Only after I saw the curse, its twisted, disfigured body frozen mid-motion once again, did I finally allow myself to relax, if only a little.
I had been careless.
I never expected it to be a Grade 1 curse, one powerful enough to partially resist my cursed technique.
Worse than that, I had made a critical mistake, one rooted in a fatal flaw of my current fighting style.
Order overlap.
That was the name I had given to it.
My first command, "Stop," had successfully immobilized the curse and sealed its technique.
But the second command, "Twist," overlapped with the first.
The newer order interfered with the previous one, weakening and ultimately canceling it.
The moment that restraint loosened, the curse seized the opening and counterattacked.
A single lapse yet it had cost me an arm.
"Kih… kih… kih…"
The curse's giggling echoed through the surroundings, warped and grating.
Even though it couldn't move now, it looked delighted, as if my loss amused it to no end.
Is losing my arm really that entertaining to you?
I scoffed inwardly.
Strangely enough, I felt no pain at all probably shock, maybe adrenaline.
My body hadn't caught up with reality yet.
Staring at the curse's grotesque, smug expression, irritation welled up inside me.
It truly believed I could only harm it with offensive words.
A small smile crept onto my lips.
Slowly, I raised my remaining arm.
"Heal."
The moment the word left my mouth, an overwhelming surge of cursed energy poured directly into the wound.
Layer upon layer of cursed energy overlapped, each one mine, yet separated by subtle differences in output and wavelength.
As they collided and interfered with one another, they multiplied, giving rise to something entirely different.
Positive energy.
At an astonishing speed, regeneration began.
Bone manifested first, white and solid, followed by muscle fibers knitting themselves together.
Flesh formed, nerves reconnected, blood vessels spread like roots through soil.
In mere moments, an entire arm was reborn perfectly identical to the one I had lost.
I clenched my fist.
The sensation was real.
…I actually did it!
I had successfully used the principles of Reverse Cursed Technique to regenerate an entire limb!
This was the first time I had ever attempted something on this scale and I had succeeded.
More than sixty percent of my total cursed energy reserves vanished in an instant, leaving behind the remaining forty percent in a chaotic, unstable state.
My breathing grew heavy as I steadied myself.
I had studied Reverse Cursed Technique from every source available to me, yet I had never truly succeeded before.
People often explained it simply a negative multiplied by another negative produces a positive.
That shallow explanation was exactly why so many underestimated its difficulty.
In reality, it was absurdly complex.
Every sorcerer is born with a fixed amount of cursed energy.
Whenever they use it, that energy manifests with a unique wavelength, output, speed, and property, each shaped subconsciously by the user.
To perform Reverse Cursed Technique, one must generate two cursed energies identical in every aspect and force them to interfere perfectly, producing positive energy equal to a portion of the negative energy consumed.
That alone was already impossible for most sorcerers.
And to heal severe injuries, the process of creation, interference, and multiplication must be repeated continuously, without deviation, until regeneration is complete.
Only two kinds of people could pull that off: Those with absurdly precise control over their cursed energy or those with an overwhelming amount of it.
The latter could brute-force the process, flooding the area with cursed energy and forcing collisions until enough positive energy was produced.
That method… had always been beyond me till now.
Even now, I couldn't truly use Reverse Cursed Technique at will.
What I had done instead was far more reckless.
I had forced the concept into reality using my cursed speech, paying the cost directly from my reserves an obscene amount of cursed energy, burned away in exchange for a single word.
It worked!
But I knew one thing for certain.
I couldn't afford to repeat it lightly.
Seeing my severed limb restored perfectly, the grotesque smile on the curse's face vanished instantly.
Panic flickered across its twisted features as it tried to force its body to move but no matter how violently it struggled, it remained completely immobilized.
From its current condition, I was confident the cursed word I had uttered would confine it for at least three more minutes.
I stood there calmly, my breathing steady, considering my next move.
Should I simply use my instant death ability and end this?
If killing it were my only goal, I would have done so already.
But right now, what I wanted was different.
I needed to improve my control over this newly acquired cursed energy to suppress it, refine it, make it truly mine.
I couldn't repeat the same mistake again.
Speaking another command to kill might cause another overlap and give the curse a chance to counterattack.
That left only one option.
Direct combat.
I could pour cursed energy into my fists and strike it repeatedly until it died.
But the moment that thought crossed my mind, doubt followed.
Even if I attacked nonstop, the curse might survive long enough for my technique to release it from restraint.
I lowered my gaze to my small hands, frustration creeping in.
No matter how much cursed energy I poured into them, there was no way these fists could deal meaningful damage.
I wasn't Yuji born with monstrous physical strength.
…Wait.
Yuji.
The realization struck me like lightning.
I had already used Cursed Speech to forcibly trigger Reverse Cursed Technique.
If that was possible, then wasn't the reverse also true?
Could I forcibly trigger that as well?
A new idea bloomed in my mind.
A slow, dangerous smile spread across my face as I stepped toward the struggling curse.
It thrashed violently, trying to move, trying to activate its technique but its body refused to obey.
The curse stood over two meters tall, while I was only 137 centimeters.
But right now, it was kneeling, its limbs twisted and broken, its posture collapsed by my earlier attack.
Its massive face loomed beside me, nearly my height.
Perfect.
I stopped right next to it.
I began channeling every last fragment of cursed energy I could muster into my fist.
The energy surged from deep within my core, racing upward through my body through my spine, my shoulders, my arm before converging violently in my clenched hand.
The concentration was terrifying.
Within moments, cursed energy three times the size of my entire body compressed into my fist alone.
The surrounding air warped.
The curse began choking uncontrollably, its body trembling as fear finally overtook it.
"KRR—KRR—HIIK—HIIIEEE—GSHHH—!!"
I planted my feet firmly into the ground, drawing power upward through my legs.
The force traveled cleanly through my hips, my torso, my shoulder every movement precise, every motion aligned.
Perfect posture.
Perfect timing.
All of it converged into a single point.
My fist.
I said the word, "BLACK FLASH!"