Mahito breathed slowly, tore off his already tattered white shirt, and casually threw it behind him.
He placed his hands on the ground.
As he breathed, his body began to transform.
Kinji Hakari emerged from the storm.
His upper garment was long gone.
His bare torso was covered in bloody marks, but in the next instant, the marks vanished.
No dust was visible on his skin because the storm stirred by his rising Cursed Energy blew away the fine particles, revealing his lean, powerful physique.
"Have you ever fought a beast possessing Cursed Energy, Kinji?!" Mahito howled.
He was truly howling, but not with a human voice—it was a beast's roar!
He ran on all fours.
As he ran, fur began to grow on his body.
In an instant, white fur covered his entire frame.
His head elongated, teeth bared.
Black markings appeared on his forehead, and the character for 'King' was engraved there.
Idle Transfiguration: White Tiger!
He transformed into a White Tiger, standing one meter tall at the shoulder with a total length of over three meters!
Its long white tail swished casually through the air, creating sonic booms.
The White Tiger opened its mouth and roared, the sound carrying the rumble of thunder.
Its claws shook the platform as they landed.
Mahito's Idle Transfiguration perfectly replicated even the White Tiger's weight.
Only its tiger eyes were different—one gold, one blue—symbolizing Mahito's irremovable heterochromia.
Hakari's pupils contracted.
The White Tiger slammed into him.
Tiger claws tore his body, teeth bit into his neck, ready to rip his head off in the next moment!
An ordinary tiger's bite force is around 500 kilograms, and the Idle Transfiguration White Tiger, enhanced with Cursed Energy, would only be stronger.
A mere human neck was nothing.
But at the critical moment, Hakari's hands pressed against the White Tiger's jaws.
The tiger's teeth had already pierced Hakari's carotid artery.
Blood gushed out like a violently erupting volcano.
Yet, the Reverse Cursed Technique instantly stopped the bleeding.
Only the tiger fangs remained firmly lodged in the wound, preventing the Reverse Cursed Technique from continuing its work.
The White Tiger pinned Hakari to the ground.
This position made it hard to exert force, but Hakari used Cursed Energy to leverage his own muscles—a technique an ordinary person without Cursed Energy could never hope to master in a lifetime.
Yet Kinji Hakari, with Infinite Cursed Energy, could do it by instinct.
Even in this situation, he could slowly pry the tiger's jaws open!
But the next instant, the tiger's jaws shrank.
The inertia from Hakari's excessive force caused his hands to swipe through empty air.
What appeared before Hakari's eyes was that annoying smiling face of Mahito.
Mahito had changed back in an instant!
Mahito pressed Hakari's body down with one hand, while the other fist pummeled Hakari's face wildly.
Hakari wanted to counterattack, but Mahito's fists accurately and repeatedly struck his temples.
Dizzy, he simply couldn't fight back, only taking the beating passively.
Infinite Cursed Energy could grant him invincibility, but not invulnerability to pain.
Mahito seized this weakness, using infinite disorientation to deal with his immortal body.
While brutally beating Hakari, Mahito was also continuously using Idle Transfiguration.
But as expected—he simply couldn't twist Kinji Hakari's Soul.
No, to be precise, it wasn't that he couldn't 'twist' it, but that it had no effect.
Aside from the physical Reverse Cursed Technique, the Infinite Cursed Energy seemed to also protect Hakari's Soul.
The Cursed Energy of Idle Transfiguration had just entered Hakari's body when it was devoured and repelled by the berserk Cursed Energy.
In the end, the remaining Cursed Energy was less than one-tenth of normal.
And if Mahito dared to use this remaining power to attempt modification, Hakari could expel it at any moment.
Now Mahito completely understood Hajime Kashimo's feelings from the original work.
Kashimo could grant Cursed Energy charges to his opponents, using this method to attack them with unstoppable success.
However, he ended up encountering Kinji Hakari.
He almost blew off Hakari's head with the granted charges, but upon realizing this, Hakari exhaled steam from his mouth, forcibly repelling Kashimo's Cursed Energy, leaving even this battle-hardened Ancient Sorcerer dumbfounded.
The current Mahito was the same; his Cursed Energy accumulated within Hakari's body but couldn't be used.
Once activated, it would be repelled by Hakari.
His proud finishing move was actually neutralized in this manner.
"You really are a tough nut to crack, Hakari!" Mahito taunted loudly.
Veins bulged on Hakari's forehead.
Mahito keenly noticed this and retreated suddenly.
Hakari's fist swung upward.
Although he was in a state of dizziness, it seemed the prolonged dizziness allowed the Reverse Cursed Technique to accumulate experience.
In this fight, the automatic Reverse Cursed Technique "evolved" through learning.
Just like in the original work where Kashimo tried to poison him with toxic gas; even without understanding the principle, his automatic Reverse Cursed Technique evolved.
From then on, the automatic Reverse Cursed Technique recorded a "detoxification program."
By the same token, the automatic Reverse Cursed Technique has now recorded dizziness.
From now on, Kinji Hakari will never be "dizzy" during his period of immortality!
"Come on, King of Curses, let's continue!"
Hakari stood up, charging toward Mahito with massive Cursed Energy.
Mahito suddenly leaped up while retreating.
His arms extended, and feathers grew from them.
Idle Transfiguration: Great Eagle!
His entire body transformed into a great eagle.
Hakari's fist missed again.
The great eagle's sharp claws lunged at Hakari's back, nearly tearing his spine apart.
But the surging Cursed Energy quickly healed it.
Hakari turned his head, but he faced not the eagle's claws, but the muzzle of a black wolf.
Idle Transfiguration: Black Wolf!
The black wolf lunged and bit Hakari.
Hakari tried to kick the black wolf away, but the wolf transformed again while rolling—a python.
The python coiled around Hakari's legs, its fangs piercing his knee!
Tiger, eagle, wolf, snake.
Ox, crocodile, rhino, bear.
In terms of combat technique, Hakari was far superior to the inexperienced Mahito.
However, this experience didn't give Hakari an advantage.
Facing the ever-changing Mahito, Hakari couldn't find a rhythm for the fight at all.
Whenever he tried to counterattack, Mahito would always transform into another beast before then, resetting the battle to the beginning.
Hakari could only barely maintain a stalemate despite his best efforts; there truly was no such enemy in the world.
Mahito fought Hakari with his whole heart and Soul, going all out!
His use of the Idle Transfiguration ability became increasingly proficient, his transformations faster and more dazzling.
Hakari tried several times to catch him after a transformation but failed.
Through these transformations, Mahito drew closer to his core.
The final transformation was a bear!
The world's largest brown bear, the Kodiak Brown Bear.
Standing upright, it exceeded three meters and weighed over 1,000 kilograms!
The brown bear was shrouded in Cursed Energy, its paws descending like a storm.
Hakari blocked with both arms.
The bear's paw slammed down, sending Hakari flying into the sky like a spinning top being whipped by a child.
The bones in his arms cycled through breaking and healing.
He spun continuously in mid-air, eventually landing on his shoulder and rolling two or three times on the ground before stopping.
He lay on the ground gasping for breath, looking up.
The brown bear's fur slowly retracted, eventually returning to Mahito's original appearance.
There wasn't a single wound on his body.
His well-defined, lean muscles rose and fell slowly with his breathing, and sweat dripped down the gaps between his muscles, seemingly emitting a bright glow under the moonlight.
Diamond-shaped, teardrop-like patterns appeared on the side of his face.
Hakari keenly noticed this because these patterns hadn't existed before; they only appeared when Mahito reverted to his original form.
Perhaps this revealed the secret of his Cursed Technique?
The theme song came to an abrupt halt.
"Immortality duration ended. 4 minutes and 11 seconds are over!"