This strike carried Naobito's last hope. If it landed, he was certain he could exorcise Mahito!
His fist came down.
But Naobito's pupils suddenly constricted.
Because he had missed!
At the very instant his fist was about to touch the back of Mahito's head, Mahito's skull split open on its own.
His body peeled outward like flower petals, letting Naobito's fist pass straight through the hollow without touching anything solid.
"Who did you say won, human?"
Mahito's voice came from his split-open skull.
Before Naobito could pull back and retreat, Mahito's body began to warp violently.
The muscles on his back writhed madly as countless tentacles burst from beneath his skin, forming a vast net that descended on Naobito.
Naobito's pupils shrank as he instinctively tried to activate Projection Sorcery again and flee.
But they were too close.
At this distance, even a speed of twenty-four frames per second was not enough.
Several tentacles wrapped around his right arm.
Cursed energy condensed into spikes along the tentacles and pierced Naobito's arm.
"What is this?!"
Naobito's eyes widened as countless tiny protrusions appeared across his right arm.
It felt as though insects were crawling beneath his skin. His entire right arm was undergoing an irreversible mutation at a visible rate.
"Idle Transfiguration"!
This was Mahito's technique.
By touching a target, it directly reshaped the form of their soul, thereby twisting their flesh—an absolute killing move.
For sorcerers, any defense was meaningless before this technique.
A cursed energy barrier?
Reinforcing the body?
All of it was useless against an attack on the level of the soul.
Once it touched you, it was over.
Naobito made his decision at once.
He raised his left hand, gathered cursed energy, and chopped at his own right shoulder with a hand strike.
Blood sprayed everywhere.
The