"So the ones who attacked us earlier were all Special Grade Cursed Spirits?"
Hearing Makima's words, Miwa Kasumi and Nishimiya Momo's bodies trembled involuntarily.
No wonder they had been completely outmatched. They had actually been besieged by three Special Grade Cursed Spirits at once.
At once, the two girls were filled with the feeling of having narrowly escaped death.
If Makima had not arrived in time, even if they had somehow survived, they probably would not have ended up well.
"We understand, Lady Makima. We'll leave as soon as possible."
Feeling that she could barely draw upon cursed energy again, Nishimiya Momo picked up the broom she had dropped earlier. Miwa Kasumi, beside her, wanted to see whether she could recover her katana, but when she saw that even the fragments had been corroded beyond recognition, she could only give up with a pained expression.
"You can leave the forest by following this way. The barrier outside will not prevent you from entering or leaving."
Makima reminded them.
"Yes. Then may Lady Makima's actions go smoothly."
After leaving behind one final blessing, one girl sat on her broom and flew through the air with her technique, while the other limped toward the edge of the forest on the ground.
Watching their departing figures, Makima's previous expression gradually calmed. Then she turned and headed toward the other battlefield in the distance.
She was not surprised that the three Cursed Womb Death Painting brothers had appeared here. Not long ago, a high-ranking member of the Jujutsu World whom she had controlled had inexplicably died, then used the authority of his position after death to employ certain methods and steal Death Paintings One through Three. She knew all about it; she simply had not cared.
She had not even cared about Mahito's attack on the Director's Council today. Even if Sukuna's fingers were stolen, they would ultimately only find another way to be eaten by Itadori Yuji. Where the fingers went was completely irrelevant.
From beginning to end, her only target had been Choso. Makima needed the research and knowledge he had accumulated in jujutsu over a thousand years to help her establish a Jujutsu World organization that would be more beneficial to her master without being too widespread among ordinary people.
For that, she needed a foolproof opportunity—an opportunity to make Choso appear before her.
The four Disaster Cursed Spirits were precisely the pawns capable of creating such an opportunity.
It was not as though the three Cursed Womb Death Painting brothers could not be used, but their effect would probably not be as good as the Disaster Cursed Spirits'.
"I need to get there quickly. I hope little Seele doesn't hit them too hard."
Boom!!!
A small body containing an abnormally immense amount of cursed energy slammed into the ground like a cannonball. Leaking Pot no longer knew how many times it had repaired its body.
Rising from the ground and staring at the scythe-wielding girl before it, the Cursed Spirit born from humanity's fear of the earth—the strongest among the four Disaster Cursed Spirits—wore a savage expression. Its huge single eye had somehow become bloodshot.
"Why? Why is a mere human stronger than us Cursed Spirits? They are clearly nothing but a pack of hypocritical, ugly creatures!"
As it spoke, Leaking Pot gathered all the cursed energy in its body. The surrounding temperature instantly soared, and the trees caught fire beneath the intense heat.
The magma within the crater atop its head churned ever more violently. In the next instant, a thick pillar of fire erupted forth, piercing everything within hundreds of meters in the blink of an eye and leaving behind a path covered in magma.
Though Hanami, who had already recovered, grieved over the destruction of the forest, it could not afford to care about that now. Countless thick branches burst out of the earth and swept toward Seele, who had evaded Leaking Pot's attack.
Slash!
The scythe swung, and every branch rushing at her was severed in two.
At the same time, Seele sidestepped Leaking Pot's sneak attack, then kicked it flying once more, sending it crashing heavily into the ground.
By now, both Leaking Pot and Hanami had realized that the human before them seemed to be deliberately holding back. She had had several chances to seriously wound them with her weapon, yet had only forced them back each time.
This behavior was practically like trapping them here for her own amusement.
"Damn human, are you humiliating us?!"
Faced with Seele standing calmly in the distance as though she had not taken them seriously at all, Leaking Pot gritted its teeth in fury.
Yet the more things were like this, the less it could lose its reason. Leaking Pot forced itself to calm down and consider what the meaning of her actions was.
She would neither let them leave nor decisively kill them...
Was she playing cat and mouse? No, that did not seem quite right. The human girl had trapped it and Hanami here without allowing them to leave. It felt more as though she were waiting for someone to come deal with them.
Suddenly, Hanami turned to look in a certain direction. Despite its muscular body, its voice was more feminine in tone.
"The auras of the other three curses have vanished. The intervals were extremely short. They were likely eliminated simultaneously within a short period of time."
"What?!"
Leaking Pot found that hard to believe.
The intervals between their auras vanishing had been extremely short. Three Special Grade Cursed Spirits had likely been eliminated at nearly the same time.
How could humans possibly accomplish something like that?
Meanwhile, Seele also sensed the cursed auras from the other battlefield disappear.
"It seems Sister Makima has already finished her battle."
"Then Seele should finish things here quickly too."
Staring at the two Disaster Cursed Spirits before her, Seele spoke quietly.
"Please, my other self!"
Failure to Win Them Over, Leaking Pot's Reluctance
"Please, my other self."
As Seele spoke, streams of black-red cursed energy emerged, and Black Seele's figure slowly appeared beside Seele.
"Yes, yes. Honestly, what am I supposed to do with you?"
Compared to the support-oriented Power of Creation, the Power of Withering, which was more suited for battle, was undoubtedly the better choice for ending the fight quickly.
Still, that did not stop Black Seele from making such a remark when she appeared.
"As expected, my earlier senses were not mistaken. A fellow of our kind truly resides within you."
When Leaking Pot had previously discussed the newly emerged Special Grade jujutsu sorcerer in the Jujutsu World, it had not deliberately mentioned that a powerful Cursed Spirit seemed to reside within her. Thus, only now did Leaking Pot finally confirm its earlier suspicions.
It was not that Leaking Pot had deliberately concealed it. Rather, in its estimation, Seele alone could not even defeat one Cursed Spirit. Even if it knew a Cursed Spirit lived within her, what would that mean? Unlike Itadori Yuji, who served as Sukuna's vessel, she could not be treated as a pawn. She herself was a Special Grade jujutsu sorcerer whose threat level rivaled Gojo Satoru's.
In Leaking Pot's plan, a Cursed Spirit only responsible for buying time had no chance of encountering Black Seele at all.
After all, a terrifying Cursed Spirit whose strength might at least rival Gojo Satoru was not likely to be an easy character to deal with. How could she possibly reveal herself so casually?
Well, considering strength alone, the one Leaking Pot had used as a reference was two-faced Sukuna.
But clearly, Leaking Pot's guess had probably been wrong.
"You can manifest independently outside the vessel's body? Does that mean you have already broken free of the vessel's restrictions and regained a degree of freedom?"
"If so, why do you still remain by a human's side? As one of our kind, why not join us and create a world belonging to curses?"
Leaking Pot spoke with a solemn expression, attempting to persuade Black Seele to join the Cursed Spirits' camp.
Black Seele's terrifying cursed-energy aura and manner of existence clearly marked her as a curse. Since she was a curse, her position was naturally opposed to humanity's. Was it not only natural for her to leave those hypocritical and ugly humans and join their side?
"Huh?"
Hearing Leaking Pot's words, Black Seele turned around. Her black-red eyes, brimming with malice, stared at the two Cursed Spirits before her, her expression filled with disgust.
"Don't compare me to filthy things like you. I have no interest in creating some world of curses with sewer rats like yourselves."
Cursed energy filled with the aura of death slowly spilled outward, immediately causing Leaking Pot and Hanami to feel enormous pressure.
Black Seele, now manifested independently, was dressed somewhat differently from Seele beside her. Her overall appearance was dominated by black and red, and she wore a long dress adorned with chains—the attire of Twin Flames of the Other Shore.
"Since this is Seele's rare request, if you do not want to suffer too much, I advise you not to resist."
"Also, if I remember correctly, you seemed to look down on Seele when the battle first began, didn't you?"
Her black-red eyes stared directly at Leaking Pot. The strongest of the four Disaster Cursed Spirits fell silent.
"So you refuse to stand with us. Despite being such a powerful curse, you are willing to be controlled by humans."
"In that case..."
Forming a particular gesture with its hands, Leaking Pot spoke to Hanami beside it.
"Hanami, do your best to hold that human back. I'll eliminate this curse as quickly as possible. Then we'll retreat together."
The auras of their companions on the other battlefield had already vanished. Enemy reinforcements were likely on their way.
Under such circumstances, no matter how much Leaking Pot and Hanami wanted to buy Mahito more time, they had to consider retreating.
Still, escaping from the hands of that powerful human jujutsu sorcerer would not be easy, let alone with another curse standing on her side.
Therefore, it had to eliminate the curse before it could have a chance to retreat safely with Hanami.
With that thought, the cursed energy accumulated within its body suddenly erupted. Facing Black Seele, Leaking Pot unleashed its greatest trump card.
Domain Expansion: Coffin of the Iron Mountain!
A pitch-black environment instantly spread out from Leaking Pot, engulfing everything before them. The forest transformed into a volcanic region covered in magma.
Scorching heat assailed them from every direction. In this environment, not only would Leaking Pot's flames and magma become especially powerful, but its attacks would also gain the Domain's guaranteed-hit effect.
Given Leaking Pot's already formidable offensive power, any ordinary jujutsu sorcerer who entered its Domain would be either dead or crippled from even a slight hit.
Yet in this environment, Black Seele's expression did not change in the slightest. She merely watched Leaking Pot calmly, as though watching it perform.
"Use whatever other methods you have. Otherwise, you will not get another chance."
"Arrogant!"
Flames several times hotter than those outside surged from Leaking Pot's hands, only to be dissolved by the black-red cursed energy surrounding Black Seele before they could touch her body.
"How is that possible?"
Leaking Pot's eyes widened in disbelief.
It had not held back at all in that attack. Within this Domain, every one of its attacks was equivalent to its full power under normal circumstances.
And yet, its attack had been blocked by the other side's cursed energy alone?
"With power this weak, you still dream of creating a world of curses?"
Black-red claws materialized from thin air, piercing through Leaking Pot's body in an instant.
"With strength like this, what will you use to create a world of curses? Will you just shout about it with your mouths?"
The black-red claws dragged Leaking Pot's body before her, and Black Seele spoke with a mocking expression.
"You... You are merely a curse completely enslaved by humans. Both your body and mind have already been tamed. How could you understand our great ideal..."
As the cursed energy on the claws continuously eroded its body, Leaking Pot endured the pain and spoke with regret.
In the next moment, black-red cursed energy containing the Power of Withering flooded into Leaking Pot's body, completely stripping the Disaster Cursed Spirit of its ability to resist.
Black Seele could not even be bothered to answer Leaking Pot's words.
After all, what was wrong with being enslaved? For clones manifested by their master, was it not perfectly natural to be commanded and used by their master?
Their master's kindness could never be repaid. As long as their master was happy, that was the greatest happiness for them.
Cold, deathly cursed energy continuously flooded its body. Leaking Pot's consciousness grew increasingly hazy, but it still forced itself to hold on and sense the cursed energy within itself.
"Is this your ability? This power... it is practically the embodiment of death itself..."
"Yes, you can think of it that way."
Was the power of withering not the embodiment of death? Of the Herrscher of Life and Death's two authorities, the authority representing life was creation, while the authority representing death was naturally withering.
"I see. A curse born from humanity's fear of death—no wonder you are so powerful."
But a curse born from such a powerful concept should have been the most reliable companion of curses and Cursed Spirits like them. Why did she obey humans instead?
Holding onto such unwilling thoughts, Leaking Pot's Domain, no longer supported by it, dissolved as well.
The Controlled Leaking Pot and Hanami
The magma-covered Domain dispersed, reverting to the scenery outside.
Outside the Domain, Seele stood to one side with her scythe in hand. Beside her was Hanami, which had somehow been bisected at the waist once again.
Clearly, while Black Seele had dealt with Leaking Pot, Seele had also dealt with the forest Cursed Spirit outside the Domain.
"Alright, this one no longer has the ability to resist. We can just leave it like this."
After throwing Leaking Pot's body together with Hanami, Black Seele returned to Seele's side.
"Then, is my other self going back now?"
Before you continue