In the blink of an eye, another half month had passed.
The underground vault was once again shrouded in darkness, thick with a suffocating and ominous aura.
All four corners of the chamber were teeming with cursed spirits, layer upon layer, crammed together in a grotesque, squirming mass.
They thrashed madly, trying to break free from the restraining chains. Their howls echoed ceaselessly throughout the chamber.
And as they fixated on the boy and his shikigami standing in the center, their agitation only grew worse.
Some were even drooling onto the floor.
On the platform above, ten meters from the vault floor, stood every member of the Hei and Shugyoryu units.
Each of them held fast to their chain restraints, ready and waiting for the boy's command.
Among them, standing at the forefront, was Naobito Zenin, former clan head and current Chief of the Hei Unit. His expression was grim.
The number of cursed spirits below had reached well over a thousand. The strongest were Grade 1, the weakest Grade 3.
This was the result of a two-week mobilization order personally issued by Zenin Mirai, and the largest purge he had ever conducted inside the vault.
In the center of the vault, Mirai stood shirtless, his upper body covered in scars, eyes blood-red like swirling whirlpools of violence.
He glanced at his two shikigami beside him and gave a cold command. "Release."
Above, the sorcerers loosened their grip and channeled cursed energy into the chains, ready to intervene at any moment.
The next instant,
"RAHHHH!!"
Freed from their restraints, the cursed spirits surged forward like a collapsing mountainside, launching a ferocious assault on the lone figure and his shikigami.
Boom!
The black-bodied shikigami Gyakugyu charged ahead like a fired arrow. In the blink of an eye, it tore through the horde with a single piercing rush, clearing a straight line through the mass of spirits.
Limbs flew, blood sprayed, and the air filled with a nauseating stench.
But the cleared path was quickly filled again by the pressing wave of cursed spirits.
At the same time, four Grade 1 spirits had reached Mirai, jaws wide and claws ready to strike.
Before they could land a blow, the snow-white shikigami Enka dipped its head and dashed forward, sending three of the spirits flying with its antlers.
Only one remained, a grotesque spirit with green skin, the body of a pig, the head of a snake, and claws like wolf fangs.
Its razor-sharp claws closed in on Mirai's chest, too fast, too close.
But instead of resisting, Mirai looked excited. He released the Phasing Technique on purpose.
Splurt!
A brilliant splash of red burst forth in the darkness.
"Mirai?!"
Naobito's face twisted in shock. He couldn't understand why Mirai didn't dodge, or why he would deliberately disable a technique that ignored all physical attacks.
He was just about to leap down to rescue him when a powerful voice cut in,
"Stop!"
"No one is allowed to interfere!"
Every sorcerer froze in place and stepped back. None of them dared defy the order. The consequences would be unthinkable.
Meanwhile, Enka, the support-type shikigami best suited for healing, had been overwhelmed and swallowed by the cursed spirits.
Covered in blood, with organs faintly visible beneath the torn flesh, the young clan heir looked like he was on the verge of death.
Naobito clenched his jaw. His face showed hesitation.
With wounds like that, if they didn't act now, Mirai might not survive.
But to Naobito, Mirai wasn't just the future of the clan, he was the future.
Even if it meant disobeying orders, he couldn't let the boy die here.
Just as he was about to move,
He froze, eyes wide.
Beneath him, Mirai's bloody chest began to knit back together, the flesh intertwining and regenerating at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Reversed Cursed Technique?!"
Naobito muttered in disbelief.
It was only now he understood the reason behind Mirai's madness.
Zenin Mirai... was a genius even more terrifying than Gojo Satoru.
Having figured it out, Naobito quietly stepped back into place, his face overcome with joy.
Mirai looked down at his fully healed chest. A flicker of excitement passed across his face.
He had intentionally injured himself time and again over the past few months, relying on Enka's healing to study the technique in depth.
Now, after half a year of experimentation, he had finally mastered the Reversed Cursed Technique.
Moments of life and death held not only terror, but opportunity.
Originally, he had kept Enka nearby in case the technique failed, but in the final moment, a thought flashed through his mind:
Success or death, no fallback.
By sending Enka away, he forced himself into the ultimate trial, and in doing so, gained not just control of the technique but a deeper understanding of cursed energy itself.
"Now that's a goddamn pleasant surprise."
With his goal achieved, he activated Phasing once more.
Cursed spirits surged like a tide, but Mirai walked through them untouched.
Just as Enka slipped into the shadows, a massive serpent burst out behind her, its enormous form winding forward.
Even now, the Ten Shadows Technique could only sustain two summoned shikigami at a time. Mirai was bound by the same rules.
But with two shikigami unleashed in a sea of cursed spirits, the carnage was immense.
Gyakugyu, known for its devastating charge, grew more powerful the longer it had to accelerate. It could only move in a straight line, but it pierced everything.
If the cursed spirits were the rolling waves of the sea, then Gyakugyu was a torpedo, ripping through the ocean with roaring force.
Each charge whipped up a white mist, leaving behind temporary paths of cleared space.
Riding the high of his success, Mirai was in a rare good mood. He even offered a half-hearted warning to the onlookers above.
"You might want to take cover."
But perhaps he'd forgotten, or didn't care, that they were already backed against the wall with nowhere to run.
Forming a complicated hand sign, Mirai poured his cursed energy into it.
Both Gyakugyu and the serpent vanished into the shadows.
Naobito's eyes widened when he recognized the gesture.
"All sorcerers, deploy cursed energy shields at full strength! Non-sorcerers, hit the ground and protect your heads!"
The moment he shouted, the entire vault began to shake violently.
From above, the ceiling shattered.
BOOM!!
A colossal elephant dropped from the sky, its massive body slamming into the ground with an earth-shattering crash.
The shockwave blasted apart the remaining cursed spirits in an instant.
The second-story platform collapsed.
Mirai, now intangible, ignored the flying debris, arms wide open, blissfully absorbing the immense cursed energy lingering in the air.
After months of careful nurturing by the entire Zenin Clan...
The Gedo Statue had finally undergone its second evolution, just as Mirai had hoped.
In the endless void of Kamui space, the hunched Gedo Statue slowly stretched out a pair of thin, bony legs.
A single red eye opened on its forehead, nine tomoe spinning slowly within it.
What delighted Mirai even more was the ten colossal tails behind it, each now shimmering with vague outlines of white humanoid cursed spirits.
Clatter,
The pile of rubble was pushed aside. A group of injured sorcerers slowly climbed to their feet, faces complicated and hard to read.
Whether it was from the sunlight shining into the vault for the first time...
Or from the "care" shown by their dear young clan leader...
Naobito clenched his jaw as he stared at Mirai standing amidst the destruction, arms open in serene ecstasy.
He looked like he wanted to curse him to hell, but didn't dare say a word.
The resentment was palpable.
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200 P.S = 1 Extra Chapter