[The instant you heard that woman's voice drift up from deep within the sewer, tinged with languor and mockery, it felt as though an exceptionally sharp steel needle had stabbed into your brain, ruled as it was by cold reason.]
[Your pupils abruptly contracted in the darkness, and almost involuntarily, the face of that mysterious woman with the ugly stitches across her forehead flashed through your mind.]
[Why was she here?]
[That woman was actually working with this special grade cursed spirit?!]
[And in that instant when this extremely dangerous revelation shook you, the gray-haired cursed spirit whose upper head you had sliced off let out a chilling chuckle.]
[The laughter leaked from his ruined throat, carrying a twisted delight. The severed hand clamped around your ankle even tightened maliciously as he answered the woman in the shadows in an almost wheedling tone.]
["I know, I know~ But that guy's slashes really hurt just now."]
[The very instant his words fell, you suddenly felt an indescribable, searing pain originating in the deepest reaches of your soul!]
[It was neither the pain of a blade slicing through flesh nor the torment of breaking bones, but the absolute terror of having the very essence of your life forcibly invaded and wantonly ravaged by an outside force!]
[You distinctly felt that, inside you, deep within that core that transcended the flesh, something extremely important... had been crushed with a crack by the hand gripping your ankle.]
[In an instant, a blinding, blood-red hallucination erupted before your eyes. You seemed to experience a bizarre illusion: looking down, you clearly saw a fist drenched in blood thrust violently out through your chest, even pulsing as though flaunting its power.]
[But this illusion lasted less than a tenth of a second.]
[Soon, like light swallowed by