In fact, the moment Chihaya Anon disappeared, Asakura realized what had happened.
Although he didn't know why, in the entryway of the girl's house, there was a small, decorative Mirror with a frame style that looked quite like classical European Rococo art.
The moment Chihaya Anon entered the house, she was dragged into a Curse realm by some entity in the Mirror—which was similar to the kind of alternate dimension that Yuigahama Yui and the others had fallen into before.
Asakura had once fought with the strange entity in the Mirror. At that time, the entity's main body did not appear, and its harassment of the girl was only a tentative attempt, otherwise, it would not disappear every time Chihaya Anon composed herself. However, it was certain that the strange entity was not very powerful and was also very cautious.
Theoretically, such a weak strange entity cannot generate a Curse Mirror, but a Mirror itself inherently carries the meaning of 'space' and is often a cheap and useful tool for space-related rituals, so it is naturally easier for it to create a Curse realm than other strange entities.
This presented a very troublesome situation—a Curse realm mediated by a Mirror should have an exit that can connect to other mirrors besides the strange entity's main body.
In other words, unlike other strange entities that are more or less finished once their main body is destroyed, the strange entity in the Mirror, even if its main body's Mirror is destroyed, might still be able to hide in other mirrors and prolong its existence.
Moreover, judging from how incredibly fast the opponent fled when Asakura fought it, this thing was probably quite timid.
So, the moment Chihaya Anon was dragged into the Mirror Curse realm, although Asakura had already noticed and had a way to invade it, he did not act rashly.
Firstly, the girl had the Snake pendant he gave her, which simultaneously carried three Curse spells: Snake, Scale, and Candle. Apart from Snake being a purely functional Curse spell, Scale and Candle were both Curse spells with excellent defensive capabilities; ordinary strange entities simply couldn't break through these two Curse spells to harm the girl. Secondly, with Chihaya Anon's safety guaranteed, Asakura planned to use her to fish.
After all, judging by the strange entity's escape speed, if he had forcefully broken through space with his physical body and intruded into the Mirror Curse realm the moment the girl was abducted, the strange entity in the Mirror would likely be scared into fleeing and going into hiding.
In that case, even if he destroyed the Mirror in the girl's house after coming out, the opponent could still recuperate in other mirrors, and Asakura would have to expend a lot of effort to catch it again.
And the facts were as he had estimated.
At first, the strange entity only sent out its derived avatars to test, but after all of them were defeated by the Snake pendant, its main body finally couldn't resist showing itself.
At this point, if even its main body couldn't shake the Snake pendant, it would likely flee immediately.
So, after Asakura discovered the opponent's main body appearing through the Snake pendant, he immediately made the Snake pendant play dead, making it seem like it was 'trying its best but unable to win,' to give the strange entity some confidence.
When the strange entity felt victory was assured and lowered its guard, wanting to enjoy Chihaya Anon, Asakura finally seized the opportunity to break into the Mirror Curse realm in one fell swoop, incidentally smashing the opponent's intended escape route.
Back to the present.
The giant 'Chihaya Anon' let out a piercing roar.
The Mirror behind it shattered with a bang, but it ignored that, only clutching its face, or rather the Mirror on its face, its body struggling in pain.
Asakura lightly leaped up.
The flame-woven haori, Cursed Flame Scale Armor, on him burned fiercely, incinerating the space in front of him.
Thus, in the next instant, he appeared right before the giant Anon.
Doing this in reality would greatly reduce the stability of space, and might even cause spatial tremors or black holes, so Asakura had never done it before, but in a Curse realm, it didn't matter. Anyway, even if such an independent alternate dimension collapsed, it wouldn't affect the real world.
After creating a foothold with Scale beneath his feet, he looked down at the giant Anon struggling in pain.
Even now, he still couldn't figure out what the essence of this strange entity was, but that didn't prevent him from dealing with it: just like most people don't know the composition of a phone screen, but it doesn't stop them from accidentally dropping and breaking it.
Asakura reached out and cast the Curse spell Candle towards the opponent.
The next moment, raging flames engulfed the giant Anon, burning away the very essence of the strange entity.
The giant Anon suddenly exploded, turning into many fireballs that splattered in all directions.
Several of them rushed towards Chihaya Anon and Asagumo Chihaya.
Asakura glanced, and hooked his finger.
The Snake pendant, already broken into pieces on the ground, instantly regained its color, and the snakehead part even opened and closed its mouth, spitting out a transparent bubble that protected the two girls inside.
Those fireballs crashed like meteorites onto the seemingly fragile bubble, yet the bubble didn't even tremble. Instead, the fireballs shattered into tiny pieces, leaving only some residue falling to the ground, still blazing.
Asakura turned around, and Cursed Flame Scale Armor activated again.
In an instant, he arrived before the girls, glanced at Asagumo Chihaya, who was comforting the incessantly crying Chihaya Anon. The girl subtly winked at him, so Asakura didn't say anything more.
After nodding slightly to the girl, Asakura's gaze fell back onto the burning fragments on the ground, revealing a thoughtful expression.
At this moment, the ground began to tremble.
Asakura and Asagumo Chihaya both looked up at the sky. The dark, deep Mirror-like sky was covered in cracks and had begun to collapse.
Even Chihaya Anon stopped crying, sobbing as she looked at the sky, then became flustered.
Clearly, after losing the strange entity's presence, the Mirror Curse realm was also beginning to collapse.
"You two go first, I still have something to do."
Asakura said loudly.
"Takuma-kun…"
Asagumo Chihaya looked at him with some worry.
"Don't worry, even if this space really collapses, it won't affect me."
Asakura shook his head indifferently.
With the Curse spell Scale, he could theoretically survive in the void outside of reality.
Although still somewhat worried, Asagumo Chihaya still obligingly helped the still somewhat unsettled Chihaya Anon, leaving the Mirror Curse realm through the rupture behind them, which was still glowing with pale silver fire.
Asakura, meanwhile, carefully examined the fragments on the ground that had not been completely burned away.
"So that's it… I think I understand."
He murmured: "So this is your essence…"