"Can this old woman leave now?"
Ogami asked nervously, unease written all over her face.
After being imprisoned for so many years, she longed desperately for freedom beyond captivity.
A faint smile curved Mirai's lips.
"Of course. We had an agreement, didn't we?"
To ensure the old woman would perform the séance without resistance, Mirai had promised that neither he nor his subordinates would dispose of her once she had outlived her usefulness.
And after Suguru Geto handed over control of Tengen—
Mirai faithfully honored his word and released Ogami.
As for whether she survived after stepping outside…
The miserable scream she let out before dying carried enough resentment to pierce the heavens.
Back to the Present
"Even if he's just the King of Clowns, taking him down's bound to leave me with a few scratches."
On the battlefield below, Gojo Satoru raised an eyebrow toward Mirai high above and taunted him provocatively:
"What's with hiding so far away? Planning to wait until the end and steal the victory?"
Now that the plan had entered its final phase, Mirai was in unusually high spirits.
Waving casually toward the people below, he smiled.
"You kids go play somewhere else for a bit. The adults still have some business to handle."
As he spoke, he pressed his palms together, fingers interlocked in a hand seal.
"'Cycle.'"
"'Blooming Chaos.'"
"'Border Between Life and Death.'"
"'Between Existence and Oblivion.'"
The moment the incantation began, terrifying cursed energy erupted across heaven and earth!
Gojo. Sukuna. Even the hidden members of Jujutsu High observing from afar—
Every single one of them focused completely, raising their vigilance to the absolute limit.
That overwhelming cursed energy…
One careless moment—
And they would die!!!
Pushing Kamui's intangibility to its utmost limit, Mirai rose from his throne and shouted:
"Maximum Technique—"
"Chaos!"
The instant the words fell—
Disaster erupted.
RUMBLE!!!
Ripples distorted through space itself, like an invisible maw capable of devouring heaven and earth, growing more violent with every passing second.
Centered around Mirai, turbulent spatial waves spread throughout the entire world.
Looking upward, the sky resembled a shattered mirror, crisscrossed by endless fractures.
Distorted space warped perception itself, making it seem as though nine blazing suns hung above the heavens.
One horrifying phenomenon after another manifested before their eyes.
An eerie ancient tree towering between heaven and earth appeared at the center of the barrier like a mirage.
A colossal shadow, vast enough to blot out the sky, flickered in and out of existence as though rooted in another dimension, slowly invading reality itself.
Then—
A gigantic black sphere, enormous enough to rival the sun, slowly rose into the sky.
The circular monstrosity pulsed faintly, as though something alive was breathing within it.
The entire barrier overflowed with the aura of curses, evil, taboo, and calamity.
"...What… is that?"
Nobara's expression collapsed into panic, her body trembling uncontrollably.
They did not even need Mei Mei's crow-transmitted broadcast anymore.
Simply sensing it through cursed energy was enough to understand the horror hanging above them.
"A Cursed Womb…"
Kusakabe violently shoved aside his chair and unconsciously bit his cigarette clean in half.
"Oi, oi, oi… don't tell me that thing's actually a Cursed Womb?!"
"A Cursed Womb?"
Yuji still remembered his very first mission at the juvenile detention center—
A special-grade curse born from a Cursed Womb.
But compared to the egg-shaped womb that had merely measured several dozen meters tall back then…
The colossal object on the screen now practically covered the entire sky.
Everyone swallowed hard in unison.
Shoko muttered quietly:
"If that thing really is a Cursed Womb… then what's born from it could destroy the entire world."
Mei Mei temporarily severed her shared vision with the crows, breathing in shallow gasps as her chest rose and fell rapidly.
Seeing so many horrifying visions at once had even disrupted her cursed technique for a moment.
"With Geto resurrected… that thing is probably the monster created using Tengen as a base to assimilate the cursed energy of hundreds of millions."
After hearing Shoko's analysis, Kusakabe burst into a self-destructive laugh.
"Hahaha!"
"At this point, why bother anymore? We might as well all just sit here and wait to die."
Dropping back into his chair, he lit another cigarette and grinned bitterly at the others.
"So what are our odds of winning now?"
"Zero point something percent?"
Yuji, Yuta, and the others clenched their fists tightly.
They wanted to say something encouraging—
But no words came out.
The barrier surrounding Japan…
Had become a barrier surrounding hell itself.
Ring ring ring~
A phone suddenly rang.
Frowning, Mei Mei pulled out her phone.
"It's a call from the Zenin clan head. Everyone should probably stay quiet."
She answered on speaker.
Mirai's voice came through immediately:
"Mei Mei-san, how can you casually cut off such an important worldwide livestream?"
"You earned over ten billion yen in ticket sales. At least try to act professional."
Typing rapidly across a row of laptops before her, Mei Mei replied with a smile:
"With so many terrifying phenomena appearing at once, I nearly got scared to death myself."
"I'm still inside the barrier too, Clan Head Zenin. Don't accidentally kill me along with everyone else."
"Relax," Mirai answered calmly.
"I'm adding another layer of protection to your barrier. Resume the broadcast as soon as possible."
The call ended.
Silence filled the room.
"Hahaha!"
"So after all that, even this hiding place is still under his control."
Kusakabe spread his hands helplessly, completely giving up.
But Sukuna and Gojo—
The two strongest on the battlefield—
Had realized even more than the others.
The distorted spaces.
The flickering colossal tree.
This was not reality being invaded.
The entire Culling Game barrier was being dragged into an unknown void.
Not invasion—
Consumption.
Both Gojo Satoru and Ryomen Sukuna stared gravely at the figure in the sky.
That man intended to devour everything—
An entire nation.
Hundreds of millions of ordinary humans.
The horrifying Cursed Womb in the heavens.
Even the two of them themselves.
The instant the livestream resumed—
Mirai lightly stepped forward, instantly appearing upon the battlefield.
"For warm-up opponents, you three barely qualify."
Hearing that—
Gojo and Sukuna both revealed matching manic smiles.
"Red!"
"Dismantle!"
The two supreme attacks shot toward Mirai from front and back simultaneously!
BOOM!!!
The attacks were casually swatted away with one hand, detonating violently at the edge of the battlefield.
"So just as I thought," Gojo grinned.
"You can't use your intangibility technique right now."
Previously, attacks like these would have phased harmlessly through him without him even needing to move.
Seeing the smile on Gojo's face, Mirai sneered mockingly.
"And what of it?"
"You're still nothing but chickens and dogs before me."
Just as Gojo and Sukuna had guessed—
Mirai was not releasing the God Tree into the outside world.
He was dragging the entire Culling Game barrier into Kamui's dimension.
The battlefield itself was gradually shifting from reality into Kamui.
Naturally, Mirai's intangibility could no longer evade attacks there.
But…
It didn't matter.
"Hahahaha! Now that's the arrogance I wanted to see!!"
BOOM!!!
Sukuna lunged forward with a savage grin, invisible shockwaves exploding outward.
"Come on, then—"
"Let's begin the ultimate feast!"
PS: Access the complete/finished chapters/series at Patreon: NanamiTL
Please drop some power stones support me at my Patreon