Buliu Department, Youliang Youliang

Xuan confirmed through his earpiece that Fushiguro most likely did not need his help. He then clenched his hands, raising one and lowering the other.

"Tremble."

"Sway."

"Eight-Handled Sword, Divergent Sila Divine General, Mahoraga."

Along with an equal number of Toads and Divine Dogs, Mahoraga's cocoon appeared behind Xuan.

Mahoraga—the absolute core of the Ten Shadows—had once placed immense pressure on Xuan.

Back in the Muromachi period, when Xuan had tamed Mahoraga, he had possessed no experience whatsoever. If he had not known in advance about its ability to adapt, he would undoubtedly have died at Mahoraga's hands.

Like a beating heart, the cocoon behind Xuan gave off heavy, muffled tremors.

Before Mahoraga broke free from its cocoon, Xuan brought his hands together. The cursed energy seeping out of him was like a brush scattering ink through the air, while shadows gradually wrapped around his body.

"Domain Expansion."

"Dark Surge Eight Settled Waters."

In an instant, surging cursed energy blanketed all the nearby mountains—then Xuan compressed it.

As the domain unfolded, Mahoraga instantly broke free of its restraints.

"Dragon Scales, Recoil, Twin Falling Stars."

Piercing Ox had already been deployed—at the right moment, Xuan only needed to open a portal for it to smash Mahoraga's body apart.

A slash instantly tore open Mahoraga's chest, splitting it in two. The Dharma wheel above its upper body spun twice in succession. One rotation was for adapting to the domain; the other was most likely for adapting to slashing attacks.

Mahoraga repaired itself before it even hit the ground. Its tongueless maw opened in a furious roar, and it charged at Xuan, who hovered in midair within the domain. The Sword of Extermination in its right hand sprang out as it moved.

The Sword of Extermination swept across Xuan's chest, splitting his shrine-transformed body in half. But within the domain, most of the damage inflicted upon shrine-transformed Xuan was negated—the remainder was instantly healed by Xuan with the Reverse Cursed Technique.

The wound that had split him in two fused shut in an instant. Xuan immediately pulled away and raised a hand before Mahoraga could catch up.

"New Moon."

"Twilight."

"Ash and White Wedge."

"The Gap Between Light and Shadow."

"Hollow Technique: Chaos."

The mingled black-and-white cursed energy instantly struck Mahoraga. In the stretched-out span of time, the Dharma wheel above its head spun four times in succession—the effect of extending time to leave an opponent stunned had already been adapted to—but Chaos did more than merely stretch time.

Mahoraga's body burst apart inch by inch, with scarcely an inch of uninjured flesh left. Black cursed energy sprayed from the white cracks in its body, while tentacle-like black shadows corroded Mahoraga's flesh.

Click.

The Dharma wheel spun again. The effect of the black shadows was clearly suppressed, but it remained.

Xuan took a deep breath. A black wolf shadow and a white wolf shadow suddenly appeared over his fists, and he stepped through the air as he lunged in for the kill.

Click.

Mahoraga's Dharma wheel turned for the second time as it soaked within the domain. The attack effect of the shadows that absorbed and assailed it within the domain visibly weakened as well—

Bang!

Splat splat splat splat splat splat!

Click.

Click.

Mahoraga's chest was shredded into chunks by a single blow and several slashes that arrived in an instant—but such slashes did not erase it completely. Instead, they made the Dharma wheel above its head spin twice more.

Bang!

Xuan's other fist slammed into Mahoraga's cheek. In less than 0.1 seconds, Mahoraga had restored more than half of its shattered chest, only for its regenerated body to be smashed into debris once more by Xuan's Divine Dog.

Xuan shifted his posture in midair and viciously drove a kick into Mahoraga's chest.

Black cursed-energy lightning erupted from beneath Xuan's foot with bone-chilling force. Xuan immediately raised a hand—

"Dismantle!"

Invisible slashes fell upon Mahoraga, instantly cutting its limbs and body into pieces. As its body was annihilated, it regenerated for a second time. Before it hit the ground, the Dharma wheel had already spun once, and when it finally landed atop the mountain, the machine-gun barrage of slashes still blanketed Mahoraga's body.

Amid the erupting dust and smoke, Mahoraga's body kept growing until it was nearly fifty meters tall. It reached toward Xuan in the air—the Dharma wheel spun once more, declaring that slashing attacks could no longer stop Mahoraga.

Even though the slashes instantly shredded the hand reaching for Xuan into fragments, Mahoraga's regenerated hand remained in the exact same position, without the slightest deviation.

Xuan let out a long breath. With both feet planted on two shadow platforms formed from cursed energy and fixed in midair, he hurled himself straight at Mahoraga.

"BLACK FLASH!!!"

Black cursed-energy lightning flashed across Mahoraga's chest once more—and Black Flash blasted a round hole through its chest.

Click!

Mahoraga's body crashed into the mountain. With that clicking sound, Mahoraga began adapting to cursed-energy strikes as well.

Xuan raised his hand again, and several Dismantles fired out instantly, tearing Mahoraga's body apart once more.

Mahoraga's body swelled again—he grabbed hold of the mountain and heaved. The small mountain, which had just been blasted open by the battle, split apart down the middle and came hurtling toward Xuan under Mahoraga's force.

Xuan remained utterly unruffled. With a hand seal thrust forward, the area of his domain extended ahead, wrapping around the incoming mountain. Then, at the boundary between the shadows above and below, Divine Dog: Black and Divine Dog: White moved continuously. The copied slashing technique instantly sliced the flying mountain into chunks of earth that filled the sky, followed by clouds of dust.

"Roooooar!!!"

Emerging as the mountain scattered was Mahoraga, whose size had already grown explosively—

"Get down!!"

Xuan's left fist slammed into the Sword of Extermination thrust toward him by Mahoraga. A black flash of cursed energy erupted again, and with that single punch, the Sword of Extermination and half of Mahoraga's body were smashed to pieces. Mahoraga was driven violently into the ground.

Click.

Boom!!

Mahoraga, who had been smashed into the earth, did not get back up—instead, Xuan saw him swimming in circles around the base of that small mountain.

"What the hell... is with all this fuss?"

Xuan pressed his hands together, and the pitch-black ocean of his domain surged outward, nearly enveloping half the sky. Mahoraga had also completed his preparations—the mountain range was lifted from the ground in an instant. This was no mere mountaintop from before, but an entire mountain range.

"Too bad—I'm almost ready too!!!!"

As the entire mountain mass was pulled out of the earth, Xuan's domain was instantly filled with traces of slashes. Tiger Funeral also joined in replicating the slashing attacks, but even so, the slashes failed to completely pulverize the mountain. Meanwhile, the wheel above Mahoraga's head spun again, declaring that this shikigami who "adapted to all things" had adapted to Xuan's domain.

The earth chunks filling the sky split apart again beneath the slashes, while Mahoraga's fist smashed toward Xuan's face—a black flash of cursed energy erupted. Mahoraga had adapted to cursed energy strikes, allowing him to attempt Black Flash—

Xuan's body flew backward as the shadow covering his face within the domain exploded. Reverse cursed technique restored his face in an instant, while Xuan charged forward—

It was coming!

An undetectable slash that directly affected its target!!!

Last time, this attack had nearly killed him!!!!

Mahoraga held his right hand upright, aimed at Xuan. The tongue that had emerged through adaptation gave him the ability to chant an incantation.

"Ka..."

As the clearly distorted incantation came from Mahoraga's mouth, even though Xuan dodged, the suddenly appearing slash struck his left hand in an instant.

Xuan did not waste a single moment—his left hand regenerated at once. Then he pressed his palms together, his ten fingers aimed at Mahoraga's chest.

"Max Elephant!"

Water surged forth, gathering in his palms, condensing, compressing, compressing again, and compressing yet again.

Boom!

A supersonic water jet instantly struck Mahoraga's body. With a sweep of Xuan's hand, the water jet slid fiercely across Mahoraga's body—severing both his arms.

"Come on, Mahoraga!!! Before we say goodbye! Satisfy your master as much as you can!!!"

"Roooooar!!!!!!"

As the wheel spun once more, Mahoraga roared and shot upward. His enormous body held no advantage whatsoever against Xuan.

Cutting, slashing—with every punch, the effects Chaos had left inside Mahoraga exploded inch by inch. The wheel above Mahoraga's head kept spinning, adapting to different attacks every moment, until Mahoraga completely sealed Chaos within his abdomen—the body that had just been as large as a mountain kept shrinking with each rotation, becoming a suitable human-sized form—

"Roar louder!!!!"

Xuan was completely fired up. Cursed energy burst violently from his body, and he unleashed another Black Flash, accompanied by another rotation of the wheel above Mahoraga's head.

"Xuan!!!"

"Mahoraga!!!!"

At last, Mahoraga, whose vocal organs had also evolved, shouted the name of his shikigami user. Along with that roar, two Black Flashes collided—and the wheel above Mahoraga's head spun once again.

"Come on, come on, come on!! Kill me!! Make me proud of you!! Mahoraga!!!"

"Xuan!!!"

The instant the two Black Flashes collided, half of Xuan's and Mahoraga's bodies exploded—reverse cursed technique and self-regeneration activated simultaneously, and at the same time, both regrew that half of their bodies.

The shrine on Xuan's body had nearly been cut away by Mahoraga's Black Flashes and close-range Dismantles—and Xuan was sent flying again by another Black Flash from Mahoraga—

"Ahhh—I'm satisfied."

Floating through the air, Xuan felt the dopamine continuously being secreted within his body. Then, as his body spun, he slowly came to a stop in midair.

"Then, it's time to end this."

With a satisfied expression, Xuan pressed his regenerated hands together, his fingers pointing outward—

"Max Elephant, Myriad Bolts."

"This AOE won't work on me!! Huh?!"

The instant the blasting water jet struck Mahoraga, Xuan opened the small domain where Piercing Ox had been running all this time.

"Little Mah—welcome home."

As Piercing Ox, already accelerated to Mach 3,000, crashed into him, an earth-shaking sound instantly echoed throughout the mountains. The sound indeed reached nearby Tochigi Prefecture—the place where Itadori and the other two were.

The earth-shaking roar came with rising flames and explosions. Even if the impact itself had missed, the explosion and flames would have completely erased Mahoraga—let alone the fact that the impact itself had indeed struck Mahoraga.

The exorcism ritual was complete.