Around Morien's wounds, the injured skin began to peel away, turning into a tiny Butterfly the moment it fell off.
They detached from Morien's palm and grew in the air until they were the size of ordinary butterflies.
With every Butterfly that peeled away, Morien's wounds grew a little smaller until they healed completely.
It looked as though a tiny swarm was rapidly gnawing away at Morien's wounds, and the insects that fell away swiftly transformed into butterflies.
"Huh?" Haruta Shigemo let out a puzzled sound.
He could clearly sense that Morien had pitifully little Cursed Energy.
So how could he do something like this?
His senses were right, but unfortunately, Morien was the kind of shitty monster who could restore his own health and mana—and he had a second phase.
All over Morien's body, tiny butterflies grew from the large and small wounds Haruta Shigemo had slashed and stabbed into him as the wounds healed. The butterflies then took flight, grew larger, and circled around Morien.
Including the largest diagonal wound across his chest.
Very soon, Morien was surrounded by a swarm of deep-purple butterflies, which encircled him like layers of slanted rings.
Those butterflies looked roughly the same as ordinary ones and were about the same size, but their wings bore golden and orange-red patterns, some straight and some curved, forming designs that resembled eyelashless eyes.
"Congratulations." Morien adjusted his mask with his left hand and spread his right. "Next comes the boss's second phase."
The next instant, the Cursed Energy within Morien rapidly surged, and the manifested Cursed Energy changed form as well.
Deep-purple particles appeared within the blue flames. They looked like bubbles and Insect Eggs alike, constantly emerging, splitting, and bursting apart.
He fused the Path Power of Propagation and Elation into his Cursed Energy.
The Cursed Energy spread from Morien's hands throughout his body, quickly enveloping him entirely.
Even the butterflies began burning with blue-violet, particle-filled flames.
"Wh... what is this..." Feeling that suddenly amplified, bizarre Cursed Energy, beads of sweat formed at Haruta Shigemo's temples, and his smile became somewhat strained. "Are you a Cursed Spirit? A Butterfly Cursed Spirit?"
"What's with that Cursed Energy...?"
"Oh? Interested?" Morien glanced at the blue-violet, particle-filled Cursed Energy covering his body and suddenly recalled a concept.
[Binding Vow].
In the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, [Binding Vow] was something very important. One could trade away something beneficial to oneself in exchange for something else.
Put simply, it meant voluntarily turning oneself into an over-specialized God of Combat.
Among them, the most common [Binding Vow] was called "Revealing One's Hand."
By revealing one's abilities, one could gain a partial increase in their power.
Morien suddenly wondered whether things from other systems could become part of a [Binding Vow] in this world.
So Morien answered Haruta Shigemo's question.
"It's [Propagation]," Morien replied using the Resonance Curse Technique.
At that instant, Morien clearly felt the Path Power within him "jump."
It improved slightly.
Not much, but it was real.
Then Morien suddenly thought of something.
He seemed to know how to use the Resonance Curse Technique now.
Behind the mask, the corners of his mouth lifted into a grin.
"Hee."
He uttered a syllable.
"Propagation?" Haruta Shigemo looked somewhat confused. "So you're a Propagation Cursed Spirit?"
"How could that be? I'm human. Don't I look like one?" Morien looked at the butterflies around him. "They're so pretty."
After a pause, he continued.
"You don't know what [Propagation] is? That's fine. I'll tell you."
"Driven by the primal force of 'solitude,' the Path of [Propagation] manifests thus: replication, division, proliferation, Swarm, death upon isolation—these are [Propagation]."
Haruta Shigemo suddenly clutched his head and took a step back.
"Alright, alright, you don't need to repeat it."
His expression twisted as he spoke.
Inside his mind, Morien kept repeating what he had just said.
Again and again.
"I wasn't repeating myself." Morien's smile deepened beneath his mask.
"I told you. Replication and division are manifestations of [Propagation]."
The voices inside Haruta Shigemo's head grew more numerous and more chaotic.
They were no longer orderly. One voice followed another in layers, with a second sentence crowding in before the first had even finished.
Morien's explanation continued.
"My Cursed Technique is called the Resonance Curse Technique. It's an extremely weak, utterly mundane Cursed Technique."
"It cannot harm anyone. No matter how much Cursed Energy is poured into it, it cannot achieve any offensive effect. But in return, it has gained sufficient certainty. Creatures of any nationality or species can understand my words."
"In exchange for being 'absolutely harmless,' it gains 'the messages I transmit will almost certainly reach their destination.'"
Haruta Shigemo roared with a ferocious expression.
"I said, enough!"
Throwing caution to the wind, he charged at Morien and stabbed at him with his blade.
"But as I said, replication and division are manifestations of [Propagation]."
"My voice is also a part of me."
Morien casually dodged his now-disordered attacks, then punched him in the face.
Morien's fist, covered in Propagation Cursed Energy, struck Haruta Shigemo's face with a burst of crackling sounds.
Those tiny particles burst one after another, releasing streaks of deep-purple lightning.
Every egg that exploded sent a tiny deep-purple Butterfly flying out.
And the instant Morien's fist struck his face, hundreds of butterflies burst from their cocoons.
The tiny butterflies swarmed over Haruta Shigemo's face, covering it as they began tearing at his skin.
"Ah!" Haruta Shigemo screamed, staggering backward before falling to the ground.
Morien's "Revealing One's Hand" continued.
"For me, [Propagation], my voice can also be replicated and divided."
"Yet even if its numbers are divided countless times, the target can still understand every one of them precisely."
"But the human brain has limits."
"Trying to comprehend hundreds of statements at once—even the best mind will lag and be unable to bear it."
At that very moment, hundreds upon thousands of voices were playing repeatedly inside Haruta Shigemo's head. Because of Morien's Cursed Technique, he could clearly understand every single one, and none could be ignored.
"Well then, I've said more or less enough for my 'Revealing One's Hand.'" Morien walked to the side and picked up the cleaver that had fallen to the ground earlier.
"I'll say one last thing."
He looked at Haruta Shigemo.
"I can control Wish Power."
"I can turn people's wishes into Wish Power, absorb it, and bring it into reality as miracles."
"At this moment, within this Curtain, there are only two kinds of Wish Power."
He glanced at Ijichi, who was hiding in the corner.
"First, the wish for me to take you down."
Then he looked back at Haruta Shigemo.
"Second, the wish to torture others."
At that, he gave a quiet laugh.
"Heh heh, your wish really is..."
Morien took a step forward and slowly approached.
"But it's fine. I won't mock your wish."
"A wish is a wish. There is no distinction between noble and base."
Holding the cleaver, he walked to Haruta Shigemo, who lay on the ground curled up and clutching his head, then slowly crouched down beside him.
"So..."
"I'll fulfill both of these wishes properly."