Utahime Iori couldn’t help but freeze for a moment.
When she had first learned how to control Cursed Energy, it had taken her nearly half a day to succeed, and that was in a quiet environment with a teacher guiding her.
Yet this unfamiliar boy had managed to do it in the middle of a battle.
His talent was probably far beyond that of an ordinary person.
But the thought flashed through her mind for only an instant before she shouted again.
“That’s fine!
As long as you can feel it, keep trying to move more of that power.
Remember, imagine it as a single whole.
Don’t let it scatter!”
A whole…
a whole…
Tōru Azuma repeated the words to himself as he dodged, trying to use the tiny thread of power he had just managed to move as a starting point and draw more Cursed Energy toward his hand.
Fortunately, it was much easier this time.
Perhaps he had already formed a pathway, or perhaps he had finally found an outlet and a direction.
More and more tiny strands of Cursed Energy gradually gathered together, eventually producing a qualitative change.
He glanced at his right hand.
A faint layer of deep blue flame now wrapped around his fist.
Its edges were blurry, as though it might go out at any moment, yet it held together without dispersing.
“My hand is glowing!”
Utahime Iori was surprised by how quickly he had managed to gather his Cursed Energy, but she continued guiding him.
“You did it!
That’s Cursed Energy!
Keep it there, stabilize it, and try to make it more concentrated!”
Tōru Azuma gritted his teeth and used his will to draw in even more power, gathering it around his right hand while doing his best to compress it together.
The deep blue flame around his fist gradually grew larger and denser.
Just then, a heavy crash sounded beside him.
Another of the two remaining support pillars had fallen, sending another cloud of dust billowing across the floor.
This time, Tōru Azuma didn’t immediately retreat.
He shifted sideways, letting the Cursed Spirit’s fist brush past him.
Then, using the momentum of his turn, he drove his Cursed Energy-wreathed fist into its waist, carrying with it all the resentment he had built up after being chased around for dozens of minutes.
With a dull thud, the Cursed Spirit staggered backward two steps.
It looked down at the injured part of its waist, then at Tōru Azuma as he pulled back his fist.
Perhaps it was because this was the first time it had been injured, or perhaps it had realized that the roles of hunter and prey were beginning to change.
It unleashed a furious roar several times more savage than before.
“I’ll kill you!”
The next second, an even more ferocious punch came hurtling toward him.
Tōru Azuma had absolutely no intention of meeting the Cursed Spirit head-on.
Now that it had been injured, it seemed completely enraged.
Its roar was louder than before, and even its punches had become noticeably faster and fiercer.
He hurried behind the final pillar, preparing to resume his strategy of circling around it.
After all, he had already gained a basic grasp of how to move his Cursed Energy.
He still hadn’t mastered the truly terrifying core of Cursed Energy, but with Utahime’s Cursed Technique amplifying him, perhaps he really did have a chance against a Cursed Spirit with so many obvious weaknesses.
Unfortunately, that hope was shattered almost immediately.
The Cursed Spirit gave him no further opportunity to maneuver.
Its fist missed him again and slammed into the pillar, but this time, the pillar couldn’t withstand the impact and snapped apart completely.
His final barrier was gone.
Tōru Azuma had already started retreating the instant the pillar collapsed, but when his back struck the wall, he realized there was nowhere left to go.
The Cursed Spirit noticed it too.
A vicious, sinister grin spread across its face as it raised its fist high, seemingly preparing to deliver the finishing blow.
Not far away, Utahime Iori saw what was happening as well.
She had thought that with the two of them working together, they might actually be able to exorcise the Grade 2 Cursed Spirit.
But for some reason, its strength had suddenly increased again at that exact moment, enough to destroy the boy’s last line of defense outright.
There was no time to think anymore.
Utahime tossed her Kagura suzu aside, used Cursed Energy Reinforcement to strengthen her body, and charged toward the Cursed Spirit.
She wasn’t good at fighting, but she had no choice but to join the battle now.
Even if she could distract the Cursed Spirit for only a single second and give the boy enough time to escape, the two of them could either try fighting it together or retreat afterward.
“Hey!
Run!”
She shouted as she sprinted toward him.
But Tōru Azuma, trapped with his back against the wall, could only give a bitter smile.
Run?
He wanted to run too.
But the wall wasn’t very long, and both sides were blocked by rubble and broken stone.
No matter which direction he tried to escape in, the Cursed Spirit’s fist would still be able to reach him.
It looked like he had reached the point where he had no choice but to risk his life.
He took a deep breath and focused all his attention on his right hand.
He stopped thinking about guiding or pushing the power.
He stopped thinking about what would happen if his next attack succeeded or failed.
He simply gave everything he had, forcing every bit of power he could control into his right hand.
A heavy pressure spread through the air.
Utahime Iori suddenly stopped in her tracks.
A terrifying sense of oppression was now radiating from the direction of the boy and the Cursed Spirit, rapidly swelling with every passing moment.
The Cursed Spirit also sensed the strange pressure.
It froze for a fraction of a second, then swung its fist with even greater force, intent on smashing the prey that had toyed with it for so long into pulp with a single blow, then turning him into nourishment for its own evolution.
Facing the lethal strike, Tōru Azuma did not retreat.
Instead, he stepped forward.
He turned his body slightly, allowing the Cursed Spirit’s fist to graze past his face, then unleashed a punch containing everything he had.
The deep blue flame abruptly collapsed inward.
Black and red light exploded from his fist, bursting outward like lightning and engulfing the Cursed Spirit in front of him.
Under the violent torrent of black-red Cursed Energy, its body was destroyed piece by piece.
It disintegrated in midair, fading away until nothing remained.
The entire process took less than three seconds.
Even at the very end, the Cursed Spirit still wore that cruel, furious grin, as though it hadn’t even had time to understand what had happened.
The instant the punch was completed, Tōru Azuma’s arm split open, spraying blood everywhere.
Yet he remained standing exactly where he was, still frozen in the posture of that final punch, gasping heavily for breath.
Not far away, Utahime Iori stared at the scene with her mouth hanging open.
She stood there in stunned silence, replaying what she had just witnessed in her mind.
Only after a long while did she finally manage to force out two words.
“Black…
Flash?”
While she was still dazed, a massive chunk of debris suddenly broke loose from the subway station ceiling and crashed to the ground with a deafening impact.
The sound jolted her back to her senses.
When she looked up, she realized that with the support pillars gone, combined with all the continuous shaking and impacts from before, cracks were spreading rapidly across the ceiling.
It looked ready to collapse at any moment.
Utahime immediately stopped thinking about the strange phenomenon she had just witnessed, as well as the dense, unusual pressure still lingering in the air.
She shouted toward the unfamiliar boy.
“Hey!
Stop spacing out and run!
This place is coming down!”
But the boy remained standing there in the same posture and gave no response.
Instead, as though her voice had finally broken whatever was keeping him upright, his body suddenly went limp.
He collapsed face-first onto the ground.
“What?”
Utahime Iori stared at the fallen boy.
She had no idea what had happened to him, but she gritted her teeth and rushed over, strengthening her body with Cursed Energy Reinforcement before hoisting him up from the ground.
The moment she saw his face clearly, she froze for a second.
Then she cleared her throat, supported him against her body, and hurried toward the subway station exit.