Deep in the night, a Cursed Spirit that looked like it had been stitched together with needles and thread was just about to feast on the human it had just killed.
Suddenly, its body was lifted into the air as if held by something invisible, and its desperate struggles were useless.
"Fifty-three."
Kenmyo Isayama walked out from the dark shadows nearby. As he released his Psychic power, ice crystals could faintly be seen forming in the puddles on the ground.
"I really don't know why trash like you is even considered an artificial Cursed Spirit."
Kenmyo Isayama's tone was cold.
Earlier, Kenmyo Isayama had sorted through the memories retrieved from Nakamura Takashi, reliving the final moments of his sister's life, which truly broke him.
He only obtained two useful clues that might allow him to catch the person hiding behind the scenes.
The first was that high-grade Cursed Tool of "unknown" Cursed grade.
The second was a woman whose face was obscured by a mist, but who had obvious stitches across her forehead.
That woman was highly suspicious; Nakamura Takashi's mental derangement worsened after contact with her. Less than three days after they met, this scumbag committed the first horrifying family massacre, wielding a Special Grade Cursed Tool from an unknown source.
Therefore, Kenmyo Isayama's only point of entry for the investigation was that Special Grade Cursed Tool.
After his first arrest, the tools used in the crime should have been used by the police as evidence to prosecute the culprit, but because Nakamura Takashi was not prosecuted due to mental illness, the Special Grade Cursed Tool went missing.
When he committed the second crime, it inexplicably reappeared in Nakamura Takashi's hands. His own memory of the object was casual, as if he had simply grabbed a kitchen knife from home—it felt completely natural.
That Cursed Tool was truly powerful.
Cursed Spirits are generally born from the malice and curses that symbolize the ugliness of human nature. Without exception, the Cursed Spirits Kenmyo Isayama had seen were all extremely distorted in shape and appearance, looking grotesque; Cursed Spirits that could maintain a human form were exceedingly rare.
However, the victims killed by this Cursed Tool all turned into human-shaped Cursed Spirits. They possessed strong obsessions and were highly aggressive, making it hard not to speculate about the effect of the Cursed Tool's Cursed Technique.
Kenmyo Isayama had ample reason to suspect that someone was experimenting with how to turn humans into Cursed Spirits.
Therefore, when Kenmyo Isayama learned about the mission assigned by the Jujutsu Sorcerer Association to Yomi-nee, he couldn't remain calm.
"We received intelligence that a group composed of Curse Users is attempting to artificially create Cursed Spirits to launch terrorist attacks."
The higher-ups of the Jujutsu Sorcerer Association decided to dispatch Isayama Yomi to investigate the situation and then annihilate the group.
Isayama Yomi felt it was too dangerous and wanted to handle the entire mission herself, unwilling to bring Kenmyo Isayama along.
But he was highly sensitive to the topic of "artificially creating Cursed Spirits," like a shark smelling blood, and he refused to let go of any possible clue.
Thus, the mission became a two-person assignment.
Unfortunately, what Kenmyo Isayama saw was a large group of crudely made Cursed Spirits.
Calling them 'A-grade knockoffs' would be overestimating their quality; they were the absolute worst kind of fakes.
They were far inferior to genuine Cursed Spirits, and he didn't know where the higher-ups got their intelligence.
It resulted in a wasted effort for Kenmyo Isayama.
"Wasting my time."
As his hand slowly clenched, the marks of compression on the Cursed Spirit's body became more obvious, until finally, there was a sound like the "squish" of squeezing the last bit of ketchup out of a packet for fries.
The Cursed Spirit was instantly crushed. Due to the violent compression, the filth inside it sprayed out, coating the walls of the small alleyway like a gruesome murder scene.
"This is the last one."
"Kenmyo!"
"Yomi-nee, the Cursed Spirits created by the Curse User cult have all been exterminated."
Hearing the familiar voice after the sound of footsteps, Kenmyo Isayama showed no surprise and calmly reported the mission progress to Isayama Yomi, who was standing at the alley entrance.
He didn't even need to ask Yomi-nee about her mission progress; the bloodstains on her body were enough to reveal the fate of those unlucky Curse Users.
"I wasn't asking about that. Are you hurt?"
Isayama Yomi took a few steps forward and asked with concern.
"No, they were very easy to kill."
Kenmyo Isayama spoke truthfully; killing these worthless enemies posed no difficulty for him, apart from the time spent tracking them down.
Isayama Yomi breathed a sigh of relief. Although she was quite surprised by the combat power Kenmyo had recently displayed, combat power did not necessarily equate to sufficient combat awareness, and there was still a possibility of injury.
During his conversation with Yomi-nee, Kenmyo Isayama suddenly remembered that his mana points should, logically, have reached four digits by now.
Sure enough.
[Your talent 'Soul Eater' has activated, permanently increasing mana points by 7. Current mana points: 1002.]
[Mana points: 1002]
This was clearly a piece of pleasant good news.
Breaking through one thousand mana points meant that Kenmyo Isayama could begin to use some more dangerous Psychic Spells. He had escaped the predicament of being restricted by low mana points, essentially achieving spell freedom for A-Tier Psychic Spells.
However, the wasted effort and the renewed guilt over his sister's death made this joy feel hollow.
"Hmm?"
Kenmyo Isayama noticed that there seemed to be two new messages after this information panel, and he subconsciously checked them.
[Since the mana points limit has surpassed 1000, mutual exchange between Cursed Energy and mana points is now permitted. See details for the ratio.]
[The Host can use Cursed Energy converted from mana points to activate Cursed Sorcery.]
As Kenmyo Isayama looked at the prompt that had just popped up, he suddenly thought of something.
The guy who had been looking troubled just moments ago suddenly brightened up.
The conversion between mana points and Cursed Energy was definitely great news!
For Kenmyo Isayama, this joy far surpassed the excitement of breaking the thousand mana point mark. He had been troubled recently because the Psychic power was too domineering, causing his plan to manually craft "Cursed Spirit Orbs" for his sister to eat to consistently fail.
But now that mana points had unlocked the exchange with Cursed Energy, it meant that Kenmyo Isayama could use Cursed Energy to roll up "Cursed Spirit Orbs" and feed them to his sister, just like Suguru Geto.
This plan had essentially been given the death penalty, but who would have thought it would come back to life.
The joy on Kenmyo Isayama's face was hard to hide. Isayama Yomi noticed and was about to ask, but a wound she had previously suppressed with Cursed Energy suddenly flared up, causing her to let out a muffled groan.
Her concern for Kenmyo's situation had made her try to end the fight quickly, but she hadn't expected the enemy to pull a fast one on her.
"Yomi-nee, what's wrong?"
Kenmyo Isayama noticed Isayama Yomi's abnormality and supported her pale figure.
Isayama Yomi didn't want Kenmyo Isayama to worry, so she just smiled.
"I'm fine, I just need a little rest."
But suddenly, Isayama Yomi's expression turned abnormally terrified; her mind seemed to stop functioning entirely.
In less than a second, Kenmyo Isayama had noticed something.
He shoved Isayama Yomi away and took the blow for her.
By the time the fallen Isayama Yomi reacted, a sharp blade had already pierced through Kenmyo Isayama's chest. The blood gushing out splattered onto Isayama Yomi's face.
In the previously empty alley, a third person's voice rang out.
"Huh? My touch is this bad now?"
The person had appeared suddenly, right next to her, without Isayama Yomi sensing anything at all.
It was the voice of a middle-aged man, sounding quite listless and lazy.
"I even stabbed the wrong person."
"My apologies, I seem to have stabbed your little boyfriend to death."