Curse Return: Demon Void Girl Doesn't Want to Be a Weakling

Chapter 68 Upholding Ideals

The real person quickly repaired the wound, but the effect was minimal, and he could only retreat a great distance.

Mashiro took a deep breath; the adventure had paid off.

The two looked at each other from a few steps away. The fire on the fallen leaves had shrunk, but the smoke was thicker than before.

The view inside the tent became increasingly blurry.

The real man sheathed the bone knife, his hands returned to human arms, and he coughed in the smoke.

Mashiro stood up, holding Murami by her side with the knife tip pointing downwards.

He didn't use the reverse form at all.

The last time they faced off, he used the reverse technique for the first time during a gap when she hadn't fully adapted to the transformation from inaction to non-action.

While the reverse approach is indeed costly, for someone who wants to stall for time, the high cost in exchange for a few seconds of complete control makes it a worthwhile trade-off.

Even when his bone shield shattered from being crushed, he would still use his physical body to withstand the impact. When his joints were locked, he would cut off his wrists to escape. Even when he was crushed and hit the ground, he would still use his bone shield to endure the impact.

The inverse could be used every time, but it never is.

Why?

Mashiro raised the tip of her knife slightly, her previous assessment being that she was keeping a backup plan.

Having a backup plan does require a worthwhile opportunity to use it.

By the time the bone spurs had all been removed from the body while the person was locked on the ground, the opportunity had long passed.

Then he's not holding back a trump card; he can't use it.

"What is your true form doing out there?" Mashiro asked, looking at him. "Stealing fingers and cursed embryos?"

The real man paused for a moment; his fingers, which were shaping a new form, froze in mid-air.

The smoke swirled past him, obscuring his expression through the haze.

He closed his fingers again, and his arm began to expand from his shoulder, with the muscles under every layer of skin stretching outwards at the same time.

The shoulders have widened by half, the ribcage has expanded to the sides, the spine has bent forward slightly, and the skin has been stretched to the point of translucency, through which the thickened bones can be vaguely seen rearranging themselves.

Mashiro looked at his upper body, which had become much larger.

The new form of the cursed power structure is denser than before, with the flesh and bones from the shoulders to the fingers being re-stacked.

"You're just going to hold on with this?" Mashiro said. "That's too weak."

"Very insightful, I didn't expect you to have guessed that far."

The real voice came from the expanded chest cavity, a little deeper than before, "It seems we still underestimated you."

He walked toward Mashiro, his enormous body leaving a crater with every step.

Mashiro gripped Murasame tightly; she moved before Masato entered the three-step range.

Cong Yu slashed at Zhenren's left arm, but Zhenren neither blocked nor dodged.

He took the blow with his left arm; the blade cut three inches into his skin, and the cursed power spread outwards from the edge of the cut.

At the same time, his right arm detached from its deformed state and used a normal human arm to grab Mashiro's wrist holding the knife from the side.

The blade stopped in his arm, which he had expanded with magical power; Cong Yu had not struck his actual body.

He neither let the blade penetrate deeper nor allowed her to pull it out.

I've learned something new about this approach.

"It's harder to grab the hilt than the blade," the real man said, looking down at her.

Mashiro didn't speak. The rain disappeared from her right hand and then condensed again in her left hand.

The ability to transform between the virtual and the real can not only switch between the virtual and the physical, but also be recalled into the body and then summoned out again.

She used her left hand to grab the re-solidified raindrops and stab them into the real person's abdomen.

The real person released her right wrist and pulled back, the knife tip piercing less than half an inch before being pulled away.

His abdominal wound was shallow. The man looked down at it and used his right hand to dig away the tissue around the wound.

The removed tissue turned to ash in his palm.

He looked up at Mashiro, who was standing two steps away. Congyu switched back to his right hand.

"Your regeneration is much slower than at the beginning," Mashiro said.

She was telling the truth: from the speed at which he discarded the bone knife at the beginning, to the speed at which he repaired the new arm, to the speed at which new skin covered the area after he dug out the flesh, everything was declining.

He can't hold on much longer.

The man didn't answer; he took a half-step back with his swollen body.

Mashiro catches up and delivers the final blow.

"Whoosh."

His body began to crack from the fissure in his chest, his skin turning into gray powder that fell to the ground and was consumed by the still-burning flames, burning away instantly.

Mashiro absorbed Murasaki into her body.

After the real person's clone disappeared, the small tent began to crack from the very center of its top.

Sunlight streamed in from overhead.

Mashiro quickly spread her senses towards the riverbank.

Hanami's curse power was fluctuating violently, and she seemed to be on the verge of death.

The students' magical reactions were still present.

The power of the tiger staff on the riverbank was at the forefront, with Dongtang beside him.

You still have time.

She turned and rushed toward the riverbank.

......

A knife.

After taking two steps, Hanami's body split in the middle, and a large amount of cursed power was absorbed by Murasame and then flowed into Mashiro's body.

"Special Grade Cursed Spirit, Flower Guardian - Exorcism."

The improvement in spell power is quite considerable, bringing him one step closer to the top-tier level.

As she absorbed the cursed power, Tiger Rod had already run up to her.

"Mashiro-nee".

"Um."

"Are you injured?" Itadori asked, looking at the marks on Mashiro's body from the recent battle.

"Fortunately, it was a clone of the real person who stopped me." There was a shallow cut on Mashiro's face, running from her temple to the end of her eyebrow, but it had almost healed.

She looked at Itadori, whose face was covered in ash and sawdust, and whose fingers were still trembling slightly from the excessive output of magical power.

"That's good. This Hanami said she's in cahoots with Makoto and the others." Itachi pointed to Hanami's gradually dissipating corpse.

"Yes, they came here with another purpose."

"Was the real person deliberately using a clone to stall for time?"

"Yes, I don't know what the main body is doing, but there are five Satoru outside, so it should be fine."

Mashiro felt that the real person might have gone to steal something, but regardless, it was unlikely that Gojo Satoru would steal anything.

Forget it, I don't want to.

Mashiro, observing the natural flow of magical energy around Itadori, asked, "You unleashed Black Flash again? How many times?"

"I think I fired six or seven shots, I can't quite remember." Itajiro scratched the back of his head and chuckled. "My hand hurts a little."

Mashiro glanced at his hand.

His body was slightly red and swollen; it was inevitable that he would get injured in a hand-to-hand combat with a top-tier fighter like Hua Yu.

It's quite impressive that he only suffered these minor injuries after fighting a Special Grade fighter like that.

Mashiro smiled and said, "That's already amazing. Let's go get treatment from Shoko later."

"Hehe, say a few more compliments, Mashiro-nee." Itadori chuckled foolishly.

"Good, good, good, Hisahito is amazing." Mashiro was amused by Itadori's silly appearance and nodded in agreement.

After looking at it for a moment, Dongtang felt a sense of unease creeping into his heart.

I feel like my best friend is about to leave.

He stepped forward, nodded to Mashiro, and then spoke earnestly to Itadori.

"Brother, don't forget your dreams!"

Then he patted Huzhang on the shoulder and walked out without looking back.

"What do you mean?" Mashiro was a little confused and turned to ask Itadori.

Itadori quickly shook his head. "It doesn't mean anything. It's probably just telling me not to forget to become stronger."

"Is that so?" Mashiro was still a little confused, but she didn't delve into it further. "Then you have to work hard."