Amid the howling gale, a fox-shaped cursed spirit appeared in the center of the shrine. It stood nearly three meters tall and stretched at least seven or eight meters long.
Its entire body was covered in a white, bony shell, while its phantom-like form glowed with golden light.
If Takumi hadn't already seen through its true nature, its appearance alone might actually have bluffed him for half a second.
But the fox god cursed spirit that appeared before them did not act like an ordinary cursed spirit and immediately hunt by instinct.
Instead, it slowly raised three fingers and let out a string of muttering from within its bone-covered body, words no normal person could understand.
[Three wishes in exchange for her!!]
The fox god cursed spirit pointed at Hana. Even without seeing its expression, Takumi could hear the greed in its tone.
"Wishes? What gives you the right to grant me wishes?"
"A lowly thing that gained intelligence through sacrificing girls, then occupied a shrine and passed itself off as a 'pseudo-god' and a 'wild god.'"
"You're of no use to me at all. Death is the only destination you deserve."
As Takumi spoke, an invisible pressure swept across the shrine.
He knew exactly what the fox god cursed spirit was.
In a certain sense, it was lawful evil, and technically on humanity's side.
It existed to keep the far more vicious fiend sealed beneath the mountain.
The price for that, back in the old days, was that people offered up girls as living sacrifices.
But times had changed, humanity had forgotten it, and now the fox god cursed spirit had begun hunting down the sacrifices it needed on its own.
From the perspective of the greater good, feeding it sacrifices was arguably a beneficial thing.
But to Takumi, this kind of trash had no reason to continue existing.
The moment it felt the pressure coming off him, the fox god cursed spirit reacted violently.
The bone plating covering its body split apart like torn skin, revealing the ugly, savage form beneath.
Its face looked disturbingly like a woman's, with tangled black hair hanging down and a pair of bells embedded in its eye sockets, making it look grotesque beyond words.
Its maw split wide, revealing rows upon rows of blood-streaked teeth.
Along its long, narrow abdomen were pairs of human hands, cradling the cavity packed full of bells, like ribs supporting a body's internal organs.
"Urgh!!"
The instant Yuria saw the fox god cursed spirit's true form, she threw up on the spot.
Up until now, aside from that Grade 1 cursed spirit she'd seen earlier, none of the weak cursed spirits she'd encountered had ever looked this sinister and horrifying.
That twisted, hideous form looked like the very embodiment of all the filth in the world.
Miko and Hana instantly lost every trace of curiosity they'd had about this "fox god."
This was a monster through and through, just draped in the outer skin of a "god."
"Hahahaha!!!"
With the corners of its mouth stretched all the way up toward its eyes, the fox god cursed spirit let out a shrill laugh and lunged straight at them.
Its long, human-like hands shot out, clawing toward Takumi's torso.
Takumi had originally intended to crush it outright, but then a good idea occurred to him.
This thing would make a perfect test subject for his evolved Boosted Gear.
"First, the Mirror Alice."
Murmuring under his breath, Takumi summoned a smooth mirror surface in front of himself.
Boom!!!
The fox god cursed spirit slammed a fist into the mirror with a heavy crash.
A crack immediately spread across the polished surface.
When that first strike failed, the fox god cursed spirit instantly intensified its assault, twisting its limbs and flailing wildly as it pressed the attack.
But at the exact moment the Mirror Alice was about to shatter, Takumi pointed a finger at it from afar.
"Trick Vanish!"
In the next instant, an invisible coffin descended and enclosed the fox god cursed spirit inside it.
At once, the spirit felt the cursed energy throughout its body dissipate, and even the faith power it had gathered was cut off.
Having developed considerable intelligence, the fox god cursed spirit instantly sensed danger.
It writhed frantically, trying to escape, but the Mirror Alice in front of it had already broken.
Crack... boom!!!
The moment the mirror shattered, all the fox god cursed spirit's repeated attacks against it were reflected back with multiplied force.
Boom!!!
A violent blast instantly pulverized the ground.
The fierce shockwave blew the shrine to the verge of collapse, while tree after tree was ripped from the earth and hurled hundreds of meters into the forest.
The enormous fox god cursed spirit that had stood proudly in the middle of Sankogudani Shrine moments ago was now blasted into total dust.
"The monster's been destroyed! As expected of senpai!!!"
Yuria looked at Takumi with pure adoration, like the words fangirl had practically been written across her face.
But Takumi answered calmly, "No. It hasn't truly died yet."
With that, he walked forward into the collapsed shrine.
Inside the ruined structure sat something wrapped in cursed cloth.
Miko and the others, who had followed behind him, all stared at it with curiosity.
With a casual application of telekinesis, Takumi lifted the cursed cloth away.
A woman's skull was revealed before the girls' eyes.
"Th-that's a skull!?"
Miko and the others immediately recoiled half a step, too frightened to come any closer.
Takumi, meanwhile, looked at the skull and let out a light sigh.
"The first girl who was offered as a living sacrifice. Her skull was made into a vessel for the wild god, condemning her to never be reborn. What a cruel method. Don't you agree?"
Takumi turned his gaze to his side.
At some point, the spirit of an elderly woman with black hair had appeared there.
She was Towako Oka, the spirit medium who had been devoured by the fox god cursed spirit over a decade ago while trying to protect one of her disciples.
She had also been Granny Takeda 's master.
"Young people really are something... Because of the special nature of Sankogudani Shrine, the sorcerers in the jujutsu world were unwilling to touch it."
"They allowed the fox god to kill people in order to keep the far more vicious evil beneath the mountain sealed."
"Whether what you're doing is right or wrong... even I can't say."
Towako Oka let out a quiet murmur.
As someone already dead, all she could do now was offer that one warning.
Takumi did not answer.
He simply crushed the skull in his hand.
"Aaaah!!!"
A shrill scream burst out from the skull.
Then black cursed energy began spilling out of the shattered remains.
[Ding! Randomly plundered trait: Cursed Spirit Anchor (Blue)]
[Cursed Spirit Anchor (Blue): You can bind a cursed spirit to an object and make that object its core.]
"What a garbage trait."
This was the first time Takumi had felt that a blue trait was this worthless.
If he actually used it, all it would do was give him an extra weakness out of nowhere. It was useless to an absurd degree.
Its only possible value was that, after fusing it, he now understood how to turn other beings with cursed power into cursed objects.
At the same moment the skull was destroyed and the fox god was completely obliterated, a shrine maiden appeared where it had stood.
She was the very first girl who had been offered as a living sacrifice, the pitiful soul used as the vessel for the fox god and denied rebirth forever.
The instant she appeared, the girl dropped to her knees and bowed deeply to Takumi.
It was his actions that had finally released her from endless torment.
Takumi merely gave a slight nod and watched as the girl came to stand beside Towako Oka.
Their spirits gradually began to fade away, both wearing expressions of relief.
...
For every 50 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.