Turning Stillness into Motion

Crack!

A thunderous crash suddenly came from deep within the alley. It was the heavy echo of Mahoraga crushing the asphalt beneath its feet. This mountain-like Divergent Sila Divine General was advancing toward the curse user whose hands had been severed and who was already waiting on the brink of death.

Shiyue Shuo knew full well that under the rules of the Subjugation Ritual, once this curse user, the "participant," died, the ritual would be forcibly terminated at once, and its caster, Megumi Fushiguro, would die alongside him.

The curse user, teetering on the edge of despair, was about to be completely crushed beneath the mountain-sized fist of Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga.

"Damn it!"

Shiyue Shuo let out a hoarse roar. He was in a miserable state. The clothes he had picked up and worn were soaked through with blood and sweat, then baked dry and crusted over by the earlier heat.

He was now half-kneeling amid the cold rubble, clutching Megumi Fushiguro, who had fallen into a state of suspended death, tightly against his chest. His other hand slammed down against the ground.

"Cunning Rat, make the false real."

At the critical instant before Mahoraga's heavy fist fell, the rubble and mud beneath the curse user suddenly writhed violently as though boiling. Countless stones instantly "came alive" under the Rat Talisman's power. They intertwined and piled together, forming a gigantic stone arm made of debris. It swept down, violently dragged the stunned curse user out from beneath Mahoraga's feet, and hurled him deep into the shadows of the alley.

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"Kurong."

The enormous Dharma wheel behind the Divine General turned once. The sound seemed to carve a blade across Shiyue Shuo's soul, making his body shudder involuntarily.

"Kokichi Muta, bring every spare unit over here!" Shiyue Shuo's voice rang frantically through the communicator.

"What are you trying to do?"

"I told you the Rat Talisman and you were a 'perfect match,' didn't I?" Shiyue Shuo's voice was unnaturally calm—calm to the point of madness. "I'm going to give souls to inanimate objects."

As he spoke, Shiyue Shuo pressed his palm against the tracks of a massive heavy excavator behind him, one that had been crippled by the explosion. The instant his palm touched it, an indescribable pulse of life erupted from his hand. There was no cursed energy, no negative energy. It was pure "animation," born from the conceptual level.

The dead excavator suddenly let out an engine's roar, yet beneath that roar was a low growl like that of a wild beast. Its steel joints twisted and reassembled eerily without hydraulic power. Its mechanical arm turned into thick claws, while its enormous bucket became a gaping maw filled with steel teeth.

At the same time, a dense barrage of whistling air came from above the alley. It was hundreds of miniature and medium-sized mechanical puppets Kokichi Muta had gathered at all costs.

Bzzzz—!

Ash-gray light instantly connected every machine. Before the Divine General summoned by Megumi Fushiguro, an army of steel was rapidly taking shape. These machines no longer relied on Kokichi Muta's remote control. They had received "souls" from the Rat Talisman.

"This is... Turning Stillness into Motion?" Kokichi Muta stared blankly at the screens in the basement.

Roar—!

Mahoraga seemed to sense the threat. These "creatures," which contained no cursed energy whatsoever, were something it had never adapted to. It swung the Sword of Exorcism in its hand, and a golden flash instantly slashed toward the charging steel beast.

Suddenly, an immensely evil presence came from afar. It was Ryomen Sukuna. In the interval after defeating Jogo, the King of Curses had sensed the fluctuations of the Subjugation Ritual and was crossing the battlefield with unstoppable force.

Almost the instant that presence arose, a man in a black kimono with strange markings covering his forehead silently appeared atop the ruined walls at the end of the alley. He stood on a half-broken, swaying steel bar, idly playing with a lingering ember in his hand.

"Oh? Isn't this that brat with no cursed energy?" Sukuna laughed with delight. "To think you managed to put on such an interesting little 'show.' Giving souls to dead things... Even a thousand years ago, I'd never heard of such a technique."

Sukuna leaped down from above, his toes lightly touching the ground. He looked at the mechanical army made vivid by the Rat Talisman, and a trace of contempt flickered in his eyes.

"But before 'slashes,' what does it matter whether something has a soul or not?"

"Sukuna..." Shiyue Shuo shielded Megumi Fushiguro and slowly retreated.

Sukuna's finger twitched.

In an instant, invisible slashes swept across the area. Shiyue Shuo's steel army was destroyed in the blink of an eye, and the machines that had gained wills of their own were sliced apart instantly.

Sukuna did not even spare them a second glance. He drifted down before Shiyue Shuo, confirmed that Megumi Fushiguro was still alive, then turned toward Mahoraga, which was adapting to everything as its Dharma wheel turned.

"Run for your life, brat."

Sukuna vanished instantly. The next second, an ear-splitting roar erupted across the entire Shibuya district. The collision between the King of Curses and the Divergent Sila Divine General made the earth rise and fall like waves, plunging all of Shibuya into true physical destruction.

"Go... We have to go!" Shiyue Shuo gritted his teeth. He carried Megumi Fushiguro onto his back and applied the Rat Talisman's power to the ground beneath his feet. The asphalt writhed like an escalator, carrying them swiftly away from the center of the battlefield and bringing Megumi to a safe place far from the fierce fighting.

Yet as he watched smoke and dust continually rise in the distance and buildings collapse, Shiyue Shuo stopped.

As a transmigrator, he knew exactly what Shibuya would become next. Because of Mahoraga's adaptability, Sukuna would eventually deploy his Domain. When that happened, every living thing within a 140-meter radius would be reduced to ash.

If I leave now... then I really will be nothing but a bystander.

Shiyue Shuo glanced at the watch on his wrist, turned around, and charged back against the flow of fleeing people.

"Fuck it! Let's do this!"

He rushed into a nearby residential district. The Rat Talisman's power spread outward like ripples. Buildings that had been on the verge of collapse suddenly "grew" thick stone legs amid gray light. With rumbling crashes, they stabilized themselves and extended enormous terrace "palms," scooping terrified civilians from the ruins and escorting them farther away.

"Run! Don't look back!"

Shiyue Shuo roared as he sprinted through the rubble. Every nerve in his body screamed beneath the burden of the Rat Talisman. One building, two buildings, three buildings... Driven by his will, this lifeless urban ruin came alive, forming a steel barricade of buildings that stood firmly between ordinary people and danger.

Boom—!!!

The final judgment descended. Sukuna deployed his Domain, and the torrent of slashes from Malevolent Shrine instantly cut apart Mahoraga along with the entire district.

The dust settled.

Sukuna stood at the center of the hollowed-out ruins. His gaze passed through the wreckage and landed on a blood-covered youth who still stood upright. He discovered that, at the edge of the Domain where no one should have survived, a group of ordinary people had lived.

"You little monkey... You're tougher than I expected."

Sukuna appeared before Shiyue Shuo in an instant. Without another word, a "Dismantle" capable of cutting through everything came straight at him.

Is this it? At least I saved so many people, didn't I?

The shadow of death engulfed Shiyue Shuo in an instant. Scenes began flashing through his mind—his transmigration, the Goodwill Event, Yasohachi Bridge.

"Yasohachi Bridge!"

Shiyue Shuo suddenly recalled the Domain Expansion Megumi Fushiguro had used that day.

In his mind, the wheel of twelve talismans spun wildly. Between life and death, countless realizations converged in his thoughts.

Shiyue Shuo suddenly pressed his hands together. A unique fluctuation unlike cursed energy exploded outward.

"Domain Expansion—"

"Twelvefold Astral Signs: Eternal Coordinates."

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