Just as Miko was utterly despondent, believing that she and her friend were doomed to die here, the faint aura belonging to Sukuna that had been quietly lingering around her seemed to be activated by the intense clash of evil power before her, abruptly fluctuating.
On the far side of the city, Sukuna, who was supervising Eriri's drawing, suddenly had his four crimson eyes light up.
'Oh?'
'Isn't that the little girl from last time? And the woman next to her? Not bad, her flesh looks quite delicious, and the energy within her is plentiful.'
'Interesting.' Sukuna's lips curled into a grin.
He was in need of more high-quality collections and sustenance, and this seemed like a good opportunity.
That little girl with the special eyes had a soul of considerable value.
That little girl brimming with life energy was an even rarer, high-quality material.
As for those two trash-tier evil spirits confronting each other, he might as well kill them along the way and gain a bit of Cursed Energy.
His consciousness instantly traversed space, resounding in the mind of the nearly broken Miko—deep, imposing, and filled with an irresistible allure.
"Little girl, it seems you need help. Compared to those two pieces of garbage about to tear you apart, don't I seem much more reliable?"
Miko shuddered violently.
Sukuna's voice, at this moment, sounded like a lifeline, even though she knew this lifeline might lead to a deeper hell.
"Same old terms. Sign the contract, pay the price, and you'll gain the power to solve the trouble before you with your own hands. As for the price... since you're so pitiful this time, I will be generous. I'll take your body. Of course, I won't take your life. After all, a dead thing is worthless. How about it?"
Miko's face turned deathly pale, her lips trembling.
But looking at Hana, trembling with fear yet still clutching her tightly beside her, and at the two terrifying beings closing in step by step, she closed her eyes.
"I..."
"Miko! No!"
Hana couldn't hear Sukuna's words, but she saw the resolute expression on Miko's face. An ominous premonition gripped her heart.
She didn't know the specifics, but she knew Miko was about to do something terrible for her.
"I agree." Miko suddenly opened her eyes, tears welling up, yet a light of desperate determination flashed within.
"I'll sign the contract. As long as you can save Hana and deal with these things, the price... I'll pay."
"Good." Sukuna's voice carried satisfaction.
"Wait!" Hana suddenly shouted.
Though she didn't understand the situation, a powerful intuition and her deep friendship with Miko, which connected their hearts, made her blurt out, "Miko! Whatever it is, we'll face it together! If there's a price to pay, I'll pay it too! I absolutely won't let you bear it alone!"
She tightly grasped Miko's ice-cold hand, her eyes showing an unprecedented firmness and bravery. Her life energy even surged slightly under this resolve.
"...?"
Sukuna seemed momentarily taken aback, then let out a low, more delighted chuckle.
"Haha... Interesting. Fine, I permit it. Yurikawa Hana, the contract's price, you shall bear half. When needed in the future, your life energy and flesh must also provide assistance. A dual contract, a shared price. Sign it."
Two invisible, dark-red contract runes, composed of the purest Cursed Energy and rules, materialized out of thin air and respectively sank into the foreheads of Miko and Hana. Both felt a simultaneous tremor in their souls, a deep-seated binding and connection had been established.
A cold notification flowed through Sukuna's consciousness, but he was more interested in the harvest to come.
[Confirmation: Successfully collected special soul vessel 'Yotsuya Miko.']
[Reward Issued: Soul Strength moderately enhanced, Total Cursed Energy increased, Perception and Interference Abilities towards Spiritual Entities strengthened.]
[Confirmation: Successfully collected high-dimensional life energy vessel 'Yurikawa Hana.']
[Reward Issued: Acquired special derived skill 'Flesh Creation.' Capable of constructing, repairing, and limited optimization of flesh tissues.]
The moment the contract was established, power surged violently into Miko's body through the invisible link. But she couldn't control this overly berserk power, her consciousness was gently yet firmly pushed to the background.
Sukuna's will formally descended, taking control of Miko's body.
Under Hana's horrified, despairing gaze, her best friend—that always gentle, slightly timid Miko with clear eyes—underwent a terrifying transformation.
The first change was her eyes. Those brown, deer-like eyes, full of panic, gentleness, and endurance, had their pupils suddenly contract, then be forcibly stretched and altered.
Four searing, crimson, eerie light trails, resembling molten fissures or the vertical pupils of a beast, replaced the original rounded pupils, burning into existence on the whites of her eyes.
This wasn't a simple overlay, it was more like heterogeneous light, bursting forth from within her eyeballs—cold, tyrannical, full of condescending scrutiny and a desire for destruction, forming an extremely chilling contrast with Miko's soft facial features.
Two cuts appeared beneath her eye sockets, as if sliced by the sharpest blade.
Deep within the gap was not flesh and blood, but a dark-red glow.
Then, two vertical eyes with slit pupils like a reptile's, wuddenly opened from those two fissures. They turned coldly, scanning the surroundings. Wherever their gaze fell, even the air seemed to wail.
Miko's expression had completely changed. Her habitual nervous lip-pursing, the slight frown from fear—all vanished.
The corners of her lips slowly curled upward into a cold, sinister smile, forming an arc of cruel delight and absolute arrogance that Miko herself would never be capable of.
Thick, viscous, dark-red Cursed Energy, rose like tangible flames from every pore on her body. Behind her, it faintly outlined the terrifying phantom of a four-armed figure. Though vague, it brought soul-piercing oppression.
Sukuna twisted his neck, emitting a faint 'crack' sound, as if adapting to this relatively fragile yet uniquely perceptive temporary vessel.
He raised both hands, palms facing each other.
"Let's use you all to test the feel of this new toy, and the limits of this body's capacity."
"Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine."
Sukuna's low, authoritative proclamation, rang out.
The entire scenery of the shrine and the surrounding forest, centered on the scorched earth where 'Miko' stood, began to violently distort, ripple, and then be completely overwritten and replaced, like a water's surface reflection disturbed by a thrown stone.
An intangible boundary expanded instantaneously, swallowing everything within a radius of several hundred meters.
A terrifying amount of Cursed Energy, like a tangible tsunami, erupted violently from Sukuna as the core, filling every inch of the domain's space.
This was not merely vast in quantity, but an absolute qualitative overwhelm, carrying the millennia-accumulated brutality of slaughter and the ultimate interpretation of the concept of 'cleaving.'
Hana, standing at the domain's edge even though not the primary target, felt as if her soul was pressed by countless cold blades. Each heartbeat was heavy, breathing was difficult, and her body and mind trembled uncontrollably—the most primal fear when a life form is looked down upon by an absolutely higher existence.
Even the other low-level evil spirits and impurities, drawn by the evil and energy erupting here, growing restless, the moment the Malevolent Shrine was deployed, froze, abruptly halting outside the domain's boundary, whimpering in fear and not daring to cross the line.
The terrifying aura emanating from the domain itself was an absolute dispelling force against all lower existences.
***
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