Faced with the heart-wrenching cries and pleas for mercy, not a single trace of emotion could be found on Ian's face.
The black blade in his hand let out a soft hum.
The sound was clear, yet it carried an extreme thirst for blood.
"No..."
The plea for mercy caught in his throat.
A pitch-black flash of the blade, too fast for the naked eye to catch, suddenly slashed down with a piercing shriek that tore through the air.
*Slash!*
The first lackey's arms, raised high in a defensive posture, were cleanly severed right at the shoulders.
The stumps were as smooth as a mirror.
Half a second later, blood erupted frantically like a burst geyser.
"Aaaahhhhh!!!"
The agonizing scream instantly pierced everyone's eardrums.
Witnessing this bloody scene firsthand, the other two lackeys slumped on the floor instantly soaked a large patch of the tiles with foul-smelling urine. It was as if their bones had been extracted, leaving them as nothing more than puddles of mindless screaming and wailing.
Their screams abruptly ceased.
An invisible, freezing resentment, like materialized silk ribbons, tightly sealed their mouths and throats.
They could only let out desperate, muffled whimpers, trembling violently in silent terror as they watched their companion's life rapidly drain away in a pool of warm blood.
Ian ignored the first lackey, who was slipping into hemorrhagic shock.
Carrying the dripping black blade, he strolled toward the second person.
Driven by extreme terror, the lackey had completely lost control of his bodily functions. Tears and snot mixed with drool, smearing all over his contorted face.
The black tip of the blade slowly rose.
The icy edge aimed directly at his pupils, which had shrunk to pinpricks from fear.
In that pitch-black reflection, he saw his ultimate, inescapable despair.
While this one-sided punishment and slaughter unfolded inside the classroom, cursed spirits outside began to stir. Then, without warning, the entire academic building shook violently.
Dust cascaded from the ceiling.
The window panes groaned under the immense pressure.
An indescribable, bone-chillingly ominous aura rose, rapidly enveloping every corner of the campus.
Everyone inside—whether students laughing and playing, or teachers preparing lessons in their offices—felt a profound coldness and oppression radiating from the depths of their souls.
"Is it an earthquake?"
"No... this feeling, it's so gross."
Panic began to spread through the crowd.
Meanwhile, in a room located in another academic building of the school.
This was the clubroom of the Occult Research Club.
The club's only two members, Sasaki and Iguchi, were gathered excitedly around an ancient wooden box resting on a desk.
The box was dark red all over, covered in yellowed paper talismans, exuding an ancient and eerie aura.
"Iguchi, look! The seal on this seems to be coming undone on its own!"
Sasaki pointed at the box, her voice trembling with excitement.
Just then, the intense resentment erupting from Ian's classroom acted like a massive boulder thrown into a calm lake, stirring up violent ripples.
The shockwave of this resentment swept through the room.
*Snap!*
A soft sound echoed.
The already precarious talisman seal on the wooden box instantly shattered under the impact of the resentment, turning into dust!
An aura of cursed energy—thousands of times more evil and infinitely more violent than the previous resentment—shot into the sky like an awakening ancient demon god!
This cursed energy was so massive and defiled that it instantly shrouded the entirety of Sugisawa Third High School like a black sun.
"Look! The seal opened by itself!"
Iguchi let out an excited shout. His round, chubby face was filled with curiosity for the unknown, completely unaware of the terrifying and taboo existence he had just unleashed.
The Special Grade Cursed Object, [Ryomen Sukuna's Finger].
The moment its seal was completely undone.
Around the academic building, the low-level cursed spirits that had originally been drawn by the resentment felt an overwhelmingly intense attraction.
Their twisted bodies instantly swelled as they let out silent roars.
Abandoning their previous mindless wandering, their crimson single eyes turned in unison toward the epicenter of the cursed energy eruption—the Occult Research Club!
"Wh-what is that monster?!"
In the hallway, a student who happened to look out the window saw a twisted cursed spirit made of countless eyeballs and arms scurrying rapidly across the glass.
He let out a scream so terrified it cracked his voice.
On the other side, Yuji Itadori, who was rushing to the school alongside Megumi Fushiguro, suddenly heard an incredibly shrill scream coming from the academic building, thanks to his superhuman hearing.
It was a voice he was extremely familiar with.
"Sasaki!"
Yuji Itadori's face instantly turned pale.
No longer caring about Megumi Fushiguro's instructions, he sprinted toward the academic building at an unimaginable speed, like a cannonball fired from its barrel.
At almost the exact same moment.
Outside the classroom where Ian was—which had long been completely sealed off by resentment—several twisted cursed spirits had also gathered, drawn by the commotion.
They were grotesque in shape, exuding the stench of rot.
Using their bizarre bodies, they frantically slammed against the tightly shut door.
*Bang!*
*Bang!*
*Bang!*
The dull thuds echoed through the dead-silent classroom.
Hearing this sound, the surviving students in the classroom, who were already frightened into a daze, actually revealed a trace of morbid hope on their faces.
'Are we saved?'
'Did someone from the outside come to save us?'
Just as this faint glimmer of hope ignited within them.
*Crash!!!*
The classroom door collapsed with a loud bang under the tireless battering of the cursed spirits!
Several grotesque, nauseating cursed spirits swarmed in, scrambling over one another.
Their bloodshot eyes met the surviving students in the classroom, face to face, eye to eye.
The hope that had just risen instantly turned into a despair far more absolute than before.
The newly invading cursed spirits instantly transformed what was merely a one-sided slaughterhouse into a chaotic hunting ground of dancing demons.
"Monsters!"
The surviving students erupted into heart-wrenching screams.
They scattered and fled, only to be caught in the very next second by the cursed spirits surging from the ceiling, walls, and floor.
A cursed spirit with spider legs easily pierced a student's chest with its sharp appendages, then lifted her high into the air and stuffed her into its constantly opening and closing maw.
The sounds of chewing and bones cracking mixed with muffled cries of agony.