KBOOOOOOM—!!
Two massive surges of Cursed Energy clashed violently in the middle of the lobby.
Kanao's orb met the monster's Cursed Energy beam.
The two immense powers tangled in mid-air like a lethal tug-of-war, throwing off sparks before Kanao's sphere finally pierced through the beam, slamming directly into the dumpling-flesh monster's front!
"Did we get him?!"
GYAAAAAAAGH—!
Inside the cloud of dust, the monster writhed and let out a shriek of agony.
A crater-sized chunk of its flesh had been completely gouged out of its torso.
But the victory was short-lived. After just a few frantic twitches, the surrounding slabs of meat rippled and swelled, instantly filling the gap and regenerating the wound.
"Tch!"
Kanao, watching from a distance, clicked her tongue in frustration. My eyes, however, were fixed elsewhere, focused on a detail that made me shiver with a sudden realization.
The moment the flesh had rippled to close the wound—in that split second, I saw it.
Hidden deep beneath that thick armor of human skin, my eyes caught a faint, minute flow of Cursed Energy.
'My guess was right. This thing's essence is definitely a Cursed Spirit!'
'It's using the corpses of those damned humans as armor, wrapping itself in layer upon layer of stolen flesh.'
That was why it didn't react to Positive Energy earlier. The true body of the Cursed Spirit was safely tucked away behind a shield of human meat.
"Hey, Kanao! Can you fire that thing one more time?!"
"Yeah, I can! I'm on it!"
"Wait, not like that! Instead of clumping it all into one big ball, can you split it into countless small pieces? I need you to rain it down so you're hitting its entire body from every direction at once!"
Kanao shouted back, sounding completely bewildered by my urgent demand.
"Are you crazy?! How am I supposed to pull that off on the fly?!"
"What—?"
Kanao's flat refusal made me want to tear my hair out.
'The damn thing is like a walnut! To strip away that thick shell and leave the core exposed, I need to grind it down from all sides!'
'Just like Sukuna's Malevolent Shrine...! Oh, wait. That's a top-tier high-level technique. Dammit, I'm screwed.'
GWAAAAAAAGH!
While I was busy panicking, the fully repaired monster lunged forward, throwing its massive weight at me in a furious charge.
"Redirection!"
Instead of taking it head-on, I used Muramasa's blade to slightly nudge the trajectory of its rush while pivoting my body to the right.
Unable to handle its own momentum, the monster swept past me and slammed into the wall behind the information desk.
"Hey! I'll try to buy us some time, so just visualize it! An image of spraying Cursed Energy in every direction!"
"I told you, that's easier said than done!!"
While Kanao screamed at me, the persistent monster dragged itself back up and came at me again.
I took a quick backstep, focusing entirely on guarding against its strikes.
Fortunately, its movements were simplistic enough that I avoided any clean hits, but in the gaps between my defenses, my brain was spinning at a million miles an hour trying to find a way to peel that skin off all at once.
Click—!
At that moment, the Dharma Wheel floating above my head made a single rotation.
'What?! What did it adapt to? Physical enhancement? Or did it change the property of my Cursed Energy?!'
"...?"
But nothing changed.
I didn't feel my body get lighter, nor did I feel the surge of power that comes with Cursed Energy amplification. I didn't feel stronger at all.
'You piece of shit! You're a total quack of a shikigami! Not helping when it actually matters!!'
Just as I was about to mentally curse Mahoraga out, a memory from my past life struck me with the intensity of a lightning bolt, flooding my mind.
A scene from my studio apartment in my previous life. A peaceful day, wearing a headset, playing League of Legends with my friends.
[ "Yo! Now! Initiate! Open the fight!" ]
[ "On it. Going in!" ]
On the screen, a Zac jumped into the middle of the enemy team while—
[ "Orianna!! Shockwave!!" ]
[ "Yo, they're all one-tap, all of 'em! Shut 'em down!!" ]
[ ACE! ]
The finish line flashed brilliantly on the screen.
[ "Damn~ our skill layering is insane when we run a 5-man premade!" ]
[ "Facts. Good thing we hopped on Discord. That shotcalling was top-tier." ]
'...Wait a minute.'
The fragments of memory snapped together like puzzle pieces.
Discord. Simultaneous voice calls with multiple people. Transferring Cursed Energy through a specific medium.
'This is it!!'
My eyes snapped open. I turned toward Kanao, who was hunkered down in the corner of the first floor, and yelled with the veins bulging in my neck.
"Kanao!! Turn on the computers at the desk right now! And install Discord—no! Install Skype!!"
"Dammit, what are you even talking about now...!"
Though she grumbled, I saw Kanao scramble over to the information desk, sit down, and start hammering at the keyboard.
THWACK—!!
"Gah!"
The monster didn't miss the opening I left while shouting. Its muscular fist slammed into my gut.
'Ow, what the hell! You're gonna punch me mid-sentence?!'
The bone-rattling shock surged through my entire body, but I forced my lips into a grin.
In fact, this heavy knockback was exactly the exit strategy I needed!
CRASH—!!
"Aaah! God, you scared me!!"
Kanao let out a shriek as I went tumbling onto the desk with a clatter. I scrambled to my feet immediately.
"I—I installed Skype! I logged in too! Now what am I supposed to do!"
I spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and pulled out the crumpled personal records of all the Seiryu Hospital staff I had stuffed into my pocket, thrusting them at her.
"Use the Skype group call function! Call every single phone number written in these documents simultaneously! Then, use that connection network to pour your Cursed Energy in!!"
"...!!"
Kanao's eyes widened as the realization hit her.
"I get it! I see what you're doing!!"
Kanao's fingers began to fly across the numpad like a pianist's. Then, she slammed her hand down on the Enter key with a loud bang.
Ring-a-ring-a-ring—!
♪ You've got a call! You've got a call ♪
Vrrr-vrrr-vrrr—!
Trrrring! Trrrring!
....
From every inch of the monster's massive body, the various ringtones of the phones belonging to the victims integrated into its mass began to chime at once!
Sensing imminent danger, the monster tried to bunch its dozens of lips together once more to fire a beam—
FLASH—!!
The Cursed Energy erupting from the monitor exploded outward, traveling toward the hundreds of ringing cell phones embedded all over the monster's body.
BOOM! K-POW! BAM-BAM-BAM!! CRASH!!
GYAAAAAAAAAGH—!!
The front, the back, the sides! From every conceivable angle!
Like a torrential downpour, hundreds of streaks of Cursed Energy bombarded the monster, tearing its human skin armor to shreds.
Unable to endure the agonizing explosions going off from within its own mass, the monster struggled, failing to fire the beam it had been charging in its mouth.
The cacophony of ringtones finally died down, and Kanao's merciless rain of Cursed Energy ceased.
As the thick clouds of dust cleared, the creature's true form was hideously revealed, now that its thick skin had been blasted away.
The core hidden behind the skins of hundreds was a pathetic, skeletal, and emaciated Cursed Spirit.
It watched me as I walked toward it, trembling with terror as it tried to scrape together the tattered remains of human flesh scattered on the floor, desperately attempting to stitch them back onto its body.
I gave a small smirk and raised Muramasa at an angle.
"The weather today…"
The white flash of the blade sliced through the air.
"Is now clear."
SHLICE—!!
With a brilliant trajectory, the scrawny and unsightly body of the Cursed Spirit was perfectly cleaved in two.
Ugh, uuuugh....
The spirit's body began to crumble into glowing ash, evaporating into the air.
Clink.
In the empty space where the Cursed Spirit had vanished, an object fell and hit the marble floor.
"...Eh?"
I sheathed my sword and walked over cautiously to pick it up.
It was as hard as a rock.
A dried-up, mummified finger tinged with purple and black, devoid of any moisture.
"This… it's one of Sukuna's fingers...."