[Cursed Spirit]
A twisted creature formed from Cursed Energy shed by humans.
It sounded much like the way distorted frequencies in Solaris gave birth to distorted afterimages.
But Cursed Energy was itself negative emotion in its most direct form, so it needed no contamination or alteration.
Once Cursed Energy leaked from a human body, it could give birth to a monster filled with intense resentment: a Cursed Spirit.
But that was supposed to happen only because of ordinary people.
Neither Solaris nor Sonoro had ordinary people who produced Cursed Energy but could not control it.
Mo Bai was the only person in this world who possessed Cursed Energy.
And as a Jujutsu Sorcerer, he could control it freely. There was no way he could have let any leak out...
Was there?
"G-good evening!"
While Mo Bai was thinking, the Cursed Spirit raised a sharp, spiderlike leg from beneath its skirt and stabbed at him.
"Tch."
Mo Bai clicked his tongue and sidestepped its attacks one after another.
Then he grabbed the spider legs supporting its body, lifted it with ease, and hurled it into the classroom.
Bang!
"Good... evening..."
It was like a shoddily made robot.
The Cursed Spirit lay on the floor, twitching and repeating the same words until it dissolved into black smoke.
"Very weak, and practically no intelligence. Grade Three—no, Grade Four?"
Mo Bai stood in the classroom, rubbing his chin as he assessed it.
What he wanted to know, though, was why a Cursed Spirit had appeared here at all.
"No, that can wait. I need to get Moqu and the other students out first." Mo Bai shook his head, cutting off that line of thought.
This place, once used solely to test students, was growing more dangerous by the moment.
First the Remnant Star Society had been hiding here. Now Cursed Spirits had appeared out of nowhere.
But just as Mo Bai turned to leave, the classroom door slammed shut, as though the room had read his mind.
Click!
Frowning, Mo Bai tapped on the door.
It was hard. He doubted he could break it even if he reinforced his body with Cursed Energy.
The door itself was reinforced with Cursed Energy.
Mo Bai turned to look behind him.
The space that had looked exactly like an ordinary classroom had somehow become a tangled maze.
And he noticed something else...
Mo Bai clenched his fist, trying to gather Cursed Energy.
"Good evening!"
The familiar, twisted voice sounded beside him again.
It was another spiderlike Cursed Spirit, much like the first.
This time, though, its head was a man's rather than a woman's.
Bang!
Mo Bai punched it into black smoke, then ran straight into the maze without hesitation.
That Cursed Spirit had been nothing more than a warning.
If he refused to enter the maze as whoever controlled it wanted, the Cursed Spirits would likely keep coming, growing stronger each time.
Forget getting Moqu out. Right now, Mo Bai might not even be able to save himself.
At the center of the Academy's Dark Side plaza.
Moqu raised his head and saw that all those "audience members" were looking his way.
Had this happened before? Had the audience looked at him with such disgust back then?
Fear gripped Moqu. He searched his memory, desperately trying to recall how this play had ended in reality.
But whether because he was too nervous or because the Dark Side of the Academy had obscured his memories, he could not remember the ending.
So he looked up at the audience.
He wanted to see something in their eyes.
It makes no sense. There's nothing to it.
Every scene comes out of nowhere. The plot doesn't flow at all.
Did he have to cram in so many random jokes?
What a complete disaster of a play!
In the end, all he could read in their eyes were judgments that dismissed him.
All his hard work, everything he had given, the dream he had chased...
Maybe none of it amounted to much after all.
But the world is so big, and there are so many people at the Academy. Surely one of them can understand me. Surely someone can see what I put into my play!
Clinging to that thought, he searched the crowd before him.
No one. No one. No one!
Every one of his classmates looked disappointed.
Even worse...
Even the other him onstage, the Moqu from before, looked at him with nothing but disappointment.
As Moqu sank deeper into despair, something belonging to Sonoro quietly seeped into his body.
Bang!
After shattering yet another Cursed Spirit, Mo Bai glanced at his fist again.
Something was definitely wrong.
His total Cursed Energy had suddenly dropped by half.
"Heh heh heh! Class is starting!"
Before Mo Bai could think it through, another Cursed Spirit lunged out.
He had no choice but to destroy it too.
He had little time or strength left to spare for such thoughts. Along the way, he had "picked up" a few people.
"Wah... How did this happen? Why are there such terrifying monsters in the Academy's Dark Side?"
"I only came to the Dark Side to let off some steam. How did I end up in this mess?"
"Damn it! I want out!"
Some students were grieving, some complained, and some were angry, but most were too frightened to make a sound.
It made sense. However gifted they were, until they left the Academy's protection and faced real danger, they were still just students.
Mo Bai summoned the black and white Divine Dogs to stay beside them, hoping that would lift their spirits a little.
After all, he was only a student himself. In a situation like this, he needed Doctor Lu to step in...
Under normal circumstances, Mo Bai doubted he would have bothered with these students. But the maze seemed to have formed because of him.
He recognized the power making up its walls. It was his own Cursed Energy.
Since he was the cause, he had to look after the students caught up in it.
He turned to reassure them.
"Don't panic. I'll find whoever's behind this, kill them, then take you to find the 'Key' and get—"
Whoosh!
Before Mo Bai could finish, a dark figure appeared behind him like a ghost.
Then a woman's voice whispered beside his ear.
"But what if you're the one behind it? What will you do then?"
Before you continue