The Lurking threat

Time has always flowed slower for Yoriichi than for the others, in the new life it hasn't changed at all. Ordinary people were still slow, and even those who were significantly faster than others were still practically snails to him. So the favorite of the gods surpassed all other people. That is why he had a lot of subjective time for reaction and action.

What did he see? A rat, an almost completely rotted large rat, obviously unable to be a living being in the usual sense of the word. The problem wasn't that in the corpse, but that it was filled with cursed energy. Whose? It clearly didn't belong to the animal itself, which was probably just a tool for someone else's cursed technique, or even its very part. In the latter case, this creature can already be considered a shikigami.

Was it worth attacking right away? Yoriichi had no doubt that he could easily destroy the creature as soon as he tried, but this could have certain unpleasant consequences. After all, this house cost his mother a tidy sum, I wouldn't want to accidentally damage it or even destroy it because of some rat. This abomination could turn out to be quite fast and nimble, yet there wasn't a little cursed power in it, but about as much as his mother had, it may well be even more!

The boy decided to continue observing before proceeding to direct action. Excessive haste always leads to the most terrible mistakes. Sometimes it is necessary to show due patience, and then you will not need to beg at least someone for help. The rat continued to rub its whiskers for a few more seconds before it froze in place without a single movement. The creature seemed to have received some kind of epiphany or encountered something amazing - this stop looked so unnatural. Corpses, in principle, shouldn't move.

Yoriichi frowned when the dead animal finally started moving. Thoughtlessly opening its mouth in a width too large for its own structure, the abomination bit one of the legs of the sofa on which it was standing with its pointed teeth. At the same moment, the cursed energy began to flow through it, and in the familiar appearance of this world to ordinary people, threads or rather veins appeared. Putrid yellow-green color, they caused disgust on a reflex level. And now they were spreading inside the furniture like parasitic worms. It took only a second before this something disappeared from the usual spectrum, and Yoriichi was no longer able to sense someone else's energy. A disguise, obviously intended for sorcerers who are able to sense the cursed power. It all looked like a sophisticated form of trap.

No longer waiting for the disgusting rat's further actions, Yoriichi rushed straight towards it, already collecting a small clot of cursed energy in his palm. Everything has to happen quickly, so quickly that the monster doesn't have time to accept new information and pass it on to the person or non-human who made the decisions. The former demon slayer no longer doubted that the corpse itself didn't direct its own actions, it acted too suspiciously.

In the next moment, a flame of gigantic temperature burst out of the child's palm. There was so much heat from it that the surrounding air almost instantly changed its own aggregate state, becoming plasma! Only a moment, during which the desired target was incinerated, separated the house from the fire. The cursed energy with unique and fantastic properties even for such a substance belonged to Yoriichi. It imitated ionized plasma in its normal state, but by manipulating this energy, its very properties, the boy could lower its temperature, which is why it was no longer plasma, but seemed to ignite. Plasma, fire, light… This is the power of the stars themselves!

This is the essence of the power that the goddess bestowed on Yoriichi.

The entire sofa burned down in the same second in which he faced the incredible heat of the stars. And along with him, the rat was destroyed, from which not even a skeleton remained. The energy invested in this attack was more than enough to turn everything into dark gray ashes. The enemy's cursed energy was also burned out. Despite his own success, Yoriichi became sad, feeling guilty.

Silently pursing his lips, he now looked at the thick black mark that remained an ugly scar on the floor. The room smelled of burnt and ozone, and all the previous appetite of the child was gone. It was hard to understand what he should have done now… Yoriichi could have called his mother and told her everything, but he was ashamed to distract her from important work. He would be no less ashamed to see her face after a hard day's work, when she returns home and sees such an unpleasant surprise.

But still, it was a question not only of emotions and experiences, but also of security. It is far from a fact that the unknown enemy will stop there and there will be no attempts of new attacks in the future. Therefore, it was worth making the right choice of all possible. Shoko Ieyri urgently needs to find out about what happened less than a minute ago. And Gojo Satoru should know about it too. Let him sometimes seem strange and irresponsible, but still he will not refuse to help with this problem.

If the strongest sorcerer of this time is engaged in this matter, then the safety of Yoriichi's mother can be considered fully secured. And this child will be able to take care of himself, with his capabilities, self-defense will not be a big problem.

***

A creature of grandiose proportions lay among a mountain of corpses. Corpses, on whose bodies scarlet bubons were sown. Emaciated, rotting people who seemed to have been alive quite recently. It stank of death, pus, and a disgusting disease. The cursed spirit stirred among the dead bodies, became restless and all pricked up. On its elongated flat gray muzzle, chaotically scattered dozens of small eyes nervously ran around.

The surrounding houses with their Asian style evoked an instant association with China. They went cracks. The whole world began to tremble, including the corpses of "humans". Only the creature itself didn't tremble. Another second passed before this unknown space burst like a glass ball, only to dissolve into myriad fragments among the daytime forest.

The special grade cursed spirit looked extremely confused when it looked at the ground and grass with its decades of eyes. But it was possible to say for sure that it didn't like the experience it had just experienced. The boy with the strange mark on his forehead caused this creature a burning surge of hatred. At first, it was so stunned that it even accidentally scattered the barrier of its own domain expansion.