Assembly

"I am Kokichi Muta."

"Satoru Gojo has been sealed! The Prison Realm has closed!" The boy's voice rang in the ears of everyone from Jujutsu High. "Now is not the time for despair. If Gojo-sensei is taken out of Shibuya, then it will truly be over. From this moment on, I will assume command and reorganize our overall tactics."

"Our objective is to reclaim Satoru Gojo."

Shiyue Shuo dragged his mangled body as he ran along the escalator between B1 and B2.

Calling it running was not quite accurate. Haruta Shigemo had severed his spine, and while the Dog Talisman sustained his ability to move, the sound of his bones grinding against one another was exceptionally clear in the silent corridor with every step he took.

"So he was still sealed." Shiyue Shuo leaned on his katana, letting dark red blood drip from his fingertips. Though he had revealed the information in advance, though he had even exposed Suguru Geto and the Prison Realm, Satoru Gojo's fate had remained unchanged.

"Hiss—" He sucked in a sharp breath.

There was no time to dwell on Satoru Gojo's sealing. There were still many more fates waiting for him to change.

He pushed open the heavy fire door to B2, and the pungent stench of blood rushed at him.

"Ratio Technique."

A low, rhythmic series of explosive impacts rang out from the middle of the platform. It was Kento Nanami. The ever-suited man was currently surrounded by hundreds of Transfigured Humans. His tie had come loose, and every swing of the short blade wrapped around his right hand precisely created a critical strike from his technique on an enemy.

At his side, Takuma Ino was sweating profusely as he swung his fists. The mask on his face had already been soaked through with blood, and he was driving his technique with all his strength.

"Auspicious Beast Summon!"

With his low roar, the phantom sharp horn condensed from cursed energy spun madly, forcibly piercing several Transfigured Humans lunging for Nanami's back.

"Mr. Nanami, these monsters just won't stop coming!" Takuma Ino panted loudly, a trace of exhaustion in his eyes. "At this rate, our cursed energy will run out first!"

"Don't lose focus, Ino." Kento Nanami severed a Transfigured Human's head without looking back, his tone as cold as ever. "We need to maximize our efficiency."

"Mr. Nanami!"

Shiyue Shuo let out a roar and leaped down from above, crashing into the center of the Transfigured Humans like a crimson cannonball.

He had no technique, no wide-range attacks. All he had was this battered body that could not be destroyed.

"Squelch!"

A Transfigured Human's claw pierced Shuo's chest, yet he did not so much as furrow his brow. Instead, he charged forward with the momentum, and his katana skewered the creature along with the three Transfigured Humans behind it like candied hawthorn.

"Shiyue?" Takuma Ino's eye twitched violently. Shock nearly caused him to interrupt his technique. He had watched with his own eyes as that body, which could practically be called a patchwork of corpses, rampaged across the battlefield.

He had seen madmen, and he had seen sorcerers who sacrificed themselves for righteousness, but he had never seen anyone like Shiyue Shuo... anyone like this.

"Ino, put away your sympathy. That would be the greatest insult to him." Kento Nanami swung his blade backward, using his technique to blast back a ring of Transfigured Humans around them. Though he said that, his eyes were also filled with disbelief as he looked at Shiyue Shuo.

"Don't worry about me."

Shiyue Shuo kicked a corpse aside. He looked utterly horrifying now: a wound had pierced through his abdomen, leaving his internal organs clearly visible. A dark golden glow, like a layer of plastic wrap, forcibly held them in place. The bones in his right arm had long since fractured into several pieces, yet he still held the chipped katana steady.

The three stood back-to-back, establishing a line of death in the extremely narrow corridor. Nanami was responsible for eliminating high-level targets with precision, Ino used the Auspicious Beasts for interference and mid-range attacks, while Shiyue Shuo used his immortal body to forcibly endure every attack from blind spots that could threaten the other two, as well as the endless tide of damaged Transfigured Humans.

"Why don't you dodge?" Ino asked during a lull in the fighting, his voice carrying a faint, barely perceptible tremor.

"Because it's more convenient to block them. That way, you don't need to divide your attention." Shiyue Shuo spat out a mouthful of blood, his gaze fixed straight ahead. "Mr. Ino, you've always followed Mr. Nanami. You should understand that efficiency comes first at a time like this."

Takuma Ino looked at Shuo's back, which kept splitting apart only to be forcibly held together by that dark golden light, and shuddered.

Ten minutes later, the fodder enemies on B2 had been wiped out. Amid the severed limbs covering the floor, Shiyue Shuo leaned against a vending machine, breathing like a broken bellows.

"Bzzzt—bzzzt—"

The miniature Mechamaru on his shoulder made a sound again.

"Can you hear me? A massive barrier has appeared on B3."

"It's Dagon." Shiyue Shuo pushed himself upright against the vending machine.

He remembered that curse. It looked like a red octopus alien, but it was actually a Special Grade cursed spirit in its cursed womb form. Once it completed its metamorphosis, it would be powerful enough to suppress several Grade 1 sorcerers at once.

"Mr. Nanami, let's go to B3. There's something more troublesome there."

Kento Nanami wiped the blood off his short blade, his expression grave. "Shiyue, your body..."

"I won't die." Shiyue Shuo grinned, revealing a mouthful of bloodstained white teeth.

The three quickly withdrew and descended directly to B3 via the maintenance stairs.

When they burst through the cursed energy barrier carrying the scent of the sea, a vast ocean met their eyes.

The entire B3 level had vanished, replaced by a sunlit beach and azure waves—it was Dagon's domain, [Horizon of the Captivating Skandha].

Beneath that exquisite scenery was an utterly brutal slaughter.

Naobito Zenin, the current head of the Zenin Clan, moved across the sea at high speed like an afterimage. In one corner of the beach, Noritoshi Kamo knelt on one knee, the area around his eye sockets covered in ruptured capillaries from overusing [Flowing Red Scale]. With his hands pressed together, he desperately maintained the blood net of [Crimson Binding], trying to intercept the frenzied shikigami biting at them.

Behind him, Kasumi Miwa held her wooden sword horizontally, her entire body trembling violently. Her feet were planted firmly in the sand as she maintained a "Simple Domain," constantly knocking aside the chunks of flesh that broke through the blood net with her blade's tip.

"Kamo-senpai, you've lost too much blood!" Kasumi Miwa cried out. Her school uniform had already been shredded by the shikigami fish.

"Shut up... maintain the domain!" Noritoshi Kamo roared, firing several more arrows of blood from his fingertips, only for them to be swallowed whole by a gigantic shikigami leaping up from beneath the sea.

At the center of the domain, the red cursed spirit had evolved into a demon god with powerful limbs and wings growing from its back.

"Shikigami—Death Swarm!"

Dagon let out a low roar as countless monstrous fish covered in sharp teeth madly tore at everyone within the domain.

"Damn it, it's a sure-hit technique."

"Maki! Old man! Kamo! Miwa!" Shiyue Shuo charged onto the beach, seawater washing over his ankles.

"Shiyue? What the hell happened to you?!" Maki Zenin found a moment to glance back, so startled that she nearly dropped Playful Cloud. She had never seen someone suffer injuries like that and still be bouncing around.

"Stop talking and get behind me!" Shiyue Shuo took a fierce step forward, directly shielding Kasumi Miwa and Noritoshi Kamo.

"Squelch! Squelch! Squelch!"

Countless shikigami fish embedded themselves in his back, thighs, and shoulders like swords. Like a massive lure, he drew all the Death Swarm that had been attacking the others toward himself. Huge chunks of flesh were torn away, exposing even gleaming white bone.

"This guy... he has no cursed energy and no technique. How could he possibly endure this?" Naobito Zenin narrowed his eyes, the proud old man looking him over critically.

"Stop talking about me and attack it!" Shiyue Shuo roared, grabbing two piranhas chewing on his chest ribs with both hands and crushing them alive.

It's not enough. Dagon's reserves of cursed energy were practically inexhaustible, while his Dog Talisman... He instinctively looked at the watch on his wrist.

There were only fifteen minutes left before the Dog Talisman's duration expired.

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