Nothing was worse than the air suddenly falling silent.
The filthy Semi-Grade 2 sorcerer scrambled over to Fushiguro and Kugisaki. Judging by his panic-stricken expression, the special grade cursed spirit before them had clearly scared him witless.
"Calm down! Tell us where its weakness is!"
The man beside him wasn't acting anything like a Semi-Grade 2 jujutsu sorcerer. Megumi Fushiguro snapped at him harshly, keeping his eyes fixed on the black shadow that had gone still again...
After finishing its attack, the special grade cursed spirit had drawn its steel claws back into the shadows. The damaged sections of its body and its arms had reconnected, as though it had never been attacked at all.
"Weakness? What fucking weakness?!"
"If it had a weakness, Geto and Xiaohai wouldn't have died! You think we'd have needed you students?!!"
Fushiguro's sharp rebuke had done nothing to help.
Instead, the man grew more and more agitated. As images of his companions' mangled corpses replayed in his mind, the terror consuming him swelled. Even Megumi Fushiguro and Kugisaki were affected by that inexplicable emotion, a chill creeping down their spines...
"That thing isn't a normal cursed spirit! You can see it, but you can't touch it! Cursed techniques don't work on it at all! The only parts it exposes that can hurt anything are those claws!"
"But those fucking claws are hard and fast! You can't cut through them or block them! Getting close is suicide! And worst of all, the way it finds its targets is just..."
The Semi-Grade 2 sorcerer spoke faster and faster. Megumi Fushiguro could clearly sense his sanity and resolve crumbling.
At that same moment, an inconspicuous shadow carrying a faint ripple of cursed energy appeared behind the terrified, raving jujutsu sorcerer...
"Unpredictable..."
Squelch-!
A spray of blood splattered across Megumi Fushiguro's face.
The instant the man spoke, steel claws silently plunged into him from behind, tearing straight through his chest.
Blood ran down the silver-white blades, staining them red.
As the warm blood dripped into the shadows, both the motionless special grade cursed spirit in the distance and the darkness beneath the dead sorcerer's feet began to shudder violently, as though thrilled by the taste of a delicacy...
"Watch out! Get away from him!!"
A massive torrent burst from Max Elephant's trunk. In an instant, the enormous artificial waterfall engulfed both the special grade cursed spirit's position and the area its shadows had spread across, buying the two of them time to retreat.
"This thing... could it be feeding on emotions?!"
"Can we... really deal with this thing...?"
Kugisaki tightened her grip on the iron nails between her fingers.
She had seen what a special grade cursed spirit could do. She also knew full well that running was their best option right now.
But this time, they weren't at the Juvenile Detention Center.
No one would sacrifice themselves for them.
And no one would be there to bail them out...
"I don't know..."
"But my Max Elephant's attack didn't work..."
Megumi Fushiguro pulled a black-bladed cursed tool from his shadow and held it defensively in front of him.
Cold sweat had already soaked his back. He could clearly sense that Max Elephant's torrent had struck only the dead sorcerers' remains.
That special grade cursed spirit...
Hadn't been affected at all.
"Hiss, hiss~"
The sound of a flickering tongue sent chills down their spines.
In the brief instant they froze, the scene around them rapidly changed-
The pitch-black sky swallowed the last trace of light in the park.
Within that darkness, so deep they couldn't see their own hands, a pair of bright green eyes with slit pupils suddenly opened in the shadows...
"Watch out!"
Megumi Fushiguro quickly pulled spare, specially made torches from his shadow, lit them, and tossed them around.
By the firelight, both of them realized their surroundings had changed:
Human bones lay everywhere, mingling chaotically with the dry, cracked red earth beneath their feet. Giant skulls of sheep, pigs, snakes, cattle, and all manner of other animals rested on human ribs and assorted bony joints, enshrined as altars across the red ground. In the faint firelight, Megumi Fushiguro and Kugisaki looked like two living sacrifices offered up at their center...
An innate domain.
This change meant one thing.
Their enemy's form had evolved from a [newborn embryo] into its next stage...
"Haha, we're screwed now..."
Kugisaki gave a self-mocking laugh. Even before evolving, the special grade cursed spirit had left them helpless. Now that it had evolved, they stood even less of a chance...
"Not necessarily."
"I think we still have a slim chance."
Using the light, the two stood back to back. The enormous Max Elephant crouched around them, serving as cover and keeping watch. This way, they only had to watch for movement in two directions.
"Got anything up your sleeve?"
Kugisaki asked tentatively, but Megumi Fushiguro only shook his head.
They did indeed have a slim chance.
But that didn't mean Megumi Fushiguro had a solution.
Before evolving, the special grade cursed spirit before them had alternated between [incorporeal] and [corporeal] states.
In essence, it had been more like a low-level cursed spirit without a soul or intelligence, acting purely on instinct.
After evolving, however, its existence would inevitably settle on the [corporeal] side. In other words, ordinary jujutsu attacks could now affect it-
Those green slit pupils in the darkness were the best proof.
But... having a physical body also meant...
"It has intelligence now. Be careful."
The instant Megumi Fushiguro turned to warn Kugisaki, a figure flashed through the corner of his eye...
"Nue!!!"
Lightning pierced the darkness as the giant brown eagle swept past, striking the moving shadow.
But there was no howl or scream. Nue's attack felt as though it had hit cotton, producing no response whatsoever...
"Something's wrong."
Megumi Fushiguro quickly recalled Nue before it could suffer serious injury.
He picked up a torch at his feet and hurled it toward the spot Nue had struck. But aside from the red earth scorched black by lightning, there were only a few scattered black scales...
"Can you use the scales as a target for Resonance?"
Megumi Fushiguro asked quietly, but this time it was Kugisaki's turn to shake her head.
The Straw Doll Technique's Resonance required a part of the target's body to work-fingers, toes, flesh, or other parts intimately connected to it.
Scales, on the other hand, were externally attached armor. Never mind whether it would work at all-even if it did, its effect on the target would be negligible.
"Right now, we're practically..."
Before Megumi Fushiguro could finish, a sudden burst of light shot high into the sky-
For some reason, the special grade cursed spirit's innate domain was only a damaged, unfinished version. Its pitch-black sky couldn't block the influence of outside objects or cursed tools at all.
Upon learning that darkness had engulfed the area inside the Curtain, the Assistant Supervisor immediately requested illumination flares from the police and began providing continuous light for Fushiguro's group!!!
"Over there!!!"
The light overhead illuminated the pitch-black surroundings.
Seizing that opportunity, the two finally saw what the special grade cursed spirit looked like-
It was...
"A snake?!"