Chapter 6: I Also Have a Domain! (Two-in-One)

After being enhanced by ten shots of the Third Bullet, the special-grade cursed spirit had now surpassed both the incubation and juvenile stages, reaching its complete form.

Not only had its strength improved, but even its intelligence had seen a significant boost.

It vigilantly observed the human not far away. Although it still didn't fully understand what had just happened, it could sense that its power was now several times stronger than before. That was the only thing it was certain of.

Vast cursed energy surged within its body, and its understanding of its own technique had reached a new level. It could even feel that it had complete control over its own domain.

The sudden surge of power swelled its confidence, quickly suppressing the slight unease in its heart.

"Domain Expansion."

Because it was the first time it had ever spoken, its voice sounded rather strange, with a distinct pause between each word.

Yet the malice laced in its tone was not diminished in the slightest. Coupled with the sound of iron scraping against iron, any ordinary person who heard it would likely be scared out of their wits.

"Jizō Land of Disaster."

As the true name of the domain was spoken, the surrounding scenery seemed to melt and rapidly reassemble.

The entire domain began to fall into corruption at a speed visible to the naked eye.

It was as if the entire world had become contaminated. A foreboding blackness spread across every inch of land, turning the life-giving earth into a breeding ground for calamity.

The special-grade cursed spirit grinned ear to ear, its already terrifying face becoming even more grotesque.

The clone, who had been dispatched to probe the situation, calmly watched the cursed spirit's every move. In her hands, she held two flintlock pistols—one long and one short—lowered at her sides, ready to react to any incoming attacks.

In a domain, all attacks from the domain owner are guaranteed to hit.

But that doesn't mean they can't be blocked.

While she remained on high alert, focusing entirely on the special-grade cursed spirit in front of her, she suddenly felt an unusual sensation from beneath her feet.

"What?!"

She looked down sharply and found that the ground had somehow crept up to her ankles.

The earth seemed to have gained life, slowly crawling up her body and consuming her inch by inch.

The cursed spirit had already launched its attack!

Without hesitation, the clone gathered her spiritual energy in her legs and stomped off the ground, leaping into the air.

"That was close. If I hadn't noticed in time, I might have..."

The spiritual energy concentrated in her legs fought off the pollution from the ground, allowing her feet to barely retain their original form.

She could feel it—if she hadn't immediately left the ground and channeled her energy to resist the corruption, the sinister curse would have spread from the soles of her feet all the way to her head, turning her into a grotesque lump of twisted flesh, eventually swallowed up by the living earth, becoming its nourishment.

Cough cough, cough cough cough!

However, just as a sense of relief surfaced in her mind, a violent coughing fit overtook her.

She looked like a patient with severe pneumonia, coughing as if her internal organs were about to come out.

Soon, a metallic taste filled her throat, and she spat out blood.

The blood solidified into pitch-black clumps the moment it touched the air.

"There's poison in the air!"

The clone immediately guessed the cause and instinctively held her breath.

But the intense urge to cough forced her to open her mouth and nose again, spewing more blood while also inhaling more of the tainted air.

At that moment, she came to a brand new understanding of what a domain truly was.

Standing on the ground meant being corrupted into a grotesque tumor of flesh. But even if one could fly, the air itself was filled with something poisonous—or perhaps cursed—that would invade one's body.

For an ordinary sorcerer, stepping into this domain meant certain death.

No, rather—it could be said that for any ordinary sorcerer, stepping into any domain would mean certain death.

"So this is what guaranteed hits in a domain really mean..."

A bitter smile appeared on her face.

As a clone, her sole mission was to personally experience the effects of a domain in real combat on behalf of the main body.

She had long accepted that she might die in the process.

But even so, she was still an individual consciousness, not part of a hive mind.

The instinct to survive compelled her to rack her brain for a way to break the deadlock.

There were ways to counter domains.

Over a thousand years, sorcerers in this world had developed several methods to combat domains.

The most straightforward and brutal method was to destroy the domain from the inside using sheer force.

However, in this domain called Jizō Land of Disaster, every surface—above, below, all directions—was made of living soil that would pollute anyone it touched.

Not to mention, Tokisaki Kurumi didn't have any powerful offensive skills. She was merely a clone and didn't even have Zafkiel with her. That method was definitely out of the question.

The second method was to expand a domain within the enemy's domain.

If the new domain was stronger than the existing one, the original would be overridden and dispelled.

The essence of domain expansion is manifesting the domain of one's own inner world—whoever possesses the stronger mental world would gain the upper hand.

However, as a Spirit, Tokisaki Kurumi did not possess such a thing.

The third method was to learn Simple Domain.

The greatest function of a Simple Domain was to neutralize an enemy's domain expansion, canceling the guaranteed hit effect and creating a chance for survival.

The bad news was—she didn't know how to use that either.

After all, she had only transmigrated to this world just yesterday.

Even setting aside the fact that she didn't have cursed energy—assuming she could learn it—it would still take time, wouldn't it?

None of the three countermeasures were viable for her.

"Breathing—I must stop breathing!"

Amid the continuous coughing, the clone barely maintained her composure, her mind racing.

In the original work, Mukuro Hoshimiya once threw herself into space, which meant Spirits didn't need to breathe.

Although it was possible she had used the ability [Sealing] to nullify her need for respiration, later on, Shido Itsuka's harem members also operated freely in space.

It was because of the Domain of Free Will!

With this sudden realization, a semi-transparent barrier tightly enveloped her.

Domain of Free Will—a space created by manifestation devices that could be adjusted according to the user's will. Its properties could change based on the user's intent.

Temperature, gravity, air concentration—anything could be controlled within the Domain of Free Will. That was how AST and DEM magicians qualified to fight against Spirits.

But such a thing wasn't exclusive to magicians. The Spirits' Astral Dresses had it too!

And theirs were even more powerful!

As the Domain of Free Will emerged, the clone immediately felt the foul, stench-filled air around her dissipate, completely purified under her will.

The guaranteed-hit effect of the Domain was nullified!

At the same time, the main body of Tokisaki Kurumi, who had been hiding in the shadows like a sneak, revealed a look of pleasant surprise.

Who says I can't use Domains?

The Domain of Free Will is a Domain too!

Indeed, sparring with someone who had already mastered Domain Expansion turned out to be the right move!

"The Domain of Free Will can actually function as an advanced version of the Simple Domain. This is the best news ever!"

The fact that the Domain of Free Will could nullify the guaranteed-hit effect of Domain Expansion meant that threats like Satoru Gojo and Sukuna posed significantly less danger to her.

Inside a Domain, attacks were no longer guaranteed to hit. She could now rely on her speed advantage to dodge them all.

As long as the Domain of Free Will remained unbroken, she wouldn't be in any real danger!

Having gained such valuable intelligence, tonight's mission could definitely be considered a great success.

No longer hiding herself, Tokisaki Kurumi main body emerged from the shadows with her Domain of Free Will constantly active.

"Zafkiel — Bullet No. 4."

Summoning Zafkiel, she fired the fourth bullet at her clone — a bullet that could reverse time.

Though the clone wasn't seriously injured — she'd only coughed up some blood and the pollution on her legs had stopped — Kurumi wasn't sure if the clone had been cursed or infected by some kind of virus.

Whatever it was, to prevent any possibility of spreading it to other clones in the City of Devouring Time, she decided to play it safe and fire the fourth bullet.

Seeing the main body arrive, the clone let out a sigh of relief and sank back into the shadows.

Not far away, the Special Grade Curse Spirit's smile began to fade.

This was supposed to be its Domain.

It was supposed to be the master of this space.

And yet… it could clearly feel that the space within that woman's barrier had become something completely beyond its control.

Displeasure visibly appeared on its face. The Special Grade Curse clenched both fists, and the living earth beneath it began to nurture something sinister.

Raising its arms, whatever had been growing inside the earth suddenly surged up.

Two five-meter-tall mud statues of Buddha rose from the ground, standing to the left and right of the Curse Spirit like guardian deities.

But the half-open, half-closed eyes on these statues held no mercy or peace — only the same madness and brutality as the Curse Spirit itself.

The guaranteed-hit effect disappeared? No matter!

In its Domain, it still held absolute advantage!

As it continued to charge up, it didn't bother dodging or evading — instead, it looked straight at the human pointing a gun at it.

"Bullet No. 7."

Just as it prepared to unleash its full power, a soft and casual voice sounded.

The seventh bullet, capable of stopping time, entered its body.

And so, the two Buddhas mid-hand sign, and the Curse Spirit in the middle of its power-up, all became completely frozen, like petrified statues — unmoving.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Five gunshots rang out. In the next second, the Curse Spirit's head, chest, and limbs were blown apart.

Tokisaki Kurumi quickly emerged from the shadows and moved to its shattered remains.

Reaching into its chest cavity, she pulled out a withered finger.

The time stop of Bullet No. 7 soon wore off.

In the Curse Spirit's perception, just a moment ago, it had been charging its full-strength attack, intending to forever trap this human in its Domain as nourishment for its growth.

Yet in the very next moment, the source of its cursed energy had suddenly vanished, its body blown to pieces, and even its Domain Expansion could no longer be maintained.

It couldn't understand why its power had suddenly vanished, just as it couldn't understand why its power had increased exponentially earlier.

It desperately tried to use its remaining cursed energy to repair its body.

As a Special Grade Curse Spirit, as long as its cursed energy wasn't depleted and the majority of its body remained intact, it could still regenerate.

But now, having lost Sukuna finger and been reduced to a limbless stump, it had completely lost all regenerative abilities.

It writhed helplessly like a maggot. But it didn't last long — its remaining body gradually dissolved into free cursed energy and vanished into the air.

The Domain known as "Jizō Land of Disaster" crumbled into nothingness.

The surroundings returned to the calm of the Shibuya Eighty-Eight Bridge.

Everything was peaceful again.

Without sparing even a glance at the exorcised Curse Spirit, Tokisaki Kurumi examined the Sukuna Finger in her hand, pondering how best to use this Special Grade Cursed Object.

Feeding it to any curse would instantly elevate it to a Special Grade Curse, like the one just now. With this Sukuna Finger, she could repeatedly feed curses and exorcise them again, rapidly increasing her side mission completion rate.

"Wait... isn't this basically an exploit?"

"Will the system count it?"

[Invalid]

Just as she was scheming, the system unexpectedly popped up to shut down her idea of abusing a loophole.

"So one Sukuna Finger only counts as one Special Grade Curse."

Kurumi sighed with slight disappointment.

Since the system didn't recognize it as repeatable, there was no point feeding the Sukuna Finger to any other curse.

After all, accelerating a Sukuna-finger-eating curse to Special Grade level would cost at least twenty Bullet No. 3s.

And the Curse Spirits' life essence wasn't on the same level as Altair, who could act as an infinite power bank.

The City of Devouring Time absorbed "life" from others. For humans, that meant lifespan. So when absorbing from humans, it absorbed their lifespan cap.

For Curse Spirits, as she had already tested last night, it absorbed their cursed energy cap.

Once that energy was drained, the Curse Spirit died as well.

Using Bullet No. 3 to cultivate Special Grade Curses, just to extract cursed time, might not even be worth the cost.

Still, it wasn't exactly a loss either.

Bread was everywhere. If she just spent a little time absorbing a bit from everyone, the total would still be massive.

With the night's mission over and no further use for the Sukuna Finger, Tokisaki Kurumi tossed it into her Shadow Storage.

Just as she was about to leave, her Spirit-level senses suddenly picked up the feeling of being watched.

She slowly turned her head toward the shadows in the forest.

"You sensed me? What sharp instincts."

A figure stepped out of the forest into the cold moonlight.

It was a man with black hair and black eyes, with earlobes as large as a Buddha's, wearing a black monk's robe — he looked like a monk who had never shaved his head.

But the most disturbing part was his forehead, stitched shut as if someone had once cut his skull open. It was horrifying.

And yet, he wore a warm, gentle smile, seemingly harboring no hostility.

"Good evening, Miss Nightmare."