"You want to talk?" Suguru muttered, feeling his frustration rise as Kiniro treated the dire situation he was in as if it were a casual conversation pit. "Do you not realize that your time is limited? Even with that curse tool in your possession, I doubt your supply of cursed energy is infinite. Just how long do you think you can nullify my technique? Especially when you're expanding it to cover Okkotsu as well?!"
"That seems like it's my concern rather than yours," Kiniro replied calmly despite the morbid truth of everything Suguru had said, "I'm more than willing to put myself at a disadvantage to converse with you. After all, I believe we have something in common."
"I find that hard to believe," Suguru muttered as he held up his hand, preparing to make a move when Kiniro's next sentence reached his ears, "Really, because I believe we were both put on a similar path by the same person. The woman who wishes to escape the affliction of cursed energy and push humanity towards a brighter future."
Suguru's hand stalled and his eyes couldn't help but widen slightly as he stared at Kiniro in a new light, "How did you come across her?"
"She sought me out," Kiniro replied, "Word of my capabilities reached her and she believed that I might hold some insight useful to her cause. It turned into a very enlightening experience, one that made me realize something about the nature of our existence as sorcerers."
"That woman, has a way of making you question your place in the world," Suguru admitted as his hand flared out, causing the cavern to tremble as sores opened up across the flesh oozing a dark puss that slowly shaped itself into horrific figures resembling curses, "But the fact that you're standing against me demonstrates that you failed to take in her lessons."
From the open sores, thousands of the bile curses poured out in mass, swarming towards Yuta and Kiniro. Staring down the oncoming swarm Yuta raised his ring into the air ready to summon Rika when Kiniro grabbed his wrists, "Don't, summoning a cursed spirit within the domain of a cursed spirit manipulator is asking for complications. His technique is infused into the very fabric of reality within this space."
Yuta's heart clenched as he quickly lowered his hand and clenched it into a fist, "Can you fight and hold off his domain at the same time?"
"Not at my full strength, of course, but I can certainly thin out their numbers," Kiniro replied as two chained knives shot out of his sleeves, blurring through the air as they went to work.
With deadly precision, Lust wove through the crowd of bile curses, splattering apart their semi-liquid forms with little difficulty and using its serrated chain to sever limbs and necks.
But Yuta watched as instead of falling to the ground, the splattering bile was simply absorbed by the remaining curses, causing their forms to grow in size and ferocity.
"I don't think this is working," Yuta muttered as he watched giants appear among the endless horde, but Kiniro ignored him in favor of staring Suguru down, "Are all of these the curses you've devoured over your lifetime? They're filled with such a revolting sensation…that's what I can see in your soul. You hate non-sorcerers because they're the ones responsible for your plight."
"Of course I hate those monkeys," Suguru replied, his voice thick with vitriol, "They do nothing but pollute the world with their insecurities and selfish wants. They hate themselves, and that disdain manifests itself as a plague that they have no immunity against. They are helpless creatures that destroy themselves and unknowingly rely on the mercy of us Sorcerers to protect their pathetic lives!"
"But at one point you believed in protecting them," Kiniro countered calmly as Lust continued to cut through the bile, but by that point most of the curses had grown to a monstrous size and could only be slowed and temporarily dismembered before cobbling themselves back together, "You stomached their stench and taste, you devoured the worst parts of humanity in a selfless effort."
"Precisely," Suguru grinned, but there was nothing joyous about his expression, "Sorcerers risk their lives for the fate of humanity, but the truth is we don't belong to such an inferior race. We are the next stage of evolution, transcendent beings unable to reach our full potential because of the scum that clings to us!"
"And you think that getting rid of this scum will finally let us ascend into a brighter future," Kiniro assumed, staring at Suguru through the looming giant bile curses that lumbered over towards him, "But you're wrong, there is no world where only bliss can manifest. Such a concept can only be defined when those who experience it encounter something in direct opposition to its nature."
"Perhaps, but that doesn't mean that this world won't be a better place without the existence of cursed spirits!" Suguru insisted with an intensity in his eyes, one that only allowed him to see one truth instead of a multitude.
"That's what you don't understand, humans and cursed spirits are concepts as well," Kiniro replied even as the bile loomed over him. "Cursed spirits are a manifestation of humanity, and humanity is the manifestation of cursed spirits. Both are equally responsible for the other. To remove one would deprive the other of any meaning."
"Then what of Sorcerers?" Suguru spat, "Where do we fall into your view of duality?"
Kiniro grinned and held out his hands, "We are those blessed with the ability to perceive, to understand our place within existence and the agency to determine how that perception manifests. It is truly the only neutral phenomenon in existence, the ability to self-determine and obtain a chance to glimpse what is beyond. It is a curse."
"You would compare our existence to a curse when we are bestowed with powers capable of reshaping the world in our image?!" Suguru roared, infuriated by Kiniro's statement.
"Yes, because power is a curse," Kiniro insisted as his hands slowly moved together and a grin spread across his face, "Once you grasp it, you immediately become aware of what you lack. Every strength is an inherent weakness, and every weakness is an inherent strength. Even now, your greed for power, which has allowed you to make it this far, has blinded you. You've lost the ability to perceive and have become stuck in your ways."
"Then what has brought you here, Kiniro!?" Suguru roared as at last his bile curses managed to make their way past Lust's defensive web and bear down on Kiniro, their bodies hissing and spitting like acid, "What strength do you possess that allows you to be so arrogant and condescending in your lecture? Do you believe that you are beyond the same restrictions as the rest of us?!"
"Why do you think I'm standing here before you?!" Kiniro roared back as his hands meshed together, forming a devil-horn sigil with his fingers forming seven empty spaces that flared to life with pink embers. "I'm just as eager to find out as you are!"
"Domain Expansion: Seven Sinful Curses of Corruption and Salvation"