Three-Finger Sukuna

Sukuna's claws, sharp enough to pierce steel plates, lunged forward, only to lose all purchase the instant they touched their target.

There was no dull sound of flesh tearing, no gush of warm blood.

Only a faint series of splashes, like bursting bubbles.

The instant his claws pierced Feng's body, both the boy and the long blade braced against Sukuna's knuckles collapsed like a water film stripped of its surface tension, dissolving completely into the pouring rain.

Sukuna paused briefly. The second pair of eyes beneath his usual ones darted around, their sharp gaze sweeping the dense curtain of rain.

All that remained against his palm was bone-chilling rainwater.

"Completely liquefying his body and merging with the domain's environment..."

Sukuna's lips curved into a feverish grin, his battle instincts driving his senses to their limit in an instant.

Meanwhile, several hundred meters away, outside the Juvenile Detention Center.

A drenched Megumi Fushiguro crashed onto the muddy lawn, his momentum sending him rolling several meters before he stopped.

He coughed violently, spat out blood mixed with rainwater, and raised his head in confusion.

One moment, he had been facing the crushing threat of death at the heart of the ruins. The next, his surroundings had changed completely.

He was not the only one. Several unconscious civilians lay sprawled nearby-the survivors who had been trapped in the Juvenile Detention Center.

Megumi Fushiguro wiped the mud and water from his face, forcing his mind, dizzy from blood loss, to settle.

He turned toward the center of the ruins, now completely swallowed by heavy storm clouds and torrential rain.

"Was that... spatial displacement?"

Megumi Fushiguro clenched his teeth and braced both hands against the ground, struggling up onto one knee.

"No, that's not it. There wasn't any sign of a spatial Cursed Technique activating.

It's the 'rain'... Inside that unknown domain, the caster can freely control the position of anything marked by the rainwater."

He immediately understood the intention behind this tactic.

Feng, who had appeared out of nowhere, was forcibly removing the burdens from the battlefield so he could fight without holding anything back.

Megumi Fushiguro stared fixedly at the heart of the storm and began dragging his badly injured body toward the unconscious civilians. "I have to get these people beyond the edge of the domain as quickly as possible. I can't let them distract him..."

At the center of the ruins, a lethal attack was already closing in.

A second after Sukuna figured out the liquefaction ability, the curtain of rain behind him suddenly changed.

Dense raindrops gathered and reassembled frantically in midair, defying the laws of physics.

I have to inflict enough damage to try to make him use Reverse Cursed Technique to heal Itadori...

Or keep him occupied!

Dark blue fabric fluttered in the wind and rain as Feng's figure materialized behind Sukuna without warning.

The edge of Mikazuki Munechika tore through the rain with a shrill howl, slashing straight at Sukuna's unguarded nape.

But as the King of Curses who had once reigned supreme, Sukuna possessed combat instincts far beyond human comprehension.

Without even looking back, he twisted his upper body sharply to the right at an unnatural angle that bent against his joints.

The supposedly fatal decapitating strike followed his shifting trajectory and slammed into his left shoulder blade instead!

Squelch!

The sharp blade sliced through Sukuna's tough muscles, and crimson blood instantly spurted out.

A crescent-shaped wound deep enough to expose bone formed on Sukuna's shoulder. The instant it appeared, its edges began curling outward and multiplying, attempting to devour more flesh.

"An interesting Cursed Tool!"

Sukuna burst into wild laughter.

Ignoring the strange wound rapidly worsening and spreading across his shoulder, he flooded his left shoulder with an immense surge of cursed energy like a tsunami, forcibly suppressing the crescent wound's expansion through sheer brute force.

Seizing the brief pause as the blade lodged in flesh and bone, Sukuna's right leg sprang backward like a spring compressed to its limit. With a piercing sonic boom, he delivered a viciously precise scorpion kick toward Feng's abdomen behind him.

And he was not done yet.

As he lashed out with his leg, Sukuna brought together the index and middle fingers of his right hand at his side and flicked them casually.

"Dismantle."

Several invisible slashes, too fast for the naked eye to follow, mingled with the dense raindrops and swept in from both sides at treacherous angles, cutting toward Feng's throat and the backs of his knees!

The combination flowed without the slightest hesitation, a counterattack executed at the very instant the blade struck him.

In midair, the invisible slashes of Dismantle struck Feng's body hard.

Yet the expected sight of him being dismembered in an instant never came. A nearly tangible film of cursed energy covered the boy's body-Domain Amplification.

The sharpness of Dismantle was forcibly neutralized and weakened by that layer of amplified cursed energy, leaving only cuts in Feng's flesh.

The crimson blood had barely seeped out before the downpour washed it away. Nourished by the flowing water, the gaping wounds healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

While using Domain Amplification, I can't use my own Cursed Technique to liquefy myself. I can only use the domain's effects because I've imbued the domain with my Cursed Technique.

Sukuna has already recovered from Cursed Technique burnout. The main reason I can hold out here is my domain's properties... In other words, I absolutely cannot let him expand his domain to counter mine.

Without pausing, Feng used the protection of Domain Amplification to cling stubbornly to Sukuna at close range, denying him any chance to create distance.

The second pair of eyes beneath Sukuna's usual ones narrowed slightly as he keenly discerned the logic underlying this tactic.

"Neutralizing my Cursed Technique with Domain Amplification and deliberately staying on top of me... You're trying to deny me the room to form hand signs and prevent me from expanding my domain?"

A wild, cold sneer curled Sukuna's lips. He stamped down hard, scattering the puddle beneath his foot, and used the recoil to shoot backward.

The instant he gained some distance, his fingers flicked three times through the rain.

Three Dismantle slashes, far fiercer than before, tore through the downpour in a triangular formation.

But just as those three slashes were about to hit, the domain's sure-hit rule forcibly activated.

The very concept of space seemed to be erased at that moment. Sukuna, who had already retreated more than ten meters, felt no physical process of being dragged at all before he was forcibly pulled back to his original position, exposed before the boy once again!

The edge of Mikazuki Munechika flashed with a cold gleam as it thrust straight toward Sukuna's heart.

Faced with this inescapable, sure-hit killing blow, the King of Curses did not even blink.

He thrust out his left hand without dodging and seized the incoming blade in his bare palm!

A grating screech of metal rang out. Savage cursed energy erupted from Sukuna's palm as his five fingers tightened violently.

With a sharp crack, the imitation Mikazuki Munechika snapped in two!

The instant Feng lost his weapon, Sukuna's right leg swung up like a battle-axe, howling through the air before slamming into the boy's ribs.

Amid a teeth-grating crunch of breaking bones, Feng flew backward like a kite with a severed string and crashed into the collapsed concrete ruins behind him, throwing up mud, water, and dust.

The torrential rain continued pouring over Feng, attempting to repair his injured body.

He had just braced himself against the ground to rise when Sukuna's cold voice followed him like a shadow.

"Too slow."

Two Dismantle slashes struck the boy's shoulders with precision, pinning him back to the ground.

Sukuna appeared above him like a phantom. His broad hand clamped around the boy's head and, with devastating force, smashed him into a rubble-filled pit flooded with rainwater!

The ground shattered, spiderweb cracks spreading in every direction.

But the sensation beneath his palm made Sukuna's brow suddenly furrow.

There was no warm flesh, no solid feeling of bones breaking.

The "boy" pinned beneath his hand dissolved into a puddle of cold water in an instant. The broken blade nearby melted into the rainwater as well.

"...A Water Clone? The sword was fake too?"

Sukuna's reaction was extraordinary. Almost the instant he realized he had been deceived, he began turning to defend himself.

But the true killing blow had already arrived.

Feng appeared silently directly behind Sukuna. Holding the genuine, specially made Cursed Tool, he drove its blade forward without mercy. With a wet squelch, it pierced straight through Sukuna's abdomen from behind!

The blood-red tip emerged from the front of Sukuna's chest, and the flesh around the wound immediately began breaking down in a crescent shape under the Cursed Tool's effect.

With that fatal stab to the back, the battle should have tipped toward victory.

But Sukuna merely lowered his head and glanced at the blade piercing his abdomen.

He did not use Reverse Cursed Technique to repair the potentially fatal puncture wound. He did not even furrow his brow. His malicious eyes held nothing but the purest madness.

"A nice trick... But did you think this would be enough to kill me?"

Completely ignoring the sword inside him and the agony of his tearing wound, Sukuna forcibly twisted his upper body at an impossible angle and clamped a hand over Feng's chest.

"Cleave."

This was a lethal strike that automatically adjusted its power according to the target's cursed energy and physical toughness.

A blinding spray of blood blossomed in the rain. The point-blank slash ripped violently through Feng's chest, opening an enormous wound deep enough to expose bone and nearly tearing his body apart.

I couldn't liquefy in time! Why... Feng thought rapidly, then understood a moment later.

Every Cursed Technique has a limit to what it can withstand, while Cleave can adjust itself into a killing blow based on the difference in cursed energy.

Even though this strike can't kill me, its sharpness and destructive power have automatically adjusted to a level my liquefaction can't react to in time!

He fell backward helplessly, landing heavily in the pooled water.

Even with the rain constantly washing over and healing him, the horrific wound could only reconstruct itself at an extremely slow pace.

Sukuna casually pulled the long sword from his abdomen and tossed it aside, allowing his blood to gush freely.

He turned and looked down at Feng lying in a pool of blood, slowly raising his hands to form the hand sign for Malevolent Shrine, the herald of death.

"For an insect, you've put up quite an entertaining struggle. Now, turn to ash-"

Just as his fingers touched to form the sign, Sukuna's voice cut off abruptly.

To his astonishment, the cold rainwater clinging to his skin and soaking his kimono had become like countless indestructible steel cables, locking down his joints, his muscles, and even every finger.

This strange restraint, exerting pressure from the outside inward, forcibly interrupted his hand sign.

In that brief opening, lasting less than a second, Feng forced his gravely wounded body up from the pool of blood and stamped hard against the ground.

A heavy straight punch, wrapped in flowing water and his remaining cursed energy, slammed into Sukuna's jaw!

Bam!

The tremendous impact lifted the unprepared King of Curses clean off his feet and sent him flying more than ten meters backward. He smashed through a support pillar before finally coming to a stop.

The downpour continued. Feng stood where he was, the fatal wound in his chest still healing slowly. His chest heaved, and the once-abundant glow of cursed energy around him had visibly dimmed.