"SCHHEEE!"
The Cursed Spirit let out a blood-curdling screech as it recoiled against the fear infecting its mind, thrashing around and stabbing its front legs into the turf as it dropped back down.
Still attached to its abdomen, Kiniro was taken for a brief but exhilarating ride that ended with him now standing on the Curse's back without having to fight against gravity.
Standing up, Kiniro's footing was secured with a thin layer of cursed energy, gluing him to the curse. Testing out the grip, Kiniro lifted up one foot and watched his cursed energy stretch steadily, thinning out as the distance between his foot and the Curse Spirit's body grew, 'Feels like taffy, or bubble gum…sticky and stretchy.'
Kiniro's musings were brought to an end as he felt the spirit's curse energy flare and move toward the large tufts of hair covering its arachnid body, which suddenly stood on end and began to vibrate violently.
Getting a bad feeling, Kiniro jumped back into the air just as the pink and white hairs around him exploded, sending countless strands flying in every direction with waves of concussive force.
Despite his quick reaction, Kiniro wasn't able to clear the explosion's radius, forcing him to confront the flurry of hair. Seeing the cursed energy imbued into every single strand, Kiniro didn't underestimate the seemingly harmless-looking nature of the soft tufts.
Holding out his hand, Kiniro projected his cursed energy with a thought and watched as it poured out of his palm like water from a hose. His cursed energy, however, was far thicker than water, flowing more like a quagmire, as Kiniro found the mental dial controlling the physical properties his cursed energy emulated and turned it to the max.
The strands of hair slowed to a crawl as they passed through Kiniro's veil before eventually coming to a complete stop, failing to escape the quagmire. Kiniro grinned, but before he could fully celebrate the cursed energy imbued into the strands of hair flared as a secondary round of miniature explosions tore through Kiniro's veil, ripping it to shreds but luckily leaving him unharmed. Not only that, but the payload of cursed energy the spirit had invested in the attack triggered Kiniro's technique twice, resulting in two sinful marks appearing on its body.
'So it's not just quantity that matters, there's an aspect of quality as well,' Kiniro mused as he continued flying through the air before noticing something. 'That explosion also destroyed the cursed energy I projected, and since I don't produce cursed energy of my own, that means my max reserves just took a permanent hit.'
Kiniro had noticed that everyone else he had encountered so far actively burned cursed energy while employing their technique or reinforcing their body due to their inefficiency. 'Even in Sensei's case, his control wasn't absolutely perfect; the difference is formulaically negligible, but when regarding my ability to devour cursed energy from other sources and infinitely grow my reserves, that negligibility between near perfection and absolute perfection becomes night and day.'
Landing in a crouch on the ground, Kiniro stared up at the curse as it spun around to keep him in its sights, but Kiniro ignored the baleful glare as he felt his understanding deepen.
'I'm starting to see it now,' Kiniro's eyes flared, glowing with a magenta light, 'The synergies between my cursed technique and the nature of my soul.'
Standing up, Kiniro regarded the curse like a starving man would a prime steak, 'But it's only a glimpse, a theory that I need to put into practice.'
Once again, the Curse felt a pang of fear that made it recoil, but before it could recover and lash out in anger, Kiniro acted first.
"Satan"
With a quick incantation, Kiniro absolved the Curse's sins in the name of Satan, the Demoic Prince of Wrath. The two marks on its body disappeared, and in the next instant, the ground beneath the Curse split open, revealing a hellish abyss with brimstone walls coated in a sea of dark pink flames roaring with the collective cries of the damned souls that burned as an eternal source of fuel.
But the opening was just a portal, a pathway for Satan to deliver his wrath onto the mortal plan. Faster than any mortal being could react, a giant spear emerged, thrown by an unseen hand, but arriving with tangible anger. The shaft was made of roughly cut obsidian, and the blades were twin infernal horns, resembling those of a mountain goat but far longer with impossibly sharp ends.
There was no way to avoid the weapon, as it shot up faster than a bullet and stabbed into the Curse's body like a hot knife through butter, with the spear's horns emerging out the other side.
"SCHHEEEEEE!"
The cry of agony from the Curse was nearly deafening, but its suffering wasn't over, as after a brief delay, the spear suddenly ignited with the same hellish flames that had coated the walls of the infernal portal.
The flames barely lasted more than a second, vanishing along with the spear that had conjured them, but there was no denying the damage they had dealt, leaving angry-looking burns that seethed, remnants of the wrath they had come from.
The Cursed Spirit let out another cry, and Kiniro watched as it tried to infuse the wounds on its back with cursed energy, no doubt attempting to heal the significant damage.
But the moment the cursed energy came into contact with the wounds, they ignited once more with hellish flames using the Cursed Spirits' own energy as fuel.
A sadistic smile spread across Kiniro's lips as he watched the scene and calmly analyzed everything he had learned, 'Activating an instant of my technique on someone consumes all their sins, with the subsequent absolution growing exponentially powerful based on how many sins were present during activation.
I can also feel that there's something blocking the activation of my technique. It seems that after being absolved, the sinner enters a period of atonement, where their actions can not be judged. The duration of the period is determined by the number of sins absolved, with each sin adding six seconds to the atonement. Meaning I can't just mindlessly spam my technique…I'll need to carefully consider the payoff for each activation.'
Kiniro bent his knees before pushing off the ground, sending him flying at the Curse, who quickly forgot about the injuries on its back and instead focused on the aberration that had cause its so much mental and physical anguish.
Feeling its unadulterated fury, an excited blush spread across his face,' Please, give me more…I can take it.'
As if it were able to hear Kiniro's thoughts, the Curse lashed out, stabbing one of its massive legs forward like a lance, aiming to pierce Kiniro on the needle-like point.
Reaching down with his hand, Kiniro dragged his fingers along the ground until he felt them brush against a decent-sized stone. Grabbing a hold of the rock, Kiniro infused it with his cursed energy before throwing it with all his might.
The rock sailed through the air and struck the underside of the Curse's thorax, landing with a solid thud. However, instead of falling to the ground, the rock stayed firmly affixed to Curse with Kiniro's coating of cursed energy. Not only that, but a thin string stretched through the air connecting the improvised projectile and Kiniro's hand, a string that Kiniro pulled tight with a single thought.
Like a rubber band, the string of cursed energy snapped back, pulling Kiniro off his feet and into the air just in time to avoid the Curse's spindly leg that pierced deep into the earth.
Landing on the Curse's underside, Kiniro's body exploded with cursed energy as he used every bit of cursed energy in his reserves to push his reinforcement to the maximum, 'I may not know how to throw a proper punch…But I guess it doesn't really matter, I'm pretty sure I could lift up a car with this much cursed energy coursing through me.'
A manic smile split Kiniro's face as he cocked back his fist and slammed it into the Curse Spirit's soft underbelly. There was a loud thud, and Kiniro watched as a small shockwave ripped through the Curse, pulverizing its internals. The punch also triggered Kiniro's technique, marking him as a sinner. But in the blink of an eye, another mark appeared, and then two more as Kiniro continued to lash out, driving his fists into the Curse with increasing speed as he grew more familiar with the motion.
Before long, spurts of cursed blood accompanied each punch, splashing against Kiniro's front, drenching him from the waist up. And with each punch, the Curse spirit cried out, the sound quickly becoming music to Kiniro's ears as his sadistic nature emerged, 'Cry for me! Cry for your absolution!'
With a final punch, Kiniro felt the Cursed Spirit's period of atonement end, and with a grin, he activated his technique, targeting the slew of sins that now covered his arms like so many tattoos.
"Leviathan"
Entoning the Prince of Envy, Kiniro watched as all his accumulated sins transferred to the Cursed Spirit covering the underside of its body. However, since Kiniro's technique had targeted his own sins when activated, he was the one to enter atonement, not the Curse.
"So many sins," Kiniro mused with a perverted grin as he licked the cursed blood from his fingers, "This is the end…your final absolution…will be breathtaking."