Tamamo-no-Mae crossed over one Cursed Spirit after another, finally returning to the center of the Sendai Barrier.
The Cursed Technique Burnout caused by her Domain Expansion was also rapidly recovering.
"Damn it, what exactly is going on in this era?"
Tamamo-no-Mae stomped her foot angrily.
"Forget about that kid who plays with shadows, but what's with that fox-eyed, weird-bangs guy? How can he subdue Yamata no Orochi?"
Tamamo-no-Mae recalled another piece of information.
It was something she had learned back when she was still sealed within the Sesshoseki, silently manipulating the Sanzu Kawa to search for her fragments.
This era had given birth to the strongest Six Eyes in history.
The birth of that Six Eyes had even altered the world's balance.
In ancient times, there had been cases where the Ten Shadows Technique and the Six Eyes had perished together.
"Does this era really have a third such monster?"
"What kind of era have I been revived into?"
At this moment, Tamamo-no-Mae even felt the urge to sleep for another few hundred years, to wait until all these monsters had died of old age before coming out for revenge.
The confidence she once had was now shaken to its core.
"No, I still have a chance..."
Forcing herself to calm down, Tamamo-no-Mae began observing the ongoing battles across the Sendai Barrier.
She first looked toward the North Gate.
That was where the weakest Cursed Energy fluctuations had been detected by her scouts, and where she had deployed the most Cursed Spirits.
The commander stationed there was Dhruv, an elder who had fought countless wars and quelled rebellions.
Tamamo-no-Mae trusted this old man. Though not among the top-tier fighters, his experience and strategic insight were unmatched.
However, after searching for a long time, she could not find Dhruv anywhere.
On the North Gate battlefield, the Cursed Spirits had once again advanced to the front lines.
The previous barrage of artillery had temporarily forced them back, allowing the defense to regroup.
But that had also depleted a massive amount of ammunition.
Now, the North Gate had shifted from suppressive fire to coordinated, targeted shots.
The Tokyo Jujutsu High students and civilian sorcerers were also fighting at full strength.
Tamamo-no-Mae's eyes fell on a man with a magnificent physique and an aura as wild as a beast, charging back and forth through her Cursed Spirit army.
Yuki, who had endured Dhruv's Domain for three minutes, had exhausted quite a lot of her Cursed Energy.
She was no longer performing large-scale annihilations of Cursed Spirits, instead focusing on finding and exorcising Advanced-class ones.
Meanwhile, Toji, that terrifyingly relentless man, was still rampaging like a mad beast within the Cursed Spirit ranks.
Besides those two Special Grades, Mei Mei was the most active in combat.
The great axe in her hands swung down with unstoppable force, cleaving one Cursed Spirit after another like logs being split for firewood.
"One million in hand... where's the next million..."
Her eyes gleamed with excitement as she looked at the Cursed Spirits.
The Jujutsu Headquarters had placed a bounty on every Cursed Spirit exorcised, much like how heads were counted for rewards in ancient wars.
Because of that, Mei Mei's fighting spirit burned brighter than ever.
Next was the West Gate, the most chaotic battlefield of all.
Initially, Tamamo-no-Mae hadn't paid much attention to the West Gate.
Her main assault was directed at the North Gate, and the secondary at the East Gate.
She had merely assigned Ootengu to suppress the West Gate.
However, what she hadn't expected was that Ootengu had not only failed to suppress the West Gate, but the entire Cursed Spirit army there was collapsing and scattering.
Tamamo-no-Mae soon found the reason why.
A white-haired figure, graceful and catlike, was weaving through the Cursed Spirit army, exorcising everything in his path with lethal elegance.
One after another, the Advanced Cursed Spirits she had been controlling through her Spirit Butterfly Technique were exorcised by him.
"How does he know which ones I'm controlling? Wait... white hair, blue eyes... that guy is the Six Eyes?"
At that moment, Satoru was dancing through the battlefield of the West Gate.
"One, two, three, four~, five, six, seven, eight..."
After finishing a round of Jujutsu calisthenics, he punched another Cursed Spirit to death with his bare fists.
Then, performing a graceful backflip, he dodged several attacks effortlessly.
"My Cursed Technique Burnout has recovered quite a bit..."
Satoru looked down at his hands. The joints flexed sharply, and a small blue orb appeared in his palm.
Cursed Technique Reversal: Blue.
"Hmm, not bad, not bad. What shall we play next?"
He glanced around at the battlefield.
Most of the Advanced Cursed Spirits had already been exorcised.
The remaining ones were fleeing in confusion now that their commanders were gone.
Some, drawn by the scent of human Cursed Energy, charged recklessly toward the West Gate defensive line.
But many more were scattering aimlessly in all directions.
"Huh? What's that?"
Satoru's gaze fell on a Cursed Spirit about ten meters tall, cylindrical and oddly proportioned.
The image of the creature shifted in his mind.
Disgusting Cursed Spirit. Round Cursed Spirit. Hot dog. No, no, that's insulting to an actual hot dog.
Finally, Satoru settled on a name.
"A gopher. Yosh, let's play Whac-A-Mole."
He grinned.
The Blue in his hand expanded, growing into a small man-sized black hole.
"Heave-ho."
Satoru leapt high, raising the Blue above his head like a hammer.
With a single swing, he smashed it down.
The "gopher" Cursed Spirit was instantly torn apart, its ten-meter-tall body shredded by the gravitational force, disintegrating into Cursed Energy and fragments.
"Next one. Ah, this one's good."
Satoru turned toward another massive Cursed Spirit, eyes gleaming with excitement.
Nearby, the defenders at the West Gate let out a collective sigh of relief as the number of large Cursed Spirits dwindled rapidly.
"East Gate... The East Gate has Koko and that battle maniac. It should be fine."
As for the South Gate, Tamamo-no-Mae had just escaped from there after being overwhelmed.
She turned her gaze toward the East Gate with her final bit of hope.
And then, that hope shattered completely.
The situation at the East Gate was nothing like she expected.
If the North Gate was a true battlefield, the South Gate was a banquet.
Suguru was like a college student at his first all-you-can-eat buffet, devouring until his stomach could hold no more, yet still eating with tears in his eyes.
The West Gate was an amusement park.
Satoru was joyfully inviting Cursed Spirits to play one entertaining (and fatal) game after another.
The East Gate, however, was a farm.
Under Medea's spell, countless Rabbit Escapes hopped through the battlefield, carrying faint lure scents.
Cursed Spirits chased the adorable creatures in droves, completely entranced.
The Dragon Tooth Soldiers and Jujutsu Sorcerers, acting as diligent farmers, harvested wave after wave of low-grade Cursed Spirits.
The Advanced Cursed Spirits had already been mostly wiped out by Eichi and Artoria.
The sorcerers stationed at the East Gate felt almost moved to tears.
To be able to slaughter Cursed Spirits that outnumbered them by hundreds of times—it was something they could brag about for life.
Boom.
A massive, gorilla-like Cursed Spirit lunged forward, grabbing a Rabbit Escape and opening its mouth to devour it.
"Hey! Bunnies are cute, how dare you try to eat one? Take this! My Thousand Years of Death!"
The sorcerer raised his long sword and stabbed.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)