The black-haired human cast his gaze across the room, sweeping over the countless plushies, the bear plushie, Hizumi, and finally the Curse King. Then, with a mild click of his tongue, he muttered:
"Another miss, huh..."
His face was tinged with irritation as he murmured to himself. The emotion contained in the look directed at them by that black-haired human was the very same one the King of Curses had so often directed at mortals. It was pure apathy toward a helpless gnat writhing by the roadside. Yes. This black-haired man seemed not to possess the slightest shred of interest in the King of Curses.
—Curse you...
A voice of resentment squeezed through the wild rage erupting from her entire body. He did not even deign to show hostility. Never since her birth as a curse had she tasted such humiliation. All the more so because the one delivering it was a mere human.
—Or rather, is this not convenient...?
Right now, this human—this trash—stood alive before her.
Curses cast upon humans possessed varying degrees of potency. The fresher the soul, the more easily the curse took hold. Just as crimson blood seeped into pure white paper, an exceptionally powerful curse could be inflicted. Naturally, souls were at their freshest when belonging to the living, allowing the greatest curse at the King of Curses' disposal to permeate to the very depths of one's being.
—Curse Insect Poison!
The King of Curses unleashed her signature curse. This curse absorbed the soul of a living being into a jar manifested in her left hand, remodeling and dominating the physical vessel entirely according to the will of the King of Curses.
He had slaughtered a guardian soldier in a single stroke. The physical strength of this fool—this trash—was respectable for a human. If she modified this body, she could surely create a guardian soldier of unprecedented caliber.
As the King of Curses' peerlessly potent curse completely enveloped the black-haired man, he spoke:
"Hmm. Some kind of binding spell, is it?"
Letting out a completely tensionless remark, the black-haired man brushed his empty left hand through the air as if swatting away a fly. With just that single motion, the King of Curses' exceptionally powerful curse dissipated into mist as if it were all a lie.
—W-What...?
Unable to comprehend such an utterly impossible reality, she muttered words of astonishment as though struck directly upon the crown of her head. It was only natural. While Curse Insect Poison was an affliction effective solely against the living, once cast, defending against it was meant to be entirely impossible.
"Petty tricks do not work on me," the black-haired man declared to the utterly dazed King of Curses.
—A peculiar constitution that resists curses?!
Very rarely among humans, individuals of this sort were born. In other words, they possessed an innate resistance to curses. Against a human bearing this resistance, even the curses of the King of Curses held little effect. Even for the King of Curses, there was no other recourse against a human endowed with such a special constitution than to physically eliminate them.
Regardless, this human also possessed physical capabilities so extraordinary they defied mortal limits.
This man was, so to speak, a natural predator to the King of Curses. Before he could grow any stronger, killing him here and now was undoubtedly the best course of action.
Even if he resisted curses, he was still just a human. In pure physical combat, it was unthinkable that the King of Curses would fall behind at this stage. There should be no issue whatsoever in killing him.
—Kill that repulsive trash of a human!
"As you command, bear!"
Yugami enlarged to roughly three mels in size, and from its mouth, the long neck of a man with sewn-shut eyes stretched outward.
"Surround him!"
It issued orders to the surrounding plushies. The plushies also enlarged, sprouting razor-sharp fangs as they encircled the black-haired human.
Yugami was the oldest curse created by the King of Curses—an existence akin to an alter ego—standing on an entirely different level of cursed power compared to Nejire and Hizumi.
To be sure, she had failed to perceive the black-haired human's earlier movements, and he had indeed cleaved a guardian soldier in two. As a human, his skill was undoubtedly formidable.
However, there was no way a mere mortal could perform movements that this King of Curses could not perceive. It was likely due to some special perception-hindering ability, one of those things called Gifts, just like the human child the King of Curses had absorbed earlier.
—You fool, mistaking borrowed strength for your own!
A piece of human trash relying on a mere perception-hindrance trick could never defeat Yugami. And as the alter ego of the King of Curses, Yugami would surely slaughter this vermin.
"I'm getting tired of searching," the man said. "I'll have you spill the location of this so-called King of Curses."
He tapped the flat of his long blade against his shoulder, then pointed the tip toward the King of Curses and her minions as he uttered such nonsense. At the black-haired human's outrageously disrespectful remark, Yugami flew into a rage.
"A lowly human dares?!"
Enraged, Yugami led the plushies in an all-out assault on the black-haired human.
—That is what you get for acting smug without knowing your place.
These were the familiars born of the King of Curses' deepest maledictions. Their power was fundamentally beyond anything the human race could oppose. If a battle could even be fought, it would be solely by a legendary Hero. Even then, such a Hero would barely manage to hold their own against a single one of Yugami's familiars. Yet dozens of Yugami's familiars were attacking simultaneously. Even if this man were a legendary Hero, he would be reduced to minced meat in an instant.
Therefore, the King of Curses did not doubt for a single second that the black-haired human would become a wretched corpse.
However, that sugar-sweet expectation was—
"Gyi?"
"Gyeh?"
"Gafu?"
—betrayed with utter ease.
The very moment Yugami's plush familiars reached out to touch the black-haired human, they fell to the cold stone floor in finely shredded pieces.
"Eh?"
As Yugami let out a dumbfounded cry, the black-haired man's figure vanished without a trace.
"Wh-Where did he go, bear—"
Frantically searching the surroundings, Yugami's giant frame was suddenly hoisted into the air. Behind it stood the black-haired human, effortlessly lifting Yugami by its back with his left hand.
"This is the last time I will repeat myself. Where is this King of Curses?" the black-haired human demanded in a tone that brooked no argument.
"Wh-Wh-When did you—"
As Yugami flailed its arms and legs pathetically, struggling desperately to escape while shouting its obvious question, the man spoke.
"I see. You will not answer, then."
A cold voice that could freeze one's very soul echoed from the black-haired human. In a flash, Yugami's massive body was hurled upward, slamming into the ceiling of the stone chamber before slowly tumbling back down. The trajectory of its fall was aimed straight above the black-haired human's head.
"Gyaaahhhhhhh!!"
Screaming in dense terror unfitting of an alter ego of the Curse King, Yugami fell as the black-haired human's long sword pierced straight down through the crown of its head. And then—
"Gugekekekeeeh!!"
Letting out a bizarre shriek, Yugami was slowly torn apart in a cross-shaped pattern.
The black-haired human drew his long blade from the shredded Yugami and kicked the remains aside casually.
With just that, Yugami's entire body burst open like an overripe red fruit, sending a downpour of blood and flesh raining across the floor.
—............
She could not make sense of it.
Yugami's familiars had been reduced to mincemeat in an instant, and Yugami itself—the very alter ego of the King of Curses—had been erased like a common bug.
She still could not sense any significant magical or cursed power emanating from that black-haired human. By all appearances, he should have been nothing more than a frail mortal. And yet, to the King of Curses right now, the black-haired human before her looked like an incomprehensible monster.
"Now then..."
Flicking his long sword clean, the black-haired human fixed a raptor-like gaze upon her.
At that moment, what escaped the King of Curses' mouth was—
—Eek!
—a tiny shriek. If one were to accurately describe the King of Curses' current state of mind, it was perhaps that of a small animal trembling before a starving apex predator.
"Well, you are all that is left. I will have you tell me the whereabouts of the King of Curses."
Wiping the blood clinging to his blade, the unidentified monster drew closer to the King of Curses.
Never in all the time since her birth had she laid eyes on such a monster. If there was one thing she understood, it was that fighting that thing right now had to be avoided at all costs.
—Damn it!
Attempting to escape the monster, she tried to melt her body into the fabric of the mansion, but—
—Guh-eek?!
She was sent flying by a kick from the monster, who had abruptly materialized before her very eyes.
Her vision spun at high speed as she was slammed back-first into the wall.
"It is useless. I will not let you escape. After all, there is no one left here but you. Squeezing the location of this so-called King of Curses out of you is my only option."
—My body won't move?!
Her vessel, which should have attained supreme transcendence, had been wrecked by the monster's single blow, leaving her unable to move so much as a fingertip.
—Stay back!
With only her mouth still functional, she screamed desperately. The voice she raised was a pathetic, cracked screech, bearing no semblance to that of the King of Curses.
The black-haired monster let out a deep sigh.
"If I do anything more, I might destroy it... Once I get serious, holding back is rather difficult..."
Sheathing the long sword on his back, he raised his voice.
"Belze!"
"Supreme Great One, what are your orders-chu?!"
A monster possessing the head of a fly suddenly appeared, kneeling before the black-haired monster. Just a single glance at that horrifying form was enough to make—
—Gyahhhhhhh!!
—a piercing shriek tear from the King of Curses' throat.
—Wh-What is that?!
Never had she seen something so grotesque. If she were forced to name the closest thing to it, it was a god! What was more, it was a Chief God of such magnitude that it could crush a trivial little world like this to paste on a whim. That comparison was the only one that truly fit.
—Why does such a monster appear at a time like this?!
The King of Curses had angered a god. A god—the very existence she had yearned for ever since her birth. Furthermore, the likelihood was exceedingly high that this entity stood at the absolute pinnacle among gods. Though she had been climbing the staircase toward godhood, the King of Curses was, in the end, nothing more than a phenomenon born from the malice of mortals. A mere curse that had not yet reached divinity could never hope to resist an entity that seemed to reign at the apex of gods.
And on top of that—on top of that—that very Fly God was kneeling before none other than that unidentified monster. What that implied was—
"Extract the location of the King of Curses from that thing. Along with the whereabouts of the captives held in this mansion. I leave the method to you."
"By your will-chu♫"
Moving its mouthparts in a busy, clicking frenzy, the fly-faced monster leveled the tip of the cane in its right hand toward the King of Curses.
In that instant, a black mist welled up from beneath her feet. Enveloped within it, the King of Curses' consciousness was snapped cleanly into darkness.