[The people outside didn't raise an alarm.
Looks like the support staff and Window who came with us are already dead.]
[Better that way. No need to split my focus protecting anyone else…]
The corner of Naoya Zenin's lips lifted slightly as he raised his blade and fixed his eyes on Jogo.
After the exchange between those two, the air inside the crumbling building seemed to freeze over.
Running was impossible. The Curse User observing from outside had said she wouldn't interfere, but Naoya Zenin could feel it clearly. She had been locked onto him the entire time.
In a fight at this level, going one against two meant zero chance of winning.
Defend and counterattack? Ridiculous. Judging by the pressure radiating from that Cursed Spirit, if he committed to defense, he would likely lose the ability to counter at all.
That left only one possible way to break the deadlock.
...
Naoya Zenin shifted into an opening stance that was half thrust, half slash.
The blade in his hand was a Cursed Tool nurtured by the Zenin Clan for a full century through the creation of a tsukumogami. Combined with the clan's research into shikigami contracts, given enough time, it could even evolve into a shikigami itself.
His body suddenly blurred, like a distorted frame of film. The sword in his hand became a streak of pale golden light that cut across Jogo.
A purple spray of blood burst from Jogo's body, the wound slashing diagonally from upper left to lower right.
"It worked."
Naoya Zenin let out a quiet breath of relief. That strike had only been a test of speed. As long as he could inflict damage, following up with his technique might be enough to secure a first-encounter kill.
"What worked?"
The voice cut cleanly through his thoughts.
Naoya Zenin's eyes snapped open wider. Jogo had matched his speed. The one-eyed Cursed Spirit turned its gaze toward him, expression cold and detached. The slash across its torso had already healed without him noticing.
At the same time, Naoya Zenin sensed Jogo's Cursed Energy dip slightly.
Then the surroundings ignited as if oil had been poured onto a raging fire. Towering flames erupted upward, and waves of scorching heat surged in every direction.
"Ember Insects."
From the crater-like opening atop Jogo's head, three purple insects shot out, buzzing noisily as they circled Naoya Zenin.
"Boom!!"
The insects detonated in an instant, and Naoya Zenin's figure vanished in the explosion.
"He dodged it…"
Jogo's gaze shifted toward the staircase entrance.
Naoya Zenin stood there, face blackened with soot. One finger on his left hand had been blown off.
His breathing was uneven now.
Seeing that, Jogo scratched his chin.
"You've managed to last this long against me…
I'll admit, you've slightly improved my opinion of human weakness."
Naoya Zenin didn't hear a word of it.
In a flash, he appeared behind Jogo and tapped him on the shoulder.
Jogo's body instantly flattened into a "photograph."
"I didn't reach this speed with physical ability alone, idiot."
Naoya Zenin drove his blade straight toward the head within the photograph.
With a sharp crack, the image shattered, and Jogo's body reformed.
But Jogo's reflexes were extraordinary. He jerked his head back at the last moment, and the blade slashed into his arm instead.
Unfortunately, Jogo's body, reinforced with rock and Cursed Energy, was far too tough. The blade sank only a few centimeters before losing momentum.
Jogo stared at the blade that had nearly taken his arm off and grinned again, flashing a mouthful of black teeth.
His arm healed in an instant, and he deliberately trapped the blade in his own flesh.
Naoya Zenin immediately tried to wrench it free, but the temperature around Jogo spiked without warning. The part of the blade embedded in his arm began to glow red, and even the hilt showed signs of softening, as if it might melt.
Jogo didn't give him a second to process it. Right as Naoya Zenin was pulling, two small volcano vents opened nearby, angled straight at him, and violent magma blasted out.
At the same time, Jogo lifted his right leg and drove a knee toward Naoya Zenin's stomach.
Caught in a compound assault, Naoya Zenin could only pick the lesser evil. A knee to the gut would hurt, but if both streams of magma washed over him, he might not die on the spot, but he would lose the ability to fight.
Before the blade softened completely, Naoya Zenin forced it downward, prying open a sliver of space between Jogo's arm and the metal. Then he yanked hard and tore it free.
He barely slipped past the rising fire, only to be kicked by Jogo and sent flying into the opposite wall.
He exhaled sharply, and even that breath came out scalding, the heat burning his airways. If he hadn't mastered the trick of using Cursed Energy to precisely reinforce his internal organs, that single hit would have cooked his heart, liver, lungs, and kidneys to about seventy percent done.
And that wasn't even the worst of it.
Even with Cursed Energy reinforcing them, his hands had blistered from the heat of the hilt.
He immediately used the portion of the blade he could reach to pop the blisters on his palms one by one. A dense cluster of them would ruin his grip.
As for his singed hair, and the skin dried so badly it had cracked open to expose raw flesh, he couldn't afford to care.
Against something on this level, one mistake meant death.
Maybe it was because his movement had just been pinned down by the technique, or because he'd nearly taken a hit to the head, but Jogo was visibly irritated. It wouldn't have killed him, sure, but it was humiliating.
"I'm done playing with you."
"Die, insect!"
Vents kept blooming across the floor and walls. Pillars of fire crisscrossed the room, shooting straight at Naoya Zenin, forcing him to keep dodging with his technique.
The strain on his body, the drain on his Cursed Energy, and the boiling air gradually blurred his focus. He slipped up for a moment and didn't clear the blast completely.
His entire left arm burned into charcoal.
"Running out of steam?"
Jogo bared his teeth again, looking at the human now hanging on by a thread. A weak, hollow thing like this had ruled the world.
Absurd.
"Go on. Guess what I burn next."
Naoya Zenin rolled away as a pillar of fire erupted under his feet.
"Don't squirm. Humans who can last this long against me are rare."
"Let me burn you properly, piece by piece, and keep you for my collection. If you keep moving, your body won't even stay in one shape…"