Overwhelming Force

"Domain Expansion-"

"All-Enveloping Garbhadhatu!"

Faced with Gu Yanzhi and Mishima's pincer attack, Uro knew she could not easily evade them, so she simply formed a hand sign and expanded her domain.

A black barrier burst outward from her, rapidly spreading into a sealed hemisphere that engulfed Gu Yanzhi, Mishima, and the swarms of cockroaches filling the air.

Eerie blue flames bloomed throughout the domain, bathing its interior in strange, cold hues. Veils descended from the sky, their translucent fabric drifting gently through the air.

Uro floated at the center of the domain. The space around her rippled like water, her long hair drifting gently amid the spatial undulations.

The instant Gu Yanzhi and Mishima entered the domain, they lost control of their bodies. It was as though an invisible giant hand had seized them and hurled them away.

Uro slowly exhaled. To think this cockroach had pushed her this far.

Her attack on Kurourushi had originally been nothing more than an ambush. She had never intended to expand her domain.

First, others in the Sendai Colony were watching for an opening. The other Heavenly Kings were no pushovers, and the Cursed Technique burnout following Domain Expansion would leave her at her most vulnerable. Someone might well ambush her.

Second, keeping a trump card in reserve always gave her greater confidence.

But Kurourushi's strength far exceeded her expectations. Even after her opening ambush had severely wounded him, he had still unleashed such tremendous power. Faced with Gu Yanzhi and Mishima's pincer attack just now, she had no choice but to play that trump card.

Uro swept her gaze over the two men sprawled on the ground. Mishima lay facedown at the edge of the domain, the Festering Life Sword several steps away. The wounds left by the cockroaches' bites were still bleeding.

He was already barely clinging to life, his chest rising and falling more faintly by the moment. Uro did not spare him another glance-a brat with only one breath left did not warrant a finishing blow. She turned her gaze back to Gu Yanzhi. He was her real target.

She no longer considered Gu Yanzhi a threat at all. Within her own domain, she was absolutely confident she could kill this Cursed Spirit.

What truly troubled her was the Cursed Technique burnout after she dismissed her domain. During that period, she would be unable to use her Cursed Technique. If someone ambushed her then, she would be at a severe disadvantage.

She had to finish this quickly, end the fight before the others reacted, then find somewhere safe to ride out the burnout.

Gu Yanzhi pushed his battered body off the ground and clicked his tongue.

Things had gotten tricky. She had used Domain Expansion after all-which was precisely why he had tried so hard to avoid fighting the other Heavenly Kings head-on.

He had no Domain Expansion, nor any other effective means of dealing with a domain.

Although the threat posed by other powerful opponents made them relatively unlikely to expand their domains, once one of them did, he had absolutely no way to counter it.

Uro hovered in the air and raised one hand.

The surrounding cockroach swarms seemed to be wrapped in an enormous sheet of gauze. Invisible spatial forces squeezed them toward the center from every direction, gathering them into a writhing black sphere.

Then she flicked her index finger, firing a Thin Ice Breaker through the compressed swarm.

The shock wave exploded inside the swarm. Thick green and white fluids rained down alongside severed limbs and fragments of carapace, carpeting the ground in sticky remains.

That was her domain's effect. Previously, she had needed both hands to tug at space, but within the domain, that restriction vanished completely. Every part of the domain's space moved at her will. No hands, no gestures-with a thought, she could fold, twist, and pull space. The windup for Thin Ice Breaker had also become considerably shorter.

Uro raised her hand and fired another Thin Ice Breaker. The Cursed Energy projectile left her fingertip, but rather than flying straight at Gu Yanzhi, it traced a bizarre arc through the air as though it had a mind of its own, circling the floating veils and snaking toward him.

Gu Yanzhi cried out in alarm, concentrating all his Cursed Energy in his left hand to take the hit head-on.

Thin Ice Breaker slammed squarely into his left arm, the shock wave blasting his carapace to pieces.

He spat out a mouthful of green blood. His entire left arm had been mangled beyond recognition-the carapace had shattered completely, exposing the muscle beneath, and green blood poured from ruptured vessels.

Taking that hit had been brutal. His left hand was completely ruined, dangling at his side like a scrap of meat hanging from his shoulder.

But he had noticed something. That Thin Ice Breaker's trajectory had been strange-not a straight line, nor the sweeping flanking arc she had used before. It had twitched several times in flight.

A suspicion formed in Gu Yanzhi's mind. Just as the thought arose, Uro fired another Thin Ice Breaker at him.

This time, he did not rush to block. Instead, he focused all his attention on the incoming Thin Ice Breaker. Just as it reached his face, Gu Yanzhi abruptly twisted aside.

Thin Ice Breaker skimmed past his cheek and continued straight behind him, striking a small cluster of cockroaches that remained there.

I guessed right.

To anyone else, dodging a "sure-hit" Cursed Technique within a domain would have looked like a waste of energy. But he had realized that the first Thin Ice Breaker had probably twitched because Uro was correcting her aim. If it was guaranteed to hit, why would she need to adjust her aim?

That meant her domain actually enhanced her abilities, removing the restrictions that had previously required her to use both hands and prevented her from attacking from every angle. It did not possess a true "sure-hit" effect.

Although those absurd changes in trajectory were practically no different from a guaranteed hit, evasion was still possible if he intercepted the attacks with his swarms beforehand or predicted when they would change course.

Gu Yanzhi had successfully dodged the attack and used his swarm to absorb that Thin Ice Breaker, preventing it from turning around for another strike.

In that case, I can release swarms to intercept them in advance-as long as I position them along Thin Ice Breaker's flight path, they can take the hit before it changes course. I might have a chance.

Uro smiled faintly in midair. "Not bad. You actually figured it out."

"But-"

The moment she finished speaking, dozens of Thin Ice Breakers shot out simultaneously, hurtling toward Gu Yanzhi from different angles.

Gu Yanzhi's face twisted in shock. "Fuck!" he cursed, before the barrage of Thin Ice Breakers engulfed him.

After taking so many attacks, Gu Yanzhi was a ghastly wreck, no longer remotely human in shape. Only half his head remained, his compound eyes had all shattered, and his carapace had been blasted into thousands of fragments scattered across the bottom of the crater.

A few scraps of flesh hung from what could still be called his body. Green blood seeped from every wound.

His gaze gradually lost focus as the familiar sensation of death washed over him.

Uro slowly descended and landed before Gu Yanzhi's ruined body. She nudged the remains of his head with the tip of her foot, confirming that he could no longer resist.

"Let's see you wriggle your way out of this."

Gu Yanzhi's mouth moved, producing his final words-so low and soft that he seemed to be muttering to himself, or speaking to someone who was not there.

"I'm going on ahead. Give it your best."

Uro frowned.

What did he just say? His voice had been too quiet for her to make it out. But no matter how she looked at him, this Cursed Spirit was dead-his Cursed Energy fluctuations were rapidly dissipating, and his signs of life were so faint she could barely sense them.

She raised her head, preparing to dismiss her domain. At that very instant, a crisp cracking sound came from overhead.

Uro jerked her head up.

A fine crack had appeared in the domain's barrier and was rapidly spreading like a spiderweb.

Something was striking her barrier from outside.

The cracks grew wider and denser. Then some force smashed the entire barrier apart from the outside.

Black swarms filled the sky-more numerous, denser, and more frenzied than the ones the domain had trapped earlier.

They poured through the breach like a tide, blotting out the sky. Every cockroach beat its wings furiously, producing a deafening rustle.

Uro took a step back.

A familiar rasping voice came from another direction.

"I... I like the taste of iron!!"