Chapter 107: Special Grade
"And so, when I perform Divine Dog: Totality's Domain Expansion—"
"Heavenly Erosion Field—"
"It becomes a complete domain."
"But…" Mei Mei stared at him in utter disbelief.
She had thought she'd already exhausted her capacity for surprise and confusion today.
Apparently, she had been very, very wrong.
"How is that even possible?"
"Why can you deploy your shikigami's domain?"
"Well..." Ren grinned slightly.
"That falls under the category of a shikigami user's expertise."
"Even if I explained it, Mei Mei, you probably wouldn't understand."
How would I not understand?
Mei Mei bit her lip in annoyance.
Her innate technique, Black Bird Manipulation, revolved around controlling crows.
Granted, they were living crows rather than shikigami, but she still qualified as a kind of "user" herself.
Seeing the resentment in her gaze, Ren sighed and elaborated.
"To put it simply, transferring a shikigami's abilities onto the summoner is an advanced but proven approach."
"I found references to the concept while researching in Tokyo Jujutsu High's library."
"The books didn't explain the actual method."
"So I figured it out myself."
He spoke as though he were discussing something completely ordinary.
"This was primarily to solve one of the biggest weaknesses shared by most shikigami."
"Their lack of growth potential."
"A powerful sorcerer using a shikigami's abilities personally can often wield those powers far more effectively than the shikigami itself."
"That allows you to break through the original upper limit of the shikigami's strength."
As he spoke, the crimson Michikaeshi no Tama and Tarutama markings on his forehead glowed brighter, flowing like fresh blood.
"That's how I transferred Divine Dog: Totality's Domain Expansion onto myself."
"Then, while activating the domain, I personally supplied the boundary."
"The barrier."
"And that's what completed the Domain Expansion."
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Actually, applying a shikigami's abilities to the user has a lot more applications than just this."
"But right now—"
He turned, frowning slightly as he scanned the surroundings.
"Since the domain is active and the spatial technique has been nullified, that thing should've revealed itself by now."
"So where is it?"
Before he could finish speaking—
A deafening roar erupted from beneath the floor.
The entire manor shook violently.
BOOM!
The floor exploded upward.
Walls collapsed.
Bricks and shattered timber flew in all directions.
A curse the size of a house burst forth from beneath the building.
Its grotesque body rose into the air as it tore through the structure like a rampaging beast.
It reared back.
Opened its cavernous maw.
And unleashed an earth-shaking roar.
Then it lunged directly at Ren.
Yet at almost the exact instant it appeared—
CRACK.
The world seemed to freeze.
Several enormous fissures suddenly split open across the floor before them.
No.
Those weren't cracks.
Mei Mei stared at the black gashes with widening eyes.
They looked less like fractures in the ground—
And more like the claw marks of some colossal, unknown creature.
Their edges were impossibly sharp.
As though something had slashed through reality itself.
A moment later—
The charging curse froze.
Its roar cut off abruptly.
Its massive body halted mid-motion.
Then, before Mei Mei's disbelieving eyes—
Thin crimson lines spread across the monster's body.
One.
Two.
Ten.
Hundreds.
The next instant—
SHHKK!
The gigantic curse was sliced apart.
Not merely wounded.
Not merely severed.
It was reduced to countless fragments, as though an invisible predator had torn it to pieces in a single strike.
Blood and cursed energy erupted into the air.
The enormous body collapsed into a rain of shredded flesh.
For a brief moment, silence reigned.
Mei Mei stood motionless, staring at the scene.
Then, slowly, she turned her gaze toward Ren.
Toward the young sorcerer standing calmly beneath the black sun of Heavenly Erosion Field.
A single thought surfaced in her mind.
A thought so outrageous that even she hesitated to believe it.
This boy...
No.
This monster...
He already possesses power worthy of being called Special Grade.
The next instant, the sound of cracking and tearing erupted from every direction.
The floor.
The walls.
The ceiling.
The flying bricks and shattered timber.
Countless fissures suddenly appeared throughout the entire space, as though innumerable invisible claws and monstrous jaws had descended upon the world, ripping apart everything they touched.
The curse's massive earth-brown body suffered the same fate.
Hundreds of wounds burst open across its flesh in an instant.
Blood sprayed.
Muscles tore.
Bones snapped.
BOOM! BOOM!
The entire building collapsed.
Yet before the falling debris could even hit the ground, it was shredded to powder by unseen claws and fangs.
The curse's scattered flesh met the same end.
Chunks of meat, blood, and bone were reduced to crimson dust, swirling through the air like a river of blood suspended in the sky.
All around them echoed the horrifying sounds of claws raking through flesh and rows of jagged teeth tearing prey apart.
Only then did Mei Mei realize she was floating.
With the manor completely annihilated, there was no ground beneath her feet.
A wave of weightlessness seized her.
Just as panic began to rise, a firm, powerful grip tightened around her hand, stopping her fall.
"Don't panic."
Ren's calm voice sounded beside her.
"As long as you're holding my hand, you'll be fine."
He guided her gently downward as they descended through the air.
"At the moment I attack within this domain, everything is targeted by countless invisible claws and jaws until it's completely shredded."
"Only the things I'm personally touching are exempt."
"So as long as you don't let go of my hand, nothing will happen to you."
Mei Mei instinctively tightened her grip around his.
After steadying herself, she looked around.
The manor was gone.
Completely gone.
Not a trace remained.
They were now standing in the open wilderness.
Yet even the wilderness no longer resembled what they had originally seen.
The dense forests surrounding the estate had vanished as well.
Every tree.
Every blade of grass.
Everything had been obliterated in the same instant the invisible claws and jaws had appeared.
What remained was a barren expanse of blackened earth.
A lifeless wasteland.
Within that crimson-black world, countless streams of black smoke spiraled upward, rising toward the dark sun overhead.
The smoke gathered around it, forming a massive black corona.
Like a vortex surrounding a celestial body.
High above, the black sun hung in the blood-red sky like an eternal mouth that could never be satisfied.
Watching it, Mei Mei once again felt that terrifying pull.
A force that seemed to originate from her very soul.
Her entire being felt as though it were being drawn toward the black sun.
Then—
"Damn it!"
Ren's startled cry shattered the oppressive atmosphere.
The hand seal dispersed.
The blood-red sky vanished.
The black sun disappeared.
The entire world instantly returned to normal.
Or rather—
As normal as it could be after being thoroughly devastated.
The manor was gone.
The earth had been overturned.
The surrounding woodland was reduced to a wasteland resembling a construction site plowed over dozens of times by giant excavators.
Ren stared at the destruction and slapped a hand against his forehead.
"I mistimed it."
His expression was full of regret.
"I only wanted to cripple that curse."
"I wasn't trying to kill it outright."
Looking skyward, he searched helplessly for any remaining traces of the curse.
Its fragments.
Its residual cursed energy.
Anything.
But the crimson heavens and black sun had already disappeared.
Needless to say, the curse's remains were gone as well.
"It had a spatial technique."
"A rare and incredibly valuable one."
"I wanted to study it properly."
He sighed deeply.
"Who would've thought I'd only be a little slow, and it'd die immediately..."
Mei Mei turned to look at the boy lamenting his loss.
The danger had passed.
The battle was over.
Yet the turmoil within her heart showed no signs of settling.
Unlike Ren, however, what filled her chest was not regret.
It was excitement.
A complete Domain Expansion.
Unlimited Black Flash.
Reverse Cursed Technique.
Monstrous physical abilities.
An absurd amount of cursed energy.
Before today, Mei Mei had believed Ren possessed the potential to become Special Grade.
Now she realized she had been completely mistaken.
This wasn't potential.
The boy already possessed power worthy of a Special Grade Sorcerer.
A genuine monster.
A once-in-a-generation talent.
And, more importantly—
A talent that Black Bird International Security absolutely could not afford to let slip away.
The greatest business opportunity she had ever encountered in her entire life.
As she stared at the young sorcerer, an unusually brilliant light suddenly ignited within her eyes.
Chapter 108: A New Contract
However, after spending a while staring at the boy with a racing heart—imagining the bright future and endless wealth he might bring her—Mei Mei suddenly realized something.
"Um…"