Deep within the temple, far from the darkness and solemnity of the main hall, the air grew increasingly stagnant and foul. It seemed to be a forgotten place of imprisonment or the dwelling of lower-ranking monks.
The walls were roughly hewn stone, seeping cold droplets of water. The floor was covered with damp, moldy straw mats. The only exit was a heavy door reinforced with unknown black wood and metal straps, which was now closed. Behind the door came the soft breathing of two bandaged monks standing motionless.
Mahito and Kenjaku had been thrown into such a simple stone cell. No restraints—perhaps the other party believed that in their current state, restraints were unnecessary.
Mahito sat against the cold stone wall. His severed arms had initially been "staunched" by him using Idle Transfiguration to stop the bleeding, and he had begun very slowly "constructing" the prototypes of bones and muscles, like a crawling snail. The process was painful and slow, because the wounds left by the woman on his soul had not fully healed, and every use of his technique felt like tearing open unhealed scars. His legs were still severed below the knees, lying limply on the dirty straw mat.
"Ha... hahaha..." Mahito suddenly laughed softly, his voice echoing in the empty stone room, hoarse with pain and almost mad excitement. His strange face glowed with unprecedented light from his heterochromatic pupils. "That monster... it's really... unbelievably strong!"
He raised his right hand, which had only just "regrown" a small part, as immature and twisted as a newborn's, and clenched its five fingers, as if remembering the feeling of touching something indescribable.
"The soul..." Mahito murmured, his eyes full of incredulous admiration. "Her soul... it's so solid, like a perfect diamond!"
"My Idle Transfiguration..." Mahito's voice lowered, trembling with a mixture of disappointment and extreme curiosity in the face of an absolute gap. "The moment it touched the 'surface' of her soul... it felt like trying to squeeze the hardest diamond in the world with all my might—no, a mountain of diamonds! It didn't move at all!"
His mutilated body trembled slightly from excitement and residual pain. "Death... the ultimate fear of death... how could it be compressed into something so... so pure and absolutely 'powerful'? It's just... it's so beautiful! So beautiful it makes you tremble!"
---
Kenjaku sat against the wall opposite, his face still pale, but his breathing had become much more steady. He closed his eyes for a moment, then slowly opened them. The stitches on his forehead looked particularly strange under the single, dim oil lamp in the stone room.
"After all, this is the 'Cursed Spirit of Death'..." Kenjaku's voice was calm, but with a hint of rare, genuine seriousness. "'Death' is perhaps the most primitive, instinctive, and most inseparable absolute fear buried deep in the human soul—no, the soul of all beings with the concept of 'life'. War, disease, separation, aging... the end of all pain points to 'death'. This fear has been accumulating for thousands of years and has long been imprinted in the abyss of genes and the collective unconscious."
He paused, looking at the water stains seeping from the top of the stone chamber, as if looking at the very fear itself—invisible and insubstantial, yet omnipresent.
"A cursed spirit condensed from this fundamental, conceptual fear... the power and the 'existence' peculiarity might surpass that of ordinary special grades. They wouldn't be able to... handle her."
Kenjaku's gaze turned to Mahito, a complex calculation flickering in his eyes.
"I'm afraid you really would need Sukuna, or Zen'in Genji... Only 'monsters' who surpass the common definition of 'strength' and exist in another dimension would have a chance of victory."
Hearing Zen'in Genji's name, the excitement in Mahito's eyes grew even stronger, but was immediately followed by deeper thought.
Kenjaku seemed to have figured something out, his fingers involuntarily rubbing his chin, his brow slightly furrowed, as he sank into deeper speculation.
"But... that woman is actually a naturally occurring half-cursed spirit..." He whispered to himself, as if sorting out an astonishing puzzle—a cursed energy attribute mixing human and cursed spirit traits.
"That Zen'in Genji guy... the cursed energy absorption and suppression barrier he set up a thousand years ago, covering the entire world... the core logic of its identification and suppression is targeting 'cursed spirits'—'pure cursed energy aggregates' born from the negative emotions of humans. The barrier senses, absorbs, and suppresses these 'standard' and 'high' cursed energy fluctuations."
"But for half-cursed spirits... especially a half-cursed spirit like her, born with such special cursed energy qualities..." The corners of Kenjaku's lips slowly curved into a cold, almost triumphant arc. "Her cursed energy fluctuations are... 'underestimated' or 'ignored' by Zen'in Genji's barrier?"
"That guy, who prided himself on his barrier covering the world for a thousand years," Kenjaku's smile deepened, with mockery. "I'm afraid he never expected that 'half-cursed spirits' would appear in the world, breaking the framework of his thinking, right? He thought his barrier was a net, but he didn't expect the world, for balance, to give birth to a monster capable of matching his 'out-of-spec' existence... in a different way."
Mahito listened to Kenjaku's analysis, the light in his heterochromatic pupils flickering, clearly attracted by this possibility. But then, as if remembering something, a more twisted and sinister smile appeared on his face.
"But... that woman not killing me on the spot might be her biggest mistake, Mr. Kenjaku," Mahito's voice was soft, but held a cold, venomous undertone.
"I, as a pure, standard special-grade cursed spirit..."
He looked at Kenjaku, and his smile grew brighter.
"One that would be 'clearly identified' by Zen'in Genji's barrier."
Kenjaku was first stunned, then his expression gradually shifted from surprise to clarity, and then to a cold, expectant smile mirroring Mahito's.
Usually, Mahito remained underground in Dagon's domain to avoid the prying eyes of the large barrier. Mahito could operate outside with Kenjaku's help, the best barrier master of a thousand years. Now, without Kenjaku's assistance, Mahito's existence was as noticeable as a light bulb in the dark night under Genji's perception.
Perhaps at the same time as Mahito was being sought, so too would the so-called Naraku Sect be found by Genji.
"Two out-of-spec monsters..." Kenjaku chuckled softly, leaning against the cold stone wall, as if seeing a picture unfold.
"There are bound to be very, very wonderful sparks, aren't there?" Mahito chimed in with delight, and even the pain of soul recovery seemed to ease. "It's really exciting! No matter who wins, it's not a loss for us, is it? Maybe they'll destroy each other…"
"Then we'll have the opportunity to get what we want," Kenjaku concluded, closing his eyes and beginning to recover with all his might. The plan was clear, all that remained was to wait.
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