“Grandma Gren?” Gloria asked. The group had been walking for quite some time. The tower steadily spiraled downwards, but the change in elevation was barely noticeable. So far, they had seen seven different sealed evils—all of which were dead. “If a new ancient evil appears, are you the one who’s going to seal it? Will you die too?”

Gren furrowed her brow and glanced at Gloria. “First of all, if a new ancient evil appears, it won’t be called an ancient evil; it’ll be called a calamity bringer. As for whether or not I’ll be the one who’s going to seal it, that depends on how well the humans do when fighting it. The ancient evils you’ve seen so far are the earliest sealed evils to appear. As you go down the tower, you’ll see evils that were defeated by creatures other than cursed dragons.” Gren gazed down the corridor before she put a paw on Gloria’s head. “Don’t worry. It’s been a while since any cursed dragon has died while dealing with a calamity bringer. We went from fighting the evils to being the ones who seal the already-defeated evils.”

Gloria nodded and patted her chest. For the past seven evils the group had seen, one cursed dragon had died during the sealing process! “Why are cursed dragons responsible for doing this?” she asked. “How come phoenixes or other creatures don’t have to seal evils?”

Gren narrowed her eyes and stroked her chin with her claws. “You could say we fought for the right to seal the evils.”

Fought for the right to get killed while sealing evils? Gloria tilted her head. “Why?”

“Power,” Gren said and smiled, revealing her teeth. “Take Ramon for example; one of the sealed evils is interacting with him. If things go right, he can form a contract with Kozabokget and use her power as his own.” She patted Gloria’s head again. “Every cursed dragon must experience the evil-sealing tower to see if they resonate with any of the sealed evils. Generally, you’d have to be in front of their seal to see if they’re willing to form a contract with you, but Kozabokget’s seal is weakened, which is why Ramon saw her a bit earlier. Even though you’re not seeing anything strange, that doesn’t mean a sealed evil won’t pick you.”

Gloria blinked. “Does Daddy have a contract with a sealed evil too?”

“Your dad did have a contract with a sealed evil, yes,” Gren said before glaring at Grimmy. “But he tricked it, and now, none of the evils in the tower are willing to work with him anymore.”

Gloria’s eyes widened. “How did he trick it?”

Grimmy puffed his chest out. “I—”

“Shut up!” Gren said and smacked Grimmy’s snout with her paw. “Don’t poison my grandchildren’s brains with your terrible ideas.”

Grimmy scratched his nose and chuckled. When Gren turned away, Grimmy crouched down and whispered to Gloria, “I’ll tell you later when your grandma’s not around.”

Gloria flinched when Gren’s tail slapped the ground. Gren cleared her throat. “Let’s continue,” she said. “Although you can’t form contracts with these sealed evils because they’re already dead, they’re still useful to learn about. You never know when you’ll encounter an enemy you can’t defeat. If that’s the case, you can always trick them; tell them the poisonous clam is a rare tonic and have them eat it.”

Ramon’s eyes lit up. “In other words, everything sealed in this tower is a weapon for us cursed dragons?” he asked. “And other people just let us take these weapons from them?”

“They don’t let us take them,” Grimmy said. “We take them whether they want to give them up or not.”

“And you wonder why the rest of us don’t like cursed dragons,” Kondra said and snorted. “Did you use one of these sealed evils of yours to destroy the southern continent? How irresponsible.”

“Hey,” Tafel said. She pointed at the translucent crystal pane up ahead. “Is that a book?” She pursed her lips. For some reason, she really wanted to break the crystal pane down to see what was written inside the book.

“Yes,” Gren said. “That’s the Trickster’s Book. It belonged to a being that came from another dimension—the Trickster. It’s his book of spells. However, when the Trickster died, he sealed his soul inside of the book, and if anyone tries to open it, they’ll be possessed and taken over by him. When my ancestors got around to sealing him because he became strong enough to hunt dragons, he was already on his hundredth possession or so. He killed three cursed dragons before he was finally sealed away.”

Tafel gulped. “There’s spells in that book capable of killing dragons?”

Gren narrowed her eyes at Tafel. “Why? Are you interested?” She grinned. “Hundreds of people just like you were tempted by the Trickster’s Book, but in the end, the Trickster possessed all of them. Do you think your soul is strong enough to defeat his?”

Tafel furrowed her brow. “No cursed dragon opened the book before? How strong are dragon souls compared to his?”

Gren snorted. “A cursed dragon tried to open it once. Although she wasn’t possessed, she was still severely injured. Since then, the book has been left untouched.”

Without warning, Grimmy slammed his tail against the crystal pane; it shattered into hundreds of pieces. Gren’s eyes widened, but before she could do anything, Grimmy plucked Vur off of the earthen construct and tossed him at the book.

“Stop!” Gren shouted. She rushed forward, but Grimmy grabbed her tail, holding her back. She snapped at him with her teeth. “What are you doing!?”

“Vur’s soul has been through so much that it should be strong enough to eat the Trickster,” Grimmy said. “I always wanted to know what was written in that book.”

Vur picked up the book and looked behind himself. “Should I open this?”

“No!” Gren shouted.

“When was the last time you gave Tafel a present?” Grimmy asked. “You saw how she reacted when she heard about the book. Destroy the soul inside and give the book to her as a gift.”

“Wait, Vur, it’s dangerous,” Tafel said.

“Grimmy said I’ll be fine,” Vur said and placed his finger underneath the front cover of the book. With a simple flicking motion, the book opened, revealing the first page. He waited a bit. Nothing happened. Vur looked at the two cursed dragons standing by the entrance. “Is it broken?”

Before Gren could reply, a shrieking sound came out of Vur’s body. Black mist surged out of Vur’s chest, forming a scaled face with a terrified expression on it. Before it could get very far, silver mist in the shape of dozens of different animals enveloped it. A bloodred light flashed inside like thunder within a cloud. The shrieks became screams, and when a black dragon’s head emerged from the imprint on Vur’s forehead, the screaming turned into the sound of pleading. Without mercy, the black dragon’s head chomped down on the ball of black, silver, and red mist, eating it all in one bite.

Vur made a face as the dragon’s head retreated inside of him. “Was the Trickster human?”

With a dumbfounded expression, Gren shook her head. “He was a fish.”