Bam-!

  Kashimo nded after vaulting more thay meters aboveground. Only his nyoi staff was visibly broken.

  ‘Two… no, three times. And they're all from tricky angles.’

  Whenever Aleph let out a punch, Kashimo could strike back thrice. The overwhelming disparity made Aleph question his prior analysis of Kashimo.

  Fortunately, he has someoo help him.

  {Result: Partial elemental transformation was found iarget's body. His energy…}

  Great Sage ran through the results. Aleph was surprised to find out that Kashimo’s body could turn into aric force, or at least coated with it. Each of his strikes caused Aleph sed-degree burns. It graded version of his electric cursed energy.

  Not only wasn't there any way to defend from it, Kashimo’s rea time was also boosted by it. Such a phenomenon didn't occur during their first fight.

  “You still want to tinue?”

  “Cough… Why not? It's just…” Aleph tinued, “That was your cursed teique?”

  “That's right.” Kashimo replied. “Way back, I used it to fight stronger enemies. Although it made me stronger, it slowly destroyed my body… until I died.”

  Kashimo was careful in his words. heless, it revealed his background.

  As the "stro" sorcerer of the Edo Period, his cursed teique owerful. Turning his cursed energy iricity was only one of its effects.

  “That's when you had another ce to fight Ryōmen Sukuna?”

  “Yeah. He's the stro I've met until now. I'll give him that.”

  “...”

  Aleph saw Kashimo’s sense of danger rising steadily. The tter had actually made use of a Binding Vow all this time!

  “Heh. I'm also looking for a fight, you know? Ihis space where I couldn't die…”

  Beyond his acquaintances’ expectations, Kashimo received an opportunity to go further. His cursed teique was so fatal it destroyed his entire body. It limited his experience, destroying most of his ces to explore his cursed teique.

  Only when he was summoned ihis training spabsp;did he have the golden opportunity to learn after hundreds of years.

  Aleph’s absenside the space didn't stop the time ihese five or so days were enough to let Kashimo learn something else from his cursed teique—and its partial activation was one of it.

  “I'll give you time to recover. Tell me when you're ready.”

  The nyoi staff in his hand was repced by a brand new one.

  ‘Electricity… I could only resist it. O bee stronger, my Sphere Boundary (Territory) should take effect.’

  Aleph looked at the notibsp;he disregarded after his MANTIS surgery.

  [Achievement Unlocked: The First Soldier]

  [The First Soldier: Bee the first person to undergo MANTIS surgery with an emperor-css honkai beast.]

  [Reward: Albion's Remains (Fragment)]

  [Albion's Remains (Fragment): The rotting corpse of a true dragon who lived to see the iion of the Earth. Still, a sense of dignity could be felt from it.]

  ‘...Is this the tinuation of the MANTIS surgery?’

  During his surgery, Aleph was surrounded by medical solutions. His body ‘excreted’ blood and shed its skin while his cellur process was boosted to a huge degree. If it weren't for that, things would've been more messy.

  If he were to be asked to undergo a surgery without it, he'll have to prepare for a while.

  ‘I 't use this for now…’

  In the end, Aleph came up with several sets of alternative pns.

  ‘For the wo minutes…’

  “I'm ready.”

  “Yawn…”

  Bam-!

  This time, Aleph was the one who charged. Kashimo prepared himself to sacrifibsp;a portion of his staff and terattack twice.

  Bam-!

  ‘Huh?’

  To his surprise, Aleph was able to receive all three of his attacks. His staff wasn't brokeher.

  “Hah. I see.”

  A smile formed on his fabsp;

  By reading Aleph's cursed energy, he found out it was more than twice as strong as before.

  ‘Did he sacrifice his cursed teique? Or was it all a feint?’

  Bam-!

  Bam-!

  Although Aleph remaio be on the receiving side, his dition wasn't as bad as before. He could dodge at least one of Kashimo’s attacks. The remaining two were tanked by his honkai-enhanced body, which was far strohan what he used to be.

  Aleph's main problem before was endurance. He had the speed and power to finish his enemies off.

  ‘It’s this effective..!’

  He looked at the time ted by Great Sage.

  {1:02}

  ‘I’ll try to make it look like a feint. Then…’

  Bam-!

  Aleph was able tain his ground by agilely perf acrobatibsp;Aced to Kashimo’s electricity, he didn't have to take a senzu bean every now and then. Although it is virtually infi still takes time to do so, which leaves a window for Kashimo to exploit.

  heless, taking a beahree or so frontation was required, lest his overall speed drops.

  Over time, Aleph got used to Kashimo's current speed. He also had Great Sage’s help to analyze Kashimo’s new parameters.

  ‘A hundred meters a sed… and that wasn't his full strength…’

  By this time, over a minute had passed. Kashimo sah's ining strike, and without hesitation, blocked Durandal with the nyoi staff.

  This time, however, he overlooked something.

  ‘That’s..!’

  Aleph's cursed energy output dropped in an instant. Kashimo reacted by increasing the amperes of his electricity.

  Bam-!

  BUZZ-!

  A strong current passed through the sword. It was about to pass through Aleph's hand when it was suddenly recalled to the [Seven Swords].

  Momentarily, Aleph was able to nullify Kashimo’s deadly strike!

  Sou-!

  The [Knight Killer] appeared in his hands as it streaked towards Kashimo's neck.

  Psshk-!

  The dagger firmly stuck itself on Kashimht wrist. The ratio line was hit, causing the hand to fly away.

  The two stopped moving at the same time. Kashimo’s surprised look was there.

  “...Yood.”

  “Well…”

  Aleph recalled the dagger to his [Seven Swords] space. Kashimo's wrist bled profusely, yet he seemed extremely unbothered.

  “If I didn’t have enough senzu beans, I’d be dead… or barely esg, at most.” Aleph spoke.

  “You should try your hand on Reverse Curse Teique.”

  “...The what?”

  “It’s a kind of cursed energy utilization. You use it to heal yourself.”

  Kashimo spoke out of a terrifying ability.

  The Reversed Curse Teique was the version of cursed energy—which was innately ive—into a positive terpart. It was used to heal the body from all sorts of injuries. Even if oorso was severed, or if their arm was cut off, it could be used to reattach them again.

  Simply put, it could bring someone half-step on the grave back to life.

  However, its drawbacks were too obvious. Even Kashimo wasn’t able to learn it. In the “current time period”, its users could barely reach two-digits.

  “How I learn it?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “...”

  “Seriously. I’ve seen it in a, but I didn’t learn it myself.” He stated. “We’ll have to use the words from other people…”

  In courtesy of Satojo and Shoko Ieri, Kashimo started quoting other people.