"Emerge from the darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
vwoohm~
After casting the veil down, Hiroyuki made his first step into the temple and quickly proceeded to head deeper inside.
On his way, he quickly felt hundreds of eyes watching him from every direction. He also heard some rustling noises going on and off for each step he took as if somebody was lurking around the vicinity.
He also noticed that the looming shadows at the corner of his eyes would sometimes move around the moment he took his focus away from it.
Though, no matter how hard he looks for the source of such happenings, he can see no one in sight. Even when he enhanced his senses, he still failed to see at least one sign of it no matter how fast he reacted.
A pretty creepy and horrifying setting, one could say. But regardless, Hiroyuki kept his pace steady. Ignoring all the unexplainable stuff that was happening around him. Thinking that it doesn't matter since it doesn't affect him in some ways anyway.
creak-
???
As he goes deeper into the temple, out of nowhere, the voice of a woman reaches his ears. The tone of the voice itself carries so much dread that the moment Hiroyuki heard it, he immediately stopped and raised his guard.
"Why... Why..."
Hiroyuki didn't take that long to realize that the voice he was hearing at the moment was coming from the huge building ahead of him. Focusing his gaze on it, there he saw a head, peeking at the main door.
"Why... Why..."
Slowly, the rest of the body of that head started surfacing. First the hand, then the neck, upper body, and rest of the lower part. It all creepily revealed itself one by one until all of it as a whole, now stood in front of the main door.
Making Hiroyuki see its entirety at its full glory.
Upon seeing the being that now stood ahead of him, Hiroyuki realized that it was the Special Grade that he was meant to exorcise.
The White Lady.
"Why... AREN'T YOU SCARED!???"
"Scared?"
Hearing the White Lady's question, Hiroyuki initially made a genuinely confused expression. But one quick moment after that, that expression of his disappeared and was replaced by a surprised one.
Looking as if he finally realized something.
"Ah I see, is that what this is??"
Earlier, right after Hiroyuki walked past the entrance, making his first step inside, he quickly felt the Innate Domain that was covering the entire temple.
He already expected such an occurrence so he was prepared.
He could've used some kind of Cursed Technique to prevent it from affecting him if he wanted to, he was confidently fast enough to do that before it could affect him in any way.
But surprisingly, he didn't do any of that.
Well, that's the part that he's most confused about. Because, despite him being inside of the domain already, for some reason, it's not Activating. It's not affecting him like it's supposed to.
Of course, he knows that when it comes to this kind of Innate Domain, something must be achieved first before it can activate. Hence he didn't do anything because, whatever the condition might be, it seems that he has yet to fulfill it.
Though he can't help but wonder what that condition might be. But right after hearing the White Lady's question, everything finally clicked for him.
"No wonder this area was desperately trying to make me feel scared."
Upon his realization, Hiroyuki chuckled for a little bit. He couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the White Lady. He didn't know what would exactly happen once the Innate Domain swallowed him whole, but it was pretty obvious that it was what made her so formidable.
And that very thing isn't working currently for some reason.
"Sorry but, it would take you more than this just to scare me even for a little bit."
"N- NO... YOU SHOULD BE SCARED... YOU SHOULD BE TERRIFIED!"
The moment the White Lady heard that, her whole body suddenly shook. Subsequently, intense CE started oozing out of her entire body. Flowing around with such intense momentum.
It seems that she didn't take what Hiroyuki said as a compliment.
"I'LL MAKE YOU SCARED! I'LL MAKE YOU TERRIFIED... OF ME!!!!"
The White Lady suddenly screamed loudly, producing sound waves that reverberated across the area, making every building around shake and creak.
!!!
Right after that, the White Lady suddenly zoomed towards Hiroyuki. Leaving ghostly trails behind her, she arrived instantaneously in front of him and then lunged her frail-looking arms toward his neck.
swoosh!
However, it seems that her attack speed isn't as fast as her movement speed. That's why Hiroyuki easily dodged her attack by simply leaning backward. He even delivered a spinning kick toward her body right after that, as a counterattack.
???
But, as he did that, a confused expression resurfaced on Hiroyuki's face. He couldn't help but have such an expression because his kick... simply went through the White Lady's body. It was as if he attacked nothing but air.
whoosh!
But as much as he wanted to think more about what just happened, he could not because... taking advantage of the fact that he made himself open after missing that counterattack, the White Lady lunged at him once again.
"Hmm?"
Right after the White Lady latched her arm onto his, Hiroyuki was quickly assaulted by some weird sensation. It was making his focus and will to fight slowly shake. As if it was getting taken away from him.
Tssss~!
Also, looking at his forearm, right where he was touched, his skin started getting darker, looking as if he had just been burned by something.
The darkened part was also visibly growing at a rapid pace, spreading across his entire arm like some sort of skin disease.
"Alright, that's enough."
Of course, Hiroyuki didn't allow such happening to go on for much longer, that's why, quickly charging some CE at the exact part where he was being touched, he made some small explosion that repelled the White Lady's arm away.
He then used that chance to back off, quickly putting some significant distance between them, giving Hiroyuki some breather and a chance to finally analyze the situation.
But before that, he gotta fix his arm first.
Because, looking down at the darkened part, even though he was not being touched anymore, it was still spreading across his entire arm.
A pretty dangerous ability given that, not only does it affect the physical body but also the mentality as well.
Fortunately, Hiroyuki could easily fix such a problem. All he had to do was simply blast the lingering foreign CE around the darkened spot with his own CE. Stopping the Curse in the process. He would then heal the damaged skin using RCT.
Turning it all back to its normal state.
With one of the problems gone, the other one comes next. Which is the fact that the White Lady can make herself intangible and susceptible to attacks.
A pretty annoying ability.
Well, Hiroyuki always finds it a pain in the ass whenever he's battling against beings with this kind of ability, even during his past life. When used skillfully by the enemy, it could easily be one of the most challenging and hardest battles ever.
Regardless of the outcome.
Well, good thing that being skillful isn't a trait that the White Lady has, given how crudely she uses her ability.
Overall, Hiroyuki already knew everything he needed to know. Although it may seem like he thought of all this for a pretty long time, in reality, it only took him a second to figure all that out.
That's the reason why, right after distancing himself, he purposely lowered his guard. Doing nothing but standing on his spot, leaving himself wide open for any kind of attack.
Seeing this, the White Lady, without any hesitation, gladly took advantage of it as she once again disappeared and then reappeared right in front of Hiroyuki and drove both her arms toward his neck.
This time, Hiroyuki didn't bother dodging. He just gladly took it.
???
The White Lady on the other hand, without thinking much about it, happily tightened his grip on Hiroyuki's neck, clearly showing her intention to crush it thoroughly with her hands. At the same time, she's also using her Cursed Touch to infect him.
"H- HUUH!!? YOU!??"
But for some reason, no matter how hard she tried, Hiroyuki's neck was not getting affected by her Cursed Touch. Or at least, it isn't as effective as it was before. It didn't take her that long to realize why.
"Same things don't work twice against me."
As stated before, Hiroyuki's curse energy, at this point, is already unmatched when it comes to purity thanks to his Cursed Heart constantly refining it. Even a Special Grade Curse Spirit like the White Lady, can only dream of having such refined CE.
That's why, all Hiroyuki did was reinforce his body with enough CE, that way, he managed to reduce the effectiveness of the White Lady's curse touch to a degree that it was almost ineffective against him.
!!!
The White Lady, upon this realization, immediately saw the grave situation she had put herself into. So as fast as she could, she tried to pull her arms away but, unfortunately for her, Hiroyuki outclassed her in the speed department.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Hiroyuki managed to grab one of her arms before she could even pull it away.
!!!
Seeing it, she immediately tried to activate the ability that would allow her to be intangible but, in Hiroyuki's hand, the one that was grabbing her, a Positive Energy was oozing out of it.
Positive Energy is the complete opposite of CE, making it extremely harmful to CS, regardless of their grade. That's why, the moment Hiroyuki injected some of it into the White Lady, it ultimately disturbed the flow of her CE. Making her ability, not work as fast as usual.
The delay would only last for a second, but that is already more than enough for Hiroyuki.
"Clench your teeth."
Charging his other fist with enough CE, he quickly drove it toward the White Lady's face.
BOOM!
And this time, Hiroyuki's attack landed cleanly on her face.
"I'm not done y-"
Hiroyuki was planning to immediately follow up his punch with another one because he already expected that his attack just now wasn't enough to completely exorcise the CS.
But before he could even do that.
*bzzt! bzzT!*
His fist, which just landed on the White Lady's head, started releasing some static noises. And the next moment after that...
VWOOOM!!!
An explosion made out of black sparks suddenly occurred.
"... huh?"
Which ultimately resulted in him... obliterating the White Lady's head.
Successfully exorcising it.
"..."
As unexpected as it is.
___To be continued...___