After all, without obtaining Fushiguro Megumi's body as he had in the original story, Sukuna had lost the Ten Shadows Technique and Mahoraga, leaving him with only this much.
A slash that cut through space? Heh...
Without even using the scythe in her hand, Black Seele merely extended one hand into the slash's path. Her delicate hand, clad in a red silk glove, came into contact with the attack.
Without using Quantization or her Authority, relying solely on the Herrscher's sheer power level, Black Seele grasped the slash that was desperately trying to advance before Sukuna's incredulous eyes, then applied a little force.
Crack!
Though it was clearly a Formless slash, Sukuna seemed to hear something shatter. The Space Slash he had placed such high hopes on was forcibly crushed by Black Seele with just one hand!
If Sukuna's deepest impression from their previous battle had been the Power of Withering's terrifying effect—death upon contact, seemingly able to ignore everything—then what Black Seele showed him now was an even more despairing set of terrifying stats once the mechanics were stripped away.
"Have you run out of tricks already, King of Curses?"
Looking at Sukuna's slightly dazed expression, Black Seele spoke mockingly.
"No... I haven't lost yet!"
Coming back to his senses, Sukuna revealed a crazed expression. No longer caring about the terrifying black-red cursed energy spilling out around Black Seele, he charged forward recklessly.
Slashes, fists and kicks, cursed energy—having completely disregarded all consequences, Sukuna used every means at his disposal to launch his final attack against Black Seele.
Swish, swish, swish!
The slashes vanished the instant they touched the cursed energy infused with the Power of Withering.
Sizzle!
A punch flickering with pitch-black cursed energy was annihilated before it could even get close.
Meanwhile, Sukuna's cursed energy was rapidly depleted every time it came into contact with that black-red cursed energy.
"How ugly. Is this all the so-called King of Curses amounts to in the end?"
Watching Sukuna completely abandon all form and simply flail about wildly, Seele Materialized black-red claws and sent him flying with a single swipe.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
After crashing through several buildings in succession, Sukuna lay amid the rubble. Before he could rise, a claw pierced through his body.
The black-red claw exerted slight force, tearing Sukuna's body in two. His lower half fell to the ground, while his upper half was lifted before Black Seele like a tattered rag.
"You and your power amuse me."
Unexpectedly, in the face of Black Seele's contemptuous words, Sukuna wore a look of relief.
He had figured it out. In this battle, he had gone all out and used every method available to him. Yet even so, he had still been defeated head-on, fair and square. That could only mean one thing: he was simply inferior. Nothing more.
His experience as the strongest a thousand years ago had clouded his eyes, causing him to naturally sink into the arrogance of being the strongest. Only now, through Black Seele, had he witnessed the true strength of curses.
It was just that he had clearly used his full strength in this battle, while his opponent had still not taken things seriously. For that, he felt sorry.
Black-red cursed energy seeped into his body, and Sukuna's consciousness rapidly faded.
A moment later, Sukuna's black markings completely faded away. Black Seele then tossed Itadori Yuji's severed body back onto the ground.
There was no need to worry about him dying. After all, with Sukuna inside him, Itadori Yuji had survived for half a day after having his heart ripped out in the original story. Being cut in half at the waist was barely worth mentioning.
Still, despite saying that, Black Seele thought for a moment before controlling her black-red claws to pick up Itadori Yuji's body and fly away from the battlefield.
At a safe location, Seele, who had just led everyone to retreat there, sensed Sukuna's presence vanish and turned to look toward the battlefield.
Black Seele flew before Seele and tossed Itadori Yuji's body down among the group.
"Sukuna has been dealt with."
Hearing that, Seele nodded, then used the Power of Creation to heal Itadori Yuji and the other injured sorcerers present.
Feeling the warm power of the Power of Creation, the tense expressions of the sorcerers, who had been nervous because of Black Seele's arrival, eased. Then they felt a wave of disbelief.
"Sukuna was dealt with that quickly?"
That was Sukuna—the renowned King of Curses. Upon awakening, he had personally stated that he had recovered his power at its peak.
Moreover, the pressure he had exerted upon them, along with the fact that two Special Grade sorcerers, Tsukumo Yuki and Okkotsu Yuta, had been utterly unable to resist him, proved that the King of Curses' title was absolutely no exaggeration.
Even so, before this curse, who looked remarkably similar to Miss Seele, he had only lasted such a short time.
Perhaps the titles of King of Curses and Queen of Curses could both change hands today.
Meanwhile, in a villa an unknown number of kilometers away from the battlefield, An Xiu, who had been watching remotely through his senses, received the system's notification.
"Ding! Detected Makima defeating Gojo Satoru for the host. Reward: 50,000 points."
"Ding! Detected Seele defeating Sukuna for the host. Reward: 42,500 points."
As nearly one hundred thousand points contributed by Gojo Satoru and Sukuna were credited to his account, a smile appeared on An Xiu's face.
"With this, the Jujutsu World has basically been fully cleared."
"It's about time to put new clones and new worlds on the agenda."
PS: I originally wanted to make this final battle more exciting, but without the Ten Shadows Technique and Mahoraga, having Sukuna fight Black Seele with slashes alone felt a bit like a primitive wielding a bronze weapon against a Trisolaran. On top of that, the Authority of Withering is a Herrscher Authority purely focused on destruction. I came up with several battle sequences, but every one of them turned out more plain and unadorned than the last, which also delayed the update.
Still, the Jujutsu arc is finally finished. To be honest, this is also the first Jujutsu fanfic the author has written.
After the transition chapter, the protagonist will Materialize a clone and head to a new world. There is no need to worry that the clones in the Jujutsu World will stop appearing after this arc. The author's outline does not actually include that many clones—at most one or two per world, and it may take five or six worlds before the number exceeds ten. Furthermore, the travel function is not one-time use. The protagonist and clones can travel back and forth at no cost, so both the clones and the Jujutsu World will continue to have roles later. The Jujutsu World is the protagonist's early-game resource base; the productive capacity provided by an entire modern planet is enough to count as a cheat.
The new worlds will mainly focus on Arknights, with One-Punch Man and DanMachi as secondary settings. As mentioned before, the protagonist can travel back and forth between different worlds at no cost, so the new arc will cover all three worlds at once, using each world's strengths to make up for the others' weaknesses. The same will apply later on.
Finally, the author's book will be going premium this Friday. The author would like to ask all the esteemed readers who enjoy this book's style to please subscribe. On the day it goes premium, the author will try to release as many chapters as possible.
The Exorbitant Price, Materializing a New Clone
Tokyo, inside a villa.
Seven days had passed since the Shibuya Incident. After Seele defeated Sukuna and resolved the crisis, the Jujutsu World was now making intensive preparations to deal with Geto Suguru and the Disaster Cursed Spirits who had escaped that day.
As for Geto Suguru and the Disaster Cursed Spirits, who had suddenly appeared and then suddenly vanished after completing the Shibuya Incident, the Jujutsu World had dispatched quite a few sorcerers to investigate them, clearly intending to make them pay the price.
Of course, that was only the surface situation. In reality, Makima had simply controlled the Jujutsu World's higher-ups into sending out a few people to investigate for appearances' sake. As for Geto Suguru and the Disaster Cursed Spirits, they had gone into hiding under Makima's arrangements after completing their mission and likely would not show themselves for quite some time.
Without considering the Jujutsu World's response, Japan's general public had also been discussing the events in Shibuya during this period.
After all, the Shibuya Incident had involved quite a few ordinary civilians. Furthermore, this was now an era in which curses had been made public. With the Jujutsu World and the Japanese authorities evacuating civilians so publicly and on such a large scale on the day of the incident, there was naturally no way to conceal what had happened.
Not to mention the various traces of battle left at the Shibuya Incident site. In particular, the pure-white sea of flowers and the fissure more than a hundred meters long left behind by Seele's strike using the Power of Creation had become incredibly popular online. The site was even showing signs of becoming a tourist attraction, with many people going there afterward to check in and take pictures.
Many Japanese citizens were guessing which sorcerer could have left behind such battle traces. Could it be another Special Grade from the Jujutsu World who had never appeared before, aside from Gojo Satoru? The discussion had even begun turning toward who was stronger between Gojo Satoru and this mysterious sorcerer.
All that could be said was that power-scaling fans existed in every world. After all, humans were inherently creatures that admired strength, especially in Japan, where the culture of admiring strength was particularly intense.
However, that only applied to ordinary civilians. Within the Jujutsu World, Seele was now universally recognized as the strongest.
After all, Sukuna, who could instantly defeat two Special Grade sorcerers, Tsukumo Yuki and Okkotsu Yuta, had not even lasted a few minutes before Seele. Though the one who had actually fought Sukuna during the Shibuya Incident was the curse residing within the girl, Black Seele truly listened to Seele, didn't she?
After the Shibuya Incident, many sorcerers involved had met Black Seele for the first time. Whenever Seele was active, she also deliberately allowed Black Seele to appear, deepening more sorcerers' understanding of her.
Honestly, it was their first time seeing a curse that was so stable, so powerful, and possessed human intelligence.
She clearly possessed enough power to effortlessly defeat even Sukuna, the King of Curses. At first glance, people sensed only coldness and malice from her, yet she was utterly obedient to the girl she inhabited, nearly granting every request.
Forget harming Seele, whom she inhabited—Black Seele did not even have the thought of leaving Seele's body to become independent. She would even actively provide Seele with help and protection.
For a curse like Black Seele, even the most knowledgeable sorcerers could only sigh that, in the thousands of years since curses had been born, she was truly one of a kind.
Well, as an aside, the person who made that comment was later given a hard time by Makima.
Of course, none of that had much to do with An Xiu now.
At this moment, he was inside the villa, considering the matter of new clones and new worlds.
As for the specific target for his new clone, An Xiu already had someone in mind: Mobius.
A scientist from the Pre-Civilization of the Honkai World who specialized in biology, she was among the foremost scholars in biotechnology throughout the entire Honkai Impact 3rd series.
In the original story, the Flame Chaser technology that created the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, including Kevin, whose combat power was considered the strongest beneath Finality, had been developed by Mobius and Dr. Mei. Mobius had been responsible for the overwhelming majority of the research.
Although his choice to Materialize Mobius as a clone was largely because the Sasha Gene, a signature item, had happened to appear in the system shop's discount section, An Xiu still held great expectations for this new clone.
Of course, the most important thing was that Mobius was beautiful enough—especially her little snake form, which An Xiu liked best.
Snake girl, a legal little snake girl... slurp, slurp...
In any case, Mobius was undoubtedly a great choice for researching the Kryptonian Bloodline he had purchased earlier. As for which world he should send the new clone to develop in...
An Xiu looked at the three world options on the travel interface—One-Punch Man, Arknights, and Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?—and fell into thought.
"Forget it. Why am I thinking so much? Why not just Materialize the clone and let her choose for herself?"
After all, the clone possessed all of An Xiu's memories as the original body. In terms of intelligence, Mobius undoubtedly crushed An Xiu, who had only been an ordinary person in his previous life. Letting Mobius decide for herself would be far better than An Xiu sitting here and blindly guessing.
"System, Materialize Clone."
"Ding! Materializing the clone Mobius requires 50,000 points. Confirm Materialization?"
"Wait, how much?"
Hearing the system prompt, An Xiu froze for a moment before asking for confirmation.
"The one I want to Materialize is baseline Mobius, without Flame Chaser abilities."
With the Sasha Gene in hand, An Xiu had never intended to give Mobius Flame Chaser abilities. After Materializing her, he could simply have Mobius perform the procedure on herself using the Sasha Gene. There was no need to waste extra points.
But even so, the cost of Materializing Mobius without Flame Chaser abilities was still that high? Fifty thousand points was equivalent to five Herrscher Authorities. He did not remember Mobius being that incredible.
"Ding! The points required to Materialize a clone are not determined solely by strength. Following a comprehensive assessment, Materializing Mobius without Flame Chaser abilities is confirmed to require 50,000 points."
"Then what if I Materialize Ruan Mei or Herta from the Honkai: Star Rail world? Also baseline versions without Paths or Emanator powers, possessing only the original characters' memories and intelligence."
"Ding! Materializing the clone Ruan Mei requires 1.8 million points. Materializing the clone Herta requires 2.2 million points."
Hearing the prices quoted by the system, An Xiu instantly gave up on the idea.
It seemed clones on Ruan Mei and Herta's level were probably beyond what he could afford at present. Although a large portion of the points required to Materialize those two would likely be spent on the absurd technologies contained within their original memories, otherwise Mobius, even if she were several tiers below the geniuses of the Honkai: Star Rail world, would not have such a price gap of dozens of times.
"System, Materialize Clone."
Fifty thousand points were deducted from the system shop balance, and a burst of white light appeared before An Xiu.
PS: In the author's personal opinion, although Pre-Civilization scientists from the Honkai Impact 3rd world, such as Mobius, Dr. Mei, and Vill-V, were somewhat inferior to the geniuses of the Honkai: Star Rail world, they were still at a level just below them. If they had a different stage, their achievements would be greater than they were in the Honkai Impact 3rd world, so their prices are a little higher.
The New Clone Mobius, Heading to One-Punch Man
Long jade-green hair with natural curls, a petite body wrapped in a black-and-green formal dress, and dangerous light flickering in snake-like vertical pupils—upon seeing An Xiu, she instinctively extended her pink tongue and licked her lips.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, my dear master. Mobius is delighted to serve you."
Mobius spoke slowly.
Of course, despite what she said, given the dangerous tone and aura of the girl before him, anyone unaware of the situation would probably instinctively keep their distance.
Naturally, An Xiu had no such concern. He rose and walked over to Mobius, examining the petite girl, who did not even reach his chest, before taking the Sasha Gene from the system space and handing it to her.
"Do you still remember the Flame Chaser technology? Can you complete the relevant procedure independently?"
"Of course. The relevant technology has been preserved completely in my mind. Even if I did not possess those memories, as long as I knew the technology existed, I could gradually reverse-engineer it with my intelligence."
Taking the vial containing the Sasha Gene from An Xiu's hand, Mobius replied.
"Compared to the various technologies in my mind, this intelligence is my most precious possession. Besides... after asking about the prices for Materializing Ruan Mei and Herta, Master seemed rather disappointed..."
Pressing her body against An Xiu's side, Mobius wrapped her arms around one of his and brought her exquisite face as close to his as possible.
"What? Could it be that Materializing me, Mobius, has wronged you, Master?"
Feeling Mobius's snake-like flexible body and soft touch, An Xiu decisively shook his head.
"Not at all. Not even a little."
Who said Mobius was inferior? Mobius was incredible.
Among the characters An Xiu had obsessed over in his previous life, Ruan Mei and Herta, geniuses from the Honkai: Star Rail world, were certainly stronger in research ability. But if it came down to who An Xiu liked more, it was definitely Mobius.
Moreover, Mobius's scientific research ability was not lacking in the slightest. She merely could not compare to those super freaks from the Honkai: Star Rail world, of whom only a few dozen had emerged over tens of thousands of years even on a cosmic scale. In fact, even within a setting like Honkai Impact 3rd that contained science-fiction elements, Mobius's research level in biotechnology was still astonishing.
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