Finally Mastering the Core of Cursed Energy

"That was about it." Kusakabe recounted what he and Panda had experienced not long ago. "Honestly, it was humiliating. We didn't dare move at all, so we could only slink back after it left."

"You just wanted an excuse to get off work early." With a cigarette between her fingers, Shoko Ieiri mercilessly exposed Kusakabe's lie.

"How could that be..." Kusakabe lied without changing expression.

They stood atop a building, looking down. They could clearly see the black-haired man chasing the butterfly flying through the air.

"By the way, that's... Toji Fushiguro, right?" Kusakabe looked at the black-haired man.

"Looks like it."

Toji Fushiguro was a special existence whose loss of control had been triggered by several circumstances.

As long as his current body was not damaged, he would continue killing forever. And his killing intent would always target the strong.

But Toji Fushiguro seemed to be stuck now.

He was like a trash mob boss with forced invincibility mechanics: melee attacks could not reach it, while ranged attacks could not lock on.

He repeatedly leaped through the steel jungle of skyscrapers, trying to catch the Fortune-Collecting Mother Insect flying not too high overhead.

But no matter how hard he tried, he was always "just short."

Switching to "ranged attacks" did not help either.

Whether he threw stones, utility poles, or even lifted cars and hurled them over, he could not truly hit the butterfly in the sky.

Every time, he was just short. Just barely short. Several attacks had nearly grazed past her side, yet failed to harm her.

Even Toji Fushiguro, who now possessed only instinct, could not help feeling a little irritated.

The opposite was true for Fortune-Collecting.

She was in excellent condition.

"Miracles" existed everywhere in the world.

Flipping directly to the page one wanted while reading was a "miracle." Getting green lights all the way home was a "miracle." Escaping death while surrounded by monsters was even more of a "miracle."

Her ability was to collect "miracles," gathering the scattered "miracles" in the air and using them to propagate small Fortune-Collecting Butterflies—her offspring.

She had no interest in anything. The only thing she wanted was to drift through the city, collect the scattered "miracles" in the air, and turn them into her offspring.

But not long ago...

While feeding on a "flower" that looked more to her taste, she had accidentally triggered some strange mechanism.

Black Flash.

It could draw out 120% of the user's potential and deepen their understanding of their own technique.

Although she had only happened to touch it because her luck was so good, she really did feel wonderful now.

Wonderful enough that she had initially been willing to ignore the human constantly harassing her below, hoping he would leave after getting bored.

But she had probably miscalculated.

For nearly half an hour, this human had kept harassing her.

She only wanted to quietly divide and produce offspring. She did not understand why this human was so annoying to butterflies.

At last, she looked directly at Toji Fushiguro for the first time.

She spread her wings, and a great deal of scale powder fell from them.

The scales rapidly turned into butterflies, but they were not Fortune-Collecting Butterflies containing a small amount of "miracles." They looked much duller—ordinary butterflies with nothing special about them apart from being somewhat larger.

Without any visible command from her, those dull butterflies rapidly charged toward Toji Fushiguro, descending from the sky in an overwhelming swarm.

They continued splitting apart even as they dove downward.

One became two, two became four.

There had originally only been several dozen, but by the time they reached above Toji Fushiguro, they had become a sky-covering mass, denser than a summer downpour.

Toji Fushiguro had nowhere to evade.

But he had never intended to evade in the first place.

Toji Fushiguro's body vanished from where he stood, leaving behind only a deep crater stamped into the ground beneath his feet.

He himself charged straight into the densely descending swarm. The first butterfly he touched exploded with a bang, as though some balance within its body had been broken.

That set off a chain reaction.

The dense, sky-covering gray butterflies exploded almost simultaneously, and enormous clouds of dust spread outward.

In this world, "life" carried immense weight.

Naturally, the price gained through a Binding Vow of "sacrificing life" was considerable enough.

And fortunately, Propagation never lacked life.

The dust spread out, only to be driven aside and dispersed by the wind pressure in the next instant.

Toji Fushiguro, his body covered in slash-like marks, burst from the dust and charged at the Fortune-Collecting Mother Insect in the air.

Fortune-Collecting watched him calmly without giving any response.

She had enough confidence in her luck.

Although she had no idea what would happen next to stop Toji Fushiguro from attacking her, Fortune-Collecting believed in her luck.

He clenched his fist and swung his arm.

Toji Fushiguro's fist shot straight toward Fortune-Collecting's insect face.

"Stop." A voice rang out in Toji Fushiguro's mind.

Toji Fushiguro, who had almost no reason left and only instinct remaining, understood those words perfectly at that moment.

That voice became one of his instincts.

His instinct to attack conflicted with the instinct to "stop," causing him to perform a stiff somersault in midair before losing his footing and falling.

As he fell, the voices in Toji Fushiguro's head grew more numerous and more dense.

He tilted his head and instinctively looked in one direction.

He saw a fist growing larger and larger.

The fist slammed solidly into his face.

Riiip!

A large number of butterflies appeared where the fist met his face. The instant each butterfly appeared, it used its life to form a Binding Vow, creating fresh damage through self-destruction.

Amid a burst of crackling sounds, Toji Fushiguro was sent flying.

His body spun half a turn through the air before he barely regained control.

But Morien's Synchronized Propagation had already filled his mind with countless cries of "Stop," leaving his body rigid.

He jerkily turned to look at Morien, then jerkily straightened his body.

Fortune-Collecting descended from the sky and landed behind Morien.

Morien turned around, placing his back toward Toji Fushiguro, and raised a hand to pat Fortune-Collecting's head.

"Being pestered to death by a man must feel awful, huh?"

Fortune-Collecting let out a hum.

She was complaining.

Indeed, it was literally "death," "pester," "ruin," and "beat."

All four words applied.

The instant Morien and Fortune-Collecting's minds reconnected to the same "insect swarm network," Morien suddenly froze.

The memory of Fortune-Collecting landing a Black Flash entered his mind.

Behind him, Toji Fushiguro stood where he was, looking somewhat conflicted.

His instinct to kill and the voices constantly issuing the command "stop" from deep within his instincts clashed, making him pause every time he moved.

Soon, the instinct of the Heavenly Tyrant made its judgment.

His movements would only grow slower, so...

The most important thing was to eliminate the enemy before he became completely unable to move.

Bang!

In the next instant, Toji Fushiguro appeared in front of Morien.

Morien, seemingly deep in thought, turned around at the same time and smiled.

Was that so?

Right.

Maybe so!

"I've finally mastered the core of Cursed Energy!"

Their arms thrust forward at the same time, and the two arms collided.

In that brief instant just now...

Morien had converted all his spirituality and Path Power into Cursed Energy, then formed a Binding Vow.

"In exchange for all my Cursed Energy becoming zero for the next hour, I gain comprehensive enhancement for the next three minutes, with physical strength equal to my current Cursed Energy."

Then, the instant the Binding Vow took effect, he converted all of his Cursed Energy into Path Power.

This was a Binding Vow. This was taking out a loan!

At that moment, Morien possessed a body capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with the Heavenly Tyrant.

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