Chapter 110 (Patreon)

Onstage, every eye in the Tokyo Dome was fixed on Riko Amanai.

Then, without warning, the underground stage lift began to rise.

A woman’s corpse slowly emerged behind Riko.

The instant it came into view, everyone froze—including Riko herself.

“Wait… What is this? Nobody told me about this.”

She pressed a hand against her earpiece, but no one answered. Only faint bursts of static crackled through the receiver.

——————

“That’s… a Cursed Spirit.”

Satoru Gojo shot to his feet.

He was about to move when the ground suddenly split apart.

Countless trees erupted from beneath the stadium, their thick roots and branches tearing through concrete and steel. One unfortunate spectator was impaled before he even had a chance to scream.

“Ragnar! Riko—”

“I see her.” Ragnar Kagenou clicked his tongue. “So it survived after all. Persistent thing.”

The moment those roots appeared, Ragnar knew exactly which Cursed Spirit was responsible.

Among the known Special Grade Cursed Spirits, only Hanami possessed a Cursed Technique capable of controlling plants on such a scale.

Most of the people in the stadium could not see the Cursed Spirit itself. To them, trees had simply burst from the ground without warning, violating every law of nature.

Dozens of golden ripples spread through the air behind Ragnar, each one aimed at the corpse beside Riko.

A volley of Noble Phantasms shot forward.

They tore through the trees obstructing their path and descended upon the corpse.

Bang!

A cloud of dust exploded across the stage.

“Cough… Cough… What was that?”

Riko raised an arm to shield her face.

When the dust finally cleared, she saw a golden longsword driven through the corpse, pinning it firmly to the floor.

“This weapon… It belongs to Ragnar.”

Her expression stiffened.

“Then that thing must be connected to a Cursed Spirit.”

Riko turned toward the spectator stands.

Massive roots had already swallowed several sections of seating. In one corner of the stadium, golden light shone brilliantly through the darkness, impossible to miss.

This was a Cursed Spirit attack.

She had to escape.

Riko knew better than most that ordinary humans were completely helpless before Cursed Spirits.

However, the moment she tried to run, something caught her ankle.

She stumbled and fell hard against the stage.

Looking back, she saw a pale severed hand wrapped around her leg. Plants and thin roots grew from the exposed cross-section of its wrist.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

More Noble Phantasms rained down around Riko, obliterating the corpses and roots attempting to approach her.

She hurriedly pushed herself up, but before she could leave, the corpse’s severed head rolled to a stop beside her.

“Eh…?”

A brilliant red rose slowly bloomed from inside its skull.

Its petals were vivid and strangely beautiful.

Yet the moment Riko saw what lay at its centre, all the blood drained from her face.

An eye stared back at her from within the flower, studying her from head to toe.

“You will do.”

Before Riko could react, Hanami shot from the rose and burrowed into her right eye.

A sharp, burning pain tore through her skull.

“Agh—!”

Riko clutched her eye and collapsed, unable to move as the agony spread through her body.

The Tokyo Dome descended into complete chaos.

Nearly one hundred thousand terrified people surged toward the exits at once. Screams echoed through the stadium as the crowd trampled over anyone unfortunate enough to fall.

Many were crushed to death before the Cursed Spirits could even reach them.

“Damn it.”

Gojo clicked his tongue.

“Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue.”

An azure sphere formed above his hand.

The surrounding space distorted violently.

Every tree root within range was ripped from the ground along with shattered seats, broken concrete, twisted steel, and chunks of the arena floor.

“Ragnar! More corpses are coming out of the ground!”

Ragnar looked down.

Human bodies were clawing their way free from beneath the stadium. Their organs and limbs had been partially replaced by wood, roots, flowers, and other plant matter.

“Gojo, leave the trees for now. Something is wrong with Riko. Go to her.”

Ragnar opened the Gate of Babylon once more.

Golden ripples appeared throughout the Tokyo Dome, spreading across the walls, ceiling, spectator stands, and stage.

The moment one of the parasitised corpses raised its head above the ground, a Noble Phantasm struck it.

None of them were given the chance to stand.

Their bodies were shredded before they could fully emerge, reduced to mangled flesh beneath the relentless golden barrage.

“Got it.”

Crash!

Gojo used Blue to tear apart the remaining trees and debris blocking his path.

In the next instant, he vanished from where he stood and appeared beside Riko.

“Riko? Hey, Riko.”

He reached down to help her, but sharpened roots immediately drilled out from beneath the stage.

They were meaningless against Gojo.

No matter how violently they struck, none of them could cross the Infinity surrounding him.

“What… is this?”

Riko slowly lifted her head.

A flower had replaced her right eye.

At its centre sat a hideous eyeball that moved independently, staring directly at Gojo.

“Riko…”

Riko’s head tilted at an unnatural angle.

“Riko?” Hanami repeated through her mouth. “Ah… You mean the human who owned this body?”

Flowers began to bloom across the stadium.

They emerged from cracks in the floor, from the walls, from the broken seats—and even from the corpses scattered across the ground.

“What a shame,” Hanami continued. “She is already dead.”

Gojo’s expression went still.

“What did you say?”

Hanami’s lips curled into a mocking smile.

“Did you not hear me? I said this human… is dead.”

Gojo raised his head.

He pulled his blindfold aside, revealing the brilliant azure glow of the Six Eyes.

The moment Hanami met his gaze, the threat of death struck it with overwhelming force.

It immediately leapt backward.

“Cursed Technique Reversal: Red.”

A crimson light gathered at Gojo’s fingertips, aimed directly at Hanami while it was still in mid-air.

Just before he released it, Ragnar appeared beside him and pushed his hand down.

“Don’t kill it yet.”

Gojo glanced at him.

“Riko isn’t dead,” Ragnar said. “Don’t take the enemy’s word as truth.”

“Are you sure?”

“Look at the flower in her right eye. That is what’s controlling her. Remove it, and we can free Riko.”

Ragnar could clearly see Riko Amanai’s soul.

It had not disappeared.

Hanami was suppressing it and using its hold over her body to seize control.

“Sorry,” Gojo said quietly. “I lost my temper.”

“It’s fine. This Cursed Spirit clearly needs a living host. Until it finds a more suitable body, it has no reason to kill Riko.”

The instant the immediate threat disappeared, Hanami fled from the Tokyo Dome.

“That was close.”

It moved through the rapidly expanding forest, putting as much distance between itself and the two sorcerers as possible.

“I cannot approach those two again. If I do… I will die.”

However, as Hanami attempted to escape, it realised that both Gojo and Ragnar had already locked onto its presence.

“How troublesome.”

Hanami raised a hand.

The trees surrounding the Tokyo Dome immediately surged inward, covering the entire stadium.

Roots twisted together beneath the ground before erupting upward and merging into a colossal white tree that towered hundreds of metres into the night sky.

To ensure its escape, Hanami commanded the enormous tree to attack everyone nearby.

“Ahhh!”

“Help me! Someone, please—”

A branch pierced through the man’s body before he could finish speaking.

With a wet crunch, he was lifted from the ground and left hanging from the thick trunk.

Thousands followed.

Within moments, tens of thousands of people inside the Tokyo Dome had been caught and suspended by the tree.

Its immense branches spread beyond the stadium and into the surrounding city. Countless smaller limbs shot outward, piercing through people on the streets before dragging their bodies back toward the thicker roots and branches.

In only a few minutes, the entire tree was covered in densely packed corpses.

Beneath the night sky stood a towering white tree bearing tens of thousands of human bodies.

Moonlight fell across its pale surface, coating it in an eerie silver radiance.

From the ground, the countless corpses swaying high above the city created a sight that was horrifying, grotesque—and disturbingly magnificent.

Seeing the devastation, Gojo immediately stopped Ragnar.

“Ragnar, don’t chase Riko yet. This tree has already killed too many people.”

Ragnar cared little about how many strangers had died.

No number of casualties held the same importance to him as Riko Amanai.

However, maintaining a Cursed Technique of this magnitude would require Hanami to remain relatively close.

There was a good chance it was still hiding somewhere inside the corpse-covered tree.

“Fine,” Ragnar said. “We’ll deal with the tree first.”

His body slowly rose from the ground.

Golden light surrounded him as he floated above the ruined stadium.

Something of this size would not be easy to destroy while fighting from below.