Temperature difference

A low growl rolled out from deep within the woods.

Then the fallen leaves suddenly sprang up from the soil, flipped over in midair, and rustled back down.

Rihito's gaze sharpened.

About forty meters away, an oak thick enough to wrap both arms around suddenly heaved half a meter upward.

Its roots tore out of the ground, bringing wet black soil and writhing earthworms with them.

Then something crawled out of the pit left by the roots.

First came two deathly pale hands, their black nails packed with dirt.

Then came a head formed from a massive, half-rotted burl. Several twisted human faces were embedded in the grain of its bark, each wailing in a different voice.

At the center of its chest was a hollow containing a constantly pulsing, dark green core of light shaped like a heart.

When Rihito got a clear look at that head, his breath involuntarily caught for half a beat.

"Kekekekeke..."

The cursed spirit let out a bizarre shriek, then crawled out of the pit.

A second later, it moved.

"...So fast!"

Rihito's pupils contracted sharply.

There was no time to think. His body instinctively slid to the right.

An instant later, a massive claw grazed his body and slammed down where he had just been standing.

Boom!

Dirt and fallen leaves exploded outward. A basin-sized crater blasted open in the ground, and flying clods struck his face.

Rihito did not retreat.

He closed in during the opening left by the cursed spirit's missed attack, his right fist wrapped in azure cursed energy, and drove a solid blow into the side of its ribs.

"Cursed Technique-Zero Coffin!"

Frost instantly burst from his fist, spreading half a foot along the cursed spirit's torso.

After landing the punch, Rihito quickly drew his hand back, ready to follow with a second.

But the cursed spirit gave him no chance.

The frost rapidly melted. The frozen gray-white membrane peeled off the cursed spirit like a layer of dead skin, hitting the ground with faint, brittle cracks.

The fresh flesh revealed beneath it was completely unscathed.

"Kekekekeke..."

The cursed spirit turned its head, and the two masses of black smoke in its eyes instantly locked onto him.

Its massive claw swept sideways.

Rihito's expression changed, and he raised his arms to block.

Bam!

As though a car had struck him head-on, he was sent flying into the trunk of an oak five meters away.

The impact jolted up his spine. Rihito let out a muffled grunt, and a metallic sweetness filled his mouth.

Before he could catch his breath, the cursed spirit had already turned around. Its towering figure, over three meters tall, rapidly grew in his vision.

"Damn it-Heat Blast!"

A tremendous torrent of heat erupted from his palm, striking the cursed spirit square in the chest.

Flames swept up the fallen leaves and exploded in midair. The enormous impact forced the cursed spirit back a step.

It lowered its head and looked at the flames burning on its chest.

Then it raised its left hand and gently patted twice, as though brushing dust off its clothes.

The flames went out.

Nothing remained on its chest except a patch of char that quickly faded.

"...Its regenerative ability is even stronger than its attacks." Rihito braced an elbow against the trunk and stood, his expression grave.

His arms were trembling now. That single block had left him barely able to lift them.

"Frozen tissue gets peeled off, flames get patted out... Both attacks only affect its surface. Zero Coffin is almost useless against this cursed spirit."

He gritted his teeth and settled back into his stance.

The cursed spirit gave him no time to recover.

It started walking toward Rihito at an unhurried pace.

The two masses of black smoke slowly swirled in its hollow eye sockets, while the light core in its chest flickered with its steps, alternately bright and dim.

Thump!

Without warning, Rihito's heart suddenly seized.

It felt as though an invisible hand had gripped it from inside his chest, then viciously twisted it.

As that sound rang out, the flow of his cursed energy faltered for an instant.

In that very instant, the cursed spirit abruptly accelerated.

Rihito raised his arms to block, but this time his cursed energy failed to keep up.

The massive claw came crashing down. He flew like a kite with its string cut, his back snapping a trunk as thick as an arm before he slammed into the ground.

"Damn it, what's going on?" Rihito's face flushed red, veins bulging along his arms.

Thump!

He pressed against the ground, trying to stand, but as the sound rang out, his heart seized again.

This time it hurt even more, as though someone were slowly scraping a dull knife along the walls of his heart.

Realizing something was wrong, Rihito quickly checked his body.

There were no external wounds. His skin was intact, and his ribs showed no signs of fracture.

Yet the pain was all too real.

Under the influence of that strange sound, his heart was being dragged along by a rhythm that was not its own. Every beat strayed from its normal cadence.

It was not fatal, but it could cause a slight delay in his control of cursed energy at a critical moment.

"No, I have to figure out how this cursed spirit attacks. Otherwise, I won't even know what brought me down."

Clutching his chest, Rihito rapidly retreated, each step making the fallen leaves rustle beneath his feet.

He did not know how the cursed spirit was attacking him, but putting some distance between them could not hurt.

When it saw Rihito retreating, the cursed spirit did not pursue him.

It simply stood there, its head tilted.

The heartlike light core in its chest continued to pulse faintly, steady and unhurried, like a machine that could never make a mistake.

Rihito kept his eyes fixed on the cursed spirit as he continued backing away.

Ten meters, eleven meters. When he reached twelve meters, the spasms in his heart finally stopped.

"My heartbeat's normal again... So it has a limited range. Around ten meters."

He leaned against a trunk, panting heavily.

Ahead, the cursed spirit remained where it was, the two masses of black smoke in its eyes still locked onto him.

Thump!

The strange sound rang out again, but this time Rihito was unaffected.

I was right!

But how do I defeat it?

Rihito wiped the bloody froth from the corner of his mouth and stared at the monster waiting quietly ahead.

Frozen tissue gets peeled off, flames get patted out... Both attacks only affect its surface. Zero Coffin is almost useless against this cursed spirit.

And furthermore...

If I get within ten meters, it controls my heart. But unless I get within ten meters, I can't do any real damage.

So this is a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit?

Something brute force and a little cleverness can't handle.

But I have to win!

The cursed spirit did not give him much time to think.

It moved again, its steps unhurried, as though measuring out the woodland.

With every step, the green light core in its chest gave a powerful pulse.

"This pattern..."

Rihito stared at the light core, his pupils narrowing slightly.

"Every time the cursed spirit takes a step, its core pulses."

"No, that's not it. The core pulses first, and then the cursed spirit steps forward. Could that core be controlling it, rather than the other way around?"

"Is that light core its heart, or the core of its cursed technique? Or are they actually the same thing?"

As he thought, Rihito's eyes gradually brightened.

It uses its heartbeat to drive its body, then uses that same rhythm to synchronize its enemy's heartbeat.

Isn't that a kind of cursed technique?

If the cursed spirit can release its technique this way...

What about me?

It was as though lightning flashed through Rihito's mind. He strained to recall it, trying to seize that spark of inspiration.

"The way that cursed spirit attacks is itself an application of its cursed technique, isn't it?"

"My cursed technique, Zero Coffin, seems to have only two applications: freezing and Heat Blast. But fundamentally, it absorbs and releases a target's thermal energy. If I used it another way..."

Standing where he was, Rihito kept dissecting the essence of Zero Coffin in his mind, layer by layer.

The cursed spirit stopped walking.

It stood exactly ten meters away, slowly raising its massive claw and pointing its fingertips toward Rihito.

A second later, five black nails shot from its fingertips, hurtling toward Rihito like five poisoned darts.

Without hesitation, Rihito rolled to the left.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

The nails skimmed past his back and embedded themselves in the ground, corroding the fallen leaves into a blackened patch that gave off white smoke.

He landed on one knee, pressing his right hand against the ground to steady himself.

He raised his head and looked at the cursed spirit ahead, which was already regrowing its nails.

The dull ache in his arms remained, and the spot on his back that had struck the trunk was beginning to go numb.

But his mind suddenly grew quiet.

"Zero Coffin's essence lies in temperature. Precise control of temperature."

"Simple absorption and release will always have a ceiling on their destructive power, unless I take them to an extreme like a domain expansion."

"In that case, what about a temperature difference?"

"Until now, I've only ever used one side of Zero Coffin at a time. I've never tried combining its two completely opposite directions."

"What would happen if I tried a different approach?"

In the distance, the cursed spirit started walking again.

This time, it was noticeably faster. The dark green light core in its chest pulsed faster and faster, and the two masses of black smoke whirled madly in its eye sockets.

Rihito slowly stood. His right hand was still trembling, and a trace of bloody froth remained at the corner of his mouth.

Then he closed his eyes.