The power of Creation was immense.
If using Fu Hua's character card before felt like overwhelming force crushing all techniques, then Amber now had become the ultimate mechanics anomaly.
Forget clinging to a last breath—even if someone had died, she could straight-up bring them back to life.
But without seeing the people lying on the ground regain their spirits with her own eyes, Amber still felt a knot of anxiety in her chest.
The corpses that had been lying there just moments ago had already returned to their original forms.
One was the illegitimate son of the Kamo family, who'd been granted heir status after awakening the family's strongest technique, Blood Manipulation.
The other was Inumaki Toge, who she'd been spending time with lately, the one who used the Cursed Speech technique.
Their clothes had been completely burned to charcoal by the flames, fused to their skin. While Creation could fully restore a person's body, it wasn't like Reverse Cursed Technique, which could even repair clothing. So right now, both of them were stark naked.
Fortunately, Yuji and Fushiguro immediately draped their school uniform jackets over the two.
"Heartbeats restored… breathing steady… They're really revived…?" Fushiguro carefully checked their vital signs, his face still etched with disbelief.
"Well, she is a Special Grade," Todo said, matter-of-factly. Though he was equally stunned, it didn't stop him from quickly accepting the shock that came with the Special Grade title.
"Seele-chan—! So Kugisaki and the others are okay now, right?" Tears were already welling up in Yuji's eyes.
Here was someone who could throw his life away without hesitation in a crisis, yet he was making such a vulnerable expression upon seeing his comrades return from death.
But that was only natural. Being able to accept one's own death didn't mean one could accept the death of friends and family. Besides, these tears were clearly from the excitement of his companions being revived.
His intense emotion and unease, his desperate need for reassurance, made Amber, who'd been so uneasy herself, force herself to rally.
"They're fine. We just need to wait for them to wake up slowly," Amber said.
Her mind was racing like never before, already planning what she would do if they didn't wake up.
During the Shinjuku Showdown, there was a curse user with a Mediumship technique. With that sorcery, plus the original bodies she'd restored for Kugisaki and the others… it should be possible to achieve resurrection…
Wait, no—that Mediumship technique required the caster's own cursed energy activity, didn't it? But there had to be a way around it, right? If she unlocked the system mall, would there be any useful items there?
This was the first time Amber had ever pondered so many things at once, but her thoughts were abruptly cut off by a surge of cursed energy rising from the ground.
Wooden spikes shot up from underfoot, aimed not only at Amber but also at the three she had just revived. The figure of Hanami closed in rapidly, completely disregarding anyone else as an obstacle or opponent.
He had to inherit Jogo's will—he had to ensure this girl, who could drastically alter the future landscape, was thoroughly eliminated here and now.
Yet Amber was faster than the wooden spikes. She dodged away in an instant, about to help move the three on the ground, when she heard a crisp clap.
In that moment, the three lying on the ground swapped places with Todo, Yuji, and Fushiguro. The trio who'd been moved were already prepared, easily evading the wooden spikes emerging from the earth.
'What an annoying technique!' Hanami was thoroughly disgusted.
Even if he couldn't kill the girl, he could've at least finished off the three who'd been revived. This time, he wouldn't even leave their bodies intact.
Before, when it hadn't happened right before her eyes, Amber had felt more grief and confusion than anger regarding her comrades' plight. But now, Hanami's actions completely ignited her fury.
She held back nothing, materializing before Hanami in a quantum state.
A scythe appeared in her hand out of nowhere, and she swung it horizontally without mercy. It sliced through his robust form as smoothly as through butter, cleaving his body in two.
Hanami was shocked by the power the girl displayed.
Geto Suguru had said she only reached Special Grade thanks to a curse inside her, that her own strength was only Grade 1. But these movements were nothing like what a Grade 1 sorcerer could pull off!
'I can't finish her quickly…! I need to retreat, observe from the shadows. If Jogo defeats that cursed spirit, he can come back to help. If not… then we'll just have to withdraw.'
Being bisected wasn't a fatal injury for a cursed spirit. With enough cursed energy, they could regenerate rapidly.
Hanami mobilized his cursed energy, planning to heal and flee immediately. But to his horror, he found his body showed no signs of healing. Not only that—it was being continuously eroded by some inexplicable force!?
Though he ran through various scenarios, these thoughts actually took less than a second in reality.
The three onlookers only saw Amber suddenly appear before the Special Grade curse, and with a single attack, exorcise it completely.
"To do it so easily…" Fushiguro's eyes widened.
Though he knew the gap between Special Grade and everyone else was like two different worlds, seeing the curse that had pushed them to the brink be eliminated so effortlessly still felt surreal to him.
"Special Grade curses have unimaginable recovery power. Ordinary ones are already like that, so a unique Special Grade like this one probably had even greater regenerative abilities," Todo mused, also impressed.
Among humans, he knew three Special Grade sorcerers.
He'd even exorcised a Special Grade curse during the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons a year ago, so he was the most knowledgeable about Special Grades among the three.
"It's not just about raw attack power. Being able to easily break through a Special Grade curse's cursed energy defense is impressive enough. But to kill it outright after breaking through—that takes more than just strong attacks."
Noticing Fushiguro and Yuji looking at him, and having a good impression of Yuji, Todo didn't mind broadening their horizons and understanding.
After all, things like perspective and knowledge could raise a person's ceiling.
"That must be the other application of her unprecedented technique, Creation and Withering. Instead of using negative energy to heal the body—defying common sense—it pushes the nature of negative energy to its extreme, wielding devastating destructive power to completely sever an enemy's vitality."
Todo grinned. "No matter how many times you see it, an all-in-one technique like this, capable of both defense and offense, makes you sigh. She's practically a monster."
If Gojo Satoru was T0, and Okkotsu Yuta was T0.5, with other Special Grades at T1, then in his view, this girl now occupied a new tier between Gojo and Okkotsu—stronger than Okkotsu, but probably not quite matching Gojo.
But that was just judging the technique itself and its combat power. If you factored in other functions, Creation and Withering was likely the most versatile technique of all.
Meanwhile, Amber, having just killed Hanami, let out a heavy sigh.
It didn't feel as satisfying as she'd imagined. A stifled feeling was stuck in her chest, leaving her with no sense of relief or comfort.
Just as she was thinking this, a sharp crack came from the domain not far away. As the cracks spread, the entire domain finally shattered completely.
Dark Amber tossed a head, its face still frozen in a dazed and pained expression, in front of Amber.
"Such a weak plaything isn't much fun. I'll leave it to you to decide what to do with him, Seele."
The girl in the black-and-red Lolita dress wore a disdainful expression, awaiting her host's decision.
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T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
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