Successfully tamed

"Domain Expansion..."

Ze Zenin kept his eyes fixed on Mahoraga as he charged toward him.

He first sidestepped the slash from the Sword of Extermination, then kicked Mahoraga away.

"You even know to interrupt a domain? Have you developed the ability to think?"

A flicker of delight passed through Ze Zenin's mind. He had begun studying the development and application of domains ten years ago.

After learning barrier techniques, he had gained a clear understanding of a domain's essence.

It used an enormous amount of cursed energy to construct an innate domain imbued with an innate cursed technique.

Aside from the additional boosts, if he activated the sure-hit effect of Ten Shadows within his domain, Mahoraga probably wouldn't survive today.

Ze Zenin swapped positions again, piercing Mahoraga's chest with Chidori before leaping into the air. An enormous fireball plummeted like a world-ending meteor.

Ze Zenin had no intention of giving Mahoraga a chance to breathe. Lightning crackled in his hand, gradually taking the shape of a long spear.

"Chidori Sharp Spear!"

As Ze Zenin hurled it, the fireball and lightning spear erupted in a massive explosion, instantly blasting apart the surrounding terrain.

He knew the rule that Great Fireball produced smoke but no damage, so he had deliberately combined his own lightning cursed energy with Nue's lightning. The two layers amplified the lightning spear's power, triggering a violent explosion.

Yet when Ze Zenin saw Mahoraga's body gradually regenerating within the smoke, his heart still sank.

"Forget it. I'm done playing. The sooner I finish this, the sooner I can call it a day."

Unwilling to waste any more time, Ze Zenin summoned a swarm of Rabbit Escape shikigami to interfere with Mahoraga.

"See you, Mahoraga..."

Ze Zenin watched impassively as the wheel above Mahoraga's head continued to turn.

For a technique as relatively straightforward as Ten Shadows, it should only need one more turn...

Cursed energy surged from Ze Zenin's body. If he wasted any more time and missed the day his teacher would attempt to assassinate Riko Amanai, he would be in trouble.

He curled both hands inward into fists,

held both index fingers upright side by side,

and rested their tips against each other.

The hand sign Ze Zenin formed was the Buddhist Vairocana Mudra.

"Domain Expansion-Shadow Shrine."

In an instant, darkness seemed to blanket the earth. The clear, bright sky was swallowed by gloom, and a shrine-like structure resembling a black coffin appeared with Ze Zenin at its center.

An open domain expanded outward from Ze Zenin in every direction.

"This is..."

At the Zenin Clan estate below the mountain, everyone keeping a close watch on the taming ritual was shaken by an inexplicable force. They all turned to look in the same direction.

Naobito Zenin watched every movement on the mountain behind the estate. This was probably the boy's trump card. If even his domain couldn't defeat Mahoraga, and he entered cursed technique burnout after Mahoraga adapted...

Ze Zenin's expression remained unchanged as he immediately began adjusting his domain's rules.

His domain currently used the Ten Shadows Technique as its innate cursed technique.

It created a domain of shadows, its pitch-black interior capable of generating any kind of shadow, not merely those of the ten shikigami...

Ze Zenin could travel through any shadow within the domain to launch attacks.

Within this domain, Ze Zenin could summon any number of Ten Shadows Technique shikigami, and they could not be destroyed. Only Piercing Ox and Max Elephant could not be summoned in large numbers because of their size.

Those two were limited to three at a time, but with a mere thought, Ze Zenin could summon thousands upon thousands of the other shikigami.

He could also choose to imbue the domain with the shikigami's abilities-

Piercing Ox's charge, Nue's lightning, Max Elephant's water, and Divine Dogs' claws could all manifest as sure-hit attacks. As long as an enemy was within the domain's range, those attacks would strike them without fail.

Ze Zenin even had a bold idea: what if he imbued the domain with Round Deer's healing as its sure-hit effect?

Then the domain could even heal others at his will. That would be incredibly difficult to counter, essentially turning it into a massive healing fountain. However, the farther someone was from Ze Zenin, the more the domain's healing effect would diminish.

The only drawback was that he couldn't select himself as a healing target within the domain...

For this first use, Ze Zenin had imbued it with Max Elephant's water flow.

Ze Zenin compressed Max Elephant's water into slender arrows and fired them at the speed of sound. Thousands upon thousands of water arrows pierced Mahoraga's body.

As time passed, Mahoraga's body was soon riddled with holes, without a single intact patch remaining. Yet he immediately began regenerating, and the cycle repeated over and over.

Ze Zenin looked down, his mind working nonstop.

This domain is still too weak. It still can't kill Mahoraga instantly.

Then Ze Zenin leaped high into the sky, Nue's wings sprouting from his back.

He could have used his Cursed Seal form, but Ze Zenin thought it was ugly, so he hadn't.

He raised his right hand high like a lightning rod and began to chant:

"Ride the clouds,

crimson adornments,

the booming drums that summon thunder."

These were the incantations for Ze Zenin's ultimate Lightning Release technique. To ensure a one-hit kill, he chose to chant them to amplify the attack's damage.

Thunder now rolled through the once-clear sky. The lightning gradually formed a beast resembling a dragon with four long legs, roaring ceaselessly overhead. (For its appearance, refer to Sasuke's Kirin.)

"This is what I've spent years carefully preparing for you. It's also my greatest trump card at present..."

"Go! Kirin!"

"Vanish with the thunder..."

This was no ordinary lightning from nature. Ze Zenin had infused it with Nue's thunderous power and poured the full effects of his own cursed energy into it.

It was, in effect, a stack of three buffs.

Under Ze Zenin's command, Kirin began descending toward the ground. Soon, the strike slammed into the mountainside beneath him.

BOOM-

More than half the mountain where Mahoraga stood was obliterated, and Mahoraga's Dharma Wheel was annihilated against the ground amid the roaring thunder.

Ze Zenin landed on the ground. The cursed energy expenditure had been enormous; that one attack had consumed nearly ninety percent of his reserves, leaving him unable to maintain even his domain.

In other words, he was now utterly drained!

"Ze!"

Naobito Zenin was the first to reach the ruins. Dumbfounded, he couldn't help murmuring:

"Is this really a power a human can possess..."

More than half the mountain where the two now stood had been blasted flat by Kirin. This world-ending power had created a scene far beyond anything Naobito Zenin could have imagined.

Naoya Zenin was the second to arrive. He, too, froze for a moment as he surveyed the traces left behind.

He remembered that just an hour ago, the mountain had been covered in trees. Now, more than half of it had been sheared away.

His voice trembled. "Cousin... what happened to Mahoraga?"

Ogi Zenin arrived beside Naoya. His eyes narrowed as he stared coldly at Ze Zenin, as though the person lying on the ground weren't his own son.

"I tamed him, of course..."

Ze Zenin smiled, then lost consciousness.

Kirin's power rivaled even that of a small nuclear bomb.

"Ze!"

"Cousin!"

Meanwhile, at Jujutsu High, Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto received a mission to support two third-year sorcerers from the school who had lost contact: Utahime Iori and Mei Mei...