A golden domain spread outward with Makima at its center, and an overwhelming surge of cursed energy shot straight into the sky!
What kind of terrifying cursed energy was this? Mahito and Kenjaku couldn't even begin to describe it. They only knew that even if the cursed energy of the two of them were added together and multiplied tenfold, it would still likely not amount to even one-tenth of what Makima was releasing.
With cursed energy on this scale, even the heart of Tokyo—dozens of kilometers away—would likely feel it with ease.
And the first thing to be crushed by this terrifying Domain Expansion was Mahito's domain.
It didn't last even a second. The moment it touched the golden domain, Mahito's domain shattered outright—along with Mahito himself, who immediately lost consciousness.
Kenjaku, who had retreated at the first possible moment, didn't escape either. In the blink of an eye, he was caught by the rapidly expanding domain.
The instant Kenjaku realized the golden domain was about to overtake him, he turned back and attempted to counter it with his own Domain Expansion.
"Domain Expansion • Womb Profusion!"
A withered tree seemingly stitched together from countless human faces erupted from the ground behind Kenjaku. The domain expanded from it—yet the moment it came into contact with the golden domain, it shattered just as instantly as Mahito's.
"How is this possible?!"
Kenjaku's face was filled with disbelief. His was an open-type domain—something that, in clashes between domains of the same level, should have been virtually unbeatable.
And yet, even his open domain failed to last a single second against the one before him, as though it were no different from Mahito's closed domain.
Another monster like Gojo Satoru?
No… staring at the domain before him, Kenjaku felt that even if it were Gojo Satoru facing this, the result would likely be no different.
Moreover, with Makima now fully unleashing her power, she no longer concealed her aura. Kenjaku could clearly sense the true nature of a curse within her.
A high-ranking figure of the jujutsu world—one of its current special-grade sorcerers—was in truth a curse hidden among humanity.
At that realization, Kenjaku let out a relieved laugh.
This era truly produced monsters in abundance—far more insane than any era he had lived through before.
It was he who had underestimated others, and this was the price he paid.
As that thought crossed his mind, Kenjaku's body was finally engulfed by the Constraining Barrier.
His cursed energy fell completely silent, and not a shred of strength remained in his body.
Feeling his consciousness rapidly fading, Kenjaku forced himself to ask Makima one final question.
"Can you tell me… what is your objective?"
"I don't have any special objective," Makima replied calmly.
"I simply follow my master's will, and create the world that my master desires."
Perhaps because his end was already at hand, Makima answered him.
"A curse as powerful as you… actually has a master. Heh, heh, heh… The greatest enemy is hiding right before their eyes, yet the people of the jujutsu world haven't noticed a thing. It seems no one can stop you now—or your master."
The jujutsu world… was probably already finished.
With that final thought, Kenjaku completely lost consciousness.
Makima, meanwhile, was sensing the changes in her domain.
Unlike the normally deployed Constraining Barrier with a radius of one hundred kilometers, the version she had just used—integrating insights gained from Mahito's domain and applying true domain techniques—stopped expanding after reaching a radius of ten kilometers.
And as compensation for the reduced range, as long as Makima wished, she could increase the constraining force within the barrier to three times its original strength. Moreover, if she continued to compress the range, the upper limit of the constraining force would continue to rise.
At its theoretical extreme, Makima could compress the Constraining Barrier to a radius of five hundred meters, at which point the constraining force inside would be amplified to ten times its original level.
"Quite the… unexpected windfall."
She had originally believed that, given the upper limits of the cursed energy system, even Domain Expansion—the ultimate technique of sorcerers and curses alike—would at most provide her with a negligible boost.
Yet after applying domain techniques to the Constraining Barrier, the degree of enhancement far exceeded her expectations.
A Constraining Barrier with ten times its original power—at that level, even Kevin Kaslana at the final stage of the Honkai world's decisive battle probably wouldn't last long.
That said, in its extreme form, the barrier's range was limited to just five hundred meters. At such close distance, if the enemy still retained some capacity for resistance, the one in danger would instead become herself. Compared to that, the standard hundred-kilometer-radius Constraining Barrier had its own advantages and disadvantages.
Calming her thoughts, Makima dismissed the Constraining Barrier and turned her gaze toward the unconscious Mahito and Kenjaku.
Because she had just learned a new technique, she had unintentionally made quite a spectacle. A ten-kilometer-wide Constraining Barrier, combined with the cursed energy it unleashed—such a disturbance would surely be felt by any sorcerer within Tokyo.
Including Gojo Satoru, many of them were likely already rushing toward this location.
Using the authority of the Control Devil, Makima subjugated both Kenjaku and Mahito. She then summoned two chains, dragging the two of them away toward the curse faction's base, intending to deal with and subjugate the last remaining Disaster Curse—Dagon.
Not long after Makima departed, a sharp tearing sound cut through the air. Using his technique to arrive at maximum speed, Gojo Satoru landed at the scene.
Looking at the utterly lifeless battlefield before him, Gojo's expression turned solemn.
"What… happened here?"
It was too quiet. From this spot all the way to the limits of his Six Eyes' perception, Gojo couldn't hear a single sound of life.
It was as though some power had annihilated all life in an instant. Coupled with the residual cursed energy—so vast that even Gojo found it unbelievable—it suggested that an exceptionally powerful sorcerer or curse had unleashed their ability here.
But still…
This range—was it serious?
Flying into the air and examining the residual cursed energy with his Six Eyes, Gojo ultimately arrived at a conclusion.
Ten kilometers.
What kind of technique or ability could cover a range of ten kilometers? Some kind of barrier, perhaps?
With those doubts in mind, and after confirming there were no other useful clues at the scene, Gojo returned to Tokyo Jujutsu High.
...
The next day, Tokyo—inside an unknown apartment building.
Makima sat on a beach chair within Dagon's domain, while before her knelt Kenjaku and the four Disaster Curses.
The night before, upon arriving here, Dagon—still in its cursed womb stage and completely unprepared for all of its companions to have already defected—had been subjugated by Makima without managing even the slightest resistance.
At this point, aside from Ryomen Sukuna, the villain faction of the jujutsu world had essentially fallen in its entirety.
Combined with the jujutsu world's upper echelons already under Makima's control, once she made her move against the ordinary human leadership, all of Japan would become a one-man rule—belonging to Makima… or rather, to An Xora.
And now that Kenjaku had been subjugated as well, the plan Makima had previously described to An Xora could officially begin its initial implementation.
It wasn't a particularly complicated plan. In fact, at its core, Makima's plan was extremely simple.
Just like Kenjaku in the original story—
She would make the existence of cursed spirits and jujutsu sorcerers public.
The difference was that, in the original story, Kenjaku had only revealed this truth to the high-ranking officials of various countries.
What Makima intended to do now…
was to reveal it to the general public.
A complete, total disclosure.
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