Domain Expansion

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"Mahito... Jogo..."

A deep split ran through Dagon's head.

The cursed womb writhed on the floor piled with white bones, tears streaming down his face.

"Hanami..."

Muttering the names of the companions who had died at human hands, Dagon completely erupted.

Boom!

"You dared kill Hanami!"

The soft voice suddenly turned hoarse.

Dagon burst out of his cursed-womb body and revealed his complete form.

Two legs.

Two arms.

A muscular humanoid cursed spirit.

Behind his waist were a pair of half-meter blood-red wings.

Floating in the air, reborn Dagon looked down at the four below him, killing intent exposed.

"This is bad."

Nanami tore off his gray suit jacket, every muscle in his body tense.

"Fushiguro, Kugisaki, cover us."

"Maki and I attack. He just molted. Don't give him time to adjust."

Nobara responded with action.

Clang!

Several nails wrapped in blue cursed energy shot toward the special grade cursed spirit in the air.

Shadow spread instantly. Divine Dog: Totality, powerful enough to pierce a special grade's defense, leapt from the ground into the air.

Nanami, the main attacker, and Maki, whose close-quarters skill was excellent, launched themselves upward.

Facing the four sorcerers' assault, Dagon's eyes chilled as he clenched both fists.

Their speed was average.

After making that silent judgment, Dagon crossed both arms in front of his chest and knocked his fists together.

A closed domain formed from immense cursed energy swallowed everyone in an instant.

"Domain Expansion: Horizon of the Captivating Skandha."

...

Blue sky.

White clouds.

Warm sun.

Beach.

A gentle sea breeze and an endless blue ocean.

The domain Dagon constructed with his vast cursed energy was exactly the memory-filled scenery where he had once gathered and played with Mahito, Jogo, and Hanami.

Nanami and the three students stood on soft golden sand, their faces grave.

Dagon's cursed energy had reached special grade level, and he even possessed the divine technique of Domain Expansion.

Nanami tightened his grip on his blade, brows knitted hard.

The sure-hit effect granted by the domain could create a fatal casualty at any moment.

"Fushiguro!"

"Right!"

Megumi understood before Nanami could explain.

He poured all of his cursed energy into the image in his mind, lowered both hands, and interlocked his fingers.

"Domain Expansion: Chimera Shadow Garden."

The golden sand beneath the four of them was instantly covered by thick ink-black shadow.

"Oh?"

Standing on the surface of the sea, Dagon showed a moment of surprise, but quickly restrained it.

"An unfinished domain. The advantage is mine."

His analysis was correct.

The unfinished domain Megumi opened was far less mature and precise than a normal domain.

It had no outer shell, which made it look somewhat similar to an open-barrier domain.

In truth, the two were worlds apart.

Surrounded on every side by blue seawater, the ink-black area beneath Nanami and the others was visibly shrinking.

"Fushiguro."

"Do not think about attacking. Maintain the domain's properties and cancel the opponent's sure-hit effect."

"Leave that special grade to us."

Megumi's total cursed energy was far below Dagon's, and the completeness of their domains was also different.

Reducing attack output to maintain his domain was the best choice for the moment.

But...

They were still at a disadvantage.

...

"Technique Release: Death Swarm."

Boom!

Countless cursed-energy shikigami surfaced across the sea.

Some were dragon-shaped white sharks more than ten meters long. Others were palm-sized piranha-like creatures.

The endless shikigami surged forward like a raging ocean, carrying the force of an entire army as they rushed the four sorcerers.

Dagon's gaze was cold. He did not rashly approach the ink-black area that was about to collapse.

He simply adjusted the distribution of his cursed energy.

Eighty percent of the shikigami targeted Megumi, who was maintaining the domain.

The remaining twenty percent were split between Nanami and Nobara.

As for Maki, whose cursed energy was scarce, Dagon ignored her.

Splurt!

Nanami cut apart an incoming fish monster and shouted the order.

"Everyone, protect Fushiguro!"

Megumi had only just begun controlling his domain, and his movement speed was nearly zero in front of those shikigami.

If they lost his domain's protection...

Everyone would die.

Nanami had not expected Dagon to be so cautious and refuse close combat entirely.

Ten cuts in a second.

Maki guarded Megumi's side, weaving dense nets of blade light.

Purple blood splashed through the air in sheets.

The shikigami kept coming.

On Megumi's other side, Nobara swung her hammer violently.

Within seconds, the silver hammer with a heart on it was dyed a vivid purple.

There were not enough nails. Her entire field of vision was packed with fish monsters.

All of them could only defend passively, with no time to counterattack.

Protected at the center, Megumi gasped for breath. Sweat had soaked his entire body.

He hunched over, maintaining the hand sign without moving, and his expression grew more urgent.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the other three being delayed by countless shikigami. Injuries were beginning to appear.

Megumi hesitated over whether he should summon his strongest shikigami into the battle.

Unlike the outside of a domain, the interior space was stronger and far harder to break.

Megumi had tried to open a passage from the inside so Nanami and the others could escape first.

But the cursed spirit was already prepared.

Megumi could feel the durability of the domain around his feet rising little by little.

Opening a path large enough for a person would take time he did not have, and cursed energy he did not have.

Nanami, guarding the front alone, was also sweating heavily with a dark expression.

A hundred cuts.

A thousand.

Ten thousand.

In only a few dozen seconds, Nanami could barely feel the arm swinging his blade.

Through gaps in the fish swarm, the cursed spirit floating in the air remained calm and composed.

Megumi's domain was being compressed smaller and smaller.

The three defenders retreated step by step until they were pressed together.

This could not continue.

Nanami realized they could not delay, but he could not think of another solution.

As long as they stood inside Megumi's domain, they could block the fish swarm's attacks.

To deal with the cursed spirit a hundred meters away, someone had to step out.

And once they did, they had to endure the sure-hit effect of Dagon's domain.

Nanami's mind ran calculations at high speed.

Step out of Megumi's domain.

Cross one hundred meters.

Endure the fish swarm's attacks head-on for nearly three seconds.

With luck, he could reach the cursed spirit badly wounded.

That assumed the opponent did not flee.

Then he would have to kill that cursed spirit within three seconds while heavily injured.

It was an impossible task.

And it was their only path to survival.

None of the four could use Reverse Cursed Technique to heal.

The best possible result was sacrificing one person to shatter the enemy's domain.

Should he gamble or not?

Boom!

Nanami's full-force slash carved a brief blank space directly ahead.

"Maki, Kugisaki, take my position!"

With a roar, Nanami charged against the fish swarm and out of the domain.

If he did not gamble, everyone died.

If he gambled, there was a one percent chance of success.

It was a choice with no real choice at all.

Blue cursed energy flared around him as Nanami sprinted toward the terrifying cursed spirit on the sea.

"Nanami!"

Maki and Nobara, already wounded at the shoulder, thigh, and waist, felt the pressure on them multiply.

Even so, they could not stop themselves from turning toward Nanami's back, their hearts clenching.

Foolish.

Dagon judged coldly, and a giant shark-shaped shikigami made of cursed energy burst from the sea.

Once Nanami left that unfinished domain, every attack Dagon made would be sure to hit.

He had taken only one step beyond Megumi's domain when serrated teeth bit into his waist.

Fresh red blood splashed down.

Ignoring the pain, Nanami cut through it and continued forward.

Two steps.

Three.

His body was instantly dyed red with blood.

"Senpai!"

The instant Maki, Nobara, and Megumi's minds wavered, the ink-black domain reached the edge of collapse.

A hundred-meter-long dragon-shaped fish monster suddenly attacked the three from the air.

Cold fear shot straight to the top of their heads.

Too late to react, the three stared at the enormous creature blocking out the sun as it opened its bloody mouth.

Crack.

At the edge of life and death, a familiar voice came from outside the fractured barrier.

"Domain Expansion..."

"Thousand-Burial White Sovereign Souls."

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