The Curse, panicked, suddenly felt the heaviness disappear. Relieved, it thought it could move again, but its relief was short-lived. It tried to move, but nothing responded. Its limbs, its twisted arms, its deformed legs, no longer reacted. It was as if it had forgotten how to use them, as if its body had slipped away from it.
"What is...?" began the Curse, its voice trembling.
Ryosuke tilted his head to the side, curious. "So, which sensation do you prefer? The one before, where you were as heavy as a mountain, or this one, where you don't even know how to move?"
The Curse groaned, unable to respond.
"Actually, it doesn't matter," Ryosuke continued, shrugging. "As I thought, you Curses have two lights within you: the soul and the spirit. Fascinating, isn't it?"
He looked at the Curse with an enigmatic smile. "Well, let's see what happens when you're really at full power."
In an instant, the Curse felt a terrible force take hold of its mind, crushing its personality. Everything it was, all its memories, its thoughts, were swept away, replaced by a single, overwhelming obsession: to kill the human in front of it.
"There you go, now you're free."
Immediately, the Curse regained control of its limbs.
Without a second's hesitation, the monster went berserk. Its twisted arms lashed out with incredible violence, its misshapen body charging at Ryosuke like a storm of pure fury. Cursed energy emanated from it, tearing through the air, with wind blades swirling around it like furious tornadoes.
Ryosuke, still crouched, stood calmly in the face of this avalanche of destruction, a smile on his lips. "That's it. Give it everything you've got."
Ryosuke leapt backward, his heart racing, as the Curse lunged at him with uncontrollable rage. Razor-sharp gusts of wind erupted in every direction, ravaging the space around them. The ground trembled under the force of the blows, walls cracked, and the air grew heavy, laden with the destructive energy radiating from the creature.
Despite the surrounding chaos, Ryosuke remained calm. His gaze sharpened, and with a confident gesture, he began transmuting the environment around him.
The ground beneath his feet twisted, rising into jagged spikes, while columns of earth shot up to block the Curse's furious assaults. The air in front of him, once intangible, became as solid as bulletproof glass, halting the wind blades in their tracks.
The landscape warped under the force of their exchange. Entire sections of the building crumbled from the impacts, windows shattered, and the ground fractured like glass under the pressure.
Suddenly, a massive hand of wind materialized before the Curse, crashing down on Ryosuke with devastating force. The tempest's fingers closed around him, trying to crush him like an insect.
The ground cracked under the impact, and the air swirled in a vortex of pure violence. Trapped within the destructive grasp, Ryosuke smiled faintly, without a hint of panic.
The wind hand vanished as if it had never existed. The cursed energy surrounding Ryosuke devoured the Curse's attack, reducing it to nothing.
He stood tall, his eyes glinting with amusement. "Is that all you've got?" he murmured, more to himself than to his opponent.
The Curse roared in fury, its multiple mouths emitting a piercing scream that reverberated through the air. It charged at Ryosuke with renewed rage, but before it could reach him, the ground shifted again.
In a split second, Ryosuke hardened the earth beneath the Curse's feet, making it as tough as steel. The monster found itself trapped, encased in a reinforced block of stone, unable to move.
Silence fell briefly.
Ryosuke approached the Curse, observing the creature as it struggled desperately to break free.
"Is this really the best you can do?" Ryosuke asked in a neutral tone, almost disappointed. He stood there, arms crossed, like a scientist evaluating an incomplete experiment.
Then, suddenly, Ryosuke smiled.
The Curse, still trapped in the rock, roared. The air around them began to vibrate, and in an instant, the entire scene shifted.
The ruins of the hospital vanished, replaced by a swirling sea of winds. The ground beneath their feet seemed to disappear, and they were now floating in mid-air, surrounded by violent storms howling in every direction.
Ryosuke felt himself being swept up by the tempest, but he wasn't afraid. On the contrary, he smiled.
"So, this is it..." he whispered, as the wind whipped against his face. He burst out laughing, a genuine, excited laugh. "This is what a domain expansion feels like!"
TO BE CONTINUED!
Next Chapter: The Second Chimera