"Bang!"
The fly cursed spirit serving as surveillance and a coordinate anchor stood zero chance against the Sun Breathing flames casually unleashed by Yoru, instantly disintegrating into nothingness.
Yet, at the exact moment that fly was incinerated...
Hundreds of kilometers away, deep within the innermost reaches of the Tombs of the Star Corridor, Kenjaku abruptly opened his bloodshot eyes.
"How is that possible...?"
For the first time, unmistakable shock and grim fury surfaced across Kenjaku's stitch-covered face.
The cursed energy tether he had placed inside the air-raid shelter to monitor and control the 'New Hanami' had just been forcefully severed by a violent burst of pure physical force!
"Maki Zenin..."
Kenjaku ground out her name through gritted teeth, his eyes laden with dread and disgust.
"That defective reject who doesn't possess a shred of cursed energy, that monkey who should have died like vermin in the Zenin family basement!"
"How could she take down my meticulously cultivated Special Grade suture hybrid single-handedly in such a brief window?!"
Kenjaku's fingers dug viciously into the stone table before him, gouging deep fingerprints into the solid rock.
He had accounted for countless factors—he factored in Yoru's invincibility, calculated Satoru Gojo's unsealing, and even anticipated the variables introduced by ancient sorcerers in the Culling Game.
Yet, he never foresaw that this world would produce a second Toji Fushiguro!
A ghost entirely detached from the rules of cursed energy, whom not even his barrier senses could track!
"The card that was Tsumiki Fushiguro has been rendered completely useless."
Kenjaku took a deep breath, forcing down his inner agitation as his gaze turned chillingly cold.
"Since the open scheme has collapsed..."
"Then brute force is the only way left to bury you meddlesome anomalies, along with that Six Eyes brat, entirely within Prison Realm!"
The scene shifted back inside the space of Prison Realm's "back gate."
Yoru stood in front of Hana Kurusu, Shiranui emitting a steady, searing radiance that kept every deformed cursed spirit attempting to approach three meters away.
Behind him, Hana Kurusu sustained the radiant pillar of Jacob's Ladder, drenched in sweat.
As the golden light relentlessly cleansed the jet-black core array, noticeable cracks finally spread across Prison Realm's impenetrable seal.
"Almost there! Three minutes at most!"
Hana Kurusu shouted excitedly.
"Yoru, hold out for just three more minutes, and the seal will collapse completely—Satoru Gojo can get out!"
Hearing the good news, the corners of Yoru's lips curled up slightly.
"Three minutes? That's more than enough."
However, the instant those words left Yoru's mouth!
Disaster struck without warning!
"Bzzzt—!"
The chaotic, void-like space within Prison Realm suddenly emitted an ear-piercing wail!
Immediately after, their surroundings twisted and inverted violently, as if an invisible giant hand were crushing the entire world to pieces!
"What's going on?!"
Hana Kurusu cried out in horror. The beam of Jacob's Ladder in her grasp flickered wildly under the sudden spatial shockwave, threatening to extinguish at any second!
"Hold your breath. Steady your mind."
Yoru gripped Hana Kurusu's shoulder, activating Transparent World in that instant!
Within his field of vision, he clearly saw an immense, horrifying mass of cursed energy—vast enough to rival the sum total of the entire Culling Game barrier—brutally invading and overwriting the interior of Prison Realm!
"Hahaha..."
A spine-chilling burst of wild laughter suddenly resonated from every direction within the void.
"I'd expect nothing less from you, Yoru."
"Even facing a spatial tremor powerful enough to warp reality, you still maintain that sickening composure."
As the voice faded, the chaotic void within Prison Realm transformed instantaneously into a dark-crimson sea of blood!
In the center of the bloody sea, mountains of flesh piled high with severed limbs and viscera radiated a suffocating stench.
Atop the tallest mountain of flesh, a grotesque giant tree formed of countless inverted, headless pregnant women writhed sluggishly.
Kenjaku stood quietly at the very summit of that monstrous tree.
Looking down upon Yoru and Hana Kurusu, a mad, triumphant grin stretched across his stitch-marked face.
"Did you really think I'd stand by and watch you release Satoru Gojo?"
"Domain Expansion—"
Kenjaku snapped his hands together in a seal before his chest, bringing forth a terrifying pressure potent enough to shatter a normal person's sanity!
"[Womb Profusion]!"
Boom!
With Kenjaku's feral roar, the interior space of Prison Realm was entirely supplanted by this repulsive, terrifying domain!
"You're insane!"
Staring at the surrounding purgatorial nightmare, Hana Kurusu's voice shook with terror.
"You forcibly overlapped your own domain with the internal space of Prison Realm?!"
"Aren't you afraid of triggering a spatial collapse that tears your own soul to shreds?!"
"Torn to shreds?"
Kenjaku spread his arms arrogantly.
"Little girl, you have no grasp of what this domain truly represents!"
"This is the ultimate domain I forged by using [Mimicry] to integrate the essence of cursed techniques across a thousand years of previous vessels, absorbing Master Tengen's barrier authority, and fusing the malice of tens of millions of awakened ordinary people with the residual dregs of cursed energy from every fallen sorcerer in the Culling Game!"
"Within this [Womb Profusion], I am the absolute god of creation!"
Kenjaku pointed sharply toward Yoru, boundless madness gleaming in his eyes.
"Here, those headless pregnant women will incessantly spawn Special Grade cursed spirits! Gravity here is hundreds of times stronger than outside! Every drop of blood contains lethal poison capable of dissolving the soul!"
"And most importantly..."
Kenjaku's mouth stretched into an exaggerated sneer.
"As long as the core of this domain remains intact, I possess infinite resurrection and absolute immortality within it!"
"Even your Jacob's Ladder will be thoroughly suppressed into utter uselessness inside this domain flooded by tens of millions of malicious wills!"
"Despair, Yoru!"
"Inside this domain of absolute sure-hit attacks, that swordsmanship you pride yourself on is completely useless!"
Along with Kenjaku's wild laughter, the sea of blood churned violently.
Countless deformed cursed spirits radiating Semi-Special Grade auras tore their way out from the bellies of the headless pregnant women, surging toward Yoru and Hana Kurusu like a tidal wave!
At the same time, an oppressive gravity hundreds of times normal—potent enough to instantly flatten steel—crashed down on both of them without warning!
"Thud!"
Before Hana Kurusu could even scream, the gravity drove her straight to her knees in the blood, the light of Jacob's Ladder extinguishing instantly!
The unsealing was forced to a halt!
"It's over..."
Hana Kurusu closed her eyes in despair.
Trapped in this inescapable domain filled with malice, crushing gravity, and infinitely reviving monsters, they stood no chance whatsoever!
Yet, right when she thought she was about to be torn to shreds by those grotesque cursed spirits...
A warm, firm hand gently came to rest on her shoulder.
Under the shelter of that palm, the terrifying gravity hundreds of times normal vanished into nothingness in an instant!
Hana Kurusu opened her eyes in astonishment.
Yoru still stood upright before her.
Even amid a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, even under crushing gravity hundreds of times normal, and even before countless roaring Special Grade cursed spirits...
His spine remained ramrod straight, like a javelin that would never bend!
"Infinite resurrection?"
Yoru slowly raised his head, a cold, domineering, tangible killing intent flashing through his crimson eyes.
Looking up at Kenjaku perched arrogantly atop the giant tree, the corner of his mouth curved into a disdainful sneer.
"Did you really think a garbage dump of a broken domain like this could trap me?"
"Kenjaku, regarding the word 'strength'..."
"It seems you suffer from a fatal misunderstanding."
Yoru slowly drew Shiranui.
In that instant, as if sensing an impending, terrifying pressure, the filthy sea of blood surrounding them began to tremble uncontrollably!
The ultimate clash between a mortal frame and a thousand-year domain was on the verge of erupting!
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