Chapter 46: Near Death
Mahito's body was turning black, and just as a hard shell was about to form, a strange sensation tore through it all, and he knew…
The attack was complete!
In that instant, he began to meticulously examine his injuries: his limbs were severed like chopped scallions, his heart and chest/abdomen had seven cuts, exhibiting different cross-sections diagonally and horizontally, his neck and the area from his left eyebrow to his chin were cleanly separated, and there was a penetrating blood hole from his left eye to the back of his head.
And these injuries appeared simultaneously, along with two unknown forces; one hindered the recovery rate of his flesh and blood, and the other was a toxin that seemed to affect both his nerves and Cursed Energy…
It was those three swords! Mahito looked at the young man whose posture had slightly changed, the order of the swords in his hand had also changed, and… the Technique remaining within his body…
…
After Kamihara Hajime activated his Technique and entered Time Null State, the Onikiri he threw pierced Mahito's left eyeball, then, parting the splashing fluids, it plunged in until half of it protruded from the back of his head, where it also became still.
Kamihara Hajime, holding Totsuka-no-Tsurugi and Spider Cutter, arrived in front of Mahito in a blink. The halted, unfinished black hard skin on Mahito's body seemed almost nonexistent before the two curse swords, easily tearing through flesh and blood, and continuous flashes of blades severed all his limbs.
Seeing some purple-black unknown fluid, motionless and partially brought out from his ruptured skin, Kamihara Hajime then understood his intention.
Without needing to think, these things were certainly not good. Mahito had no intention of using his body to withstand the attack; he wanted to use these things, likely venom or similar, hidden under disguise, to counterattack.
"What a pity… it's still useless. Let me see if you can survive under the Technique of these three curse swords…"
The Spider Cutter's blade, like a clear autumn stream, passed through Mahito's neck, then hovered in the air. The Onikiri, which had been inserted into his eye, was pulled out by Kamihara Hajime, and then the Totsuka-no-Tsurugi, with a single diagonal slash, effortlessly split his head into two unequal halves.
The Totsuka-no-Tsurugi then split his upper body into two halves with another cut, then hovered in the air. The Onikiri, arriving close behind, also exposed Mahito's internal organs from another angle.
Kamihara Hajime gripped the Spider Cutter and plunged it into Mahito's heart. The three curse swords crisscrossed, rendering Mahito into fragments. Feeling that their Techniques had deeply penetrated Mahito's body, Kamihara Hajime then deactivated his Technique.
Blood gushed from Mahito's torn-sack-like body. Before it even hit the ground, rapidly proliferating "threads" between Mahito's severed flesh connected these fragments. Mahito, sitting with his hands on the ground, had the two sides of his head reattached, and a rotating eyeball grew out of the bulging flesh in his left eye socket.
Reaching out, he pushed the dangling eyeball back into its socket. Mahito's smile grew even wider. He suddenly vomited several chunks of flesh, then, with a wild grin, clapped his hands together, molding those chunks of flesh into one.
Multisoul: Bodily Extraction
Mahito's Technique is called Idle Transfiguration. He can touch and alter the souls of others, thereby changing the victim's physical form. Of course, he can also change his own form to adapt to different battles or fulfill certain needs.
Those chunks of flesh were victims he had transformed. These modified humans could only obey Mahito's commands, doing things against their will. The essence of this transformation was the alteration of their souls, leading to physical deformation, and Reverse Cursed Technique was powerless against this situation.
And when Mahito merges several different souls into one, utilizing the power unleashed by their rejection reactions, that is the Multisoul: Bodily Extraction Technique.
Mahito's face was twisted in a look of extreme delight. He suddenly spread his clasped hands outwards. The merged, struggling chunks of flesh abruptly swelled in a violent reaction, then several fleshy tumors jostled out from them, quickly obscuring most of Mahito's body.
Then, those tumors rapidly grew into heads with sharp teeth. These crowded, featureless masses, like a cluster of snake heads, surged forward, indiscriminately biting everything around them with violent Cursed Energy.
Looking at the Technique itself, Kamihara Hajime still found it very interesting. These souls, originally just ordinary people, under Mahito's manipulation and fusion, erupted with a power that was not simply additive. Although it might be a one-time use, Matsumoto Den, whom he had previously transformed, also possessed Cursed Energy that he originally couldn't have. This meant Mahito's Technique could not only alter others' souls but also cause changes in ordinary people's Cursed Energy.
Looking at these grotesque heads that had stopped before him, the mucus from their mouths also hung suspended in the air in dripping shapes, and Mahito's smile opposite him froze into a painting.
Kamihara Hajime raised Onikiri and aimed it at that smile from afar: "Let's try to kill you with one more round."
Onikiri and Spider Cutter danced in turns: Kesasatsu, Reverse Cross Slash, spin and cleave. Everything blocking the path to Mahito was shredded by the chaotic sword light. Amidst the scattered, floating pieces of flesh, Kamihara Hajime detected an anomaly in the air: a headache, chest tightness, accompanied by difficulty breathing, as if his internal organs were also starting to fail.
"Poison gas?"
Then, in just an instant, these sensations vanished. Under the continuously activated Technique Reversal, before the poison gas Mahito had mixed into the modified creatures could cause further harm to Kamihara Hajime, the reversal effect had already restored the latter's state to its previous condition.
"You've gotten smarter, haven't you? You didn't get your own poisonous blood on yourself, so you switched to poison gas that can generally cover the surroundings?" Kamihara Hajime walked up to Mahito. The other party's gaze was still fixed in another direction. Then, he raised Onikiri and slashed diagonally from Mahito's left shoulder to his right hip, then followed up with Spider Cutter and Totsuka-no-Tsurugi, each adding another strike.
When Mahito once again felt his body shatter into pieces, his first instinct was to search for Kamihara Hajime's whereabouts. Upon seeing the unharmed figure standing there, a look of simple confusion appeared on his face.
"Gas doesn't work either? What exactly is his Technique? It doesn't seem to be merely speed, does it? Is it a long-range slash?"
As expected, the modified creatures he released also fell to pieces. No matter what form he tried to transform into, whether a hard shell for defense or a fluid body like water, under Kamihara Hajime's slashes, Mahito had no ability to fight back whatsoever.
Poison liquid, poison gas, and spike-like attacks covering the entire space all sank without a trace, only resulting in being shredded once again. And that ominous premonition grew stronger and stronger; the opponent was still in peak condition. Mahito naturally began to consider fleeing.
Idle Transfiguration!
Mahito's body began to split like an earthworm, and from his mouth, he once again vomited a handful of "meat strips." In an instant, modified humans all over the ground emitted incomprehensible distorted sounds, stumbling towards Kamihara Hajime. And those multiple Mahitos began astonishing transformations, their bodies almost bursting through the parking lot ceiling, and their bodies sporting blade-like limbs that could not naturally occur.
"Is this all you have?"
Kamihara Hajime left his final words in Mahito's ear, then entered Time Null State, stepping on the modified creatures to get behind him. The Technique of the three curse swords allowed him to pinpoint the location of Mahito's "main body." After casually slicing through a blocking clone, Kamihara Hajime pushed Totsuka-no-Tsurugi into Mahito's back, its tip breaking through layers of flesh and bone to emerge from his chest.
Then, a tall, ethereal figure manifested above Mahito's body. A ferocious, demonic face stared at him mercilessly. In this space where everything was static, the Asura-like phantom raised the decaying sword still stained with blood in its hand, then brought it down on his head.
The gears of time returned to their usual course.
"How—"
Several bloodlines burst from Mahito's face, and then his mutated body scattered. But this time, it wasn't just physical damage; what truly baffled him was that his soul seemed to have been severed by a sword. This injury was not something he could heal immediately. More importantly, if this young man had a means to harm souls, it meant he would die!
Feeling the kiss of death for the first time, Mahito's already fragmented face couldn't stop laughing wildly. His Technique began to operate frantically. Since the opponent had shown his fangs, the next would be the true killing blow.
"This feeling… it's simply wonderful! Is this the edge of life and death?"
Walking on a small path suspended in darkness, with endless darkness congealed into death on both sides, Mahito felt that one wrong step could plunge him into eternal damnation. But it was precisely this extreme stimulation that filled him with unparalleled pleasure from the bottom of his heart.
In just an instant, Mahito's Technique was completed. Kamihara Hajime, who had entered Time Null State, saw that the bodies of the surrounding modified creatures were already exploding, while the five modified humans he had brought from the hospital earlier had undergone a mentally polluting fusion, transforming into a synthetic monster.
And Mahito's body was no longer recognizable as human. He began to self-disintegrate, and the small, worm-like forms made it easy to guess that he had chosen to flee.
Only one path lay before Kamihara Hajime: to gamble on killing Mahito in the next attack. Otherwise, he could already imagine the scenario: those modified creatures would explode, collapsing the parking lot, and Mahito, having changed his form, could escape in the chaos. Kamihara Hajime could even guess one or two of his routes, likely the underground drainage system.
But Mahito's soul was also incredibly "tough." That last attack should have exorcised him, but it only seemed to have severely wounded him. It was still uncertain if he could be killed in the next round of attacks.
"Forget it, let's try first."
Kamihara Hajime, using the same trick, helped Mahito cut him into even smaller fragments, then once again summoned the ethereal figure of the Asura-faced demon. The moment the Technique was released, Kamihara Hajime once again expanded the range of Technique Reversal, reverting all modified creatures except Mahito.
The explosion did not occur, and Mahito was once again severely wounded. But instead of despair, he showed a look of understanding. Mahito, shattered into a ground full of wriggling worms, burrowed downwards as if the concrete ground were nothing, while those modified humans showed signs of exploding again.
After Kamihara Hajime entered Time Null State again, he broke through the ground and cut the worms that were about to enter the sewer into pure flesh and blood. After the third activation of the curse sword's Technique, Kamihara Hajime, upon deactivating his Technique, saw the blurry mass of flesh and blood defy logic by suddenly accelerating and shooting into the sewage in the pipes.
"Still a bit short."
Kamihara Hajime cursed helplessly. This guy's health bar was absurd, more tenacious than a cockroach, slicker than a loach. Even if he reversed him again, it would be meaningless, because doing so would only restore his state as well. It was a pity he had no other means to harm souls, otherwise, why would he let him get to this point?
Looking at the countless worms in the sewage, under Mahito's deliberate Technique manipulation, these small things, most of which had traces of Cursed Energy, were completely indistinguishable from Mahito's own parts.
"Don't let me run into you again. Next time, I'll kill you for sure."
Kamihara Hajime said this to the flowing water. He wasn't making a threat, but merely stating a fact. Putting aside everything else, if Yuan Naiyin were to awaken, with her Technique, she could hack Mahito to death slice by slice. And if he could find other means to deal with souls, it would be even more convenient. As long as he encountered and pinpointed Mahito's whereabouts, that would be his death date.
"Besides Mahito, there was also a volcano head and a tree spirit. However, Suguru Geto, who was originally cooperating with them, has been confirmed dead. These Special Grade Cursed Spirits are quite unique. I'll report it to Gojo-sensei later. Now I need to call someone to clean up the aftermath."
Kamihara Hajime, leaping up from the opening, was met head-on by a destructive explosion. But with an unchanged expression, he then watched as the splashing stones returned along their original path. The damaged walls, pillars, and large holes in the ground were perfectly mended by the returning concrete chunks and dust, like a video rewinding.
To ordinary people, all of this would probably appear as a mere flicker; the destroyed surroundings would return to their original state, and those modified creatures, also reverted, would instantly collapse to the ground, blood gushing from a single bloody hole in their foreheads.
"Hello, yes, I'm at XX Hospital. I encountered an unidentified Special Grade Cursed Spirit. A battle occurred in the parking lot here. The opponent was severely wounded and escaped. The situation is a bit complex. Please send someone to handle the follow-up."Read 20+ Advanced Chapters At PA Treon
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