"The strongest sorcerer from four hundred years ago-"
Almost as soon as Tengen finished speaking, exclamations erupted from the people standing before it.
"Kashimo?!" Itadori's eyes went wide, disbelief filling his gaze.
"He was a sorcerer four hundred years ago?" Fushiguro's voice dropped, his brows knotting tightly.
"Seriously?" Okkotsu's lips parted slightly, his gaze sweeping over Tengen's unreadable face several times.
Tengen closed its eyes. In the instant those perpetually empty, emotionless eyes shut, they seemed to reveal the faintest trace of weariness. Pure white light spread across its eyelids, illuminating every fine crease.
"Without a doubt." Its voice softened, but every word landed like a stone.
"Four hundred years ago, he killed the wielders of the Six Eyes and the Ten Shadows of that era, one after the other." It paused, as though giving them time to digest that.
"And he slaughtered nearly every powerful sorcerer of any renown at the time."
Shoko snapped her head up. Her usually weary eyes now flashed with an unprecedented sharpness. Her voice rose, almost becoming a shout.
"Why? There are no records of him anywhere!"
"There were... once." Tengen's voice was soft, as though it were recalling a past even it was reluctant to revisit.
"After Kenjaku turned him into a cursed object, powerful figures fought over his corpse, which eventually fell into the Shogunate's hands. Sorcerers of later generations gave him a resounding title-the Thunder God. The writings of that time even described him as the Thunder God who was invincible all his life."
Its gaze lowered slightly, as though it were looking at a scene that did not exist within this pure white space.
"But after the Shogunate fell, Kenjaku was thorough in tying up loose ends. He destroyed every written record concerning Kashimo from that era, and completely destroyed