Curse Reply: After choosing Nawa, the cursed spirit cursed me for being cruel.

Louhu stomped his feet hard on the ground, and a ring of fire exploded around him, dividing the battlefield once again.

He even walked straight through the wall of fire, the smell of burning food mixed with the high temperature hitting him, but he did not slow down at all. He slashed down with his cloud-like sword, tearing the wall of fire apart.

The louhu had been waiting for this moment. It burst forth from behind the wall of fire, its right fist wrapped in molten lava compressed to the extreme. It aimed at the brief moment after Shen'er's slash missed and threw a punch at his abdomen.

The punch landed squarely on the target.

Shen Er was blasted backward several meters, his feet carving two charred furrows in the ground. The clothes around his abdomen were burned with a large hole by the high temperature, and the skin underneath was scalded red.

He glanced down at the wound on his abdomen, then looked up, his excitement burning even brighter instead of fading.

The water clock gave him no chance to catch his breath. It slammed its hands on the ground again, and dozens of fireflies swarmed out from the cracks in the ground, surrounding Shen'er from different angles.

Each one is deadly enough, and there are too many of them to dodge them all.

He then threw both hands upwards at the same time, and the two sharpened cloud-shaped handles tumbled in the air and flew high into the sky.

At the same time, he stomped his right foot on the ground, the force of which caused the scorched ground to crack in a ring around him, and many pebbles that had not yet been completely melted by the high temperature were shaken into the air.

He swept his hands forward, his fingertips striking the pebbles with terrifying precision. The pebbles shot out like bullets in all directions, colliding with the swarming fireflies in mid-air and exploding into dozens of dense clusters of fire.

Shen Er caught the two cloud-like blades falling from the sky, passed directly through the aftershocks of the still-spreading firefly explosion, and crashed into the water clock.

Louhu dared not be negligent, and continuously swung his fists, which were wrapped in lava, with each punch accompanied by a jet of fire.

Shen Er dodged between several pillars of fire, not by creating distance to avoid them, but by getting closer and closer, gradually cutting into the vicinity of the water clock through the gaps in the fire pillars.

The water clock's single eye suddenly widened; it tried to back away, but there was no room left.

Shen Er's left hand swept upwards from below, hitting Louhu's arm squarely and deflecting its defensive stance.

The right hand followed up with a thrust, the sharpened staff whistling through the air, precisely piercing the forehead through the gap in the water clock's defenses and penetrating its single eye.

The entire sharpened cloud-like blade emerged from the back of the water clock, leaving behind a trail of purple blood mist.

The water clock's body froze completely after the blow.

In other words... Shen'er won.

The water clock is a typical glass cannon, capable of attacking high and defending low.

Being able to fight a tyrant in close combat to this extent is already something to be proud of.

Blood mixed with fragments of shattered internal organs gushed out from the single punctured eye of the sieve.

The purple liquid flowed down Youyun's staff, dripping onto the scorched ground and burning out several small pits.

The light in its eyes had dimmed considerably, and its immense magical power was rapidly dissipating as its life faded away.

The body seemed about to completely disintegrate and turn into dust in the next second.

No, I can't lose, I can't fall down yet.

Before Hanami died, she told it to run away. Yuuki sacrificed her life to seal Gojo Satoru for three hours. Even at the very end, Tagore used his body to buy time for it...

The faces of its companions flashed through its mind, each one watching it, waiting for it to fulfill its promise.

The future where that cursed spirit no longer depends on humans and stands on the earth as an independent race.

How could it die here? How could it fall before its ideals were realized?

"Hana-no-Miko, Yu-hime, Tōgen... My dream is not over yet!"

The water clock roared, and its single eye, which had been pierced and whose light had been almost completely extinguished, burst forth with an unprecedentedly bright light.

In its desperate situation, it squeezed out every last drop of its remaining magical power, and its two arms, which had been hanging limply, suddenly rose up and grabbed Shen'er's arms tightly.

A tremendous amount of magical power was frantically gathering within its body; if a sorcerer were present, they might mistake it for a harbinger of the unfolding of a domain.

But the water clock clearly indicates that it cannot open the area.

The man in front of me has an abnormal resistance to fire. Even if I drag him into the domain, the fire will only cause continuous damage and will not be enough to burn him to death in a short time.

Moreover, this man had no magical power within him, and it wasn't even sure if the domain could successfully trap him.

It must use another move, but that move requires building up strength and time.

boom--

Suddenly, a flame, thick enough to pierce through everything, burst forth from the belly of the water clock.

The pillar of fire shot straight into the distance, piercing through hundreds of meters of space, and directly punched a hole in the opposite high-rise building, its edges still glowing and melting.

Nothing was left inside the hole; both the concrete and the steel bars had melted into liquid under that terrifying heat and flowed down from the other end.

At such temperatures, it would be impossible for anyone to survive.

"cough……"

Coughing sounds came from the smoke and dust.

Fuheshen stood up again. The extraordinary physical body that Tianyu had obtained in exchange for zero curse power was so powerful that even a pillar of fire strong enough to burn through a tall building could not kill him in one blow.

But at this moment, his clothes had been completely reduced to ashes in the flames, revealing a perfect body that would shame countless men and captivate the gaze of countless women.

But the moment he stood up, the water clock had run out of time.

It slammed its hands together and roared, "Extreme Strike - Meteor!"

Chapter 278 Yugada

"Extreme Chapter: Fall".

Behind the water clock, a huge meteorite with hot magma flowing on its surface emerged from the sky.

The meteorite was so large that it almost filled the entire field of vision. As it slowly rolled over, the air was distorted and deformed by the high temperature. The ceiling of the platform began to melt and collapse the moment it approached. The fragments were vaporized into ash before they even hit the ground.

Louhu's physical condition was extremely poor. The piercing pillar of fire had almost drained its last bit of magical power, and its consciousness was so blurred that it almost collapsed and rejoined Hua Yu and the others on the ground.

But the belief in its ideals pulled it back from the brink of collapse, supporting it to stand up and unleash its strongest attack.

Shen Er certainly felt the weight of the blow. He pushed off with his feet, preparing to retreat out of the meteorite's range, but an arm clamped down on his wrist.

The water clock grabbed him, its single eye burning with an almost manic light, and laughed loudly: "Thanks to you, I have grasped the core of the power of incantation!"

"This time, I'm going to completely crush you."

"Don't even think about escaping!"

The curse power of the Extreme Realm is from the same source as it, so this meteorite hitting it will hardly cause any damage.

But Shen'er is different. Even with his extraordinary resistance to curse power, he would never be able to escape unscathed from this earth-shattering attack.

The meteorite landed.

The entire city of Shibuya trembled violently at the deafening roar. The shockwave, carrying flames and debris, spread wildly in all directions. The buildings around the platform were razed to the ground in large sections, and deep trenches several meters wide were cracked in the ground. The intense heat turned the concrete pavement into dark red lava pools.

The flames at the center of the explosion burned for quite some time before gradually subsiding, and thick smoke and steam enveloped the entire area, making it impossible to see one's hand in front of one's face.

A small figure slowly emerged from the flames.

Each step the water clock took landed on the still-burning scorched earth, producing a sizzling sound.

Its body was covered in cracks, and its magical power was almost completely depleted, but the corners of its mouth were turned up... In its hand, it held a severed arm that had been completely turned into charcoal.

That was Shen'er's arm, torn off from the shoulder.

In other words, the water clock won.

Louhu stood in the middle of the still-burning ruins, holding the carbonized severed arm, and laughed loudly to the sky.

"Hahaha... I won! I won!"

It did it.

Hanami, Yuuki, Tuogen... your sacrifices were not in vain. It can continue to fight, and carry on the legacy of all its companions to realize the ideal of the cursed spirit replacing humanity.

Its laughter still echoed in the ruins when a figure came running quickly from a distance.

It was Fushiguro Megumi. He still couldn't let go of that look, that empty glance that man had cast at him during a lull in the battle.

He wanted to know what that meant.

He had just seen a burning meteorite appear in mid-air and rushed back without thinking. Could it be... that he was still too slow?

Louhu turned his gaze toward Fukuro Megumi, who was running towards him.

Its body was now extremely weak, and its magical power was almost depleted, but it could not sense any aura from the sea urchin-headed boy that could threaten it.

While he still had some magical power left, he decided to kill this young sorcerer, removing one more thorn in his side before he fell.

It raised its hand, flames gathering in its palm, ready to burst forth.

Without any hesitation, Fushiguro Megumi instantly made a hand gesture, one up and one down, preparing to summon Makuro.

Before the hand holding the water clock could even swing down, a sharp pain shot through his chest.

A sharpened metal rod pierced through its back and down to its chest, purple blood dripping from the tip of the rod.

The strong figure reappeared behind it, its flesh charred black in many places by the intense heat, with some areas even exposing the underlying bones. Yet, its face remained expressionless, and its pure black eyes stared blankly ahead.

Those eyes, without a doubt.

Fuheshen held the other end of the water clock with his only remaining hand. His other arm had been broken off at the shoulder, the cut end carbonized and blackened. He had deliberately left that severed arm for the water clock.

The water clock looked down in disbelief at the clouds emerging from its chest, then at the carbonized severed arm in its hand.

He deliberately left his arm intact, making himself believe that he had lost the ability to fight back, thus revealing a fatal flaw in his most triumphant and relaxed moment.

Just as it was laughing wildly in triumph and distracted by the appearance of Fushiguro Megumi, the man had already silently appeared behind it.

Now, he used sharpened, drifting clouds to pierce through its brain from left to right.

"I'm sorry, everyone... I'll stop here."

The water clock slowly lowered its arm, the flame extinguished between its fingers, and the light in its eyes gradually dimmed.

Its body began to disintegrate from the edges, turning into countless tiny particles that were scattered by the night wind of Shibuya above the ruins.

Even as the water clock tipped over, it tilted backward.

Although he managed to sever an arm and save vital organs, the intense heat generated by the meteorite explosion still wrecked his body beyond recognition, with muscles collapsing beneath the extensive burns.

He lay on his back on the scorched ground.

Fukuro Megumi cautiously walked over to check the situation. Just as she squatted down, Shinji's eyes suddenly snapped open.