Mahoraga

"Go."

Sukuna casually waved a hand.

Mahoraga vanished in an instant.

Fast.

More than a tier faster than the previous Chimera Beast.

"Bang!"

Shiyue Shuo crossed his arms before his chest and was sent flying by an immense force. The positive energy wrapped around the Sword of Exorcism sizzled against his skin the instant it made contact.

"Not only is it powerful, it also carries positive energy specifically effective against cursed spirits?" Shiyue Shuo flipped through the air and landed steadily. "Too bad I'm not a cursed spirit."

"The Blazing Boar makes my eyes blaze."

Two thick laser beams shot from his eyes, streaking straight toward Mahoraga's face.

Mahoraga neither dodged nor evaded, taking the attack head-on. The searing heat instantly melted its white exoskeleton, blasting away half its head.

"Thud."

The ritual wheel above its head turned one notch.

The next second, Mahoraga's shattered head healed at a visible rate. The light in its eyes changed, no longer fearing those blazing rays.

"It adapted?"

Shiyue Shuo narrowed his eyes.

Mahoraga charged again. This time, it actually advanced straight into Shiyue Shuo's Heat Vision. The high-temperature lasers that could once slice through clouds now produced only a wisp of smoke when they struck its body.

"What a pain."

Shiyue Shuo rapidly retreated.

"What's wrong? If you don't kill it in one go, it'll only keep getting stronger." Sukuna sat cross-legged in the air in the distance, as though watching a beast-fighting show. "After the wheel turns once, it analyzes your ability. After it turns a second time, it evolves perfect defenses and offensive measures tailored to your ability."

"All your little tricks are meaningless before absolute 'adaptation.'"

"Is that so?"

Shiyue Shuo took a deep breath.

He looked toward the sky. The already gloomy skies over Shinjuku had become even more oppressive from the collision of their cursed energy. Far beyond that, eight black vortices slowly rotated in the heavens—the world's forcible correction of an "anomaly" like him.

"I've always been careful."

Shiyue Shuo murmured. His voice was soft, yet it clearly reached Sukuna's ears.

"I was afraid this damned world would collapse, afraid it would draw even more troublesome things here. So ever since I obtained my complete abilities, I've been suppressing the talismans, suppressing myself."

He suddenly raised his head. The clarity in his eyes had been replaced by chaos blended from twelve colors.

"But now, it seems I can't worry about that anymore."

"Bzzzz—!!!"

An aura so terrifying that all of Tokyo Metropolis trembled erupted from Shiyue Shuo's body.

"Crack, crack."

The space around Shiyue Shuo began to fracture like a mirror.

Sukuna's mocking expression instantly froze. He rose from his throne, all four eyes fixed firmly on the boy below.

"This feeling..." Sukuna frowned deeply. "I can't sense any cursed energy. What is this brat trying to do?"

"Mahoraga! Kill him!"

Sukuna sensed that something was wrong and directly gave the order to kill.

Mahoraga roared. The Sword of Exorcism in its hand expanded wildly as it cleaved down with enough force to split a mountain range.

"Too slow."

Shiyue Shuo's voice became vast and layered, as though twelve people were speaking at once.

"The Mighty Ox."

"The Swift Rabbit."

"The Sacred Dragon."

"Boom!"

Shiyue Shuo did not dodge. He extended one hand, which turned pitch-black in an instant, covered in fine dragon scales as its muscles bulged like hills.

He actually caught Mahoraga's Sword of Exorcism with his bare hand.

"What?!" Sukuna's pupils shrank.

"I lack nothing now!"

Shiyue Shuo clenched his other hand into a fist. A strange black-and-white radiance gathered around it.

"The majestic Tiger makes me distinguish good from evil."

"Bang!"

The punch landed squarely on Mahoraga's chest.

There was no explosion, no shockwave.

Mahoraga's enormous body froze in that instant. Its cursed energy structure, adaptation logic, even the foundation of the technique that constituted its existence, were forcibly "harmonized" by that punch.

Good and evil, yin and yang, existence and nothingness.

The Tiger Talisman's authority was balance, but when pushed to its limit, it became the strongest Dissociation Technique.

"Crack."

The wheel above Mahoraga's head gave a sharp crack. It tried to turn, tried to adapt to this power.

"You still want to adapt?"

Golden light erupted from Shiyue Shuo's eyes.

"The Agile Monkey makes you ever-changing."

A golden Ripple swept over Mahoraga in an instant. The invincible divine general began to show signs of turning metallic. Its joints rusted, and its skin became pig iron.

The wheel jammed.

"Now!"

Shiyue Shuo roared as the power of the talismans converged in his right foot.

"Rumble—!!!"

A red sun rose over the streets of Shinjuku.

Mahoraga's already-metallic body was completely reduced to dust in an explosion comparable to a small nuclear bomb.

Smoke and dust blotted out the sky.

Standing high above, Sukuna stared at the enormous crater hundreds of meters across below, his face terrifyingly grim.

"Mahoraga... was killed instantly?"

Even a thousand years ago, he had never seen anyone make Mahoraga vanish into ashes without allowing it even a second adaptation.

"No."

Sukuna keenly noticed something unusual.

After Mahoraga was destroyed, the shikigami of the Ten Shadows Technique should have returned to the shadows, or its power should have been inherited by another shikigami.

Yet at the bottom of that crater, the remnant filth that had belonged to Mahoraga had not dispersed.

That black, viscous shadow writhed and boiled violently as if it had developed a life of its own. Rather than returning to Sukuna's shadow, it let out a piercing shriek like a startled beast.

"Screee—!!!"

"What is... that?" Shiyue Shuo was stunned as well. He had no expression at the moment; the talismans unleashed at full power were stripping away his emotions.

The black fluid suddenly swelled, turning into a black torrent. Ignoring Sukuna's summons, it burst through the ruins and frantically fled toward the edge of the battlefield.

"The technique... has gone out of control?" Sukuna looked at his palm. He could feel that his original connection to the Ten Shadows Technique had been severed.

"Mahoraga's death was only the trigger... something that had been suppressed within it got out."

Watching the black fluid swiftly vanish into the city's sewers, Shiyue Shuo felt a powerful unease rise within him. This was a change that had never occurred in the original story.

"Don't get distracted, brat."

Sukuna's voice suddenly came from behind Shiyue Shuo.

"It's a pity Mahoraga is gone, but it looks like you can't maintain your current state for much longer, can you?"

"Dismantle."

Countless slashes wove into an impenetrable net, enveloping Shiyue Shuo.

"Tch."

Suddenly, the air around Shiyue Shuo became viscous, as though it had turned solid. The instant the slashes cut into this space, their speed was forcibly slowed.

Taking advantage of that opening, Shiyue Shuo flashed upward and appeared above Sukuna's head.

"How much longer can I last? Try me and find out."

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