Technique: Idle Transfiguration

"Be grateful, brat. Thank me for sparing your life." Rod's deep voice sounded from behind Accelerator. His eyes bloodshot, Accelerator let out a roar like a vicious beast, the black wings behind him intertwining and converging into a dark tornado that devoured Rod.

In an instant, the terrifying force contained within those black wings pierced through the scorched earth, once again leaving this already ravaged land with a crater roughly a kilometer wide.

Rod's figure flashed into view before Accelerator.

Accelerator looked at Rod, muttering incomprehensible words under his breath. The black wings condensed into tangible black feathers and fired them at Rod like Gatling gunfire.

Facing the storm-like onslaught, Rod raised his right hand slightly. A pitch-black doorway appeared before him, and countless black feathers entered it.

The doorway reappeared at Rod's side, and the black feathers that burst from it collided violently with Accelerator's own feathers.

A refined application of the Ten Shadows Technique, turning the enemy's ranged attack into a means of counterattack. (Defense into offense, hahaha.)

"Max Elephant." Rod overlapped his hands into a mimicry gesture resembling an elephant. From a thousand meters above, a shadow solidified into reality, revealing a gigantic fierce elephant over a hundred meters long. Its several-thousand-ton weight, combined with the acceleration of free fall, created a terrifying force.

Barely managing to pull the black wings back around himself, Accelerator hurriedly wrapped them around his body to form an all-round defense.

Accompanied by a thunderous boom, the gigantic elephant plummeting from the sky smashed heavily into the ground. The horrific force tore the earth apart, cracks spreading outward like a dense spiderweb.

Accelerator had already fallen into the abyss. Standing at its edge and looking down, Rod suddenly sensed something strange in the space around him. Gravity was steadily increasing. Within a hundred-meter radius, the gravitational field had been altered by Accelerator, and the ground beneath Rod's feet began to collapse.

A smile curled across Rod's lips. He did not resist, instead sliding down into the abyss.

"Good, good. Struggle with everything you have until the very end, Accelerator. I'm starting to like you a little!? Hahahahaha!" Wild laughter rang out as the huge black tornado formed by the black wings charged at him head-on once more.

The instant before the black tornado reached his face, time seemed to come to a halt. Rod's lips curved up madly as he pressed his palms together, leaving only his middle and ring fingers raised while his index fingers and pinkies folded into his palms, once again forming Yama's Hand Seal.

A deep, magnetic voice echoed from within the dark abyss.

"Domain Expansion!"

A terrifying roar, like that of an abyssal beast breaking free from its cage, resounded through the chasm. Countless bones emerged behind Rod, shrouding his body and spreading outward without end. The shuddering sensation that swept forth from the depths of one's soul made even the already crazed Accelerator tremble instinctively.

"Malevolent Shrine!"

Rod's domain, Malevolent Shrine, differed from other domains. It did not use a barrier to isolate space, instead manifesting its innate domain without closing a barrier.

It was like painting directly onto the sky rather than using a canvas.

Nothing short of divine craftsmanship!

Furthermore, through a "binding vow" that gave his opponent an escape route, it enhanced the guaranteed-hit range to a maximum radius of five hundred meters. (Note: In the original work, Sukuna's maximum radius was two hundred meters. Since Rod's current attributes surpassed Sukuna's at max level, making him practically equivalent to twice a full-power Sukuna, his abilities naturally increased along with his physical attributes. See Chapters 2 and 6 for a detailed comparison.)

The slashing technique was divided into two types. Within the guaranteed-hit range, Cleave was used against targets containing cursed energy, while Dismantle was used against targets without cursed energy. Until Malevolent Shrine vanished, wave after wave of attacks would be unleashed without end.

Crimson light blossomed, gradually gathering, shrinking, and collapsing. Almost at the instant it condensed into a single point, an intense explosive shockwave erupted once more.

Countless slashes erupted endlessly from Rod at the center, sweeping across a five-hundred-meter radius. The black wings that were about to strike him were shredded completely, reduced to particles and scattered away.

Accelerator's heart-wrenching screams rose from the bottom of the abyss. As five seconds passed, his cries gradually weakened, until they were nearly inaudible. Only then did Rod halt Malevolent Shrine's attacks.

The moment Rod's feet touched the ground, he saw Accelerator, utterly mangled beyond recognition. Stark white bones were exposed, not a single piece of flesh intact. He looked like a mummified corpse straight out of a horror film.

Looking at Accelerator in such a miserable state, Rod suddenly wondered whether Heaven Canceller could save him if he were sent over looking like this.

"Well, a promise is a promise." Pulling his wandering thoughts back, Rod crouched down and placed his hand on Accelerator's battered head.

Reverse Cursed Technique activated. In the blink of an eye, flesh began gathering over the exposed bones, blood began circulating again, and the breath that had nearly vanished returned.

"Oh~ So you really are a girl." Looking over the young girl's bare body, Rod could not help sighing as he looked at the completely exposed area below Accelerator's waist.

Seeing someone so young already possessing an airport runway, Rod gave a soft "Heh."

Her clothes had naturally been sliced into pieces the instant Malevolent Shrine was deployed. That Level 5 Vector Manipulation had managed to preserve Accelerator's body in one piece at all was no easy feat.

"Ding. Congratulations, Host, for defeating 'Accelerator (Black Wings)' and obtaining the ability: Technique 'Idle Transfiguration.'"

The mechanical system voice echoing in his mind made Rod pause slightly. Stroking his chin, he muttered to himself.

"Defeating story characters can earn rewards too? Then why didn't I get a reward for defeating Misaka Mikoto?"

Then he suddenly noticed the words "Accelerator (Black Wings)" on the panel. It was as though a lightbulb had gone off over his head, and he came to a realization.

"Oh! Could it be that Accelerator only barely met the reward threshold in his Black Wings state? As for Misaka Mikoto, she didn't even qualify as a defeated target?"

Having talked himself into it, Rod was naturally quite satisfied with his newly acquired technique. Idle Transfiguration was the technique of Mahito, the most promising of the Four Great Disaster Cursed Spirits.

Mahito believed that the soul was born before the body, and that the body's form was influenced by the shape of the soul. His technique allowed him to touch a soul and alter its shape, thereby reshaping the body. In battle, Mahito used his technique to forcibly maintain the shape of his own soul. Thus, no matter what injuries his body sustained, it would return to normal under the guidance of his soul. This rendered attacks targeting the body meaningless against Mahito; only attacks directed at his soul could truly harm him.

By that logic, he could be considered immune to physical attacks as well. On top of that, he had become the strongest healer in the world. Physical injuries could be repaired with Reverse Cursed Technique, while soul damage could be repaired with Idle Transfiguration. Rod could now confidently say to Heaven Canceller, "Who do you think I am?"

He glanced at Accelerator, who was still unconscious. His physical recovery was already complete, but mental trauma required time to heal. Unfortunately, Idle Transfiguration was useless for soothing the mind.

Casually taking out a blanket from the shadow technique's storage space, Rod covered Accelerator with it and wrapped him up like a rice dumpling before heading toward a certain hospital.