Chapter 21: Power of Withering, Black Seele's Strength
Rumble—!!!
Formless slashes flew from Sukuna's hands, carving broad cuts through the ground, walls, and buildings in their path as they bore down on Black Seele with tremendous force.
Yet Black Seele neither dodged nor evaded. Or rather, she could not even be bothered to. The instant every slash came within half a meter of the black-red cursed energy spilling from her body, it vanished without a sound.
It was not Quantization, but simply the passive effect of cursed energy imbued with the Power of Withering.
Because the Power of Withering possessed the ability to decompose things, so long as Black Seele wished it, anything that touched it—whether matter or energy—would be wiped away in an instant. Thus, when facing technique attacks like Sukuna's slashes, Black Seele only needed the cursed energy infused with the Power of Withering lingering around her body to effortlessly make her opponent's attacks collapse on their own.
After all, in this world of sorcery, no matter what effect a technique displayed, its underlying logic inevitably relied on the circulation of cursed energy. Once the cursed energy sustaining a technique disappeared, the technique naturally became a paper tiger. Defensive techniques would lose their effect outright before the Power of Withering, while offensive techniques could not possibly break through the cursed energy defense on Black Seele's body.
It could be said that, in this world, the Power of Withering was an even more unsolvable ability than Seele's Quantization. After all, the authority of the Herrscher of Life and Death surpassed Quantization in scale. Aside from being slightly inferior in mobility, the Power of Withering was far more overbearing than Quantization in both offense and defense, especially when the opponent was weaker than her.
"The slashes... disappeared?"
Watching his slashes vanish before Black Seele, Sukuna silently speculated.
"Is it some kind of defensive technique? Something that can cancel attacks?"
The slashes had vanished the moment they touched her cursed energy. Could it be that the power of a single attack was insufficient, and he needed to break through in one sustained burst?
"Well, whatever. A few more tests will tell me."
"Don't die so easily now. Try a little harder!"
A wild, arrogant grin curled across Sukuna's lips. His figure flashed as he charged toward Black Seele at extreme speed.
"Can you still take slashes from this distance?"
Carrying waves of air with him, he arrived before Black Seele and raised his hand, ready to unleash a slash directly in her face.
Yet the instant his right hand swung out, Sukuna's expression changed.
If his previous slashes had only been neutralized by some ability upon touching her cursed energy, then this time, Sukuna's slash disappeared before it could even be released.
Because the moment it touched that black-red cursed energy, Sukuna's entire right arm, along with the slash he had yet to release, silently melted away.
There was not the slightest sound. Neither his slash nor his entire right arm created even a ripple before that black-red cursed energy. Like an image erased from a drawing board, it happened so quickly that Sukuna did not even feel it. His body instinctively remained in the posture of having swung out the slash.
"Heh."
Passively taking hits was clearly not Black Seele's style. Seeing Sukuna charge straight at her as if walking into a trap, she immediately willed it, and a black-red tentacle condensed from cursed energy lashed fiercely toward him.
Bang!
With no time to evade, Sukuna was sent flying by the tentacle and smashed a huge crater into the ground below.
"Damn... damn it!"
Feeling the pain wracking his body, Sukuna climbed to his feet with a savage expression.
The good news was that her attack had not carried that bizarre ability. Aside from his right arm, the rest of his body had not vanished from the previous strike.
The bad news was that after taking just one hit, Sukuna discovered that nearly half the cursed energy in his body had vanished in an instant.
He was Sukuna. Even with only the strength of three fingers, the cursed energy he could wield was nearly ten times greater than that of an ordinary Special Grade cursed spirit.
Yet with only a single attack, that bizarre ability had caused more than half of his cursed energy to disappear. If he were struck a few more times, even he would likely be driven into the predicament of exhausting his cursed energy and becoming helpless prey.
Therefore, he absolutely could not be hit by her attacks again, nor could he approach her again.
Regenerating his vanished right arm, Sukuna immediately chose to retreat and widen the distance.
"You looked so high and mighty just now, but now you don't even dare come close?"
Seeing Sukuna choose to distance himself from her, Black Seele's sneer deepened as she spoke calmly.
"If I hadn't been trying to avoid destroying this body's original owner as well, you would have died from that last strike. Be grateful, King of Curses. You got your life back."
"Hmph. A curse like you has actually been tamed into such obedient submission. Honestly, I am rather curious. Besides... surely you don't think you've won just like that?"
No longer trying to probe her, Sukuna chose to go all out this time.
Dozens, then hundreds of slashes surged toward Black Seele from all directions, from every angle and every direction. Yet without exception, every slash vanished the moment it touched the cursed energy spilling from around Black Seele's body.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several black-red tentacles condensed from cursed energy rose from the ground out of nowhere and lashed toward Sukuna, forcing him to abandon his attack and focus entirely on dodging them.
Having watched more than half of his cursed energy evaporate after merely touching those tentacles for an instant, Sukuna did not dare entertain the slightest thought of touching them now. He twisted and leaped between the attacks of one tentacle after another, barely holding on.
However, in the next second, Black Seele appeared instantly before Sukuna. A black-red claw materialized out of thin air and slammed him into the ground.
Rumble—!!!
The force of that strike was so great that the entire Reform School building seemed to shake, while Sukuna below felt as though his whole body were screaming.
But it was not over yet. As the black-red claw vanished, the tentacles Black Seele had condensed began taking turns attacking Sukuna. Every time he was struck, Sukuna could feel a massive chunk of his cursed energy plummet.
"You damned brat!"
Realizing that he truly would lose if this continued, Sukuna stopped holding back. While he still had some cursed energy remaining in his body, he forcibly formed a hand sign.
"Let me show you what a true curse is..."
"Domain Expansion: Fukuma Mizushi!"
Chapter 22: Stubborn Sukuna, points Received
A crimson shrine rose from the ground, and the surrounding scenery changed instantly.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Sukuna broke free from Black Seele's attacks.
A Domain Expansion granted the user's technique a sure-hit effect and could amplify the power of the technique with the help of the environment.
Beyond that, domains had another effect: they could neutralize an opponent's cursed energy.
In the original work, Leaking Pot used this technique during his first fight with Gojo Satoru, neutralizing Gojo Satoru's constantly active Infinity technique through Domain Expansion and allowing his attacks to break through the Infinity technique's defense. During the Shibuya Incident, he used Domain Amplification, based on the same principle, to counter Gojo Satoru's Infinity technique.
Now, Sukuna was clearly thinking along the same lines.
Since that bizarre ability could not be broken through by normal means, he might as well neutralize it with his domain. That would dismantle her cursed energy defense, and with her inside his domain, he could easily unleash stronger slashes and put her to death.
With that thought, Sukuna maliciously raised his head to look at Black Seele in the distance, hoping to see surprise or panic on her face.
Unfortunately, Black Seele showed no sign of panic in response to Sukuna's Domain Expansion. Instead, an expression appeared on her face that was difficult to tell whether it was pity or mockery.
"Is this your final struggle?"
"What do you mean?"
Logically speaking, with her strength, it was impossible for her not to sense the danger of a domain. The best way to deal with a domain was to deploy one of one's own and cancel out the effects of both domains.
Yet this curse before him made no move at all, as though she did not regard Sukuna, who had deployed his domain, as worthy of her attention.
Rather than making Sukuna happy, such a reaction made him uneasy. After all, the strength she had displayed earlier was real. Without deploying his domain, his current strength had left him with absolutely no room to resist before her.
Would someone like her not know about domains? Would she not understand how dangerous they were?
"What do I mean? You don't really think you can defeat me just by relying on your domain, do you? Since you're so confident in your domain, why don't you carefully sense its current state?"
The current state of his domain?
Hearing Black Seele's answer, Sukuna instinctively sensed his domain. Then all four of his eyes widened abruptly.
Because within Sukuna's perception, a completely blank region had appeared in his domain at some unknown time, an area that had slipped beyond his control.
Moreover, that region was still expanding. Looking closely, it was the black-red cursed energy that had previously surrounded her body. It was now spreading continuously through his domain.
Every area enveloped by that black-red cursed energy, filled with lifeless silence, instantly vanished from his perception.
Could this be her domain?
No, that was not right. Judging from Sukuna's experience, this was clearly not a domain. Combined with what had happened before, it was obvious that this was merely the effect of her technique.
Yet Sukuna had only ever heard of domains neutralizing techniques. He had never heard of a technique that could instead erase a domain!
"Cleave!"
Realizing he could not allow her to continue dissolving his domain, Sukuna immediately gathered nearly all the cursed energy he had left and unleashed the strongest attack he could currently use.
Whoosh!
An enormous Formless slash crossed the entire domain and arrived before Black Seele in an instant.
Unfortunately, this strongest strike, containing Sukuna's final cursed energy and hope, still ended no differently from his earlier slashes. The moment it touched that black-red cursed energy, it silently disappeared.
Could such a terrifying technique truly exist in this world?
Sukuna fell silent.
For the first time, he felt as though he had fallen behind the times.
Compared with the incomparably powerful technique before him, his once-unstoppable slashing technique seemed somewhat too simple.
No, it had to be because he was not at his full strength. If all twenty fingers were gathered, the curse before him would definitely not be his opponent!
Clinging to that thought, Sukuna did not continue resisting and allowed the spreading black-red cursed energy to engulf him.
His consciousness was about to disappear. Was that brat coming out?
No. It was simply that, under the cover of her cursed energy, his consciousness could no longer hold on and was about to sink into dormancy.
He could not mobilize even a trace of cursed energy. Every function of his body had come to a halt at this moment. Once enveloped by this bizarre cursed energy, even the strongest curse or sorcerer would likely be left with no options.
No, judging from how his body had instantly vanished when it touched her cursed energy earlier, an ordinary sorcerer would probably already have been wiped from existence the moment they were surrounded by this bizarre cursed energy.
What a terrifying ability. It was practically the embodiment of pure death.
"I'll count this one as your victory, lucky curse. You'd better pray that when I fully reclaim my power and seize this brat's body, you are still so lucky."
The black markings faded from his skin, and Itadori Yuji's body collapsed onto the ground.
Facing Sukuna, who had only gone offline after stubbornly talking tough one last time, Black Seele boredly shook her head and withdrew her cursed energy.
"Sukuna with only the strength of three fingers was far weaker than I imagined."
This battle had not satisfied Black Seele in the slightest, and she had been constrained throughout the entire fight. Since it was only a spar and she could not deliver a killing blow, not even one-tenth of the Power of Withering's terror had been displayed.
"That can't be helped. Sukuna with the strength of three fingers might not even be able to defeat Leaking Pot. And Leaking Pot, who was said to have the strength of eight or nine fingers, was slaughtered by Gojo Satoru and fifteen-finger Sukuna. If you really want an enjoyable fight, I suppose only twenty-finger Sukuna or Gojo Satoru going all out would do?"
Seeing the battle end, An Xiu and Seele, who had been watching from afar, came over to Black Seele.
After speaking to comfort Black Seele, An Xiu looked at Itadori Yuji, who lay on the ground without any sign of waking, then turned to Seele beside him.
"Seele, heal him."
Although Black Seele had restrained the Power of Withering throughout the battle and withdrawn all of it as soon as the fight ended, Itadori Yuji's condition was still far from good after his entire body had been enveloped by the Power of Withering for a period of time.
If left alone, the healing methods of the sorcery world would likely be completely unable to cure Itadori Yuji's current condition. After all, a small amount of the Power of Withering remained in his body. Without Black Seele's restraint, that residual power alone would be enough to make Itadori Yuji vanish from the face of the earth on the spot.
"I understand, An Xiu-ge."
White cursed energy gathered in her hands, and the life-filled Power of Creation spread across Itadori Yuji's body, dispersing the residual Power of Withering and rapidly restoring his body.
Meanwhile, a system notification sounded beside An Xiu's ear.
"Ding! Detected Seele defeating Sukuna for the host. Reward: 5,000 points."
Chapter 23: System Shop Refreshes, Materializing a New Clone
"Ding! Detected Seele defeating Sukuna for the host. Reward: 5,000 points."
Hearing the system notification, a satisfied smile appeared on An Xiu's face.
Sure enough, just as Sukuna himself had said in the original work, every Sukuna's finger contained Sukuna's independent consciousness clone. Therefore, every finger could trigger the system reward separately.
Previously, Seele had defeated one-finger Sukuna and triggered a reward once. This time, Black Seele had defeated three-finger Sukuna and triggered another reward.
One finger was worth 2,500 points, for a total of 7,500 points from three fingers.
"No, something seems to be missing. Why didn't killing that Special Grade Imaginary Cursed Spirit trigger a reward?"
Suddenly, An Xiu realized something was wrong. During this Reform School incident, Seele had clearly defeated a Special Grade Imaginary Cursed Spirit in addition to Sukuna. Why had killing that Special Grade Imaginary Cursed Spirit not triggered a system reward?
"Ding. Because that Special Grade Imaginary Cursed Spirit was itself spawned by the power of Sukuna's finger, it and the Sukuna's finger count as the same reward."
The system's answer sounded beside An Xiu's ear.
"Cursed spirits spawned by Sukuna's fingers share one reward with the Sukuna's fingers themselves?"
Before you continue