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Chapter 26 - Chapter 26: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada

Chapter 26: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada

Minamoto Naine stood amidst a pile of unknown fragments, her hand gripping Totsuka-no-Tsurugi so stiffly that it was difficult to even let go. She had never experienced such a scene; from childhood, the most she had seen were Cursed Spirits the size of flies. The Cursed Spirit from this Curse Master incident was already the most threatening existence she had ever encountered.

Although the numerous Curses before her were not strong, she still had to slay them one by one. Unlike her previous encounter where merely injuring the enemy forced them to retreat, the sight of flesh and severed limbs flying everywhere had a significant impact on Minamoto Naine.

Kamihara Hajime, who stood nearby, barely made a move. After clearing this area of Curses, the doors in the corridor no longer opened. Kamihara Hajime tried to walk towards the dark, shadowy end, but the corridor seemed endless; the dense blackness remained perpetually in front of Kamihara Hajime, neither far nor near.

Not until Minamoto Naine, who had been standing in place, disappeared from his sight behind him, did Kamihara Hajime ponder for a moment and then continued forward. Before long, two figures appeared from the darkness ahead: it was none other than Minamoto Naine holding Totsuka-no-Tsurugi and White Wolf crouching beside her.

Hearing footsteps behind her, Minamoto Naine turned around in surprise: "Hajime-kun, weren't you ahead? How did you come from behind?"

Kamihara Hajime did not immediately answer Minamoto Naine but directly activated his Technique. Then, like a ghost in a temporal rift, he walked forward and backward, and the result was always the same: each time, he would see Minamoto Naine again in front.

Returning to his original spot, Kamihara Hajime deactivated his Technique. Minamoto Naine, whose vision blurred for a moment, looked at Kamihara Hajime and thought he seemed to be in a different position than before. Before she could ponder it further, she heard Kamihara Hajime say, "This Innate Domain is like a circular structure. No matter which way you walk, you'll return to the starting point."

Minamoto Naine then suggested, "What about these doors? If the corridor is a circle, where do the doors on either side lead?"

Kamihara Hajime had already walked to a nearby door. "That's what I'm going to try next. I'm going to open it. Stay alert."

With that, Kamihara Hajime twisted the doorknob. Kamihara Hajime, who was prepared to face danger directly, saw no Curses behind the opened door, but rather… his own back.

Kamihara Hajime turned around abruptly and opened the door directly behind him. As expected, he saw his own back again. Moreover, the 'selves' on both sides were not physical entities created by Curses; this feeling was more like looking into a mirror, except the reflection on the other side was not facing him.

Minamoto Naine also leaned in, looking at this scene in astonishment. Turning her head back and forth, her mind was clearly muddled. Kamihara Hajime thought for a moment, then had her stand in the middle, while he faced her and walked backward into the door behind him.

Thus, in Kamihara Hajime's vision, he saw the 'self' behind the opposite door also retreating, until it entered the corridor he had just been in. The self on the opposite side gradually retreated and finally touched Minamoto Naine, who was standing in place, and at the same time, Kamihara Hajime felt a touch from behind.

"Is it a spatial fold? These two doors are actually connected. Stepping through one is equivalent to arriving at the other, and what I see is actually just an illusion?"

"Then… what would happen if I kept the opposite door open?"

Thinking of this, Kamihara Hajime decided to try. It was like placing two mirrors facing each other; theoretically, the reflections within, after multiple reflections, would be infinite. However, due to angles and other reasons, as well as the loss of light propagation, people eventually only see the reflections in the mirror as a mass of darkness.

So what about this Curse? If the door is kept open, how many "reflections" can it form?

"Click."

Kamihara Hajime pushed open the door in front, and without surprise, he saw Minamoto Naine's back again. From Minamoto Naine's perspective, as doors opened one after another, she also saw Kamihara Hajime appearing one after another.

The White Wolf, seeing another version of itself, curiously moved and then spun in a circle, whereupon it saw a dozen White Wolves spinning in sync.

As Kamihara Hajime repeatedly opened doors, Minamoto Naine kept seeing Kamihara Hajime running past her, and her field of vision would expand.

"Too slow, let's probe a bit more."

Time Wheel Spin

Amidst the almost overlapping, elongated sound of shattering, Kamihara Hajime floated past like an almost imperceptible wisp of mist. Instantly, this strange phenomenon extended beyond the limits of sight. Then, a sound of something crumbling was heard, and a section of this "line" suddenly disappeared.

Kamihara Hajime looked at the vanished scene. Although it quickly reconnected, he sighed, seeing it with his own eyes: "One thousand three hundred and sixty-four. Is this the limit? I originally wanted to see if it could truly achieve an infinite loop…"

Turning to Minamoto Naine, he said, "Get ready. I'm going to break through this place."

"Ah…"

As soon as Minamoto Naine stood firm, she only saw Kamihara Hajime's figure blur before her eyes, followed by a somewhat distorted, piercing sound. Then, everything around them began to collapse.

Minamoto Naine felt as if she were standing on a constantly twisting rag. In a moment of daze, the ceiling was already to her left.

Then she felt a dizzying sensation, about to fall towards the wall that was now below her, when a hand extended from mid-air grabbed her arm.

Grabbing Minamoto Naine with one hand and lifting White Wolf with the other, Kamihara Hajime, leaping in mid-air, instantly activated his Technique. Then, freeing both hands, he took out Extermination, drew the bowstring, and condensed an arrow in one fluid motion.

Then, a Cursed Energy arrow, tearing a blue streak through the air, blasted a gap in the twisting corridor. Kamihara Hajime, after bringing the person and dog back with him, then deactivated his Technique.

Then Kamihara Hajime, carrying the loudly exclaiming Minamoto Naine and the White Wolf echoing her cries, leaped out of the gap. The scene before them changed, and they were back in the original school corridor.

No sooner had Kamihara Hajime put down Minamoto Naine and White Wolf than he heard a whistling sound behind him. Turning back, a massive piece of broken wall smashed down in front of him.

"Bang!"

With a loud explosion, Kamihara Hajime punched the nearly man-high piece of broken wall into egg-sized fragments. Under his deliberate control and guidance of Cursed Energy, these fragments flew out to the sides and forward.

Looking at the continuously emerging fleshy lumps from a gap in the air, Kamihara Hajime said to the somewhat intimidated Minamoto Naine, "Take White Wolf and get out of this building first."

Minamoto Naine immediately picked up White Wolf and handed Totsuka-no-Tsurugi to Kamihara Hajime. She then turned and jumped out of the corridor window.

The fleshy monster soon struggled to reveal its entire body, and the surrounding stairs and walls were immediately shattered by its massive form.

"Good thing I set up the barrier, otherwise it would be hard to clean up."

This monster, with six frog-like limbs, had a vertical, large mouth on its face lined with rings of fangs, and the latter half of its body was a thick, reptilian-like tail.

Kamihara Hajime did not immediately activate his Technique. Looking at this ugly creature, he couldn't help but sigh, "These Curses… each one is more unsightly than the last. Those that conform to popular aesthetics are truly rare."

While complaining, Kamihara Hajime charged towards it with Totsuka-no-Tsurugi…

Minamoto Naine, who had jumped to the ground outside, had just let out a sigh of relief when she heard a series of continuous explosions. Looking back, large sections of the main teaching building's glass shattered simultaneously.

Immediately after, a colossal creature smashed through three floors of walls in an instant. From the rising smoke, a figure flew out—it was Kamihara Hajime, with some purplish-black liquid staining his body.

The full appearance of that Cursed Spirit was bathed in moonlight. Upon closer inspection, its two left limbs were severed at the root, and a long wound was torn across its chest, revealing writhing flesh within.

"Woof!"

White Wolf beside Minamoto Naine suddenly barked. Startled awake, she caught a glimpse of a shadow darting from her blind spot.

Minamoto Naine, who had just begun to raise her hands in defense, felt a sharp pain in her abdomen, and then something like a rope constricted her neck and upper body.

"You brat over there! If you don't want her to die, throw the sword in your hand over here!"

Kamihara Hajime landed on the ground. Hearing the voice, he looked over and saw a grim-faced man who had already subdued Minamoto Naine. What bound her was a strange, long, rope-like fish, and White Wolf beside her was being dragged by a toad the size of a millstone.

Behind him was the massive Cursed Spirit charging towards him. With threats from both front and back, Kamihara Hajime, however, revealed a smile: "You want this? Here, take it!"

Watching Kamihara Hajime raise the sword as if to throw it at him, the Curse Master relaxed slightly, but a strange feeling arose in his heart…

"Why… does it hurt so much? My hands… and where are my feet?"

The Curse Master, gradually falling to the ground, thought powerlessly. The sections of the long fish shikigami's body that had fallen onto his face slowly dissipated. Drowned in pain, his last conscious thought was: "I fell for it…"

Kamihara Hajime, who appeared behind the Curse Master, held Totsuka-no-Tsurugi and looked at the Curse Master lying on the ground, now limbless. After some thought, he used Reverse Cursed Technique to slightly treat his limbs and the wounds on his chest and abdomen, just in case he died too soon; there were still questions he wanted to ask him…

Simply put, Kamihara Hajime first imbued Totsuka-no-Tsurugi with his Technique before throwing it, which then pierced the Curse Master's body. He then deactivated the Technique on Totsuka-no-Tsurugi and re-applied the Technique to himself.

After pulling out Totsuka-no-Tsurugi, he casually severed the Curse Master's limbs and the two Cursed Spirits he had summoned. As for why he bothered with such a troublesome two-step process?

This was Kamihara Hajime, who was good at fulfilling others' requests, giving him his last mercy. Since he wanted it, he gave it to him, but unfortunately, he couldn't catch it…

"Oh… there's still one. You're quite interesting, but unfortunately, your grade isn't high enough. If you were Special Grade, you'd probably be very strong…"

Forming a hand seal with one hand, Kamihara Hajime activated his Technique again, stepping onto the massive creature and leaping onto its head. Then, Totsuka-no-Tsurugi, suspended in the air, reflected the moonlight, casting a shimmering glow.

A bloodline suddenly appeared from the giant Cursed Spirit's head to its base, then abruptly split open amidst its wails. Due to its wide body, it didn't immediately become two halves; some parts were still connected at the back.

Looking at the dying creature, Kamihara Hajime decided to be a good person. He then decapitated it with a single slash, thus Exterminating it.

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