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It was as if the sky had been scarred.
A scorching red arrow pierced the night, and Asakura, enveloped in blazing flames, slammed violently into the observation deck of the Chiba Port Tower.
The glass curtain wall outside the port tower first reflected the expanding fireball; the spiral steel frame instantly materialized into a stark white skeleton in the strong light, followed by the shockwave crushing all reflections.
The sound of breaking steel was as piercing as snapped violin strings.
The spherical structure of the tower's observation deck was squeezed into a distorted metal flower bud, and the neon light tubes burst into fireworks like sparklers, vaporizing into phosphorescent lights in mid-air before falling to the ground.
As the originally sturdy concrete cracked into a spiderweb pattern, the mirrored sea surface also swelled into an eerie arc.
Immediately after, the shattered tidal wave solidified for half a second, then swept the remains of containers towards the surroundings, with melting signal lights floating on the crest of the waves, red and green halos convulsing in the foam.
The tower body, already unstable due to being only half-intact, slowly tilted.
The over one-ton lightning rod at the top of the tower, instantly scorched to a dazzling golden-red by the high temperature, was the first to pierce into the bay, causing the seawater to immediately hiss and boil, and a plume of salty steam rose into the sky, looking from afar like a giant whale spouting a tall column of water from beneath the surface.
Burning cables hung down to the high tide line, like dying electric eels, crackling and occasionally emitting bursts of electric sparks with the smell of ozone.
What followed was a sonic boom—already in mid-air, the Cursed Flame Scale Armor on Asakura's body had exploded twice more, causing his speed to exceed the speed of sound.
The glass curtain walls of the texture-mapped city were all resonating.
The overloaded tower seemed ready to snap in half again at any moment, exposing its dilapidated cross-section to the night.
Inside the central main support column, the copper support structures embedded in the last century were melting into scorching tears.
The false sea breeze suddenly shifted direction.
Tens of thousands of office documents gushed from the collapsing floors, sweeping like snowflakes across the vaporizing seawater.
A surveillance camera that hadn't yet gone dark recorded the final image: a barrier sign, emblazoned with "Chiba Port Tower temporarily closed for equipment maintenance, reopening time to be announced—" reflected the light and shadow of a fireball on its surface before plunging into the abyss of the sea.
Asakura's silhouette distorted in the fire, yet it was chillingly clear—with every step he took, the scorched ground cracked into a spiderweb pattern, and sparks flew.
Flames licked at his hair, yet left no trace of burning on him.
Heat waves distorted the air, his figure flickering in and out of view within the rising currents; the surrounding temperature rapidly climbed, even breathing became scorching, yet he merely walked forward in silence, flames trailing behind him like a burning cloak.
In certain tokusatsu works, such a cloak would probably be considered the 'proof of a strong individual.'
The ceiling of the room at the top of the tower was blown off as if a deer had been hit by a slug, and the black-haired girl standing amidst the flesh and human faces looked at Asakura, who was looking down at her, with a pale, bloodless face.
The moment the Divine Embryo, which she had gone to great lengths to protect, was discovered by the opponent, it was almost game over.
Most of the ghosts that had pursued the two pink-haired individuals had already returned to protect the Divine Embryo.
However, while they could pose a fatal threat to ordinary people, they were as harmless as shadows illuminated by light when facing Asakura—they couldn't even approach Asakura; as soon as they got within a certain distance, they would spontaneously combust without warning, turning to ashes in the blink of an eye from the pale flames.
'This invisible flame attack, capable of incinerating everything, has a range of over thirty meters…' the consciousness occupying the girl's body thought as she watched the ghosts turn into dirty fireworks.
'There's no way to create a safe distance now, it's truly over, but even so, at least…'
"Kuri Tia, Kuri Tia, Great Light—"
[Candle]!" Asakura suddenly exclaimed.
He didn't have the underlying code of an anime protagonist who had to stand still and wait for the enemy's second transformation to finish before acting. Regardless of the opponent's plan, he would just burn them directly.
In an instant, the girl was enveloped in pale silver flames, screaming and rolling on the ground.
"Foolish mage… you, you have been marked by the Great Light…" In the end, the girl's face distorted into a malevolent, sinister grin, and she stared at Asakura as she finished her sentence before closing her eyes.
The pale silver flames around the girl gradually extinguished, and from her appearance, it was impossible to tell that she had just been on fire.
Asakura ignored the girl, who had returned to normal, and turned his gaze towards the floating orb in the center of the room.
Asakura naturally couldn't let such a suspicious item go.
In fact, the first target he chose for the Curse, [Candle], after landing, was this orb. However, the orb showed no change at all.
Of course, this didn't mean that [Candle] was ineffective against that orb.
It's important to know that the essence of [Candle] is not fire; it's about turning a selected existence into fuel, and fire is merely a byproduct of the Curse.
Upon seeing the orb, Asakura immediately activated [Candle] on it, but there was no change. This meant that the orb only appeared to be an orb, but its essence was not. Therefore, simply using 'orb' as the target for the spell resulted in this phenomenon where the target could not be selected.
Within a few short seconds, Asakura tried defining the target as 'matter' and 'energy,' but neither attempt managed to trigger the effect of [Candle].
It seemed this orb was neither 'matter' nor 'energy,' and its form of existence was completely unrelated to both—if it contained even a tiny bit of matter or energy, [Candle] would have had an effect, just as it burned away the other will attached to the girl without harming the girl herself.
So, was it an anomaly?
Asakura tried defining it as a 'supernatural existence,' but [Candle] still didn't work, which made him frown.
Such a large orb, and you're telling me it's not a supernatural existence? Then what is it? A light bulb? A mirage? A fully superconducting tokamak nuclear fusion experimental device?
Suddenly, Asakura had a flash of inspiration, as if he'd been electrocuted.
Neither matter nor energy, then it's highly likely to be the materialization of some 'concept' or 'information.'
And speaking of 'information' related to the surrounding Slender Man and the Human-Faced Sore on the flesh, Asakura actually knew one.
"It's life, the lives of patients stolen by Human-Faced Sore…" Thinking of this, he once again activated the Curse, [Candle], towards the orb.
This time, the orb was not spared; it truly began to burn, transforming from an orb into a fireball.
However, Asakura's brows furrowed deeply a moment later—
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