The Strongest Curse Master

A bulky Lyra dressed in red and black and a petite Lyra dressed in white, blue, and red stood across each other, emotionlessly holding their Wakizashis, ready to fight at the original Lyra's command. Seeing the difference in weight class between the two, Lyra had second thoughts about the match between Fumetsu and Fujin. Fumetsu looked like a max-level orc while Fujin looked like a feeble goblin. Deep down in her heart, Lyra had already concluded that Fumetsu would wipe the floor with Fujin.

It was the obvious outcome to Lyra, but her little bro, who was going through Fumetsu and Fujin's info on his status screen, thought otherwise.

[ —Status Screen—

Name: Fumetsu

Type: Curse Tool (Sword-Shaped)

Tier: Mortal-Tier

Effect: Fumetsu is a short sword with indestructible defensive capabilities within its tier. It will serve great as a secondary weapon.

Addition effect:

i) Knock Back: When a user successfully blocks an attack using Fumetsu, the user can choose to use the energy from the attack to shove or push the target away.

ii) Stun: Every successful consecutive attack blocked using Fumetsu has a ninety percent chance to stun the enemy. The chances might vary based on the tier difference between the user and the enemy. The effect doesn't stack.

iii) Indestructible: Fumetsu will passively negate ninety percent damage of the first attack of each enemy.

Note:

i) Curse Tool Crafter: Emi Nakamura

ii) Info Source: Emi Nakamura.]

[ —Status Screen—

Name: Fujin

Type: Curse Tool (Sword-shaped)

Tier: Mortal-Tier

Effect: Fujin is a short sword, swift and traceless as the wind. It will serve great as a primary weapon for assassination.

Additional Effect:

i) Accelerated Agility and Attack Speed.

ii) Wind Reader: The user gains sensitivity to wind, allowing them to read and deduce the wind flow in their surroundings, granting them Enhanced Evasion maneuverability.

iii) Silent Slash: Fumetsu can gather wind on its blade's edge and shoot it at targets accurately. The faster the user and their attacks are, the less noise they will produce, and the sharper the edge of the wind blade will be.

Note:

i) Curse Tool Crafter: Emi Nakamura

ii) Info Source: Emi Nakamura.]

Reading the info on both Fumetsu and Fujin, the first question in Ace's mind was why Emi did not choose Fujin, as it would make a great blade for assassination. It was because she already had a great primary sword, her family's heirloom. She didn't need another one. She needed a Wakizashi that would complement her katana's ability, not overshadow it.

"Ace, why don't you fight Fujin? I am afraid Fumetsu will break her," Lyra suddenly proposed, to which Ace remarked, "Don't underestimate the loli Lyra. Besides, can't you tell their strength and abilities by sharing thoughts and memories with them?"

"Loli Lyra?" Lyra fumed, glaring at her little brother, and so did Fujin. She looked like waiting for Lyra's permission to cut Ace up. Clearly, neither of them liked the name.

Ignoring his sister, Ace looked at Fujin in intrigue because this was the first time either of the Wakizashi curse tool spirits, turned cursed incarnations, had shown any emotion. He wondered if it was because they were supposedly being emotionless like ninjas being spirits of ninja weapons and all.

Lyra suspiciously glanced at her baby bro as he eyed the petite version of herself with interest and tested, "She is cute, isn't she?"

"Yeah, but equally deadly. Go through their thoughts and tell me if they are truly emotionless or just pretending to be emotionless, I can't tell from their faces," Ace answered while intently gancing at Fujin, who showed hostility toward him when he called her Loli Lyra, trying to read her micro expressions and body language believing that she stopping her emotions from surfacing on her face.

"..." Lyra was hesitant about sharing thoughts and memories with her cursed incarnation, fearing that they would forget who the original Lyra was. That was a silly thing to fear because Vyasa's Womb only answers to her, but considering the numerous cloning gone wrong novels and comics she had read, her mind could not help but wander, what if?

Ultimately, putting her fears aside, Lyra finally shared her thoughts and memories with Fumetsu and Fujin, strengthening the mental and emotional connection between the three of them. It did not take long, as the curse tools these two curse tool spirits cursed incarnations were born from weren't even a day old, they had no memories to speak of aside from the ones that made them masters of their cursed abilities. Also, nothing Lyra feared happened. Instead, she gained a lot than she ever expected to.

"Ace, check this out," Lyra said, extending her hands towards Fumetsu and Fujin, who nodded before transforming into a stream of light that landed on each of Lyra's hands, reverting into their curse tool form.

What was more shocking was that Lyra was wielding both the Wakizashi's like a pro. Then, to Ace's astonishment, she began to brandish them like an expert dual-wielding ninja. Her movements were swift and precise, with a discipline one could only gain after practicing thousands of times. Each of her moments had a charm to it, making it mesmerizing.

Ace wondered if this was what they called a sword dance. Though impressed, he knew Lyra had never touched a sword until today, let alone dual-wield them and put on a mesmerizing display of a sword dance. The only time she had been to a gym was when they invited celebrity guests or for their zero-sugar drinks. People referred to her as healthy for a reason. He believed that by sharing the memories and thoughts with her cursed incarnations, somehow Lyra had gained mastery of their curse abilities equal to that of their spirits.

Lyra ended her mesmerizing display by shooting wind blades of various arc sizes, complementing her movements. The wind blades were translucent and silent with swift speed, basically traceless, but they failed to cut into the walls, floor, and ceiling of the wood palace. Ace believed that was because Lyra controlled their sharpness. However, he could not help but admire how Fumetsu and Fujin made up for each other's shortcomings.

Turns out Emi's trash was Lyra's treasure. Funny how things worked out. With Lyra here, Ace and his toy summons wouldn't have to worry about their curse tools created using the otherworldly knowledge going to waste. Yes, waste, as they weren't stupid enough to sell priceless intellectual property.

"Did you see that? If someone bullies, just give me a call. Your big sis will take care of it for you," Lyra smuggly said, as she spun both the Wakizashi's on the palm of each of her hands, showing just how great her mastery of these two curse tools was.

Ace shook his head, not taking Lyra's words seriously, knowing that the rush from gaining a huge power boost from wielding to power curse tools had gotten to her little head. He did not worry knowing it was nothing a little ass whooping couldn't fix. Maybe he would finally get a chance to collect some interest on the years of sibling bullying he had suffered during her reign.

"I will hold you up to that," Ace encouraged it, knowing she was going to need all that overconfidence come tomorrow when Sonia realizes she has awakened as a curse master. His sister's combo of Fujin and Fumetsu was unbreakable and deadly, but Sonia was relentless and without death. He believed she would make a perfect dummy for his big sis to learn about her strength.

Ace wasn't worried about Lyra using the curse tool spirit in the open because they were also her cursed incarnations. Their form was both spirit and an incarnation. According to Emi and DD, as long as Lyra didn't reveal it, no one could tell if they were curse tool spirits and would just think she had awakened a peculiar but handy innate curse art, which she did.