Mythical Slayer: Mythical Girls Contract

Facing the three giant ghosts, Kai prepared himself as pale blue Spirit Power covered the tip of his fingers. He still remembered the technique he used to exorcize the ghost, but he wasn't confident dealing with the three at once.

So he turned to the Oni girl beside him and asked, "Ibaraki. Can you defeat them?"

"I am sorry, Master. But as I said the first time we met, I am not skilled in a technique that utilizes Spirit Power. And hitting a ghost with my fist is… useless."

"Figures. But at least let's use fusion."

"Yes, Master!"

Kai leaned closer to Ibaraki's face and kissed her. As soon as their lips touched, the Oni melted into a black cloud of smoke and seeped into Kai's body.

Soon, strength filled his body as he fused with Ibaraki Douji. His physical abilities multiplied, and his senses were sharper. It was then he realized something inside the barrier and the fact that he still couldn't sense the ghosts' presence even in this state.

He focused on that something for a second. It was like a condensed Spirit Power that fueled the barrier. Someone had put this barrier.

And maybe… Just maybe. That someone might specifically target them as he didn't feel any other presence besides him inside this barrier. Not even a Slayer who walked around Time Square to get into the office.

[Watch out, Master!]

Ibaraki's voice rang in his head, and he was pulled out of his concentration.

He looked up and noticed one of the ghosts' tentacles was approaching him at a fast speed. It was faster than a bullet, but it moved a bit slower in his eyes. The tentacle moved at the rate of a crawling baby's speed. Faster than a snail but slower than an adult.

Kai stepped to the right, dodging the tentacle with a precise and swift movement. Just like before, the tentacle seemed to have a mass. It slammed against the ground, destroying it as the tip pierced the hard concrete.

Then, as he relaxed a little bit, he noticed many more tentacles were slithering toward him, not only from the first giant ghost but also from the second and third.

"Hey hey! Come one by one!"

Without much choice, he jumped back to avoid them. However, the tentacles unexpectedly changed their course mid-air, turning toward him.

"They can do that?!" He exclaimed with widened eyes. "That's not fair! What else can they do?!" He complained as he used the Phoenix fire to propel himself away.

[They can inflict a certain curse if one of those half-transparent things directly touches your body, Master.] Ibaraki answered Kai's question calmly.

Rather, she was too calm in this kind of situation. She mentioned being cursed like it was nothing big.

"Thanks for the answer! I now know I shouldn't let those things touch me!"

Kai landed on the ground, rolling a few times, before running at a controlled speed. Even so, he was still faster than these tentacles.

When he was already away from the ghosts, at a corner in front of a tall building, he stopped and turned around. Black Spirit Power replaced the pale blue that gathered around the tip of his fingers.

"I am counting on you to watch my surroundings, Ibaraki!" He grinned and instructed the Oni that fused with him.

Now that they shared a body and senses, it was like they had two brains to work at the same time. So he could concentrate on the spell he wasn't used to yet while Ibaraki could sense the attack around him.

[Certainly, Master!]

Hearing her confirmation, he began to chant the spell to exorcize the last ghost.

"Ash to ash. Dust to dust."

"Dirt to dirt. Death to death."

The black Spirit Power around his fingers got bigger and stronger as he spread his arms to the side. The three giant ghosts noticed the danger of his technique and screamed loudly.

"WGarasASWaaaa!!"

"nnUummmmbBeeERrrRrr ooNnnnNEeeEee!!!"

"MMMuUUuuuUdDDDaaAAAAA!!!"

Their cry was deafening, shattering all glass windows on the buildings around the Time Squares.

Crack! Shatter!

The shards rained down, and Kai's eyes widened as he quickly commanded the Phoenix fire to protect him, burning the shards so they wouldn't touch him.

Orange fire danced from his body. It engulfed them, devouring the glass shards that rained on him from above. The glass melted, leaving nothing but molten red that dripped down around him.

"Flesh to flesh. Spirit to spirit."

In the instruction manual, there were also written a few types of ghosts. The spell used to exorcize them differs in length depending on the type.

The first one was a low-grade ghost, a creature that looked like a blob of slime with six to eight half-transparent tentacles.

The second one was a humanoid ghost. It was classified as a low-grade one but harmless. Their appearance resembled a normal human with no legs, and their bodies were usually half-transparent.

This type of ghost was usually exorcized by ordinary priests or monks and could be found at someone's funeral.

Then the third type. This one was what Kai currently faced. A big humanoid black goo. This was the second dangerous one before the last type, a mid-grade ghost. They could curse their opponent using the half-transparent tentacle.

The curse varied. From simple diarrhea to death, depending on a person's resistance to curse. To exorcise them, Kai needed to add 3 verses to the chant.

"God of the underworld. Hear my pleading."

[Jump, Master!]

Kai jumped without even wasting a second. Five half-transparent tentacles pierced the place he stood before the next second. If he was late in his decision, then he would be skewered.

"Life to life. Bring back the dead to hell."

Ibaraki's black Spirit Power went crazy. They now resembled a black flame, wriggling around, excited. He raised his hands, making a clawing motion. He dragged his hands midair, creating five lines that crossed each other.

Inside the grid were twelve squares. Each square had a similar black Spirit Power moving around, resembling a rune. All of them were a rune to exorcize a ghost. They resembled number 5, but with some edges around them.

This type of technique usually needed two people to complete. However, Ibaraki's Spirit Power reserve was massive. She wasn't a Mythical creature for nothing. So this cost her almost nothing.

Once again, the ghosts cried. They rushed toward him at the same time, noticing that they were in grave danger.

However, Kai didn't let them get close. He finished the spell as he chanted.

"Begone, Evil spirit! Twelve Prisons!"

Kai didn't know what to effect from the spell as he softly landed on the ground. But what he saw next surprised him.

A dozen spikes appeared from the grid in front of him. Dark, ominous spikes, chained to the grid with the Spirit Power. All of them shot toward the ghosts at once, four spikes for each ghost.

They pierced the ghost's limbs, arms, and legs. Slowly, the spikes burned them as they burst into a dark purification flame.

"Holy!" He was about to curse as he saw what had happened in front of him. "And this is just a simple spell?"

[Master… Remember that the spell is activated by you, and you used my Spirit Power as fuel. My Spirit Power is based on destruction, so…]

"I get it, Ibaraki. The effect is amplified, no?"

[Yes, Master.] The Oni confirmed.

Kai kept watching the ghosts burn to nothingness slowly. Unlike the net that exorcized the low-grade ghost, this technique was more ruthless. His gaze turned solemn, and Ibaraki noticed it.

[Don't think about it too much, Master. The higher the grade of the ghost is, the bigger the sins they committed when they were alive. So the exorcist created a more ruthless technique to judge them the higher their grade is.]

"I appreciated you for trying to console me, but I am okay. I understand that. I just thought the technique didn't resemble an exorcism technique. It looked like a torture technique instead." He let out a low chuckle.

The ghosts soon could only be barely seen. Finally, the spikes retreated to the grid that floated in the air, slowly corroded, and disappeared to nothingness when the ghost fully disappeared, drowning with a deafening cry.

Kai heaved a sigh when everything was peaceful again.

However, it wasn't over yet.

[Are you going to find the person that created this barrier, Master?]

"Yeah." Kai nodded firmly.

Right. The one behind the barrier hadn't revealed themselves yet. Whoever it was surely was watching him, as he could feel a stare on his back all this time.

Turning around toward the highest building in the middle of Time Square, Kai narrowed his eyes. A shadow stood over the billboard, seemingly smirking.

"Whoever that is, I want to ask why they did this. Also…"

[Also?]

"Let's see what he wants. If I feel like he's hostile toward us, we will then beat him."