"What...!?" Jogo's expression suddenly changed.
This shouldn't be!
All Jujutsu Sorcerers must use their own will to activate a technique, even for passive ones.
Just now, Jogo was certain Hoshikira Roro hadn't been able to react to the fire dragon.
This was a sneak attack that should have hit!
Yet even so, the fire dragon still missed Hoshikira Roro and instead lunged toward himself as before.
Jogo formed hand seals to cancel the technique as fast as possible, but the fire dragon's speed was too fast and too urgent.
The seemingly solid fire dragon crashed into Jogo's body, and he was swallowed by his own Cursed Energy flames.
Not only Jogo, but even Hanami, who had been watching from behind Jogo, couldn't react in time and let out a startled cry.
Hoshikira Roro held up his palm to shield himself.
The heat wave of the flames spread out in all directions like a massive tsunami.
Even though he had reinforced his palm with Cursed Energy, he still felt the pain of a burn.
Despite the large distance between them, the thermal impact still injured him.
Forget being hit; even being slightly closer would lead to being incinerated!
Hoshikira Roro unconsciously stuck out his tongue to lick his lips.
Due to the constant spread of excessive thermal radiation, his lips had become parched and cracked.
He could hardly imagine how hot the corridor was now.
If not for the protection of Cursed Energy, he suspected his clothes would have spontaneously combusted, leaving his body covered in burns.
The impact weakened, and Hoshikira Roro lowered his palm, suddenly stunned.
Because Jogo was unharmed.
This spirit of the earth stood on the spot, hands in a seal.
Less than half a meter in front of him was a clear arc.
Outside the arc, the golden-red concrete was melted away; behind the arc was the charred floor, yet Jogo himself showed no signs of charring.
"He can even react to that? That's too exaggerated," Hoshikira Roro whispered.
[Jogo, let me also...] Hanami couldn't help but say.
Jogo took a deep breath.
"No, Hanami, you must preserve your Cursed Energy to deal with the Infinite Cursed Energy."
[But—]
"No buts!" Jogo shouted.
"Even if I die, you are not allowed to step in!"
"Let me be clear: even if I die here, you cannot waste a single bit of Cursed Energy on this Old Human!"
"After I die, you will advance over my corpse."
"Your Cursed Energy must be entirely contributed to Mahito. You can do nothing else!"
Forget Hanami, even Hoshikira Roro, as an enemy, was stunned.
A Curse had actually spoken words of dying for a cause.
Hoshikira Roro could hardly believe his ears.
He couldn't help but interject: "Are you really a Curse?"
"What's the matter, Old Human?" Jogo gave a mocking smile.
"Did you think I would value my life, or did you think I would be reckless?"
Hoshikira Roro sighed softly: "I underestimated you, Cursed Spirit."
"Not Cursed Spirit, Jogo!" Jogo roared.
"Then Jogo, you should have a general understanding of my technique by now."
"No matter what you do, you cannot approach me or the security door."
"As long as my technique is deployed, it continues to operate even without my will."
"You can't kill me, and you can't break through my technique. What will you do?" Hoshikira Roro grinned again.
Indeed, what was to be done?
Jogo did not launch an attack but instead thought seriously.
Since a moment ago, he had tried different ways to break through, but all had failed.
Moving there himself: failed.
Physical Ember Insects Breakthrough: failed.
Cursed Energy flames surprise attack: failed.
Simultaneous surprise attack by himself and the Cursed Energy flames: failed.
A sneak attack from the side at a speed the Sorcerer himself couldn't react to: failed.
From the many actions taken, the only thing that could be certain was that Hoshikira Roro seemed unable to move, forced to stand rooted to the spot.
They also could not perform any active offensive actions, only able to attack through counterattacks.
In other words, as long as Jogo himself did not act, Hoshikira Roro should be unable to launch any effective offensive.
Yet even this barely-reached conclusion was riddled with flaws.
Because the goals of the two sides were fundamentally different.
Jogo and Hanami hoped to rush to help Mahito and were thus eager for a breakthrough, but Hoshikira Roro was the exact opposite; they only needed to stall them here and had no need to expend Cursed Energy on attacks.
As long as the current state was maintained, their goal would be achieved.
One could even say that it wasn't that Hoshikira Roro couldn't attack, but that there was no necessity to do so.
Normally, if he encountered such an enemy, he would have directly used Domain Expansion, but now he had to preserve enough Cursed Energy to support Mahito, so he naturally couldn't use it.
Therefore, he easily reached a conclusion: he was at his wit's end.
Jogo looked at the security door; on it was a clear Cursed Energy seal: [Gacrux].
This should have a tangible meaning.
If he could understand this meaning, there would surely be a way to break through the current predicament.
So, what exactly did this seal mean?
Jogo closed his eyes and calmed down, beginning to think.
Mmm. Hmm. Hah.
Processing...
Jogo's mind was a complete blank.
"Pfft."
Suddenly, there was a faint sound of laughter.
Jogo immediately opened his lone eye in annoyance and glared forward.
Hoshikira Roro was covering his mouth with his face turned to the side, his shoulders trembling slightly, as if he were holding something back.
Jogo said with a wooden face, "Laugh if you want to..."
"Pwahahahaha!" Hoshikira Roro burst into loud laughter.
The volcano on top of Jogo's head erupted with flames as he roared with a distorted face, "You bastard!"
"I'll definitely burn you to ashes! I'll make sure there's nothing left of you!"
"Pfft, but, but..." Hoshikira Roro's shoulders shook as he struggled to stop laughing.
"That blank look on your face was just—even though we're in the middle of a fierce battle—but, sorry, I'm really sorry, I just couldn't help it, I couldn't hold it in! Pfft, hehe, hehehe, hahahaha!"
"Bastard!" Jogo roared in impotent rage.
[Look closely, Jogo,] Hanami suddenly said.
Jogo paused, "What's wrong?"
[Observe, think.]
Hanami stared at Hoshikira Roro's entire body, speaking in an unknown language that everyone could somehow understand, [Look, your jujutsu isn't entirely useless.]
Hoshikira Roro's laughter stopped.
Jogo observed carefully and indeed saw the difference.
There were faint burns on Hoshikira Roro's body.
But this wasn't right, because Jogo's Fire Technique had clearly never hit Hoshikira Roro—not even a grazing blow.
Where did the burns come from?
They should have been completely unscathed.
Then, suddenly, Jogo realized.
"...You can only counter my power, but you are helpless against the physical phenomena triggered by my Cursed Energy, right?" Hoshikira Roro sighed.
"What a pity. I thought we could just stay like this until the end of time."
Jogo stomped hard on the ground, sending a piece of floor debris flying fiercely toward Hoshikira Roro.
But he remained calm, merely glancing at the stone.
Mid-flight, the stone suddenly swerved and flew back toward Jogo.
Jogo casually crushed the stone in his hand, and in an instant, the stone melted into golden-red magma.
"It's not just Cursed Energy, but even objects imbued with Cursed Energy residue won't work."
"If it were a human, a physical throw with a hand devoid of power might work, but I am a spirit, a Cursed Energy being."
"As long as I touch a physical object, it will inevitably leave residue, so I can't attack you like that."
"What a troublesome Space Control Cursed Technique."
Jogo spoke of it being a pity, but a smile appeared on his face, revealing his black teeth.
Fire Arts: Maximum Release!
"Since physical objects with my Cursed Energy residue won't work, what about energy propagation?"
"Can you also control energy that has no Cursed Energy residue?!"
Raging flames suddenly surged, but this time he did not project the fire.
He kept the flames burning quietly, then increased the temperature.
Hoshikira Roro felt his eyelids grow heavy; he blinked slightly, and a drop of sweat fell from his eyelashes, instantly evaporating into steam.
He felt his mouth and throat grow parched.
His lips became dry and cracked with the slightest contact.
The rising temperature caused mist to billow throughout the corridor.
Hoshikira Roro momentarily saw a distorted Jogo; the air was being warped by the heat, causing the light to become abnormal.
Thermal radiation—a pure physical phenomenon!
When human flesh encounters temperatures exceeding two thousand degrees, it melts before it even burns.
For some reason, Hoshikira Roro recalled this piece of knowledge.
His head began to spin, and sweat soaked his shirt, yet he felt no stickiness.
Perhaps it was psychological, but he felt that even sweat wasn't allowed to exist now, becoming water vapor the moment it appeared.
He silently increased his Cursed Energy reinforcement.
At this, Jogo revealed a smile.
"It's effective, isn't it?" he said.
It was indeed effective, and at a rate faster than imagined!
Although a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer, Hoshikira Roro was actually not skilled in physical reinforcement.
His Cursed Technique excelled in kiting and support but was not outstanding in a direct frontal assault.
In the past, such offensive and defensive duties were left to Kinji Hakari; he only needed to restrict the enemy's movements or provide support at critical moments.
He was indeed skilled at kiting; if an enemy couldn't see through his Cursed Technique, they would be reduced to impotent rage like the Cursed Spirit before him, completely helpless.
As such, he had no need for Cursed Energy reinforcement.
But now, the flaw of insufficient fundamentals had pushed him into a desperate situation.
A realization dawned on him.
—If this continues, I'll lose consciousness from the high temperature, and the Cursed Technique will naturally dispel.
Even worse than that, even if I force myself to stay conscious...
...I'll be unable to keep up with the rising temperature, causing spontaneous human combustion.
I'll be roasted alive!
Hoshikira Roro felt it was absurd.
No enemy had ever broken his Cursed Technique in this manner.
This was the first time he had encountered such a brute-force method, as if a volcano had erupted and turned the world into a giant furnace where all of creation was reduced to ash.
"I see," Hoshikira Roro suddenly spoke.
His voice was hoarse, as the high temperature had already invaded his throat; every word was agonizing.
"You are the manifestation of the Curse formed from humanity's fear of the earth."
"Are you going to beg for mercy?" Jogo split his mouth open, revealing his black teeth.
"No, just a comment," Hoshikira Roro said quietly.
Then, suddenly, he formed hand signs.
"My Innate Technique is called 'Interstellar Flight'."
Jogo frowned.
This was a revealing of one's technique, but things had already reached this point—what difference would revealing the technique make?
"I can leave markers on people or objects I touch."
"There are five types of markers, each corresponding to a star in the Southern Cross constellation in reality."
"The technique can only be activated once all markers are set."
"What I mark isn't a specific person or object, but Cursed Energy itself."
"Therefore, even a Cursed Technique used by a Sorcerer is viewed as the same entity."
This was why Jogo's use of various Cursed Energy attacks was ignored; no matter what kind of attack Jogo used, its fundamental composition was still Jogo's Cursed Energy.
As long as it was a technique phenomenon triggered by Jogo's Cursed Energy, it was uniformly regarded as Jogo himself!
Jogo and Hanami simultaneously recalled when Hoshikira Roro had gone to pour wine for Mahito and had lightly touched their bodies.
Jogo had even glared at them then; that was when the seals were placed.
It turned out Hoshikira Roro had been prepared for battle from the very beginning!
"A marked person can interact with objects and people who have no marker or an adjacent marker."
"However, people and objects with the same marker will be attracted to each other, and a marked person cannot approach anyone or anything with a non-adjacent marker."
"If one needs to get close, they must first touch someone or something marked with an adjacent star."
People or objects with the same marker will attract each other, which was why Jogo's ranged attacks would immediately flow back once they reached a certain distance.
Hoshikira Roro suddenly pointed to Jogo's waist.
"Your mark is on your waist. Your companion's is on the back of her calf muscle."
Jogo reflexively interrupted his high-temperature technique and pulled his clothes aside, and indeed saw a Cursed Energy seal: [Acrux].
Hanami lifted her leg to look at the back of her calf and saw a Cursed Energy seal: [Imai].
"If you knew anything about astronomy, you'd probably recognize my markers at a glance."
Hoshikira Roro waved away the heatwave and smiled.
"The names of these markers all come from the Southern Cross."
"Although a constellation looks flat, it naturally has depth. Their distances from Earth vary."
"You see, you and your companion can approach each other freely because [Acrux] and [Imai] are adjacent stars, so you can interact however you like."
"But once you try to approach a star that isn't adjacent to yours—like me—"
Hoshikira Roro showed his fingernail, which actually had a tiny Cursed Energy mark.
Because he wore painted nails, it was impossible to see without looking closely.
He had used this small trick to play everyone in the palm of his hand.
The mark on the nail was [Ginan].
"Perhaps you're not aware, but [Acrux] and [Ginan] are not adjacent."
"So no matter what, you can't get close to me unless you can find the adjacent intermediate, [Mimosa]."
"Of course, [Mimosa] is well hidden and hasn't been found yet."
"That's why it's called Interstellar Flight."
"With the constellation as the standard, one can only move along a fixed path."
"To reach the destination, one must find the correct route and follow it!"
"Lastly," Hoshikira Roro said quietly, "including the remnants of Cursed Energy, they can also be regarded as the user themselves."
Jogo already knew this; when he attacked Hoshikira Roro with stones, it was because the right stone had his Cursed Energy remnants on it that it was ineffective.
"This thermal radiation filling the corridor, although it's a physical phenomenon caused by the temperature increase from your Cursed Energy fire, the remnants of Cursed Energy are still mixed..."
"...within it, inseparable."
"Usually, of course, I can't operate these remnants because they're too minute; my precision isn't enough to handle them."
"But with my Cursed Technique revealed, I can do it!"
Jogo's pupils constricted; he immediately understood what Hoshikira Roro wanted to do.
Hoshikira Roro suddenly shouted: "The thermal radiation phenomenon triggered by you, experience it yourself!"
"This is my—Interstellar Flight!"