“Not today!” I stacked Walls all the way above me. But I didn’t have the defense to stop curse skills at the moment, and my walls of life force shattered one after the other. As each one broke apart . . . time seemed to slow down. Dammit, I raged to myself. There was no way Itsuki’s justice-spouting ex-lackey was going to kill me with a curse skill like this!

S’yne’s familiar was still running to save us.

“Hold it, little guy! You’re not getting through here!” Miyaji’s women grabbed the familiar and stopped her in her tracks. She didn’t have the strength to fend them off.

“Naofumi!” Glass shouted.

“Hey, little lady! You should worry about keeping yourself alive! Take this!” Miyaji swung his electric guitar, attacking Glass head-on. He was fast too! Maybe as fast as Glass . . . maybe a little faster! Glass barely managed to avoid the attack, leaving a few strands of her hair dancing in the air. Hidemasa plucked those strands out of the air and smiled.

“Master Hidemasa! For you!” One of the women pressing the attack on Raphtalia proceeded to pass Miyaji some hair wrapped in paper.

“Ah! Thank you!” Miyaji said.

“Anything for you, Master Hidemasa!” the woman replied. I barely had time to wonder what they were planning before Miyaji used a skill.

“Cursed Song: Woodo-Voodoo!” A clashing sound rang out, and a straw doll appeared in Miyaji’s hand. “Let’s see what we can do with . . . this!” He placed Raphtalia’s and Glass’s hair on the doll, stabbed a nail that had appeared in his other hand into its breast, and then hammered it home with the electric guitar.

Raphtalia and Glass immediately started to moan and suffer, clutching at their chests . . . in the exact spot the nail had been hammered into the doll—right around their hearts. It looked very much like some kind of unavoidable curse skill! It likely had pretty specific conditions for use . . . The hair looked like the medium for activating it. If it was affecting them both, it had to be pretty powerful too.

“Mr. . . . Naofumi!” Raphtalia gasped, desperately trying to reach me as she staggered on her feet. Right now, Itsuki and I were pretty tied up, however. My own stack of Walls, created with all the life force I could muster, were being smashed down one after the other. The guillotine blade was only gaining in strength as time passed. I needed to shatter it somehow, but that was hard when I was also wrapped in binding chains.

It was starting to look like my only choice was to circulate as much life force as I could, then let it hit me . . . and pray it wasn’t enough to kill me.

I wasn’t sure my neck was up to that task, quite honestly.

With a rage-filled shout, I brought all the life force I had to bear.