Battle Against Mahito

In the depths of a dam on the outskirts of Kyoto.

The dim, damp basement reeked of pungent preservative chemicals, mixed with an indescribable stench of decay.

"Click."

The old iron door was pushed open, and Shiyue Shuo stepped into the shadows.

"It seems you're ready." Shiyue Shuo looked at the boy in the bathtub, whose body was wrapped in blood-soaked bandages, with only one eye and his right arm still relatively intact. His tone was as calm as if he were discussing something trivial.

"Can you really heal me?" Kokichi Muta's voice was hoarse, but it carried a deep yearning.

"Why don't you believe me?" Repeatedly questioned by the person before him, Shiyue Shuo instinctively slipped into Chinese. "Just watch."

It was noon. In his mindscape, the talisman engraved with a galloping horse shone with the strongest white light of the day.

"The noble horse shall keep you free from pain."

Shiyue Shuo raised his hand and pressed it against Kokichi Muta's right arm. Milky-white life energy surged into his ruined body like floodwaters bursting through a dam. His shriveled muscles began to multiply wildly, and his severed meridians were forcibly reconnected under that immense power.

"Ahhh!!!"

Kokichi Muta let out a miserable scream. It was the agony of cells being forced to divide. Yet beneath that pain, the bone-chilling cold that had tormented him for years was gradually fading, replaced by a warm sensation.

"My, my. This is... quite the betrayal."

A flippant, malicious voice sounded from the shadows. A man with long gray hair and stitches covering his entire body slowly emerged. Mahito wore an innocent yet cruel smile, his mismatched eyes fixed firmly on Kokichi Muta, who was about to recover.

In the shadows behind Mahito stood Kenjaku, wearing Suguru Geto's body. With both hands tucked into his sleeves, he studied Shiyue Shuo with an unfathomable gaze.

"How disgraceful, Kokichi Muta." Kenjaku touched the stitches on his forehead, his tone even. "You were willing to break the binding vow for this body. You should know very well what betrayal costs."

"A cost? There's no cost to exorcising you." The Horse Talisman at full strength filled Shiyue Shuo with boundless confidence as his right hand remained firmly pressed against Kokichi Muta's shoulder.

"Oh?" Mahito cocked his head, amusement filling his mismatched eyes. "Hey, your soul has a scent I've never encountered before."

Before his words had even faded, Mahito vanished. A stitched hand shot straight toward Shiyue Shuo's face. "Idle Transfiguration!"

"Get lost!" Shiyue Shuo snorted and casually threw a heavy punch with his left hand.

With the Horse Talisman at its peak, Shiyue Shuo's physical vitality had also been pushed to the limit. The punch contained no cursed energy, yet its surging life force formed an invisible shockwave that forcibly knocked Mahito's hand aside.

His left arm was nearly ruined by the blow, but the Horse Talisman restored it completely the next second. It was even sturdier than before.

"Huh? I can't touch his soul?" Mahito froze. When his technique touched that white glow, he found that he could not reach Shiyue Shuo's soul as he normally would.

"Tch. What a troublesome variable." Kenjaku's gaze sharpened as he raised a hand and released several Grade 1 cursed spirits.

"Your opponent is me!"

A furious roar rang out. Kokichi Muta, who had been lying in the bathtub, had now grown complete limbs. The body that had been utterly ruined for sixteen years was fully restored under the Horse Talisman's healing. He leaped up and jumped straight into the cockpit of a massive steel mech.

"Final Form—Ultimate Mechamaru, activate!"

The gigantic steel beast let out a thunderous roar, and dense cursed-energy beams instantly sealed off Kenjaku's route of attack. Kokichi Muta shouted with reddened eyes from within the cockpit, "I've waited sixteen years for this day!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The giant mech and Kenjaku's swarm of cursed spirits collided madly within the cramped basement.

In an instant, the ground split apart, and their battlefield shifted from indoors to outside.

Meanwhile, Mahito's body twisted like liquid as he continuously tried to touch Shiyue Shuo from every possible angle. With the extreme physical reactions granted by the Horse Talisman, Shiyue Shuo defended without a single opening and even landed blow after blow, beating Mahito until he groaned in misery.

Tch, the Horse Talisman's output is still a little lacking.

Just then, the mechanical watch on his wrist gave a soft click.

"It's one o'clock!"

In an instant, Shiyue Shuo felt the immense vitality belonging to the Horse Talisman rapidly withdraw from his body, while an illusory power rose from the depths of his mindscape.

Taking advantage of the Horse Talisman's lingering strength, Shiyue Shuo quickly retreated to a safe distance and put back on the coat he had removed during the earlier brawl.

"The mysterious sheep shall make my soul eternal."

"Domain Expansion: Self-Embodiment of Perfection."

Almost at the same time, Mahito unleashed his Domain Expansion. Countless enormous hands intertwined out of nothingness, instantly forming a sealed sphere made of palms that completely enveloped Shiyue Shuo.

Mahito stood at the center of the domain. Half his head had just been sliced away, and it was now writhing grotesquely as it regenerated. Excitement filled his mismatched eyes. "Hey, let me taste that wonderfully fragrant soul of yours!"

Mahito swung his palm down sharply. The technique accumulated within the domain erupted at once, and countless invisible hands reached for Shiyue Shuo.

"A domain? This is my first time seeing a real one."

As Shiyue Shuo considered it, a faint violet glow covered his entire body. The instant Mahito's technique touched him, it produced a piercing grinding sound.

"How is that possible..." Mahito's smile froze. "My technique can't interfere with his soul?"

"Could it be that your grip is just too weak?" Shiyue Shuo sneered. Unlike before, when the Sheep Talisman could only let his soul leave his body, it now placed his soul in an "eternal" state—stable as a mountain. Even after his soul left his body, his physical form could still move.

The next second, a semi-transparent Shiyue Shuo glowing with faint violet light stepped directly out of his body.

"An out-of-body soul?!" Mahito was shocked and instinctively tried to retreat.

"What is it? Scared?" Shiyue Shuo's soul form was almost completely unrestricted by space within the domain. He instantly appeared before Mahito and drove an uppercut fiercely into his chin.

The blow carried no physical sensation, yet Mahito's soul let out a shrill scream. The impact struck directly at his essence. Mahito's domain began shaking violently from the force of that punch, and countless cracks appeared across the tightly joined walls of hands.

At the same time, outside the domain.

Kokichi Muta piloted the enormous Ultimate Mechamaru, unleashing firepower without restraint. The Horse Talisman's healing had given new life to the body that had been ruined for sixteen years, and he was now at the peak of his condition.

"True Form—Ultimate Cannon!"

A massive energy beam powerful enough to pierce through mountains slammed into the outer shell of Mahito's domain. Shiyue Shuo delivered a direct, overwhelming blow to Mahito's soul from within, while Mechamaru bombarded it violently from outside.

Crack!

With a crisp sound, Mahito's domain shattered.

Kenjaku stood at the edge of a massive crater some distance away. As he watched Mahito fly backward through the smoke, his soul nearly collapsing, and Shiyue Shuo standing there with a faint glow around his body, his expression finally darkened completely.

"Kill him, now! That guy is a monster!" Mahito shrieked in terror. For the first time, he felt the threat of death.

"We can't drag this out any longer. If Satoru arrives, neither of us will be able to leave."

As soon as he finished speaking, the shadows beneath Kenjaku's feet expanded instantly, swallowing both him and Mahito.

"Trying to run?" Kokichi Muta roared and tried to give chase, but Shiyue Shuo stopped him with an outstretched hand.

"Don't chase them." Shiyue Shuo's soul returned to his body. Without that abundant vitality, he felt extremely weak.

The basement had become complete ruins. Sunlight streamed through the shattered ground and fell upon Kokichi Muta's smooth, whole hands.

"I... I really came back to life." Kokichi Muta stepped out of the mech cockpit, barefoot on the earth, his eyes red-rimmed.

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