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Chapter 65: Sorcerer Battle
🕑 Added 2024-09-24 10:15:11 +0000 UTCBam-!
Kashimo landed after vaulting more than twenty meters aboveground. Only his nyoi staff was visibly broken.
‘Two… no, three times. And they're all from tricky angles.’
Whenever Aleph let out a punch, Kashimo could strike back thrice. The overwhelming disparity made Aleph question his prior analysis of Kashimo.
Fortunately, he has someone to help him.
{Result: Partial elemental transformation was found in the target's body. His energy…}
Great Sage ran through the results. Aleph was surprised to find out that Kashimo’s cursed energy could turn into an electric force. Each of his strikes caused Aleph second-degree burns.
Not only wasn't there any way to defend from it, Kashimo’s body was also boosted by it. Such a phenomenon didn't occur during their first fight.
“You still want to continue?”
“Cough… Why not? It's just…” Aleph continued, “That was your cursed technique?”
“That's right.” Kashimo replied. “Way back, I used it to fight stronger enemies. Although it made me stronger, it slowly destroyed my body… until I died.”
Kashimo was careful in his words. Nevertheless, it revealed his background.
As the strongest sorcerer of the Edo Period, his cursed technique was extremely powerful. Turning his cursed energy into electricity was only one of its effects.
“That's when you had another chance to fight Ryōmen Sukuna?”
“Yeah. He's the strongest I've met until now. I'll give him that.”
“...”
Aleph saw Kashimo’s sense of danger rising steadily. The latter had actually made use of a Binding Vow all this time!
“Heh. I'm also looking for a fight, you know? Inside this space where I couldn't die…”
Beyond his acquaintances’ expectations, Kashimo received an opportunity to go further. His cursed technique was so fatal it destroyed his entire body. It limited his experience, destroying most of his chances to explore his cursed technique.
Only when he was summoned inside this training space did he have the golden opportunity to learn after hundreds of years.
Aleph’s absence inside the space didn't stop the time inside. These five or so days were enough to let Kashimo learn something else from his cursed technique—and its partial activation was one of it.
“I'll give you time to recover. Tell me when you're ready.”
The nyoi staff in his hand was replaced by a brand new one.
‘Electricity… I could only resist it.’
Aleph looked at the notice he disregarded after his MANTIS surgery.
[Achievement Unlocked: The First Soldier]
[The First Soldier: Become the first person to undergo MANTIS surgery with an emperor-class honkai beast.]
[Reward: Albion's Remains (Fragment)]
[Albion's Remains (Fragment): The rotting corpse of a true dragon who refused to escape to the other side. Still, a sense of dignity could be felt from it.]
‘...Is this the continuation of the MANTIS surgery?’
During his surgery, Aleph was surrounded by medical solutions. His body ‘excreted’ blood and shed its skin while his cellular process was boosted to a huge degree. If it weren't for that, things would've been more messy.
If he were to be asked to undergo a surgery without it, he'll have to prepare for a while.
‘I can't use this for now…’
In the end, Aleph came up with several sets of alternative plans.
‘For the next two minutes…’
“I'm ready.”
“Yawn…”
Bam-!
This time, Aleph was the one who charged. Kashimo prepared himself to sacrifice a portion of his staff and counterattack twice.
Bam-!
‘Huh?’
To his surprise, Aleph was able to receive all three of his attacks. His staff wasn't broken, either.
“Hah. I see.”
A smile formed on his face.
By reading Aleph's cursed energy, he found out it was more than twice as strong as before.
‘Did he sacrifice his cursed technique? Or was it all a feint?’
Bam-!
Bam-!
Although Aleph remained to be on the receiving side, his condition wasn't as bad as before. He could dodge at least one of Kashimo’s attacks. The remaining two were tanked by his honkai-enhanced body, which was far stronger than what he used to be.
Aleph's main problem before was endurance. He had the speed and power to finish his enemies off.
‘It’s this effective..!’
He looked at the time counted by Great Sage.
{1:02}
‘I’ll try to make it look like a feint. Then…’
Bam-!
Aleph was able to regain his ground by agilely performing acrobatics. Accustomed to Kashimo’s electricity, he didn't have to take a senzu bean every now and then. Although it is virtually infinite, it still takes time to do so, which leaves a window for Kashimo to exploit.
Nevertheless, taking a bean every three or so confrontation was required, lest his overall speed drops.
Over time, Aleph got used to Kashimo's current speed. He also had Great Sage’s help to analyze Kashimo’s new parameters.
‘A hundred meters a second… and that wasn't his full strength…’
By this time, over a minute had passed. Kashimo saw Aleph's incoming strike, and without hesitation, blocked Durandal with the nyoi staff.
This time, however, he overlooked something.
‘That’s..!’
Aleph's cursed energy output dropped in an instant. Kashimo reacted by increasing the amperes of his electricity.
Bam-!
BUZZ-!
A strong current passed through the sword. It was about to pass through Aleph's hand when it was suddenly recalled to the [Seven Swords].
Momentarily, Aleph was able to nullify Kashimo’s deadly strike!
Sou-!
The [Knight Killer] appeared in his hands as it streaked towards Kashimo's neck.
Psshk-!
The dagger firmly stuck itself on Kashimo's right wrist. The two stopped moving at the same time.
Kashimo’s surprised look was there. It was completely the same as when he fought a man named Kinji Hakari.
“...You’re good.”
“Well…”
Aleph pulled out the dagger from Kashimo’s wrist. Blood spurted out of it, yet the latter seemed extremely unbothered.
“If I didn’t have enough senzu beans, I’d be dead… or barely escaping, at most.”
“You should try your hand on Reverse Curse Technique.”
“...The what?”
“It’s a kind of cursed energy utilization. You can use it to heal yourself.”
Kashimo spoke out of a terrifying ability.
The Reversed Curse Technique was the conversion of cursed energy—which was innately negative—into a positive counterpart. It was used to heal the body from all sorts of injuries. Even if one’s torso was severed, or if their arm was cut off, it could be used to reattach them again.
Simply put, it could bring someone half-step on the grave back to life.
However, its drawbacks were too obvious. Even Kashimo wasn’t able to learn it. In the “current time period”, its users could barely reach two-digits.
“How can I learn it?”
“I don’t know.”
“...”
“Seriously. I’ve seen it in action, but I didn’t learn it myself.” He stated. “We’ll have to use the words from other people…”
In courtesy of Satoru Gojo and Shoko Ieri, Kashimo started quoting other people.
