terrible surprises. Grim challenges for a true warrior.
"Then leave."
"No."
"There are powers even you cannot handle."
She had no time to answer. At the end of the corridor, a female figure appeared.
She raised her hand, and the Cursed found himself in a corridor where large axes were flying. They attacked him, roaring as they sliced through the air and trying to cleave him in two or cut off his head. The Cursed was dodging and stepping aside while moving toward the end of the corridor, to where the closed door was. Reaching it, he opened the door and stepped into the darkness.
A large hall, where flying swords moved swiftly through the air at high speed. They lunged at him, spinning and delivering deadly strikes. The Cursed was parrying with his sword while moving toward one of the doors in the hall, fending off a dozen flying swords at once. Then he burst through the door and found himself in darkness.
A large furnace. He was at its center. Flames surrounded him from all sides.
"I am the Deadly Noblewoman. You will not escape my estate full of traps," he heard a female voice say.
At the top was the chimney flue. The furnace flames roared and rushed toward the center. He jumped high and found himself in the flue. Holding on with his hands and feet, he crawled upward. Thick dark smoke billowed from below, enveloping him, making him cough and close his watering eyes. He emerged into the darkness above.
A room with a fireplace, on which statuettes stood. Several faceless mannequins with swords surrounded him, attacking from all sides. He parried the attacks and stepped aside. He lunged at the statuettes and toppled them all onto the floor. They shattered into pieces. A dreadful female scream rang out through the mansion. The sword-wielding mannequins staggered, stamping unevenly in place.
He leapt into the corridor and saw the female figure fleeing into the depths of the mansion. He ran after her, smashing vases and other furniture along the way. Female screams accompanied the destruction of each object.
She was running through the large dark hall. Big statues stood there. He toppled and smashed them. The Lady of the Manor was screaming continuously. He was chasing her until he reached a room where, in the center, a statue of herself was standing. The Lady pressed her face to the statue and was weeping. He approached and stood close.
She lifted her head, her face streaming with tears. She reached out her hand to him. This time, not in a gesture of command, but in a plea.
"Have mercy! Don't destroy it!"
He struck with his sword, and the statue shattered into pieces.
The Cursed sat before the page of the book.
Written on it were the words:
"A castle and a village in the middle of a dense forest. Isolated from the outside world. Civilization never reached that place. The Lady of the Castle ruled these lands with a cruel hand.
The Cursed came there.
The Lady of the Castle was destroyed. The demon that controlled her was destroyed.
The Deadly Noblewoman was destroyed.
The book's curse is lifted."
Somewhere out there remained the Night Huntress.
"I wish you luck, Night Huntress," said the Cursed.
Then he closed the book.